Building a new gaming PC from scratch - your expert advice please

December 2, 2015 3:23 PM

Advice for an old IT guy about building a new PC in this dizzying modern world? Haven't built one for about 7 years and am feeling overwhelmed. Difficulty level: Australian.

So my old box is finally on the brink of death after 7 years of loyal service. It was already pretty crappy then so it's even more crappier now.

I've got my "Christmas bonus" (leave loading) coming soon, and can scratch together enough in the next couple of months to splash say AU$2000 on a brand-new machine. This will include a monitor.

From my research I reckon I will be getting an i5-6600K processor, and a GTX970 GPU, and 16GB (2x8GB) of RAM, and an SSD. I will be going for a larger mobo (I guess Standard ATX? Mini ATX?) inside a larger case with plenty of air cooling and hopefully some dust filters, and I will not be cheaping out on the PSU.

I want to go for the Skylake stuff mainly so I've got a fairly open upgrade path. I will probably be getting an after-market heat sink/fan for the CPU, because I am in Australia, and it is summer.

I'm not worried about transparent cases or LED lighting or any of that stuff which I know is cool but just can't be bothered with.

I may tinker a little with overclocking a smidgen here and there. The PC will be used for gaming and, obviously, general PC-ing. There are a lot of great games I've missed out on in the past 5 years (Witcher 3 and Fallout 4, for starters), but I'd also like to be able to play games that are released in, say, the next 2-3.

I do know enough about PCs to be confident that I can source the parts and build the thing myself and get it working. What I'm less confident in is knowing the "tricks" that can trip people up when building a machine, so I'd love to get some general advice from experienced PC builders and upgraders and tinkerers and overclockers about:

- What should I be considering more carefully, that I am obviously not, or that I probably haven't done?

- What do I need to make sure I do, that I probably won't, because I haven't done this for so long?

- Any particular specific brands of particular specific components that I should steer clear of? Others I should lean towards? I know (suspect) that it's all much of a muchness these days as far as GPUs and motherboards are concerned, but there are so many brands of RAM and so many PSU manufacturers that I have to admit I'm simply tempted to buy whatever's mid-rangeist

- What are some frustrations I'm likely to encounter, and what are some good workarounds?

- I admit I haven't looked into AMD too closely - am I doing myself a disservice in this regard?

- General PC build advice? Cable management and general assembly tips and tricks? Stuff I should have ready on hand so I can get it done in one sitting?

I know there are loads of subreddits and Whirlpool and Overclockers forums that I could be asking these questions of, or trawling through, but my answer to that is I don't fully trust any of those places, whereas AskMe has yet to steer me wrong.

posted by turbid dahlia to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

You're on the right track.

There's no harm in getting 16 gig but 8 gig is really all you need, don't bother getting fancy memory. Mini ATX is fine, there's no real benefit from a bigger one.

An i5 quad core is the best pick for gaming, and a GTX 970 (Asus Strix is a good pick) is also a great video card to choose - it will absolutely destroy every game in existence for the next little while. The SSD is vital (Samsung Pro Evo are a good brand), but mainly for your windows install - add a 2-4 terabyte HD for everything else.

Power supply is worth not skimping on - the Corsair CX series are bad, and going cheap and high power is a bad idea - a high quality 500 W supply is what you'd be looking at.

Here's an indicative build I yoinked off the fantastic Goon partspicker thread.
posted by Sebmojo at 3:31 PM on December 2, 2015

- I admit I haven't looked into AMD too closely - am I doing myself a disservice in this regard??

While AMD are fine for GPUs, Intel are where it's at for gaming cpus right now.

- General PC build advice? Cable management and general assembly tips and tricks? Stuff I should have ready on hand so I can get it done in one sitting

It's pretty foolproof these days. Windows 10 is great, and free if you jump through a few small hoops.

I may tinker a little with overclocking a smidgen here and there. The PC will be used for gaming and, obviously, general PC-ing. There are a lot of great games I've missed out on in the past 5 years (Witcher 3 and Fallout 4, for starters), but I'd also like to be able to play games that are released in, say, the next 2-3.

You've got the need for a 'K' processor, but also make sure the mobo is overclocking capable (Z97 not H97). Also, make sure the case has room for the graphics card, since they're enormous these days.

Also, get an IPS monitor rather than a TN one - the Dell ultrasharps are very good.
posted by Sebmojo at 3:44 PM on December 2, 2015

Get a good IPS monitor - the color rendition difference between an IPS monitor and TN is very noticable, TN monitors look washed out.

Alternatively if high frame rates are your thing, go for a 120hz GSYNC monitor, again the difference is very noticable - it's not so much the frame rate but the frame syncing (the monitor only refreshes when a frame is queued) - current non synced technology means that the GPU might be putting out 47 fps during heavy action and the monitor is refreshing at 60 fps regardless, making it look really bad / stuttery.
posted by xdvesper at 3:48 PM on December 2, 2015

I'm fond of the Logical Increments site for making sense of PC parts.
posted by Nelson at 3:52 PM on December 2, 2015

I promise I won't just keep posting links to Partspicker until I get it ironed out but as a baseline is something like this on the right track, more or less? Still need a case obviously.

I've put the OS and keyboard and monitor in there just to get an idea of the higher end, money-wise. Those can be gone about in plenty of other ways.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:18 PM on December 2, 2015

I started playing Fallout 4 and found it to have unbearable load times when it was installed on my spinning magnetic disk drive. I upgraded to a Samsung EVO 850 SSD and saw a huge improvement. Even better performance can be had for SSDs apparently, via the PCIe "M.2" interface. Here are some benchmarks.
posted by rustcrumb at 4:39 PM on December 2, 2015

I'm not an expert but am pretty proud of my recent small form factor build. Based on my experience here are some things you might not have considered if you haven't built a PC in some time.

Remember to pop in the I/O shield before you mount the motherboard.

You may need more or differently angled SATA cables than the ones included with the motherboard.

If you're paranoid like me you'll want to have an antistatic wrist band.

I'm not sure about ATX and mini ATX, but with mini ITX and the aftermarket CPU cooler that I used (Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev. B), I had to install RAM first because the cooler hangs over the nearest RAM slot. Installing the Shuriken was a bear, and I would've been very sad if I had to remove it because I forgot to install RAM first. This also meant that RAM sticks with crazy heatsinks were out of the question. These issues arose from the combination of CPU cooler and motherboard form factor that I chose and may not apply to you.

I came close to way overtightening the frame of the Shuriken. I recommend watching for flex in the CPU cooler bracket while you tighten the screws from the underside of the motherboard.

I found that the default RPM of the CPU fan was double what was necessary to cool the CPU at low utilization, so I changed that and was very pleased with the noise reduction.

The Samsung SSD 850 PRO has a high enough TBW that there's no need to worry about running out of writes, but I turned off Hybrid Sleep and Fast Boot, Windows features that dump RAM to the SSD, to reduce writes.
posted by ionnin at 4:43 PM on December 2, 2015

I notice you have a WiFi adapter in your parts list. If you're planning to game online, you might want to try to get your computer connected to the internet via a physical network cable or at least via a powerline networking kit instead to reduce latency.
posted by Aleyn at 5:23 PM on December 2, 2015

I agree Aleyn, but the wifi is more an aesthetic consideration and to keep my partner happy as she is unhappy with cables being draped all over the place. I don't do any online gaming anyway, but I do take your point.
posted by turbid dahlia at 5:53 PM on December 2, 2015

Another build gotcha for me has been getting the memory slots right if you're not using them all. Check the mobo manual first for recommended configurations. Especially considering the CPU cooler vs memory install order problem mentioned above. Buy a single matched 2 or 4 pack of RAM rather than mixing multiple separate packs for maximum stability and performance.

Make sure gfx card is powerful enough for your monitor's resolution. I got a QHD monitor and a gtx980ti and I can just about squeeze 30fps out of Fallout 4 at max settings.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 6:43 PM on December 2, 2015

Get a good, well-designed case. It'll make everything much more pleasant if it's not such a chore to put it together or to make changes later. I bought this case a year ago and I love it -- big enough that I had no trouble fitting in an enormous graphics card and CPU cooler and routing cables neatly, small enough it doesn't take up my whole desk. The top, bottom, and side panels all come off easily, and the screws all have knurled knobs that stay in place, so that's four fewer things to keep track of (and one fewer screwdriver) every time I remove a panel. Plus with the motherboard mounted on the bottom, gravity helps keep things where they should be while I'm installing everything (and I can get away with a heavier CPU cooler than would otherwise be sensible.)

It's not the only case with those features, but I really like it for the quality-of-life improvements and suggest you find one equally fabulous.
posted by asperity at 10:27 PM on December 2, 2015

If you're buying a GTX970, I second the Asus Strix. I have one of those noise-deadening cases, but even with the sides off, the PC is practically silent even when I play graphically intense games. Make sure that the mainboard and case will allow space for your chosen GPU though - mine had about 1mm to spare, and I had to reroute a few cables. Modern graphics cards are BIG. And yes, pick a case that's somewhat above the super-cheap-no-brand type of case. No need to spend a fortune, but you do get a much easier experience (and less lacerating of hands) with a better case. Good cases also tend to come with a better selection of mounting hardware and cables.
posted by pipeski at 2:49 AM on December 3, 2015

There are surprisingly few gotchas for building PCs these days. Reiterating a few points made above:

- Get a tool-less case with cable routing. You'll thank me later. (I'm personally a big fan of this one.)
- Similarly, modular power supplies are a thing and significantly reduce stray cables inside the case.
- Make sure your GPU will physically fit, especially if you're getting a smaller case.
- You might want to look into M2 instead of SATA for your SSD. Only certain motherboards support it though.
- Don't skimp on the CPU cooler, get an aftermarket one.
posted by neckro23 at 1:01 PM on December 3, 2015

Tomshardware.com for their monthly "Best X for the Money" articles. They cover every price range. I suspect that they'll lead you to the same choices you've already made, but those articles also have handy links to reviews comparing different brands of that component. A roundup of different GTX 970s for example.

SilentPCreview.com has great reviews of cases, power supplies, heat sinks, and fans.

If I were building a new gaming rig right now, what you've outlined is exactly what I would build.

I've had consistently good experiences with ASUS motherboards and graphics cards. I'm not big on brand loyalty but ASUS has been great for a long time.

One thing you might consider is a closed loop liquid cooler for your graphics card. There is usually enough space around the CPU that it can support a heat sink with enough thermal mass to outperform a closed loop liquid cooler at the same cost. The same isn't true for the graphics card. A closed loop liquid cooler lets you hang that thermal mass off the case instead of off the card. It ends up being a LOT cooler at load (which will really help with overclocking) and MUCH quieter than any air cooler at load. The pump can be a little noisy at idle but you can just turn it off all-together when it's not being used for gaming and it will still provide plenty of cooling. The other nice side effect is that, since it much more efficiently vents the GPU heat outside the case, your CPU runs cooler too.

The "Kraken G10" is a bracket that lets you use most CPU closed loop coolers on your GPU and the "Accelero Hybrid" is a purpose built GPU closed loop cooler. You can save a bit of money by getting a reference or more basic graphics card since you're going to pitch the factory heat sink.
posted by VTX at 6:09 PM on December 3, 2015