- Jul 19, 2016
- 7
- 0
- 1,510
Hey all,
I'm going to be building my first gaming PC because the Alienware laptop I've used for the last five years met an unfortunate end. It was also outdated and annoying to open up to clean and reapply thermal paste. I'm looking to build a solid gaming PC that isn't excessively powerful, and all I know so far is that I want the 1080 GTX due to its staying power and my status as an NVIDIA shareholder. As I found out, there are a bajillion different configurations for a PC and I could really use some help at least narrowing that list down.
Approximate Purchase Date: This fall, preferably mid-late October. This is controlled by how long I need to save until I can afford whatever the end product is, as well as by the availability of the 1080 GTX.
Budget Range: I have a soft-limit of 3k. I don't want to spend too much, but I can generally afford anything. It's basically a factor of how long I would have to save to afford it. I've got 2.5k squirreled away for this right now, but I can afford more if I save for a couple extra months.
System Usage from Most to Least Important: It's just for gaming. I would like a nice audio card for listening to music though as I generally play music from my computer.
Are you buying a monitor: Yeah. Gotta pay the troll toll.
Parts to Upgrade: Literally everything. I don't think anything from the Alienware m18x laptop would go particularly well in a good desktop PC, but let me know if I should save something from the slag heap. The PSU and GPUs are out of commision though.
Do you need to buy OS: No, I have a copy of Windows 10.
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: I'm going to be linking parts from newegg, which I've only heard good things about. Reliability is huge for me, and newegg seems to have pretty solid quality control.
Location: I live outside of the US in Jamaica, and there's a chance somewhere between 0 and zilch that I buy parts there. I will in be in Providence, Rhode Island for university throughout the school year and will be sending parts there.
Parts Preferences: I'm getting the 1080 GTX, and everything else is up in the air. However, I would like to have an SSD only. I'm pretty sure the Obsidian case has multiple drive cages that makes adding additional drives later easy.
Overclocking: Maybe. I'm not planning on it at the moment, but the capability is nice to have. It's not important to me mostly because I don't know how to do it.
SLI or Crossfire: Not at the moment. I'm getting a big case I plan to use for a long time, so I may add another graphics card a few years down the line and would like to be able to use SLI.
Your Monitor Resolution: I've gotta buy one, and I've heard 1440 is the way to go. I don't want anything too big though because it has to fit on a relatively small desk in my dorm.
Additional Comments: The Obsidian case I list below I like because of it's minimalist aesthetic and the fact that it's spacious and easy to open. This is my first build so I wanted something easy to work in. I'm also in this for the long haul and the steel case seems durable, with space to upgrade later.
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Old computer is finished, time to upgrade regardless.
Here is a list of parts I'm currently considering. This is not everything I will need (what's a motherboard?), and nothing here is set in stone apart from the GPU. A big reason I leave some stuff out is that I'm not sure about the compability of everything. Will my CPU throttle the 1080? Which motherboard would support them? Stuff like that. I also need to decide between air and liquid cooling. Liquid cooling I've heard is generally just better, but more expensive with the risk of breaking everything.
MSI GeForce GTX 1080 DirectX 12 GTX 1080 SEA HAWK X 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5X PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support ATX Video Card
Corsair Obsidian 750D Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
EVGA 120-G2-1000-XR 80 PLUS GOLD 1000 W 10 yr Warranty Fully Modular NVIDIA SLI Ready and Crossfire Support continuous Power Supply
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 64GB (4 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Intel Z170 Platform / Intel X99 Platform Desktop Memory Model F4-2400C15Q-64GVR
Intel Core i7-6700K 8M Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1151 91W BX80662I76700K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 530
SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 1TB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-75E1T0B/AM
All comments and advice are welcome. Like I said, not sold on anything and am just looking for a quality system to play games on that lasts me a while without overdoing it. Thanks!
I'm going to be building my first gaming PC because the Alienware laptop I've used for the last five years met an unfortunate end. It was also outdated and annoying to open up to clean and reapply thermal paste. I'm looking to build a solid gaming PC that isn't excessively powerful, and all I know so far is that I want the 1080 GTX due to its staying power and my status as an NVIDIA shareholder. As I found out, there are a bajillion different configurations for a PC and I could really use some help at least narrowing that list down.
Approximate Purchase Date: This fall, preferably mid-late October. This is controlled by how long I need to save until I can afford whatever the end product is, as well as by the availability of the 1080 GTX.
Budget Range: I have a soft-limit of 3k. I don't want to spend too much, but I can generally afford anything. It's basically a factor of how long I would have to save to afford it. I've got 2.5k squirreled away for this right now, but I can afford more if I save for a couple extra months.
System Usage from Most to Least Important: It's just for gaming. I would like a nice audio card for listening to music though as I generally play music from my computer.
Are you buying a monitor: Yeah. Gotta pay the troll toll.
Parts to Upgrade: Literally everything. I don't think anything from the Alienware m18x laptop would go particularly well in a good desktop PC, but let me know if I should save something from the slag heap. The PSU and GPUs are out of commision though.
Do you need to buy OS: No, I have a copy of Windows 10.
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: I'm going to be linking parts from newegg, which I've only heard good things about. Reliability is huge for me, and newegg seems to have pretty solid quality control.
Location: I live outside of the US in Jamaica, and there's a chance somewhere between 0 and zilch that I buy parts there. I will in be in Providence, Rhode Island for university throughout the school year and will be sending parts there.
Parts Preferences: I'm getting the 1080 GTX, and everything else is up in the air. However, I would like to have an SSD only. I'm pretty sure the Obsidian case has multiple drive cages that makes adding additional drives later easy.
Overclocking: Maybe. I'm not planning on it at the moment, but the capability is nice to have. It's not important to me mostly because I don't know how to do it.
SLI or Crossfire: Not at the moment. I'm getting a big case I plan to use for a long time, so I may add another graphics card a few years down the line and would like to be able to use SLI.
Your Monitor Resolution: I've gotta buy one, and I've heard 1440 is the way to go. I don't want anything too big though because it has to fit on a relatively small desk in my dorm.
Additional Comments: The Obsidian case I list below I like because of it's minimalist aesthetic and the fact that it's spacious and easy to open. This is my first build so I wanted something easy to work in. I'm also in this for the long haul and the steel case seems durable, with space to upgrade later.
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Old computer is finished, time to upgrade regardless.
Here is a list of parts I'm currently considering. This is not everything I will need (what's a motherboard?), and nothing here is set in stone apart from the GPU. A big reason I leave some stuff out is that I'm not sure about the compability of everything. Will my CPU throttle the 1080? Which motherboard would support them? Stuff like that. I also need to decide between air and liquid cooling. Liquid cooling I've heard is generally just better, but more expensive with the risk of breaking everything.
MSI GeForce GTX 1080 DirectX 12 GTX 1080 SEA HAWK X 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5X PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support ATX Video Card
Corsair Obsidian 750D Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
EVGA 120-G2-1000-XR 80 PLUS GOLD 1000 W 10 yr Warranty Fully Modular NVIDIA SLI Ready and Crossfire Support continuous Power Supply
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 64GB (4 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Intel Z170 Platform / Intel X99 Platform Desktop Memory Model F4-2400C15Q-64GVR
Intel Core i7-6700K 8M Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1151 91W BX80662I76700K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 530
SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 1TB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-75E1T0B/AM
All comments and advice are welcome. Like I said, not sold on anything and am just looking for a quality system to play games on that lasts me a while without overdoing it. Thanks!
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram