Gaming Only PC Build - Mid Range

[Thybalt]

Hello,

These past few years I've been held back when it comes to gaming. My current desktop is an iMac which I'll keep on using for
things like video editing so my new PC should only be focused on gaming hardware. I have a ps4 on the side but I wish to
return to PC gaming by building one from scratch.

I have no former experience with PC building so I'd like to get some help with finding the right parts.

My current list is as follows:

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K / 3,5GHz (€269)
Motherboard: Asus H170-Plus D3 (€103)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Savage 8GB DDR3-2400 Kit HX324C11SRK2/8 (€54)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB Basic (€102)
Storage: Western Digital Black V2 1TB WD1003FZEX (€87)
Video Card: MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G (€399)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 White (€121)
Power Supply: Cooler Master B500 (€52)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE (€338)
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit (€114)

Total (excl. tax): €1.354,55
Total (incl. tax): €1.639,00

Country: BELGIUM

If possible I'd like to lower the price to at least €1.400 to begin with. I'm aware that I could get a cheaper monitor
that doesn't have a 144Hz refresh rate but I'm pretty sure that I want this one.
I'll be playing WoW, Black Desert, DayZ and new titles at 1080p.

My current components have all been chosen from bytesatwork.be, thinking of letting them build it for me or having all
the components delivered in one shipment.

Thank you in advance

[Fascinate]

A few things:

-If you aren't overclocking swap in a i5-6500 save a few bucks
-Memory is cheap nowadays its really a wise choice to go with 16gb's for a rig in 2016 (2 8gig sticks)
-Get a modular PSU. Look up seasonic m12-520w they are usually reasonably priced
-Black drives you pay for the name, caviar blue or even a barracude drive from seagate are just fine
-You can get windows 10 keys online from sites like kinguin for around 30 bucks US (not sure how that translates to your currency)

Everything else looks good, monitor is a good choice BUT make sure you take full advantage of it and apply lightboost for 2d:

http://www.blurbusters.com/zero-motion-blur/lightboost/

One more thing, find a non DDR3 motherboard for h170/B150 chipset. DDR4 is just as cheap nowadays.

[Thybalt]

A few things:

-If you aren't overclocking swap in a i5-6500 save a few bucks
-Memory is cheap nowadays its really a wise choice to go with 16gb's for a rig in 2016 (2 8gig sticks)
-Get a modular PSU. Look up seasonic m12-520w they are usually reasonably priced
-Black drives you pay for the name, caviar blue or even a barracude drive from seagate are just fine
-You can get windows 10 keys online from sites like kinguin for around 30 bucks US (not sure how that translates to your currency)

Everything else looks good, monitor is a good choice BUT make sure you take full advantage of it and apply lightboost for 2d:

http://www.blurbusters.com/zero-motion-blur/lightboost/

One more thing, find a non DDR3 motherboard for h170/B150 chipset. DDR4 is just as cheap nowadays.

Thank you for helping out, Fascinate!

I switched it up a little following your advice.

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 (€204,40)
Motherboard: Asus H170 Pro Gaming (€134,80)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury - DDR4-2400 - 16GB (€76,80)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB (€89,80)
Storage: Western digital Blue - 1TB (€52,80)
Video Card: MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G (€348,90)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 - Window White (€116,90)
Power Supply: Seasonic M12II Series EVO - 520W (€69,80)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE (€288,90)

Total (incl. Tax): €1.369,93

I managed to find a cheaper webshop which also made the price drop considerably.

[Fascinate]

Nice, looks like a real solid build now.

Should do real good at 1080p for a long time. Feel free to ask if you got any more questions.

Only other thing that i could suggest (but totally optional) is a aftermarket CPU cooler. They look better and can be quieter than stock coolers while also dropping load and idle temps to some degree even on standard i5's. But again, totally optional.

Something like this:
http://de.pcpartpicker.com/part/be-q...u-cooler-bk009

[Evildeffy]

Getting DDR4-2400MHz RAM is pointless because of it being an H170 chipset.
You won't be able to get past 2133MHz BIOS setting.

Either get DDR4-2133 with this kit OR get a Z170 Board and 2666MHz DDR4.
Z170 will allow for the RAM to be set to XMP 2666MHz as well as you actually getting a performance gain in games from using faster RAM.

Now I mentioned 2666MHz RAM for a reason.. it's the sweet spot between price/performance and the RAM would remain @ 1.2v
Any faster RAM and the Voltage goes up to 1.35v

Anyway ... the nVidia card.. I assume you want to keep this PC for quite a while?
If so I recommend switching over to an AMD R9 390 because of it's DX12 superiority unless you need it for something specific?

(Also DayZ is so horribly un-optimized it physically hurts to watch!)

[Palaplu]

Hi there fellow Belgian

I built my own gaming pc last year with the help of a friend, and the friendly folks here at mmo-champion.
Some other Belgian user here, Sergov, gave me the advice to order my parts in the Netherlands, where they are cheaper. I ordered mine at afuture.nl, and did not have any problems with ordering or delivery. Maybe it's worth checking out for you.
I ordered my GPU at alternate.be though, because afuture.nl didn't offer the 'free' game that came with my Nvidia card.
And I got my monitor at coolblue.be, because hooray for free delivery the next day.

My build is similar to the one you are planning to get. I have the same SSD, but on top of that I have a WD Black 1TB for my games and software (cause it's fast), and a WD Blue 2TB for movie/anime/series/files storage.

Btw, don't forget to update your opening post if you make any changes to the build.
Good luck and enjoy

[Thybalt]

Getting DDR4-2400MHz RAM is pointless because of it being an H170 chipset.
You won't be able to get past 2133MHz BIOS setting.

Either get DDR4-2133 with this kit OR get a Z170 Board and 2666MHz DDR4.
Z170 will allow for the RAM to be set to XMP 2666MHz as well as you actually getting a performance gain in games from using faster RAM.

Now I mentioned 2666MHz RAM for a reason.. it's the sweet spot between price/performance and the RAM would remain @ 1.2v
Any faster RAM and the Voltage goes up to 1.35v

Anyway ... the nVidia card.. I assume you want to keep this PC for quite a while?
If so I recommend switching over to an AMD R9 390 because of it's DX12 superiority unless you need it for something specific?

(Also DayZ is so horribly un-optimized it physically hurts to watch!)

Thank you, that's the kind of information I wouldn't be aware of without outside help. And yeah haha, I just gave a few examples of games
I'd be playing in the future even though I was fully aware that DayZ wasn't a good example right now.

I've been looking into AMD for DX12 a little but would it be wise to wait a little while longer for AMD Polaris to come out instead of buying
the AMD R9 390 right now?

Hi there fellow Belgian

I built my own gaming pc last year with the help of a friend, and the friendly folks here at mmo-champion.
Some other Belgian user here, Sergov, gave me the advice to order my parts in the Netherlands, where they are cheaper. I ordered mine at afuture.nl, and did not have any problems with ordering or delivery. Maybe it's worth checking out for you.
I ordered my GPU at alternate.be though, because afuture.nl didn't offer the 'free' game that came with my Nvidia card.
And I got my monitor at coolblue.be, because hooray for free delivery the next day.

My build is similar to the one you are planning to get. I have the same SSD, but on top of that I have a WD Black 1TB for my games and software (cause it's fast), and a WD Blue 2TB for movie/anime/series/files storage.

Btw, don't forget to update your opening post if you make any changes to the build.
Good luck and enjoy

I actually bumped into afuture.nl yesterday! That's where I got the prices of my second setup from and I will be placing my order there once I'm happy with the build.

[Evildeffy]

Thank you, that's the kind of information I wouldn't be aware of without outside help. And yeah haha, I just gave a few examples of games
I'd be playing in the future even though I was fully aware that DayZ wasn't a good example right now.

I've been looking into AMD for DX12 a little but would it be wise to wait a little while longer for AMD Polaris to come out instead of buying
the AMD R9 390 right now?

Tweaker.net with information that may be interesting to you.
With the launch of Polaris right around the corner I would advise you to wait since the jump in lithography will be pretty huge.

However if you cannot wait untill that approximate time you could either upgrade to the max. of your budgetary constraints OR upgrade to a GTX 950 for the time being and then switch over to Polaris/Pascal which should be out around the same time whilst of course selling the GTX 950.

Also considering the fact that you have an iMac and you'll be getting this... well I know you said you want this to be your dedicated gaming machine,
But this rig will obliterate anything the iMac can come up with in terms of speed on video editing and most video editing software have a Windows version as well.

If you drop in an i7 for video editing it's not even going to be funny at the difference in speed since iMacs use Laptop-grade CPUs.

Just a thought here for that...

I actually bumped into afuture.nl yesterday! That's where I got the prices of my second setup from and I will be placing my order there once I'm happy with the build.

Afuture.nl are good folks.. good service too when it comes to RMA if something does go belly-up.

[Thybalt]

Yeah, I'm more likely to wait around for Polaris to come out rather than rushing into things. If Polaris is going to have an okay price tag that is.
I was thinking of selling my iMac as even my Macbook renders quicker but yeah, if my windows desktop excels more at everything it might become my main working station. I think I'll still prefer OSX for working with Adobe programs at first though, has been a while since I really worked with Windows, let alone the more recent versions.

[Evildeffy]

Yeah, I'm more likely to wait around for Polaris to come out rather than rushing into things. If Polaris is going to have an okay price tag that is.
I was thinking of selling my iMac as even my Macbook renders quicker but yeah, if my windows desktop excels more at everything it might become my main working station. I think I'll still prefer OSX for working with Adobe programs at first though, has been a while since I really worked with Windows, let alone the more recent versions.

Polaris SHOULD take over price points of their previous tier equivalents.

Adobe should however work almost identically to what it does on a Mac just the OS being different. (provided they are the same programs)
That said I can understand some people preferring to work with Macs because they are used to it or like Feature A, B or C..

But we're comparing an iMac vs. a fully fledged Desktop here, especially if you pick i7, for video editing...
The iMac stands absolutely 0 chance vs. the raw horsepower of the desktop .. it's like watching a 0,8L Yugo car trying to beat a Ford Mustang KOTR edition in a quarter mile sprint, that's what the difference will be.

[Artorius]

Some shortcuts are different but that's it.

[Thybalt]

It's not that I prefer one over another, don't get me wrong! I was merely stating that I'll need to adapt to a different interface again, but I'll manage just fine.

And again, thank you for helping me out.

[Denpepe]

BTW if you got the means you may want to check out tones.be, they have their "dumpdag" next week Saturday iirc where if you go to one of their stores you can buy everything in stock for a discount.

[Thybalt]

BTW if you got the means you may want to check out tones.be, they have their "dumpdag" next week Saturday iirc where if you go to one of their stores you can buy everything in stock for a discount.

Not sure if I'm looking in the right places but if I look up the "dumpdag" for tones.be it says the last one was on 02/02/16 and I can't find any for this month. :/
I did see something about a "Bulk 10-daagse" for bol.com though.

[Denpepe]

some info here http://tones-dumpdag.be/

[Deleted]

From your list at op i would change a few things from the website you linked:

- Cpu cooler, either get the Cryorig H5 ultimate or for better the Be quiet! Dark rock 3.

- As others mentioned, since you buy an unlocked cpu then you want to get a Z170 mobo. For a decent mobo look at Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI

- Power supply, the seasonic M2II isn't haswell or skylake supported, so i would look for something else, ie EVGA SuperNova GS 550W

- Minor thing but i think its worth it. If you are going to get a gtx970 you can grab the cheaper EVGA superclocked ACX2.0 which also higher clocked. For 400euro really if you could give it another 40 you can get then R9 390X which is even better but you should look for 650w psu.

- I am not sure that the Asus is better than the Liyama, someone with more detailed knowledge should look into this, cause the other is cheaper and would save you money for the mobo/psu.

[Evildeffy]

- Power supply, the seasonic M2II isn't haswell or skylake supported, so i would look for something else, ie EVGA SuperNova GS 550W

Actually the SeaSonic M12-II EVO edition, which he linked, is fully Haswell/Skylake compatible even with low power states.

- I am not sure that the Asus is better than the Liyama, someone with more detailed knowledge should look into this, cause the other is cheaper and would save you money for the mobo/psu.

I prefer iiyama screens over ASUS in general barring a select few.
But last we know the OP is going to wait if we believe his statements.

[Deleted]

Actually the SeaSonic M12-II EVO edition, which he linked, is fully Haswell/Skylake compatible even with low power states.

Can you give a link where it says clearly that is supports it? Cause i have found otherwise, there is nowhere mentioned, the ones that are do state it.

[Evildeffy]

Can you give a link where it says clearly that is supports it? Cause i have found otherwise, there is nowhere mentioned, the ones that are do state it.

Actually having re-checked them right now the 520W and 620W are not 100% low power state compatible.
The 750W and 850W variants are 100% compatible.

So that was a partial "my bad!" .. however even without this low power state the PSU will still function normally only idle will be 10W higher orso... nothing to cry home about really.