Help me build my PC 2017 Catch All

Evo wrote:

Can anyone recommend a decent ATX mid tower case for me? With or without a window, I'm just looking for something that's easy to build in and has good cooling.

Forgot to mention, I'm trying to find something under $75 bucks. Here are some examples of the sort of things I'm looking at. I'm guessing it's mostly aesthetic but being that this is my first build in like a decade-and-a-half I'd like the case to make things as easy as possible for me.

Zalman Z9 - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...
NZXT Phantom 410 - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...
Corsair Carbide 200R - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...

What cooler are you using? Also do you require 5.25" drive bays?

Of those three I've built with the 200R and did not like the cable management options on the back.. difficult to fit neatly and still get the side panel closed.. Skip all three and get the Corsair 270R which has a chambered section off the side of the motherboard that is recessed and allows you to tuck all the power cables etc there with ties and keep it neat and tidy.

I was looking at that 270R or the NZXT S340, very clean looking and easy cable management. I don't need a 5.25 drive bay.

Evo wrote:

I was looking at that 270R or the NZXT S340, very clean looking and easy cable management. I don't need a 5.25 drive bay.

I've not built in the standard 340, but I really liked building in the S340 Elite.

The S340 is very clean, if a little warm on the system temperatures. Not much in the way of airflow in it.

Gamers Nexus has a pretty solid roundup of their favorite $50-$100 cases so far this year up. They have a lot of solid data including system temperatures based on fan RPM.

FWIW, the already mentioned Corsair 270R is the cheapest case on their list and they really like it.

If I was buying a sub-$100 enclosure right now I'd be eyeballing some variant of the Fractal Design Define C, but to be fair it does break your $75 price limit by about $10-$15, generally running between 85 and 90 bucks.

If I do a build this year I might actually go for their new Meshify C. It's just a Define C, but with a kind nifty looking mesh front to allow better airflow, and they went for a tempered glass side panel. For $90 I don't think there's a better overall case. If you're less worried about airflow then the regular Define C with no window is a few bucks cheaper generally and is a little cleaner looking on the front.

The Meshify was released after GN did their roundup, I suspect it would be in there either noted along with the Define C or instead of it, had it been out beforehand.

Any suggestions for a work monitor? I'm thinking 4k, non-TN but that's about it since it's just for spreadsheets, programming, and email.

You might be better off with 1440p. Gives you plenty of space to work, but the scaling is less likely to be unreadable.

Ugh... just noticed I need to activate Windows after my hardware upgrade. The PC was pretty dead when I did it, but I thought I did the USB stick thing to keep my authentic copy of windows. I also have a license registered to a dead laptop. If I can get either to work on this desktop that would be great as for some reason it doesn't seem to remember that I have a legit copy for the PC connected to my email.

Anyone figure this out without buying a new copy? or is it not worth the time and effort?

If you have a windows 7 COA sticker or license key you could try entering that key. The activation rules seem to be fairly relaxed since Windows 10.

Welp, here's the final parts list. I've already received the GPU, mobo, RAM and case, the rest is still in transit. Total cost was $925 USD, counting rebates, which I feel pretty good about.

Thank you all for the case advice... I ended up going for the Phanteks Eclipse P400. It went on sale for $45 bucks in anthracite grey and I couldn't pass up that price vs. $69 for the S340, which is what I really wanted.

I won't be able to put it all together for a couple of weeks due to my schedule but I'll provide pics when I have it all up and running.

I've been lax about keeping my machine semi-up-to-date over the past several. Over the next six months or so I will be remedying that but I cannot do it all at once. Hence, this post: what should I do first?

Only recently have things gotten dodgy enough when playing FPS that I have really noticed performance problems. But things ain't going to get better. So here we are. I use this box for gaming and software dev.

I currently have:

CPU: i5 2400
Mobo: Gigabyte Z68X-something-something
RAM: 16GB DDR3
GPU: Radeon HD 7870 XT
Storage: Mix of SSD and spinners (not worried about that now)
Monitor: Old-ass Dell 19" native 1280x1024 (not worried about that now)

So, I want to either upgrade the CPU+mobo+RAM or the GPU. Monitor later. I want to get back to within shouting distance of the top tier on whichever is chosen.

Inner monologue time:
"If you get the 1080, things would display super-fast. But will still look like crap because of the monitor. Wait to get the card until you can get a better monitor. Great. Except the CPU etc. is not going to make things that much better, right? Probably not. So get the 1080. But, if you get the 1080..." etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.

So, turning to ya'll for advice: which set would give best bang for the buck? Speaking of bucks, I can spend $600ish, can go higher if needed, but not much.

Some games like PUBG are more CPU dependent than GPU. If you play games like that you could see a boost with a new CPU MOBO RAM purchase.

tboon wrote:

So, I want to either upgrade the CPU+mobo+RAM or the GPU.

(...)

So, turning to ya'll for advice: which set would give best bang for the buck? Speaking of bucks, I can spend $600ish, can go higher if needed, but not much.

OK, well, a 7870 XT is in the ballpark of the modern GTX 1050ti. And that's a Sandy Bridge i5.

I mean, whichever side you upgrade is going to be significantly constrained by the other half. There's not going to be as much new toy shine on the first purchase as their should be, just because of that.

If it were me, I'd probably get the GPU. You can stretch the Sandy Bridge out a little longer (though not as much as if it were the i7).

But for gods sake, do something about that monitor. Even a crap 24" 60hz 1080p monitor would be a night-and-day upgrade.

I'm looking to put together a new system for gaming and streaming (I tend to play mostly MMOs and strategy games). I do not have a system to start with (I currently have a laptop and am upgrading to a desktop). I'm working under a budget.

Case: Vivo V02
Motherboard: MSI B350M PRO-VDH
CPU: AMD R5 1500X (includes Wraith spire cooler)
GPU: EVGA GTX 1060 3GB SC
Power Supply: EVGA 500 B1
Memory: 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 RAM
HDD: Seagate 1TB HDD
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home USB Flash Drive
Monitor: ASUS VE228H

I'm wondering if maybe I should bump up to 16 GB.

Toanstation wrote:

I'm looking to put together a new system for gaming and streaming (I tend to play mostly MMOs and strategy games). I do not have a system to start with (I currently have a laptop and am upgrading to a desktop). I'm working under a budget.

Case: Vivo V02
Motherboard: MSI B350M PRO-VDH
CPU: AMD R5 1500X (includes Wraith spire cooler)
GPU: EVGA GTX 1060 3GB SC
Power Supply: EVGA 500 B1
Memory: 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 RAM
HDD: Seagate 1TB HDD
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home USB Flash Drive
Monitor: ASUS VE228H

I'm wondering if maybe I should bump up to 16 GB.

I would rather have at least a small SSD for the OS and a couple of most-used programs/games. Then hope and pray RAM prices start to creep down a little and pick up another 8GB of RAM in a few months.

Toanstation wrote:

I'm looking to put together a new system for gaming and streaming (I tend to play mostly MMOs and strategy games). I do not have a system to start with (I currently have a laptop and am upgrading to a desktop). I'm working under a budget.

Case: Vivo V02
Motherboard: MSI B350M PRO-VDH
CPU: AMD R5 1500X (includes Wraith spire cooler)
GPU: EVGA GTX 1060 3GB SC
Power Supply: EVGA 500 B1
Memory: 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 RAM
HDD: Seagate 1TB HDD
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home USB Flash Drive
Monitor: ASUS VE228H

I'm wondering if maybe I should bump up to 16 GB.

16GB would be ideal, especially with MMOs which tend to be memory hungry. DDR4 prices really suck right now, which makes that upgrade more painful than it should be. It's the easiest thing to upgrade later though, so there's that.

If your budget allowed you to move up to the 6GB GTX 1060, I would do so. But if you were already having to stretch to get up to the 3GB version instead of a 1050ti, that's the more important jump.

I agree with Middcore that even a modest SSD to at least install the OS on would be a significant quality-of-life improvement. Really at this point, I don't consider a PC without an SSD to be acceptable.

For about the same amount of money it takes to go from 8GB of RAM to 16GB, you can buy a very decent 250GB SSD.

Thanks, everyone. To put it in perspective, I'm specing this out for a funding campaign for my streaming. I've already identified more RAM, a 6GB GPU and the SSD as stretch goals.

It might be worth bumping up to a 1700X for a streaming setup. 4 cores for gaming and the extra 2 will handle encoding duties.

Exaustive details and performance tests here:

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2...

A 1600X may even be the way to go if you don't want to pay the extra $100 for a 1700X

Fun maybe bonus if you aim for a 1600X, it's been confirmed in multiple places that some people have gotten 1600X's without the two disabled cores.

So basically they got full clock 1800X's for the price of the 1600X.

Theory seems to be high demand ended up making AMD use some stock of the less popular 1800X chips they had on hand to meet demand for the more popular lower cost 1600X.

It's rare enough though, so of course no way to get one like that for sure.

Sorry for the delay in responding.

*Legion* wrote:

OK, well, a 7870 XT is in the ballpark of the modern GTX 1050ti. And that's a Sandy Bridge i5.

I mean, whichever side you upgrade is going to be significantly constrained by the other half. There's not going to be as much new toy shine on the first purchase as their should be, just because of that.

Yeah, I know there will no new toy shine on this until all the pieces are in place.

*Legion* wrote:

If it were me, I'd probably get the GPU. You can stretch the Sandy Bridge out a little longer (though not as much as if it were the i7).

Yeah that's where I'm leaning. Except...

*Legion* wrote:

But for gods sake, do something about that monitor. Even a crap 24" 60hz 1080p monitor would be a night-and-day upgrade.

Being an old dad means never upgrading things that are still working long after they are any good. I still have a tube TV that I watch in my office, for goodness' sake. It may be over 20 years old but it still works dammit.

:/

I guess I will get the GPU anyway and prioritize a monitor over CPU etc. RAM prices have to come down sometime, don't they?

Keep the sh*t long-lasting vintage monitor as a secondary display. Nobody uses only one monitor anymore.

As for RAM prices, ugh, I'm not optimistic.

Speaking of multi-monitor, decent monitor desk arms have gotten cheaper in recent years. For anyone that hasn't made the jump, I highly recommend looking into it. Monitor arm >>>>> having a monitor stand taking up 1/3rd of your desk.

I bought one of these for ~$35 for a secondary monitor and it's about as good as the $100+ ErgoTron arms I've been using for years. Certainly "good enough".

*Legion* wrote:

Keep the sh*t long-lasting vintage monitor as a secondary display. Nobody uses only one monitor anymore.

As for RAM prices, ugh, I'm not optimistic.

Some days I wish I had one mega monitor. Only because I have some arthritis in my neck and it is bs.

It'd be cool if there was a display that had discrete display regions addressable as separate displays, but in the consumer space.

JohnKillo wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Keep the sh*t long-lasting vintage monitor as a secondary display. Nobody uses only one monitor anymore.

As for RAM prices, ugh, I'm not optimistic.

Some days I wish I had one mega monitor. Only because I have some arthritis in my neck and it is bs.

Yeah I have 3 monitors at work and some days it can be a literal pain in the neck.

muraii wrote:

It'd be cool if there was a display that had discrete display regions addressable as separate displays, but in the consumer space.

There are a few. Notably Dell's 43" 4K monitor has 4 inputs to create a max of 4 1080P regions

So. That new Intel sh*t.

Intel basically paper-launching the Coffee Lake chips to try and stave off the steady flow of people switching to AMD is a shrewd but also sh*tty move.

Seems like they've done exactly that though. The 8700k can't be had basically anywhere for anything close to MSRP if you can even find one. Which you can't.

I hope AMD has a good answer coming down the pipe.

Would be even better if a bunch of new Ryzen successor chips show up and they just... work on the AM4 motherboards everyone already bought. I'd update.

I need to replace a rattly fan on my CPU cooler anyway.

Thin_J wrote:

So. That new Intel sh*t.

Intel basically paper-launching the Coffee Lake chips to try and stave off the steady flow of people switching to AMD is a shrewd but also sh*tty move.

Seems like they've done exactly that though. The 8700k can't be had basically anywhere for anything close to MSRP if you can even find one. Which you can't.

I hope AMD has a good answer coming down the pipe.

Would be even better if a bunch of new Ryzen successor chips show up and they just... work on the AM4 motherboards everyone already bought. I'd update.

I need to replace a rattly fan on my CPU cooler anyway.

Sounds like they are underwhelming anyway..

https://www.hardocp.com/article/2017...

Unless you are heavily into playing today's games at DX11. Under any sort of multi-threaded applications and modern DX12 games Ryzen 1700 is the way to go.

I'm sure the 8700K will be a burner in games and with 6 cores/12 threads should match up better but its not like Intel has buried AMD either at the enthusiast level or the high core count Threadripper level. AMD is simply a better buy all around.