Building a PC for the first time

[Chino]

I need a new home computer as my laptop from 2012 looks like it has finally had it. I want to go with a tower this time for my home office. I don't need a lot of horsepower, but I would still like 16GB of ram. I've never built a PC before and don't really know what I'm doing. There are sooo many options out there for brands and components.

As far as what I need the thing to do, there isn't a whole lot.
- Handle my 3d printing slicing software
- Play classic games like RCT, Empire Earth, Half Life 2, Vice City, etc..
- Excel spreadsheets
- Photoshop

My laptop handled everything above just fine, though sometimes large slicing jobs in Cura (3d printing stuff) would cripple the machine for a 5-10 minutes. I'd like to keep the build in the $600 range if I can, but would be willing to go up to $700. I'm not factoring the price of a keyboard, mouse, and external devices into that budget. Like I said, I don't need a ton of horsepower. I won't be doing an real gaming or anything like that with this machine. I don't need a massive HD as I will be backing everything up on a 2TB external anyway. I would like it to look really cool in my office though. If for around $700 I could have something that could play a game like GTAV, I wouldn't hate it, but that's not a priority. That'd just be a nice to have.

The link below has a machine that my computer friend suggested I build based on my needs and budget.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/xjrw29

Curious what your thoughts on the above would be? If you wanted to try your hand at building one out for under $700 with your preferences, it'd be appreciated.

[Bolsters]

I'd go with two 8GB sticks rather than a single 16GB to take advantage of dual channel memory. That motherboard has four slots so you still have room to expand later if you desire.

It's also a micro ATX board, which will fit your case but you might be paying a bit extra for a smaller form factor board which you don't need. Take a look at regular sized boards that meet your needs to see if they're any cheaper. I see there's $20 off this one though, so maybe it is a comparable price already.

If you want to play something like GTA V, you need a dedicated graphics card. Doesn't matter that you have a 6-core CPU, it's not going to cut it.

[Chino]

If you want to play something like GTA V, you need a dedicated graphics card. Doesn't matter that you have a 6-core CPU, it's not going to cut it.

That's something I was curious about... I was looking at other builds on that site and noticed a lot of them have a video card. I was wondering why mine didn't. Are those optional based on your needs?

[Bolsters]

Are those optional based on your needs?

For my needs, not really, but that's because I am primarily a PC gamer these days (my only console is a Switch). And I'm not saying a PC without a graphics card can't play any games at all; but GTA V isn't that old, and it's open world, I can't imagine it being a pleasant experience to play it without a GPU. Older and/or less graphically intensive games will fare better without one. Having one might improve how the 3D printer CAD software runs as well, but I don't have much experience with that.

But one of the advantages of building your own PC is that you don't have to buy it all at once. If you can't afford the graphics card right now, you don't need to buy it - see how you go without and get one down the road if/when you decide you want one.

[Chino]

Thanks. That's kind of what I was getting at. I'd be able to use the machine without a graphics card and add one later if need be?

[The Walrus]

You'll definitely be able to use it without a vidcard, but if you want to game - like, GTA 5 game - you're gonna need it, but not right away.

[El Barto]

The first thing I noticed is that the onboard graphics are going to be Radeon based. When I finally moved to Nvidia based graphics last year it was like Andy Dufresne popping out in the stream and smelling freedom for the first time. I'd spent 15 years being tormented by ATI Radeon drivers and swore to never return. Those drivers are coded by whisky and meth fueled monkeys.

I agree about the full-sized ATX MOBO. I don't like having everything squeezed onto a tiny PCB. Moreover you might want to add some stuff down the road.
 
I'd do some research into the 3d modeling software you use. It's very possible that an Intel processor is vastly superior to Ryzen. AMD's chips always tend to clock faster, but Intel is usually more robust behind the scenes. They just excel in different areas.

[Chino]

Thanks for the input everyone.   

I was getting too overwhelmed with all the choices and need a PC ASAP, so I just went ahead and ordered one of these. It should be able to handle anything I need it to. I'll probably upgrade the RAM though.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0757DVF4Z?ref=ppx_pt2_dt_b_prod_image



Processor   2.8 GHz Core i5 8400
RAM   8 GB DDR4
Hard Drive   1024 GB 7200 RPM SATA III
Graphics Coprocessor   GTX 1060
Chipset Brand   NVIDIA
Card Description   Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 1060 3GB
Graphics Card Ram Size   3 GB
Number of USB 2.0 Ports   2
Number of USB 3.0 Ports   6

I totally blew my budget, and I'm sure I paid a bit of a premium for it already being assembled and whatnot, but I'm fine with it.

[ReaperKK]

What psu did you go with?

[cramx3]

Love this

Card Description   Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 1060 3GB

after not saying you were getting one  but dude, welcome to the PC gaming world.

Also, I'm a big Intel/Nvidia fan personally.  Intel is more expensive but they usually are a better product IMO.

I am curious why you went with a 1TB HDD and not say a 400GB SSD since you said you had a 2TB drive.  I'd imagine there's an SSD in your prive range and you might find it worth it for installing the OS and your printer software on it over a HDD.

[Chino]

What psu did you go with?

No clue, honestly. Whatever comes with it.

Love this

Card Description   Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 1060 3GB

after not saying you were getting one  but dude, welcome to the PC gaming world.

Also, I'm a big Intel/Nvidia fan personally.  Intel is more expensive but they usually are a better product IMO.

I am curious why you went with a 1TB HDD and not say a 400GB SSD since you said you had a 2TB drive.  I'd imagine there's an SSD in your prive range and you might find it worth it for installing the OS and your printer software on it over a HDD.

I went with that HDD because that's what came on this particular machine  I didn't configure this machine myself, so my options were limited based on what pre-built machines the company offers. This machine was kind of in the middle in terms of price and power. They had $600, $700, $800, $900, $1000, and $1200+ machines. I'm not fluent enough in hardware speak to know the difference, so I opted for the middle option figuring it'd be an okay PC. I also don't have time on my side and Amazon Prime allowed me to get this on my doorstep this afternoon, ready to go right out of the box.

Not knowing anything, I was surprised to see so many people (95% of 1400 people rated 4 or 5 stars) in the reviews saying they run games like Far Cry, GTA, and WoW on the max settings. The machine I bought only has 8GB of ram, which my 7 year old laptop had, and the processor is only 2.8GHz. With so many more expensive and more powerful options available, I wouldn't expect this PC to handle max settings for any game that came out in the last 5 years, but again, I know nothing. Maybe it can barely handle GTA-V on Max settings, but would start choking once realistic mods were applied? Idk.   

However, I am very much looking forward to playing Tropico 6 on this when it comes out, and I'll finally be able to hit up the Steam sales I see everyone always talking about. I'm not a hardcore gamer by any means, but now that I'm living alone and getting bored more frequently, I find myself playing my PS4 more and more. I'm also not very good at most multiplayer games. FPV shooters have never been my strong suit, but I wouldn't mind finding an online game that has less to do with lightening quick reflexes and is more strategy based and team-oriented (Empire Earth for example). I will admit, part of this purchase was fueled by the Avatar MMO that's currently in development.

I spent the bulk of last night making room in my office for the new tower. Yeah, I know it's still a mess, but the attic if cold AF in the winter and I didn't want to run electric heat up there, so I just moved my RC build into the office.

Before/In Progress

[cramx3]

Nice, but GTA is not a new game, the 1060 is newer than the game.  A 1060 is a fine beginner card if you ask me and since you weren't really looking for one, I think you'll enjoy it.  Probably will be a better gaming experience than your PS4. 

[Chino]

Nice, but GTA is not a new game, the 1060 is newer than the game.  A 1060 is a fine beginner card if you ask me and since you weren't really looking for one, I think you'll enjoy it.  Probably will be a better gaming experience than your PS4.

Was the PC version of GTA-V the original game that came out on the PS3 and 360, or was it the remastered version that came out on the next gen consoles?   

Despite being older, that game still seems to be the benchmark, at least from the few people I've spoken with. A friend of mine (buddy that built out the pc in my original post) uses that game to stress test any new towers he builds or components that he's upgraded. Some of the mods he has for that game make it look scary good, so much so, stills captured from game play could easily be mistaken as real.

[cramx3]

Yea it was not the original release, and yea it's a fine game to benchmark against. 

[El Barto]

The 1060 is a perfectly good mainstream card. That's what I opted for about six months ago and I've been happy with it. I wouldn't mind having the 6gb version of it rather than the 3, but it hasn't been a problem. Though I'm not interested in super high end games. Really the only difference between my computer and Chino's is that his i5 is much newer than mine. They're probably about the same tier within their relative platform lines, but mine's a Sandy Bridge from 2011. I haven't felt the need to upgrade.

[The Walrus]

There is very little that's more pleasurable to me than enjoying a brand new gaming computer. Enjoy, my friend.

[Chino]

Welp, I am a grade-A dumbass.

I got everything setup and couldn't for the life of me get the sound on this thing to work. I eventually gave up and got on the phone with tech support who then sent me a couple drivers to try installing. No dice. After about 30 minutes of banging my head against the wall, it occurred to me that my M-Audio speakers are powered and I needed to plug them in 

Derp 

[cramx3]

Oh that looks very nice

There is very little that's more pleasurable to me than enjoying a brand new gaming computer. Enjoy, my friend.

yup you will enjoy it, once you get into how awesome pc gaming is, we'll have to get a dtf group going on something maybe gta v or hopefully RDR2 someday

[Chino]

Thanks. Hopefully RDR2 will have an online worth playing by the time it gets to PC. It's a total snoozefest so far on PS4, even with friends. There is absolutely nothing to do. After 5 months of beta, they've hardly released anything, and 90% of the stuff they've released are new game modes that no one wants to play. They're pushing micro transactions really hard, and for something that's still in beta, that's pretty lame.

[ReaperKK]

Nice PC! When you get on Steam let me know your name I'll add you.

[Chino]

Nice PC! When you get on Steam let me know your name I'll add you.

Thanks!

Username = Chino1130

[ReaperKK]

Let me look through my indie bundles, I may have some games to gift you

[Chino]

Let me look through my indie bundles, I may have some games to gift you

Awesome! Thank you

[Chino]

Is there a return policy on Steam? If I were to purchase a $45-$60 game and it turns out my new PC can't handle it, can I at least "return" it for store credit or something?

[The Walrus]

Is there a return policy on Steam? If I were to purchase a $45-$60 game and it turns out my new PC can't handle it, can I at least "return" it for store credit or something?

As long as you've played less than 2 hours and it's within 2 weeks of purchase, go to help.steampowered.com and ask for a refund, you'll get it. Unless they changed it.

[El Barto]

Is there a return policy on Steam? If I were to purchase a $45-$60 game and it turns out my new PC can't handle it, can I at least "return" it for store credit or something?

Your PC can handle any non-VR game out there right now. It just won't run it a 4k with all quality settings maxed out. You're well above the minimum specs even for Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which seems to be the bleeding edge right now.

[Chino]

Is there a return policy on Steam? If I were to purchase a $45-$60 game and it turns out my new PC can't handle it, can I at least "return" it for store credit or something?

As long as you've played less than 2 hours and it's within 2 weeks of purchase, go to help.steampowered.com and ask for a refund, you'll get it. Unless they changed it.

Nice

[Your PC can handle any non-VR game out there right now. It just won't run it a 4k with all quality settings maxed out. You're well above the minimum specs even for Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which seems to be the bleeding edge right now.

That kind of blows my mind. I always thought you needed a $1200+ machine to play games like that. Planet Coaster shouldn't be an issue then.

[El Barto]

That kind of blows my mind. I always thought you needs a $1200+ machine to play games like that. Planet Coaster shouldn't be an issue then.

Game manufactures couldn't stay in business if they only catered to the nerds who'll spend $500 on ram to eek out 2 extra FPS. And it's much easier to scale graphics down for slow computer than it is to crank them up for fast ones. You design games for the nerds and then allow lesser graphics settings to make sure than everybody else can still play them.

Never heard of Planet Coaster, but you seem to be in the middle of their system requirements.

[cramx3]

That's a myth of the console folks, you don't need some ultra high powered PC to game or even outperform a PS4 or Xbox 1, but you will need that if you want to not jsut outperform a console but game at the latest and greatest, also if you want to stream you'll need more power.  Just to game though, you are all set.  You might find over time you'll want better though and that's what's awesome, you could upgrade later. 

I'm running a GTX 1080, Intel Core i7-6700K, 16GB RAM and I kind of need it to record my gaming, but I slowly built that up from my first PC using an intro gaming card (I think it was a GTX 460, then 770, then 1080).  And don't get me started on my storage set up.  I have access to SSDs/HDDs occasionally at work.  But that started with one HDD, then one SSD/HDD, and you see what I mean when you can really get sucked into building your PC to meet your demands.

[ReaperKK]

Is there a return policy on Steam? If I were to purchase a $45-$60 game and it turns out my new PC can't handle it, can I at least "return" it for store credit or something?

As long as you've played less than 2 hours and it's within 2 weeks of purchase, go to help.steampowered.com and ask for a refund, you'll get it. Unless they changed it.

Nice

[Your PC can handle any non-VR game out there right now. It just won't run it a 4k with all quality settings maxed out. You're well above the minimum specs even for Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which seems to be the bleeding edge right now.

That kind of blows my mind. I always thought you needed a $1200+ machine to play games like that. Planet Coaster shouldn't be an issue then.

You don’t but every once in a while you will run into games that poorly optimized for pc, mainly ports. Actually funny you mention planet coaster, I have that game and the motherfucker is the only thing that will spin the gpu fans. The game has come a long way though. When it first came out it ran like the hottest garbage .

[El Barto]

Is there a return policy on Steam? If I were to purchase a $45-$60 game and it turns out my new PC can't handle it, can I at least "return" it for store credit or something?

As long as you've played less than 2 hours and it's within 2 weeks of purchase, go to help.steampowered.com and ask for a refund, you'll get it. Unless they changed it.

Nice

[Your PC can handle any non-VR game out there right now. It just won't run it a 4k with all quality settings maxed out. You're well above the minimum specs even for Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which seems to be the bleeding edge right now.

That kind of blows my mind. I always thought you needed a $1200+ machine to play games like that. Planet Coaster shouldn't be an issue then.

You don’t but every once in a while you will run into games that poorly optimized for pc, mainly ports. Actually funny you mention planet coaster, I have that game and the motherfucker is the only thing that will spin the gpu fans. The game has come a long way though. When it first came out it ran like the hottest garbage .

Yeah, the game I'm playing is trying to broil my CPU, and it's all because of poor optimization. Even nerds with $2k gaming rigs are saying the game runs like crap. Like you said, though, they gradually patch and fix things and it mostly runs alright now. I run at 42FPS with pretty decent graphics settings, until I walk into one particular town and it drops into the teens. The only thing I've found that just outpowers my PC is large battles. For those I have to turn the settings way down.

[ReaperKK]

Did any of you guys try project stream when it was out? I couldn’t believe how well AC:O ran on it, I even ran it on my 5 year old laptop flawlessly.

[Chino]

Did any of you guys try project stream when it was out? I couldn’t believe how well AC:O ran on it, I even ran it on my 5 year old laptop flawlessly.

That's going to be the future of gaming/computing. No more consoles. No more desktops. Just a screen talking to the internet with all the processing being done on the back end. I envision a future where you just pay a monthly fee for a game service equivalent to Netflix.

[cramx3]

Did any of you guys try project stream when it was out? I couldn’t believe how well AC:O ran on it, I even ran it on my 5 year old laptop flawlessly.

That's going to be the future of gaming/computing. No more consoles. No more desktops. Just a screen talking to the internet with all the processing being done on the back end. I envision a future where you just pay a monthly fee for a game service equivalent to Netflix.

Google is working hard on this now. 

[ReaperKK]

Yea the stadia, I would love to see it in action.