[SOLVED] looking for first build advice!

[iyle]

hello, me and my roommate are building our first desktop computer and we would like some help figuring out the best bang for our buck as well as some compatibility questions!

first off, we really like this little pink case but we are a little worried there won't be enough airflow / space for the components we have picked out. we loosely based the build off of the 1k spring 2019 best voted build from here.

another couple of questions, sorry these are so basic!

• do we need to get a bluetooth / wifi chip or will those be included in the motherboard / cpu?
• this computer will be mainly used for 3d modeling on blender and game dev as well as some gaming, are the components we picked powerful enough for these tasks?
• i understand that it's generally a good idea to get extra wattage in the psu, is 650w too much overkill for future upgrades, should we save some money there to get a better gpu?
• is the building process as intimidating as it seems, are there specific things we should be more delicate with?

we already have a windows 7 os, a screen, a keyboard and a mouse.

our budget is 1k but we would really prefer to spend closer to ~800 USD.

here is the link to the build:
our build !

thanks so much for helping out!

(just read the stickied how to ask for build advice, sorry! here is the survey.)

Approximate Purchase Date: the closer the better
Budget Range: 800-1k USD after shipping
System Usage from Most to Least Important: 3d modeling in software such as blender, gaming, game dev in general, unity, video watching
Are you buying a monitor: no
Do you need to buy OS: no
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: don't really have a pref!
Location: nyc
Parts Preferences: no pref
Overclocking: no
SLI or Crossfire: no? not quite sure what this is
Your Monitor Resolution: 1920 x 1080 or higher

 

[helper800]

It looks good however there are a couple things you can do to optimize a little more such as this:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($129.20 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: HP EX950 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2070 8 GB Video Card ($459.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Apevia X-Infinity ATXB6KLW-BK/420 ATX Mid Tower Case ($65.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1035.13
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-09-06 22:06 EDT-0400

or this:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($129.20 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO WIFI Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: HP EX950 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB MINI Video Card ($398.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Silverstone SG13 Mini ITX Tower Case ($57.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1011.14
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-09-06 22:21 EDT-0400

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

well to answer that question about SLI and Crossfire, that is simply the process of running more than one graphics card in tandem with one another.

SLI is for NVIDIA, and Crossfire is for AMD.
AMD doesn't require the GPU to be the same but SLI requires both cards (or more) to be the same, which means you cannot run a 1080 with a 1070 or a 1070 with a 980 Ti, etc etc. they would both have to be 1080's or 1070's etc etc.

I would highly suggest upgrading to Windows 10 from within Windows 7 after you activate it with the key since Windows 7 is more or less not supported anymore and is old by today's standards and will soon be completely left in the dust like XP.

As for building a PC being anything difficult or technical that is not true.
Everything has it's place, and all connectors are more or less unique making so that you can't plug the wrong thing into the wrong place.

Also everything is labeled accordingly for what it is on the motherboard itself.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth only come built into the motherboard if the motherboard model has that and is usually labeled with the Wi-Fi or AC moniker along with the model name.

CPU's don't have such things built into them. While Intel or AMD could do such a thing, it wouldn't be practical for a plethora of reasons.

anywho, here is my adjustments to your build based on your needs for it.

Here is the option that costs less than 1K


PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($129.20 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO WIFI Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($94.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 580 8 GB PULSE Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone SG13 Mini ITX Tower Case ($57.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Cooler Master MasterFan Pro 140 Air Pressure 82.2 CFM 140 mm Fan ($14.57 @ OutletPC)
Total: $821.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-09-06 22:21 EDT-0400


And here is the option that costs basically 1K because of the upgraded GPU



PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($129.20 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO WIFI Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($94.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB OC Video Card ($329.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone SG13 Mini ITX Tower Case ($57.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Cooler Master MasterFan Pro 140 Air Pressure 82.2 CFM 140 mm Fan ($14.57 @ OutletPC)
Total: $971.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-09-06 22:22 EDT-0400



And here is the option that costs a little more than 1K because of the 2060 SUPER



PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($129.20 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO WIFI Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($94.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card ($399.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Silverstone SG13 Mini ITX Tower Case ($57.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Cooler Master MasterFan Pro 140 Air Pressure 82.2 CFM 140 mm Fan ($14.57 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1041.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-09-06 22:23 EDT-0400


And now for my reasoning behind some of the changes.

You don't need an aftermarket cooler. The one that comes with the R5 2600 is just fine.

I upgraded the RAM to 32GB because of the type of work loads you plan to be putting on the system. Especially with something like Blender and 3D modeling applications, the extra RAM will help you out.

I opted for a single 1TB NVME drive for all your storage and OS needs and since it's M.2, you can just buy another 3.5" SATA HDD down the road for mass storage of files if you needed it but the 1TB SSD should suffice for now, and with the extra speeds from it, you should have no problems with dealing with large files in things like Blender.

Added a 14mm case fan to go in the front of the case because the case you have chosen does not come with a fan.

Other than that I just created three different builds with three different GPU's and kept the other parts the same.

Keep in mind that my builds do not have selected parts that include mail in rebates (I purposefully choose to uncheck mark that option because those don't do you any good up front when purchasing, and usually there's an option that costs retail what the rebate would make it cost)

Also keep in mind that you have to pay taxes on all of this.

 

[helper800]

Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($94.99 @ Amazon)

I left this out and opted for the much faster and significantly higher endurance HP 950x because of the workload. Is that workload really going to benefit from another 16 GB of RAM though (serious question)?

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

yes. the more you do with the graphics, the higher the resolution, the more complex it is, the more memory that gets used up and the more RAM you should have.

Have a read.
https://www.blenderguru.com/articles/the-ultimate-guide-to-buying-a-computer-for-blender


Also, you can buy whatever storage you want, I was just trying to give you something that was a significantly better option compared to the 500GB SSD with 1TB HDD for storage that would fit nicely within the budget.

Also, the storage speed isn't all that important, but the SSD will have a lot lower failure rate than an HDD, so if you want to go with the other SSD you mentioned just for stability and longevity sake, then be my guest, otherwise a large capacity 2.5" SSD that costs less would be just fine.

But since the 660p is perfectly priced for capacity and the fact that it ends up being an NVME drive that is much faster than a 2.5" drive, that is why I opted for it.

 

[helper800]

Also, you can buy whatever storage you want, I was just trying to give you something that was a significantly better option compared to the 500GB SSD with 1TB HDD for storage that would fit nicely within the budget.

I am not the op by the way, and thanks for the info.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

I am not the op by the way, and thanks for the info.

ah, my bad LOL. I ended up editing my post to include some extra info about the storage in case you were interested.

 

[helper800]

yes. the more you do with the graphics, the higher the resolution, the more complex it is, the more memory that gets used up and the more RAM you should have.

Have a read.
https://www.blenderguru.com/articles/the-ultimate-guide-to-buying-a-computer-for-blender

This is really old and seemingly outdated information. Also within the article it says; "You can only go as far as your RAM. So if you're a sim junkie or you plan to use lots of textures and render on the CPU instead of GPU, then load up on the RAM." This emboldened line seems to imply that RAM is not as much a factor if you render on the GPU which the op would always be doing because its faster and more efficient.

 

[King Dranzer]

Here is the list:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($194.79 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($72.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Intel 660p 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB Video Card ($499.99 @ Best Buy)
Case: Corsair 270R ATX Mid Tower Case ($74.99 @ Corsair)
Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1042.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-09-06 23:46 EDT-0400

Best possible build around that budget. Completely worth that extra $42 as you are getting big pump in performance specially if gaming at 1080p. If you still have purchase monitor and decide to go 1440p then swap that R5 3600 with R5 2600 and save few bucks, only if you plan on going 1440p. At 1080p R5 3600 is decent improvement over R5 2600.