Best recommended parts for a gaming PC?

[MrReligiousBoy]

Hey, guys!

So I've been really wanting to build a gaming PC for a long, long time now, and soon I'll be getting a job, so I was wondering if any of you guys had any recommended PC build for a good gaming experience that could last a good chunk of years. I have the knowledge of building a PC (it's pretty much just inserting the right thing into the right slot), but I am not sure what parts I should get since there are a plethora of parts I could use. Thanks for any help you can give!

Edit - I've scoured the internet for what I think would be good parts at a good price. I'll list them here. If somethings aren't compatible with each other, please let me know. Thank you!

Intel Core i7 6700 - CPU

Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming G1 - motherboard

Corsair 16GB 2 x 8GB DDR4-2400 PC4-19200 Desktop Memory Kit - RAM bricks

EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Graphics Card - 4 GB GDDR5 - 128-bit - 1279 MHz - graphics card

Samsung 850 EVO 500 (or 250 GB depending on finances) GB Internal SSD - memory

Seasonic G Series 80 Plus Gold PSU - power supply

Antec Value Solution VSK-4000E - mid tower - ATX - case

Edited June 16, 2016 by MrReligiousBoy

[Relstin]

First off, you'd probably would've been better off posting this in the Hardware and Software Discussion category.

 

As for the parts you picked, a few things come to mind.

- If you're going to go with a Z170 chipset motherboard, you might as well get an unlocked Core i7 6700K over a base 6700 (It will require you to get a 3rd party CPU cooler though) If you don't plan on overclocking your CPU though, you can save some money and get an H170 chipset motherboard instead (But you would also be limited to DDR4-2133 RAM)

- The GTX 900 series GPU's are dropping in price because of the release of the GTX 1000 series. If you wait a bit, you could probably be able to upgrade to a GTX 970.

- I would highly recommend adding a Hard Drive that's (Probably 1TB or bigger) to go with your SSD. Otherwise you could run out of storage space fast.

- I just took a look at the case, and it seems a little too basic... At that price range, you may want to look at the Deepcool Tesseract. It can fit a bigger GPU and can provide good cable management.

- I can't provide an opinion on your PSU. Mostly because I don't know its estimated wattage. But with a setup like this, it should work on a 550W PSU (Unless you intend to add a second GPU later on)

 

I probably should've asked this first, but how much money did you intend to spend on this system?

[Thaneize]

i would wait until november at least, maybe even january next year, because until then the hardware prices will be dropped because, new hardware and also the currently new hardware will be fully released (all AMD cards) and maybe even optimzed on both hardware and software level

 

for the current price of a GTX 960 you could get an AMD 470 or 480 in december which has much more power than the 960 or 970. If you want to be quicker than nov-jan you might want to consider an R9 390 its even cheaper and has more future security because of more VRAM

Edited June 18, 2016 by Thaneize

[WeylandUtani]

Hello. If you haven't found the site pcpartpicker.com, check it out. There are a ton of builds posted, and many knowledgeable people that are always more than eager to answer questions. The site also has many build guilds posted that you can use for some direction if you get stuck. Good luck with the new build.

[YeiZoneX]

Hi,

 

for a gaming PC you will want a top GPU instead of a top CPU. Usually video-games do not take advantage of Hyperthreading, (which is the main difference between Core i5 and Core i7 CPU's) so I would recommend a nice i5-6600K. You may not wanna overclock now, but games DO get a LOT of juice from high frequency cores, so you may wanna do it in a near future. With the money you save from that CPU exchange, get a better GPU, as I said it is the core of a gaming PC since most of today's technologies reduce CPU use and send all the work directly to the GPU. That said, get a VERY good GPU (like GTX 980, or GTX 1070).

 

Hope I helped, regards :D

[stringjade]

- An i5 4th gen or an AMD A10 7850k.

- 2x4gb of whatever brand of RAM.

- A GTX 960. Don't go 950. Start with 960 and up. Not really familiar with its AMD equivalent, though.

- A Micro ATX mobo that supports LGA-1150 or FM2+ would suffice.

- If you want to be spendy, go for an SSD for your boot and install drive. Have a 1tb HDD for your storage.

- Spend the rest on a reputable PSU.

- Cases with really good ventilation come cheap these days. Oftentimes, you can find ones for free. Ofcourse, you're going to have to do some refurbishing.

 

I wouldn't go for the 6th gen processor and DDR4 mobo and RAM just yet. There's pretty much little difference between the two so if you're aiming for a good yet budgeted PC, this is your go to. Besides, DDR4s are notoriously exclusive to X99 systems while being stupendously expensive. People have been clamoring that DDR3 is becoming obsolete ever since the announcement of DDR4. But even to this day, DDR3's still the staple and is going to stay that way for a quite long while.

Edited July 1, 2016 by stringjade

[TheMastersSon]

I second most of what has been suggested, especially the SSD for booting. For games I've found cpu speed matters a lot more than the number of cores or hyperthreading.

 

Also, for what 980/980Ti's are selling for these days, there's no way I could bring myself to buy a 960. If you're interested in future-proofing spend the extra money imo.

[buffmaloney]

I just got a Zotac GTX 1070 Founders Edition for $449. Consider than before buying a 960. The Amd cards will be out soon and that may change things again.

[TheMastersSon]

I just got a Zotac GTX 1070 Founders Edition for $449. Consider than before buying a 960. The Amd cards will be out soon and that may change things again.

Thanks for the info. Do any 1070 boards use 384-bit memory like the 980Ti or are they all 256-bit?

Edited July 3, 2016 by TheMastersSon

[Cambionn]

I've got my first game PC build a few days ago (but been working in IT for a while, just didn't have the money apart to build one myself yet). I got a GTX 1080 and I still can't run all mods together I want (I might love playing with high end screen archery mods to much) and I'm playing on simple 1080p, 60ghz. Dragon age Inquisition also has a few places that may give problems with all on ultra, few mods (like the Hinterlands crossroad, has a hard time staying 60fps). However, thanks to the horrible availability I have payed 812 euro for that videocard, still worth it trough.

 

If you live in the USA or any other country where the new guards are properly available, I would defiantly look into the GTX 1070m which should cost around 450. However, if you live in a part of the world where they aren't being imported enough and you can only pre-order them you might have to pay 650 euro. for that price you have a 1080 if you live in a country where it's properly available. I personally really like my MSI gaming X, but it's one of the more expansive models of the card.

Don't get a founders edition/ reference card GPU. The customs cards are often cheaper and run better. better coolers and stock clocks, together with better possibilities for overclocking.

I also would take a look at the i5-6600K, which is a nice CPU for gaming and (ad least in my country) a lot cheaper then any comparable i7 CPU, making it the best thing price/performance CPU.

Perhaps a small SSD with max 250GB together with a 2TB HDD would also be a nice option. Run windows from the SSD for fast boot and faster windows and play games from the HDD. Works just as well and gives you a lot more space then 500GB SSD. (if you have a 250GB SSD you can have one game with your windows if you really play it a lot, but I don't really notice much difference between gaming on SSD and gaming on HDD).

I can defiantly agree on the 2x 8GB DDR4 RAM. It's nice and right now all you need for the games that are out on ultra. Should be able to run games for the time to come.

As a last note, if you take a gtx 10** card, make sure you're case is big enough. I haven't checked for you, but the GTX 10** tends to be a little bit big. I can't say for sure about other manufacturers cards, but my MSI card is not only long (27,5cm) but also a little bit thicker then an average card. Mine wouldn't fit in my uncle's mid tower.

As another last note, if you would take a i5-6600K, don't forget to buy a new CPU cooler, as nowadays, no CPU-cooler is delivered with K versions of these CPUs, as they are intended to be able to be overclocked, and the stock cooler can't handle that anyways. Doesn't say you need to overclock them trough.

 

I don't know to much about motherboards, cases and power supplies, so I won't be able to help you there to much, beside my own experiences with what I have (MSI Tomahawk AC, Aerocool XPredator, Coolermaster 750W power supply).

I'm sorry for any bad English, it's not my native language and normally I'm doing my IT work in Dutch as that's where my job is, so I may be typing a bit horrible. Dyslexia also doesn't help.


Perhaps your budget would be nice to know for better help.

Edited July 16, 2016 by TDOGH