Tech Help Computer Build Ideas / Personal Conflictions

[RipplyTiger151]

So, I plan to build a new PC come January. I'm kind of trying to get my head wrapped around what to get. I'm here to gather some opinions. End goal is to spend no more than roughly $1300 ($1500 is the absolute max if needed). I also wish to stream with really good FPS and get great frames in games (70+ would be amazing).

The first question Intel or AMD? I'm leaning towards getting the AMD Ryzen 5 1600X but also in the running is the i7 7700 or an i5 (unsure which one). Generally speaking, AMD is cheaper not to mention I've been an AMD guy since the start. I've made up my mind on which AMD chip. If I were to lean towards Intel, should I get the i5 or the i7?

Water cooling. I personally dread water cooling. I'm extremely nervous of leaks that will ruin my pc and I normally do not have the money to be able to buy PC parts (my great education history is paying for this PC). I have no plans on overclocking unless otherwise recommended, so is water cooling a preferred option or am I set with air (Hyper 212 EVO)?

Graphics card. I'm bouncing between the 1060 6GB and 1070 8GB. 1070 is more expensive but I won't have to worry about upgrading any time soon as it's pretty much top of the line in GPUs at the moment. I currently rock a 1050ti so a 1060 would be an immediate upgrade from my current GPU. So, 1060 or 1070, what would be more worth it?

Prebuilt or not. I've also been a firm believer of hand building a PC as it usually is cheaper. However, there are two benefits that are conflicting for me: 1) It is already built when it gets to me and 2) It's professionally built so typically looks great. Should I try fighting out a prebuilt or would I be better off building it myself (not at all nervous of doing it, just feel a prebuilt may look better than a build of mine).

With all these questions out of the way, here is my main idea that I have right now:
https://pcpartpicker.com/user/RipplyTiger151/saved/RL3m8d

Here is another idea (Intel based) that I have:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/pgWJvV

Any thoughts or opinions would be greating appreciated.

 

[Veridis]

Between AMD and Intel, that's a very easy question, AMD tends to ONLY be a valiable option if you do things that benefit from a higher amount of processing cores (Things like rendering and such) An I5/I7 will generally be more suitable for gaming, this is coming from a former AMD guy as well.

Can't agree with you more on the watercooling part, it's louder, clunkier, and more prone to breaking, stick to a good aircooler, if you've got some cash to spend, i know BeQuiet makes some of the best.

I think you could squeeze in an I7 and 1070 on a 1500 dollar budget if you hand build it.

Only main thing i recommend is DON'T CHEAP OUT ON THE POWER SUPPLY get something with atleast a bronze rating with a suitable wattage.

I think your second build would the best with a slightly smaller power supply (600/650 will be plenty, i run my GTX 970 SLI of an 850 watt with no issues) Also you can try finding a somewhat cheaper motherboard.. I doubt you'll be using SLI anytime soo.

Also, it seems you've forgotten a case in your build, or are you using your old one ?

Here's something i'd get: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/gHjbNN

(Got great experience with Seasonic PSU's, they're considered some of the best around.)

 

[Simon]

Building one yourself is what I would 100% advise. It's so easy and there are so many guides these days. It's extremely hard to do anything horribly "wrong". With how cases are set up now, cable management is a breeze if you just sit down and take your time with it.

I think for your budget range, the Ryzen is bang on the money. It's proving to be good so far and I haven't heard a single complaint. Definitely a good choice.

In terms of cooling, I'm with you there - I actually always ran stock CPU fans until about two years ago when I got a Hyper 212 as well. It definitely put the temps down a little bit. They were well within nice ranges always though. So yeah, skip the water cooling.

In terms of keeping within your budget and having a nice GPU - The 1070 is a good jump in performance from the 1060, but I don't think you'll regret the 1060. I actually modified your parts list a bit here..

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jDN2gL

The new motherboard has an m.2 drive on it. Shaving off a few bucks by doing a 1060 means you can do a nice Samsung 960 EVO M.2 SSD. Cough up another hundred and you've got a 500GB one. Want to load GTA in record time with the ability to dump 3200MB/s? Yeah, take advantage of this for sure. It's a feature I WISH I had access to on my outdated system.

I did 4x4GB as well for memory... Just always been someone who likes to fill every slot. Just the theory that there's more bandwidth available since every slot is filled and operational. Will it be a massive difference, meh. Just my preference. If you want to go to 32GB sometime in the near future, do 2x8 though. Although I do a ton of video editing and rarely see an issue with 16GB, so the average gamer/user shouldn't need that for now.

Also $10 more gets you a nice 750W gold rated EVGA Supernova PSU. Got one myself and can't recommend it enough!

Just to answer your one question regarding i5 vs i7 - People will tell you lots, but for gamers, there's never really a need for more than an i5. Most of the features offered by the i7 you will never use or take advantage of, therefore the price isn't necessarily justified, especially not for a build of your budget. It's certainly geared towards programmers and developers. Games and most applications will never take advantage of it properly.

 

[RipplyTiger151]

Between AMD and Intel, that's a very easy question, AMD tends to ONLY be a valiable option if you do things that benefit from a higher amount of processing cores (Things like rendering and such) An I5/I7 will generally be more suitable for gaming, this is coming from a former AMD guy as well.

Can't agree with you more on the watercooling part, it's louder, clunkier, and more prone to breaking, stick to a good aircooler, if you've got some cash to spend, i know BeQuiet makes some of the best.

I think you could squeeze in an I7 and 1070 on a 1500 dollar budget if you hand build it.

Only main thing i recommend is DON'T CHEAP OUT ON THE POWER SUPPLY get something with atleast a bronze rating with a suitable wattage.

I think your second build would the best with a slightly smaller power supply (600/650 will be plenty, i run my GTX 970 SLI of an 850 watt with no issues) Also you can try finding a somewhat cheaper motherboard.. I doubt you'll be using SLI anytime soo.

Also, it seems you've forgotten a case in your build, or are you using your old one ?

Thanks for the feedback. Here is the case I had lined up for the Intel build (was basing ideas off a video), open for ideas as well:

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carb...0f-20&linkId=90c7eb619aee30c89e9d0399782486dc

 

[Veridis]

Can't really say Corsair make great cases, if you can scrape by another 20, this one is a better buy https://www.amazon.com/NZXT-Tower-C...572238_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1513564105&sr=1-4

 

[RipplyTiger151]

Building one yourself is what I would 100% advise. It's so easy and there are so many guides these days. It's extremely hard to do anything horribly "wrong". With how cases are set up now, cable management is a breeze if you just sit down and take your time with it.

I think for your budget range, the Ryzen is bang on the money. It's proving to be good so far and I haven't heard a single complaint. Definitely a good choice.

In terms of cooling, I'm with you there - I actually always ran stock CPU fans until about two years ago when I got a Hyper 212 as well. It definitely put the temps down a little bit. They were well within nice ranges always though. So yeah, skip the water cooling.

In terms of keeping within your budget and having a nice GPU - The 1070 is a good jump in performance from the 1060, but I don't think you'll regret the 1060. I actually modified your parts list a bit here..

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jDN2gL

The new motherboard has an m.2 drive on it. Shaving off a few bucks by doing a 1060 means you can do a nice Samsung 960 EVO M.2 SSD. Cough up another hundred and you've got a 500GB one. Want to load GTA in record time with the ability to dump 3200MB/s? Yeah, take advantage of this for sure. It's a feature I WISH I had access to on my outdated system.

I did 4x4GB as well for memory... Just always been someone who likes to fill every slot. Just the theory that there's more bandwidth available since every slot is filled and operational. Will it be a massive difference, meh. Just my preference. If you want to go to 32GB sometime in the near future, do 2x8 though. Although I do a ton of video editing and rarely see an issue with 16GB, so the average gamer/user shouldn't need that for now.

Also $10 more gets you a nice 750W gold rated EVGA Supernova PSU. Got one myself and can't recommend it enough!

Just to answer your one question regarding i5 vs i7 - People will tell you lots, but for gamers, there's never really a need for more than an i5. Most of the features offered by the i7 you will never use or take advantage of, therefore the price isn't necessarily justified, especially not for a build of your budget. It's certainly geared towards programmers and developers. Games and most applications will never take advantage of it properly.

Yea, I think I've made up my mind now on building it.

Thanks for the adjustments on the part list. I just kind of got news of the M.2 SSDs and I find it really neat so definitely wouldn't mind one of those in combo with my 250 GB Samsung 850 EVO.

In regards to the ram, interesting idea. I don't have any plans on going up to 32 because as you said, it's not really necessary.

A better power supply doesn't hurt so thanks for that.

Finally in terms of the CPU, I was kind of getting that vibe from what I've read up on the i5. So if I go with Intel, might run me cheaper to go with that.

 

[RipplyTiger151]

Can't really say Corsair make great cases, if you can scrape by another 20, this one is a better buy https://www.amazon.com/NZXT-Tower-C...572238_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1513564105&sr=1-4

Definitely will go with that one. I like it.

 

[Simon]

Yea, I think I've made up my mind now on building it.

Thanks for the adjustments on the part list. I just kind of got news of the M.2 SSDs and I find it really neat so definitely wouldn't mind one of those in combo with my 250 GB Samsung 850 EVO.

In regards to the ram, interesting idea. I don't have any plans on going up to 32 because as you said, it's not really necessary.

A better power supply doesn't hurt so thanks for that.

Finally in terms of the CPU, I was kind of getting that vibe from what I've read up on the i5. So if I go with Intel, might run me cheaper to go with that.

As much as I love Intel products and have stood behind them for years, the Ryzen is just too good for what it is, especially at the price. I was just talking to a buddy of mine who bought one for a high end video editing rig, and it's rock solid. Definitely a big sway in my thoughts for whenever I get a rig upgrade (when the broke student life isn't hitting me so hard).

 

[RipplyTiger151]

So with PC Part Picker restrictions, I will physically list what I plan on getting for my new build (fingers crossed this stuff is in stock when I get my money, if not I will find alternatives):

Motherboard: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06X416NJ1/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

CPU: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XNRQHG4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

GPU: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JHQT1SE/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

RAM: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EI5Z2T6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

SSD (in addition to the 850 EVO I already have): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LYFKX41/ref=ox_sc_act_title_12?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Power Supply: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IKDETOW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_13?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Case: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NGMIBXC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

After some research, I decided to hold off on getting the 1600X Ryzen and a third party cooler. If anything, I would've wanted to go with the Hyper 212 EVO but they do not have AM4 compatibility for it yet and there is no guarantee Cooler Master will be instock with their compatibility kits when I go to build my my pc. Not to mention the Wraith CPU coolers that AMD has now are actually really good apparently and can handle overclocking pretty well. This decision is cheaper and probably easier in the end.

Here are some other peripherals that I will be getting (in addition to my new Chroma Blackwidow V2 and Chroma Naga from Razer):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SAYCXWG/ref=ox_sc_act_title_8?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N1YPXW2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_10?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J5OTVTC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_9?smid=A20URS5C6N74XS&psc=1

 

[Simon]

Looks good overall to me. Takes advantage of good technology and more than futureproofed. My only thing is still filling all the RAM slots, but that's a preference thing - if you think you'll go 32GB not far down the road, stick with what you've got.

 

[RipplyTiger151]

Looks good overall to me. Takes advantage of good technology and more than futureproofed. My only thing is still filling all the RAM slots, but that's a preference thing - if you think you'll go 32GB not far down the road, stick with what you've got.

I did some Googling. I think there may be a time later down the road that I upgrade to 32 but it won't be anytime soon. Not to mention from most of the things I've seen out there, the two sticks brings better dependability not to mention something about Ryzen running on dual channels anyways. But like you said, it's really personal preference. I'll stick with my 2 8 GB sticks.