Finally Building a PC

[Arroz con Panther]

So, I've always been a console guy, but after I moved into my new house, I had the urge to buy/build my own computer.  I mean, you can't have an office with just a laptop, right?  I went to school for computer science and I work as a developer for a small telecommunications company, so I figured my rig would double not only as a gaming PC, but as a good place for me to brush up on my programming.  With the help of my co-workers and a budget of around $1,000, this is what we came up with.

Now, I went to the game last night and got a little too drunk, but getting all of this in the mail today sure helped!

There are a few things I'm still waiting on.  I'll only have one monitor for the time being and the RAM won't get in until Monday.  I've added a keyboard and mouse to my Christmas list (I'll borrow one from work until then.)  Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to build this until after Thanksgiving break as I'll be traveling next week, but man am I excited!

So, I made this post to 1) gloat because I'm ecstatic right now and 2) start a discussion with any PC guys out there.  What are some essential things I should get?  I'm not really looking to spend any more money on the rig itself right now, but any software, games, etc. advice that I can get would be awesome.  I know about Steam, but other then that, it's been years since I've actually gamed on the computer.  Honestly, I'll still use my Xbox a lot, but this guy comes in handy while my wife is watching the TV....I now have an excuse to not watch Real Housewives :)

 

 

[CarolinaCoolin]

Good specs. Personally I would have went with a nvidia but that's just me. The SSD is going to go along way so good pick up on that. 

 

As for other things depends if you play mmo's or not. If you do pick up a razr naga and a big mouse pad. H1z1, overwatch, wow, rocket league, dota2, LoL, cs:go. Those are some of the most popular games out right now so look into those. 

[Kevin Greene]

Weird to see this thread as I have my case cracked open right now because I was getting video driver errors and then bsods. Ran memtest and was getting errors and traced it to one of my sticks of DDR failing. Similar specs,  i5, Cooler Master case and CPU cooler. Need to upgrade to the SSDs though. Don't laugh at all the dust, haven't cracked the case open in forever. 

 

[Zaximus]

I was looking today at building a new one.  I have a GTX 980 so I'll probably keep using that in the new build but I'm looking to spend around 1300 or so, but holding back from trigger still.

[Arroz con Panther]

3 hours ago, CarolinaCoolin said:

Good specs. Personally I would have went with a nvidia but that's just me. The SSD is going to go along way so good pick up on that. 

 

As for other things depends if you play mmo's or not. If you do pick up a razr naga and a big mouse pad. H1z1, overwatch, wow, rocket league, dota2, LoL, cs:go. Those are some of the most popular games out right now so look into those. 

Yea, I'm not sure what games I'm going to play yet.  Coming from consoles, I don't have much experience with MMOs. I tried wow but it just doesn't appeal to me..yet.  That's what all of my co-workers play right now.  I was thinking of picking up final fantasy 14; I think it might appeal to me more than wow.  I love rocket league, so I'll definitely get that.  My initial thinking was that I would get into some RPGs or other single player games (loved Witcher 3 and skyrim on xbox) that are graphic intense.

Appreciate the mouse recommendation; I'll look into it as I browse around.

 

[Arroz con Panther]

1 hour ago, Zaximus said:

I was looking today at building a new one.  I have a GTX 980 so I'll probably keep using that in the new build but I'm looking to spend around 1300 or so, but holding back from trigger still.

Since you already have a 980, I'm wondering what you're splurging on with a budget of $1300.  The GPU was definitely the most expensive part of my build.  Mind if I ask what you were thinking of spending it on?

[Zaximus]

49 minutes ago, Arroz con Panther said:

Since you already have a 980, I'm wondering what you're splurging on with a budget of $1300.  The GPU was definitely the most expensive part of my build.  Mind if I ask what you were thinking of spending it on?

Well it would be lower, I was thinking 1300-1500 before just using that GPU.   So I'd probably spend 300ish on CPU and try to find 16gb of fast ram and the other normal stuff.  I'd kind of like to get a new monitor too but not sure.

[CarolinaCoolin]

2 hours ago, Arroz con Panther said:

Yea, I'm not sure what games I'm going to play yet.  Coming from consoles, I don't have much experience with MMOs. I tried wow but it just doesn't appeal to me..yet.  That's what all of my co-workers play right now.  I was thinking of picking up final fantasy 14; I think it might appeal to me more than wow.  I love rocket league, so I'll definitely get that.  My initial thinking was that I would get into some RPGs or other single player games (loved Witcher 3 and skyrim on xbox) that are graphic intense.

Appreciate the mouse recommendation; I'll look into it as I browse around.

 

 Yeah i mean your comp can handle a lot so there's probably not much that you can't play on ultra. Fallout or skyrim remastered are probably perfect if you want the rpg but definitely look into overwatch. It's a beautiful game and super addicting. I would only recommend that mouse if you are doing like wow or another mmo. You can find better mice without all the buttons that would better suit you. Legion(wow's new expansion) is amazing though. Literally all I play. 

[Darth Biscuit]

Building them now isn't quite as fun as it was back in the day when the processor wars were so hot and Computer Shopper was 2" thick every month...

Only thing I question on your setup is the WD hard disk...  I would have gone with Seagate or maybe Toshiba, WD's fail rate hasn't been great the last few years.  Hopefully it'll last you years...

Oh and more RAM... MORE RAM... :)  Not really, but we always stuffed ours with RAM here at work because of the kind of work we do.  Honestly I've never built one for home...  would be a fun project, but I don't really need one.

Now I work for a much larger company with an actual IT department and they just order $10k workstations for us if we need one... where's the fun in that???  Matter of fact I just got a new one last month and it's a fuging mongster... but still would have been more fun to build it myself.

[twylyght]

If overclocking is your thing, then I highly recommend:

In all seriousness, I don't know that I'd put a tremendous amount down until I get a better bead on when developers can start their work for applications around 3D XPoint.

[iamcline]

Overwatch, Rocket League, CS. The pool is so vast.

[Porn Shop Clerk]

Steam is having one of their event sales right now:

 

http://store.steampowered.com/

 

Should last until Monday. Another one will be around Christmas time. You can really load up a library of games you'll never play for dirt cheap in no time.

[Arroz con Panther]

So, this has gone poorly.  Almost to the point where I don't want to build again.  Here's a quick overview:

1. Finish my build only to get three beeps when I power it on indicating that my MOBO can't find any ram.
2. Tried different configurations with the ram (using different channel/ram configurations)...nothing
3. Look up my ram to find that it's not on the MOBO compatibility list
4. Okay, I'll return this ram and buy new ram.  So, I purchase a pair of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3200 sticks - 8GB
5. New ram gets in....3 beeps....fug!  Now, it's either the MOBO or CPU
6. I return the MOBO...it gets to the site yesterday.  They set it up today and it posts for them...lol great!
7. So, now it's either my CPU or something I have wasn't compatible with the MOBO
8. I get store credit from the site and order a little better board ( GIGABYTE GA-Z170XP-SLI )  I also ordered another CPU just to be on the safe side...I'm going to get this thing working damnit!  Plus, I figured I can just return the CPU.  I'd rather have it handy just in case.

I just placed the order today.  Hopefully, the parts get here by tomorrow or Thursday and then we'll know whether I'm just going to return everything I bought and buy a pre-built PC or if I'm going to breathe a huge sigh of relief.  Wish me luck!

[twylyght]

1 hour ago, Arroz con Panther said:

So, this has gone poorly.  Almost to the point where I don't want to build again.  Here's a quick overview:

1. Finish my build only to get three beeps when I power it on indicating that my MOBO can't find any ram.
2. Tried different configurations with the ram (using different channel/ram configurations)...nothing
3. Look up my ram to find that it's not on the MOBO compatibility list
4. Okay, I'll return this ram and buy new ram.  So, I purchase a pair of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3200 sticks - 8GB
5. New ram gets in....3 beeps....fug!  Now, it's either the MOBO or CPU
6. I return the MOBO...it gets to the site yesterday.  They set it up today and it posts for them...lol great!
7. So, now it's either my CPU or something I have wasn't compatible with the MOBO
8. I get store credit from the site and order a little better board ( GIGABYTE GA-Z170XP-SLI )  I also ordered another CPU just to be on the safe side...I'm going to get this thing working damnit!  Plus, I figured I can just return the CPU.  I'd rather have it handy just in case.

I just placed the order today.  Hopefully, the parts get here by tomorrow or Thursday and then we'll know whether I'm just going to return everything I bought and buy a pre-built PC or if I'm going to breathe a huge sigh of relief.  Wish me luck!

If you go to NewEgg, they'll give you a run-down of suggested parts:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128841