Help with a Gaming Build

[LittlestFinch]

So I am one of those people who plays a ton of video games and knows nothing about the hardware! I need help. I've been playing games on a Sony gaming laptop I got about 5 years ago now, it's held up amazingly well with some TLC, but the fan has officially died and my battery is toast. Although I plan on replacing these elements in the future it seems like due to my lucky position in life I am able to afford a relatively nice gaming desk top. However, again, I have not a clue how to make this happen.

I'm set to make the purchase on the 20th. My budget is 700-900$ (not including shipping however it would include screen/mouse/keyboard) I've been looking for several weeks now and I guess prebuilt rigs are not the way to go? However, looking at individual parts I'm at a complete and utter loss. I don't really know anyone else that plays games the way I do, or knows how to set up the hardware. So if I could get some help you would make me the happiest of campers because I am having been waiting on this moment for a desk top for years!!

Turns out I'm also an artist and I need this thing to be able to handle the gamut of adobe products, Sai, a scanner and I plan on hooking in a second screen in the future. What I'm hoping to do now is put together a computer that will run like a champ but has room to upgrade. Also I'm extremely conflicted about this windows 8 nonsense. I run 7 now and I have working copy of 7 I can install, is it worth it to blow the money on 8 when I could put it towards better things?

Anyways any help with this would be most excellent! I've been surfing the forums for a bit but haven't found quite what I need.

TLDR;

Budget: 600-800$
Date of purchase: 5/20/15
Needs to include: Screen (Don't need to find a screen maybe just account for it budget wise?), OS (? I have 7 is it worth it to upgrade to 8), must be upgradable.
Some Games I Play: RPGs (DA series, Kingdoms of Amalur), Diablo 3, Side Scrollers, Minecraft, MOBAs, FPS, 4X, MMOs, a little bit of everything really.
Other: Must be able to handle the full gamut of Adobe CC software.

If I'm asking the impossible obviously pass this by, but I still appreciate any input or direction!

 

[Woody1999]

Here would be my recommendation for a starter gaming build. I've specifically picked parts that I know from experience are easy to work with, and provide great performance if used correctly.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper T4 70.0 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock B85 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.75 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($68.09 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.88 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: BenQ GL2460HM 60Hz 24.0" Monitor ($139.93 @ B&H)
Total: $769.59
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-15 17:14 EDT-0400

The Pentium G3258 is a fantastic starter gaming chip. It's Intel's only overclockable Pentium, and it shares the same socket as the top end i5 and i7 chips currently on offer. When overclocked, it will match i3 and FX-6300 performance, and this chip is an incredibly good overclocker. The cooler I picked will fit easily, and will cool much better than the stock Intel cooler.

The B85 Anniversary board is the cheapest LGA1150 board I can recommend. I just find the H81 boards plain shoddy, and anything more expensive than this and it defies the point of getting a Pentium. It's pretty good for the price.

8GB of RAM, in a dual channel 2x4GB set. Pretty standard for gamers, everything you'll ever need. The G.Skill heat spreaders looks pretty cool as well. Equally a 1TB hard drive will store everything you need, and you can add an SSD later for faster boot times.

The GTX 960 is Nvidia's latest offering in consumer graphics cards and it's pretty good as well. Performance wise, it trades blows with the R9 280, but produces much less heat and requires much less power. A good choice for any beginner gamer.

The case and power supply took a bit of thought from me. The case, in which I've worked in before (not strictly true, I used the Source 210 Elite) is incredibly easy to build in, and looks good as well. Airflow is decent, NZXT seem to have covered all bases and kept it dirt cheap as well. The power supply is made by Seasonic, one of the best manufacturers in the market. It's fully modular, meaning easier cable management and less clutter in your case. It has much more power output than your current system will draw, and therefore allows future upgrades without having to upgrade the PSU first.

Monitor is a great 24" 1080p option from BenQ, with a pretty outstanding 2ms response time to beat. I wouldn't go cheaper than this when getting a monitor. As for keyboard and mouse, whatever your personal preference is - I can't choose that for you.

What do you think?

Woody

 

[LittlestFinch]

Life saving, seriously. I can't stress how much you've helped me by even responding to this! I've not even the slightest of clues what over clocking is, so that's something I need to start reading up on right this moment. I take it that 8 is worth the upgrade then, eh? I'm not super familiar with it's UI. Could you recommend some reading materials on overclocking? If I were just to opt for a better chip how much more would that run?

I feel like I'm about to ask the stupidest of questions, so apologies in advance! When you build something like this which bits am I looking to for USB drives and wireless connection etc? Is this something else I need to buy? I'm gonna get all this and attempt to build it on my own! With much internet guides.

 

[Woody1999]

Let's start from the beginning, shall we.

Processors have three main deciding factors on what make them fast - IPC rating, amount of cores and clock speed (sometimes called frequency). The first two are kinda complicated and you can just ignore them, but clock speed is very interesting. Certain chips, like the Pentium G3258, have an unlocked clock speed, so you can make it go as fast or as slow as you want.

Here is the basics of overclocking; you have a set speed of the processor called the FSB speed, and a multiplier. You take the FSB speed, times it by the multiplier (strangely enough) and that equals your clock speed. With basic overclocking, all you have to worry about is changing the multiplier. The higher the multiplier, the faster the chip runs.

Overclocking comes at a cost though. The faster a chip runs, the more heat it produces and the more power it needs. That's why you need an aftermarket cooler to cool an overclocked processor. A suitable power supply should be able to supply the extra wattage your chip needs (sometimes up to 50W more than on the box with big overclocks).

As for your "silly" question (it's not I promise, I've seen much worse 😉 ), USBs come attached to the front of your case and on the back of your motherboard. The ones that are in the back of your motherboard don't require plugging in, but the ones on your case have wires attached them which you can plug into slots on the motherboard. Wifi is considered a premium feature for motherboards, and so you have to buy an adapter if you want to use wireless networking on the majority of boards. You can buy ones that you plug into the motherboard itself, or just a simple USB one.

Woody

Edit: didn't realise you have a spare copy of Windows 7. Yes, you should definitely use that. You can then put the extra money towards a nice keyboard and mouse, or more specifically to you, an IPS monitor.

 

[targetdan]

Here's my take on it:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock B85 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($55.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.75 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($68.09 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Acer S220HQLAbd 60Hz 21.5" Monitor ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Rosewill RK-201 Wired Standard Keyboard ($6.99 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Zalman ZM-M200 Wired Optical Mouse ($4.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $762.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-15 18:08 EDT-0400

The i3-4160 has hyperthreading which will give you better performance running the adobe suite.

I also included a small solid state drive...you install your operating system and programs onto this and they will run so much faster than an ordinary hdd its unreal! you wont ever want to go back 😛

Got rid of the cooler as the stock intel coolers are perfectly capable, Unless you choose to overclock but as a beginner I would get used to building to start with. Up to you though

This build makes use of a slightly smaller screen and your pre-owned windows 7. Its not going anywhere so I think buying a new OS at the moment would be throwing money away, just my personal opinion though - if you like 8.1 get it by all means.

Added a standard keyboard and mouse too.

IMO this is ideal for what you need.

As to building it there are LOADS of guides on here and also the newegg youtube tutorials are really good - i used them to do my first build and they go over everything in really good detail.

If you want wifi then you would need to purchase an adapter separately - this can be a usb plug-in or a pci card that sits in the motherboard (the latter tend to be more powerful but there are good and bad examples of both!) . You said about usb drives - do you mean external hard drives or flash drives? these would need to be purchased extra if you wanted.

Hope that helps!

 

[Woody1999]

Just a few points to make on your build Dan:

-Single channel RAM is 5-10% slower than dual channel
-An SSD can always be a later upgrade, it's a tight budget
-The i3 cannot be overclocked
-The monitor has a pretty bad response time and it's kinda small.

What's good:

-Hyperthreading, useful for multitasking
-Optical drive included

I would personally put the extra OS money towards an IPS monitor, he is an artist after all. (to OP; an IPS monitor has better colour quality in exchange for slower response times)

Woody

 

[Woody1999]

Okay, here's my revised build with some influence from Dan:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($111.98 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Pro Rev. 2 36.7 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($13.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($81.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.75 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($43.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($68.09 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VS239H-P 23.0" Monitor ($150.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $760.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-15 18:26 EDT-0400

No need to worry about overclocking now, you have an i3, which has a locked clock speed. That also means you won't need an aftermarket cooler, but I picked the one I'm using, because although it cools no better than the stock cooler, it's deadly silent which is a huge improvement over the vacuum cleaner sound of that dreaded stock cooler.

The i3 is effectively just a Pentium, but with a locked clock speed and a clever feature called Hyperthreading, which splits the workload of each core into two, effectively making it a quad-core chip. This would be better for your Adobe CC work. Better motherboard, IPS monitor (bad-ish response time though, but 5ms is useable) and some other tweaks like a slightly better case.

Woody

 

[targetdan]

Fair point about the ram, yeah go for 2 4gb sticks.

It comes down to what OP wants i guess, if you want overclocking on your first build the pentium is the chip for you.
If you arent bothered about overclocking then i3 all the way. Personally I would leave oc'ing until later as its a lot to learn when its your first build.

What I will say is that the single biggest performance boost for a computer these days is switching from a mechanical hard drive to an ssd. I would always recommend one if the budget can afford it. Just my opinion but I would always opt for an ssd over a slightly bigger screen etc. OP I would weigh up the pros and cons and think about whats important to you - improved speed or improved quality.

 

[targetdan]

Updated build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock B85 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.75 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($68.09 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ OutletPC)
Keyboard: Rosewill RK-201 Wired Standard Keyboard ($6.99 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Zalman ZM-M200 Wired Optical Mouse ($4.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $656.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-15 18:42 EDT-0400

The ram is much better.

I have still stuck with the SSD as thats what I would always recommend. Took out the monitor as admittedly I am no expert in that field 😛 so there's $150 in the budget left to get a good one

Spoilt for choice!

 

[Woody1999]

As far as I agree with you that an SSD is utterly essential for high performance builds nowadays, I really think that the OP's budget should be spent elsewhere. It's very easy to install an SSD into your system at a later date, where it is much harder to install a new motherboard or new case etc.

By getting a high quality motherboard such as the H97 Pro4, the OP can futureproof his build for any non-K i5 or i7 he throws at it, with no BIOS issues, PCIe bottlenecks or lack of features. There's also the issue of aesthetics. Whereas my suggestion was hardly a looker with a blue motherboard and red RAM, it has not just practical but good looking heatsinks on the VRM blocks and southbridge, something you very rarely see on B85 or H81 boards. This helps the board cope with the increased TDP of the high end chips, it would get very hot without them.

Woody

 

[targetdan]

If it was just a gaming pc I would agree with you but since it is multi purpose I stand by the need for an ssd. Again it comes down to what's most important to OP. You could easily fit the ssd and a higher quality motherboard into the budget, but at the cost of a lower quality screen. All depends on preference.

 

[LittlestFinch]

I have to again say THANK YOU so much for the help with this! I'm hoping this building experience will get me better acquainted with the hardware aspect of my computer obsession. I definitely agree with Dan that the overclock was kind of an intimidating prospect for some one building their first computer!

Thank you much about the USB question I guess I should have asked about ports not drives!! But I appreciate the answer! Also the WiFi question, I would have never known that, I'm glad I even thought to ask it since I wouldn't be able to hardwire in where I live now!

The SSD is something I would be upgrading to eventually, but if I could get one now in budget I most definitely will? That one I guess I'll just have to make up my mind on? (Also OP is a her, not that it matters!)

I also don't want to give up the luxury of an awesome monitor and would likely shell out extra for one anyways if it was bit over budget 😉 If I was to get a second monitor set up in the future, are there additional parts I would need hardware wise or would I be fine just plugging in and arranging my settings appropriately?

 

[Woody1999]

Nope, the GTX 960 can support up to four separate monitors as far as I know, so setting up the two should be easy. Just run two cables from two different ports on the back of the card to the monitors, and you can then set up how the monitors interact through Windows' own screen resolution thing. I have my two monitors set up simply, where one just extends onto the other, and I have the effect of one of those posh ultrawide monitors. If you want an awesome monitor and an SSD:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($111.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($81.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel 530 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.75 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($68.09 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VS239H-P 23.0" Monitor ($150.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $806.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-15 19:19 EDT-0400

The PC will be quite a bit louder and you'll have to live with no USB 3.0 ports on your case, but the SSD included is incredibly high quality and very fast.

Woody

 

[targetdan]

Yes you will need a wifi adapter then by the sounds of it. I only have experience of the TPLink ones - stay well clear!!! I've never had one that worked, tut!

You could get a cheaper ssd to allow for a better screen, or leave it out entirely with a view to purchasing one later, either or.

Most video cards these days have capability for 2 screens so that is unlikely to be a problem whichever card you choose.

Apologies for the gender confusion...oops!

 

[LittlestFinch]

For this last build Woody, with both SSD and Screen, would I just be able to fit the fan in/USB 3.0 ports in at a later time? The fans you were recommending aren't that much over my budget and if the stock fan is really that noisy I might just have to splurge!

I might also look into used screens locally, if I could find something here that has been refurbished around the same size/specs with less cost that might resolve this budgeting issue. Though I do still have a mouse/keyboard to consider. Theoretically I'll be spending 900$ or so total with EVERYTHING included i.e. keyboard/mouse, shipping, etc. Do either you of you have a personal preference on the PCI vs USB wifi adapter?

(To clarify on the shipping budget I'm gonna try to ON/2day as much of it as possible I have 3 day weekend off work and I want to be up and running by then 😉 )

 

[targetdan]

Tweaked our builds a bit:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($118.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus B85M-G R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($68.95 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($66.95 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($50.97 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H21 ATX Mid Tower Case ($38.71 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($18.20 @ Amazon)
Wireless Network Adapter: TRENDnet TEW-805UB 802.11a/b/g/n/ac USB 3.0 Wi-Fi Adapter ($22.94 @ Amazon)
Monitor: Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor ($142.58 @ Amazon)
Total: $862.27
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-15 20:54 EDT-0400

I would go with the Samsung ssd, it's better. I've included a screen with 2ms response and large enough. Added a case with front usb 3.0. Put an internal WiFi adapter in there too, iirc they tend to be better than usb ones.

I also changed it all to Amazon.com,so you will only have to shell out a small amount for 2 day delivery rather than paying multiple shipping costs

All that's left is keyboard and mouse but they are down to preference if you want gaming versions. Left $40 in the budget to cover this and shipping.

Only thing I didn't include was the cpu fan, but you can get a nice quiet one for cheap later down the line...you might even find the stock cooler isn't too noisy.

For the building process...take your time is the best piece of advice I can give you, after reading up on everything in detail I was so excited to do my first build I did all sorts wrong and took twice as long haha!

 

[Woody1999]

That can't be an IPS monitor with a 2ms response time. As an artist, that should be his main priority.

Woody