System build suggestions

[Catadj78]

Looking for a little help. I thought I researched everything prior to my starting this project but it appears that's not the case so I believe I need to rethink the whole thing.

My original intentions for pc use was light gaming. Work.

I purchased a refurbished Dell Optiplex 990 mid tower.

I5 2400
3 th hdd
16 gb ram

I also purchased the following
EVGA N1 650w PSU
250gb Samsung SSD
Wifi/bt pci
Colorful GTX 970 4gb ( the long one. 3 fans)
LG blue ray/cd/DVD rw

For monitors I chose the LG 29um58 29" ultra wide x3.

I also purchased 3 older Samsung 24" monitors that I'm not using. Bought used.

I can't fit the gpu in the Dell case. I relocated the drive bays but it still won't full seat in the pci slot because of the SATA connections and the ram holders.

My options I believe are to buy a smaller gpu and use this setup. Keep the other gpu for a future custom build.

Buy a cheaper gpu that is capable of pushing the 3 24" ( not gaming ) and use the Dell setup in my hobby room for YouTube videos etc. On a network.

Start a build and use the ssd, but/wifi, gpu and LG drive. This is where I have no idea how to proceed without some guidance.

With a build I want to be able to do anything and everything I can within reasonable budget restrictions of course.

I know I need a case. I'd like one that I can build on in the future as I go along. One that can hold the gpu I have. I don't need fancy. I'd like at least 2 drivebays, reasonable amount of front USB ports. I do like the clear sides to see what's inside. One that I can upgrade as I go.

Motherboard. I have zero idea here. To make it as reasonable as possible. Id like one that'd run the i5 chip to save money now. (I really don't believe I'd ever need anymore than this is capable of doing however I'd like that option to upgrade to the latest and greatest) I'd like to have as much ram as reasonably possible. I work with sometimes 20 windows open and a large work software operating.

I'd like to eventually put all the fancy water coolers, leds etc in the case but right now I'd just like to be able to use the system.

PSU. I'd rather just use the one I already have and upgrade later.

Ram, like to start off with 8gb or 16gb of what will work with the cpu and upgrade later when I upgrade the chip.

Am I missing something?

Thanks for any help in advance

 

[Aeacus]

To get you started, i have 2 different builds for you to consider.

Build #1: mATX cube.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($78.89 @ B&H)
Motherboard: MSI - Z270M MORTAR Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($129.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($126.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Thermaltake - Core V21 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $395.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-09 22:11 EDT-0400

Didn't add the components that you already have.

Few words.
CPU: Went with cheap and solid entry-level CPU that has 2 cores and 4 threads. It will get you by for time being. Further CPU upgrades include all Skylake and Kaby Lake CPUs, e.g i5-6600K, i5-7600K, i7-6700K or i7-7700K.

MoBo: Picked a Z270 chipset mATX MoBo for your build that comes in handy once you upgrade your system further. Z-series MoBos support K-series CPUs that you can OC and you can also use faster than 2400 Mhz RAM.
specs: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z270M-MORTAR.html#productFeature-section

RAM: Put in 2x 8GB 3000Mhz RAM to get you started. Since MoBo has 4 RAM slots, you can easily upgrade your RAM to 32GB when needed.

Case: To keep the PC's footprint small, picked the most customizable cube case i know. Core V21 has great support both for air cooling and rads as well. Run out of space inside your cube case? No problem, buy 2nd Core V21 and stack them for extra space and awesome looks.
specs: http://www.thermaltake.com/products-model.aspx?id=C_00002559

Only downside of this case is that it doesn't have 5.25" external bay and you can't use your ODD. That's why i composed 2nd build as well.


Build #2: standard ATX.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($78.89 @ B&H)
Motherboard: MSI - Z270 SLI PLUS ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($139.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($126.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair - 100R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $395.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-09 22:02 EDT-0400

Changes made compared to the build above
MoBo: MSI Z270M Mortar -> MSI Z270 SLI Plus
Case: Thermaltake Core V21 -> Corsair 100R

Reasons why
MoBo: mATX MoBo in a standard ATX case doesn't look quite right since you'd have extra free space around MoBo. So, picked a standard ATX MoBo for a bigger case.
specs: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z270-SLI-PLUS.html#productFeature-section

Case: Since you have an ODD, picked a case that has 2x 5.25" external bays. Corsair 100R isn't fancy looking but it will hold all your needed components.
specs: http://www.corsair.com/en-gb/carbide-series-100r-mid-tower-case

If you have the money, Corsair 450D offers far better support for rads and it's also a better looking case,
specs: http://www.corsair.com/en-gb/obsidian-series-450d-mid-tower-pc-case
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/9JvRsY/corsair-case-cc9011049ww

 

[Catadj78]

I am very impressed. I appreciate the obvious effort that went into that. That's awesome.

I am a complete green pea when it comes to this stuff, so forgive me ahead of time if I ask a dumb question.

Questions I have.

The motherboards you chose. Let's say I get heavy into this (likely, I'll build something big and then find something else to concentrate on) later on down the road am I able to upgrade the chip to whatever the latest chip is? Or would I have to upgrade the motherboard as well? Even though it my cost a lil more now I'd rather have a motherboard that I can build upon.

I liked the second case but I also thought about the thermaltake core p3 se red edition and mounting it on the wall.

Again thank you for your help, very very appreciated!

 

[Aeacus]

Currently, the latest Intel CPU family is Kaby Lake with LGA1151 CPU socket and 200 series chipset MoBos. Next in line from Intel would be Cannonlake family CPUs with 300 series chipset MoBos. At current date, it's unknown which CPU socket Cannonlake uses but most likely they won't work on current 100 and 200 series chipset MoBos.

At current date, Z270 chipset MoBo is the best foundation to any enthusiast PC build for gaming and working purposes.

Though, if you want to have the best then you'd need to look towards Skylake-X/Kaby Lake-X family workstation CPUs (core i7 and core i9) with LGA2066 socket X299 chipset MoBos. Be aware that dedicated workstation build's price is very steep. CPU alone can cost $2000.

Since choosing a case is completely a personal choice, go with the one that likes you the most.

 

[Catadj78]

Well after googling some of the cpus you listed I realize that I'm not getting that into it! Lol. I'm still trying to recover from building my shop/mancave which is where the desktop is going.

I will be ordering one of the mentioned motherboard, CPU and case in the next few days.

I am going to keep the Dell that I have. I need a card that will fit the computer that is capable of running 3 ultrawide monitors and light to no gaming.

Where I live shopping is limited so we have to travel an hour to the nearest smaller city.

The local Best Buy has the following cards

PNY - NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 2GB DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card - Black

XFX - Core Edition AMD Radeon R7 240 4GB DDR3 PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card

PNY - XLR8 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card - Black

PNY - GT 730 1GB DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card - Black

PNY - VERTO NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 1GB DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card - Black

Which one would you choose for what I want to do? The wife and I are driving that way now for other things but I'd like to pick one up for when my 3rd monitor arrives I can get my desk and mancave back cleaned up and organized so I can concentrate on the other parts that I need to order

 

[Aeacus]

Performance vise, GTX 1050 Ti is the best of the bunch. Next in line is R7 240. After that, it's the GT 730 and the weakest GPU is GT 710.
GTX 1050 Ti vs R7 240, comparison: http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1050-Ti-vs-AMD-R7-240/3649vsm8608
R7 240 vs GT 730, comparison: http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-R7-240-vs-Nvidia-GeForce-GT-730/m8608vsm12582
GT 730 vs GT 710, comparison: http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GeForce-GT-730-vs-Nvidia-GeForce-GT-710/m12582vsm21096

 

[Catadj78]

I'm wanting the cheapest option I have available that will run the 3 29" ultrawides.

Mostly used for many open windows, video editing and light gaming. Maybe like Sim City.

Thanks for your help

Would I be able to run 2 monitors off the gpu

 

[Aeacus]

For 3x 29" ultrawide monitors, 1080p i assume? Or are they 1440p? You'll need a GPU that can do 4K resolutions. The best is GTX 1080 Ti. Followed by GTX 1080 and GTX 1070. That also includes gaming on three monitors.
But for office work, GTX 1060 does the job. GTX 1050 Ti is entry level GPU and it should be able to run 3x 24" 1080p monitors.

Provided that you have 1080p monitors, if you add 2nd monitor to the build then GPU has to work twice as hard since it needs to output 2x 1920x1080 resolution = 3840x2160. With 3x 1080p monitors, GPU has to output 5760x3240. GTX 1000 series GPUs (1050, 1050 Ti, 1060, 1070, 1080, 1080 Ti) are capable outputting up to 7680×4320 @ 60Hz which = 4x 1080p monitors.

 

[Catadj78]

I went with the 1050.

I'm looking for build parts now using your list.

I travel for work. I just had surgery and hoping I get cleared next week to go back to work. I'll have all the parts waiting at the house for me when I'm done for the year with work around august.

I'm wanting to leave a working setup for the wife. More me but we are hoping to learn the video editing thing. I have several action cameras and an 11 month old. Like to get the videos edited.

Can I run 2 monitors off the 1050 and the other off the igp?

Again I appreciate the help

 

[Aeacus]

GTX 1050 should be able to run 2x 1080p monitors for office use (desktop work). Just don't plan on gaming on two monitors at once. Though, GTX 1050 and it's Ti counterpart are best used at 720p resolution.

As far as video editing goes, it all depends the resolution of the video itself. The higher the video resolution is, the more powerful system is needed for it. For example, i can edit videos on my old AMD build just fine (full specs in my sig), provided the video resolution is 640x480.

 

[Catadj78]

I do thank you for your help.

I got the 3 monitors going with the 1050ti. It does well with the normal activities however I youtubed 3 monitor gameplay and 4k video with 3 monitors. I unfortunately did not get the results id like but I got hooked and even though it may be something that I may eventually lose interest I have decided to up the game a lil bit.

So far I have decided on the following

Corsair Obsidian Series 750D Full Size
Toshiba 4Tb 3.5" 7200 Rpm HDD
Samsung 250gb SSD (already had)
Intel I7 7700k
Corsair Hydro H115i Liquid CPU Cooler

I ordered a 2tb Seagate SSHD to upgrade the hdd in my Lenova Edge 15.6 with the i7 6500k that has a 1 tb hdd. ( I just purchased this last week to replace my work laptop. WOW compared to my Samsung with windows 8 and I5)

Anyways, I plan on using the 1tb 2.5" hdd from the Lenova for an external hdd case.

I am now undecided on a few things since I deviated from what you suggested. Namely the following

Motherboard. I think I'd like to stay below $300. But if needed id spend a lil more here and less else where like memory, Id like to be able to support as much ram as possible for videos etc. (support for surround sound. I have 2 10" subwoofers that I have for the surround sound in my man cave room id like to share with the pc, actually like to share the entire surround sound with both the pc and the tv (not at the same time obviously) I know I initially stated light gaming however id like to try the PC gaming. Ive always done gaming on a playstation. I actually have zero PC games at the time though.
Power supply
RAM- at least 16gb for now

I have no idea as to what fans I need to buy for the case I picked out.
Id like a few lights but nothing extreme and something I can shut off. I have a large executive style desk and would like to maintain that look.

any other items you could suggest that I may need.

I am waiting to order the remainder of the parts at the same time. ( 0% interest on my credit card and I get 5% back in points )

Thanks for any help

 

[Catadj78]

as far as the motherboard id like the opportunity to run a 2nd gtx 980 if want in the future

 

[Aeacus]

MoBo
The MSI Z270 SLI Plus i suggested above is a solid MoBo which also has 2-way SLI support for your future plans of 2x GTX 980.
Though, if you want your MoBo to match your build theme, you can go with different MoBo. MSI and Asus are solid choices. Here is list of all Z270 chipset MoBos that support 2-way SLI,
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#s=30&l=2&c=119&sort=price

For example, MSI Z270 Gaming M5 is a great MoBo,
specs: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z270-GAMING-M5.html#productFeature-section
review: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/msi-z270-gaming-m5-intel-kaby-lake-atx-motherboard,4873.html
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/D9X2FT/msi-z270-gaming-m5-atx-lga1151-motherboard-z270-gaming-m5

RAM
As far as RAM goes, the Corsair Vengeance LPX series RAM sticks is my usual choice in builds i suggest since they are only 33.5mm tall and fit under any CPU air cooler, while also being affordable. Though, it doesn't matter much which RAM you go for, G.Skill, Crucial, Corsair, Kingston etc.
In my Skylake build, i have Kingston Savage RAM in use. Since Kingston Savage RAMs are really hard to get, i don't suggest those in the builds.

CPU cooler
About AIOs. You won't get any cooling performance increase if you use AIO instead of air cooler.

Pros of air cooler:
Less cost
Less noise
Less maintenance
No leakage risks
Doesn't take up case fan mounts

Pros of AIOs:
No RAM clearance issues
No CPU cooler clearance issues

As far as the looks of case internals go, that depends on a person. I prefer seeing big heatsink than AIO pump and liquid tubes.
Here's also further reading, where king of air coolers (NH-D15) is put against 5x high-end AIOs, including king of AIOs (x61 Kraken),
link: http://www.relaxedtech.com/reviews/noctua/nh-d15-versus-closed-loop-liquid-coolers/1

Case + fans
I've also ordered Corsair 750D case for my Haswell build but i went with Airflow Edition. While my Skylake build sits in Corsair 760T v2 black case.
750D Airflow specs: http://www.corsair.com/en-eu/obsidian-series-750d-airflow-edition-full-tower-atx-case
760T v2 black specs: http://www.corsair.com/en-eu/graphite-series-760t-full-tower-windowed-case

As far as fans for 750D goes, it supports:
Front: 2x 120/140mm
Top: 3x 120mm or 2x 140mm
Rear: 1x 120/140mm
Bottom: 2x 120mm

I'm planning to get Corsair ML series fans with blue LEDs for my Haswell build to create black & blue theme. My Skylake build already has 6x Corsair ML fans with red LEDs and i'm very pleased with the fans performance.
Corsair ML specs: http://www.corsair.com/en-eu/cooling/ml-series-fans

Though, you can't shut off Corsair ML fan LEDs without turning the fan itself off. If you want to turn off the LED, then you could go with NZXT AER RGB airflow fans, 120mm or 140mm. My Skylake build also has 3x NZXT AER140 RGB fans as top exhaust. Since LEDs are controlled by HUE+, i can shut off LEDs without turning the fan itself off (by setting the LED color "black").
AER RGB specs: https://www.nzxt.com/products/aer-rgb

PSU
Since the PSU is the most important component in the PC, i suggest you go for the best there is, in 700W range, to set you up for your GTX 980 2-way SLI. The best 750W PSU money can buy at current date is Seasonic PRIME 750 80+ Titanium.
specs: https://seasonic.com/product/prime-750-w-titanium/
review: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=481
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/NN648d/seasonic-prime-750w-80-titanium-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-ssr-750td

Seasonic is the oldest PSU OEM in the world (they have been in business for over 40 years) and the PRIME series is the best Seasonic offers. With PRIME 80+ Titanium series, you'll get the highest efficiency (94%), tightest voltage regulation (0.5%), longest hold-up time (30ms), lowest ripple noise (20mV) and longest warranty (12 years) there is. Fully modular cables and toggle-able Premium Hybrid fan control too.
My Skylake build is also powered by PRIME 80+ Titanium unit but mine is 650W. Oh, all semi- and fully-modular Seasonic PSUs are also compatible with CableMod SE-series custom sleeved power cables. To match my black & red theme, i replaced the stock black power cables with CableMod SE-series red power cables.

 

[Catadj78]

Man I sure do thank you for your help. I have not had the time to finish the ordering but hopefully will in the next few days. I will update

 

[Catadj78]

I7 770k 4.2ghz quad core
Cooler Master Liquid Pro 120
Asus Strix Z270-E Motherboard
Kingston HyperX Fury 32gb DDR4-2666
Samsung 840 Evo 250gb 2.5" SSD
Toshiba X300 4Tb 3.5" 7200RPM HDD
Colorful GTX 970 4GB 3 fan GPU
Corsair 100R Case
LG Blue-Ray/DVD/CD Writer
Microsoft Windows 10 64 bit- Full purchase
3 LG 29um58 ultrawide
Corsair CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Semi Modular

Logitech MK520 keyboard and mouse
Turtle Beach X12 headset
Logitech Z506 155W 5.1ch speakers
PCI-E 3.0 4 port PCI express 3.0 card
Corsair Dominator Airflow Platinum RGB LED memory fan cooling
Corsair Air Series AF120 LED
Thermaltake Commander FT Touch 5 Channel Single 5.25" bay cooling fan controller
128gb Kingston USB drive
SP Xdrive 128gb flash drive for IPhone
Zosi 8 Channel HD TVI 720p security system

Well all the above is ordered and on the way.

Custom build is going in office that is part of 40x40 building on another property that I purchased off the back side of the house property. Figured no need in custom PC, 60" 4k LG tv, wireless printers, etc etc etc etc and etc without security. The property I purchased behind my home was empty. I myself cut down trees, put up fencing and did foundation work myself. I erected the building by myself with the exception of the roof and pouring/finishing the concrete. Figured id done all of the above I can figure out how to build a PC. This will be my first ever PC build

I may change the case but found such a good deal on the one I got. I also liked it.
If I change the case I will change out the water cooling to a 240mm.

If I had not registered to this site and found your help I would have never realized there was a site as pcpartspicker.com.

Not taking into consideration the parts being used for the other system including the recent gtx 1045.

Total for all of the above including 3 29' ultrawide monitors is 2045.06

I could have saved myself another 1k at least if I had went this route to begin with, but I do have another useable system with 3 monitors.

thanks again for your help! It has been appreciated for sure!!!