Building A PC Rig, need help please. (First Time Builder.)

[EmbreoRed]

Hello, Im not new to modding or using computers in anyway, however as time goes on I have decided to invest into making my own PC Rig.

 

Upon saying this, I have no idea what tech to buy for the Rig, building looks pretty simple from the videos I have watched, but I have no clue about the parts I should get. Any help with this matter is most welcome as I am quite ignorant in the matter, if anyone could help me buy answering the following queries and listing a set of good components for the rig, thats everything from case to motherboard to graphics card, I would be very happy.

 

Basically i have a few points that I want the Rig to fit into:

 

1. I want to see if people can give me up to three builds each, one for $1500, one for $1800, and one for $2000. I have around $2000 to play with but if say a $1800 Rig is good enough then why not save a bit.

 

2. My goal by the end is to have a computer that can run a fairly heavy game on high graphics settings with no lag. For example, running Skyrim on its highest settings with ENB and other mods that improve looks, with no lag. Or perhaps if you could use say, the new Fallout 4 at high graphics or such with no lag. I don't know if I am getting Fallout 4 on this Rig, I do plan on building my own Steam machine after this Rig, one I can set up primarily only for Steam and have it sitting in my lounge room for the TV. Skyrim will defiantly be on this Rig, and I would very much like to run it at say high or ultra graphics, but it is not a necessity.

 

3. I would say 16GB of RAM would be the lowest I would go, but 32 would be a preference, though I don't mind just 16GB.

 

Any help with this matter would be most appreciated, and I thank you all in advance.

[obobski]

Asking for 3+ configurations per respondent is relatively "needy" - why don't you try putting something together yourself and then ask for critiques? I'm not at all trying to cast aspersions towards you, more trying to get you to recognize you're asking for a considerable time investment on other people's part with no compensation/etc on the backend.

 

Given your budget, what you want is entirely possible - I'd personally go with an Intel CPU, DDR3 memory, and your choice of nVidia or AMD graphics (I have a slight preference towards AMD these days, but it doesn't matter too much either way). If Skyrim is your goal, you could easily do this build for more like $1000-$1300 (and if you have parts you can "recycle" from a previous machine you may save more, e.g. if you don't have to buy a case, drives, monitor, operating system, peripherals, soundcard, power supply, etc etc). If we/you have an idea of what parts you have, what parts you're looking at, etc it can be tremendously helpful in guiding you.

 

As far as the RAM, 32GB is a total waste for gaming; 16GB is also overkill but given current memory prices is probably a healthy place to be. For the whys and wherefores: the vast majority of games, including Skyrim, are 32-bit applications - they will NEVER use more than 4GB of RAM (no matter if you rub the engine with cheetah blood or what) as that's a limitation of 32-bit applications (and out of the box, Skyrim and other games don't have LAA flagged, which means they're confined to 2GB). While 64-bit games are trickling out, I've seen nothing that has system requirements higher than 8GB of memory (the 64-bit games I've seen thus far usually say 6-8GB for overall system memory); 16GB is overkill but without being excessive. 32GB is just ridiculous. That isn't to say there aren't *other* kinds of tasks for which 32GB could make sense, but gaming just isn't really one of them. If you're doing a lot of DCC stuff, or running a lot of VMs, or other memory intensive tasks like that (that will either have 64-bit applications, or multiple "big" 32-bit applications) the extra RAM can be useful - it really comes down to what you need. For Skyrim alone, 8GB of RAM is more than good enough, along with a decent Core i3 or Core i5, and current mid-range (or better) graphics card (e.g. GeForce 960). But like I said, given current memory prices, unless you're on a very tight budget (or just want to save money), going with 16GB isn't a big problem.

[mark5916]

Hello, Im not new to modding or using computers in anyway, however as time goes on I have decided to invest into making my own PC Rig.

 

Upon saying this, I have no idea what tech to buy for the Rig, building looks pretty simple from the videos I have watched, but I have no clue about the parts I should get. Any help with this matter is most welcome as I am quite ignorant in the matter, if anyone could help me buy answering the following queries and listing a set of good components for the rig, thats everything from case to motherboard to graphics card, I would be very happy.

 

Basically i have a few points that I want the Rig to fit into:

 

1. I want to see if people can give me up to three builds each, one for $1500, one for $1800, and one for $2000. I have around $2000 to play with but if say a $1800 Rig is good enough then why not save a bit.

 

2. My goal by the end is to have a computer that can run a fairly heavy game on high graphics settings with no lag. For example, running Skyrim on its highest settings with ENB and other mods that improve looks, with no lag. Or perhaps if you could use say, the new Fallout 4 at high graphics or such with no lag. I don't know if I am getting Fallout 4 on this Rig, I do plan on building my own Steam machine after this Rig, one I can set up primarily only for Steam and have it sitting in my lounge room for the TV. Skyrim will defiantly be on this Rig, and I would very much like to run it at say high or ultra graphics, but it is not a necessity.

 

3. I would say 16GB of RAM would be the lowest I would go, but 32 would be a preference, though I don't mind just 16GB.

 

Any help with this matter would be most appreciated, and I thank you all in advance.

 

Will look at it if i go home. It will take a while. :smile:

[EmbreoRed]

Thanks for the reply obobski, I didn't know why my laptop broke down until you mentioned cheetah blood does that, I was sure that couldn't be the reason but hey, the more you know. Like I stated I am new to building my own PC Rig, so I thought people would be able to tell me of their own personal preferences and what they have used themselves in the past, then I could look it all up and compare them all one piece at a time to see what would be the best bet, I am sorry that I asked such an intensive question, it was never my intention to make people think that they had to work excessivly hard to answer my queries.

 

Skyrim is a most definite on my new Rig, however I also, at some point, wish to see about getting the new Fallout game, Fallout 4, onto it as well, and I was wondering if the price range you suggested, $1300 would be good enough of a budget to run it on fairly high specs and garner no lag?

 

As to RAM, thank you again for telling me about it, I was unaware that 32GB of RAM was overkill, my assumption was that the more RAM you had the faster your PC went, not to cheetah blood speeds, but just a little bit faster with each GB. Ill be investing in only 16GB of RAM thanks to your helpful suggestion and information.

 

As to the Intel CPU, I looked it up and do you suggest that the higher the 'i', as in i3, i7, etc, would make for a better CPU? Or does it not matter over all?

 

As to nVidia and AMD, I'm pretty sure I'll be heading the nVidia route, I've heard that Steam now runs better with nVidia, as do a lot of games, though thats just from forums I have visited for information, I may be mistaken. Thank you for the recommendation towards AMD though. The GeForce 960 looks good, though would you recommend anything a bit better, I have always had the most trouble with the graphics, sound and motherboard parts of the Rig as I am not well versed in them all, and there are so many to choose from.

 

Finally, Windows 8 would be my pick as the OS as Windows 10 has been getting a lot of negative press everywhere I look, perhaps in the future when the reviews pick up I may look into upgrading.

 

mark5916: Thank you for the help, I await your response eagerly, however thanks to obobski's reply I now know that I am asking too much of you. If you could provide a list of parts that fit well with say, $1500, then I would be more than happy, thank you so much for your time.

[EmbreoRed]

http://www.newegg.com/global/au/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119260

 

This was the case I was looking at, I really like Cooler Mater myself, I thought that once I had a case picked it would make picking the pieces to go inside a bit easier, what do you guys think?

Edited November 16, 2015 by EmbreoRed

[mark5916]

http://www.newegg.com/global/au/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119260

 

This was the case I was looking at, I really like Cooler Mater myself, I thought that once I had a case picked it would make picking the pieces to go inside a bit easier, what do you guys think?

 

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/RHWPCJ

 

This one is without an operating system.!!!

 

It seems in Australia prices are a bit stiff. lol

[soupdragon1234]

As to the Intel CPU, I looked it up and do you suggest that the higher the 'i', as in i3, i7, etc, would make for a better CPU? Or does it not matter over all?

 

It does, but its less of an issue for gaming which seems to be your principle reason for building. i5's are good enough for all but the most demanding of titles and more than sufficient for Skyrim.

 

On the other hand your choice of GPU is weak. Better to spend the money you would have spent on a CPU that yields very little extra for a better GPU instead, a GTX 970 or R9 390 is a much better way to spend your money. The 970 has 3.5gb of fast memory and 0.5gb of gimped memory whereas the 390 has 8gb of perfectly usable memory and is faster in tests. There is a slight team green advantage in FO4 in that it uses Nvidia gameworks (sunsprite FX, etc) but ENB's will give you those when they become available (and GW will reputedly hammer your framerates anyway)

 

edit: latest AMD drivers will fix the issues with FO4

 

 

Finally, Windows 8 would be my pick as the OS as Windows 10 has been getting a lot of negative press everywhere I look, perhaps in the future when the reviews pick up I may look into upgrading.

 

Unless you're au fait with a radically different UI Windows 10 will be a better option (most of the negative press centres around its data gathering most of which you can turn off during install). Not that I'm going to defend Win 10 though. Or even picking up a copy of Win 7 if you can find one, which is also upgradeable and doesn't come with the UI issues.

Edited November 18, 2015 by soupdragon1234

[mark5916]

> Finally, Windows 8 would be my pick as the OS as Windows 10 has been getting a lot of negative press everywhere I look, perhaps in the future when the reviews pick up I may look into upgrading. <

 

I guess W7 has not much life in it, and supoort will end in a couple of years. So W8.1 is a wise choice, and the same stable as W7.

 

Nothing negatively to complain about W10, as i us it on my two systems.

 

Of course, W7 was and is a very good OS from Windows.

 

So at the end the choice is yours. :wink:

 

-------

 

> As to the Intel CPU, I looked it up and do you suggest that the higher the 'i', as in i3, i7, etc, would make for a better CPU? Or does it not matter over all? <

 

More or less. The higher the number the higher the performance on the same CPU speed.

 

But there are other factors like Turbo Boost, cache size and threads per core.

 

At the end, the i3 is the beggining of the Intel CPU line, the i5 can stand up with the most games out there, and an i7 (the creme de la creme.) are mostly for applications than can use all the 8 threads of that processor,

or if you do a lot of things at the same time on your PC.

 

-------------

 

32GB is overkill if you only concern is gaming. Even 16GB is too much, but because RAM is quite cheap (compared to an CPU or GPU) you could go with that, and never look back.

[EmbreoRed]

mark5916; Will that setup be able to run fairly high graphics on Skyrim or Fallout 4 for example with no lag? I want to set that as my benchmark and have it last me a while.

 

Also can anyone tell me a really good place to order parts from? Amazon looks good, Im trying to get lowest prices possible.

[EmbreoRed]

I would like to thank everyone who helped me over the last few days, PC Building was never a great skill of mine, but thanks to all your help, reading up on other forums, and plenty of youtube videos, I finally feel like I'm ready to jump in and try, thank you all again.

 

This has always been a favourite forum of mine to read up before, and now I know why, the people here are just very helpful all around, not only in answering my queries but in also teaching me a bit about the common sense that is applied to building PC Rigs.

 

Thank you again.