I recommend putting the specs in pcpartpicker, it will give a rough estimate of the wattage, the general opinion is to then add 60-100W on top of that value and then get a 80+ bronze or higher rated power supply of that wattage or more. Make sure to get a power supply from a reputable brand as if a dodgy power supply goes it can take other components with it.
For the fans, don’t go out of your way to buy fans from day 1, one it’s up and running, decide if the temperatures are a bit high or if it’s a bit noisy or both and then buy some after market fans if you think you need them.
Just so you know, if you are going to use that motherboard and cpu combination, the motherboard will need to be updated to the latest bios, to up date it yourself you’d need a haswell processor or you might get lucky and the board might have the latest bios installed anyway, there’s no way to tell until it’s in front of you. I’d suggest moving to a H97 or Z97 board or changing the cpu to a 4670. Also, that’s a non overclockable chip with an overclocking ready motherboard, overclockable stuff is usually more expensive so you could maybe shave some money off there.
ThermalTake aren’t known for their high quality power supplies so I found this for the same price and it is semi modular, which is really nice when you are building.
I’d suggest waiting on the fans until you actually get everything together and working, because as someone else said you may not even need them. That way you save yourself some money, and if you really want some blue LEDs you can just get something like the NZXT Hue, which only costs around 35 bucks, or just find some other blue LEDs. Because right now you’re spending ~82 dollars on fans that you may not even need.
Edit:
Also, I personally don’t see the need for the 16gb of RAM or the SSD. Both of which you could also remove to cut costs now, and buy later down the road if not having the 16 gigs, and the SSD is driving you crazy.
But again, that’s just me. This is the build a friend and I are using (with different towers of course), and he may have opted for a differen’t CPU but I can’t remember. I had gotten mine for cheaper than retail off a friend, and got windows for 20 bucks as well, so I didn’t include it in the list.
I have a question, do you think it’s okay that I run games from a(n) external hard drive?
I’ve been using an external hard drive since 2011. I use to just use it for storage of important files and World of Warcraft, but lately I’ve been using it to game. When I downloaded some more games I started getting disk write errors and that sort of thing, so obviously the hard drive is going out of date. The next step is to buy a new external hard drive, but I don’t want to spend $50 - $100 if gaming quality will be bad. I will be using a USB 3.0 with it so no worry there, just curious what your opinions are,
There’s no real problem with using an external hard drive for gaming, loading screens and starting the game up might take a bit longer than an internal drive but it won’t decrease the gaming experience beyond loading screens.
Sorry for not responding for so long. I’ve personally gone through and revised alot and managed to get what I wanted for just about $60 over my budget. I do realize that the led fans put quite a weight in the price but I’m fine with that. I’m pretty much sold on the entire list and I’m ready to buy and build - I just thought I’d share it with everyone. Also when I finish the build I’m gonna take some pictures and show it off.
The reason I bring this up is because I was thinking of having three different drives. One for system backup files, another for standard system files, and one for other uses ie video games, music, and pictures. I have a few other questions too, for instance what hard drive would go great for each purpose, Like would a SSD be better for system files or more better for system backup files? Also how much room do i need for system files and system backup files?
Thanks for all of your help Stonehearth community, you guys are what keeps me coming back here. =)
Have your system files on the SSD for faster boot and access speeds. This is normal for many systems, gaming or pleb. An SSD for system files (such as the OS, drivers, programs that install to the C drive for no reason), wouldn’t have to be very big at all unless you use the default directories such as the ‘my …’ libraries, or have large downloads folders. I’d guess for average use anywhere from 500g-750gb max [this could be a tad high]. SSDs are also very expensive compared to HDDs, so bigger size really makes for a bigger price.
Anything else doesn’t really need to be on an SSD, things like your Steam or Origin libraries (unless you really want to have fast start times, or the game takes lots of draw) can be on one [or two] larger HDDs. This can consolidate money and space within your computer if it’s an ITX case.
As for the system backup files, assuming you are using some version of windows 7, you can have an extra drive for this (and I do recommend this if you have a similar set-up to mine, large drive for stuff, and just for stuff), but the size is really up to you. Windows 7s [Vista and 8?] system restore tool has an option to make the drive backup as big or as small as you want. Info.
I was thinking somewhere around 150- 200GB does that sound too small?
Oh yes, that’s the part that makes my wallet shriek in fear and run away.
I know this, but wouldn’t it be wise just to put it on it’s own hard drive so that you don’t ever touch that hard drive unless some part of your system fails? I’m kind of new to system backup and restore myself.
It’s probably fine, seeing as Windows (7 & 8) take up only 16-20gb[can increase up to 60 with full libraries]. That leaves you with a nice chunk of space.
That l depends on if you are able to afford a second drive for backup, it is a wise choice, however I often notice that a lot of people use external drives for backup in this fashion.
In the end it is really up to personal preference and wallet allowance.
Recently I have been trying to decide on a IPS and TN paneled monitor. Some people say that IPS has pure color and great quality but has terrible respond time when it comes to movies and games. On the other hand people say that TN panel have okay color quality and great respond time with movies and games.
I ask the question to the Stonehearth PC community, IPS Vs. TN . What do you think would be best with gaming?
I game on an ips screen, it is a significant upgrade over anything I’ve ever used before. Unless you know you are in need of 120Hz or 1ms response time, a 60Hz 5ms ips screen will be everything you’d ever need. The massive viewing angles are a big plus too.
Hey there everyone. I decided to resurrect this page as I am thinking about buying/building a new gaming pc and since my life is so crazy busy and I don’t have a ton of extra time to spend on catching up on the pc tech department I’d like to see if anyone would be able to assist in pointing me in a few directions.
I’m looking to build something that is in the price range of lets say $450 - $650.
Not an extremely heavy gamer as of late because of time constraints.
Something that will last awhile and i’ll be able to upgrade in the future is a must.
Some examples of the game I like to play: Stonehearth, Minecraft, SimCity (want to try City Skylines since new Sim City Suckeddddd) Crusader Kings, War Frame, Starcraft II.
I’d also like to see about getting into making some YouTube videos and maybe livestreaming on Twitch so a pc that could handle playing those games and recordeing/streaming + any video editing would be very useful.
Well, I’m also considering building a new computer, so I was wondering if these specs would work. I’m not much of a gamer, so I’m not going for anything too expensive.
Processor: AMD FX-6300 3.5Ghz Six-Core OS: Windows 8.1 (64-bit) Memory: 8GB DDR3 Graphics: GTX 750 Ti 2GB GDDR5
