Gaming PC build (Help wanted)

[Ori]

Hey guys I plan to build a gaming PC. I want it to be efficient at gaming and also digital painting. What do you guys think?
GTX 1060 6GB ,(Also do you guys suggest any particular model?)
i5 (Probably 6600 Skylake.)
Most likely an SSD (At some point.) (And if I could my current hard drive.) (297 Gigs ish?)
8 gigs of RAM I might salvage it from my current computer. (In total, not per stick.) (Should I go straight to 16 for digital painting?)
And I need help choosing a motherboard and a fan. Do ya guys think I need an i7? A lot of people say i7 isn't required, but my friend says it is... (Then again he's the same guy telling me to buy a pentium processor, claims an AMD Radeon 480 is as good as a intel gtx 1060 (Don't get me wrong it's pretty good, just not as good as), and blew all his money to make the best computer money can afford all for gaming purposes meaning maybe 1500 dollars in total? Yeah... No.) (And maybe a case if it doesn't fit in my current computer, I doubt this build should be particularly large /different or something, but I have a HP Pavillion 2007 elite if you guys think something won't fit... Did I forget to mention my computer is OLD AS HECK?)
Also ya guys think the SLI (Dual grahpics card thing is better than buying a GTX 1060 for the price?)
I'll let you guys know about the power supply. I don't feel like opening up my computer at the moment.
I want to avoid overclocking it as I'd perfer not to overheat something by accident. (But if necessary I do want to have a computer that could do it.)
If you're guys are asking what settings I want to run most games at, it's probably gonna be 1080P Medium to max settings on modern games so say something like Watch Dogs or Battlefield 1. (Seriously I'm tired of playing Smite with Chronos looking like he belongs in the N64, without his n64 skin. LOL).(Hell I bought 16 Bit games like Enter the gungeon or Pony Island? My computer has SO MUCH TROUBLE RUNNING THEM.) ;-;
My monitor is a Cintiq 22HD if ya think that's a problem.

[guest22811]

Don't know much about PCs, but imo go for the i5. Only get the i7 if you have enough money.

[Wolxikin]

If you're planning on doing intense photoshop/painting/editing work on your PC, I would recommend getting the i7 as programs like that are more CPU intensive. Same concept on RAM, 8 gigs is enough for gaming but if you have it in the budget for 16 I would go for it.


As for GPU, always stick with nvidia, 480 SLI would only run marginally better at close to double the price of a 1060.


Motherboard wise I can say MSI always has great ones as long as they have the ports you need and fit your case. For the cooling fan I can recommend the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

[Timmy Fox]

1060 and 480 are not all too far from each other as far as performance goes. The 1060 is a little bit faster but not by a huge amount. If they're about the same price for you go for the 1060 otherwise if the 480 is notably cheaper then go for whichever you find more afforable. I'd rather go for a single faster card over 2x slower ones.

You should be just fine with 8GB of RAM, that's plenty for pretty much any game contrary to what some people might tell you. However, since RAM is so cheap you might as well spend the little bit extra and get 16GB.

CPU wise, unless you know you need an i7, just stick with the i5. The performance difference between an i5 and i7 is minimal at best in 99% of games so it's more or less just wasted money. The i5 is meant for gaming and i7 is meant for more intense stuff like video editing. Nothing that will affect a gaming rig enough to justify the difference in price. The Pentium or even an i3 in theory could work too, though with how things are moving that's perhaps more of a low-budget option and not really as future proof. Plus you might run into some issues with some games by going that route. An i5 is better if you can afford it.

For motherboards, Asus and Gigabyte are generally the two big "Tier 1" manufacturers with others like EVGA, Asrock & MSI coming in as the kinda "Tier 2". They're all pretty good I'd say overall. ASUS is probably the easiest to use and configure and pretty great boards overall. Don't have a ton of experience with Gigabyte or MSI but I hear they're good too. Asrock and EVGA can be a bit of a hit or miss at times but most of them should be just fine. I'd say go with whatever you think looks nice. Personally I tend to use the cheaper ASUS-models.

HOWEVER!
All that said, I would not buy anything right now.

The reason is that, as far as rumors and such seems to go, there appears to be new CPU's and graphics card models being released very soon (maybe 2-3 months) - So you might want to wait for those before making your purchasing decisions as, even if you won't buy any of those, current models will at least be cheaper then than they are now due to not being the latest anymore.

Also keep in mind you would want to buy everything together instead of one component at a time since prices change all the time.

[Ori]

1060 and 480 are not all too far from each other as far as performance goes. The 1060 is a little bit faster but not by a huge amount. If they're about the same price for you go for the 1060 otherwise if the 480 is notably cheaper then go for whichever you find more afforable. I'd rather go for a single faster card over 2x slower ones.

You should be just fine with 8GB of RAM, that's plenty for pretty much any game contrary to what some people might tell you. However, since RAM is so cheap you might as well spend the little bit extra and get 16GB.

CPU wise, unless you know you need an i7, just stick with the i5. The performance difference between an i5 and i7 is minimal at best in 99% of games so it's more or less just wasted money. The i5 is meant for gaming and i7 is meant for more intense stuff like video editing. Nothing that will affect a gaming rig enough to justify the difference in price. The Pentium or even an i3 in theory could work too, though with how things are moving that's perhaps more of a low-budget option and not really as future proof. Plus you might run into some issues with some games by going that route. An i5 is better if you can afford it.

For motherboards, Asus and Gigabyte are generally the two big "Tier 1" manufacturers with others like EVGA, Asrock & MSI coming in as the kinda "Tier 2". They're all pretty good I'd say overall. ASUS is probably the easiest to use and configure and pretty great boards overall. Don't have a ton of experience with Gigabyte or MSI but I hear they're good too. Asrock and EVGA can be a bit of a hit or miss at times but most of them should be just fine. I'd say go with whatever you think looks nice. Personally I tend to use the cheaper ASUS-models.

HOWEVER!
All that said, I would not buy anything right now.

The reason is that, as far as rumors and such seems to go, there appears to be new CPU's and graphics card models being released very soon (maybe 2-3 months) - So you might want to wait for those before making your purchasing decisions as, even if you won't buy any of those, current models will at least be cheaper then than they are now due to not being the latest anymore.

Also keep in mind you would want to buy everything together instead of one component at a time since prices change all the time.

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep that in mind!

[Azurefoxy]

I would suggest going for a full size tower if you have the space and cash.  I find them easier to clean and work with in general. Also there will be more room for future expansion. I have the 1060 and I can say it's not so much better that you can't go cheaper. Unless you need to be running at ultra or have 4k mods installed, you can definitely skimp on this a little. As far as processors go, the previous comments have summed it up. Unless you are doing video editing, recording, or streaming you probably won't need the best one.

As always make sure your power supply can handle the parts you are putting in there.

[Fuexline]

first of all what do you want to play casual games? BF1? GTA IV on 4k?

There are some parts were its not good to be greedy these are:

Case: my Case is 6 years old but still rocks its a Corsair Obsidian 800D E-ATX Tower its huge it has many fans but it can handle everything
- tripple fan Radiator
- extra wide cards
- e ATX mainboards
and its completly made of iron! So you will buy one time a more expansive case a big one put it under your desk and then you will have that for years. I knew when i was a small cub i always bought design cases (40 EUR) class where i recently rip of my fingers because of the cheap made Alu Parts a Big Tower is a good suggestion they are solid they can handly many cards better airflow and many HDD/ssds

The Second Thing is the Power supply - well it looks delicious if you see that a 600W Supply costs 25 Dollar but they are as god as chinese Fireworks it could be run 1-2 yeers with a low end Pc but then capacitors blown up or something more worse will happen. there are certificaes like Bronce silver gold and Platinum with a Number like 80+ 85+ etc the higher the Bumber and number the better the supply is and the more expansive it is. well im not a huge fan of BeQuiet because erlier they rely explode and then it was realy quiet. Enermax and Seasonic making great supplys and if you build your PC by yourself then its better to pay little bit more to get it as modular version which means that you can put the cables for hdd graphics which you realy need that saves space  A Gold 80+ efficency  is enough to run a high end Gaming Pc more is only for insane people like me with 20 Thread CPUs and 3* RX 480

CPU is also important but it depends on what you will doing and what your budget is giving. so I7 is mostly not necessary many games utilize only a max of 4 Threads which should b strong so you can save money by picking one of the stronger I5 processors. the next Week AMDs Ryzon Platform will comming too si you should wait a little bit because this Cpus will have the Power of an I7 for a Price like a mid end I5  CPU if you do Video Stuff you realy need an I7 because of AVX 2.0 and other Extensions!

Ram is simple look what the Mobo Needs at least the Ram COntroller sits on the CPU nowadays so new Rigs take DDR 4. Ram is cheap actually so buy as much as you can because prices will be more expansive the nect months, the maximum ram which can be used depends as i allready said on your CPU so if its an intel simple go to intels ark page enter the cpu and look what a maximum is supported, these days 16Gb will run for sure - think about buying the ram in Pairs, on Socket 2011-3 Platfroms there are often quad chanel architecture so if you buy ram this should be constelations (with 16GB)

dual channel mobo = 2*8 or 4*4
quad channel mobo = 4*4 or 8*2 (2,2|2,2)

thats because of the dual channel mode, soem cpus can handle asynchronous dc but in practice it wont work so be sure to make a propper DC setup. even if you wont need 16 GB or 32Gb of ram later you will there are some games allready who wanted 12 GB ram in total!

Mainboard hmm hard Question there are a few brands but the 2 best are Gigabyte followed by Asus in my Opinion the best Support for Rams CPus EFI Biosses etc. if you buy a mainboard you have to look for a stable one which is not a 50 Dollar Board mostly the good Boards have solid cabs this are the capacitors made of aluminum not the black ones who can blown up. the rest is depending on your needs, cpu socket have to fit thecpu you ve bought , the best is that before you ll buy the board you have to go to the mainboard manufacturers page and red the cpu compatibility list to get sure, some Mainboards supporting newer cpus after a Bios Update and if you dont have a cpu to update the board then you are you know **censor** xd Ports: i think usb 3.1 sound gigabit land should be enough more important is the form factor of the mainboard the bigger they are the more graphiccards they can hold at least.

there are some form factors for mainbords these are:

mini ITX ( realy damn smal)
they are for umpcs and having mostly one PEG Slot sometimes a x1 slot below

M-ATX ( smaler Boards für small cases)
they mostly can fit one graphics card and up to 3 other exptension cards with x1 support

ATX ( normal Mainboard)
fits ins tandard PC offers 1-4 PEG 16 slots for Graphic cards and are mostly ideal for normal cases

E-ATX ( the Big ones)
if a truck would be the baby for a trucker then e-atx mainboards are the baby of IT addicted Admins this Boards are wide and huge and have mostly at least 4-8 PEG 16 SLots up to 8 graphics card Support, these Boards are for Servers or Workstations, but also avalable as gamer Editions. Some of them have 2 CPU Sockets, 16 Ram Slots  etc they are expansive but i love them

for your needs ATX will be enough!

Graphics card! the hardest of all Questions its like Vader VS Skywalker, like red VS Blue like Umnivore VS Veganer but at least i stick with AMDs Rx 480 which offers a good Price value and good OS Support but i have to admit you can use a GTX 1060 aswell. Crossfire setups or Sli setups are only an emergency solution if you think after some months your graphics are to weak sli and cf can cause glitches framedrops or other failures i do not recommand it. so think at the beginning what you will do if i knew graphis is important buy ONE GTX 1080 or ONE Rx 480 i think both are good the gtx is 25 percent stronger but costs much much more! you can get an oced rx 480 Nitro for 280 EUR with 8GB of VRam. please dont be greedy and buy the 4GB Editions!


SSD is super important! only retarded people will run the OS from a normal harddrive if you board offers an M2 or NVM Slot buy an ssd which fits in this slot because the SATA III Interface allready reached its limits due controller Limitations well Sata II is still fast but with m2 you can be faster! for your OS SSD you should take a minimum of 250GB for Backups you can buy a conventional HDD like a WD Red 2TB . The brand of the SSD does not mather btw mostly they use samsung or toshiba nand CHips and sandforce or marvel controllers.

i hope you are not dissapointed but it feels wrong to twll someone buy I5 XXXX and corsair 16GB xyz Ram i can only give some hints which is important the rest is up to you

[Timmy Fox]

-snip-

A whole lotta text but I would question some things you say;

Case: 800D is a great case but probably wayyy too big (and expensive) for the purpose here. If you're gonna pack a ton of hardware and stuff into it, sure go ahead, but otherwise just save some money and get a nice mid-tower case from brands like NZXT, Corsair, etc.. I wouldn't recommend cheaping out on the case but no need to go overkill either. $75-100 ish is usually a good price range for a case that is good enough.

Also, I most certainly hope your 800D is not made out of actual iron because that'd rust and be pretty bad for several components. Not sure where you read that but steel and aluminum are the metals almost all cases use, not iron.

Power Supply: Indeed, don't cheap out here. Get a good power supply from a good manufacturer (Corsair, Seasonic, NZXT, Cooler Master etc.) and be sure to get something with at least 80 plus bronze. (Stuff like 85 plus or 90 plus is not official; 80 plus is the only official rating system with various metals to refer to the grades). For wattage, 600-650w should be plenty, higher won't damage anything but it won't make any real difference either.

CPU: As has been said, i5 should be enough on the Intel side, otherwise keep an eye on what'll happen with AMD Ryzen which should be out around March.

RAM: Yep, RAM is cheap and 16GB will be more than enough. The dual/quad channel thing is kinda irrelevant here so no need to bother too much with that; Just buy whatever cheapest. 2x8GB is generally easier too because it leaves you the ability to add more in the future should you ever wish.

Motherboard: The essentials have more or less already been explained here. Everything else is nice to know indeed with the different sizes but rather irrelevant so long your case can support it.

Graphics Card: Yep, pretty much what was said. Look up reviews and take your pick depending on what fits your budget best. The graphics card should take up the majority of your budget though (you optimally wanna get the best one you can afford). Again also keep in mind AMD should release new graphics cards very soon too.

Hard drive: Honestly, whilst I agree SSD makes a huge difference and it is quite a night/day difference, I wouldn't say it's completely essential. You can make due without one though it is recommended you indeed put in an at least 240GB model if you can afford one. But it''s not the end of the world if you decide to skip it for the time being.

[Fuexline]

amd will release Ryzon Platform and Polaris 11 graphics Core this will be an awsome combo like seen in the reviews!, well the 800D was an example for a solid case, the coughar Panzer is with 100 Dollars affordable and offers realy everything. well i have the first Version of the 800D and that has ha pure iron core its heavy like hell but does its job. ive paid 420 Dollar at its Release 2010! Dual Channel brings at least 5 percent plus and on notebooks it can boost the graphics bandwith pretty much!

but at least i think its better to take the tipps and build by your own feelings you can post the pc here and we can give additional suggestions

[Timmy Fox]

well i have the first Version of the 800D and that has ha pure iron core its heavy like hell but does its job. ive paid 420 Dollar at its Release 2010!

http://www.corsair.com/se-fi/obsidian-series-800d
"The steel structure has a matte black coating both inside out and is finished with a brushed aluminum faceplate for a professional look that's both serious and awe-inspiring."

Actual iron would potentially cause trouble for your hard drives and could even short out your motherboard - Definitely steel and aluminum is significantly better than iron due to not being as magnetic or prine to rust in the same way as iron.

The cougar case looks fine but again I'd rather suggest not going full tower since it's severely overkill for the type of PC being discussed here and kinda just wasted space (and money).
I'd rather look at something like a Fractal Design Arc or Define series case, alternatively NZXT H440 or Obsidian 450D or something else in that kinda range.

[Fuexline]

you have to think for the future and the airflow Bug Towers are more reliable in my Opinion - but if he do not plan to use many hdds and graphic cards then the obsidian 450d is sure a good choice

[Timmy Fox]

Well, smaller form factors does actually seem to be what's becoming more and more common so kinda doubt full tower will really ever be necessary unless you're doing overkill extreme stuff.

[Fuexline]

what gaming pcs mostly are!

if it is a small machine like i5 one gtx 1060 600W PSU atx Mainboard and 2 SSDs 2 HDDs its okay , i was happy that i have a big tower when my AMD FirePRO arrived and this thing was 40 cm long so you have more space better arflow and can handle the cables better, but this is a thing of the users tastes some want BT some want normal Tower, some want HTPC