First time builder/Totally clueless

[darksim2]

My pre-built computer died after a lengthy service and now I'd like to try a custom one. Main things I will be using it for are browsing the internet, ripping/burning cds and music storage, and gaming obviously. I would like to have a dual monitor set up. Thanks for your time and any help you can give!

Budget: $1200 USD ideally.
Resolution: 1080p should be sufficient
Games / Settings Desired: I have these: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1&2, Payday 1&2, Portal 1&2. These 2 are the only I games I know I will be investing in soon: Star Wars The Old Republic and Overwatch
Any other intensive software or special things you do: Whatever I need for dual monitors and I'm also planning on getting a VR set in the future.
Country: United States of America
Parts that can be reused: I was going to reuse my old monitors for the time being.
Do you need an OS? Yes
Do you need peripherals? Not yet, though I would still like recommendations on monitors.

[teamkiller]

AMD System (using your monitor)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($217.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($77.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($105.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk - SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Toshiba - 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($77.33 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card ($374.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Anidees - AI-07B ATX Desktop Case ($89.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Power Supply: EVGA - 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($32.89 @ OutletPC)
Optical Drive: LG - WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($46.88 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($87.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1166.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-22 23:18 EDT-0400

Intel (with your monitor)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7600 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($205.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($69.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Crucial - 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($107.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Sandisk - SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Toshiba - 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($77.33 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card ($374.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Anidees - AI-07B ATX Desktop Case ($89.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Power Supply: EVGA - 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($32.89 @ OutletPC)
Optical Drive: LG - WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($46.88 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($87.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1147.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-22 23:30 EDT-0400

- With both builds as you're looking for storage, if you can salvage your old hard drive and reformat it, it will save you some money up front, or look for a smaller hard drive. I suggest getting the solid state drive at minimum.
-Also, for case selection, I just listed one that I've personally liked. That is a place you could save money also. At minimum make sure the case you buy comes with at least 2 120mm fans (included*) preferably one in the rear as exhaust and one in front for air intake.
-If you have extra money, throw a little bit in your power supply's direction. A semi or even full modular supply makes cable management a breeze, or upgrade the size to a 550 in case you even plan on putting power hungry hardware in.
-As to why i listed a 1070, you wish to do VR. If you are looking to save 100+ dollars, switch to a gtx 1060@6gb or a RX 580 @8gb. Both of those cards are easy to search on newegg or amazon.
-I highly recommend looking and the builds of the month if you are looking more towards just gaming. the caveat being that the build of the month will unlikely have an AMD based computer. AMD vs Intel will come down to the tasks you are more likely to do. If you stream and play, go Ryzen(AMD) if you just stick to your own stuff intel is faster from a gaming perspective. AMD = more cores, better multiprocessing, slower single core and dual core speed (something games like as software is not optimized much passed 4 cores the 1600 has 6 cores/12 threads) Intel = 4 fast cores, solid multiprocessing but doesn't have a whole lot else (so if your gaming only or maybe youtube in the background your great) ~~this is a debatable topic and you should decide which you prefer.
-I have personally found AMD processors easier to install. However, they are a pain if you ever need to re-seat your heat sink as there is a good chance if you lift off your cooler the paste will pull the chip up with it (again depends on your comfort levels)
-A lot of my component choices can be debated and encourage it. Each person has preference on what they like to invest more money on.

-These videos will give you an idea of what you will be doing once you end up getting your parts AMD system
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCWMByUOgbA
https://youtu.be/LbpqkiaO7q4

I do not have recommendations on monitors, hopefully someone will come along and give you some ideas. Good luck.

[moremana]

@teamkiller
You list no cpu coolers, Sandisk plus are budget ssd's and 120GB?...hes not on that tight of a budget and a 1070 for what he plays is overkill and a Blue Ray? hes ripping music CDs, not Blue Ray movies.. Im not even going to go down the i5 vs R5-1600 road. 2400MHz memory for a Ryzen build isnt good advice, and the Bronze PSU, no need for it, Golds arent that much higher.

You have alot of wasted money in there

@OP I'll toss this out, keep in mind I didn't put alot of time in this, I dont usually do PCpartpicker builds as its all subjective and usually someones preference, but I would go this route and it would work good for your needs and be a very reliable system. There are a few things I will say, never cheap out on the PSU or SSD, it will just give you headaches down the road. As far as video card flavor, the 580 and GTX 1060 are roughly the same price, so you could change the video card below to a GTX 1060 6GB. (On this build, overclocking is essential to get close to i5 performance).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($217.89 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H5 Universal 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard ($107.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill - Flare X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($186.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 525GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($149.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($66.39 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - Radeon RX 580 8GB GAMING X Video Card ($244.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Phanteks - ECLIPSE P400 TEMPERED GLASS ATX Mid Tower Case ($85.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($87.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1264.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-23 01:56 EDT-0400

Add $20 bucks for a External CD/DVD burner.

The memory is the best on the market for Ryzen builds and yes its expensive. If you went with a i5 you would actually save money as you wouldnt need 3200MHz memory, dont settle for a non-k chip though or a B250 MB, even if you dont overclock, it still has a higher clock speed and will enable overclocking down the road if you get a Z270 MB. Ryzen, however is reliant on memory for performance.

You could also get your windows copy off Kinguin for $25 and save the $60 your over on budget.

[Thunderball]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600X 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor ($246.88 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H5 Universal 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($89.45 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($135.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($127.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($65.69 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - Radeon RX 580 8GB GAMING X Video Card ($244.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case ($72.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($88.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Other: Windows 10 @ Kinguin.net ($37.00)
Total: $1156.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-23 02:49 EDT-0400

That's your baseline. If you plan on overclocking get this instead:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($217.89 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Fractal Design - Celsius S24 87.6 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($108.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($89.45 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($135.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($127.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($65.69 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - Radeon RX 580 8GB GAMING X Video Card ($244.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case ($72.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($88.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Other: Windows 10 @ Kinguin.net ($37.00)
Total: $1189.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-23 02:50 EDT-0400

Now for your monitors you need specify your usecase. With that kind of hardware it's definetely a 1080p setup, 24 or 27 inch. Generally Dell's U2415s are good for multimonitor setups, but you may need other things, like a 144Hz panel for one of them. On VR: you need will be able to use VR headset with this hardware, but 1) Nvidia GPUs are better for VR, so you might want to consider GTX 1060 instead, which is going to be slightly behind for general gaming usage 2) RX 580/GTX 1060 are entry level VR cards and there is no way to fit a GTX 1070 in this budget, so dont expect a flawless experience here.

[teamkiller]

Here is an updated list. Thank you Thunderball and Mana for more replies. A few notes as they were brought up by mana. Yes getting a bigger solid state is probably a good idea. Try to salvage your old HDD for storage space. If not it'll be 35-50$ down the road if you run out of space. The reason behind not listing a cooler. The Ryzen 5 1600 comes with a solid stock cooler. It has been reported overclocks of 3.8Ghz on just that cooler being stable and not too hot. If you decide to overclock, it is recommended (not absolute but still a good idea) you end up getting some sort of liquid cooling, do not get another air cooler. Listed above i had a Blu-Ray player, you don't need this, it was an avenue to spend on (thanks you mana). To Thunderball thank you for a mobo and compatible RAM. I listed 2400 as Ryzen has been terrible on compatibility issues getting RAM to speed.
As for windows, if you trust in kinguin, use it, it will save you 50$. Use that money to go for an m.s style SSD that Mana has listed or a nicer supply gold/full modular (i prefer going to gold. the semi has only the wires you absolutely need for your computer hanging out.)


Again as stated by all of us everyone has a preference on what they like to spend their money on. I personally prefer to spend a majority of my budget on the graphics card. In Ryzens case, a liquid cooler is a reasonable (100$) upgrade path to overclock (if you find the cpu is lacking. I'm running mine at stock and have had no problems so far, GW2 @4k ultra Highest AA ~55 fps in major cities, 100+Fps in the world* Your mileage may vary depending on the games you're playing). If you think you want the liquid cooling now but not a 1070 (IMHO i think is a bad idea), get a rx580 or gtx1060@6gb and the liquid cooler listed by Thunderball. Note: make sure your case can mount the radiator for the liquid cooler.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($217.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($88.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($135.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($139.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card ($374.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Anidees - AI-07B ATX Desktop Case ($89.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.69 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($87.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1192.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-23 12:19 EDT-0400

In the end, @OP, i hope we haven't confused you! We're all always learning as the market shifts and different hardware arrives on the scene. Again even though i've said it a few times thank you Thunder and Mana for pointing out my derpiness above. As a side note, @op Make sure to watch those youtube links, as they really are what you'll be doing yourself when the time comes to build the computer.

[Thunderball]

Here is an updated list.

PSU is bad (literally pretty hard to find worse), case is bad (I see you're a fan of this one), MSI Aero cards are bad, WD Blue SSD is an absolutely horrible SSD. R5 1600 stock cooler is decent, but only for non-OC situation.

[CandyCotton Marshmallows]

I disagree with quite a few of the statements above.

You don't need a k series cpu for what you are doing, and if never plan to oc anyway, it is only a 0.1 difference on the i5 chip; the cost difference from a decent non z board to the cheapest z board is $30 for features you won't use or need anyway. The 'lake' series are not great overclockers either, my 6700k won't hold 4.6 even with 1.4v, my 2500k could do 5.1. The supposed 400 MHz you could miss out on won't make a noticeable difference in your games, again, ffxiv is only using 30-40% load across the 8 threads.

You don't need 16 GB ram, for instance, ffxiv uses less than 2 GB ram and less than 2 GB vram. 8 would be plenty to get your budget system going, can add more later if your usage changes.

CPU cooler, well, I used a hyper 212+ on the 2500k and it stayed cool, good case flow, was very open. So an evo with more cfm on a cpu with less load should stay cool on a lower tdp non oc chip for a great price.

For monitors, I suggest 21:9, they are nice for gaming and side by side browsers. You could get 2560x1080 as it still looks good, as I use one now but have also used a 3440x1440 curved one as well, nice but much more expensive, can get 2-3 of the lower res for the price of the higher res; at least the models I've used.

A 1070 would work great for those monitors and vr. Similar to a 980ti, which I have, and I get avg >100 fps in ffxiv, my card runs at 1500.


Here is a build I made, with some extra fans thrown in, in a case I like with open design:


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7600 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($205.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Thermal Compound: Prolimatech - PK-1 1.5g Thermal Paste ($6.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME B250M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($94.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($50.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($149.94 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Dual Series Video Card ($379.00 @ Jet)
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.89 @ OutletPC)
Optical Drive: Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.69 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($87.89 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Phanteks - PH-F140HP II 68.1 CFM 140mm Fan ($16.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Phanteks - PH-F140HP II 68.1 CFM 140mm Fan ($16.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Phanteks - PH-F140HP II 68.1 CFM 140mm Fan ($16.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1194.22
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-23 13:40 EDT-0400


I'm not saying the above builds are bad, to be clear. Any of them would work, and I've nothing against amd, I like ryzen, I like the 6 core personally, but they all overclock about the same from the reviews I've seen, around 4.0-4.1, so no need for the x version, and the last review I remember seeing ram speeds tested, the 2666-2800 range seemed to be the sweet spot, though and is updating constantly so ithst info could be outdated.

None of the games you mentioned are too demanding overall, so the build should last you a while, if you didn't want vr, I'd even consider dropping down to a 1060 and spending the savings on changing parts for more personal visual appeal; ex: rgb fans/ram/mobo, higher end air cooler or aio water cooler (which have been tested to be about equal; custom cooling is expensive but superior).

- - - Updated - - -

PSU is bad (literally pretty hard to find worse), case is bad (I see you're a fan of this one), MSI Aero cards are bad, WD Blue SSD is an absolutely horrible SSD. R5 1600 stock cooler is decent, but only for non-OC situation.

Corsair psu is not bad, make those claims then prove it; I know someone with a corsair and it works just fine. WD blue ssd are highly praised by anandtech, and msi cards are fine, I've had a 560ti hawk and have a 980ti oc,; the former worked for 6 years until I tore the pc down, and the latter has a higher stable oc than average by about 50-75 clocks from the guides I've referenced. Please stop being so brand biased.

[Thunderball]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7600 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($205.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Thermal Compound: Prolimatech - PK-1 1.5g Thermal Paste ($6.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME B250M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($94.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($50.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($149.94 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Dual Series Video Card ($379.00 @ Jet)
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.89 @ OutletPC)
Optical Drive: Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.69 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($87.89 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Phanteks - PH-F140HP II 68.1 CFM 140mm Fan ($16.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Phanteks - PH-F140HP II 68.1 CFM 140mm Fan ($16.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Phanteks - PH-F140HP II 68.1 CFM 140mm Fan ($16.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1194.22
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-23 13:40 EDT-0400

This is ridiculous. Amount of money spend on air in this build is enormous. 1) i5 7600 is a very bad buy right now, it also doesnt need a good PSU, aftermarket cooler or thermal paste. 2) WD Blue instead of MX300, seriously? 3) If you're getting that much fans (this setup in this case doesnt need any extra fans) at least get decent ones.

- - - Updated - - -

Corsair psu is not bad, make those claims then prove it; I know someone with a corsair and it works just fine. WD blue ssd are highly praised by anandtech, and msi cards are fine, I've had a 560ti hawk and have a 980ti oc,; the former worked for 6 years until I tore the pc down, and the latter has a higher stable oc than average by about 50-75 clocks from the guides I've referenced. Please stop being so brand biased.

I didnt say all Corsair PSUs are bad. However, all budget Corsair PSUs are garbage. Why? Same platforms (mostly) as their premium PSUs but with cheap components. I dont care what Anandtech has to say about WD Blue, I look at what kind of memory they are using, and it's inferior. Fine MSI cards are Gaming X, and I'm for sure biased as I own one. Cheap ones however are very poorly build. Also, each generation is very different from each other. Last generation (Maxwell, 9xx) Gigabyte were nowhere, EVGA only had high end card, MSI and ASUS were on top. This generation EVGA are king in most segments (apart from their failure with FTW1), Gigabyte are best value buys and MSI with ASUS just have too high of a brand premium.

[CandyCotton Marshmallows]

Fans are placeholders; get whatever floats the boat; could get be quiet, noctua, or riings for all I care; but the case only has a single 140mm in the rear and I had the extra budget to spare to encourage putting a couple fans in the front to induce positive pressure.

I guess I could find the article later on how the wd drives are made to last as long or longer than the Samsung 860s.

Btw, you say no way to get a 1070 in the builds, but you aren't even trying. They don't need 16 GB of expensive ram, that is up to 80 off you build in one item, they don't need a Samsung 960 because games don't access more than a few hundred MBps, sata levels, so at least step down to the 800 series if you hate wd that much , you still don't have to pay double per GB. The thermal past may be overkill, but it is one of the best ones from testing, better than the stuff from the cooler maker. Is the 7600 a bad buy because you are really pushing ryzen? 4.1 boost clock, no need to oc, for 200 isn't too bad, it is actually higher than most ryzen chips can achieve. They are burning cds, not photo editing or making YouTube videos.

If you step down to a 1400, less ram, from a less pricey brand like g skilll which is a highly reliable and compatible brand, and get an ssd that is not the latest nvme offer from Samsung, you just might squeeze that 1070 in your build.

- - - Updated - - -

Here; a ryzen build with a 1080 ...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1400 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($165.87 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - Dark Rock 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($65.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($88.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($66.39 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Superclocked Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card ($498.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.89 @ OutletPC)
Other: Windows 10 @ Kinguin.net ($37.00)
Total: $1204.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-23 16:13 EDT-0400

[moremana]

Lol, this is why I rarely link pcpp builds, we all have our opinion and really no one is wrong, it's all preference on what each would do.

OP, take everything you read here and make your own decision, buy what you feel comfortable with and by all means check out some reviews from trusted reviewers on what parts you like. Just remember, you will have to live with your build, make it look the way you like and please don't cheap on the psu and the ssd.

[teamkiller]

Lol, this is why I rarely link pcpp builds, we all have our opinion and really no one is wrong, it's all preference on what each would do.

OP, take everything you read here and make your own decision, buy what you feel comfortable with and by all means check out some reviews from trusted reviewers on what parts you like. Just remember, you will have to live with your build, make it look the way you like and please don't cheap on the psu and the ssd.

Valid point mana. My mistake.

Now if the OP hasn't pulled their hair out in confusion, and they've made it this far down the rabbit hole, I should've posted
something like this to begin with. This has no brands or specific parts but will give you a general list of what to look for.
(I'm an idiot for not realizing the forums would come to this nonsense)

Computer Generic information and part look up use pcpartpicker/amazon/newegg wish lists to build the PC list at your price point. pcpartpicker is nice becuase it will give you warnings of compatibility issues.

CPU - Recommendations Ryzen 5 1500X, 1600, 1600X, Intel i5 7600, Intel i5 7600k (Price $180- $250)

CPU cooler - For all Ryzens ,except the 1600x, listed above and the i5 7600 non-k, a stock fan is provided.
If you do not plan on overclocking right from the get go, save money on this part.($0-$110)
For the 1600x, get an air cooler at minimum, a liquid cooler if you plan to overclock any processor listed except the i5 7600 non-k

Motherboard - AMD Ryzen, get a B350 type motherboard. Micro ATX are typically 10% cheaper.
Intel - i5 7600, get a B board, i5 7600k get a Z270 board.($80-$150)

RAM - 8 GB solid, 16 GB recommended. For both the motherboard and RAM use the pairs listed above.($50-$150)

Storage- HDD 5400 rpm is the basic hard drive. HDD 7200 has faster read and write times than the 5400. This speed is usually recommended.
SDD(sata/2.5) Faster than the HDD 7200. A very good place to store your OS and the programs you use the most.
SDD(m.2) Even faster than the SDD(sata) This is a premium part. It will have its own separate slot on the motherboard. same rules as the SSD (Sata)
Recommended set up 240+gb SSD(sata) and a 1TB+ HDD 7200. This can vary on your need for storage.
The less you need spend more into your SSD as its faster but more expensive per GB. ($60- $150)

Video card - 1060 6GB vs RX 580 8Gb vs 1070 8Gb. This is where a majority of your budget should sit.
1080p - Get a 1060 or rx 580, which ever you can find cheaper.
4k/VR - all cards listed will work, but you will have a much better experience on the 1070.($250- $375)

Case- Pick a case that looks cool to you. If you like to look at your parts at get fancy lighting find a case with a window.
If you don't a window is fine to pass up. At bare minimum you want at least 2 case fans. 1 fan exhausting in the rear and one in the front bringing air in.
If the case supports the fan in the front but does not come with one, make sure to purchase one.
Also, make sure your GPU and motherboard will fit. Most GPUS will fit in most cases. The motherboard just look at the specs of the case to see (ATX, Micro ATX, or micro ITX) make sure it match with your motherboard.
($45-$125)

Power supply unit - Get at least a 450W supply at minimum 500w+ recommended. Make sure it has 80+ bronze or higher. (This is an efficiency rating)
That rating is important as a rating below 80+ may be getting dissipated off as heat.
a standard supply will come with a ton of wires coming out of it.
semi modular will have the 24 power connect and 8 pin power connector for your motherboard attached. All other cables will be modular.
Modular supplies will have all cable detachable.
Preference will come down to cable management. Semi is probably the sweet spot as you have to use those cables anyways. ($40- $80)

Windows - self explanatory. ($40-$100)

Optical drive $20 for a dvd drive, $50 for a blue ray drive. Get which ever you'd like.
Note: if you get 2 (Hdd, SSD(sata))storage drives, make sure to grab an extra sata cable. Most motherboards only come with 2!($5)

Price ($765-$1545)

All builds in this post have had some sort of combination of prices and parts. I explained some differences in my original post.

[darksim2]

Thanks for all the replies! I don't have much time to go over this tonight, but I'll definitely take a look at these. I forgot to say that I will not be overclocking. I primarily play on consoles, so my main goal is longevity. Still, I do plan on spending a little extra on aesthetics. I'll get back to you soon. Thanks again!

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Thanks for all the replies! I don't have much time to go over this tonight, but I'll definitely take a look at these. I forgot to say that I will not be overclocking. I primarily play on consoles, so my main goal is longevity. Still, I do plan on spending a little extra on aesthetics. I'll get back to you soon. Thanks again!

What you will learn is everyone is an expert to themselves and everyone else from their point of view is a fool.

Going to shot straight here. The builds on the front page of MMO are pretty solid. You also aren't playing things to insanely demanding at 1080p. Also no one here posted a BAD build. So take all the criticism within the thread with a grain of salt. Some people just like to generate salt. Mostly over some team red or team blue/green fetish they have.

[Thunderball]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1400 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($165.87 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - Dark Rock 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($65.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($88.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($66.39 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Superclocked Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card ($498.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.89 @ OutletPC)
Other: Windows 10 @ Kinguin.net ($37.00)
Total: $1204.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-23 16:13 EDT-0400

Hehe. Ok. R5 1400 is not worth buying (it's a 4core and R5 1600 is a 6core). Dark Rock 3 is a good cooler but you're paying about $20 for noise here, which is unacceptable in the case of limited budget. 8GB RAM is unacceptable, and the memory is way too slow for Ryzen. WD Blue (2TB and up) are 5400 RPM and are inferior to Seagate or even Toshiba counterparts (they are a bit more quiet though). GTX 1080 is nice but there no point in it for 1080p and this weak of a processor, you're creating an unbalanced system, OPs games are also not that GPU heavy. You can comfortably save some money by buying 2.5 inch SSD instead of M.2, performance is identical.

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Motherboard - AMD Ryzen, get a B350 type motherboard

Not all B350 boards are created equal. Actually very few B350 boards are suitable for overclocking Ryzen 7, some wont even handle Ryzen 5.

RAM - 8 GB solid, 16 GB recommended. For both the motherboard and RAM use the pairs listed above.($50-$150)

16GB RAM is a must, unless budget is very limited. DDR4-2400 for a locked i5, DDR4-3000 to DDR4-3466 (CL15-16) for unlocked Intels and Ryzens. Intels are less sensitive to memory, so savings possible here.

Storage- HDD 5400 rpm is the basic hard drive. HDD 7200 has faster read and write times than the 5400. This speed is usually recommended.
SDD(sata/2.5) Faster than the HDD 7200. A very good place to store your OS and the programs you use the most.
SDD(m.2) Even faster than the SDD(sata) This is a premium part. It will have its own separate slot on the motherboard. same rules as the SSD (Sata)
Recommended set up 240+gb SSD(sata) and a 1TB+ HDD 7200. This can vary on your need for storage.
The less you need spend more into your SSD as its faster but more expensive per GB. ($60- $150)

No reason not to buy a 7200RPM HDD for your build, they are cheap and widely available. Benefits are substantial, deficiencies are very limited (2-3C operating temperature and noise which will 99% of the time be lower than any case fan). Not all M.2 SSD are not faster than SATA SSDs, M.2 is just a formfactor, most M.2 SSDs use SATA interface. M.2 NVMe SSDs (which can also come in a PCIe formfactor, as those use your PCIe lanes for increased throughput) however are faster, but are a lot more expensive.

Power supply unit - Get at least a 450W supply at minimum 500w+ recommended. Make sure it has 80+ bronze or higher. (This is an efficiency rating)
That rating is important as a rating below 80+ may be getting dissipated off as heat.
a standard supply will come with a ton of wires coming out of it.
semi modular will have the 24 power connect and 8 pin power connector for your motherboard attached. All other cables will be modular.
Modular supplies will have all cable detachable.
Preference will come down to cable management. Semi is probably the sweet spot as you have to use those cables anyways. ($40- $80)

450W only for locked i5 builds. For any overclockable CPU on the market right now 550W Bronze PSU recommended. Choosing a PSU is very hard as even the most reputable manufacturers have trash-level PSUs. 650W and up if running RX 580/GTX 1080/GTX 1080Ti with an i7/Ryzen 5, 700-750W (700 is going to be enough, but very few good PSU are 700W, most go from 650 to 750) recommended for highly overclocked 1080Ti+Ryzen 7 combos. Going up from Gold efficiency is usually unpractical as reaching that next step will require a specific design that will skyrocket the costs, while the efficiency benefit is going to be very small. Semi-modular PSUs often have GPU power cables also non-detachable.

[moremana]

@Thunderball

While I do agree with some of your post, you are very wrong on the PSU sizes. No current build with the exception pf a X99 system with 2 GPUs is ever going to require a 750W PSU, this debate has been fought over since Ivy Bridge. And even in a X99 scenario a 650W will be sufficient.

My 7700k build with a Z270 MB, 580, 1 M.2 NVMe drive, 2 HDDs, 3 140MM fans, led lighting and overclocked to 4.8 GHz doesnt pull more than 320W at the wall.

Now onto to power draw. PSUs like to be used, having a 750W psu is useless in all these builds pulling ~300W, overkill and will shorten the life of the psu. Adding anything over a 550W PSU in these builds is a waste of money.

Large PSUs arent needed anymore, power requirements over the last 4 years have dropped almost 50% on cpus and gpus even overclocked, all the builds so far listed will pull at most ~300W, 500-550 is the best spot for those and even 450W would be fine, and save the xfire/sli argument, I dont think he is ever going to go that route and most games dont support it anyway. I run a 450W Gold from Seasonic on mine with 314W being pulled from the wall under full load using AIDA 64/Heaven

Even a 1080Ti added to these builds wouldn't require more than a 550

Theres other things you post I dont agree with, but I digress, not worth arguing over.

....and there is nothing wrong with a 1400, its a quad with 8 threads, perfectly fine for gaming with 4/8 threads with a simple multiplier boost to 38 and not having to touch anything else in the bios and thats on a stock cooler, it is completely able for a budget build, although with OPs budget it wouldnt be practical at $1200., however to say its useless is hyperbole, its better than a 7400 or i3 from Intel which alot of people still buy.

[CandyCotton Marshmallows]

A 1400 oc to 3.8-4.0 is more than enough, they rip/burn cds, no content creation and very few games take advantage of 4 cores and 8 threads; especially the games the listed in particular.

You are building for you, not for the op, that is the real issue here, and with your misconceptions on top of that.

Show me benchmarks where a reasonable cost to performance ratio is shown over 2800 ram; because I've watched a few reviews with benchmarks that show 2666/2800 is the sweet spot.

You say throwing money at noise, but I have the dark rock 3 pro and cannot hear it at max fan speed 2 ft from my face, the brand is literally built on being quiet and it puts out 2.x cfm more than you choice air cooler above that is louder; so technically you are saving $20 to hear more noise.

8 GB of ram is more than enough for them, and, they have the option of expanding in the future if their use changes. I have 16GB, with browsers, monitoring software, videos open, and os I see about 2.5 GB used; the game with osd up, never reaches 2 GB used; that is less than 5 GB used, giving 3 GB headroom for someone with 8GB, so on a budget, throwing money at ram that will never be touched is ridiculous.

I've never had a wd drive die, I've seen a few seagates die. You just hate wd, get it, too bad. I have two wd drives retired that have over 5 years power on time. Also, 5400 rpm is fine for music and movies, minimal difference in access time there, and the slower spin speed is more quiet. Games and os on the ssd no? So a non issue there too.

The 1080 was pure overkill to show the statement you made that you couldn't squeeze a 1070 into this budget fully false. Balance had nothing to do with this one at all; though, tbh, for future vr if they do buy it, is the better choice, and at that point they could use the same mobo and upgrade the cpu if it bottlenecks the vr experience.

M.2 is for the form factor, clean install, less cables to run and hide, 2.5" is more efficient; so the op can start to weigh out where their tastes and needs lay as we get closer to giving reasonable options in the budget and planning for what they need, not for more than what they need. Games do not saturate sata loading or even come close to it. Nvme/pcie is overkill outside video editing and other such data access/write heavy workloads. 7200 rpm hdds are typically more expensive for no tangible advantage, doubly so if your os and games are on ssd.

As far as psu, a 1080ti draws 250, a 6950x draws 140. That is only 390w on a system like that. We are looking at 65-95w cpus and 150w gpus, so closer to 250w. So even in sli, all things overclocked, and a ton of fans and lights and drives, an 850w gold or higher is enough for that (x99) build; a 550w if not running sli tbh. Any psu that won't melt down and is relatively efficient in the 350w+ range is more than enough for this use case, but I splurged on a gold rated anyway. Semi modular doesn't matter to most people because the attached cables are always necessary, and cases are starting to have psu compartments now in the lower price range, making it even less important, unless you are paying for custom sleeving.

[Thunderball]

@Thunderball

While I do agree with some of your post, you are very wrong on the PSU sizes. No current build with the exception pf a X99 system with 2 GPUs is ever going to require a 750W PSU, this debate has been fought over since Ivy Bridge. And even in a X99 scenario a 650W will be sufficient.

My 7700k build with a Z270 MB, 580, 1 M.2 NVMe drive, 2 HDDs, 3 140MM fans, led lighting and overclocked to 4.8 GHz doesnt pull more than 320W at the wall.

Now onto to power draw. PSUs like to be used, having a 750W psu is useless in all these builds pulling ~300W, overkill and will shorten the life of the psu. Adding anything over a 550W PSU in these builds is a waste of money.

Large PSUs arent needed anymore, power requirements over the last 4 years have dropped almost 50% on cpus and gpus even overclocked, all the builds so far listed will pull at most ~300W, 500-550 is the best spot for those and even 450W would be fine, and save the xfire/sli argument, I dont think he is ever going to go that route and most games dont support it anyway. I run a 450W Gold from Seasonic on mine with 314W being pulled from the wall under full load using AIDA 64/Heaven

Even a 1080Ti added to these builds wouldn't require more than a 550

Theres other things you post I dont agree with, but I digress, not worth arguing over.

....and there is nothing wrong with a 1400, its a quad with 8 threads, perfectly fine for gaming with 4/8 threads with a simple multiplier boost to 38 and not having to touch anything else in the bios and thats on a stock cooler, it is completely able for a budget build, although with OPs budget it wouldnt be practical at $1200., however to say its useless is hyperbole, its better than a 7400 or i3 from Intel which alot of people still buy.

Now please tell me, did you test a GTX 1080 Ti in real loads? I'm going to assume that you didnt test R7 with it, as even I didnt. I have no idea what you're talking about on GPU power consumption as GTX 1080Ti is Nvidia's most power hungry card ever (not counting Titans here). CPUs I can agree but again, overclocked R7 is much more hungry than a 4c i7, even considering the lower clocks and the fact that it's 10-15% more efficient.

- - - Updated - - -

A 1400 oc to 3.8-4.0 is more than enough, they rip/burn cds, no content creation and very few games take advantage of 4 cores and 8 threads; especially the games the listed in particular.

So how does it change the fact that 6core R5 is still a superior CPU? Yes, it's about $40-50 more than cheapest B250+i5 7500 would get you (i5 7600 is a waste of money) but it's completely worth it.

You are building for you, not for the op, that is the real issue here, and with your misconceptions on top of that.

If I built for myself I would go for i7. But as OP doesnt have the same budget as I do (cannot afford an i7), then I go with the next best thing which is R5.

Show me benchmarks where a reasonable cost to performance ratio is shown over 2800 ram; because I've watched a few reviews with benchmarks that show 2666/2800 is the sweet spot.

That's Intel, which is irrelevant here. I hope you know that Intel and AMD are largely different in their approach here.

You say throwing money at noise, but I have the dark rock 3 pro and cannot hear it at max fan speed 2 ft from my face, the brand is literally built on being quiet and it puts out 2.x cfm more than you choice air cooler above that is louder; so technically you are saving $20 to hear more noise.

Noise is irrelevant on a limited budget. Of course DR3 Pro puts out x2 more CFM, it has 2 fans so it's gonna be louder. It's x2 more expensive too.

8 GB of ram is more than enough for them, and, they have the option of expanding in the future if their use changes. I have 16GB, with browsers, monitoring software, videos open, and os I see about 2.5 GB used; the game with osd up, never reaches 2 GB used; that is less than 5 GB used, giving 3 GB headroom for someone with 8GB, so on a budget, throwing money at ram that will never be touched is ridiculous.

RAM is getting more expensive, anyone who decides to upgrade later is going to be at a disadvantage. You are also handicapping your performance, especially on AMD by running single channel. Also, 14G out my 16 are used right now.

I've never had a wd drive die, I've seen a few seagates die. You just hate wd, get it, too bad. I have two wd drives retired that have over 5 years power on time. Also, 5400 rpm is fine for music and movies, minimal difference in access time there, and the slower spin speed is more quiet. Games and os on the ssd no? So a non issue there too.

WD are shooting themselves in a leg by producing 5400 rpm Blues. It's not going to be pure storage as it's very unlikely that 250G SSD is going to be enough to fit OS, all programs and all games. Also, the days of shitty Seagate are long over.

The 1080 was pure overkill to show the statement you made that you couldn't squeeze a 1070 into this budget fully false. Balance had nothing to do with this one at all; though, tbh, for future vr if they do buy it, is the better choice, and at that point they could use the same mobo and upgrade the cpu if it bottlenecks the vr experience.

Sure, but your GTX 1080 is going to be bottlenecked with the current processor (assuming 1080p), so you're literally wasting money here. People dont upgrade CPUs, they upgrade videocards.

M.2 is for the form factor, clean install, less cables to run and hide, 2.5" is more efficient; so the op can start to weigh out where their tastes and needs lay as we get closer to giving reasonable options in the budget and planning for what they need, not for more than what they need. Games do not saturate sata loading or even come close to it. Nvme/pcie is overkill outside video editing and other such data access/write heavy workloads. 7200 rpm hdds are typically more expensive for no tangible advantage, doubly so if your os and games are on ssd.

I'm not debating the advantages of the formfactor here, I'm just correcting the misinformation that M.2 SSDs are faster than SATA SSDs.

As far as psu, a 1080ti draws 250, a 6950x draws 140. That is only 390w on a system like that. We are looking at 65-95w cpus

65-95W is an i5, stock to overclocked right here. Mainstream i7s are up to 140, R7s up to 170, HEDT i7s up to 240 (270 with optimized workloads). 750W is going to be enough for most usecases disregarding SLI.

[moremana]

Now please tell me, did you test a GTX 1080 Ti in real loads? I'm going to assume that you didnt test R7 with it, as even I didnt. I have no idea what you're talking about on GPU power consumption as GTX 1080Ti is Nvidia's most power hungry card ever (not counting Titans here). CPUs I can agree but again, overclocked R7 is much more hungry than a 4c i7, even considering the lower clocks and the fact that it's 10-15% more efficient.

Just look in the top right corner at PSU requirements

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FXVpLD

[Thunderball]

Just look in the top right corner at PSU requirements

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FXVpLD

That doesnt take overclocking into account.

[moremana]

That doesnt take overclocking into account.

750W isnt needed