Review my ~$600 gaming build

[ravenbear]

Please review my ~$600 budget gaming build. Some of the pcpartpicker prices are wrong but I corrected them in my list below. I am waiting to buy a Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti (4gb) later this month (estimated $150) so keep that in mind. I am buying the tower and all hardware inside (no OS). I tried to get the lowest total price possible while keeping good brand names and all convenient features (quad core over dual, ssd over regular). Some notes follow after the part list.

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/JJyYd6

CPU
Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor
$179.38

Motherboard
Asus H110M-K Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
$58.98

Memory
G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory
$65.99

Storage
Samsung 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
$69.99

Case
Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case
$49.98 (+$10 rebate)

Power Supply
SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
$59.99 (+$10 rebate)

GPU (will buy later this month)
Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4gb Graphics Card
~$150

I picked i5 over i3 because I want the true quad core for some games like Dragon Age Inquisition that require it. Also I play a lot of online games like World of Warcraft which are processor heavy rather than GPU heavy. I run at 1680 x 1050 resolution.

I got 16gb of ram because it seemed like a good price. Will I notice the difference from 8gb?

Is 520w power supply enough for i5 6400 + GTX 1050 Ti? I will toss in 2 old Western Digital 640gb hard drives for extra storage so keep that in mind for power requirement.

I plan on keeping this pc for at least 5 years of daily use. I am okay with lowering settings as long as I can run 1680 x 1050 resolution.

I will be using Windows 7 Ultimate x64 edition which I already own.

 

[greens]

a 5 year investment at $600 is tough to agree with your build on.

It is a fine build, i can see what you're trying to do, it makes sense.

But 5 years? not a chance. You'll notice this build is lacking from day one.

I don't think you need to go spend $2000, but something closer to double your budget WOULD last you 5 years.

 

[GamesOn]

I wouldn't pair a 1050Ti with i5 and 16GB ram, for now 8GB ram is fine and i3 would be a decent partner for 1050Ti. If you are going for at least 1060 3GB/6GB, i5 would be my choice. In this budget you can't expect upcoming games to play on max settings at 1080p.

Get one i3, GTX 1060, 8GB ram, PSU is fine for even GTX 1060 any version, wheres HDD?, case fine but its not mid tower? I prefer mid tower, motherboard good.

If you have money, get a 1060 with i5.

 

[sadams04]

CPU - The i5-6500 has a much faster base clock, and turbo speed. This is a very worthwhile upgrade over the i5-6400.
MB - Fine, but you have no memory upgrade available without removing the memory already installed. Look toward the B150 chipset with four memory slots.
MEM - H110 / B150 / H170 are limited to DDR4-2133
SSD - Good choice. Also consider the Crucial MX300 or the Sandisk X400s.
PSU - Nice, but at that price range you can get into a Gold rated unit. A 450w unit is plenty for a GTX 1060 or "smaller". 550w for larger GPUs.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($197.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($73.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($36.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($67.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 640GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 640GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Windforce OC Video Card ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Case: DIYPC Solo-T1-R ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.97 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 450W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $670.78

 

[Ali Tauseef]

Agreed, I highly doubt the 1050ti will be future-proof, you should be going with the cheapest RX 470/GTX 1060 instead.

 

[ravenbear]

What I meant by that I would like it to last at least 5 years is that the parts are unlikely to break and that the hardware is still supported. For example my last build was in 2008 and it ran all new games at 1050p until 2014 when I couldn't run Dragon Age Inquisition due to lack of quad core processor. Soon after I couldn't run other games because my GPU did not support DirectX 12. I do not expect to run highest quality today and especially not in the future. I just want it to run at high fps even if it is medium/high settings today and low/medium in 5 years at 1050p.

Thanks for the info all and the build sadams04. I have 2 questions:

1) How good is the hyper threading on an i3 6100 compared to quad core? I want to play Dragon Age Inquisition which says it requires quad core. Also multiplayer games that stress CPU when lots of players are nearby. Can i3 6100 get me 60 fps at 1050p on medium/high settings today in these types of games?

2) I know GTX 1050/1050Ti aren't out yet, but based on released info can you tell me how much worse than 1060 3gb it might be? In games what kinds of specific settings would you have to reduce when using a weaker card such as in this comparison (anti aliasing, shadows, texture quality, lighting, etc)? Or is it just an across the board settings reduction?

If I can save the money maybe I should downgrade to the i3 ($85 less than i5 6500) and to 8gb ram as recommended above ($25 less than 16gb). If the only motherboard difference is 2 more ram slots I think it is maybe worth saving $15 and keeping the h110, or just getting the 16gb ram today. If I do a cheap build like this maybe http://pcpartpicker.com/product/4Vzv6h/seasonic-power-supply-s12ii430b 430w power supply is good enough too? Although it is Bronze not Gold

 

[Chugalug_]

An i3 with HT will recognize as quad core, and it can handle graphics cards up to a 1060 without a bottleneck for the most part.
The GTX 1050ti is going to be around GTX 960 level, you definitely want to go with a 1060 as mentioned above.
If you can spend the extra bit an i5 is going to get you significantly more performance, and will be futureproofed for a long time. Given your budget an AIO cooler is out of the question, go with a B150 board, i'll post a build in a sec.
Rating on power supplies doesn't really matter at all, it just has to be a quality unit.

 

[GraySilencer]

I would go with something like this for now. Rumor is the GTX 1050 won't be much better than the current GTX 950. The RX 470 has very good DirectX 12 and Vulcan support for future titles.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: *ASRock H170A-X1 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($76.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($36.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($67.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: *XFX Radeon RX 470 4GB HS Triple X Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: *Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($51.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: *SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $568.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-03 21:17 EDT-0400

 

[Chugalug_]

Kick up a bit more and get an i5, and I've subbed in a 1060 see this build.
i5
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($197.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($63.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($65.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ TRION 150 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($65.89 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Windforce OC Video Card ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($44.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $667.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-03 23:46 EDT-0400

i3 version
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($63.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($65.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ TRION 150 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($65.89 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Windforce OC Video Card ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($44.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $580.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-03 23:47 EDT-0400

 

[BadActor]

^+1.

Also, grab a couple of Corsair AF120 fans for the case, it only come with one.

 

[Chugalug_]

Yep, a twin pack of Corsair AF 120s costs about $23 from memory, great basic fans for the price.