Help with 2000 dollar pc build

[Zachdartan]

Hello guys I am trying to build my little brother a really strong pc for his 18 Birthday. The main goal of this build is to make a pc that can run triple A games such as the Witcher 3 at 1080p at 60fps atleast for 3-4 years before a upgrade. I want to only have to upgrade the GPU when that time comes if possible. Sadly I am not that great at picking parts. I would like the max to be around 2k if it could be lower that would be amazing!
Here is the link to the pc part picker I made http://pcpartpicker.com/list/89vTm8
Thank you guys so much!

 

[WarWolverineWarrior]

You Don't need that much RAM.
Go for a slightly cheaper Case,
Go for GTX 1080
You want 1 SSD and 1 HDD (optional)

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/dX7zvV

Edit:
PC Part picker will not always give you the lowest price. Shop around.
You can get GTX 1080 Seahawk X for $740 on NewEgg

You can do 4k gaming with this build.

 

[xFeaRDom]

I did this just for an estimate, agreeing with the above, but this is $50 over the $2000 budget, but is extremely future proof.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/BWqckT
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/BWqckT/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($329.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i v2 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($199.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($88.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($184.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($129.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Superclocked Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card ($644.99 @ B&H)
Case: Cooler Master MasterCase Maker 5 ATX Mid Tower Case ($169.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($118.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($98.99 @ My Choice Software)
Total: $2056.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-20 10:18 EDT-0400

You may have forgotten the OS, you can change this for Windows 7 if that is your preference, so I removed the SSD and added a 2TB WD Black HDD, you can change this to 1TB for around $40 back.

I also removed a 2x8GB kit of RAM, as 32GB is not needed for gaming on its own, and just left the one kit in there.
If you want it closer to the $2000 mark, go for a cheaper case, as said above.

 

[g-unit1111]

I did this just for an estimate, agreeing with the above, but this is $50 over the $2000 budget, but is extremely future proof.

No it isn't. No system is no matter whether you're spending $500 or $5,000. You can make a system last for a few years with minimum to no upgrading, but to say a system is completely future proof is an impossibility.

Here's a system I would suggest:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($329.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H5 Universal 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z170 Extreme6+ ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill TridentZ Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($122.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card ($679.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($95.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($118.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($85.70 @ My Choice Software)
Total: $1877.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-20 11:37 EDT-0400

 

[logainofhades]

Another option, to consider.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($328.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H5 Ultimate 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z170 S ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($179.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($95.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX300 1.1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($249.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 8GB AMP! Edition Video Card ($603.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Fractal Design Define S w/Window ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($118.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($85.70 @ My Choice Software)
Total: $1845.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-20 14:29 EDT-0400

 

[Zachdartan]

Thanks so much guys for the replies! I think I'll end up going with something like this http://pcpartpicker.com/list/

 

[g-unit1111]

Thanks so much guys for the replies! I think I'll end up going with something like this http://pcpartpicker.com/list/

Looks good to me! I say go for it!

 

[xFeaRDom]

I did this just for an estimate, agreeing with the above, but this is $50 over the $2000 budget, but is extremely future proof.

No it isn't. No system is no matter whether you're spending $500 or $5,000. You can make a system last for a few years with minimum to no upgrading, but to say a system is completely future proof is an impossibility.

Never said it was 'Completely Future Proof' I just said it was extremely future proof, as in it would last a good 3-4 years, maybe longer without any or little upgrades.

Read things properly first please :lol:

 

[g-unit1111]

Never said it was 'Completely Future Proof' I just said it was extremely future proof, as in it would last a good 3-4 years, maybe longer without any or little upgrades.

Read things properly first please :lol:

First off, I did read that thank you. Second, the whole concept of "future proofing" is a redundancy. Doesn't matter how much you spend on a build. Spending an extra $200 to get a better CPU does not necessarily make it future proof.

 

[Jean Luc Bergman]

Never said it was 'Completely Future Proof' I just said it was extremely future proof, as in it would last a good 3-4 years, maybe longer without any or little upgrades.

Read things properly first please :lol:

First off, I did read that thank you. Second, the whole concept of "future proofing" is a redundancy. Doesn't matter how much you spend on a build. Spending an extra $200 to get a better CPU does not necessarily make it future proof.

People have been telling me not to bother with upgrading my Intel 3930k because there is nothing substantially better and I bought it like four and a half years ago. Going as far as to call it an outright REDUNDANCY makes you sound stupid and like you have no understanding of the technology. The only thing expected to increase in performance substantially over the next five years are SSDs.


I would say go 32 gigs of RAM for this build too. You'll enjoy it. If the idea is future proofing, 16 gb is tiny even now, let alone in five years.

 

[Jean Luc Bergman]

And liquid cooling is pointless quite honestly and CERTAINLY not future proof unless your idea of future is a fried motherboard within 3 years. Go for a Noctua NH-U12S fan.

 

[g-unit1111]

People have been telling me not to bother with upgrading my Intel 3930k because there is nothing substantially better and I bought it like four and a half years ago. Going as far as to call it an outright REDUNDANCY makes you sound stupid and like you have no understanding of the technology. The only thing expected to increase in performance substantially over the next five years are SSDs.

The 3930K is still a viable CPU. I agree with everyone saying that you shouldn't change it. I think the whole concept of "future proofing" is a moot point. There really is no such thing. And spending more on one component with that idea in mind doesn't mean that it will be guaranteed to last longer than the component that costs $200 less. The thing with CPUS is that each generation is only a +-10% difference in performance from one generation to the next. And the enthusiast platform really doesn't bring anything to the table for gaming. So spending more for that with the idea of "future proofing" in mind is indeed a redundancy.

I would say go 32 gigs of RAM for this build too. You'll enjoy it. If the idea is future proofing, 16 gb is tiny even now, let alone in five years.

Why? When would you ever possibly need 32GB of RAM for a gaming rig? Ever? Even VR doesn't require it.

And liquid cooling is pointless quite honestly and CERTAINLY not future proof unless your idea of future is a fried motherboard within 3 years. Go for a Noctua NH-U12S fan.

Liquid cooling is actually much safer now than in previous generations. Still doesn't mean I would recommend it, but coolers now like the EKWB Predator are far superior to the H100i.

 

[Jean Luc Bergman]

People have been telling me not to bother with upgrading my Intel 3930k because there is nothing substantially better and I bought it like four and a half years ago. Going as far as to call it an outright REDUNDANCY makes you sound stupid and like you have no understanding of the technology. The only thing expected to increase in performance substantially over the next five years are SSDs.

The 3930K is still a viable CPU. I agree with everyone saying that you shouldn't change it. I think the whole concept of "future proofing" is a moot point. There really is no such thing. And spending more on one component with that idea in mind doesn't mean that it will be guaranteed to last longer than the component that costs $200 less. The thing with CPUS is that each generation is only a +-10% difference in performance from one generation to the next. And the enthusiast platform really doesn't bring anything to the table for gaming. So spending more for that with the idea of "future proofing" in mind is indeed a redundancy.

I would say go 32 gigs of RAM for this build too. You'll enjoy it. If the idea is future proofing, 16 gb is tiny even now, let alone in five years.

Why? When would you ever possibly need 32GB of RAM for a gaming rig? Ever? Even VR doesn't require it.

And liquid cooling is pointless quite honestly and CERTAINLY not future proof unless your idea of future is a fried motherboard within 3 years. Go for a Noctua NH-U12S fan.

Liquid cooling is actually much safer now than in previous generations. Still doesn't mean I would recommend it, but coolers now like the EKWB Predator are far superior to the H100i.

Agree with your point on the liquid cooling, although in the case that he isn't overclocking and is prepared to opt for the most silent fans possible, air cooling is a much better option, in terms of price, reliability and setup issues.

Because RAM is the most common day to day bottleneck beyond gaming. If you want to manage your programs casually without having to worry about being efficient, such as when running VMs, a few hundred chrome tabs, music or video eidint programs, the last thing you want to worry about is running out of RAM. I appreciate that SOLELY for gaming it will never be an issue, but for general use I find its the only thing thing that substantially upset my usage on my old PC which was 32 GB of 2133 Mhz DDR3. I got used to diving with my graphics settings when I gamed after a few years with the 680 GTX but I NEVER enjoyed running out of RAM.

And certainly I am finding the idea of future proofing PCs is becoming more relevant. Even my last PC I bought for 5 grand 4.5 years ago and managed to sell for 2 grand. To get something substantially better I had to spend $6 grand. The only serious issue on my last PC was the 32 GB of DDR3 which never cut it.

 

[g-unit1111]

Because RAM is the most common day to day bottleneck beyond gaming. If you want to manage your programs casually without having to worry about being efficient, such as when running VMs, a few hundred chrome tabs, music or video eidint programs, the last thing you want to worry about is running out of RAM. I appreciate that SOLELY for gaming it will never be an issue, but for general use I find its the only thing thing that substantially upset my usage on my old PC which was 32 GB of 2133 Mhz DDR3. I got used to diving with my graphics settings when I gamed after a few years with the 680 GTX but I NEVER enjoyed running out of RAM.

The average gamer does not need, nor will ever use VMs. A few hundred Chrome tabs? Why would you need to run that many tabs ever? I never run more than 20. Video and audio production I get, but most people will never use their machines, especially if they game, for that purpose.

And certainly I am finding the idea of future proofing PCs is becoming more relevant. Even my last PC I bought for 5 grand 4.5 years ago and managed to sell for 2 grand. To get something substantially better I had to spend $6 grand. The only serious issue on my last PC was the 32 GB of DDR3 which never cut it.

There is no such thing as future proofing. I honestly don't know how much clearer I can make this. It doesn't matter how much you spend and it doesn't matter how long you make your system last. Ivy Bridge and Ivy Bridge-E systems are still relevant because CPU performance only increases about 10% with each generation. So compared to Skylake and Haswell, an Ivy Bridge-E CPU is still relevant. Does it make that "future proof"? No.

 

[USAFRet]

VMs

i5-3570k, 16GB RAM.
Win 8.1 or Win 10 Host.
VM's of LinuxMint, Windows Server2008 (with SharePoint2007), XP, Win 7. Excel and Access also running.

Runs just fine.
-------------------
Same system, re video and photo editing
Ubuntu VM running in the background, Lightroom, Corel VideoStudio, PaintShop Pro x8, while designing a new platform bed in Rhino3D, and printing a christmas ornament on the 3D printer. And a couple dozen tabs open in FF.


If you've been running out of RAM at 32GB, you have other issues.
More RAM is usually not a bad thing. But let's not go overboard and recommend 32GB as a baseline.
Especially for a gaming system.

 

[Jean Luc Bergman]

VMs

i5-3570k, 16GB RAM.
Win 8.1 or Win 10 Host.
VM's of LinuxMint, Windows Server2008 (with SharePoint2007), XP, Win 7. Excel and Access also running.

Runs just fine.
-------------------
Same system, re video and photo editing
Ubuntu VM running in the background, Lightroom, Corel VideoStudio, PaintShop Pro x8, while designing a new platform bed in Rhino3D, and printing a christmas ornament on the 3D printer. And a couple dozen tabs open in FF.


If you've been running out of RAM at 32GB, you have other issues.
More RAM is usually not a bad thing. But let's not go overboard and recommend 32GB as a baseline.
Especially for a gaming system.

I appreciate not everyone runs like this, but right now I have 1200 google chrome tabs open, Guitar Pro, Itunes, Ableton and Premiere Pro running and its at about 85% and slowing things down a bit with 32 GB. I realise not everyone runs programs like a careless whore, but personally my number one for PC parts is that I NEVER have to feel let down by them, no matter what I do. For the price of 32 GB of some mid speed DDR4 vs 16 GB, its a no brainer when paying that much for a GPU and build total.

No one JUST "games", I can GUARANTEE you will use 32 GB if you have it.

 

[nikoli707]

here is an option if you want the build to look really nice... all rgb. run the single 1070 for now until the 1080ti comes out. it will be around $700. you could also skip the 950 pro and wait a bit for the 960 pro to come out officially as it should cost significantly less but offer very close to the same performance. the 7700k is coming out soon also. right now might not be a good time to be building a pc as like i said so many next generation components are near imminent release.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($328.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X61 106.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($114.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Asus Z170 PRO GAMING/AURA ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($153.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($106.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($314.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Crucial MX300 525GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($119.98 @ Directron)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($73.80 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 8GB G1 Gaming Video Card ($408.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Other: NZXT S340 Elite No Power Supply ATX Mid Tower (Black) ($89.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1782.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-22 16:11 EDT-0400

 

[USAFRet]

I appreciate not everyone runs like this, but right now I have 1200 google chrome tabs open, Guitar Pro, Itunes, Ableton and Premiere Pro running and its at about 85% and slowing things down a bit with 32 GB. I realise not everyone runs programs like a careless whore, but personally my number one for PC parts is that I NEVER have to feel let down by them, no matter what I do. For the price of 32 GB of some mid speed DDR4 vs 16 GB, its a no brainer when paying that much for a GPU and build total.

No one JUST "games", I can GUARANTEE you will use 32 GB if you have it.

From the OP:
"Hello guys I am trying to build my little brother a really strong pc for his 18 Birthday. The main goal of this build is to make a pc that can run triple A games "

That is a far cry from:
"right now I have 1200 google chrome tabs open"

Completely different use case.

At todays prices, 32GB is not as big a wallet hit as it was this time last year, or earlier.
But we are not yet at the point of 32GB is required for a gaming PC.