(Part 2) Best products from r/PcMasterRaceBuilds

I was giving you a build price for a nice PC itself, not with peripherals. But as long as you didn't go too crazy on mouse and keyboard you could have a decent PC for $700 and then decent peripherals for a total of $800. Be warned this does not include the cost of Windows 10 as legit MS keys are around $100. You can also just run the free version of windows 10 until you get a key later, or you can look for bulk sales of keys from companies around $30-40. (Heres a really good brandname mouse for $45, but you can go cheaper and still get quality too. Check out Linus Tech tips for cheaper gaming peripherals as he has done several videos on dirt cheap mouse/mechanical keyboards that still work very well)

I've been looking into the performance gap, and when comparing processors by price, the series 2 and 3 processors are about equal, with series 3 coming slightly ahead. I would suggest when building to compare the price of like performance series 2 and 3 processor, with the prices of their motherboards. Most of the series 2 motherboards support series 3, but not all, and it would be better to get the newest chipset for a series 3 but it will probably cost more for newer boards.

When it comes to upgrading, the need to upgrade will be about the same between say a R7 2700x and an R5 3600x as they are very similar in price and performance. Now if you wanted to compare top of the line series 2 to top of the line series 3, the performance gap and future proofing of newer hardware would be way higher.

To give you an idea of my system for instance, I am using a Ryzen 1700x and a gtx 1070. When I built about 2-3 years ago my it cost me $1500 USD for just the PC, but at the time the GPU market sucked really bad, RAM was through the roof, and Ryzen was new, so lots of cost from that. My system runs 1080p 120 fps on all games just fine, and should run VR fine, and 4k well-ish. The processor you are looking at is around 20% better in performance for a cheaper price than my 1700x on launch.

Where you should be looking to future proof is probably the GPU as with your price range it won't be top of the line and depending on how crazy you want to get with high resolution with high frame rates, or VR support, will dictate how good of a GPU you need to meet those wants. Also as a side note on RAM. Ryzen processors, especially the new ones, need high speed RAM for best performance, so like 3000mHz and up for speed. While 16gb is ideal for new systems, its not needed. You can easily game on 8gb and run into almost zero problems. You might hit the full 8gb when running a lot of programs at once, but no single game other than a Minecraft server uses so much RAM by itself. So save yourself the cost, go for 8gb 3000mHz+ and make sure to write down the exact RAM kit model, as you can easily just buy the same 8gb kit again and upgrade to 16gb later.

How much were you planning to spend on that processor? Assuming it’s around the price PCPARTPICKER is showing, I’d maybe consider switching to AMD for that price.

If you’re okay with switching to AMD, you can get the new Ryzen 7 3700X for $329 MSRP and it is a very nice bang for your buck. 8 cores 16 threads for that price is amazing (your current CPU is 6 cores & 12 threads). You can also get an included CPU cooler (something intel does not typically include) which can save you even more $$.

More bang for your buck, better performance, an extra bonus cooler. Very nice deal.

If you do decide to go with that, you’ll need to swap your motherboard to a X470 or X570 board to support the AMD chip. I think you’ll get a much better bang for your buck this way.

Even a step down to the Ryzen 5 3600X for $234.99 is very nice value for your money. (6 cores 12 threads). Just depends on what you were willing to spend on that i7 8700. It out does that processor from what I’ve seen and is cheaper. Very nice deal as well.

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

It's like a big LEGO (sort of). everything fits where it's supposed to. If you have to force too much it's not going there (except USB xD). Many manufacturers provide instructions on how to plug in your new devices into the motherboard READ the INSTRUCTIONS carefully.

Also, remember to discharge static electricity from your hands by touching something metallic before manipulation electronic components. (You don't want to short-circuit your newly acquired RAM because you weren't careful enough).

Maintenance wise, compressed air dusters like those (https://www.amazon.com/Dust-Off-Compressed-Gas-Duster-Pack/dp/B00DZYEXPQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1487178003&sr=1-1&keywords=compressed+air+for+computers) just an example can help you reach hard places and NEVER EVER use a cloth to clean dust. It will create static electricity and short-circuit your components.

Remember to plugin the power cord after you've successfully connected every component to the motherboard. When changing something always power down you computer and remove every cable.

For any other questions feel free to search on google on website like wikihow, lifehacker and reddit :)

Cheers, hope it helps

A few things. I would get a better WiFi adapter that does ac as well as N. AC is shorter range (because 5Ghz doesn't go as far as 2.4Ghz) while N will allow you to be much further from the router because N is 2.4Ghz. Depending on your router, it would be wise to pick up a b/g/n/ac card as AC will provide better speeds and the 5Ghz is mostly in the free space (2.4Ghz is over saturated in most places, especially apartment complexes, which can cause degradation of service)

I don't often bring this up but most people don't actually use their CD/DVD drive. I don't have one on my computer as I just use USB flash drives for anything that might need a DVD. Plus writing an ISO to USB is way easier and quicker than burning an ISO to a DVD and it's reusable for many things. As a for instance, you can burn a windows iso to a USB drive (about 4GB) and then if you have extra space (say you have a 8GB drive) use it for additional storage on top of also being your OS installation. You can go big and get something like 32 or 64 or even 128 for very cheap. Make sure its USB 3.0 though. I just grabbed the first 64GB 3.0 I found on amazon http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-Transfer-Speeds-SDCZ48-064G-UAM46/dp/B00KYK2ABI/ref=sr_1_6?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1464889936&sr=1-6&keywords=64gb+flash+drive

Check out Rufus if you have windows https://rufus.akeo.ie/ for writing ISOs to USB.

The PSU is fine, while it's "cheap" it's because it's non-modular but I've never had issues with EVGA previously. You can splurge and get a modular one which would be better for a first time build.

I realize you're probably on a budget, but if you can give your budget (I'm assuming under 500) I can recommend some changes.

Its pretty tight but this would certainly be an upgrade. You can sell you're i3 6100 2nd hand on ebay for around £60. This gives you a total of £160.

With that you could upgrade to the i5 6400 2.7 Ghz. Which comes in at £159

However if you could save an extra £20 you could get the i5 6500 3.2 GHz which, due to the increased performance of 2 more cores over the i3 6100 and being 500 MHz faster than the i5 6400, would be a pretty nice upgrade that should last a while. Providing you are mainly gaming you aren't planning on content creation like YT/Twitch.

• Yes, your video card will support dual monitors.
  
• I have 2 24" monitors currently, the only thing about the size of the monitors is will they fit, mine barely fit but it works. If you're going 1080p, get 144hz and take advantage of that GPU. I recommend this
  
• That 1440p monitor seems fine, I don't know anything about it, just make sure to check reviews.
  
  If you're planning on playing FPS games like CSGO or BF1 I recommend getting the 1080p 144hz monitors because of the faster refresh rate, though if you're playing games like Witcher 3, Skyrim, Fallout 4, games that don't have fast paced multiplayer where every frame counts, I'd say get the 1440p monitor. That's just my .02

The x370 is the previous generations board and while ryzen stresses upgradability so the sockets don't change but you will want a x470 board. Its partly because some x370 boards require a bios flash to work properly with this new gen but theres more too it like power ratings. As for a cpu its a good choice. Going for 6 cores is great for gaming and i doubt if we will see anything more than that for processing games, though adminitedly ive heard games are begining to utalize 8 threads. Lastly for the case, it depends mostly on what you like. If you like a sleek design look at fractal. If you like the gamer look go for corsair. If you want the most eye catching case out there then get a [PM01.] (https://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Computer-Tempered-PM01B-RGB/dp/B073RKV6ZP?th=1&psc=1) The other things to consider for cases is also the IO that they have(ie usb type 3, c a fan controller, hdmi port on front etc), the length of GPU allowed, the radiator sizes it supports and included case fans.

> Pentium is better. You even admit to this in another post. Not much more expensive either. If you are thinking of using the bottom of the barrel of Celeron's, then be my guest, but i would never recommend it, even to someone i hate.

Celerons are sufficient. They don't need anything more, frankly. It does the job, and probably no worse than the Pentium.

>If your using Seagate, your already doing it wrong.

Bad grammar aside, I'm not a big fan of Seagate because I find them loud and not as fast, but the SSD takes care of the speed issue, and cost is more important. Barracudas are good, and I know there used to be issues a long time ago back in '07. I love WD and only use their drives, but this isn't about my personal use. It's for everyday customers. I actually use the Blue, but the Barracuda is cheaper, particularly if you look at the 2 TB model compared to WD's slow Green.

Why in the world would you go Mini-ITX? No. That makes the motherboard unnecessarily expensive, the case awkwardly shaped for the setups I know, and heavily restricts upgradeability. Micro-ATX is much better if you want to go small but still be affordable. I've already made a build for a customer with a motherboard like this and this case, which I really adore because it's nice to work with and looks good.

> If you want integrated graphics, you might as well just go use an APU instead

For everyday use, you could even get by on motherboard integrated graphics, not even Haswell's pretty decent integrated graphics for this purpose. FFS, I saw people running Minecraft on old Sandy Bridge integrated graphics decently, and Haswell's offerings are far superior. Unless they specifically ask, they don't need a dedicated GPU. That's an unnecessary expense, and you should never buy a GPU that low-end. I thought that was common knowledge. I mean...wow. Just wow. Your inclusion of the GPU makes me seriously doubt your knowledge of building. Don't be rude if you don't have a clue what you're doing, and you're just making it more apparent. This doesn't seem to be the place for you.

>You don't NEED windows.

They do. It's for everyday users, remember? They've got work to do, and you'd be amazed at how much important software for an office job is Windows-only. They want familiar. They don't want to deal with the oddities of Linux.
/r/softwareswap was what I used to use, until they banned the distribution of Windows keys.

>All you seem to want is something that can run facebook and maybe skype, along with possibly solitaire.

Ugh, so why did you type all that out because you didn't read my post?

Wow this was so incredibly helpful, thank you! So if I do upgrade to the motherboard you posted, which I think I'm going to, would you suggest 2x8GB RAM or 4x4? I'm not sure if there is a difference between the two. Will any DDR4 RAM fit in my motherboard? I found a 2x4GB DDR4-3000 on amazon and want to make sure it would fit before I order.

For the video card I mostly plan on playing games like fortnite and rocketleague, will the GTX 1060 3GB be good enough for that? I really don't need super high level graphics, but obviously I still want it to look good. I just want to make sure it runs at 1080p 60 fps. Im also wondering how important single vs double fan is?

EDIT: I also noticed on that motherboard you posted it says 4x DDR4-2667/2400/2133 for memory. DOes that mean I can't use DDR4 2666?

Just an update - I've opened it up or some further info:
PSU Pentium p4 e650x 650W
Had a look at the CPU cooler - I've no idea how to identify it but I'm pretty sure its this from the serial number https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Cooler-LGA1150-1155-E97378-001/dp/B00BQ1C4SS

Thinking about going for a 1050 ti since it's affordable and sounds like it would suit my needs. Are these all fairly equivalent?

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/evga-geforce-gtx-1050-ti-gaming-4gb-gddr5-graphics-card-768-core-1290mhz-gpu-1392mhz-boost?gclid=CI232_ru3tQCFcO17Qod1nMO_Q

https://www.box.co.uk/Asus-Phoenix-GeForce-GTX-1050-Ti-4GB-Pho_2034657.html

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zotac-GeForce-1050Ti-Mini-Graphics/dp/B01M8M5T4T?tag=georiot-pcg-21&ascsubtag=pcg-313788699-21

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Asus-Phoenix-GeForce-NVIDIA-GTX-1050TI-4GB-Graphics-Card-From-Argos-on-ebay-/352096492684?epid=2059785045&hash=item51fa961c8c:g:FOAAAOSwCmZZTjHb#shpCntId

Thanks again you guys are awesome! (Y)

All very good components. You should have no problem hitting 60fps on any of the latest titles at 1080p on high-ultra settings.

Also worth noting, I have the same tesseract case. It's very easy to build inside of, lots of room for cable management, and the drive bays are great to snap in and out of.

You could save a few bucks on your PSU if you wanted; unless you planned on doing some serious upgrades in the future, a 500W or even 430W PSU should be plenty for that build; you can find a quality 430W PSU for $30 regularly.

I bought a refurbished 1TB WD drive from amazon here and saved a few more dollars as well. I haven't had any issues with it; it's up to you if you felt it was worth it though.

Yep, a M.2. SSD would be quite overkill (and expensive) unless you had a proper reason for it. Unless you just wanted to go overkill.

As for the additional case fan, that would be one of the reason. The main reason is that the Enthoo Pro comes with a 200mm case fan in the front, so there's no need to add another 120/140mm fan to it. SSDs will soon be the norm, expect prices to decrease even more in a couple years. And yep! The Enthoo Pro is a fantastic case which is incredibly well built for the price. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a full tower.

4k/144hz would work if you plan on toning down the settings or add in another GTX 1080. Since you'll have to note that 4k is still pretty intensive, even for a GTX 1080. Here's the benchmarks showing it.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1714

Personal opinion, go with a 1440p/144hz or a 60hz monitor. You'll be able to see 60+FPS on most games on max settings and you won't have to worry about having to tone down the settings for it.

As for the g-sync issue, I haven't heard about installing it on a 4k monitor. If you planned on even doing that, you better be careful, as if something breaks, you basically wasted 400+ dollars on a 4k monitor. But G-sync comes built in with some monitors.

Here's a couple 4k/144hz/60hz monitors with it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236677

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-XB280HK-bprz-28-inch-Widescreen/dp/B00O0Z5682

Here's my suggestion:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor | $144.98 @ DirectCanada
Motherboard | ASRock H110M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard | $39.98 @ NCIX
Memory | Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory | $44.99 @ Newegg Canada
Storage | Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $61.94 @ Vuugo
Video Card | Sapphire Radeon RX 470 4GB NITRO+ Video Card | $284.99 @ Newegg Canada
Case | Rosewill FBM-02 MicroATX Mini Tower Case | $29.99 @ Newegg Canada
Power Supply | EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply | $55.37 @ DirectCanada
Monitor | Acer G226HQLBbd 21.5" 60Hz Monitor | $109.99 @ NCIX
Keyboard | Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard | $12.98 @ NCIX
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $810.21
| Mail-in rebates | -$25.00
| Total | $785.21
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-15 13:32 EDT-0400 |

I never realized how weak the Canadian dollar is, I was really surprised at how much less it gets you. This is based on the "Crusher" build from the /r/pcmasterrace wiki, plus a keyboard and monitor. I don't have any direct experience with any of these parts besides the monitor, which I got for my girlfriend's computer build (and it's a great monitor at that price)

If you're looking to spend more, the first places to do it are

1. Better motherboard
2. Better keyboard
3. Better processor

Now for other recommendations. I stream on twitch as well, (mostly World of Tanks and other games), and I mostly use a Logitech G430 as my headphones/mic. If you're looking for a new mouse, Redragon makes really great mice at really good prices, I use a Redragon Perdition as my primary mouse for gaming, a Redragon Nemeanlion at work, and a Redragon Centrophorus for my secondary computer (used as a server and for doing distributed computing). For a webcam, I use a Logitech C920

Faster ram works nicely with the Ryzen builds, especially if you try any overclocking.

Monitor worth looking into: Acer XFA240 24" Full HD (1920 x 1080) 144hz https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZYHZ6R6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ct-KzbC6FCXSN

You need an HDMI to Displayport adapter like this https://www.amazon.com/Rankie-DisplayPort-Cable-Resolution-Ready/dp/B00Z05JMKO/ref=sr_1_3?crid=OWC3XEQMY8LJ&keywords=hdmi+to+displayport+cable&qid=1563207925&s=gateway&sprefix=hdmi+to+%2Caps%2C315&sr=8-3

And plug it to your 750ti not your motherboard!