Building a High(ish?) End Gaming PC, Need Help/Suggestions

[Kynlee]

Hey all, I am looking to build a brand new PC to replace the one I currently have.

Budget: $1200-1450
Resolution: I currently play on a TV that has 1920x1080, if I got a monitor I'd probably stay there. I don't see a need to go past that.
Games / Settings Desired: As much as possible with the budget (probably ultra through and through)
Any other intensive software or special things you do (Frequent video encoding, 3D modeling, etc): No
Country: USA
Parts that can be reused:N/A
Do you need an OS? No
Do you need peripherals (e.g. monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc)? Maybe suggest a monitor or two, as I might be interested in those later. Don't include monitors in budget price, though.

I am not sure when the next Setup of the Month is going to show up, which is why I'm asking in the forums for help. My idea is to stick to a "Unicorn" style build with good deals on powerful components. Thanks for your help!

[Deleted]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($251.98 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 51.4 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 980 4GB STRIX Video Card ($482.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1314.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-14 07:42 EDT-0400

You can fit an i7 6700k cpu if you want to, it fits the budget. This case doesn't have optical drive cages, if you need one you can either get an external one or we can find another suitable housing.

Monitors, i would go towards the dell myself:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Monitor: Asus PB278Q 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($402.99 @ Amazon)
Monitor: BenQ GW2765HT 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($399.00 @ Amazon)
Monitor: Dell U2515H 60Hz 25.0" Monitor ($396.99 @ Adorama)

[Pterodactylus]

I'd offer a build, but can't do any better than what Kostattoo has.

[Kynlee]

I'm considering putting the i7 in, I just don't know if it'd be worth it. Also there's a longer wait time to get it. Do you think it'd increase performance enough to be worth the $100?

The case seems good, but I'm unsure of dimensions and if the CPU Cooler will be able to fit inside comfortably. I'd imagine so, since you know what you're doing putting this together for me, I just am curious if a slightly bigger case might improve airflow or just be a "safer" bet in general.

The WD Blue looks good, but I'm not very keen on the differences between their blue/black/etc. I currently have a black, and on sites it says it's more of a performance Hard Drive. Is there enough of a difference for it to matter? (Especially where most everything gaming I'll have will be going on the SSD)

Final question: is 550W sufficient? Again, I'm not extremely computer savvy (hence coming to the forums for help with a build), it just seems sort of mid-range wattage level. If it's sufficient then I think it looks amazing.

Sorry if it seems like I'm not trusting your choices - I definitely do, but if any choices were made to keep cost down just a bit I might be able to swing a bit more money for the build if it'll help out enough to be worth it.

And thank you for your help! I really appreciate you taking your time to help a random stranger on the internet

- - - Updated - - -

I'd offer a build, but can't do any better than what Kostattoo has.

Seems like it's pretty solid then. With the limited knowledge I have of PC components it seems to be amazing. I still have a couple of questions, but otherwise it looks 10/10

[Pterodactylus]

I'm considering putting the i7 in, I just don't know if it'd be worth it. Also there's a longer wait time to get it. Do you think it'd increase performance enough to be worth the $100?

No, not based on your stated needs. The i5 will crush all those games, no issue. If you want to crush all those games, while streaming yourself doing it, while doing some other things - then get the i7. The i7 is really only needed if you plan on doing many things at once - or some pretty high-end applications. If you are just gaming you'll not get any significant improvement in your game to merit the extra cost.

The case seems good, but I'm unsure of dimensions and if the CPU Cooler will be able to fit inside comfortably. I'd imagine so, since you know what you're doing putting this together for me, I just am curious if a slightly bigger case might improve airflow or just be a "safer" bet in general.

The S340 is the case I own, and while it's not as big as some cases, it does not have the drive bays in the front that most cases have. This means that it's wide open on the inside and air flows unimpeded through the case. The case comes with only the back and top fan so you'll need to get 2 more fans to round out the case that you can put on the front as intake fans. The BIOS on the the ASUSs boards come with some pretty decent fan software so it's easy to ramp up the two front fans to make sure you have good air flow and maintain positive pressure inside the case. You'll have ZERO issues with air flow in the S340. Moreover, the after market cooler will fit inside with no issue that the two outtake fans are positioned right behind and right on top of the CPU cooler so it really moves the air and more importantly, the heat out of the case. Here are my recommended fans, which are currently on sale at newegg: Phanteks PH-F140SP_BK 82.1 CFM 140mm Fan ($12.00 @ Newegg)

The fans move loads of air and are dead quiet while doing it. Not only that, they carry a Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of over 150,000 hours. That means they are not expected to fail until over 10 years of constant use. They are pretty impressive fans.

The WD Blue looks good, but I'm not very keen on the differences between their blue/black/etc. I currently have a black, and on sites it says it's more of a performance Hard Drive. Is there enough of a difference for it to matter? (Especially where most everything gaming I'll have will be going on the SSD)

You'll be running the most used things off your SSD, presumably the HDD is just deep storage so just retrieving files and things. You'll not notice any loss in performance between a black and a blue.

Final question: is 550W sufficient? Again, I'm not extremely computer savvy (hence coming to the forums for help with a build), it just seems sort of mid-range wattage level. If it's sufficient then I think it looks amazing.

What's your future plan for the build? Will you add another video card in the future, more drives? Other accessories? If you are never going to add anything at all, the current PSU is more than sufficient. If you were to added a 2nd video card, another SSD, and max out your RAM - you'd be short on the juice. If you want to not ever have to worry about it, and get simply one of the best PSUs available, let me recommended: Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($111.99 @ SuperBiiz) It has 750 watts, is fully modular, has great reviews, has an "eco mode" that runs fanless at idle (quiet) and carries a 10 year warranty. It's a great PSU.

I've seen this PSU drop to $81 after a mail in rebate from NCIXUS.com (Click here) to monitor the price if you like. It was just on sale a couple of days ago - and will likely go on sale again soon. It's been on and off every few days for the last couple of months.

Here are minor tweaks to Kostatto's build - I just updated the PSU to the one I recommend, and added two additional case fans.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($251.98 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 51.4 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 980 4GB STRIX Video Card ($482.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($111.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case Fan: Phanteks PH-F140SP_BK 82.1 CFM 140mm Fan ($12.00 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Phanteks PH-F140SP_BK 82.1 CFM 140mm Fan ($12.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $1390.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-14 11:23 EDT-0400

Cheers.

[Kynlee]

No, not based on your stated needs. The i5 will crush all those games, no issue. If you want to crush all those games, while streaming yourself doing it, while doing some other things - then get the i7. The i7 is really only needed if you plan on doing many things at once - or some pretty high-end applications. If you are just gaming you'll not get any significant improvement in your game to merit the extra cost.

Okay, good to know. If that's the case I honestly think streaming (the only stressing thing I'd do that might warrant the i7) would be more limited by my internet than the processor.

The S340 is the case I own, and while it's not as big as some cases, it does not have the drive bays in the front that most cases have. This means that it's wide open on the inside and air flows unimpeded through the case. The case comes with only the back and top fan so you'll need to get 2 more fans to round out the case that you can put on the front as intake fans. The BIOS on the the ASUSs boards come with some pretty decent fan software so it's easy to ramp up the two front fans to make sure you have good air flow and maintain positive pressure inside the case. You'll have ZERO issues with air flow in the S340. Moreover, the after market cooler will fit inside with no issue that the two outtake fans are positioned right behind and right on top of the CPU cooler so it really moves the air and more importantly, the heat out of the case.

Yeah, the lack of drive bays is really awesome in my opinion. I have an optical drive on my current computer but I think I've used it a total of maybe two or three times over 3.5-4 years. Not really worth the extra clutter it brings with it. And it's good to know that it'll fit - I'm hesitant to go above a mid-size case based on available desk room and personal preference. I currently have an ASUS board as well, and I agree that the BIOS software is nice for things like the fans.

You'll be running the most used things off your SSD, presumably the HDD is just deep storage so just retrieving files and things. You'll not notice any loss in performance between a black and a blue.

Correct, mostly deep storage. A few of my lesser played games might go there, but if they aren't that important in the first place, and if there's no noticeable loss in performance I'm not concerned at all.

What's your future plan for the build? Will you add another video card in the future, more drives? Other accessories? If you are never going to add anything at all, the current PSU is more than sufficient. If you were to added a 2nd video card, another SSD, and max out your RAM - you'd be short on the juice.

Future plans are to play hella games on it I doubt I'll ever need to upgrade this past what it's going to be at - between having to pay for college and just how boss the components already selected are, I can see this build lasting me a very long time, probably up until I just completely start over again. If the 550W is more than sufficient for what is already in the list, then I don't see the need (there is a want, but it's not really warranted) to upgrade.

Thank you again for your help! It's really awesome to have such helpful people in communities like this. And thanks for pointing out the need for some extra case fans too - I probably would have forgotten about those had you not mentioned them. I'm very excited to start ordering this bad boy and get it up and running!

As far as my current OS goes - I'm planning on selling my current computer after formatting hard drives (so it won't come with an OS as I don't want to buy another copy of windows). Will I just be able to install Windows 7 with the DVD and key I have and then re-upgrade to Windows 10 once it's all installed? And will I just have to run an external optical drive to install Windows using the DVD for it?