Setup of the Month build (2015-04-12)

[Gourmandise]

Hello there friends,

I'm looking to put together a pc and have been eyeballing the most recent setup of the month.

Now, for the most part, I like what this Chaud man is spitting. He seems legit enough. Although I do have some questions/comments and will focus on the puppy / dolphin level, as it seems a good place to start(money-wise). I mostly play games, youtube/twitch, gimp...

• I like the 960
• Any better processors(for gaming)?
• Will one of my many CRTs suffice(atm)?

If my monitors will not work I shall focus on the puppy price to be able to get one.

Any helpful input is appreciated
What say you!

Edit: New and refined!

Budget - ~700 max
Resolution - I honestly do not know. I am at 1366x768 atm and am fine with it. If 1920x1080 isn't too much of a price jump that's ok.
Games / Settings Desired - Modded Skyrim, Blizzard games, Dragon Age: Inq, Witcher 3, Guild Wars 2, FFXIV. I don't care about super monster graphics. In wow I aim towards a custom of furthest view distance, medium particles, medium textures, no shadows(I have never cared about shadows in any game besides modded Skyrim)
Any other intensive software or special things you do (Frequent video encoding, 3D modeling, etc) - Nop
Country - USA
Parts that can be reused - None
Do you need an OS? - Nop
Do you need peripherals (e.g. monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc)? - Maybe monitor. If not, would use an old crt until I get one later.

[Taiknee]

What do you currently have? (CPU/Mobo/etc.)

[Gourmandise]

What do you currently have? (CPU/Mobo/etc.)

I have nothing at the moment. I had an average pc in the past but do not have it now. I do my computer stuff and weak gaming on an Asus q500a-bhi5n01

[Taiknee]

Are you interested in overclocking or would that be something you'd want to avoid?

[Gourmandise]

Are you interested in overclocking or would that be something you'd want to avoid?

I'm not too scared of it. From what I hear it's not as risky as it was back when or something of the sort. I heard builders even add an overclocking level to their parts in some cases now. People were going to do it so they might as well make it safer/supported, or something like that. Perhaps...

[ovm33]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($226.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($82.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($58.89 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($181.79 @ Amazon)
Case: Raidmax Vortex ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($51.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $718.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-21 21:32 EDT-0400

Any better processors(for gaming)?

Yes, the 4690k. If you don't have the 18 bucks over the $700 dollar budget you set, use the included CPU cooler on the 4690k and get the Hyper 212 Evo later. Just don't try to overclock your CPU too much until you get a better cooler. You can get it up a little... just don't be expecting 4.5ghz.

[Gourmandise]

Yes, the 4690k. If you don't have the 18 bucks over the $700 dollar budget you set, use the included CPU cooler on the 4690k and get the Hyper 212 Evo later. Just don't try to overclock your CPU too much until you get a better cooler. You can get it up a little... just don't be expecting 4.5ghz.

That's the best one of the previous generation, yes? What differentiates it from the non-k version? Just curious. The only difference I see is that it uses more power, but both say up to 3.9ghz.
It's true, I might wait for the cooler. I don't expect to do anything crazy anytime soon. Unless this taste of true power drives me mad! If so, I will be smart and wait.

[Deleted]

The K version means the chip is unlocked, thus can be overclocked and the mobo series you need to be able to set the overclocks is Z97.

A couple different options to ovm33's list. Some prices already changed, there are usually some good deals closer to weekend, i would grab the gpu tho since its cheap already.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($226.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($98.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston Fury Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($57.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($181.79 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $717.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-22 02:42 EDT-0400

[Gourmandise]

The K version means the chip is unlocked, thus can be overclocked and the mobo series you need to be able to set the overclocks is Z97.

A couple different options to ovm33's list. Some prices already changed, there are usually some good deals closer to weekend, i would grab the gpu tho since its cheap already.

Thanks for your input.

I see you've changed things to micro. Does that mean it's just smaller?

If so, I think either is perfect. I don't think i'll need sli or anything and I assume it would be smarter to just get the next tier up in card when I need to, rather than buy a second 960.

I guess I can wait a few days for potential weekend sales. I can go ahead and get the 960 tho. I don't see a problem with getting that piece early.

[Deleted]

Yes micro means the mobo is smaller thus the case needed smaller too. Micro doesn't mean you can't sli, its that those "cheap" Z97 mobos don't support it. The next cheaper Z97 with sli support i would reckon would be the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI which is an atx (and a better board overall), you would need an atx case too. But prices start going upwards for either.

[Gourmandise]

Yes micro means the mobo is smaller thus the case needed smaller too. Micro doesn't mean you can't sli, its that those "cheap" Z97 mobos don't support it. The next cheaper Z97 with sli support i would reckon would be the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI which is an atx (and a better board overall), you would need an atx case too. But prices start going upwards for either.

Makes sense. I'm content already. It's just a simple beginnings pc anyways.

[Deleted]

Well beggining or not this pc will max most games at 1080p@60hz

[Gourmandise]

Well beggining or not this pc will max most games at 1080p@60hz

That's good to hear. It'll all be fantastic jumps for me. Medium at 720p@60hz would have been more than enough
I'm not spoiled yet :P

[Deleted]

If you would like to include a monitor into that budget you would have to drop to an i3 cpu:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($76.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($194.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($40.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Monitor: Acer H236HLbid 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($137.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $725.37
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-05 01:36 EDT-0400

[Gourmandise]

If you would like to include a monitor into that budget you would have to drop to an i3 cpu:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($76.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($194.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($40.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Monitor: Acer H236HLbid 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($137.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $725.37
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-05 01:36 EDT-0400

Thanks for the build with the monitor as well!

I talk to people about potentially i5 later > monitor later and they just go on about the resell value of the i3.
I think it's fine. I'm not too concerned about resell value and think that displaying on a crt / remote desktop to laptop would be too much of a headache to do/experience. I'm ok with cutting down on multitasking (I can do everything else on my laptop anyways)

[Deleted]

I'm ok with cutting down on multitasking (I can do everything else on my laptop anyways)

Well your laptop is a 2 core with 4 threads even tho its an i5. Its same as the i3 i proposed but the i3 its higher clocked. So any multitasking will be better on the pc rather than your laptop

[Lathais]

Well your laptop is a 2 core with 4 threads even tho its an i5. Its same as the i3 i proposed but the i3 its higher clocked. So any multitasking will be better on the pc rather than your laptop

I think he meant neither PC nor laptop would be doing the multitasking, only he would. One thing on PC, other on laptop.

[Gourmandise]

I think he meant neither PC nor laptop would be doing the multitasking, only he would. One thing on PC, other on laptop.

The second screen more or less will be the best part. Although it's nice to get reminded what I actually have in here. Sometimes I forget and probably think i'm messing with four bad cores or something. :P

[Gourmandise]

I'm probably going to go on my buying spree within the week.

In the meantime there's still wiggle room and money fluctuation happening, along with the necessity for new parts. It turns out more peripherals were thrown out then expected in the great closet/garage cleanings -_-

I'm going to discuss my thoughts on certain pieces that I have been reading about. Professional thoughts on the upsides and downsides of each piece are heavily appreciated. I am still on a budget of around $700

Without further ado, here we go!

CPU

Intel® Core™ i5-4690K Processor
The dream. Let's forget about it </3

Intel® Pentium® Processor G3258

Intel® Core™ i3-4160 Processor

With a cooler the pentium comes to be around the same price as the i3-4160.
The tradeoff seems to be an increase of 0.5-1GHz(OCd) at the cost of hyperthreading.
Probably lots of stuff to consider that I do not know about. From what I understand a lot of games don't take advantage of more than 4 cores, and those that require it do so out of lazy optimization/porting rather than necessity. I don't have a lot of experience but assume there is a reasonable amount of value in hyperthreading. Although I can multitask with my laptop I still need to run a few things for the desktop pc to work before starting the games.

Amd fx-6300 gets thrown at the last second because it's similar in price to the g3258+cooler, just on the opposite spectrum. I don't think it would be useful for me (being 6 cores and all), but you never know! It's a shame I don't think there's an unlocked dual core cpu with hyperthreading. That might be perfect.

GPU

GeForce GTX 960

Radeon R9 280 / x

960 is faster and more energy efficient but the 280 can be OCd to be in-line with it. I do know the 960 can go up as well but my second concern is that the bandwidth on the 280/x is three times larger than the 960s and the 3gb instead of 2gb memory is ok by my book(people say more video memory is good for things like modded skyrim, which I want to do)

I don't know exactly how much each spec on a gpu contributes to their pricing but when I compared the gtx 960 to the 970 the only difference was double the bandwidth for extra 100 dollars(compared to the 960 4gb), so I assume it's pretty important and impactful.

I've thrown this together in a few. It undoubtedly has problems :P and it might be equal price to just use an i3-4160 with a cheaper mobo(if a 600w psu is not enough for the overclocking of cpu/gpu) and cheaper psu. Aka, stuff I know nothing about and could be completely wrong on. I can lower my price by getting a cheaper(or smaller) monitor.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($64.88 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($26.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($82.99 @ Directron)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5&quot; 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Best Buy)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card ($201.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($43.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Acer H236HLbid 60Hz 23.0&quot; Monitor ($137.99 @ Best Buy)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard ($6.99 @ NCIX US)
Speakers: Logitech S120 2.3W 2ch Speakers ($8.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $748.05
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-14 05:38 EDT-0400