Sure thing!

The Projector is the Optoma HD25-LV... For what it's worth, I didn't pay that price for mine. Not sure why that's $1800 now. I think I paid less than $700 brand new.

Screen - Elite Screens Spectrum 125-inch motorized

Speakers - Blue Octave... I had never heard of this brand. But I had a set of older sony speakers in there before and they were sounding tinny. So, I gave these a shot. I think I got them for around $100 for the set of 8, and they have been absolutely amazing. They sound great.

Subs - I don't have links to them. But they are both Sony subs. The one I got with a 5.1 set of speakers I bought a few years ago, and the other one is the exact same thing, I picked up at an estate sale for like $12. They're behind my seats.

Receiver - Sony STRDN-850 (current)... However, this arrived today. I bought this for 2 reasons. 1) We just had a pretty big storm roll through our area over the last couple of days. There was no lightning or thunder, but the power did surge a few times while I was trying to work from home in my theater, and at one point, the receiver shut down and wouldn't come back on. Then, after a while when it did, it wouldn't output video or audio. Audio has since randomly returned, but still not outputting video. 2) We recently spent a good bit of coin on our back yard, and have a nice area to entertain, which we plan to do more often. The new receiver will allow for multiple zones, and I'm planning on putting an outdoor theater out on our new patio

Gaming PC - Ryzen 5 1600x CPU, Asus Strix B350-f motherboard,Asus Strix GTX 1070, 16gb RAM built into a Rosewill 4u server chassis. I replaced the front intake fans with these to add some character. Single 250gb NVME SSD for OS, and single 525gb SATA SSD for game storage. 20tb of drives in a Windows Spanned Volume acting as a backup for the media server.

Media Server - Dell R710 with dual xeon E-5630 CPUs, 36gb RAM. Two 128gb SSDs in RAID 1 config for OS, then 6 (soon to be 8) 5TB Seagate drives in RAID 6 for data. 20tb of potential media storage.

The rack - I actually got this for free. I work in IT and a company I was consulting for had their entire IT staff just walk out one day, which is why I was there. Apparently, they had stockpiled the previous 5 years worth of the company's hardware refreshes in this storage room. One of the things we had to oversee was a massive e-cycling job to get rid of all those old PCs and things. They were going to pay this other company we subcontracted by the pound to haul it all away, so I talked to the boss and we both agreed that anything I took was going to ultimately save them money. So, I got like 8 SSDs, about 6 i7 CPUs, some RAM, 5 monitors, and then I took that roll-around rack, and two of my teammates took these brand new Dell 4-post racks.. I didn't have room for those giant things, so I let them take those. This has been great. The only drawback is the door is warped and won't close. So, it's currently taking up space in my basement.

As for what I like... It's hard for me to pick. The projector has an amazing picture once you get it dialed in. It has several options to adjust the image, whether it be keystoning, or image shifting of some kind. So, it's not hard to get it lined up. My only complaint is that it tends to move. This room is one of our basement rooms and is right underneath our kitchen and family room on the main floor. The projector is mounted right onto the joist in that floor/theater room cieling, so when people walk through the kitchen, it tends to bounce. I find myself having to readjust it about 2-3 times per month. An annoyance at most, and not at all a negative of the projector. What I love about the projector is what a stark difference it has made. Version 0.1 of this home theater, was a white sheet hung up with thumbtacks and about a 10-year old 720p projector I won at a company auction back in 2007-2008. So, that one was on it's last legs anyway. I'm pretty sure the bulb was dying. Add that to the brand new bright bulb in the Optoma, combined with the increase in resolution... Massive improvement.

I don't have a link to the chairs, we bought them from a dealer here in town. But if I HAD to pick a favorite item in that room, it's going to be the chairs. I spent a LOT more on them than I intended to furnish that room, and they're so big, I had to take the door to the room off and cut 2 studs out of the wall to get them in there (it was a narrow door). But, they have electric reclining, which is a pretty cool feature, and they lay waaaaaay back, almost completely horizontal. The headrests are also motorized to INCLINE. So when you ARE completely reclined, you don't have to manually hold your head up to see the screen... They're soft, and warm... They'll be in my house for a long time regardless if I have a home theater or not.

The subs add an element of immersion. I've had surround sound systems for years, but never have I had the space, time, money, and patience to 'architect' it from top to bottom like this before. So, the first time I felt the bass kick really good during a movie or game, I was pretty much hooked. Speaking of immersion, I added the dynamic backlighting behind the screen last summer. It's 2 Phillips' Hue LED strips. One running the length behind the top of the screen, the other behind the bottom. I use this free software called ScreenBloom to control the color of the backlight in real time. Since everything I do is via the gaming PC anyway, I just have it run there. The creator says it will work on all movies (which it does) and most games (though I haven't found a game it didn't work on yet). It basically takes a snapshot of your screen every X miliseconds and then generalizes the color and sets the hue to the closest matching color in it's range. You can set the refresh rate for it to fit your preference, and you can also set zones. So, if you have multiple Hue lights, you can assign that light to a specific section of the screen. It's a really cool piece of software. This adds a whole new level of immersion believe it or not.

While I love my lapdesk setup, it is not anywhere NEAR where I want it to be yet. I have searched high and low for a decent 'living room' lapdesk setup for gaming and while there ARE more and more options coming, the demand just isn't high enough for companies to dedicate resources to developing for it. So, over the last 18 months, I've bought and returned about 8 or 9 different lapdesks, and finally settled on this one from iSkelter. My criteria was, it had to have room for a keyboard, mouse, and a gamepad (all seen in the pics), and it had to fit across the arms of the chair. This lapdesk by itself was sufficient, but my gripe with it was having to completely get up out of the chair to put it down when I was watching a movie, and one of the dogs wanted to get up in my lap. I wanted something to swivel into place and out of the way depending on whether or not I needed it, and I didn't want to have to get up to put it 'away'. So, after some real hard thinking and strategic google-fu for pretty much a solid month, I stumbled across this company. They make electronic attachment brackets for police and military vehicles. I looked over their components catalog and liked what I saw. So, I emailed their sales and explained what I was trying to do. Within minutes, they responded, and asked for measurements of my chair, lapdesk, etc; then within 24 hours they got back to me with a parts list. The whole mount cost about $200. But, it has worked brilliantly. Like I said, this solution isn't QUITE done yet. The mount screws into the wood lapdesk right in the center, and it's wobbly. It will suffice for now, but I'm going to keep poking at that until I get it right.

I know I didn't quite answer what I liked or what my favorite part is. But, as I said earlier, it's hard for me to pic a favorite. The whole thing has been challenging to solve a host of problems one by one, but now that it's where it is, it's all so satisfying.

Feel free to ask if y'all have anymore questions.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor |-
CPU Cooler | *Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler | £84.99 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-G1.SNIPER Z97 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard | £128.83 @ Amazon UK
Memory | Kingston Savage 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory | £114.82 @ Amazon UK
Storage | Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | £51.99 @ Amazon UK
Storage | Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | £63.00 @ Amazon UK
Video Card | *Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card | £289.99 @ Amazon UK
Case | *Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case | £93.95 @ Amazon UK
Power Supply | *Corsair 860W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | £179.50 @ Amazon UK
Operating System | *Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) | £72.99 @ Amazon UK
Other| Logitech C920 HD Webcam| £48.00
Other| Blue Microphones 2070 Yeti Blackout Tri-Capsule USB Microphone| £110.00
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | £1238.06
| *Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-22 17:17 GMT+0000 |

Things I changed:

Processor cooler:

While the Corsair H100i is great (I own one myself), the NZXT Kraken X61 is just better in sound levels and performance. It's bigger as well and will not fit in all the cases.

Motherboard:

The Gaming 5 is extremely overpriced at amazon. I'd not recommend it as it does not offer any great features for that price.

The Gigabyte GA-G1.Sniper Z97 is a good alternative. Decent overclocking and great onboard audio configuration. If overclocking is more important the Asrock Z97 Extreme4 and the Asus Maximus VII Hero. The Extreme4 is cheaper as it doesn't offer a lot of the (unecessary?) features Asus offers.

If just overall features is what you want the Asus Z97-Pro(WiFi-ac).

RAM:

Changed to a similar priced RAM kit. It runs at the same speed, but this one has lower timings and still fit in your red/black theme.

SSD:

The M500 SSD is becoming outdated. It's already replaced by the MX100 series. They are a little more expensive, but use better chips and will give you better read/write speeds and overall endurance.

HDD:

The Black series from Western Digital are really overpriced and I don't recommend paying so much for it. For just 60% of the price of the black you can get a good HDD from Seagate.

Case:

While the 450D is not a bad case, there are plenty of better cases out there. Offering more features for a cheaper or similar price. The Corsair Spec-03 Red is a gamer focused case for a good price. It's sturdy and comes standard with 1 red led fan!

The Fractal Define R5 window just recently released, so it's not the cheapest. However it does offer a huge amount of features for the price. Sound dampening material on the inside of the panels is one! It's really modular as well!

The NZXT S340 is a great priced and slick looking case. It doesn't give you the option of using 5.25" / optical drives.

The Phanteks Enthoo Pro is regarded as the best case for the money. It offers the most features for it's price, which is still fairly high.

The NZXT H440 is another great looking case from NZXT, but a bit more expensive than the S340. It's still a great case though.

Power supply:

Similar story to the case. It's a great power supply, but fairly expensive. There is a non "i" version of the 860 which I'd recommend. It doesn't offer corsair link, but the software has not much of an value IMO. It's a lot cheaper this way.

The EVGA1000 P2 is an amazing power supply with a huge amount of wattage for a good price. Unfortunaly there is not 750w / 850w version of it.

The Seasonic SS760xp2 is almost identical to the Corsair AX760 for a very similar price.

You could save yourself some money by getting a 80+ Gold certified power supply. They only have a 2% lower efficiency.

The EVGA G2 850w is the one to go to. Great price for it's features, which semi-passive cooling is one of!

>So I wanted to get an Xbox one but I'm really conviced that PC is the way to go gaming wise so I did a bit of research and consulted with the guys at r/buildapcforme and this is where I am right now.

Right on, bud! I'm a bit biased, but I think you've made a good choice!

>Before I get down voted or criticized, I just want you to know that this is new for me and I would really like to start building e PC as soon as possible so any help/advice would be appreciated.

Downvote? Criticize? LOL, we're just happy to help you out!

$500 is totally doable.

First, I have a few quick questions though.

1. Are you a high school or college student?
   
   The reason I ask is that a lot of schools give out free or reduced cost copies of Windows to their students!
   
   
2. Do you think you'll be able to afford $90 in 3 months?
   
   Windows has a 90-day free evaluation trial that you can use. It's primarily so that people in charge of businesses can see if they want to upgrade to the new version of Windows, but on a tight-budget build like this, it allows you to pump that money into an awesome GPU and get Windows with Christmas money!
   
   $90 extra bucks goes a LONG way in terms of building a PC at this price point, and if you can hold off on actually Windows until later, it's something I'd recommend (unless you can get it legally for free!)
   
   
3. Do you have a MicroCenter nearby?
   
   Here's a list of their locations.
   
   Microcenter has AMAZING deals, particularly on CPUs and Motherboards (you can usually get a motherboard free or very cheap with the purchase of a CPU.)
   
   
4. Do you plan on overclocking?
   
   If you like overclocking, the G3258 is a GREAT pick. If not, then you'll probably want to go AMD.
   
   
5. Between the Enermax Ostrog, Rosewill Galaxy-03, NZXT Source 210 Elite, Cougar Solution, and DeepCool Tessaract, do you think any of these cases are right for you? That Thermaltake one looks a bit...not good to build in. If you have any cases that you see under about $50 or so, I'll be happy to take a look at them for you!
   
   Anyway, I'm off to pick parts/find deals to see what we can do for you!!
   
   PS - Here are some links to some comments I wrote a while back that describe the current PC hardware market and where we're at right now, IMHO.

So there's a few things with this.

Firstly, you're not going to be able to get a great gaming PC for $400. You'll be able to play stuff with it but don't come into this expecting super max graphics ;)

As far as your PC parts go, so long as you feel your HDD is OK, that's the only thing to keep for a new build. That being said, if you're currently using it as the main OS drive for your current PC, consider doing a clean OS install onto the drive when you build the new one, assuming you have any important things backed up etc. first.

CPU: Intel G4560 ($70)

GPU: RX 460 ($90)

Motherboard: ASRock B250M Pro4 ($74)

RAM: 8GB DDR4 ($55)

PSU: [Seasonic S12II 520W](https://www.amazon.com/Seasonic-S12II-520-BRONZE-SS-520GB /dp/B00390P1NO/) ($45)

Case: HAF 912 ($60)

Total Cost: $394

Just using mostly Amazon and Newegg for you. Keep an eye on pricing, I've quoted full prices yet these parts do have rebates on from time to time, which could save you more money :)

So my main choices for the parts was based like this. Firstly, you're not going to get a better CPU without spending another $50 onto the i3 7100. Because of the choice in CPU, the RX 460 is the best performance for the price. You could spend more onto a more powerful GPU but you're not going to see the benefit with that CPU. Motherboard is a modern board for the current Intel chipset, so you should be comfortably able to get upgrades for this for a good number of years to come. As part of that, I've given you a single 8GB stick of DDR4, leaving you plenty of free slots on the board to upgrade your RAM in the future. DO NOT USE YOUR OLD RAM. The PSU is powerful enough to be able to handle bigger CPU and GPU's if you want to do bigger upgrades to those in the future and the HAF 912 case gives you plenty of flexibility for size and design internally to cover that too.

All told, that's about as good as you're going to be able to do for $400.

First suggested upgrades would be to spend around $50 on a SSD to use as an OS boot drive to make the system a little bit more snappy. Next upgrade would be for a more powerful CPU some point down the line, followed by GPU.

• no need for the thermal paste, the cooler will come with it pre-applied
  
• Why 6000 series? That's a 3 year old CPU at this point. The i3-8100 is practically the same price and has twice as many cores?
  
• You're not using 1 expansion lot, but bought a full size ATX board, while say you want it to be small... Why? Look into mATX or ITX instead. Seems like it'd fit your use case better.
  
• I can't find any professional reviews for the 300W version of that PSU, and generally speaking, no one is making a PSU worth a damn under 450-500W right now. While you don't need the extra power, I'd recommend upgrading to a unit that's actually been reviewed, tested, and shown to be reliable. SeaSonic Focus and Focus Plus are good choices.
  
• That wifi adapter only supports N speeds, I'd recommend getting a newer AC network adapter if you have to use wireless. Gigabyte and Asus both make affordable WiFi options that support AC standards, have bluetooth as well, and come with relocatable antennas.
  
• For case, if you want something small with a lot of HDD expansion the SilverStone DS380 is pretty solid. Not very flashy, but solid. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IAELTAI
  
• OS really depends on everything you want to do. FreeNAS is a pretty popular choice these days for home file servers and is fairly user friendly for what most people need to do. Windows Server is nice if you want to run a domain network at home for some reason. UnRAID has some really nice virtualization and expansion options.
  
• UPS is a good idea for something you want on and stable all the time. I recommend looking into the Cyber Power PFC Sinewave lineup. Some of the best UPSes on the consumer market right now, and they have a few sizes depending on how much you want to plug into it, and how long you want it to run. If you do get a UPS, remember they need regular maintenance. Most people forget this. You'll need to replace the batteries inside it every 3-5 years.
  

No problem, good to see such a detailed response.

2x4 is going to be slightly faster than 1x8 because it utilises dual channel. I said that 1x8 is going to be better for expandability because going for 2x8 in the future will be faster than 4x4 (sounds unintuitive but it is because it is running in dual channel). Personally, I chose 16GB (2x8) because I'm interested in playing games such as PUBG which is known to struggle a bit with only 8GB due to a lack of optimisation, and my budget was a decent amount higher. Although, to be honest I don't think you will see a very big difference in terms of gaming performance (dual channel vs non-dual channel). If you think you will ever upgrade to 16GB, I would go with 1x8, otherwise 2x4 will do well. You can always upgrade to 4x4 in the future if you like. Sorry for not giving an easy solution but there is no correct answer here really. Feel free to take a look at some benchmarks (here and here) to see the difference. Basically any 2400MHz+ RAM with a 14 or 15 latency from a reputable brand will be fine.

I totally agree with the choice to go for 500GB.

That GPU will perform well, but is allegedly very loud. If that is something that will concern you then perhaps look elsewhere if you can, if not then it is a perfectly fine 1060 3GB. Just be conscious that it might really annoy you.

Case recommendations aren't my strong suit, I personally went with the NZXT S340, not because it was particularly great but because I couldn't find anything else that looked better in my opinion. You should try to find a case with good airflow, quality (and quantity) of fans, and a nice design. It also needs to be an ATX case that supports LGA1151 motherboards. I would recommend seeking additional advice from others on this subreddit.

Good choice on the PSU, looks fine to me.

Again monitors aren't something I know a whole lot about, you'll have to ask r/monitors about that one.

Always happy to help :)

Yeah, I tend to agree. But you can find gamer stuff that's not too bad. Laptops are big offenders like some of Asus' ROG but some is better than others. Something like the HP Omen isn't too bad (it would be better if you could make the back-light white). Some of Dell's stuff looks pretty professional, they just don't tend to reach the same high-end specs unless you get into Alienware or something. Lenovo makes some laptops with good gaming specs that aren't too bad. They do make a more stereotypical 'gaming' line as well though.

A big negative for most stuff is the garish red LEDs. Make it white or RGB so you can change it. IDK why red is the default color and not just a black/white (and thus grey and even aluminum) color scheme isn't the standard. I don't want my laptop to look like it goes in a rice burner from The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Now, I have a Sager laptop that's pretty clean looking and I use some Corsair stuff and they tend to keep it pretty clean looking as well. Say what you want about the RGB-fever, they have designs that aren't garish with crazy lines. Their more basic keyboards look pretty clean as well (Ducky and DasKeyboard are really good mechanical keyboard choices though), their mice aren't too bad either. Just set the RGBs to one color like white and not a strobing rainbow and you can keep a clean aesthetic

Not all "gaming" stuff is made equal though, that's for sure. Sometimes it is a chore and a little compromise to get good gaming hardware that doesn't look awful.

Hmm. Okay well my build is a bit different than that because its loud as hell, has a large gpu for gaming, and is a desktop build more than a home theater build.

If you want to build it yourself, check out r/buildapc.

If you want to do the least amount of research (which I don't recommend, because everyone should know what parts they are picking out and why), check out r/buildapcforme.


But a few tips:

Come up with a budget. Check out www.LogicalIncrements.com. It basically shows the best parts you can buy per price point.

Determine the amount of disk space you want, and allocate enough of a budget for the drives. This isn't an issue for light users, but some of us have 4+ TB of media. If you want to set up Sonarr or Plex, anticipate growth.

Determine the number of streams you want to be able to run. My i5-4690k (OC'd) can handle at least 3 streams at original quality (transcoding). That may be overkill for some people but I share my library with by siblings.

The sound issue is going to be a matter of the case and fans you use, and to a small extent, the quality of the disk drives. I can hear my drives going when the computer really warms up, but I kind of like the sound. It's a reminder of the crazy vast amounts of work it is really doing.

This is my case, and I highly recommend it. It's very quiet with the original fan, and the open structure of the paneling makes it an absolute joy to work in.

That being said, you can find the right parts, and put together an HTPC case which is much smaller and perfect for home theaters. But it is not easy putting together a good build in a small case. It requires a certain finesse.

That's all I can really recommend for now but shoot me any more specific questions if you've got them. I love building pc's and have been learning about it pretty steadily for many years now.

I've been helping people pick computer parts a lot lately, and here's my go-to current build (as in, where I feel price/performance is optimized)--it's usually around $1000, NOT including monitors. I built two for my company (minus the video card), and they are wonderful. If you want to compare: CPUs, GPUs.

>Case: Corsair 200R, $73

>http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-200R-Compact-CC-9011023-WW/dp/B009GXZ8MM/

>Cases cheaper than this price point will become flimsy, break, literally cut you, and otherwise fall apart over time. I like the way the 200R is, too--no LEDs, no weird shapes, and 2.5" drive slots.

-

>Motherboard: Asus Z97-A, $145

>http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Z97-A-DDR3-2600-Motherboards/dp/B00K2MAU5Q/

>This is a medium range motherboard with PWM case fan pins: an extremely quiet combo. It's more important than you think.

-

>CPU: i7-4790K, $336

>http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-4790K-Processor-Cache-BX80646I74790K/dp/B00KPRWAX8/

>While we're on CPUs: GHZ MEANS ALMOST NOTHING FOR PERFORMANCE. My 2Ghz i7 in my Mac outperforms my 4Ghz 2500K in my desktop. It's annoying that it's even mentioned in anything but overclocking guides.

-

>Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengeance (2x8GB), $130

>http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance-Desktop-Memory-CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10/dp/B006EWUO22/

>I find myself always using >8GB. Task Manager tells me I'm at 9GB with lots apps but no actual games open.

-

>Graphics Card: EVGA GTX 960, $210

>http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Dual-Link-Graphics-02G-P4-2966-KR/dp/B00SC6HAS4/

>The 960 was recently released, but the 750 and the 900 series are very powerful and power efficient, and EVGA makes great cards.

-

>PSU: Corsair CX 600W, $60

>http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Builder-Watt-EPS%C2%A0-CX600/dp/B0092ML0OC/

>I skimped on a PSU once (it was "Diablotek"). It took my motherboard and a stick of RAM with it when it died.

-

>SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB, $135

>http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U/

-

>OS: Windows 8.1 Full Version (not OEM), $100:

>http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-8-1-Full-Version/dp/B00EDSI7QO/

Current total: $1189 + tax, way over budget, so...


>The PSU can be replaced with a 500W EVGA for $17 less:

>http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-80PLUS-Certified-ATX12V-100-W1-0500-KR/dp/B00H33SFJU

-

>The SSD can be replaced by a 2TB 7200RPM drive, where you won't need a 2nd HDD but booting will be much slower, for $60 less:

>http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Deskstar-3-5-Inch-7200RPM-Internal/dp/B003GSLDRC/
(and get the sata3 monoprice cable)

-

>The GPU can be replaced by a GTX 750 Ti, for $65 less, but at a ~30% loss to graphics power (although it's still a great card):

>http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Superclock-Dual-Link-Graphics-02G-P4-3753-KR/dp/B00IDG3IDO

-

>The CPU can be a non-K version (at very little/no performance loss), for $36 less:

>http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Core-i7-4790-Processor-BX80646I74790/dp/B00J56YSLM

>The next step down in terms of CPU is an i5-4690, at ~30% less CPU power, for $80 less. I personally wouldn't go there.

This is at $1015 + tax--still over budget, but going much cheaper really starts to bite into your experiences (and if anyone here can recommend anything to save money, I welcome it).


As for monitors, if you're playing EVE, honestly I'd recommend a 2560x1440 monitor because spreadsheets. However, since those start around $300, my go-to cheaper monitors are the not-bad 22" 1080p ones that can be had for around $140.

>BenQ 24" flicker-free (for comfortable viewing) 1080p TN panel (for faster response times), $140:

>http://www.amazon.com/BenQ-GL2460HM-24-Inch-LED-Lit-Monitor/dp/B00IKDFL4O/

-

>Dell 22" 1080p IPS panel (for better colors and viewing angles), $134:

>http://www.amazon.com/Dell-CFGKT-IPS-LED-21-5-Inch-LED-lit-Monitor/dp/B009H0XQPU/

Source: I've done IT for the past few years, and done dozens of computer purchases/builds.

Notes: I don't buy AMD or ATI unless it's an extreme budget build. I don't buy off-brand because I've had parts break and then not have an RMA available; I've had good experience and RMA support with Corsair and EVGA. You don't really need a CD/DVD drive; you can install Windows from a USB key, but if you're unsure, CD/DVD drives are like $15. If you go with Intel/nVidia Maxwell, you won't really need a >500W PSU.

I don't like to skimp on computers much because, economically, if you're spending even 5-10% of your time waiting for your computer and you earn $10-25/hr, $1000 is paid for in somewhere between 2000-250 hours of use, yet the computer will last at least 3-5 years.

Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E250B/AM)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OAJ412U/?tag=pcpapi-20

Sentey XPP725-HS Xplus Power Supply 725 watts, Computer ATX Desktop Power Supply, 140mm Sleeve Bearing Fan, Quiet Fan, Sleeved Cables, 115/230 AC Power, SLI Ready
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SN6VN7W?psc=1

Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-02 Mid Tower Gaming Case
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I0MKMG2/ref=psdc_572238_t1_B00I6BJATW

Here's a screen shot of my 'system' page:

http://imgur.com/WDAIAEd

I have an NVidia GT 630, and my Motherboard is the Asus CM6330. My concerns are the following:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487077

Should I invest in this GTX970 right now, or wait for the GTX1070? I don't play that many intensive games, but when I do, I want to play them at decent quality. The GT630 is awful for that. Is it worth it to spend the $80 more? Is it probable that I'll even get the card right away in June, considering the number of people preordering and getting the card?

I'm sold on that SSD.

I'm sold on that mid tower. It looks sleek, and it seems to have enough ports for everything I need. Concern: is it big enough for the GTX970 / 1070? I'm almost certain it is, but would love confirmation.

I'm hesitant with the power supply. That power supply is on sale for $45 with Amazon Prime, from $100. In the event that I want to add more parts to my rig, it would be nice to have the extra wattage to be safe. But should I just go with an EVGA 500W 80+ PSU? Or is this one perfectly fine? Which is best for the case I provided?

----
Taken verbatim from my older post. Is the SuperNOVA 550 GS from EVGA good? And I'm wholly aware that I'm bottlenecking because of my CPU; however, I plan to upgrade it extremely soon after this first set of upgrades. So, basically, this will get my build set up to run pretty well right now, and then I'll get it to full potential soon. I'll definitely see a difference between a GT 630 w/o SSD and a GTX 1070 w/ SSD.

> My main purpose for it is really to do backups with a RAID setup and photo and other file storage.

RAID is not a backup solution. It is simply a way to utilize multiple disks to increase storage space or overall performance. You will still need some kind of backup, whether that is some kind of external USB drive like a WD Passport or using a cloud-based service like CrashPlan, that's up to you.

> I’m willing to spend about $300-$250 on the case and any components needed for it.

If you're planning on building your own server, $300 won't get you very far at all. Depending on the size you're looking for, the hard drives alone will cost more than that.

> If I wanted to “build my own” how are NAS cases usually sold?

Unfortunately there aren't a lot of NAS-centric cases around.

The SilverStone DS308 is kinda neat. It has 8 hot-swappable drive bays.

What a lot of people do is go with some sort of tower case and some hot-swap trays like these.

>Is it likely that I’ll need to buy a power supply, RAM, fans, or any other components for them?

Unless you already have an old PC laying around that you can use, then yes.

>If I built my own how hard is it to install software, etc. to run it?

Do you have experience installing an OS on a PC or laptop? I would recommend going with some flavor of Linux like Ubuntu Server. The installation process is very easy, especially if you're doing it on a brand new computer where you don't need to worry about overwriting anything important.

>What’s the minimum processor speed and memory I should aim for?

Unless you plan on doing things like Video Transcoding or running Virtual Machines, CPU speed and RAM aren't really that important. What's more important is the network hardware and your SATA controller. You want to make sure it has a good 1Gbps network card (Intel is preferred). You also want to make sure that it has SATA-III and that there are enough ports for each hard drive.

>Am I likely to get better performance by tailoring it to better specs (faster processor, more RAM) by building my own then buying a “diskless” setup?

Almost certainly. It will also be more flexible and able to do more things. It will also give you valuable knowledge and experience that you can use in the future.

>Even if I buy a "diskless" system am I going to need to buy an OS? Which one would be best?

No, you will not need any separate OS. These systems are basically little self-contained PCs with an ARM (or sometimes an x86) processor and some sort of Linux-based OS running on them. They're pretty much Plug 'n Play, just load them with some hard drives, set up networking and they're good to go.

> If I just wanted to buy one that’s completely setup, or a “diskless “ that I would add my own NAS HDs too what would you recommend?

Whatever is the least expensive, highest rated and has the features you require. The rest does not matter.

Ultimately what you decide to do depends on your goals. Do you want to learn about building and configuring a server? Then you might consider sourcing the parts and building something yourself. This will be the more expensive approach but it will also be more flexible, have much more performance than a pre-built solution and give you knowledge you can use in the future.

If you want something that Just Works™ then I would go with a prebuilt NAS like the DS216, it looks like a decent system and will give you the features you require.

Hope that helps!

TLDNR; Without having more info on what I described in the first paragraph. I'd say just buy a couple 10TB Easystores on sale ($180ea) and use your current SBCs and smaller server setups. After I wrote all of this I saw that you are from AUS(I think), so no clue if you can get close to $18 per TB in your area, but prices are coming down every year so sometimes better to just save $$$. It is super fun to think about a new and more powerful setup, plus buying it and putting it together, but as you can see I've done a lot of this thinking already. You are also probably feeling guilty that you have to make use of all your 2TBs, but lots of little HDDs do require more electricity to power up and cool. You need storage density and you cant get around that. Upgrade to 10TB and use the 2TB as a cold storage (backup). You are at a heck of a crossroads because the cost to go from SBCs to a "Proper" server plus buying storage isnt a cheap one. Currently there are limited stepping stones, but more powerful SBCs and Ryzen Embedded are here and on the way so wait if possible. Either way you go, you will spend more money and use up storage faster than you planned... The more powerful SBCs arent always cheap either, once you factor in cost of: memory card, power supply, case, possible heatsink/extra heat sinks, a fan, etc. Their lower price starts creeping into the middle range...


What brand, how many, and how long have the 2TBs been powered on for? It sounds like you are currently swapping out the 2TBs for others depending on what you want to watch and on which HDD it is? Do you have any projected storage numbers and what is your current and future budget? You mentioned that you have a small dedicated server? Is that another SBC or what is with that setup and how many sata ports? I'd forgo the transcoding ideas and nix buying any sort of new "Server" options. Focus on reusing what you have or going with a "Used" setup, so you can start saving that money for when 8TB or 10TB Easystores go on sale.

IMO for a true new build you'd want to price in ECC RAM, UPS, and I personally prefer a case that has hot swap access to HDDs. The Rosewill that meemo linked cant be beat for the price especially since it comes with 7 fans, but it requires extra steps to access the HDDs (internally only), which may be fine for you. There is Mediasonic (JBOD version only) that you could plug into your SBC, but that technically isnt hot swappable either, plus it is USB 3.1 to USB-C which isnt the worst but it isnt the best... I know you wanted to get away from SBCs, but if you disable transcoding there are some SBCs that use SATA to SATA connections that are very viable. Any SBC or standalone storage that uses USB is a potential risk, since USB can suffer connection issues when doing rebuilding, parity, and scrubbing maintenance (same if your power goes out, hence a need for UPS). Helios4 is a time restricted option, since they only open up orders once or twice a year (they are currently taking orders). *I saw a post saying that since the Helios4 is a 32bit processor, so it is limited to 16TB volumes. You get 2GB ECC + 4x SATA and I believe you can use any HDD size with that (double check tho), so 4 separate 10TB volumes (4x$180sale=$720+tax), not including parity... I'm not sure how the 32bit and the 16TB volume limit effect drive pooling... I gotta research more into that. I'm not familiar with the UnRaid, FreeNAS, or the other options that you mentioned, but OpenMediaVault4 has MergerFS drive pooling and Snapraid plugin, you could run 3x storage HDD and 1x parity or you could forgo parity for now. If you prefer Windows (You can also run omv4 on windows in a VM) there is Stablebit Drivepool (Not free) for pooling and then Snapraid (not completely novice friendly) for parity. Depending on the HDD type you could reuse the discarded Easystore enclosures and put your 2TB drives in there (still USB connection). If they are a different brand (non WD/HGST) I think you have to desolder something on the Easystore board? I lost the link on how to do that. You could also just keep the 2TB as cold storage backups, but that still carries a risk, but it's cheaper. You could also get 2nd Helios, but for about the same price you could use that money on a 10TB. That would replace 5x of your 2TB drives... Not too mention the extra electricity to power and cool 5x drives vs 1x drive... As you can see, storage density starts coming into play here, big time.
UPS https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00429N18S/
Mediasonic https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078YQHWYW/
Helios4 https://shop.kobol.io/collections/frontpage/products/helios4-full-kit-2gb-ecc-3rd-batch-pre-order?variant=18881501528137
https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/as17od/helios4_batch_3_available_for_preorder/

There are other SATA SBCs that you could use and you could also do a janky setup and put the SATA SBCs inside a hot swappable case like this Silverstone one. There are other cases, but this is the only name that came to mind. This case also doesnt have any power supply or fans to cool the HDDs so there will be extra cost there, plus you'll need a power supply, PLUS a way to turn on your power supply (with a power board), since that SBC setup wont have a motherboard. You can also make your own "Dumb" JBOD HDD enclosure and connect that to your mini server. Another option to SBCs is the ASRock cpu+mobo line: J3455-ITX, J4105-ITX, annd J5005-ITX. The issue with this that it appears you are still limited to 4x SATA or other variations of these boards have a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot at x1 or x2 transfer lanes/speed instead of x8 or x16... Also you have to factor in the price of ram and a mini PICO power supply. There is a subreddit+website that focuses on used parts for cheap server setups, but you might want to verify the power consumption of those setups when they are idling. With the NAS killer option, you gotta make sure all of the parts are still available on ebay or refurb sites, plus make sure you have time to build your setup to verify everything is working plus stress test it before the return window closes to weed out any weak used parts.
Silverstone https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IAELTAI/
HDD enclosure option https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-5-25-Inch-3-5-Inch-Hot-swap-SATAIII/dp/B00DGZ42SM/
Power Board https://www.amazon.com/Super-Micro-Computer-Supermicro-Cse-ptjbod-cb2/dp/B008FQZHZE
J3455-ITX https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-157-728
https://www.serverbuilds.net/nas-killer-v30/

Another option if you really want transcoding and a more powerful "Server" would be a Dell Optiplex 7010, which are used business computers that are "Refurbished", but I think they just take them from that company and wipe the hard drive, nothing else. The Minitower Desktop version is roomier than the slightly cheaper SFF (SmallFormFactor) version, which might be important if you want to swap out the power supply, watch the youtube video to get an idea of what you are getting into. Since a cheap power supply is a weak point plus a potential hazard I'd recommend swapping in a new power supply, but you could risk it with its current power supply. Everything else should last for a good while. You'll also need to install a HBA card. You can get Genuine used cards that were in good working order or you could get a new knock off from China. Both options are viable, but personally I prefer the used option. Theartofserver, ebay seller, also has a youtube channel, so I purchased from him, but I have also purchased from other sellers and got good working parts (I think Ebay still has the most honest and accurate rating system out there?). Since the Optiplex doesnt have room for internal HDDs then you are left with a few options with various HBA cards (internal vs external), expander cards, and adapter setups (SFF-8087 to SFF-8088). If you want it to look "Proper" there will be a lot of wasted money on 2x adapters (1x Optiplex + 1x external HDD enclosure) and an extra SFF-8088 cable between the two. I'd just go janky with it and get a longer reverse breakout cable of 3.3feet (4x SATA to 1x SFF-8087), which should be long enough to go from your external HDDs setup into the Optiplex case and internally connected to the HBA card, like the popular 9201-8i. The janky part being that you'll have the reverse breakout cable snaking directly into each case, instead of plugging into an adapter in the back.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K0GNUOG/
https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Internal-Breakout-SFF-8087/dp/B018YHS9GM
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-LSI-6Gbps-SAS-HBA-LSI-9201-8i-9211-8i-P20-IT-Mode-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID/162958581156
Single adapter https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816133055
Double adapter https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GPD9QEQ/
SFF-8080 cable https://www.amazon.com/Norco-Technologies-C-SFF8088-External-SFF-8088/dp/B003J9CZCK/

If you don't plan on overclocking, you should not only try the stock cooler first, but also get an i5-6500 instead, which has in games almost the same performance.

You do not necessarily need thermal paste, but it can be useful to have it if something goes wrong.

A GTX 980 Ti is totally overpowered for 1080p even if you want good settings. A R9 390 is a better fit, and a lot better in terms of price/performance

You can get a HDD indeed later.

Even though I understand that you want a good mainboard, there is no need at all to get a 200€ mainboard. Evaluate carefully what you need, which connectors and which features, and I'm pretty certain you will realize that a 110€ Z170 will be fine as well – or 140 if SLI support is a must.

If already being ready to invest much in a PC, get faster ram to gain some fps.

pc-kombo recommendation

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i5-6500 | EUR 219,90 @ Caseking
Motherboard | MSI Z170A PC-Mate | EUR 116,47 @ Cyberport
Memory | G.Skill 16GB DDR4 3000 (16 GB) | EUR 111,50 @ Amazon.de
SSD | SanDisk Ultra II 480 (512 GB) | EUR 139,00 @ Amazon.de
Video Card | Radeon R9 390 | EUR 319,90 @ Caseking
Case | Fractal Design R5 | EUR 109,11 @ Amazon.de
Power Supply | Antec Edge 550 (550 W) | EUR 107,89 @ Amazon.de
| Total | €1123.77
| Generated by pc-kombo 29.01.2016 |

Of course, just switch out the parts you are set on, like the case or the PSU. Though 750W would be too much for one R9 390.

Sweet thanks for all the info think I'll go with the 2700, definitely cheaper and I think itll do fine with what I need it for.

While I got you here I dont suppose you can recommend a good small case for an matx motherboard. The smaller and cheaper the better but not at a cost of cooling

When I do the upgrade I'm gonna take the asrock ab350m and the 2400g and put it in a build for my friend. I'm probably gonna use the wraith cooler that comes with the 2700 in it since I already have a 240 aio that will handle the 2700 just fine.

So it has to fit:
Asrock ab350m
The wraith cooler(unless you can recommend a better one)
1ssd
Msi rx570 armor 8gb oc
Power supply unknown, idk if the extra one I have fits this board

So far this one is the best most affordable I've found I would like to find one with at least one drive bay even if it's one of the slim ones and the clear side it best but unnecessary for him

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0785GRMPG/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

I may come back and edit this if I mess something up, but I'll try to be as granular as possible and give links because I sure wish I would have had someone help me when I was building this. I will say this, I looked for these items over time and waited until I found good deals.


Case:[ Corsaire Air 540] (http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-Series-Airflow-CC-9011030-WW/dp/B00D6GINF4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421547180&sr=8-1&keywords=corsair+air+540) - This is a large case. However, I have built many PC's and this is the best case I've ever used. All of your cables are hidden, so you have a very clean build with very easy access.

Proc: i7 4790K - I got this on sale for $279. Although I don't need to, I can very easily use the ASRock to overclock to 4.5 ghz straight from the OS.

Video: EVGA GTX 760 SC (I got this at Microcenter for $230.00) - As mentioned, I run three 1900x1200 montors with this. For games - I can run anything (to date) at 1900x1200 on ultra when the Proc os overclocked, unless it is just coded crappy. Lately I'be been playing ESO and Wildstar, but I've also done Bioshock Infinite and The Vanashing of Ethan Carter (beautiful game) as well.

Ram: Crucial Ballistix Elite 16gb - See my comment below on ram.

Motherboard: ASRock z97 Motherboard - Believe it or not, I got this for $86 at Microcenter.

Firewire Card: Syba FW Card with TI Chipset - This is low profile, but comes with a full size bracket. Works great with the Focusrite Saffire Pro 40.

OS: Windows 8.1 Professional

PT Version: PT11 (Latest Build)

Audio Interface: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 - Make sure you get the latest software for this and run PT as administrator. I had to do this before the Midi would work right through the Saffire.

Proc Cooling: Corsair Hydro 105 - Do your research. There are a lot of cooling options. I had this in a separate machine and really like it.

Case Fans: Corsair Air Series AF140 LED Quiet Edition High Airflow Fans - One again, there are a lot of options with fans. These matched my case and are relatively quiet. Iknow the Noctua stuff is really awesome too.

Power Supply: Corsair HX850 - This might be overkill. I got this because I game some on this system and figured I would add another GTX 760 at some point. Also, not sure you need the HX. You might be able to go with a lower end PSU.

Video Monitors: Two of these are Lenova which I already had and are not included in the build price. The other, I just got and it beats the Lenovos significantly. It is an ASUS PA248Q 24-Inch LED-Lit IPS Professional Graphics Monitor. I use these large monitors because my eyes are bad from years of IT work, staring into monitors. Imagine that. This would be overkill for many as they take up a lot of space.

HD1: Crucial MX100 512 gb SSD. Everybody gets Samsung, and even I have one in my purchased gaming rig. However, before you do that, read this review from Tom's Hardware on the MX100. I'm completely sold on this SSD. I got this for $180 on a Newegg sale.

HD2: [Seagate 3tb 7200](Seagate Desktop 3 TB HDD SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 7200 RPM 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST3000DM001) - It is a platter HD I put my sessions on, nothing more. I've never seen a slow down.

A couple of other notes.

1. I use a service SOS Online Backup to back up my sessions so in case of a drive failure I don't lose anything.
   
   
2. If I could change anything about this - I would have bought a motherboard with Thunderbolt. However, I think it was a $200 price difference at the time, so I stayed with my budget and I've had no issues with the firewire.
   
   
3. I'm a singer songwriter, so this setup geared for me. I think it would work for just about anyone, but I've seen some of the mixing engineers on this forum say you may need more ram if you ar running huge sessions. The biggest song I run is probably about 25 tracks (including buses), few of which would be simultaneous, and I've never used more than 1/2 my ram.
   
   If you have anymore questions let me know. I had this info an a word doc from when I was planning - so I'm glad I was able to pass it on. I hope this helps.
   

Oh my god please don't do a prebuilt from here and not likes Dell prebuilt like someone built it here. You can learn so much but buying the parts, and researching it can be a bonding experience with your son!
Edit: SORRY IN ADVANCE FOR A WALL OF TEXT!
anyway lets get this build started!
Idk what you want but for a case that looks super sexy the NZXT S340 would be a good start, cheap and nice.
CASE:NZXT S340 Mid Tower Case CA-S340MB-GR Matte Black/Blue https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T4BWUUY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_wR12xbKDZPNE8
Note: $74 Jet.com has it cheaper. (GET THE BLUE AS I MADE IT A BLUE BUILD)
CPU:Intel Core i7-2600 Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 8 MB Cache LGA 1155 - BX80623I72600 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004EBUXSU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_nT12xb7BECNJC
Note: $164
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS P8H61-M LE/CSM R2.0 LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008NA1K0S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_b112xb1T6M7HK
Note: $94
RAM: PNY Anarchy 8GB Kit (2x4GB) DDR3 2133MHz (PC3-17000) CL10 Desktop Memory (BLUE) - MD8GK2D3213310AB-Z https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012DT0IB6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_h412xb3VC5JNW
Note: $45
POWER SUPPLY: EVGA 500 W1, 80+ WHITE 500W, 3 Year Warranty, Power Supply 100-W1-0500-KR https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H33SFJU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_E512xb56068FP
Note: $37
GRAPHICS CARD: ASUS ROG STRIX Radeon RX 460 4GB OC Edition AMD Gaming Graphics Card (STRIX-RX460-O4G-GAMING) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K1JVQI4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_z712xbFGF2Y2T
Note: $140

TOTAL: $554

Edit 2: As your budget is $600 and I don't know how lenient you are with going over or what, but an Asus RX 470 would be a better graphics card and would increase the total to around $650.

Edit 3:
AFTERMARKET CPU COOLER:Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120mm PWM Fan (RR-212E-20PK-R2) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005O65JXI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_E-12xbR7ZCHBK
Note: $28

Edit 4: If you want peripherals that's gonna be around $1000 in total for decent crap. I would suggest a 1080p 60hz monitor, a mechanical keyboard ( I use a G. Skillz KM780 RGB and it is fabulous), a nice pair of headphones HyperX cloud 2, and a nice set of speakers Logitech Z506. Also idk what you have but get a wifi adapter as well unless you can hook up to Ethernet which is highly recommended.

Edit 5: If any other questions just PM me glad to help you out more.

Edit 6: shit I forgot drives and OS. I'm too tired to link things anymore so I suggest getting a 128gb Samsung PRO SSD for your OS and main shit then get a Seagate 1TB HDD and you're good to go. Hopefully I covered everything.

Honestly 500-600 wouldn't make a very decent computer for a first rig. You can make one and well I made one just right now but that doesn't take into account peripherals. If you wanted 500-600 WITH peripherals that would have been the hardest budget build of my life. To maintain quality and performance, I'm cringing just thinking of it.

Okay, I've been doing some research into getting my build together, before I post a Build Ready I want to ask a few simple questions to get more information:

One: I already have a cPU (i5-4670k) purchased and want to build around it, but I can't seem to pick out a motherboard. Comparing these two options (price/budget wise) - is there a clear winner? Is gigabyte a trusted brand? Does the cheaper Gigabyte one still get the job done?

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Intel-6Gbps-Motherboards-GA-Z87-HD3/dp/B00D94X6AK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1396970604&sr=8-3&keywords=gigabyte+z87
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D12OBEU/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2MQNI3HX2CKTY&coliid=IZ8KDHOJNGBP4

There are other Gigabyte Z87's then go up in price to like 120, 140, 160 dollars, are those more worth it? What's the gain vs price? Am I losing anything with the 105 dollar one?

Two: When buying RAM, does the 1.5V vs 1.65V thing matter a ton? Do certain motherboards only allow certain RAM voltages? How can I tell what my motherboard will allow?

Three: Relatively cheap trusted RAM brands? I'm such a brand whore when buying stuff like TV's and headphones and stuff but I know nothing about "Gskill" and "Crucial" and stuff like that?

Four: Any obvious disadvantages of this sleek budget case?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005869IUY/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2MQNI3HX2CKTY&coliid=I2Z9W1ADNDRLKF&psc=1

I'll ask more questions later. This is enough for now. Thanks guys.

How soon do you plan on building this? If you can wait a couple months the NVIDIA GTX 880 will be out soon, and it's supposed to be around the price of the 770 when it came out (about $400, US). This is probably the worst time of the year to build a computer. Devil's Canyon and Z97 did just come out, but Intel is still do for X99 and Haswell-E, NVIDIA is releasing Maxwell, and AMD probably has some stuff being announced soon.

Otherwise it looks good, the only things I would change would be the power supply (for an EVGA SuperNOVA), the motherboard (to something from ASUS), I would maybe get a cheaper SSD as the 850 Pro series don't really offer much more for the premium. An 840 EVO or a Crucial MX100 of the same price would be the optimal as far as price/performance. I would also recommend against getting a 7.1 headset, I've tried them and they're terrible, as an alternative I'd get a cheap pair of studio headphones like the Audio-Technica ATH-M50 and a desktop microphone.

Edit 1: I would recommend getting a case with better airflow as well. Something like the Phanteks Enthoo Pro is a good value case with much better airflow, and has a nice aesthetic.

A lot of building a computer is figuring out how components fit together, as well as their name.

I like to start building my PCs by selecting a processor to build around. For instance, Skylake processors are pretty new and more efficient than previous processors, so I opted for the Core i7-6700.

I then chose a compatible motherboard. The Core i7 is a socket 1151 processor. So I looked for a motherboard that met that criteria as well as my desired memory capacity (32 GB). The ASRock Z170M Pro4S fit that criterion: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157637


After that, I chose a compatible case. The Pro4S is a micro ATX motherboard, so it can fit in a micro ATX case or even mid ATX or full ATX. However, a mid will not fit in a micro and a full will not fit into a mid. I went with a mid tower: http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-SPEC-01-Tower-Gaming/dp/B00I6BJATW

Next, I chose a power supply. If you look up the wattage on the motherboard and processor, it doesn't add up to much, but if you start adding extra hardware like graphics cards, sound cards, network cards, etc. you are going to need to draw more power. 430W was enough for my build, so I purchased a Corsair CX430M power supply unit.

Last, I selected a storage drive. SSDs (solid state drives) are a lot faster than HDD (hard disk drives) because they have no moving parts, whereas an HDD uses a magnetic disk. That's what I went with - the downside is that they cost a lot more money for the same amount of space. I purchased a Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB SSD.

That's pretty much it for required parts. You can get a video card if you like as well, for better performance in gaming. The case and PSU come with the right cables and screws you need. The SSD comes with a SATA cable. So, on to assembly...

Your case comes with an I/O panel/shield. Install that from the inside of the case. It should sort of snap in when you have everything aligned right.

Take the motherboard out of its packaging and set it on a clean, solid surface. Take the processor out (being careful to not touch the pins too much and especially try not to damage them). Insert it into its socket in the proper orientation (see the included manual if you're not sure how - there are indicators on the motherboard that assist with this). Lock it in place with the lever. Mount the motherboard in your case and install the standoff screws. The CPU comes with a stock cooler (fan), get that ready. The stock cooler should come with a thin layer of thermal paste pre-applied to the bottom, but if it doesn't, you'll need to get your own - apply a small amount (like the size of a grain of rice) to the processor. Set the cooler down on top of it, aligning the twist screws in their holes. Lock them down by twisting them to the right. Plug the cooler into the motherboard. You should be able to find a connector that matches the plug near the processor, most will be 4-pin (I actually don't think I've seen one that wasn't).

Mount your SSD in the appropriate place in the case. Cases typically have a bay area specifically for storage drives. Screw it in place and attach the SATA cable to the only connector on it that fits. Plug the other end into the motherboard in one of the plugs labeled "SATA".

Hook up the front panel LED and switch cables, they're already in your case. They're very skinny and typically have labels on the side. You may need to look at your motherboard manual to see which goes where and the correct pin position/orientation.

Next, mount your PSU in the case. It will go either above or below the motherboard, depending on your case. Screw it in tight. From here on, you should be able to find the correct places to plug in the power to the motherboard. There's a motherboard power connector somewhere near the CPU, there's also a special power cable that goes to your drives.

Hook up all your power cables, monitor cables, etc. With any luck, the computer will turn on when you press the power button. If not, you'll have to do a bit of troubleshooting. That's the gist of it though, and hope this helps you. I wrote this from memory so I could be missing some stuff, if anyone wants to chime in.

• 750 Watt Power Supply. $89.98
  
  
• Generic Corsair Case. $64.99 You can shop around for something better looking for a little more money.
  
  
• DDR4 3200 RAM (2*4GB Sticks) for $147.99 and DDR4 3200 RAM (1*8GB Stick) for $160.32. You can also drop to 3000MHz and save like $5-10 but not worth it in my opinion.
  
  
• GTX 1060 3GB for $304.99 or GTX 1060 6GB for $389.99.
  
  
• i7 8700k for $449.99 or i7 7700k for $422.96. 8700k is 8th gen and 7700k is 7th gen. You can drop to any processor around an i7 7700 (No "k") without seeing issues I'd assume. WoW is a processor heavy game though. Still my i7 8700k only ever reaches maybe 30% useage that I see.
  
  
• Heat Sink + Fan. Cooler Master is good. $34.99
  
  
• i7 8700 will require a 300 Series Motherboard like ASUS ROG for $141.50 or ASUS Prime for $84.99. The 7700s will take a 200 series motherboard like this one for $129.61 or this one for 149.99. Basically just make sure it has all the hook-ups you need (sound and USBs and shit) with the proper chip set and supports DDR4 RAM with minimum 1 PCI Express slot for your GPU.
  
  
• Samsung 860 Evo 500GB SSD for $179.94 or the 250GB for $109.94. Any decent SSD will do. Make sure it has enough room for your OS and the game(s) you play. You can use any regular HD to store other stuff on. Samsung is a good brand for them.
  
  When trying to decide on what power your PC needs a good website to use is http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/ - it'll give you a general idea since I get confused with all the "i7/i5/i3 XXXX gen X" nonsense too.
  
  That'll build you a tower. Then you just need external components. Monitor, keyboard, mouse, headset, chair, desk, etc. Depending on what you have available and stuff it can vary so I'll let you price out that stuff.
  
  $1,358 pre-taxes if you go with i7 8700k, and GTX 1060 3 GB. For the tower. Taxes in, plus all the other components you're still looking at pushing close to $2000. That's CND I think. If you do a little shopping around you might get a decent deal on a few items and look into different price points between AMD and Intel if you choose their Board/Chip/GPU combos.

I looked at the specs of the case, and it says there's 15+ inches from the rear of the case to the drive cages, so it should fit your EVGA 1070 (which is about 10.5 inches, I think -- I've got the non-FTW version so it should be the same exact length as mine). I've liked and used Coolermaster cases in the past, so that one looks like it has plenty of good reviews. I haven't used that model before though.

One thing: You're buying a non-k CPU, which is fine, but it's curious that you picked a Z170 motherboard. Typically you get a Z170 for overclocking K CPUs, so unless there are specific features of that board you like, you can save a lot of money by going with a H170 or a B150 motherboard.

Technically you can overclock non-K Sky Lake CPUs in Z170 motherboards but I think you need to flash them with older bioses or something, (Intel asked mobo manufacturers to remove that feature) so I don't know if it's worth it for you, plus if you really wanted to OC a non-K i5 Sky Lake chip, I hear it's better to get an i5 6400 as it's easier to OC and get into 4+ghz territory, than the i5 6500. But, if you don't plan to OC at all, just get that i5-6500 (it's a good CPU) and a H170 or B150 motherboard to save costs.

edit: fixed typo on motherboard numbers

You could probably roll with a similar Ryzen 7 build that I have, I think it came together quite well. I'll edit this when I'm not on mobile with my pcpartpicker. I like the Corsair Air 540 as a nice case that's easy to put together for first time builders.

May I ask what you're using this PC for? A Threadripper is great for workstation stuff but gaming you're not really getting much benefit from it over that. You also have room to upgrade in 2019 to the 7nm Zen 2 stuff if you really want to flex.

EDIT: Something like this is my build. Some of the parts aren't popping up and I hunted around for sales a bit, so I think it came around to $2000 when I built it over a month or two. The Corsair Air 540 isn't showing up properly because it's out of stock right now, but I love this case. The layout is really nice for being not too obnoxious but still showcasing your parts. There's no PSU or HDD bays clogging up the viewing window. It's very nice, and you seem to like Corsair from your parts list.

Anyway, I don't really imagine a regular, non-professional use case that demands a Threadripper. I know you said you don't like saving money just for the sake of saving money, but think of it as investing that extra money into higher end parts elsewhere. I don't even have 3.5" HDDs since SSDs have gone down in price so much. Why not skip the Threadripper and grab a second M.2 drive, among other niceties? Hell, the price difference from a 2950x and 2700x gets you from a 1080 Ti to a 2080 Ti, if gaming is your primary use case (and you should probably wait for benchmarks to see what's going on with that anyway).

And I'm not going to completely shill AMD, but you can totally just wait and see what Intel and AMD have planned for the rest of the year (and you should, because benchmarks are the most important thing to wait for).

TL;DR: You don't need a 2950x for gaming but maybe if you're doing hardcore video editing and 3D modeling or something it'd be nice (ie: if this is a workstation that you game on now, not a gaming PC), also, wait for benchmarks.

I know MSI has some sort of offer going on with that MOBO right now for a free AIO with it so I'd look into that.

Overall though that board has not received great reviews, though I think it's mostly for it's VRM so if you're not planning to overclock you might be ok.

Also I'd consider upgrading the GPU. Many RX 580s are selling at $200 or below right now which at max would be $70 more than you're current choice, so still with in your budget.

For instance the Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8gb is $170 and also comes with 3 months of Xbox Game pass and Devil May Cry 5. You can either use those or sell them on something like /r/SteamGameSwap (note, these are redeemed through AMD rewards which does a hardware check for AMD cards so they can only be redeemed by people with the right card in their system.)

Also that case seems really overpriced. If you really want an overpriced pretty looking case I'd suggest the NZXT H510 Elite, $170, but it's free shipping and no taxes if you order directly from their site. That case is all about the looks though and really doesn't have the feature set to justify the price tag, it's for people who don't care about the premium and want that front panel tempered glass look.

Otherwise there are plenty of solid cases that look nice with glass side panels for less than $100.

The Fractal Design Meshify C has decent thermals and looks pretty nice for around $85-$100 (depending on the color.)

Phanteks has a case similar to the one you listed for just $60

NZXT Also has some nice cases under $100. There are the "I" (intelligent variants) that come with a smart controller and some RGB strips for usually $30 more if you're into lighting.

Unless you really want the case you listed though I definitely suggest something else.

CPU - Ryzen 5 1600 ($194.99) 

Motherboard - MSI B350 PC MATE ATX AM4 ($88.99)

RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 8gb ($92.99)

Storage - Seagate Barracuda 3.5" 2tb ($59.99)

GPU - MSI GTX 1050 Ti ($224.99)

Power Supply - Corsair CXM 550w ($59.99)

OS - Windows 10 64bit ($99.99) 

Wifi - Asus PCE-AC55BT B1 ($34.99)

Card Reader - Rosewill RDCR-11004 ($25.99)

Case - Corsair 200R Mid Tower ($59.99)****


TOTAL: $942.90 (Before Taxes) 

****This case is a placeholder. It works in this build, but I left room for you to choose your own.

Make sure the case is a Mid Tower ATX case, and has at least one 5.25 optical drive bay. 

-------------------
SPECS----

CPU: Ryzen 5 - 1600 (3.2ghz 6 core) 

GPU: GTX 1050ti

RAM: 8gb DDR4

Usb2.0: 8

Usb3.0: 2

Usb3.1: 4

Card Readers: Yes

Disk Drive: No

Wifi: Yes

Bluetooth: Yes (4.0)

HDMI: Yes

Ethernet: Yes

------------------
LINKS----

CPU: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XNRQHG4/?tag=pcpapi-20


Motherboard: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XPM7FSR/?tag=pcpapi-20


RAM: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ARHBBPS/?tag=pcpapi-20


Storage: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01IEKG402/ref=dp_ob_neva_mobile


GPU: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137055&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker,%20LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=


PowerSupply: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B72W0A2/?tag=pcpapi-20


OS: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZSI7Y3U/?tag=pcpapi-20


Wifi: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0713RRZMB/?tag=pcpapi-20


Card Reader: https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-2-Port-Internal-Connector-RDCR-11004/dp/B007YDJJFS


Case: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009GXZ8MM/?tag=pcpapi-20

***Oh, and if you need help with how to do it this guy is pretty good.
https://youtu.be/IhX0fOUYd8Q

1:- I do not know what resolution you will be playing at, but anyway, the GTX 1050 ti can play
-1080p med-high at around 45-75 fps.
-1080p max settings at 30-55 fps
-1440p max settings at 25-30 fps.
Also, it depends a lot on the game. Battlefield 1 runs at 60fps on 1080p max settings and around 40 fps on 1440p max. But, ashes of the singularity runs at 1080p max settings on 29fps. So, it depends on the games you play you can probably play your games on 1080p max settings at 50-60 fps so no problems there.

2:-8 GB of RAM is enough for gaming right now, but there are some games that recommend 10 gb already. Buy a single 8gb RAM stick so that you can upgrade in the future. 8 GB will last you for around 2 more years if you wanna play the absolute newest and most demanding games, otherwise you can last for maybe 3 years before you have to upgrade.

3:- if your case already comes with one or two fans, they are enough. Even having one fan won't let any overheating damage occur. For your build, one fan is more than enough.

4:- you can use Ethernet instead of buying a wi fi card. Having a wired connection is so much better than wi fi. A wired connection is usually 6-10 times faster than wireless. Also, nobody uses optical drives these days, games are all downloaded online. If you use an Ethernet cable, you can download games from steam really, really fast and your entire library will be on your PC for whenever you want it. and also, you can return games on steam. Also, steam sales are insane and you can normally always get a brand new game from steam for 50% off. So, WiFi cards and optical drives are not essential, everything else is.

5:- instead of getting windows shipped to you, you can download the windows iso for free from the official Microsoft website and you can copy it to a USB, then build your PC and plug the USB in. Then, you can either install Windows without using the activation key and get notified every 5 minutes to activate Windows, or you can buy a windows key from the many keystores on the web for 20-50 dollars. R/Microsoftsoftwareswap and playasia are good places to get windows keys.

6:- thermal paste is included with you cooler(I recommend the cooler master hyper 212 Evo),you can buy twist ties if you want,sata cables,power cables, etc are included in your stuff, buy screwdrivers, and also buy anti static wrist bands and a magnetic tray for all of your screws.

7:- I do not recommend hunting around in brick and mortar stores because you can get better deals online and it is also possible that you don't find a good deal on a part and have to go to another store and so on and so forth. It is both time consuming and not cost saving if you hunt around in brick and mortar stores. Also, I recommend the NZXT S340 mid tower case because it is cheap and is one of the best cases I have used, it also looks really sleek and classy. Check it out

Ok here are my suggestions based on the prices of Amazon Mexico.

CPU

The i3-6100 and the Pentium G4400 are both decent choices for your daughter. Al though the i3 is more powerful, the Pentium will still run low-end games decently, if you don't wish for groundbreaking performance. The i5 is probably overkill. Alsom you probably don't need a CPU cooler.

Motherboard

https://www.amazon.com.mx/Gigabyte-GA-H110M-H-Motherboard-Chipset-PCI-Express/dp/B01FB6TEMC/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1478960159&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=h110

Doesn't look too expensive, but will serve its job. If you can find a cheaper one, you can go for it instead.


RAM

https://www.amazon.com.mx/Kingston-HX421C14FB2-Memoria-Hyperx-DDR4-2133Mhz/dp/B01D8U27YU/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1478960538&sr=1-3&keywords=8GB+RAM

Looks like the cheapest 8GB stick of DDR4 RAM, if you find cheaper from renowned company sticks, go for them.

Storage

You may want to either go for a 1TB HDD+ 120GB SSD, 1TB HDD, or a 240GB SSD. I do not think that 120GB SSD is going to be large enough for your daughter, as she will need to store Windows, games, software, and documents in it.

GPU

https://www.amazon.com.mx/Sapphire-460-2-GB-GDDR5-HDMI-PCI-E-Tarjeta-11257-00-20-G/dp/B01J1M4H8I/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1478961001&sr=1-1&keywords=rx+460

The RX 460 is your best choice. This one is a 2GB version, but it will run the likes of Dota well.

Power Supply

That power supply is actually decent, but this one is a better option, and doesn't look too expensive.

Case

I like this Corsair one, but you may want a cheaper case. I haven't found great cases cheaper than this one myself.

Peripherals+Monitor

That monitor is good. The peripherals are your choice since that's personal preference. The monitor should come with a DVI cable if I'm not mistaken.

A 780 is a pretty beefy graphics card that can handle almost anything thrown at it, including WoW. I've never played WoW, so I can't speak from first hand experience, but I would be shocked if that card had issues running 1080p 60fps on ultra.

Given that you already have the GPU and don't need an OS, your budget is more than ample enough to build a high quality rig.

Do you live near a microcenter? If so, here is a link to their current catalog. They are renowned for having excellent deals on hardware.

A couple links to consider:

• i5-4690k - $180
  
• ASRock Z97 Anniversary Edition mobo - $55 (if bundled w/ CPU)
  
• Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB RAM - $80
  
• WD Green 1TB HDD - $67
  
• Corsair CX500 500W PSU - $60 ($40 w/ mail in rebate)
  
• Corsair 200R case (on Amazon) - $50
  
  Total: $492
  
  If you can fit an SSD like the Crucial MX100 ($73 @ microcenter), it is a glorious addition. Super quick boot and load times.
  
  EDIT:
  Found a better deal on the CX500 on Newegg - $50, plus a $20 prepaid visa card
  
  Also some cheaper G.SKILL RAM on Newegg as well - $58

Since I love my Air 540 so much, I can't help but suggest the Air 240, it's a cube case with really good airflow, I hate my components running hot and I like giving them fresh air, so this is one of the reason I bought mine. Also, there is a lot of room for cable management, the case is cut into two halves, one for the Active Cooling components (GPU, CPU) and the other half for the passive cooling components (PSU) so it's a breeze, really, you shouldn't spend too much time with cable management since it's basically route and plug. It will support your GTX 950 FTW but I don't know what kind of CPU cooler you have; you didn't include it in the build page, but the maximum CPU cooler height for the Air 240 is 120mm only. For you it might lose out on "sexy" points but for me I like symmetrical and clean cases. Overall I think you'll love it. Oh, and.. 80$ :S sorry.

If you want to keep future proofing more open ended, you definitely want to be on an 1150 socket board. AM3+ is effectively EOL. If you don't mind spending the extra $20 for an i3 I think you would be very happy with the performance. How would you feel about something like this?:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor | $114.29 @ Amazon
Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-H81M-H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard | $51.34 @ Amazon
Memory | Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $33.99 @ Amazon
Storage | Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $53.99 @ Amazon
Video Card | EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB FTW ACX Video Card | $129.99 @ Amazon
Case | Rosewill FBM-02 MicroATX Mini Tower Case | $24.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply | Antec 450W ATX Power Supply | $34.99 @ Amazon
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $443.58
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-22 00:23 EDT-0400 |

i3

appropriate socket motherboard, additional $10 MIR

cheaper GPU with similar performance, additional $20 MIR

cheaper case, matx to match motherboard. The Elite 430 is overpriced for what you get, at the least you could get something nicer for the same price like the Source 210 or Corsair 200R(if you go with the 200R you'll want to change the motherboard to something with USB 3.0 front panel like this)

Yeah thats a good case. I actually have one of those, except its the usb 2 not 3 version which is cheaper, and haven't had any problems with it, but something like this, this, or this might be a little better. They are all good so really just pick which one looks best or would fit all of your parts best.

Fractal and Corsair are pretty much the top dogs when it comes to pc cooling. Lots of room for fans and they are open enough to provide ample airflow to cool all your components.

NZXT would be the runners up. Their cases are very attractive and they have the PSU and HDD on the bottom so its not obstructing the Mobo/CPU/GPU up top. the only thing is their cases are not as open, so your airflow isn't as good as it would be in a corsair. However, that is a minor gripe, I use a NZXT case and my temperatures at idle are 25c-28c (CPU) and 25c-30c(GPU).

Style, color, and size all come into play when getting your case. I'd argue getting the right case is the most crucial part of any PC build. It has to look good, it has to have enough room without looking like a barely furnished house, and it has to have the right type of airflow going through it.

Those cases you listed are all very good ones though. Can't go wrong with any of them. ;)

edit: I'll go ahead and recommend the case that I personally use, the NZXT s340 It's a decent size and I managed to fit everything nicely and the airflow rate is superb.

Here it is up and running. (I like showing it off, don't judge)

Then your choices for a case are only limited to itx, nearly every tower case you come across will support mATX and ATX, then you have Full Tower cases that would make that little motherboard seem out of place. Tons and tons of good options from $60 and up.

As others have touched on, a good modular power supply unit will not only be more efficient/reliable (especially if you want to OC anything!), it will help take care of cable management. I have always went for "full modular", semi modular will have a 'pony tail' with the motherboard, cpu, and gpu connectors rolled into one. It's nice to be able to route each PSU cable where you want imo.

So then there are your two main issues, cable management and airflow. You have a decision to make regarding the case, I understand liking how a prebuilt case looks because some do look nice. If you want to stick with that case you need to figure out how to mod it to increase airflow. Generally speaking, switching to a aftermarket case will be simple and increase your cooling performance twice over without having to mod a thing.

I use and always recommend EVGA PSU's because they generally perform great in benchmarks and come with a 10yr warranty: 550w Gold

If it were me I'd build in this case just for the hell of it for $40: CM Masterbox

Here's another case that would be good in your situation: Corsair Air 240

All depends on your budget.

If you want to buy him a single part rather than just an Amazon or Newegg giftcard, I would recommend buying the case.

The case is the tower itself, where all the parts go. This is probably one of the easiest parts to choose, as it's mainly down to personal preference and aesthetics. I would recommend a case which says it is compatible with ATX motherboards, as this is the most common size of motherboard and will give him the most choice. Anything with "ATX mid-tower" is what you need. "Micro-ATX" and "Mini-ITX" are different, not what I would recommend unless you know for sure he wants motherboards of those sizes. You will also see "ATX Full Tower" cases, which will probably be much too big. These are mainly only used for massive system builds.

If you want my advice, I would recommend the NZXT S340. It's a very nice visually appealing case, has a large side window to see the components, comes in a variety of colours, is a reasonable price and comfortable to build in.

If you have no idea what to get or feel overwhelmed, you can just get him an Amazon or Newegg gift card.

If you need any further help, r/buildapc is a very good place to ask.



Edit: On a second thought, why not buy him a nice mechanical keyboard to game with? (Assuming he doesn't already have one). Here's a good one

Cases are really a matter of preference, the companies that I recommend are Cooler Master, Corsair, Fractal Design and NZXT. As long it supports ATX mother boards you will be fine.

I'll recommended 2,
The first one: Corsair 200r, not flashy but high quality and a great price.

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16811352020&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-Mobile&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-Mobile-_-pla-_-Computer+Cases-_-N82E16811352020&gclid=CjwKEAiA-5-kBRDylPG5096R8mASJABqEdm4yKexU2p0ldX1CGv-9IKLUOuTNnk6LdJigDit-nieNBoCxBDw_wcB


The second is the Fractal Design Define R4 also great case but more at the end of the budget.
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-Series-Compact-CC-9011023-WW/dp/B009GXZ8MM

Anyway choose what you like and good luck building.

Cases are largely a stylistic choice at this point. I can't tell you what style you'll like best, but I can recommend Phanteks's cases. I have this case and I love it. (it's a big big though, so you'll need to consider your workspace) Phanteks cases are reasonably priced, have good build quality and have all of the "nice to have" features I really like in a case.

Other brands I'd recommend looking into:

• Fractal Design
  
• Cooler Master
  
• NZXT

Dynamic disks have gotten a lot better, haha. If you are going with the case you own, There are some internal enclosures that can hold 5 3.25 in drives per 5 in bay. Like this. With the benefit of being hot swappable. If you don't care wether or not things are hot swappable, you can go cheaper and get better air flow.

You can also get a box case like this which has the bays built in and just fit it with a good motherboard, processor, maybe an HBA and maybe a NIC. Honestly, with current parts, you should be able to saturate 1 gigabit drop. Since we are dealing with pictures and videos, I'm thinking you'll be reading and writing sequentially for the most part which maximizes your read/write speeds.

Take a quick look at this before you buy your drives, that way you have the option to balance price with storage. 10TB drives usually cost more than what you get, especially since the 12TB drives are cheaper per gig right now. If you don't want to pay that much for a drive, you can go with one of the cheaper 8TB or shuck for an even lower price with a bit more effort on your part.

As for pre-built appliances, you can go with something like this or this both can saturate your network and give you the storage you desire.

Edit: My first gold, thank you!!

It does look pretty sweet except that "Price: $224.32AU + $268.58AU Delivery ($492.90AUD, or $350USD)", "Shipped from and sold by Amazon US". https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0091IZ1ZG/

If the shipping wasn't so expensive, yeah. I don't mind paying for a product, but paying to have the privilege of buying it is kinda annoying. Rosewill has always been difficult to get here. Based on this review, heaven forbid I have to send it back...

> CyberSkulls

> 4.0 out of 5 stars

> Great value, but quality is hit or miss

> 3 March 2018 - Published on Amazon.com

> Capacity: 4U, 15 Bays & 7 Fans Verified Purchase

> I've probably bought 25 of these chassis over the years. The quality is extremely hit or miss or for lack of a better term, sub par. Then why 4 stars? For a $100 chassis, it's still an extremely great value. You just have to know upfront they typically don't check these for quality before they leave the factory. So if a chassis has issues, it will make it all the way to your door, it will never be caught at the factory.

> Example is I received six more of these a week or so ago. Out of those six, one had a lock that just wouldn't work no matter how hard you turned the key. One was missing all the motherboard standoffs. One had wires pinched below the drive cages so it literally had exposed wires in it for the front panel connections. One had too many left hand drive slides (the blue ones that slide into the cages) and not enough right side ones. And finally one of them had the motherboard standoffs over drilled where the standoff goes in basically at an angle and wouldn't line up with the screw. So what I did is take one chassis, tear it down for the spare components, fixed each of the above issues on the other chassis and basically created a chassis full of issues to exchange with Amazon. It was better than returning five chassis to Amazon and possibly playing this same game again.

The only way you could get a vr capable pc for under $700 would be to build one with buying the main components used off Ebay. Let me see if I can put together something:

Used Parts
GPU - $95
CPU, motherboard, and memory - $233

New Parts
Power Supply - $50
Hard Drive - $110
Case - $45

Total - $533

You'll still need a mouse and keyboard, which you can spend as little or as much as you want on. If you have a TV with an hdmi input, which you probably do, you can use that as a monitor. This will satisfy the minimum requirements for most headsets, but just barely. You would be better off getting a gtx 1070 over a 970.

GTX 1070 - $260

New Total - $698


That would give you a better experience, but is obviously more expensive. If you haven't built your own pc yet, don't feel intimidated. There are plenty of guides on youtube and it is very simple. It is also a right of passage. Putting it together yourself will also allow you to upgrade one component at a time later on. Used pc parts are usually pretty good. All the stuff I listed should be able to work for another 8 years or so, well beyond the time they will be obsolete. Feel free to ask any questions.

Hey there everyone, right now I've got a completed build which started as a Cyberpower prebuild, which I've slowly upgraded over time and right now all that remains from that is the RAM and case.

I'm looking to upgrade both, but right now I'm looking for a new case. I've got a few in mind, I'm just wondering if my parts would fit inside? I LOVE the look of a smaller cube-ish case, but if my parts won't fit then obviously it won't work out.

I'm looking at the Cooler Master Elite 130 and Corsair Carbide Series Air 240. Alternatively if those don't work, I'd like to get the Rosewill NIGHTHAWK117. I got a NZXT Hue lighting system the other day and have it in my current case. Can I transfer that to my new one? I'm hoping the 3m will still be sticky enough. I appreciate ANY help.

Here is my current part list, IK that it's missing stuff, but rest assured I've got everything I need and a working build. I couldn't find my HD or RAM on the old listing I bought the computer from, its just a generic 1tb HD and two sticks of 4gb RAM.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor | $177.49 @ SuperBiiz
CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler | $18.88 @ OutletPC
Motherboard | MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard | $42.98 @ Newegg
Storage | Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $68.95 @ Amazon
Video Card | XFX Radeon R9 380 2GB Double Dissipation Black Edition Video Card |-
Case | Azza CSAZ-203 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case |-
Power Supply | EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply | $51.43 @ OutletPC
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $364.73
| Mail-in rebates | -$5.00
| Total | $359.73
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-25 08:41 EDT-0400 |

Wow, you and your friends obviously did your research and know your stuff. Most people's friends on this sub are nvidia/intel fanboys.. As for the PSU, corsair is a great brand, and newegg is just letting you get a Mail in rebate. In reality it is a $55 PSU, which is about average for 500w. My only (very minor) complaint is the case. You could get a much nicer looking case for that price (Here are two great ones):
https://www.amazon.com/Phanteks-PH-EC416PTG-BW-Eclipse-Steel-Tempered/dp/B01N9JPUYW/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1493327921&sr=1-3&keywords=p400 ................................................................
https://www.amazon.com/Tower-Computer-Matte-Black-CA-S340MB-GR/dp/B00NGMIBUU/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1493327978&sr=1-1&keywords=s340&th=1

Other than that, great!

So when I originally moved in to my house last year, I set things up in a very temporary setup that became more permanent than I was hoping. I also had to bring another box home from my office when we moved locations and we no longer had a dedicated internet connection so I couldn't expose anything directly to the internet.

I've been looking at setups from everyone for a while now, getting ideas of what I needed and I finally settled on the following:

• NavePoint 4ft Open Frame 19" 22U 4-Post Network Server - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A6JQO4A
  
• TP-Link 24-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003BU0EKW
  
• Keystone panel - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F8NLZ4Z
  
• 2U shelf - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008X3JHJQ
  
• 1U shelf - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A6JQYDG
  
• Rosewill 4U case (8 bay) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055EV30W
  
• Rosewill 4U case (6 bay) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07957B2VF
  
• 80mm quieter fans - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NTUJZ36
  
• 1U PDU - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075TQS7XC
  
• 1U Blank - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0779M2D96
  
• Velcro! - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001E1Y5O6
  
• POE injectors - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NRF9GQO
  
  I don't intend on purchasing full sized rack mount servers as I just use desktop class hardware for the most part but I took the two systems that I had in desktop cases and put them in the Rosewill cases that I've seen a lot of people use and a coworker recently suggested them as well as he recent did a rack setup. Since I don't need full size servers, I decided to go with a 4 post "network" rack as I don't really need the extra depth. I'm just using a 1U blank to help stabilize the servers in the rack so they're not just hanging from the front.
  
  If anyone is looking to get some of the same components, I would say that the 1U shelves that I bought don't really work that well as I had to get creative with the brackets to make them work and they do extend out the back a bit but I knew they would do that when I purchased them, I just didn't realize I would have to flip around some brackets to make it work.
  
  My network is really basic so I went with a 24 port unmanaged gigabit switch. I did have to get some POE injectors for my 3 WAPs as I did have a 8 port switch that had built in POE before but I knew that 8 ports wasn't going to cut it and I wanted to go with a rack mount switch.
  
  Future plans are to replace the 3 regular PSUs with something rack mountable. Right now I have one PSU for each box and then the 3rd is for all of the network equipment. I'd also like to get a KVM but for right now I have HDMI cables ran to the side where I can easily switch them out and the keyboard I only plug into the front panels if I need it.

fuck - I typed out a good long reply to you and hit my browser back button and lost it. here we go typing it up again..


As far as the cases, I am looking to keep it relatively cheap. I found this but I also like this. I like them as they'll 'show off' the white finish on that motherboard I'm eyeing. Do you have any other suggestions in that price range?

I'll take your suggestion and leave out the audio card. This is a high(er) quality MOBO if I do go for it so it should be sufficient.

As far as the GPU - am I missing something with this product? This is a great price for a 950 (isn't it!?) and would totally go for this as opposed to the cheaper cards my coworker is offering. This would operate better than those, right?

I am really hoping for some good suggestions here. Money isn't an unlimited factor - and this is absolutely a want over a need, but I definitely want to do this, but do it right and not put hard worked money to waste.

As /u/just_insane has mentioned, plex is a good option for streaming. I'm an opponent of freenas, in favor of using something homebrew (zfsonlinux with debian or ubuntu, in my case, gentoo with zfs) to do what you need. I don't like how finicky freenas can be even with server-grade hardware. It's just not my thing.

That said, for someone who's new, it may be a good idea to try out freenas or nas4free. I just finished building a 16TB usable (20.5TB raw) system last week. I'll link my items below.

2x iocrest controllers

1x16GB kingston ECC ram

1xNZXT source 210

5xHGST 4TB deskstar NAS

1xsupermicro mbd-x9scm-f-o - Great board. Loving it so far. dual onboard nic is nice.

2x850 Pro 256GB that I had laying around

1x 550W PSU laying around.

total ran me about $1300 and I'm able to max out a 2x1GB LACP setup writing and reading directly on rust.

EDIT: my recommendation, in most cases, is to at least do raidz1 (RAID5). RAID is no substitute for backups though, so invest in something offsite and make sure it's staying backed up. I use CrashPlan for offsite and local backups and it works like a charm.

It's pretty doubtful that you'll be able to use more than 8GB of RAM. You can save about $100 AR by getting these stick instead.

For this kind of money, I also recommend a motherboard with a warranty longer than two years. The MSI P67A-GD65 is a good alternative.

I'd also recommend a Crucial M4 or OCZ Agility 3 for your SSD. Those two are setting the standard.

For a hundred bucks, you can get a modular Corsair PSU with a single 12-volt rail. Or you could get their regular 750w for $85 after rebate and promo code.

If you don't intend to overclock, you can skip the aftermarket cooler as well. Intel's stock coolers perform quite well, even for moderate OCs.

I'd also recommend taking a look at the HAF 912 case (but get it at Amazon for free shipping). It has a removable, rotated drive cage for extra room, more airflow and airflow options, and better cable routing management.

Noctua has a good reputation for having some of the best performing fans though they are a bit pricey maybe because of the demand for them if spending $20 or more per case fan is too much going for cheaper fan's wouldn't be the worse idea as replacing a fan is easier these fan's are pretty cheap and it comes with 3 of them Noctua also has some of the best CPU Coolers

Here's a couple of CPU coolers if they cost too much there's a couple others I can think of

Noctua NH-D15 one of the best coolers by noctua the FSP case may have trouble mounting this.

Noctua NH-U14S a more budget cooler but still capable might be a bit louder then the D15 the FSP case may have trouble mounting this

Dark Rock Pro 4 one of the most recommended CPU coolers I've seen at the moment probably because of it's price for a dual heat sink tower cooler the FSP case may have trouble mounting this

​

Corsair H115i a very high end Liquid cooler it's expensive but it'll definitely get the job done might have better overclocking performance as AIO cooler's don't suffer from stark changes in temperatures with an air cooler you may see temperature spikes for example your CPU is sitting at 40 C and it jumps up to 50 C for a second and then quickly climbs back down this is pretty rare for an AIO Liquid cooler

with all the clearance issue's with the FSP case you could look into this case it would be wide enough to fit all cooler's I mentioned here while also not being too expensive

My scheming from when last we spoke appears to be paying off.

I've taken a single Supermicro X9SCL-F board and put it into a server that I'm currently using as a super-simplified SAN - CentOS on a small SSD with a ZFS mirrored vdev pool totaling 2TB for VM storage. I've tested the Dell 0KJYD8 cards that I had lying around with some SFP+ receivers that I bought on eBay in various configurations, and everything seems to work well. It looks like it's time for me to move on to Phase 2 of my plan :)

In preparation for Hurricane Florence (I live close to the east coast) I also went ahead and splurged on new batteries for all 4 of my UPSes - two Cyberpower 1500PFCLCD's and two APC Back-UPS Pro 1500's. I think, once I get the proper cable from Amazon to tell the APC's that they have new batteries and thus report an accurate remaining time to me, I will use those in my homelab, particularly because I can purchase battery expansions for these models to get even more runtime out of them. I'll likely use the Cyberpower UPSes for mine and my partner's desktop rigs. This was a relatively expensive purchase (compared to how much I've spent on the rest of my homelab), but it's definitely going to be worth it to be able to actually trust my UPSes in case of brownouts/blackouts going forward.

With all of that said, here's everything that's currently in my homelab:

Current Hardware

• Whitebox SAN/VM Storage
  
  • Supermicro X9SCL-F
    
  • Xeon E3-1230
    
  • 16GB DDR3 ECC
    
  • 64GB Sandisk SSD - CentOS boot drive
    
  • 4x1TB spinning HDD's - 2x mirrored vdevs for 2TB usable
    
  • Dell 0KJYD8 2x10GbE NIC
    
  • Services/VMs running:
    
    • ZFS exporting datasets for VMs on the (currently only) hypervisor
      
    • OPNsense VM (master) - 2x NICs from the mobo passed through to the VM (means that technically this box is airgapped, which for a SAN is okay by me)
      
• Whitebox Hypervisor 01
  
  • Shuttle case + mobo
    
  • Core i5-4670
    
  • 32GB DDR3
    
  • 64GB mSATA SSD - CentOS boot drive
    
  • Dell 0KJYD8 2x10GbE NIC (direct connect to SAN)
    
  • VMs running:
    
    • apt-cacher-ng - apt and yum caching server for other systems
      
    • many more planned but not yet implemented :)
      
• Whitebox NAS
  
  • Generic case (will soon be replaced)
    
  • AMD FX-8320E
    
  • 8GB DDR3
    
  • 2x16GB Sandisk flash drives - ZFS mirrored vdev for FreeNAS OS
    
  • 6x4TB spinning HDD - 3x mirrored vdev for 12TB usable
    
  • Used as a target for backups, media, etc
    
  • *may* eventually get a 10GbE card if I ever wind up with a 10GbE fiber switch... whenever that happens. :P
    
    

    // todo (immediate)
    

    
    

• Purchase rackmount cases and accessories for existing hardware
  
  • For SAN + Hypervisors: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A7NBO6E/
    
  • For SAN: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0BIPYC/
    
  • For NAS: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0091IZ1ZG/
    
  • 4x of these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XXDJASY/
    
    

    // todo (future)
    

    
    

• Purchase more Supermicro boards and replace other hypervisor hardware with them
  
• Build a bigger rack (I've been inspired by posts around here of others building their own racks, and I figure I can give it a shot too)
  
• ...actually get around to playing around with various homelab services :)

To be honest, I picked that one because the reviews said it was easy to build in. I thought the design looked cool enough, but I'm really not picky about how it looks. Do you think this is a better choice?

The disc drive is there for fun. Entirely not necessary, but I do still occasionally burn CDs for my car and to hand out at events. I figured the inclusion wouldn't compromise anything, or is that incorrect? Thanks for your input friend

Following the "modesty is best policy" principles I would recommend a few things here:

• Go with the really good main monitor, looks like you got the 27 inch 1440p 144hz Acer. (This is freesync btw. I recommend the Dell S2716DGR for the G-Sync - AMD vs Nvidia) and pick up a 1080p side monitor.
  
  
• Ditch the liquid cooling. It's an unnecessary hassle for anyone other than PC enthusiasts in the OC communities. A Cooler Master or the Noctua (if you have enough room in your case.) Both will provide ample cooling and your CPU will last just as long as with a liquid cooling kit.
  
  
• In combo with the above, my favorite case so far (after 4 PC builds for myself and family) is the Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube. Lots of room for cables in the back and gives your components a nice display with LOTS of airflow.
  
  
• I would, however, recommend going to an M.2 SSD, which is significantly faster than a standard SSD. Not much of a price jump there.
  
  I see others have spoken about overclocking your CPU and such already. My opinion is to skip overclocking. For the standard gamer wanting a quality experience that is getting a top of the line CPU, there's zero need to OC. I went with the i7-7700 non 'k' version and have been plenty happy. It saved some money too.
  
  Keep in mind your peripherals. Usually those are overlooked when upgrading your PC, but maybe it's time for a new mouse/keyboard, new controller, headphones, etc.
  
  Also if you're dad is giving you a budget, is he giving you the money to spend, or buying the stuff for you? If you don't get the remaining money from $3k, maybe you should include those things now instead of later.

You're good to go w/o thermal paste, it's included with the 212 EVO

A good case to go with would probably be something like the Corsiar Carbide SPEC-02, it looks great, windowed, $60 on Amazon.

As for the monitor, I've heard really good things from the Acer S220HQLAbd, it's $110 on Amazon. I've created an updated parts list for you.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor | $179.99 @ Micro Center
CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler | $29.98 @ OutletPC
Motherboard | MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate ATX LGA1150 Motherboard | $84.99 @ Micro Center
Memory | Kingston Black Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $44.17 @ Amazon
Storage | Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $48.99 @ NCIX US
Video Card | MSI GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card | $319.99 @ Amazon
Case | Corsair SPEC-02 ATX Mid Tower Case | $59.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply | Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply | $64.99 @ Amazon
Monitor | Acer S220HQLAbd 21.5" Monitor | $109.99 @ Amazon
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available. | $943.08
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-20 15:39 EDT-0400 |

Thanks again for all the help. I'll look closer at my hand size and the mouse reviews when I can accurately measure my hand size. This one can wait, as I can use a cheapo mouse to get the pc setup initially.

On the monitor you've listed, how would that compare to this one I found on buildapcsales?

https://m.newegg.com/products/N82E16824011162?amp

I'm putting together my Amazon and Newegg carts right now and hopefully I'll be at Microcenter either tomorrow or Monday.

I hope you won't begrudge me nickel and diming myself on a case I like a little better, I think I might grab the Fractal Meshify C.

https://www.amazon.com/Fractal-Design-FD-CA-MESH-C-WT-TGC-Computer-Case/dp/B07BPP9KYD/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1550379024&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=Fractal+Design+Meshify&dpPl=1&dpID=51goY0qXoxL&ref=plSrch

I recently went through somethings similar... lots of separate external drives and looking for a solution to bring it all together. The main two things I think you'll need to consider are performance and noise. At first I bought a Dell R720XD server which can fit 12 3.5" drives in it, and I was going to mount it in a closet using this wall mount bracket. What I ended up finding out though is that that server is loud and way too loud for my house. I returned it and instead decided to build one myself with the help from the great community at /r/JDM_WAAAT who also host the serverbuilds.net site. I built a server with a Rosewill L4500 case which can hold 15 or so drives but there are other options too. This gives me room to expand and I was able to make it super quiet, which was a much bigger factor than I realized originally.

The next thing you're going to want to figure out is the operating system to run on the server. Your setup would be considered JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Drives). I would recommend using drivepool (if on Windows) or mergerfs (if on linux). Add snapraid for your backup solution... I've been following the guide here. I went from knowing nothing about linux to actually preferring it, so I'm using mergerfs + snapraid at the moment.

Regarding your drives... the ones that are less than 1TB are probably not worth keeping. I have an old Seagate 500GB and I don't know what to do with it. It's slow, old, and I never use it.

Speaking of performance... so what I did was I built my server and I'm filling it with 8TB and 10TB drives. The external drives I was using were 5TB and not rated to really be used in a NAS type of setting. I had at least 10 of those drives, and now that I've transferred all of my data to this pretty powerful server, I've been trying to come up with a solution for all of those older externals which will basically become my backup server. I ended up buying an Orange Pi 3 (Single Board Computer) and I'll be using a USB strip like what you have underneath your desk, and I'm 3D printing the box for it at work. I'm not sure how much power this will have but I'm basically replicating my current server setup using low power, low heat components in a much smaller package. I'm just about to start this project and it's gonna be interesting!

If you decide to build your own PC, I can at least recommend a case: I recently bought one and love it.
Phanteks Enthoo Pro Full Tower Chassis

Probably the best case you can get for $100 (and honestly, you probably don't want to waste money on anything cheaper than that). However, it's high-quality and has good built-in cable management features - easy for a non-builder like myself to work with. It's also really extensible and modular: if you wind-up getting interested in this and a year from now you want an enormous graphics card or CPU cooler, a liquid cooling solution, lots of hard drives, or multiple case fans, you'll be able to add them easily. Very future-proof. I'm not a serious gamer - those guys can recommend better options in the $200-300 range, but I think for your situation this is an excellent starting-point.

Here's what I would do: MSI Krait edition motherboard + Corsair Dominator Platinum Series RAM sticks. It is a better overclocking mobo and you get the style points for a black/white build. Also, the RAM is faster so you're a little bit more futureproofed. The Cryorig H7 is replacing the 212 in terms of the go-to air cooler, otherwise the Corsair water cooling kit is a great option as well (also fits color scheme). I'm personally recommending 240GB since I've filled up my 120GB with games and programs twice now before I had to do some cleaning. I also like this case better, plus you can remove drive bays to make room for larger GPUs, if you are still undecided about which one you want. I wouldn't worry about M.2, I got that SSD and never ended up using it. If you do end up building this, please do take pics :)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor | $345.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler | CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler | $34.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI Z170A KRAIT GAMING 3X ATX LGA1151 Motherboard | $149.99 @ Amazon
Memory | Corsair Dominator Platinum Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz | $109.99 @ Amazon
Storage | Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $49.99 @ Amazon
SSD | Kingston SV300S37A/240G | 67.86 @ Amazon
Video Card | Sapphire Radeon RX 480 8GB Video Card |-
Case | Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case | $54.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply | EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | $89.99 @ Amazon
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | ~$903.80
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-14 19:36 EDT-0400 |

I see, this build is basically for maxing out most games at 1080p, so I wouldn't be able to see it's full potential, but that's not a problem. But my monitor's resolution is 1400x900, is that not Full HD?

I bought this PC for like a 150 bucks so I guess that is what I get for the price. A small question, when Amazon says free shipping, do they mean free shipping internationally or only in the "Glorious" USA? Also, The Corsair Spec-01 case is kinda expensive right now, do you recommend any other case for the same price? It is 77$ in Amazon but 55$ in Newegg.

SPEC-01 (Amazon) - http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-SPEC-01-Gaming-CC-9011050-WW/dp/B00I6BJATW/

SPEC-01 (Newegg) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139041

AMD Athlon (Free Shipping?) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139041

Thx so much for the fast and very clear answer !
CPU
Shoudl I take the intel core i7-6700 k instead of the i7-6700 ?
Case
I'm sorry I changed my mind about the case so it will probably change the motherboard too ^^
I decided to take a Corsair Carbide Series 200R : https://www.amazon.ca/Corsair-Carbide-200R-Compact-CC-9011023- WW/dp/B009GXZ8MM/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1465910816&sr=1-3 Because space is not an issue and we could probably have a better motherboard for the same price right ? (Because it is a normal ATX board)
Motherboard
Maybe my first pick would work but if you have another idea it would probably be better !
RAM
Will it all change and my first pick was better ?
Thx one more time and have a nice day !

Prebuilt NAS from the likes of Synology is a huge waste of money. The ones that can transcode 1080p media properly cost upwards of $600, and that's without the storage.

For well under $600 (again excluding storage) you can build a kick-ass dual socket Xeon based server that will transcode one 4k stream without breaking a sweat, 2 would be a stretch, but maybe.

• Gigabyte GA-7PESH2 mobo - $175
  
• 2x Xeon E5-2650 V2 - $110
  
• Couple of half-decent coolers - $45
  
• 4U server chassis - $145 often on sale for $100
  
• 16GB 1066 or 1333 ECC REG memory - around $50 on eBay
  
• Decent PSU with dial EPS connectors - $60 on Evga B-stock site
  
• 2x SAS break-out cables if you want to run the SATA HDDs at their full potential speeds - $30
  
• As much SATA storage as you can afford. I usually buy the 8TB WD MyBook external drives when they go on sale, for around $130 each, and shuck them.
  
  You won't even need a GPU. Just make sure your monitor has VGA input for setting up the server, and after the initial setup it can run headless. The passmark score on the 2 CPUs is over 20k which is plenty.
  
  For more information check out https://serverbuilds.net site and Discord channel. Based on their guides I built a very capable server for under $400, and it does extremely well transcoding multiple 1080p streams simultaneously. Besides Plex Media Server it also runs all my automation like NZBget, Sonarr, Radarr, Bazarr, Tautulli, MCEBuddy (for converting 4k to 1080p,) Commskip (for removing commercials from recorded OTA programs,) and is my backup target for 4 Duplicati sources. The CPU load never goes above 50%, so I may throw all my home automation on there as well.

I just ordered mine so I can't actually vouch for it, but the Meshify C is a pretty good price point and the reviews are pretty solid https://www.amazon.com/Fractal-Design-FD-CA-MESH-C-WT-TGC-Computer-Case/dp/B07BPP9KYD?keywords=meshify+c&qid=1540674214&s=Electronics&sr=1-1&ref=sr_1_1

of course, if you're willing to spend more you could possibly get a nicer case, though I haven't been seeing "nice" (aka has features but also is well liked) cases on sale very much lately.

Nice great monitor.

I'd go for slightly cheaper case. Either the Meshify C is a great option or the Cooler Master Masterbox if you wanna stick with the RGB.


I'd go a little higher end on the PSU. The Seasonic Focus Plus is a great tier 1 PSU and fully modular but if you don't want to spend more then go for a Corsair CX series which is semi modular at least. Or if you wanna maintain the RGB theme you could go with this Thermaltake PSU.

Double your SSD capacity and get a higher tier one for only a few bucks more with the WD Blue.. Or go with a M.2 form factor one since your MOBO has a slot for it.

Just some ideas. CPU and GPU are good combo, as is the RAM.

Seems good enough. Intel would be better, but this is a super cheap build so no big deal. I would definitely get an ssd. It will make it seem like a faster machine than it actually is. MOST important thing to me for sure. You could save a little on the case too I think. This is what I have. Very decent for the price.

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-SPEC-01-Tower-Gaming/dp/B00I6BJATW/ref=sr_1_22?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1479884956&sr=1-22&keywords=Computer+case

Story Time

​

Initially, I started with this case ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Q2Z11QE ) as I was thinking of throwing something together like what you're talking about. Then my "project" began to grow.

That's when I ended up ordering this case instead ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005KQ66ZC ). That said, my server consists of a Threadripper 2990WX with an AIO water cooler. Well...this case wasn't made for that. So my father in law machined a hole in the top to mount the radiator on the top of the case like a blower on a car. This worked VERY well for a couple of weeks, but I just wasn't happy with it.

Finally, I ordered this case ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0091IZ1ZG ), to which I was able to fit everything inside of with a few extra bolts that still need to be trimmed. Here's a pic of the inside of mine and the temp 32 cores runs at ( https://imgur.com/tek9ID0 - https://imgur.com/vEPFLv5 ), do excuse the dust.

​

As far as SSD's go, just do something like this ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GMGZBP0 ). Saves space and doesn't hurt them as they only take a single HDD slot. Taping them to the side of the case doesn't hurt either if you don't care about the looks. Also, I want to boast about these fans for a min ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KFCRF1A ). Move a lot of air and aren't as loud as you'd think. The 120mm variant is a good bit louder, but still well worth it.

A lot of that looks great - except that a 4U rack mount case is large, and will easily fit a full ATX motherboard and graphics card.

I've never overclocked before, so I guess what I'm mostly looking for is the following:

• A great Z370 motherboard that has lots of features (addressing the extra SATA ports was a great thought - I also had the Blu-ray drive I wanted to hook up, and that requires SATA. I haven't built a system in 8 years, so I didn't realize that the M.2 port can overlay a SATA port) but doesn't have to have all the fancy lights, armor, etc that just make it look pretty.
  
• It's going to be rack mounted 2 feet down from my network switch, so wireless isn't needed.
  
• Whatever cooler would be required to keep an i7-8700k cool under mild to moderate overclocking, preferably air-cooled.
  
  How does having the extra space available in the case change your recommendation, if any? I mean, I have a 7ft tall 42U rack in my basement - for this, space isn't really a concern, because I have about 30U available currently.
  
  Thanks again!

Really awesome idea, happy to give it a test drive. Finding my config was pretty easy - nice work on that. The suggestion I got was a little odd though - the most expensive improvement it came up with was to upgrade to 1TB SSD, when I think there are several CPU/GPU upgrades I could make with my mobo:

|Part type|Name|URL|Price|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|motherboard|LGA1151 Z170||0|
|processor|Intel Core i5 6600/6600k||0|
|memory|ddr4 16GB 2666MHz (2 RAM slots)||0|
|video_card|Nvidia GeForce GTX 960||0|
|drive|Western Digital Black NVMe 1TB M.2-2280 SSD|https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6ZP7FS6170|248.17|
|power_supply|SeaSonic Focus 550W 80+ Platinum SSR-550PX|https://www.amazon.com/-/dp/B074N8YBK9/?tag=envybits-20|99.9|
|computer case|Corsair Carbide 100R|https://www.amazon.com/-/dp/B00RORBQNW/?tag=envybits-20|49.99|
|total|-|-|398.06|

Yes. Current metrics would call it a "modest" computer.

CPU: Dual core Pentiums and Phenom 2's.

Something like this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7651325&SRCCODE=LINKSHARE&cm_mmc_o=-ddCjC1bELltzywCjC-d2CjCdwwp&AffiliateID=tCdAnHNE6xQ-iu_wzMq7YUPooc98Htqh1g

Or this:
http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Phenom-3-4Ghz-512KB-4000MHZ/dp/B002SRQ214?tag=logicaincrem-20


Don't spend more than ~120 bucks on a CPU.


GPU: Radeon 6570, 6670 or 7750

The 6570 should be considered the bare minimum for a dedicated GPU. The 6670 is a great deal of bang for your buck. 7750 is as well. All of these should be able to handle modern games from at least the lowest rung of settings. My old computer with a 6670 runs WoW on high settings, and COD4 : 3 at all high settings, and can run Company of Heroes 2 from at least low settings smoothly.


All three cards should be bought for 100$ or less.



RAM: 4 gigs is adequate. If you want to splurge 8 gigs is more than affordable.

Don't spend more than 60 bucks on RAM.


HDD: 500 gigs can be bought for ~50 bucks. 1 TB can be bought at about 70. Either is probably excessive.


PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10440897&PID=5961731&SID=0


or


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10440897&PID=5961731&SID=0


Depending on future wants and needs.



Case:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811815014&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10440897&PID=5961731&SID=0


Or


http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-Series-Compact-CC-9011023-WW/dp/B009GXZ8MM?tag=logicaincrem-20


I use a corsair 200r currently. Can't complain. Comes with two 120mm fans, has room for 7 more.


Mother Board:


Depending on what CPU you buy,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157394&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10440897&PID=5961731&SID=0


or


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157362&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10440897&PID=5961731&SID=0


or


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157314&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10440897&PID=5961731&SID=0

Yeah it's a small cheap matx case from silverstone. Good case for what it is, but there are certainly better ones out there. Microcenter has the Bitfenix Shinobi on sale for $40. That's cheap for that case, although it only comes with one exhaust fan. Here's another good option. If you can spend $80 on a case, the Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 or Define R4 are great cases. The Arc Midi is geared towards air flow, and the R4 towards quietness.

are you sure you want a $40 and under mATX mini tower? All of them have mediocre airflow at best; the focus g ATX is $50 and the focus g mATX is $60, both having excellent airflow, and the next best option is the cougar mx330 for $40, having OK airflow, but for $40 and under, there's not really a lot of options

That being said, this is probably the best case that will fit your specifications



currently for psu's, the cx 2017 series is on sale for under 30 dollars, so if you're on a tight budget, you might wanna grab this

Case is mostly subjective so everything I say is also but I like the look of the corsair 200R more and it can be found at 50$ with 10$ MIR from NCIX (I wanted to link you to the same merchant though), and same goes for the NZXT Source 220

The only other changes I could offer would be to save a little bit and drop to a 600W PSU, but if you plan to Crossfire in the future having the 750W PSU makes sense.

You can save a bit on the RAM by dropping to 1600 MHz (which in performance translates to a fraction of a percent usually depending on the application)

Those are about all the corners there are to cut that I see besides dropping to a MicroATX to save another 10$ or so, if you'd feel comfortable with that I could look for a compatible MoBo. To get under 650 you will have to roll back the CPU and the GPU.

Hey guys, I'm about to build my first computer and I have some questions that, hopefully, can be answered by more experienced individuals:

• Someone suggested that instead of having one 2TB of storage, you get two 1TB of storage? Is that true?
  
• What are some of the best cases around the $60-$75 range? At the moment, I am thinking about using this case.
  
• How good is this CPU? Does it need a lot of cooling? Is there a better one at a similar or smaller price?
  Thanks guys!

Thinking about building a 3950X machine this fall. My main debate now is about what case to build in. I've narrowed it down to the Thermaltake V21 or the Cooler Master NR400.

I already have one V21 build; it houses a 16c/32t 1950X for compute and simulation tasks. The V21 case was a pleasure to work with. On the other hand, the NR400 is another micro-ATX case that caught my eye. It might be fun to build in.

Probable specs:

Part | Type
---|-----
Motherboard | MSI B450M Mortar Max
CPU | AMD 3950X 16c/32t
GPU | probably a 2070 Super
RAM | 16GB DDR4 3200
SSD | Inland Premium 1TB
HDD | 12TB WD Gold
PSU | EVGA 650w
Case | V21 or NR400

Shoutout to /u/caesar15 for recommending the Inland Premium SSD.

Looks pretty good! If you don't care too much about appearances, maybe get a cheaper case. Most cheaper ones don't look as good but still function the same (good fans, good cooling, etc) Could save you a good amount, heres a nice one

First of all, you're probably going to want to get an unlocked processor (one that ends in a K like 2500k). Then you can overclock it. You already have the motherboard and after market cooler that will allow you to overclock, so there's no reason in not spending the small amount more to get the unlocked processor.

There's not much of a huge gain from DDR3 1333 to higher speeds of memory. Not really a reason to spend $20 more on 8gb of 1866 ram over 1600. And for normal use and gaming, you won't need more than 8gb. If you're video editing or doing something else that uses a lot of memory, then stick with 16gb. However, eliminating one of those 2x4gb gets you really close to being able to buy a 60gb solid state drive for your operating system and a few programs/games.

You can usually find 1tb HDDs for $90, or on sale for $80. If you really don't need the storage then 500gb is fine...

If you can find a 560 w/448 cores on sale for really cheap like $200-$220, then get it. However, the radeon 7850 can be bought for $250. The 7850 performs better and has more vram.

For the case, the HAF 912 is $40 after MIR and is generally regarded as a really good case. But really, the case is up to you. Buy whatever you think looks nice.

Finally, for a power supply, I haven't heard of the brand you have there. I would instead go with a OCZ modular psu that essentially cost $45.

looks good.

if it were me...I'd probably get a different case, like the CM HAF 912 for $60 or the Antec 900 for $70.

cases are largely personal, but your system is pretty badass. For me, I'd hate to have regret over a cheap-ish case when you could get a badass case to match the rest of your system for another ~$35...but it's all up to you, and the case you have would probably be just fine, especially if your on a budget. ~my 2 cents

after reading some reviews for your case, you might not have regret for getting this one... looks like a a pretty nice case as far as $35 cases go

Windows is the easy part so I'll start with that: [$85 on Amazon] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZSI7Y3U).

With video editing as the primary focus, the i7-6700K is going to be your target at that budget-- and while it is overclockable, you don't need to overclock it to get better performance than the i7-6700. [This build also has an RX 480] (https://www.theaipc.com/result/c1468166669259) which should give you good to very good performance at 1080p on almost all games-- though wait a bit for it to start coming back in stock if you can, probably a week or two (the performance is great if it's at list price, stores that have it in stock are currently running $350 instead of $200).

I will say to not bother with the case in that build-- it's not going to give you the kind of airflow you may want if doing intense video editing and won't fit the motherboard properly. [This Corsair] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I0MKMG2) should do you well, though.

All told that'd be a beast of a machine for ~$1400.

Monitor deals: http://www.pcgamer.com/cyber-monday-gaming-monitor-deals/

Cases: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811854028&ignorebbr=1
The Phanteks P400 and P400S are great cases, looking to get a P400S myself.

https://amazon.com/NZXT-Tower-CA-S340W-B1-Glossy-Black/dp/B00NGMIBUU?ie=UTF8&keywords=case%20nzxt%20s340&qid=1480383765&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1
This case is also highly rated and a good value (but not on sale)

https://amazon.com/gp/product/B017XPPHGG/ref=s9_zgift_hd_bw_b2Ore_g147_i7?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-12&pf_rd_r=RJJZ767TNQX3NCQD8XKW&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=c964ba4f-3a33-5fcb-be07-da7df14df9f4&pf_rd_i=572238
Interesting case and on sale.

https://smile.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-Silent-Quiet-Tower/dp/B00RORBQSW/ref=lp_572238_1_11?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1480383832&sr=1-11
Best cheap case, also on sale.

I’ve been very happy with this case: Rosewill 4U Server Chassis/Server Case/Rackmount Case, Metal Rack Mount Computer Case support with 15 bays & 7 Fans Pre-Installed (RSV-L4500) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0091IZ1ZG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_g9S.Bb2HETDCB

Very quiet, looks good, well built, and ticks all your check boxes. Each “fan bay” can support 5 x 3.5” drives or it can be removed to fit 3 x 5.25 devices. I’ve currently filled it with 3 x 2.5” x 6 ICY DOCKs, giving me space for 18 x 2.5” drives in addition to 10 x 3.5” drives.

I entered 1300 as a budget and it came out with this

pc-kombo recommendation

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i7-4790K | EUR 349,00 @ Amazon.de
Motherboard | ASRock Z97 Anniversary | EUR 82,90 @ Cyberport
Memory | Kingston HX316 (8 GB) | EUR 42,32 @ Amazon.de
Storage | WD10EZEX Blue (1 TB) | EUR 52,23 @ Amazon.de
SSD | Samsung MZ-75E250B/EU (256 GB) | EUR 75,97 @ Amazon.de
Video Card | GeForce GTX 980 | EUR 499,00 @ Amazon.de
Case | Fractal Design R5 | EUR 109,11 @ Amazon.de
Power Supply | Be quiet! L8-CM (430 W) | EUR 61,80 @ Amazon.de
| Total | €1272.33
| Generated by pc-kombo 10.01.2016 |

This should acceptable i think. Upgraded graphics card and better CPU. I was looking onto getting more new game title since right now im only capable on playing these two low requirement games. I was thinking about games like GTA V or Witcher 3. I also want some higher graphics in WoW even in intensive Raids.
Maybe change the graphics card since i think its kinda overkill ( is it?)

This one caught my eye first and seems pretty nice. I love the black with red highlights look. Would everything fit in it and would you consider it a good case? Thanks in advance.

Honestly, the tutorials you find will be fine. Like they've said, you'll need a CPU cooler. A couple first-time builder tips I'd recommend, though:

• Make sure you're conscious of static while you build, and ground yourself by touching your case. It'd be easy for a new builder to not account for that, but there are horror stories of pieces being fried.
  
  
• I'd connect everything you can on the mobo outside the case. Seat the processor, put in the RAM. If you go with a cooler that uses a backplate (liquid AIO,) install that too.
  
  
• Micro ATX will be fine in a mid-size case, it's just odd really. You could take advantage of your smaller mobo and get a smaller case if you'd like. I just completed a microATX build in the Corsair Air 240 and love it, for example.
  
  
• Be conscious of your cable management. It'll probably look awful when you're done, because most peoples first build or two always do. Zipties or the little twist ties can go a long way to alleviate that.
  
  
• If you don't have a tiny screwdriver, get one.
  
  You'll be able to manage, no sweat. :) Good luck with your build!

The RX580 has a mail-in rebate making it a $200 card, I already have a hdd, copy of windows, monitor, and necessary peripherals. Is there any way I can optimize it? The case I'm actually getting is the Corsair Carbide 100R, that was the closest case price wise haha (link: https://www.amazon.com/CORSAIR-CARBIDE-100R-Mid-Tower-Case/dp/B00RORBQNW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537296378&sr=8-1&keywords=corsair+carbide+100r). Any suggestions would be amazing, thank you in advanced!

Corsair Carbide series cases are $50 on Amazon. Much better cases. Please consider starting with a good brand like Corsair that has good airflow in mind as well as logical cable routing capability for a clean build.

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-200R-Compact-CC-9011023-WW/dp/B009GXZ8MM/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1416841525&sr=1-1&keywords=pc+case

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-SPEC-01-Gaming-CC-9011050-WW/dp/B00I6BJATW/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1416841164&sr=1-2&keywords=pc+case

I was choosing the 'L' CPUs not really for power consumption but rather for cooling needed as I would expect to be able to run with less noisy fans with those. Does that make sense or heat generated wouldn't change for the use cases mentioned above (prob CPU not running very high load).
What other cases do you have mind that would fit a nice little NAS? I looked as well at this SilverStone Mini-ITXcase or this Fractal Node 304

Based on the comments on this thread, looking into a e5 whitebox, but definitely not the e5-2640 - expensive CPUs even 2nd hand!

No worries Amazon didn't ave one or two of the parts in my original build so switched the PSU & motherboard but they're still very similar, so see below... only $9 more.

(case not included)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 1600X 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor | $257.00 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler | CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler | $47.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI B350M GAMING PRO Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard | $79.99 @ Amazon
Memory | Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory | $52.23 @ Amazon
Storage | Crucial MX300 525GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $149.99 @ Amazon
Video Card | Asus GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Dual Series Video Card | $369.00 @ Amazon
Power Supply | Rosewill 600W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply | $54.99 @ Amazon
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $1011.19
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-25 06:26 EDT-0400 |

* Go to Amazon and look up 'Micro ATX case' (has to match with your motherboard, which is also Micro ATX - it's the most common/easiest to shop for). You can get an OK standard for for under $30, but if you stretch out to around $50-60 you can get some nicer slim/cube ones if you would rather something more portable and less space consuming that the big old school towers (personally I hate those things lol!). You won't get anything as thin as a console, but maybe around the size of a old school VCR player. Some examples:

https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Black-Extreme-Chassis-CA-1D5-00S1WN-00/dp/B00PDDMN6S/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1493114841&sr=1-5&keywords=matx%2Bcase&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-MicroATX-Computer-ATX12V-R379-M/dp/B004EMSH9Q/ref=sr_1_8?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1493115065&sr=1-8&keywords=matx+case&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_browse-bin%3A3606145011%2Cp_36%3A5000-6500

Also a word of advise - if any case comes with a power supply, don't use it - they're often crap and not worth risking any damage to what would be a really, really good system. You might fetch $10-20 on ebay/craigslist/etc for it however which will help the fact that you're $30-50 over budget depending on your case.

Buying parts for my first PC today and i'm still a bit on the fence about the case. This one was recommended to me, but it's a bit too pricey for me, so i was wondering if either of these two would work aswell:

Option 1 or Option 2

I like both more visually and they're both cheaper, but i'm not sure if they would work for my build. Not sure what i need to look out for, so would appreciate some help.

(I'm also open to suggestions for Cases, haven't done much digging)

Gonna paste the build here, so see for yourselves.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor | €139.90 @ Amazon Deutschland
Motherboard | Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard | €66.00 @ Amazon Deutschland
Memory | G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory | €79.99 @ Amazon Deutschland
Storage | Crucial - MX500 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | €69.90 @ Amazon Deutschland
Video Card | ASRock - Radeon RX 570 8 GB Phantom Gaming X Video Card | €144.00 @ Amazon Deutschland
Case | Cooler Master - MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case | €39.90 @ Caseking
Power Supply | Cooler Master - MasterWatt 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply | €57.89 @ Amazon Deutschland
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | €597.58
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-04-13 13:23 CEST+0200 |

Odd that you want to build this yesterday but okay.

Jokes aside, I’ve got a brand new build for you because your rig is pretty dated and if you’ve got $800 you can definitely afford a new system.

|Component|Title|Price|
|:-|:-|:-|
|CPU|Ryzen 5 3400G + Vega 11 GPU|$149 (Amazon US)|
|GPU|Empty GPU|$0 (Amazon US)|
|RAM|(2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000|$74 (Amazon US)|
|Motherboard|Gigabyte B450M DS3H|$70 (Amazon US)|
|Storage|Crucial P1 500GB|$66 (Amazon US)|
|Storage 2|Empty Storage|$0 (Amazon US)|
|Power Supply|Seasonic FOCUS Plus 650 Gold|$88 (Amazon US)|
|Case|Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L|$35 (Amazon US)|
|Monitor|Empty Monitor|$0 (Amazon US)|

Generated by BuildCores on August 21, 2019 12:28 AM

It doesn’t quite take up all of your budget but if you want something a bit better you can toss in a 2060 to that build.

It's actually this case!

Would highly recommend it. Cable management system is fantastic, it's cool and looks great! A cover thing comes for the top grill, which is like a mesh looking plastic thing (technical term).

What's your price range?

The "Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case" at around $100-$120 might be the most expensive mentioned, but I think it does a much better job at airflow and cable management.

• https://i.imgur.com/5Frux7o.jpg
  
  I bought one last year and I've been pretty happy with it.
  
  edit, adding some links
  
  
• linustechtips review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWkwBgDHtW0
  
• amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D6GINF4
  
  

If you're spending $750 dollars on a graphics card, you may want to spend more than $50 on a case. Zalman is pretty well known for low quality products, it's one of the reasons their products are so cheap to buy. The white NZXT S340 is on sale for like $70, it's a fantastic case and usually about $110. If you already have the case, it should fit, and I recommend getting some better case fans if you are using the stock case fans, a 1080 ti will introduce a lot more heat into your case.

For a case that'll leave a smaller footprint, I really want to recommend the Air 240 but because you have the NH-D14 (ayyy Noctua. High five) you will most definitely have a clearance issue. It can definitely house your 780ti though since the Air 240 has no problem housing the 970 G1 even with a rad at the front.

I'd like to throw in the Air 540 because ugh, I really love the Carbide Air 240 and 540

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/YJ2V6X

This was my build, but i saw a few deals so the ssd, mobo, and case are different, i believe the corsair case is still 47 bucks which is a good start

Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-02 Mid Tower Gaming Case https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I0MKMG2/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_66tHxbKS41D39

Doesn't list that as a deal but i was building my list last night and it was 60

If you're only using amazon for the build the ram on the list above is 81usd on amazon...

mobo deal is over but i imagine another will come, there is a newegg bundle, 335usd for i5 6500k, z170 mobo and 8gb 2400mhz ram which is a great start too, pop a gpu, psu and case and it's good to go

Keep in mind that the fans in the promo pictures aren't always (or usually) the fans that the cases actually come with. You always have to read the specs, in this case the Thermaltake case actually only comes with 1 fan.

My personal favorite case manufactures are phanteks, nzxt, or fractile design.

I'd probably recommend something like the Enthoo Pro M as I find phanteks cases to be amazing to build in.

If you're looking for something closer in price to the other one then I'd go for something like a Corsair 100R.

Keep in mind most cases will come with at most 1 or 2 fans, if you want more fans you'll have to purchase them separately.

Just a few things I notice:

1. Your motherboard is overkill for iRacing. You could go with a motherboard like this one and get the same quality of play. From talking to computer people, once you get past the $150 range for a motherboard you really are splitting hairs as to noticeable performance gains. Might save $80 or so.
   
   
2. You included a sound card in your build. Most motherboards have onboard sound cards. So unless you're doing things above what iRacing is capable of, the motherboard has all the sound you'll need. So that could save you $34.
   
   
3. Computer case opinions seem to vary. But if you aren't totally in love with that case then take a look at this one. I just bought it and it seems to be a pretty good case. Lots of room inside and plenty of space for fans and cooling. It will save you around $62 if you have amazon prime.
   
   So with the $175 you could upgrade to the i7-6700k CPU that is 4.0GHz or you could upgrade to the 1080 graphics card... or you could pocket it. I'm not a computer guy by any means, but the people on the iRacing forum helped me learn a ton when I was trying to figure all of this out. Hope it helps.

Nope, just a standard case but with the whole right side being dedicated to cables / power supply / drives. I have the newer version of it.

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-High-Airflow-Cube/dp/B00D6GINF4

And the newer one:

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-Air-740-CC-9011096-WW/dp/B01LHFLPB4

EASILY the best case I've ever used in a build, by a wide margin.

Hopefully, someday, some time, I get my dream PC. If you need help with parts or anything let me know and I'll be happy to help. Also, here are some cases that I like :-

https://www.amazon.com/NZXT-S340-Tower-CA-S340W-W1-White/dp/B00NGMIBXC/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1473528432&sr=1-1&keywords=nzxt+s340

https://www.amazon.com/Noctis-Tower-CA-N450W-M1-Matte-Black/dp/B00VX1L31K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473568199&sr=8-1&keywords=nzxt+noctis

https://www.amazon.com/Phanteks-Enthoo-Evolv-Computer-Case/dp/B01F0KWTXA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473568215&sr=8-1&keywords=phantek+enthoo+evolv

Alright here we go, it's close to budget, but the looks and performance are amazing.

CPU and MOBO: https://www.microcenter.com/product/5003166/AMD_Ryzen_7_3700X_with_Wraith_Prism_Cooler,_ASUS_ROG_Strix_X570-F_Gaming,_CPU_-_Motherboard_Bundle

Other Parts are better bought on AMAZON.

GPU: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TMK8HMC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

RAM: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D5SN1ZK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

SSD: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CYJ4GS3/ref=ox_sc_act_title_7?smid=AAQGGA3IAV1C8&psc=1

HDD:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H2RR55Q/ref=ox_sc_act_title_6?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

CPU Cooler:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074SD6LH3/ref=ox_sc_act_title_8?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

FANS:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NB0S6A6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

PSU:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N4C39AR/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Case:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BPP9KYD/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

​

I went with a White/Black Design with RGB Lighting. I should be just a bit above budget after tax. This PC should crush High/Ultra detail VR, Streaming, Workstation, 120FPS+ AAA 1080p Gaming, Competitive eSports, and even Light Server Loads.

It should be $1704.06 Pre-Tax and around $1850 After Tax

Great, I'm very nearly kitted out. :D

Back full circle to the case. I like the look of this Enthoo. Good price and lots of space. I'm worried about overheating since it's going to be in a pretty warm place, so a full tower gives it lots of room for airflow. And I'm thinking one of these for the rear mount.

EDIT: That's as well as the CPU fan.

Alright will add the power supply to the updated list. Just to clarify on the gcard, I cannot get the blower because it is incompatible with my build, I now understand that. Have already added in the monitor to my build & at the end of optimizing this pc part list, I should be able to afford getting the better gcard, being the xfx gtr. Would you recommend the gtr instead of the msi, performance-wise?

edit: think I found a better case regardless of price. This corsair is better than the one you suggested correct? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I0MKMG2/?tag=pcpapi-20&th=1

Okay awesome thank you, all of this info is super helpful.
Can I go with a USB plugin for the wifi or do I need to buy a PCI-E one?
Think I'm going with this for motherboard - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0131GA4WI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A2L77EE7U53NWQ&psc=1
and this for case - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NGMIBXC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Are you looking for rackmount? You aren't likely to find anything with 120-140mm fan support. Most rackmounts have tiny, but loud fast spinning fans.

It's not supermicro, or rackmount, but something like this might work well. Can hold 8 x 3.5 drives, and also has space for 4x 2.5" drives inside. The only thing it doesn't have is ATX PSU support. It needs a SFX power supply.

Silverstone DS380

If you need Rackmount, maybe take a look at some Norco cass. This 4U Norco case might fit the bill. You'd just need to get some adaptors to put in the 2.5" drives.

Great, thanks. I'm a little concerned about overheating the GPU, since the original case wasn't designed for use with a high-end GPU.

However, I don't know how to tell whether a case will have good enough ventilation. Do you think this one would be OK?

The Fractal Design Define R4 has great build quality along with noise suppression. It has sound dampening material on the side panels as well as being very heavy; this allows the case to counteract fan and drive vibrations and to absorb sound easily. I have this case and everything runs very quiet even when gaming under heavy load.

Another case that I would recommend researching is the NZXT S340. This case along with the Fractal Design Define R4 are probably among 2 of the most popular cases for PC gaming. I just have a personal preference for the R4 as I have more experience with it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NGMIBUU/ref=twister_B019C7RTYQ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Vpdqqs/nzxt-case-cas340ww1

I'm not sure about the fans but I can recommend some good mATX cases.

This is a really nice case: http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-Airflow-MicroATX-Mini-ITX/dp/B00LA6WXEO/ref=sr_1_8?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1462648211&sr=1-8&keywords=micro+atx+case

I can recommend others if you tell me your budget.

It could well be enough, but since you're on a bike I'd recommend being safe than sorry. Something like this will spread the weight distribution out a bit more and should keep the card safer.

I would go with the Ryzen 1600. It comes with an okay stock cooler for just 200 dollars. Look up "B350 Ryzen" and you will find lots of motherboards that are cheaper than motherboards that use Coffeelake CPUs. Also, "IMO" i think that this case looks better.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CC-9011075-WW-Windowed-Mid-Tower-Computer/dp/B00RORBQNW/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1511229923&sr=1-1&keywords=corsair+100r
I know Computer hardware is pretty expensive rn but newegg is having some great bundle deals! I recommend trying to get a little bit faster ram because it is not that much more expensive over lower clocked ram.
https://www.newegg.com/Combos/EventSaleStore/ID-50?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=IGNEFL112017&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL112017-_-EMC-112017-Index-_-E0I-_-Combos01&et_cid=39599&et_rid=15984067&email64=ZXRoYW4uY3Jvd2VAbGl2ZS5jb20%3d
I hoped this helped you. Sorry it looks so messy, I was in a rush trying to put this together. Happy PC building!

There's quite a few by corsair that are priced under 100 dollars. Most of them are well designed and decent to excellent quality.

This is on sale for 99


https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00EB6O4N8/ref=mp_s_a_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1468385177&sr=8-9&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=corsair+case

Or this for example

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00LA6WXEO/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1468385177&sr=8-13&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=corsair+case


While filling different needs, both cases offer great cable management, good aesthetics, stellar interior arrangements, and good quality. If you check out the accessories section of the corsair website, some cases have back plane updates, widowed side panels, or just well priced replacement parts. Not something every manufacturer offers.

Best thing to do is to buy a new case. Either this https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Mini-Itx-Computer-DS380B-USA/dp/B07PCH47Z2/ref=sr_1_15?keywords=silverstone+hotswap&qid=1566943919&s=gateway&sr=8-15 Which a quite a lot of folks I know who are using mini iTX are using something like this. 8 hotswap 3.5 and 4 x 2.5 https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=452 or if you want to use ALL your drives and a cheaper alternative https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0091IZ1ZG/ref=twister_B079C7QGNY?_encoding=UTF8&th=1 You can fit 15 x 3.5 in that. or get some 2x2.5 to 1x3.5 to shove some SSDs in there too. https://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Internal-Mounting-Included-ST1002S/dp/B01FD8YJB4/ref=sr_1_11?keywords=2.5+x+3.5&qid=1566944571&s=electronics&sr=1-11 There are various companies I looked quickly on Amazon. That way you can have 12 drives rather than just 6. The cheap sata cards will fix you up or shove this in there https://www.amazon.com/Crest-Non-RAID-Controller-Supports-FreeNAS/dp/B07NFRXQHC/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=I%2FO+Crest+8+Port+SATA+III+Non-RAID+PCI-e+x4+Controller+Card+Supports+FreeNAS+and+ZFS+RAID&qid=1566944762&s=electronics&sr=1-1 . Hope this helps :)

Primary Components are...

Rosewill RSV-L4500 Case: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0091IZ1ZG/

GPU Bracket Coversion Kit: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1731197.0

F12 Silent Arctic (~800RPM) 120mm Fans: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0119T0D4I/

6-Pack v009S Risers: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B077JYBDYT/

6pin Extension Cables: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B073M4643C/

Corsair 1200 Watt Platinum PSU: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U6GTONM/

GIGABYTE GA-H110-D3A Mainboard: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B073ZMZV6K

4 PNY GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GPUs: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01IR5MR32

I just built this for something to keep me out of trouble, didn't really expect to make any money, maybe free heat in the winter. So far I'm pleasantly surprised it's making ~$40 weekly (at rates as of today, lol) after deducting power costs. No sure how long it will last at that rate, but I'm having fun. Got one more 8pin (to dual 6pin) corsair type 3 cable arriving next week, then will be able to throw another card in there (PSU has six 8pin ports). Making about 100+ RVN daily right now, probably gonna look for newer coins once in awhile and just HODL them all and see what happens...that's my stragegy so far.

I was very surprised how well the 3 front fans do only being 800 to 1000 RPM, then again I don't have monster GPUs in this rig, just 6pin 1060s. Heat did NOT increase after closing the top, BUT I had to remove the front door because it cut down airflow too much and things heated up very quickly. Mining X16 seems to keep heat / power usage down I guess? Haven't mined much else yet, I suspect ethash might be a different story.

EDIT: The four 1060 GPUs are only pulling 330 watts at the wall...pretty sweet. I haven't mined in years, I was predicting a lot higher.

Hi all. Love the NAS Killer guide, I think this build would be a great replacement for my aging Synology DS212J. Question, though: Would this build work well in the Thermaltake Core V21 case? I know that case costs more and doesn't come with a power supply, but it would fit better into the spot where I'd like to put my NAS. Thoughts?

Looks like a great build, with that bit of extra cash, you could get an i5 6500 (better clock speeds). I think an ATX motherboard would look better in your case, I would go for the MSI B150 PC Mate or the AsRock H170 PRO 4S. To squeeze an SSD in there, you could save a bit of money with the MasterBox 5 or the S340 and pick up the PNY CS1311 120GB SSD along with your HDD. Also, you could possibly get an RX 480 like this to save money on non-SLI motherboards and FreeSync monitors instead of a GSync one. Sorry if this was overwhelming, but I hope this helps.

"I priced everything out online and this is what it's worth" suuurrreee....

• 4TB Hard Drive - $120
  
  
• i7 2600K - $175
  
  
• 16GB RAM - $50
  
  
• 7850 - $75 I actually bought a 7870 on eBay a few months ago for $57 but whatever
  
  
• Motherboard, can't find one but equivalent decent mobos would be like $150
  
  
• PSU - $75 and probably better than the one this thing comes with
  
  
• CPU Cooler - $20
  
  
• Case - $70
  
  
• Enough LEDs to melt this computer - $20
  
  I'd offer $750 for everything, tops.

The top one is https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0055EV30W/ref=ppx_yo_mob_b_inactive_ship_o0_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1 housing an AMD Epyc 7281.

Underneath that is my NAS chassis, https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00N9CXGSO/ref=ya_aw_oh_bia_dp?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

They've been pretty solid. I replaced the fans with quieter ones. Same goes with my USG. The whole setup has a nice quiet hum 😊

Amd Ryzens are pretty nice at the moment and cheap. Ryzen 1600 is a good choice. I recommend a SSD disk and a second one HDD so you have a faster system and also an storage disk. Graphic card will be the hardest. Maybe a cheap 1050 2 gb will do.



Processor: Ryzen 1600 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06XNRQHG4/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520330748&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=ryzen+5+1600&dpPl=1&dpID=319ktX3yGXL&ref=plSrch

Hard disk (hdd): barracuda works - https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01IEKG402/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1520330798&sr=8-5&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=hdd&dpPl=1&dpID=5152Tk32IxL&ref=plSrch

Graphic card (gt 1050; 2 gb) - https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01MEGB6LK/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520330867&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=1050+2gb&dpPl=1&dpID=51KuYAEIFPL&ref=plSrch

Motherboard: B350 for ryzen - https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06WVFFXXL/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520331052&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=b350&dpPl=1&dpID=51%2BX8pCoVML&ref=plSrch

Ram: corsair vengeance 8 gb - https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01ARHBBPS/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1520331152&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=ram+ddr4+8gb&dpPl=1&dpID=41fGQgRH9hL&ref=plSrch

Heatsink from artic - https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005IOLEJO/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520331385&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=heatsink+for+ryzen&dpPl=1&dpID=51vHMnzWlEL&ref=plSrch

Power supply: standard - https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B014W3EMAO/ref=mp_s_a_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1520331603&sr=8-7&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=power+supply+650w&dpPl=1&dpID=51jq9j94-TL&ref=plSrch

Case: also standard stuff - https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00RORBQNW/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1520331936&sr=8-5&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=pc+case&dpPl=1&dpID=41Wq97Jk20L&ref=plSrch


The total is around 700. You may need to add some more things put this is enough for full functionallity. Also, I wouldnt buy the parts on amazon, but this way you can search them in a good electronics shop from your country which adds the assembly. Standards can be changed easily, that depends on what you preffer.

Similar price, no it's hard to beat a 40$ case cost wise

I built in this the last time. It was ok, I'm still salty they discontinued the first case I ever built in it was amazing.

Cooler Master USA System Cabinet Cases RC-912-KKN1-GP, Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003ZM7YTA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_kleDCb43DTKW1


This one is pretty good as well.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wc3yxG

I'm willing to go to like 60-70 but Amazon has some cases like This and This on sale right now which look really good.

If I wait I'm willing to pay more for sure.


Do cases usually last multiple builds for the average user? The orange graphite series case really appeals to me especially if it's something that lasts through a few builds.

Corsair SPEC-02. Looks nice, built nicely, and pretty cheap.

I'm pretty sure this budget.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CC-9011051-WW-Carbide-Windowed-Mid-Tower/dp/B00I0MKMG2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458523617&sr=8-1&keywords=Corsair+Carbide+Series+SPEC-02

Stock cooler is loud at full RPM, but is pretty quiet at its minimum, which is typically more than enough most of the time. If you are trying to save a few $$ might just drop the cooler and see if it works to your liking and you can always buy it later.

If you go MATX there is also a few cube based case options such as the one below.

https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Black-Extreme-Chassis-CA-1D5-00S1WN-00/dp/B00PDDMN6S?th=1

The G4560 should be sufficient for what you want to do minus perhaps the video work depending on how much/how often you do it. The new Pentium chips are the same as i3s now (2 core/4 thread) and are very good at their price. If you do a lot of video work (or enough that it eats up a lot of time in the day waiting on it) you might consider Ryzen 5 instead, it will run you about the same as the i5, but you will have to go matx as there are no itx options yet and will need a video card.

If 8 bays is all you need right now, consider something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Norco-4U-Rackmount-Components-RPC-4308/dp/B00N5C6GYY/ref=sr_1_16?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1536045035&sr=1-16&keywords=short+depth+rack+mount

or

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0055EV30W/ref=psdc_572238_t1_B00BQY388A?th=1

​

What I would do is use:

-Full size atx asrock taichi motherboard (Which has 8 sata ports, with all the pci-e slots you'll ever want for expansion. The taichi ultimate has a 10gb port)

-A Ryzen APU (The Ryzen 5 2400GE 3.8GHz 35W looks interesting https://www.quietpc.com/amd-2nd-gen-ryzen-cpus)

-ECC ram. A single 16gb stick would be fine, which gives plenty of expansion potential later.

-Openmediavault with the zfs plugin

-Reuse a power supply I have around, but really good new ones aren't much these days.

​

And boom, you'll have everything you need as well as future expandability for much less than a prebuilt nas that locks you into an ecosystem. The norco case would allow you to add another five disk bay in the middle, and you could use the pci-e slot to get an hba card and use sas to sata cables to connect those drives.

Phanteks Enthoo Evolv is popular, especially the Tempered Glass versions and that case comes in white, grey and black. These run from around $160 - 210 depending on which model and color)

There's also the Phanteks Enthoo Pro full tower case, do note that full towers are larger than ATX mid-towers. The Enthoo Pro comes with many rubber grommets and a PSU shroud and it's $99.


If you're trying to save a few bucks I think the NZXT S340 at $67 is a good choice as it's aesthetically pleasing with it's simple design, but it lacks rubber grommets and instead has a shroud that covers the cables, this case also has a PSU shroud with 2.5" drive (SSD) mounts.

If you want rubber grommets and a PSU shroud the Corsair Carbide Clear 400C would be a solid choice at $98.

I currently have the Corsair Obsidian Series 750D which I consider a good case but for the money there are better cases. Though it lacks a PSU shroud which may be a deal breaker for some. I'm actually using a semi-modular PSU as well, a holdover from my old Ivy Bridge build that I upgraded from (I have a PSU on the way) and the mess really shows on my case despite my best efforts to deal with it. http://i.imgur.com/3TiUAsG.jpg


For PSUs I have the EVGA SuperNOVA 850 P2 ordered, and I'll probably sleeve or buy some cables for it whenever I find the time to bother with it. The one I ordered is a bit expensive since it's 80+ Platinum rated. They have a 80+ Gold rated 750W unit which is $90 (the 650w one is $10 cheaper) EVGA, BitFenix and possibly others sell premade sleeved cable kits for ~$80 if you really want to keep it organized.

Corsair has a large lineup of power supplies of varying wattage, and Corsair sells sleeved cable kits for their fully modular power supplies as well. Corsair sells so many models I don't even know where to start they have their RM/RMi/RMx series, the AX/AXi, HX, SF so I'd check reviews to see if they meet your needs.

The Corsair and EVGA PSUs tend to be competitively priced so it's mostly down to which one is on sale (if any) and reviews.

The Seasonic M12II 620 BRONZE is a 620 watt, 80+ Bronze rated, fully modular power supply with a pair of 24 amp rails for $70. They also sell a 750W version that is $90 but you're better off going for an 80+ Gold PSU for a few dollars more since you'll end up making that money back via it's electricity savings.

If you have a lot of fans make sure to get a PMW splitter/hub otherwise you'll have some half dozen cables all over the palace plugged in to your motherboard, and my advice is to group cables together, either with twist ties or velcro cable ties (IMHO zip ties are too much of a PITA to undo). Route cable to the back, group them and tie them down. A PSU shroud allows you to be a bit lazy since it's a nice cubby-hole to hide your mess.

The NZXT Source 340 is popular (also found in white).

Also the more expensive Fractal Design Define R5 (also found in Titanium Grey and white).

Many enjoy the cheaper NZXT Source 210 (also found in white) and the bit more expensive NZXT Source 210 Elite (also found in white).

And of course NZXT H440 (also found in other colors and the Razer edition).

Also Corsair have made some nice cases. Especially their Obsidian series.

In the end it depends on your budget and I have just linked some of the most popular which should be for every budget!

I just bought this recently. Looks pretty good with fans in and i like how many different orientations you can have it. Only thing i wish is it was tempered glass. At the price point i can't complain. You can fit a full sized hdd in the back and 2 ssd's.

Something like this, or this if you like cube cases. Case choice is definitely personal choice though, so whatever looks good and has good reviews

The handles on the server chassis may get in the way. If it slides in, guess that be good enough. just won't be flush due to the screws holding the shelving in. I could look into swapping out the handles on the server chassis from 4u to like 1u or something, then it can become flush. This need 1u of free space on the bottoms of where the handles goes. I have come up with a list of parts.

 

Rosewill 4U Server Chassis / Server Case / Rackmount Case, Metal Rack Mount Computer Case support with 15 bays & 7 Fans Pre-Installed (RSV-L4500)

Requires modifying from HDD setup to GPU Setup to save money.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0091IZ1ZG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

NavePoint Adjustable Rack Mount Server Shelf Shelves Rail Rails 1U (33.25" max depth)

https://www.amazon.com/NavePoint-Adjustable-Mount-Server-Shelves/dp/B0060RUVBA/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1518819818&sr=1-2&keywords=1u+shelving

 

Tripp Lite 25U 4-Post Open Frame Rack, Network Equipment Rack, 1000 lb. Capacity (SR4POST25) 22" to 36" depth

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004OB8T72/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Processor(Ryzen 3 2200G APU with Vega graphics)- https://mdcomputers.in/amd-apu-quad-core-ryzen-3-2200g.html?search=ryzen%203%202200g&description=true

Motherboard(Asus Prime A320 M,ask the seller to update the bios to the latest version available)- https://mdcomputers.in/asus-prime-a320m-k.html

Link 2 for the same motherboard,seems to be out of stock on mdcomputers- https://www.amazon.in/dp/B06ZY2F35X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_CINSBbCMMY5WZ

RAM(Corsair Vengeance 4Gb kit,get 2 for dual channel configuration)-https://mdcomputers.in/corsair-vengeance-lpx-4gb-ddr4-2400mhz-cmk4gx4m1a2400c16r.html

Storage( 1 TBHarddisk) - https://mdcomputers.in/seagate-1tb-barracuda-st1000dm010.html

Storage(240 GB SSD,optional ofc for putting OS,if budget allows,definitely buy it) - https://mdcomputers.in/kingston-a400-240gb-sa400s37-240g.html

SMPS(Antec 450 watts,should be enough if not going to upgrade to discrete graphic card over time,but I think even then should do it ) - Antec VP450P 450W Power Supply https://www.amazon.in/dp/B006TM8XPW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_DANSBbV0YD8EB

Case(This is my choice,if you want you can get any other Micro atx case,just make sure it has front usb 3.0,also this case has a cutout for the SMPS on the upper side instead of the traditional below the case,which is why I am linking another case if this is a inconvenience for you) - https://mdcomputers.in/antec-vsk3000-elite.html

Case no 2:- Corsair Carbide Series CC-9011050-WW Mid-Tower Steel Gaming Case with Red LED (Black) https://www.amazon.in/dp/B00I6BJATW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_gaOSBbGE58FYH

I am guesstimating, but the whole build must come around 30-31 K,with the SSD ofc,if you cant fit into the budget right now,no need to get the SSD,which then will bring the cost around 27-28 K.

I did not account for other peripherals such as a monitor,HDMI cable,keyboard,mouse,etc.

If you wanted to take that into the budget as well, I have to make another build for you,probably a athlon 200ge one, I guess, but I think we dont need to change anything then, just the processor as the motherboard supports athlon as well.

Feel free to contact me if you have any doubts.

Edit 1:- Changed the SMPS as it did not have active PFC, the updated one i.e. antec vp450p has it with better capacitors too.

Edit 2:- Added another link for the motherboard as it was out of stock at mdcomputers.

Edit 3:- Added another case as an option.

Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-01 Mid Tower Gaming Case https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I6BJATW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_G8r0AbP2TVVN8

Corsair Spec 01 - $50

This is the case I use. Great airflow, my 1070 never goes above 60 playing OW on max with 130 FPS. None of the fancy stuff you asked for unfortunately. It’s not a very flashy case, it’s understated and has great utility. Cable management is sort of meh, but it has four HD trays.

Should fit most GPUs, I’ve got an MSI GTX 1070 Armor OC which is fairly large with 2 fans.

Overall great gaming case for the price.

The Meshify C is too big, the Dan Case has crap cooling (where would a fan go anyway?), and none of the other cases on the market do it for me.

​

I've spent way more time on this than I should have. This is inspired by the Meshify C, the Dan Case and the DIY Perks MDF case.

​

You should be able to do this with some MDF and some patience. While the dimensions aren't perfect, the final product should be around 12.3L, which is as small as it gets for having space for two 2.5" drives behind the MB, 2 platter drives, the best GPUs on the market, a CD-ROM, and the best cooling that you can get (no compromises).

​

You could easily shrink it down by nixing the CD Rom and the two HDs, if you've no use for them.

​

Parts:

CPU Cooler (fan oriented to draw air into the case):

https://noctua.at/en/products/cpu-cooler-retail/nh-c14s

​

IO (will be placed in the DVD Drive space):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BUUM2FU/ref=crt_ewc_img_dp_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=APIEQ5O19JI77

​

GPU Filter:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BXYWJ9K/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A2YR19H7JUSC4V&psc=1

​

CPU Filter:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KHO0CZW/ref=crt_ewc_img_dp_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

​

Inspriations:

Meshify C (no compromises)

https://www.amazon.com/Fractal-Design-FD-CA-MESH-C-WT-TGC-Computer-Case/dp/B07BPP9KYD/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=meshify+c+mini&qid=1550477333&s=gateway&sr=8-2

Dan Case:

https://www.dan-cases.com/dana4.php

DIY Perks Case:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8hLXJUQFoc

​

It should be easy to find a case like that. You can use pcpartpicker parameters to try and single out some cases you’d be interested in. Some cases off the top of my head: Corsair 200r, NZXT H500, or the Cooler Master NR600. Make sure you do some extra research on the case you want tho i.e. the NZXT uses negative pressure for good airflow and the NR600 has a very open mesh front panel or great airflow.

I apologize for the format, but I am on mobile right now.

I feel like this build needs a rework.

I recommend you get the X4 750K instead. http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Athlon-AD750KWOHJBOX-3-4Ghz-Processor/dp/B009O412AU/?tag=logicaincrem-20

You do not need a CPU cooler, just use the stock fan.

This is a better motherboard. http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Athlon-AD750KWOHJBOX-3-4Ghz-Processor/dp/B009O412AU/?tag=logicaincrem-20

You probably only need 4 GB of RAM. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231717&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10440897&PID=5961731&SID=0

Drop that video card down to the GTX 750, it's more budget friendly. http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Dual-Link-Graphics-01G-P4-2751-KR/dp/B00IDG3NDY/?tag=logicaincrem-20

You need a little more power supply wattage. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006BCKDGW/?tag=logicaincrem-20

This case is more sleek. http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-200R-Compact-CC-9011023-WW/dp/B009GXZ8MM/?tag=logicaincrem-20

Ask me any questions you have.

Does anyone have any experience with the Thermaltake Core V21 Cube micro ATX case? I'm interested in a small computer build and I like the look of this case and heard some good things, but I want to know how it is room wise. Right now I'm looking at a Ryzen 5 1600 w/stock fan and an RX 480 8gb or 500 depending on how those look when they come out.

followup to this guy about cases. Corsair recently came out with a couple of new cases. The Corsair Carbide Spec 1, 2, and 3.


http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-Series-SPEC-02-CC-9011051-WW/dp/B00I0MKMG2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397808430&sr=8-1&keywords=corsair+spec+2


it looks like an awesome case for a great price. I actually ordered the Corsair Spec 1 for 49.99 on Amazon.

I editied your build a bit.

changes i made

• removed thermal paste cause the coolmaster evo should come with some (look at unboxing videos on youtube!)
  
  
• got a cheaper mobo (unless there is a specfic reason why you want the asus one)
  
  
• I removed the 850 evo and put the pny ssd. its cheaper and just cause people dont seem to mention the drive, trust me its a good one. i put the same one in my cousins new build and she loves it, says her pc boots in 10 or so seconds.
  
  
• for the RAM, i removed the kingston and put the crucial because its clooked slightly higher (2400 mhz)
  
  
  Suggestions
  
  
• if you want a window case there are other optioons that are cheaper
  
• corsair 100r
  
  
• NZXT S340 - with this one you HAVE TOO get rid of the disk drive
  
  
• get rid of the disk drive (though since you said you work with music i guess you may need it)
  
  
  stuff idk about
  
  

• i dont know much about fans so i left it
  

  
  

  
  

  build
  

  
  

  PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
  

  
  

  Type|Item|Price
  

  ----|:----|:----
  CPU | Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor | $227.99 @ SuperBiiz
  CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler | $24.88 @ OutletPC
  Motherboard | MSI Z170A GAMING M5 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard | $132.98 @ Newegg
  Memory | Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 Memory | $129.99 @ Newegg
  Storage | PNY CS1311 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $129.89 @ OutletPC
  Video Card | MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GAMING X Video Card | $299.88 @ OutletPC
  Case | Fractal Design Define R5 Blackout Edition w/ Window ATX Mid Tower Case | $94.99 @ NCIX US
  Power Supply | EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | $78.99 @ SuperBiiz
  Optical Drive | LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer | $40.98 @ Newegg
  Operating System | Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit | $84.88 @ OutletPC
  Case Fan | Cooler Master R4-S2S-124K-GP 44.7 CFM 120mm Fans | $6.99 @ Newegg
  | Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
  | Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1297.44
  | Mail-in rebates | -$45.00
  | Total | $1252.44
  | Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-26 17:51 EDT-0400 |
  

Here is a comparison sheet. What I think you should do is think about what games you see yourself playing on the plex and come up with a list. That will let you see what the most demanding game and go off those specs. Then you can look at benchmarks for those games and get a rough idea for how well your plex will perform. That 950 should perform better and it has more usable ram for games. Plus with a single card you don't need to worry about sli issues with games.

Here is a review and some game benchmarks for the 950. You might have to run some games on normal or tweak some settings here and there to do 1080p 60fps. That is also a good price for it. I think Newegg has it for $10 more.


If you want to save money you could probably just go with a 6600K and overclock it when you need more from it. It also wouldn't take much to cool it at stock clocks.

The Carbide Series 88R is a micro atx case so you would need a different mobo. The Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-02 you linked would work though. It should have enough room and it has more 5.25" bays in case you want to add a different optical drive or a fancy fan controller.

I have to go for now but do a little research on what games you want to play and start looking at specs/benchmarks. I should be back on early tomorrow but I'll be on mobile so it'll be harder to link stuff.

I have the phanteks enthoo pro, and it is wonderful. It was an absolute breeze to build in and it has plenty of space. I have a 1070 as well and it fits and looks great inside this case. The white version is $110, and the black version is $100. It's a full atx tower btw. It comes with a 200 mm intake fan in the front and 140mm exhaust fan in the back.

Here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/Phanteks-Enthoo-Chassis-Window-PH-ES614P_BK/dp/B00K6S1B3Q

Could you please post a part list? You have some neat parts and brands I am not familiar with. I am also super interested in the case, as right now, the Corsair Carbide Air 540 has mt attention for the next build.

Then you haven't looked hard enough. The Challenger was good for $50 a year and a half ago, but there are much better options now. For example, the NZXT Source 210, Enermax Hoplite, and HAF 912 all offer better cable management for right around the same price. The issue with the Challenger is that it has few routing holes and almost not room for cables behind the rear panel.

There have been a ton of advancements with radiators over the years. Efficient radiators can have fans running at lower rpms. Noise is relative from one to another to some degree (at least in tolerance, placement, pitch and ambient sounds) I think with the size of what you're looking at, your pump would matter more and the stress it adds moving through those parts. (I hate whiny systems though)

Personally, I would pick a case with the right dimensions, then aesthetics. Anything else could be modded (if you're into that) however, if you went with 240mm radiators there are quite a few more options and with 2 x 240mm rads you could likely keep the rpms low. (assuming the standard 1-2 gpu, cpu loop.)

With the Mc pro 5, it looks like working in there would be a pain if you needed to adjust anything after the fact. It also appears that most people take out all the drive bays and front mount a larger rad and then a 240 up top, this could be a bit of a pain if you dont want to fiddle with finicky as cases with native 280mm support is rare still.

Here's a couple cases with native 280+ support.

https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-Gaming-Computer-NIGHTHAWK-117/dp/B019FN63DK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1494754976&sr=1-1&keywords=full+tower+case+280mm+radiator+support

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-High-Airflow-Cube/dp/B00D6GINF4

(Sorry about formatting it's super late)

With that hopefully pointing you in the right direction, I'd find a large case I could just tap a couple holes in and use the rads I wanted. It's really what you're comfortable with, I feel that 240's would be just fine and quieter than you would think with a good fan setup.

The only video card that is really 4k ready right now is the 1080 and it can't even do 60 FPS max settings consistently. An RX 480 is a 1080p gaming card. I love my RX 480, but I just don't want you thinking it will do 4k very well. For the case, the Fractal Design Define R5 or Define S should fit the bill. You can go look at reviews or Fractal Design's website to see the differences as there are a few, but they both are capable of holding 3 HDDs, have noise cancelling padding, and the R5 has rubber stands for HDDs to mitigate vibration.

These came out way under your budget, so it's up to you if you want me to change them to be even better. As they are they'll do great, especially the first build.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor | $204.29 @ Amazon
Motherboard | ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard | $74.29 @ SuperBiiz
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $54.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $49.99 @ Amazon
Video Card | Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card | $249.99 @ Newegg
Case | Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case | $49.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply | Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply | $53.99 @ Amazon
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) | $86.43 @ SuperBiiz
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $823.96
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-27 16:54 EST-0500 |

And here's the second one:

I'm not sure how much memory you'll want so I put in 4GB, if you need more then go with what I listed for the other build.

I went with a small form factor for this, should look pretty natural by a TV.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor | $180.94 @ SuperBiiz
Motherboard | Asus H97I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard | $94.98 @ SuperBiiz
Memory | Kingston 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $31.45 @ SuperBiiz
Storage | Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $49.99 @ Amazon
Case | Silverstone RVZ01B Mini ITX Desktop Case | $79.99 @ Directron
Power Supply | Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply | $82.49 @ SuperBiiz
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $519.84
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-27 17:10 EST-0500 |

Also, we ask if you're near a MicroCenter because they often charge less if you can pick a component up from their stores.

Edit: Have you considered a Chromecast instead of a second pc? It won't be able to do as much but it can stream Chrome tabs to your TV or pull videos (like YouTube) straight from your wifi.

AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 - 16500

Gigabyte - GA-AB350-GAMING 3 ATX AM4 8500

Seagate Barracuda 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive with 7200 RPM (ST2000DM006) 5300

SAMSUNG INTERNAL 2.5-INCH SATA 3.0 SSD 850 EVO 250GB (MZ-75E250BW) 7335

Zotac - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB OC Edition Video Card 13500

HP - 24es 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor 12,300

SEASONIC S12G-550 SMPS -- S12G SERIES 550 WATT 80 PLUS® GOLD CERTIFICATION WITH ACTIVE PFC 6700

G.Skill - Flare X 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory 9500

TP-Link TL-WN725N 150Mbps Wireless N Nano USB Adapter 500

Corsair CC-9011050-WW Carbide Series SPEC-01 3424

Total= 83,559.

Note that I have included a 2TB HDD. If you want 1TB, since you posted yourself, the price goes down to 81,760.

I suspect all you need now is a keyboard and a mouse and a UPS. I left out these things cause the UPS actually depends on the type of PSU you buy. If you go for any seasonic PSU, research well into what UPS is best suited for that PSU.

I highly recommend going on to Linustechtips and post these parts in the build section. People will surely comment and help you even more :)

Good Luck!

You can cheap out on these four things to save some money (but I highly suggest you don't):

1. SSD - Get a 120GB SSD to save some money. You can also drop this completely and get an SSD later when they become somewhat cheap. Only downside: Somewhat slower boot-up time and loading times.
   
   
2. CPU - Get Ryzen 5 1400. This has less core and threads than 1600 but is cheaper and still good :D
   
   
3. Video Card - Get the 1050 non-TI version. 4-5000 Cheaper, but this gets the job done. The only downside: no 1080p gaming @60fps. Actually, it depends on the games too.
   
   
4. PSU - Ha! One of the most overlooked component. You can get cheaper ones with less protection and less stability for half the price. The only downside: Can damage your components, I think, and stability issues.

I think it’s a solid build. My only suggestions would be:

1- if you shop around you might find for maybe $20 more you can upgrade your ram to 16GB
2- if you haven’t built a pc before then I highly recommend getting a semi-modular or modular psu. It may cost you $50 extra but it’s excellent for cable management and will help you a great deal if you’re building a microATX pc
3- lastly- I actually just made a build with that pc case and I absolutely hate it. I hate such a hard time navigating the case (my massive cooler didn’t help either). I don’t even put the plastic siding on it bc it gets so hot. I would highly recommend spending the extra money on this one instead - https://www.amazon.com/MasterBox-Magnetic-Transparent-Acrylic-Performance/dp/B0785GRMPG/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1563966213&refinements=p_89%3ACooler+Master&s=pc&sr=1-2

Corsair 540 is an impressive case. With a great side window and fantastic cable management.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CC-9011030-WW-Performance-Windowed-Computer/dp/B00D6GINF4

I like this case a bit better and it's a little cheapers. One less internal drive space though. But it looks like you are only using two so far.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I6BJATW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=P6NWZDRMEXBA&coliid=IO6XO9VP1LWAS

Also, I would go for a larger HD. 1TB isn't really the sweet spot anymore. You can get a drive like this for a bit more and it's still good enough for most applications.

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST2000DM001/dp/B005T3GRN2/ref=sr_1_7?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1416351494&sr=1-7

My friend offered me this for $40, is this a solid case and do you think I should go for this one or the one you suggested? I don't really mind the size of the tower I just want it to be able to fit all the components pretty easily and available to upgrade in the future.

https://www.amazon.com/NZXT-Tower-Computer-White-CA-S340W-W1/dp/B00NGMIBXC/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1505437352&sr=1-2&keywords=nzxt+s340

Any particular reason it needs to be a Black series? I have the one I linked to you, and it performs excellently, and has pretty good reviews, is almost $50 cheaper, and is 1TB larger (which you will need for raw video files). Plus, your SSD should provide all the speed you need.

And no, I had the full sized tower. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004WO17UC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) It's nearly identical, but bigger. My processor idled at 50 using that tower, and when I switched it idled closer to 45 when I switched to a Corsair Air 540 mid case

I'd recommend switching your hard drive, and using the money you saved to buy the 540.

/u/spamsince /u/Cerelius_BT

So I have taken into consideration both of your suggestions, along with reconsidering my choice of case and storage, and used PC Part Picker to build a setup with the price I am happy with.


Part | Item | Price
---|---|----
CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO | $32.00
Motherboard | ASUS ATX DDR3 1800 Motherboards H170-PLUS D3 | $117.91
CPU | Intel Boxed Core I5-6400 | $242.99
Graphics Card | XFX Radeon RX 480 | $349.99
RAM | Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB Kit (2x8GB) | $87.99
PSU | FirePower Technology Firepower ZT Series 550W 80Plus Bronze | $77.81
HDD | 2 x WD Blue 2TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive | $95.50 each
OS Drive | Corsair Force Series LE SSD, SATA 6Gbps 480GB | $142.49
Case | Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-02 Mid Tower | $74.99
Optical Drive | LG Internal UH12NS30 BD-ROM | $56.99

Just want to run it by you guys to see if the parts are compatible.

Thanks again for all your help.

I would get this and this but everything else looks pretty solid. Also some more fans and maybe an rx580. With all of that it’ll be like $50-$100 more I believe, but it’s all worth it.

I started out in a Thermaltake Core V21 and just recently moved into a Thermaltake P3. I love the design of the cube cases but they are always bigger than they look in picture and I hated how easily the plexiglass got scratched on mine. The main reason I switched was because I wanted to be able to see my PC and I couldn't fit the cube on my desk. I just got the P3 wall-mounted last night and it looks amazing. It also makes me really nervous but it's still worth it. Good luck.

Check out this PC case It's not a fancy RGB case but it has a dampening material inside that helps with noise. I also recommend getting these fans to help with reduced noise.

I just built my first NAS/PLEX server and things are going great. Total cost was around $1300

SilverStone Mini-ITX NAS case

32GB DDR3 ECC RAM

4x HGST Deskstars

this sweet mobo ties it all together. It's got a quad-core Atom processor, 12 SATA ports across 3 RAID controllers, and supports 64GB of RAM, all in a Mini ITX form factor.

I'm running FreeNAS with a Plex jail