First time building a PC. Advice?

[Ben_209]

With a new and well-paying job, I've been looking into upgrading my computer. I've been using an MSI laptop with an Intel i7-4800MQ and a GTX 870M, with 12 GB's of RAM for over 3 years now. I have never built my own computer, only picked out pre-built laptops in the past. While my laptop is definitely a good machine, it isn't able to stream (i.e. Twitch.tv) or do any intense video/music editing, and there are some newer games I am unable to play.

I used Newegg for all of my initial choices:

CPU was the Intel i7-7700k Kaby Lake (4.2GHz) --$340
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117726

GPU was the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070 (Windforce OC) --$390
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125875

Secondary Memory was a Seagate Barracuda (3tb) and Samsung 850 EVO (256GB) --$198
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178994
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147372

Main Memory was a G.Skill Ripjaws V-Series (2x16GB) --$250
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232091

DVD Player was an LG Black --$59
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136269

Power Supply was an EVGA SuperNOVA (750-Watt) --$110
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438017

Backup-Power Supply was an APC BR1000G (1000VA) --$132
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101393

Sound-Card was the ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 --$100
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132006

Case was the Fractal Design Define R5 --$110
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352057

Motherboard was the ASUS STRIX Z270F --$160
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132930

Total (Current) Price: ~$1850

I'm able to pay for that level of equipment, although doing so is a bit of a stretch. I'm very concerned I would be wasting money on the Blu-Ray player, Power supply, backup power, and that level of RAM. I'm also unsure about how compatible the motherboard and other components are.

I plan primarily to use this computer for playing and streaming games, video editing and creation, music development/recording and software development.

Any advice on the items I've picked, the compatibility of them all, and if anyone has a suggestions for a 144Hz, 1920x1080 Moniter that wouldn't completely empty out my wallet would be great.

Thank you very much for your time.

 

[Lehan123456789]

With a new and well-paying job, I've been looking into upgrading my computer. I've been using an MSI laptop with an Intel i7-4800MQ and a GTX 870M, with 12 GB's of RAM for over 3 years now. I have never built my own computer, only picked out pre-built laptops in the past. While my laptop is definitely a good machine, it isn't able to stream (i.e. Twitch.tv) or do any intense video/music editing, and there are some newer games I am unable to play.

I used Newegg for all of my initial choices:

CPU was the Intel i7-7700k Kaby Lake (4.2GHz) --$340
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117726

GPU was the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070 (Windforce OC) --$390
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125875

Secondary Memory was a Seagate Barracuda (3tb) and Samsung 850 EVO (256GB) --$198
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178994
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147372

Main Memory was a G.Skill Ripjaws V-Series (2x16GB) --$250
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232091

DVD Player was an LG Black --$59
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136269

Power Supply was an EVGA SuperNOVA (750-Watt) --$110
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438017

Backup-Power Supply was an APC BR1000G (1000VA) --$132
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101393

Sound-Card was the ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 --$100
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132006

Case was the Fractal Design Definre R5 --$110
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352057

Motherboard was the ASUS STRIX Z270F --$160
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132930

Total (Current) Price: ~$1850

I'm able to pay for that level of equipment, although doing so is a bit of a stretch. I'm very concerned I would be wasting money on the Blu-Ray player, Power supply, backup power, and that level of RAM. I'm also unsure about how compatible the motherboard and other components are.

I plan primarily to use this computer for playing and streaming games, video editing and creation, music development/recording and software development.

Any advice on the items I've picked, the compatibility of them all, and if anyone has a suggestions for a 144Hz, 1920x1080 Moniter that wouldn't completely empty out my wallet would be great.

Thank you very much for your time.

Hi, if you are doing streaming or any kind of video editing you will want to go with Ryzen, in this case the Ryzen 7, in this case likely the 1700/x. You probably do not need a blu-ray player in this day and age. You only need 16gb RAM max. I'm not sure why you chose to get a UPS, however most people don't need or use them. For checking if it is compatible, use pcpartpicker (pcpartpicker.com). If you decide to go with Ryzen any B350 motherboard will do (B350 supports overclocking), As for your power supply, it is very high end, however it is fitting for this build, and I wouldn't change it!

Hope this helps,
feel free to ask any more questions!

 

[g-unit1111]

Hi, if you are doing streaming or any kind of video editing you will want to go with Ryzen, in this case the Ryzen 7, in this case likely the 1700/x. You probably do not need a blu-ray player in this day and age. You only need 16gb RAM max. I'm not sure why you chose to get a UPS, however most people don't need or use them. For checking if it is compatible, use pcpartpicker (pcpartpicker.com). If you decide to go with Ryzen any B350 motherboard will do (B350 supports overclocking), As for your power supply, it is very high end, however it is fitting for this build, and I wouldn't change it!

Yeah I agree, there's no reason to include a UPS in your budget - most people would never need or use them. You also don't need a sound card either - drop both of these things and put that money back in your GPU and get a 1080. You can always get the accessories later as you feel you need them.

 

[Ben_209]

Hi, if you are doing streaming or any kind of video editing you will want to go with Ryzen, in this case the Ryzen 7, in this case likely the 1700/x. You probably do not need a blu-ray player in this day and age. You only need 16gb RAM max. I'm not sure why you chose to get a UPS, however most people don't need or use them. For checking if it is compatible, use pcpartpicker (pcpartpicker.com). If you decide to go with Ryzen any B350 motherboard will do (B350 supports overclocking), As for your power supply, it is very high end, however it is fitting for this build, and I wouldn't change it!

Hope this helps,
feel free to ask any more questions!

Firstly, a big thank you to you and g-unit1111 for your speedy responses.

I read online that the Ryzen has better multi-threading, and this allows it to beat all current Intel cards in regards with streaming. Does this also translate into recording raw video? It also said that (compared with the i7's 4.2 GHz) the Ryzen 7 has only 3.0 GHz, and so is considerably worse at playing games and running other software. If a majority of my time would be spent gaming, and streaming would be relevant -- but certainly less often (and often not streaming games but instead podcasts, for example) -- would the Ryzen still be superior?

Thank you again.

 

[g-unit1111]

Firstly, a big thank you to you and g-unit1111 for your speedy responses.

I read online that the Ryzen has better multi-threading, and this allows it to beat all current Intel cards in regards with streaming. Does this also translate into recording raw video? It also said that (compared with the i7's 4.2 GHz) the Ryzen 7 has only 3.0 GHz, and so is considerably worse at playing games and running other software. If a majority of my time would be spent gaming, and streaming would be relevant -- but certainly less often (and often not streaming games but instead podcasts, for example) -- would the Ryzen still be superior?

Thank you again.

I wouldn't say the Ryzens beat the Intels in multi threading but they do come very close to each other. A lot of the info about Ryzen that's out there is fanboy overhype.Some will say it beats Intel - which it does in some tests, but those are mainly synthetic benchmarks that don't translate to real world performance. In most real world benchmarks Ryzen matches Intel on most multi threaded benchmarks. I've yet to see benchmarks where Ryzen beats Intel but for the most part it comes pretty close, and considering the last two generations of AMD CPUs, that's a pretty impressive feat. Ryzen definitely can't match the higher end Intel enthusiast level platforms (X99 and the upcoming X299) in terms of thread and core performance though. But then again the higher range i7s cost twice or 3 times as much as the 1700X.

 

[Lehan123456789]

Firstly, a big thank you to you and g-unit1111 for your speedy responses.

I read online that the Ryzen has better multi-threading, and this allows it to beat all current Intel cards in regards with streaming. Does this also translate into recording raw video? It also said that (compared with the i7's 4.2 GHz) the Ryzen 7 has only 3.0 GHz, and so is considerably worse at playing games and running other software. If a majority of my time would be spent gaming, and streaming would be relevant -- but certainly less often (and often not streaming games but instead podcasts, for example) -- would the Ryzen still be superior?

Thank you again.

I wouldn't say the Ryzens beat the Intels in multi threading but they do come very close to each other. A lot of the info about Ryzen that's out there is fanboy overhype.Some will say it beats Intel - which it does in some tests, but those are mainly synthetic benchmarks that don't translate to real world performance. In most real world benchmarks Ryzen matches Intel on most multi threaded benchmarks. I've yet to see benchmarks where Ryzen beats Intel but for the most part it comes pretty close, and considering the last two generations of AMD CPUs, that's a pretty impressive feat. Ryzen definitely can't match the higher end Intel enthusiast level platforms (X99 and the upcoming X299) in terms of thread and core performance though. But then again the higher range i7s cost twice or 3 times as much as the 1700X.

Yep. For most things other then gaming I recommend Ryzen, because although its cores are somewhat slower (important for gaming) it has twice the cores and twice the threads for the same price or less (overclocking with Ryzen is cheaper because all models can overclock and almost all motherboards can overclock).

I've checked prices and the 1700x is closer in price to the 7700k, and when you factor in a Z270 motherboard it is cheaper!

The 1700x is 3.4Ghz and is overclockable on most chipsets.

In summary, Ryzen probably better for streaming and video editing (highly multi-threaded applications) however worse for CPU intensive gaming, by about 20% or so.

hope this helps!

 

[g-unit1111]

Yep. For most things other then gaming I recommend Ryzen, because although its cores are somewhat slower (important for gaming) it has twice the cores and twice the threads for the same price or less (overclocking with Ryzen is cheaper because all models can overclock and almost all motherboards can overclock).

I've checked prices and the 1700x is closer in price to the 7700k, and when you factor in a Z270 motherboard it is cheaper!

That's not a valid argument. The 1700X retails for $349- identical to the 7700K. Most high end AM4 motherboards like the Gigabyte Aorus and the Asus Crosshair VI are around the $200 - $240 mark. So when you add everything in it all comes out to the same price.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700X 3.4GHz 8-Core Processor ($349.78 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-U9B SE2 37.9 CFM CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - X370 Taichi ATX AM4 Motherboard ($199.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($129.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $739.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-31 20:58 EDT-0400

Vs:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($329.69 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-U9B SE2 37.9 CFM CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus - MAXIMUS IX HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($214.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($129.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $734.55
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-31 21:03 EDT-0400

So with the exact same cooler and RAM, both come out to the same price in the end. Oh and the Intel motherboard I used in this example was $20 more than the AMD build, and the Intel configuration was $5 less than the AMD configuration.

 

[Lehan123456789]

Yep. For most things other then gaming I recommend Ryzen, because although its cores are somewhat slower (important for gaming) it has twice the cores and twice the threads for the same price or less (overclocking with Ryzen is cheaper because all models can overclock and almost all motherboards can overclock).

I've checked prices and the 1700x is closer in price to the 7700k, and when you factor in a Z270 motherboard it is cheaper!

That's not a valid argument. The 1700X retails for $349- identical to the 7700K. Most high end AM4 motherboards like the Gigabyte Aorus and the Asus Crosshair VI are around the $200 - $240 mark. So when you add everything in it all comes out to the same price.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700X 3.4GHz 8-Core Processor ($349.78 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-U9B SE2 37.9 CFM CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - X370 Taichi ATX AM4 Motherboard ($199.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($129.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $739.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-31 20:58 EDT-0400

Vs:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($329.69 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-U9B SE2 37.9 CFM CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus - MAXIMUS IX HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($214.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($129.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $734.55
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-05-31 21:03 EDT-0400

So with the exact same cooler and RAM, both come out to the same price in the end. Oh and the Intel motherboard I used in this example was $20 more than the AMD build, and the Intel configuration was $5 less than the AMD configuration.

Yes, however you could get a cheaper B350 motherboard and it will overclock more or less the same, with the only loss being the lack of SLI.

Point being it is cheaper to get an overclockable chipset motherboard on the Ryzen side of things.

 

[g-unit1111]

Yes, however you could get a cheaper B350 motherboard and it will overclock more or less the same, with the only loss being the lack of SLI.

Point being it is cheaper to get an overclockable chipset motherboard on the Ryzen side of things.

But you're paying $350 for a CPU, there's no reason to go cheap on the motherboard. If you're going that high end, I would assume SLI would be a long term upgrade factor, would it not? So why not prepare for it in advance? If you buy with upgrading in mind, you'll never be satisfied with anything you have. I generally advise against that.

 

[Lehan123456789]

Yes, however you could get a cheaper B350 motherboard and it will overclock more or less the same, with the only loss being the lack of SLI.

Point being it is cheaper to get an overclockable chipset motherboard on the Ryzen side of things.

But you're paying $350 for a CPU, there's no reason to go cheap on the motherboard. If you're going that high end, I would assume SLI would be a long term upgrade factor, would it not? So why not prepare for it in advance? If you buy with upgrading in mind, you'll never be satisfied with anything you have. I generally advise against that.

I suppose, though I've never personally thought SLI to be a very good idea. I suppose its up to the OP to decide.

 

[g-unit1111]

I suppose, though I've never personally thought SLI to be a very good idea. I suppose its up to the OP to decide.

That all depends on the monitor. If it's a 1080P monitor then SLI isn't necessary. If you're going with, say a 1440P ultra wide with a 144Hz refresh rate, or you're going for 4K or 8K, I would absolutely keep the option open.