[SOLVED] This is my first attempt at building a PC. Need advice.

[NadeMagnet69]

This is my first time trying to build a PC and I'm nervous as hell. I think I can do it. I once installed some ram cards... Seriously though, I think I can handle it. Not paying out the nose for a prebuilt this time like the last three PC I've owned. Nor do I want to take all the parts to some local PC shop.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wKJCx6

I really like my antec case but I can get another one if I have to. But please disregard the video and sound card, and the Samsung SSD, from any pricing opinions, because I already own them. I just added them to the pcpartpicker list for any compatibility/advice issues. IE you want to stick what in where?! You can't/shouldn't do that, dummy!!!
Everything else except what I mentioned above and the i9 9900k is on the table. That's the best CPU I want to spring for this time around. I'd like to keep the budget around 1500 but I have some wiggle room.
Does anyone see any problems? How hard is it to set up the bios? The PC I'm on now has an ASRock Z77 Extreme4 MOBO and it's BIOS was simple to figure out the basics with. Am I forgetting anything? Like cords and whatnot?
Thanks in advance. This community has been a lot of help over the years. You guys are awesome.

 

[DSzymborski]

I gotta say, why a $500 PCIE SSD? This is a pointless purchase unless you have a very specific prosumer use-case. What are you using this machine for?

And why isn't the i9-9900k on the table, do you already have one? There's no real compelling reason to spend more money on an older platform and get a 9900k instead of a 10700k, unless you already have the thing.

 

[NadeMagnet69]

lol Why? Because it was 4AM and I had insomnia last night. After spending hours looking up SSD that's what I ended up with. Can't even remember why. I'm kinda loopy right now with only a few hours sleep. That's why I forgot to mention this will be a gaming PC. Before last night I didn;t even know what a M2 SSD was. SATA SSD was the last of my knowledge about them. What should I pick that is faster than the Samsung SSD and has 1 or more TB?
Isn't the I9 intel's latest? I bought my last PC in 2013 and suspect it'll be around that many years or more before I do this again. And the 9900k was the cheapest I9 I can afford. I can only see I7 10700k.

 

[DSzymborski]

lol Why? Because it was 4AM and I had insomnia last night. After spending hours looking up SSD that's what I ended up with. Can't even remember why. I'm kinda loopy right now with only a few hours sleep. That's why I forgot to mention this will be a gaming PC. Before last night I didn;t even know what a M2 SSD was. SATA SSD was the last of my knowledge about them. What should I pick that is faster than the Samsung SSD and has 1 or more TB?
Isn't the I9 intel's latest? I bought my last PC in 2013 and suspect it'll be around that many years or more before I do this again. And the 9900k was the cheapest I9 I can afford. I can only see I7 10700k.

The i9 is just the top of the product stack. The newest i7 is basically just an updated version of that i9.

The problem isn't that the Aorus SSD is too slow, but that it's far beyond the point where you'll see any real world benefit to the speed unless you have a very specialized use, such as high-end rendering that you're doing on a professional level on your home PC.

PCPartPicker Part List

Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $179.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-07-20 13:43 EDT-0400

Except for a number on a benchmark, if this is for gaming, you'll never notice a difference from the extra $300.

 

[g-unit1111]

The i9 is just the top of the product stack. The newest i7 is basically just an updated version of that i9.

The problem isn't that the Aorus SSD is too slow, but that it's far beyond the point where you'll see any real world benefit to the speed unless you have a very specialized use, such as high-end rendering that you're doing on a professional level on your home PC.

Yeah I agree, spending that kind of money on a drive is a bit redundant. Especially when you can get a 4th gen NVMe drive that gets better read / write performance for less money. This is what I would suggest:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($429.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H115i RGB PLATINUM 97 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard ($159.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4.0 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($199.98 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB BLACK GAMING Video Card ($534.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case ($98.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G3 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($134.88 @ Amazon)
Total: $1868.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-07-20 14:51 EDT-0400

 

[NadeMagnet69]

Why that PSU over the corsair? Isn't corsair more reliable than EVGA? Both are same price.

Why that cooler? Don't need RGB options and the aesthetics of this build isn't important to me. The last liquid cooler I had in this PC, the pump went out. Replaced it with a simple CM hyper 212 EVO which though big, works just fine. If whatever I get does crap out again, I'd like it to be as simple as just getting a new fan instead of a whole new cooler. It's less potential points of failure and it's also cheaper than most liquid cooler options. Is the one I picked not good enough to cool a gaming MOBO? It seems like it should be. I won't be overclocking. If not the one I picked, what is a good other non liquid cooler option?

I'd like to stick with intel and save a few bucks on the i7 10700k like was recommended above instead of the i9. The MOBO is really my last hang up on this build and it's making me want to throw up my hands and run around in circles crying. There is so many to choose from. So far all I've really done was things like google "best mid range atx intel 10th gen gaming motherboards" and it's hard to narrow down since so many lists have mini ATX or amd or whatnot. Since I'm deciding on just sticking with the Samsung SSD that I already have instead of a second for now, as well as saving a tad from the i7 instead of i9, I'll have a bit more to spend. What do you think of this MOBO?
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/pBYQzy/asrock-z490-taichi-atx-lga1200-motherboard-z490-taichi
Like I said I was happy with how long my last asrock has lasted.

New build list
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/qCjyhg

 

[DSzymborski]

There's no fast-and-hard brand rule for the good brands. Both Corsair and EVGA have PSUs that range from meh to awesome. Corsair has improved their budget offerings a lot over the last five years or so and I'd rate the lowest Corsairs now as better than the lowest EVGAs. But we're not playing at that part of the product stack!

EVGA had some truly excellent PSUs from their relationship with Super Flower, one of the top manufacturers of PSUs. You see new EVGAs come out a little lower because tariffs ended that relationship, at least for now, and the FSP ones aren't quite as high-end as the Super Flowers were (the one recommended is a Super Flower).

Nothing wrong with the Corsair recommended, though.

You will see a lot of RGB in high-end equipment because people really want it and not all parts from all manufacturers have an equivalent, less expensive non-RGB version. Kinda like how not everyone is interested in heated seats, but pretty much every luxury car is going to have heated seats, with no option to save money but not having the feature.

 

[NadeMagnet69]

lol Well I get why people do it. I'm just not interested in it for looks alone. One of the first things I did when I got the RTX 2600 GPU and the precision x1 software, was to turn off the green geforce light. Also have the blue antec case lights off. I just need one that is compatible, will do a decent enough job cooling stock clock, and is as cheap as possible. In that order.

I think I'll stick with corsair. The extra power will give me more upgrade options down the road and it's the same price.

 

[g-unit1111]

Why that PSU over the corsair? Isn't corsair more reliable than EVGA? Both are same price.

Both brands have a lot of good PSUs and a lot of bad ones as well, but for their high end ones you can't go wrong with either.

Why that cooler? Don't need RGB options and the aesthetics of this build isn't important to me. The last liquid cooler I had in this PC, the pump went out. Replaced it with a simple CM hyper 212 EVO which though big, works just fine. If whatever I get does crap out again, I'd like it to be as simple as just getting a new fan instead of a whole new cooler. It's less potential points of failure and it's also cheaper than most liquid cooler options. Is the one I picked not good enough to cool a gaming MOBO? It seems like it should be. I won't be overclocking. If not the one I picked, what is a good other non liquid cooler option?

AIOs have been improved a lot over the last few years. The thing though is, a Hyper 212 was a good cooler at the time but for the modern Intel CPUs, which suffer a great deal due to Intel's use of shoddy, poor quality TIM underneath the CPU lid, you need a lot more cooling than that. It's true that air is usually safer than water, but if you go that route, I would pick up something a bit more high end like a Noctua D15 or Cryorig H5.

I'd like to stick with intel and save a few bucks on the i7 10700k like was recommended above instead of the i9. The MOBO is really my last hang up on this build and it's making me want to throw up my hands and run around in circles crying.

You won't really save much money in the long run choosing Intel over AMD. If you go AMD you will have the option to upgrade to Ryzen 4th and 5th gen CPUs, where you won't get that flexibility going with an Intel system. The only upgrade path from there currently is the i9-10900K and that is not a good CPU.

Choosing a motherboard shouldn't be too difficult of a process. I generally prefer Gigabyte boards but MSI, Asus, and Asrock are all good choices as well.

There is so many to choose from. So far all I've really done was things like google "best mid range atx intel 10th gen gaming motherboards" and it's hard to narrow down since so many lists have mini ATX or amd or whatnot. Since I'm deciding on just sticking with the Samsung SSD that I already have instead of a second for now, as well as saving a tad from the i7 instead of i9, I'll have a bit more to spend. What do you think of this MOBO?
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/pBYQzy/asrock-z490-taichi-atx-lga1200-motherboard-z490-taichi

Yes that's a quality board there. You want to make sure it has multiple M2 slots and supports 4th gen drives. Getting something like a Corsair Force or Sabrent Rocket, that will be a better purchase than an expensive PCI-E drive.

Also, I will say that a sound card is completely unnecessary unless you have some really high end speakers and a subwoofer. But most of the time the built in audio on your motherboard will work just fine.

I think I'll stick with corsair. The extra power will give me more upgrade options down the road and it's the same price.

Not really. High end GPUs and CPUs are using less power these days, not more. The only way you'd need more power is if you're going for a 2080TI SLI setup or you upgrade to the i9-10900K, which requires a ridiculous amount of power and cooling in order to be even halfway functional. Do not buy the i9-10900K.

 

[NadeMagnet69]

lol A 2080ti sli setup would cost almost more than I spent on my first two cars back in the day.
I'm sure they are nice and all but that's not going to happen even if I was rich.

I'm going to toss in that sound card because I already have it, paid a lot it, for a sound card anyways, and it has a built in headphone amp that I use with my nice Sennheiser 598 headphones. I can't recommend those enough BTW. I can't tell you how many times I've had to actually think if was still wearing them even after marathon gaming sessions all evening. They're right at the low end of the audiophile spectrum and those types are spending like around 1200 bucks on their cans.

Think I'm almost ready to pull the plug and go with this
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/LFqPCL

 

[NadeMagnet69]

TLDR. I don't want to deal with an expired license again. lol Things were so much simpler back in the day when all you had to do was remember where you kept your windows cd.

OK final question and I feel like an idiot for asking it, but I'm confused on what exactly I should buy and what it all means exactly. So let me just tell you what I want, and you tell me what to do. I want the full retail version of windows 10 home 64bit on a usb. I want to be able to use that usb down the road if I make new changes to hardware, or try my hand at overclocking and fry things, or the MOBO crashes, or whatever. I get that you can only have it on one PC at a time but that's as much as I'm sure of. Not understanding exactly what's the difference between product keys and licensing and OEM. So if I buy it from here
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1542015-REG/microsoft_haj_00053_windows_10_home_fpp.html
How would I go about reinstalling it again in the event of a F up or new pc? Why does the option in that link for 64bit deselect the usb version for the OEM and also switch it to win pro? From what I've read win pro is more for businesses though I'm sure it work for me since that's what I'm using now. I'm just curious why it does that. Which leads me to why I'm asking this.

For little over a year now I've been ignoring the activate windows message at the lower right of my screen. The main things I use windows for still worked so it was low priority. What happened was I had win 7 on this pc when I bought it in 2013. When it started taking like literally 20-30 min to boot and then run like a snail afterwards, I took it to local pc repair shop who installed win 10 pro. I found the problem BTW not them and I paid them 150 Those idiots sent me home with all my data wiped and with win 10 when I was happy with 7 and it was still taking ages longer than it should to boot but it was at least faster than when I brought it in. Claimed they tested it too. PFFFFFFT! The problem was my storage old school spin up HD went bad while the windows install was on a ssd. Every time it tried to boot it tried to access the bad drive. I think becuase all the windows backup where there? I don't know, but with win 10 it did slightly speed up things so I was able to try and go look at pics on the drive. It dawned on me to simply just unplug it a low and behold it worked like normal again.
Then after I'm not sure how long I started getting the activation notice. Last year I was commuting from the central valley Cali to the bay area so it was 12 hour work days minimum and that's with good traffic. So I just let it slide and let it slide. Tried to fix it myself by DL programs to find my product key since the shop gave me nothing but my PC. Found the key and entered it and activation would always come up with an error. Tried my win 7 key but that wouldn't work. Finally called up Microsoft and they explained my license had expired I had to go back to the idiots to renew it. I didn't know they even could expire. After all that time I had no receipt for them and they wanted to recharge me. lol F that. So anyways, I DO NOT want to go through this crap again. Sorry BTW but I've been wanting to rant about it for a while now.

Thanks in advance. You guys have been a lot of help.

 

[DSzymborski]

Moving Windows 10 to a new PC is super easy.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

You'll have a digital license. Just make sure that it's associated with your Microsoft login to make your life better. It's really easy. You don't need anything to do a fresh install, either as it knows your hardware.

You limit your exposure to these issues by doing these things yourself. Chances are, the computer shop used a gray market key.