Thinking about building a new PC

[drauz]

Let me start by saying I've never built a PC before. Questions I have is would all this work? Are there better options than these? Any other suggestions you may have. I still would need a case as well. Mostly for video games.



Intel Core i7-8700K Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.7 GHz (4.7 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 (300 Series) 95W Processor, Corsair Hydro Series H100i V2 Cooler

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3740654

WD Green 240GB PC SSD - SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5"/7mm Solid State Drive

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6ZP6R46456

WD Blue 1TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339

ASUS TUF Z370 Plus Gaming LGA 1151 (300 Series) Intel Z370 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813119037

ADATA XPG SPECTRIX D41 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000) Desktop Memory Model AX4U300038G16-DR41

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820215209

MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti DirectX 12 GTX 1070 TI ARMOR 8G 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137261

CORSAIR CX series CX550 550W ATX12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139202

[Methais]

Let me start by saying I've never built a PC before. Questions I have is would all this work? Are there better options than these? Any other suggestions you may have. I still would need a case as well.

https://secure.newegg.com/Wishlist/MyWishlistDetail?ID=28402409

Pretty sure we can't see your wishlist without logging into your account.

[drauz]

well then whats the point of a public wishlist!

[drauz]

ok edited first post with what was on the wishlist

[Taernath]

Get a big case with good airflow so you don't have to saw any speedholes in it

make sure your PSU has enough power for what you want:
https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator

RAM is super expensive right now, GPUs have evened out again

Apart from that it's a LEGO set for grown ups.

[drauz]

Get a big case with good airflow so you don't have to saw any speedholes in it

make sure your PSU has enough power for what you want:
https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator

RAM is super expensive right now, GPUs have evened out again

Apart from that it's a LEGO set for grown ups.

I think I did it right and it says:

https://i.imgur.com/0SCxIXW.png

So the 550W should be more than enough, I even put a large monitor in there.

[Taernath]

Are you planning on overclocking? If not, you could just get a 8700 and save ~$50, then put that toward a 1080 instead of a 1070ti. 1080's are really, really good.


I think I did it right and it says:

https://i.imgur.com/0SCxIXW.png

So the 550W should be more than enough, I even put a large monitor in there.

Yep! Everything looks good. I have a C70 case which I like quite a bit, but there are others out there.

[drauz]

Are you planning on overclocking? If not, you could just get a 8700 and save ~$50, then put that toward a 1080 instead of a 1070ti. 1080's are really, really good.



Yep! Everything looks good. I have a C70 case which I like quite a bit, but there are others out there.

I just went to a pre-built online store and thru everything in at new egg to see how much it would be, I really know next to nothing about the hardware stuff. All I know is that more expensive video cards tend to be the newer/better ones.

Also a no on the overclocking.

This way is roughly 3-400$ cheaper it seems and I've always wanted to try and build one myself.

[Whirlin]

Use PC Part picker... it'll analyze NewEgg and other sellers for better deals, and may run more compatibility checks.

[drauz]

Use PC Part picker... it'll analyze NewEgg and other sellers for better deals, and may run more compatibility checks.

Thanks for the link, really cut down the price. Looking at this now.

https://i.imgur.com/dbq6wxF.png

[Parkbandit]

I just upgraded my computer a couple months ago. I used PC Part Picker to make sure everything was compatible and then looked for the best price.

I was surprised that Amazon had most of the parts for the best price and ordered from them.

[Erous]

The RAM manufacturer is scary to me on this list and Zotac isn't the greatest for a video card. But you are saving money with going for the cheaper brands. Also, what's the reason for the 2TB HDD? Pricing of 1TB SSD is comparable with a 1TB HDD + the added SSD costs, give or take maybe 50 bucks. The question comes down to whether or not you want the lower performing HDD for whatever reason.

Knowing your budget, games and resolution will be helpful when deciding what to put together and why. Also having the reusable hardware is helpful...meaning, do you need a new keyboard and mouse or monitor. if you have a Windows 10 machine already, your license will carry over with your microsoft login.

Edited to be more clear.

[RichardCranium]

Pretty sure Backlash proved you can just drill holes in the casing to improve airflow.

[Taernath]

Pricing of 1TB SSD should be comparable to mechanical hard disks at this time.

I'm not sure if there's an SSD you're thinking of specifically, but 1TB is generally ~$200 vs. ~$50 for an HDD. Maybe you mean hybrids? They're cheaper but they're not really a midpoint between an SSD and an HDD and I doubt drauz would see any real improvement for what I'm assuming is a gaming pc.

I'd stick with a 250gb SSD for boot and an HDD or hybrid for storage.

[Whirlin]

I just upgraded my computer a couple months ago. I used PC Part Picker to make sure everything was compatible and then looked for the best price.
I was surprised that Amazon had most of the parts for the best price and ordered from them.
I'm with PB. I'm actually surprised that NewEgg has their own part picker now. I ended up ordering from both, and I think one of the manufacturer sites as well for deals. Every penny counts.


Build stuff:
So, Win10, you can find some subreddits to get Legit Win10 keys at relatively cheap, $10-$20 ish, depending on how risky you want to be.
The H100i, I have one as well. Truth be told, I regret it... I don't overclock enough to make water cooling worthwhile, it's nice and all, but kind of expensive.
HDDs, I've historically just reused my existing ones, and maybe bought only new SSD for OS. I'd slave older drives in Raid5 for speed and redundancy... since they'll likely fail sooner or later because they're old... and you can get a little speed out of reading in 5.
I'm not sure what a MINI video card is getting/losing you in terms of case dimensions, or tradeoff of performance/cooling... there's likely some tradeoff.
RAM... no idea who that manufacturer is, I'd consider someone a little more reputable.

If you went with a nice air cooler, perhaps a few case fans, (there's already thermal paste in the H100, but if you went with an air cooler, you'll need some thermal paste), and grabbed a less, but still legit Win10 key, your budget could afford a nicer GPU. As far as cases/etc... I didn't really evaluate.

[Erous]

I'm not sure if there's an SSD you're thinking of specifically, but 1TB is generally ~$200 vs. ~$50 for an HDD. Maybe you mean hybrids? They're cheaper but they're not really a midpoint between an SSD and an HDD and I doubt the average person sees any real improvement for most tasks.


You're right. My logic on pricing was way off. I think we can agree that having an SSD is mandatory for quality of life and load performance. What I wanted to say I think was that the cost of both may not be justifiable depending on what you wanna do with the space.

1TB Caviar Blue + Crucial 256GB SSD - ~$130
Crucial 1TB SSD - ~$200

[drauz]

My current PC is kinda a POS. It only has an SSD and I'm using an external hard drive for basically everything.

[drauz]

Can someone tell me what this means?

https://i.imgur.com/uN11qUr.png

[Velfi]

Can someone tell me what this means?

https://i.imgur.com/uN11qUr.png

M.2 is a style of SSD, and it's saying if you pop in a M.2 drive, then one of the SATA ports (used for normal SSD's) will not be functional as it's either/or.

[Seizer]

Can someone tell me what this means?

https://i.imgur.com/uN11qUr.png
Basically if you install an M2 drive into your M2 drive slots, it’s going to shut off a SATA port. Taking a guess I’d think it will be shutting off a SATA port that’s on the motherboard itself.

If you can provide the motherboard brand and model I can dig into it more.

[drauz]

Basically if you install an M2 drive into your M2 drive slots, it’s going to shut off a SATA port. Taking a guess I’d think it will be shutting off a SATA port that’s on the motherboard itself.

If you can provide the motherboard brand and model I can dig into it more.

Asus - TUF Z390-PLUS GAMING (WI-FI) ATX LGA1151 Motherboard

Would be using a Western Digital - Blue 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive & Western Digital - Gold 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard

[Velfi]

Asus - TUF Z390-PLUS GAMING (WI-FI) ATX LGA1151 Motherboard

Would be using a Western Digital - Blue 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive & Western Digital - Gold 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard

I'd imagine you should be fine as I would guess there are at least 4 SATA ports on the MB.


Intel® Z390 Chipset :
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)*2
1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)*3
6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray, *3

[Seizer]

This is straight from your manual.

When a device in SATA mode is installed on the M.2_1 socket, SATA_2 port cannot be used.
When a device is installed on the M.2_2 socket, SATA_5/6 port cannot be used.

Here’s a link to your mobo manual.
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/TUF-Z390-PLUS-GAMING-WI-FI/HelpDesk_Manual/

Found on page 28 to be exact. Has a nice picture of which SATA ports will be turned off.

[drauz]

I'd imagine you should be fine as I would guess there are at least 4 SATA ports on the MB.

This is the specs page:

https://i.imgur.com/yHCSWT7.png

[drauz]

This is straight from your manual.

When a device in SATA mode is installed on the M.2_1 socket, SATA_2 port cannot be used.
When a device is installed on the M.2_2 socket, SATA_5/6 port cannot be used.

Here’s a link to your mobo manual.
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/TUF-Z390-PLUS-GAMING-WI-FI/HelpDesk_Manual/

I still haven't bought this yet, I am still getting everything together. Kind of put it off for a while and coming back to this now, should be buying everything in the next month or two.

I also don't know a lot about this stuff.

[Velfi]

I still haven't bought this yet, I am still getting everything together. Kind of put it off for a while and coming back to this now, should be buying everything in the next month or two.

I also don't know a lot about this stuff.

With just those 2 drives you'll be fine, and you can still add an optical drive if you want.

[Seizer]

I still haven't bought this yet, I am still getting everything together. Kind of put it off for a while and coming back to this now, should be buying everything in the next month or two.

I also don't know a lot about this stuff.
All good that’s how you learn. Just like any major purchase research research research. If you have a Microcenter or Fry’s near you they are great stores with good customer service and support.