You saw my bit about using NCIX to buy your parts and have them build t for you right? Or you're really worried about doing it yourself I'd highly recommend it for peace of mind. I've always built my own computers so it's hard to not want to feel like saying "just build it!!!! It's easy." But I think I can understand your nervousness and you should do what you need/want in this circumstance. The parts may be slightly more expensive overall depending in various deals, but you won't have to put in the work and will have some security in knowing they'll take care of any issues. Friends and Gaffers that have used or have been very happy with it.
Yes! And thank you so much for telling me about NCIX, as that's perfect for what I want. I'll just have them do it for the warranty and peace of mind. Maybe in time, I'll learn to do it, but I can start out by upgrading this one when time comes.
So the reason I stepped you down to the $1600 build I had is because SLI solutions are rarely ever recommendable. There's alot of driver issues, most games don't scale well and it can just be a pain for a huge cost increase. It's much better to just save that extra money, sell off your 1080 down the line and keep buying a new GPU every few years. The performance will stay very very high and limit issues. In the long run you save money and get a better gradient in pefromance. Also unless you're desperate to play 4k/60hz it's largely overkill.
Interesting. Thanks! Based on your response (and the others below), I'll just go with the one 1080. I appreciate all this input. I'm not experienced at all when it comes to building a good PC as far as bang for buck.
I stepped you down to 16GB of ram because unless you do large scale compiling, virtual machines, rendering or video editing it's pointless and gives you no performance advantage. I've linked studies before but diminishing returns on RAM speed really starts to kick in post 2400mhz and most games see no benefit past like 2133. So 3000 is a safe bet you'll get all the performance you need for a long time.
The cheaper Mobo because it has mostly the same feature set and you're just saving by not going with the special gaming brand Mobo that's mainly setup for SLI uses which you wouldn't need. (Although mine will support it just fine too.)
These are great points, and while I want an extremely powerful PC, I do want to get the most for what I pay into it. I waited a long time to be able to essentially get whatever PC I want but I don't want to just waste money on it either.
Do not buy a $1000 SSD it's completely overkill get a 256-500GB SSD for OS and games that can use it and a 7200RPM HDD or Hybrid drive (SSD/HDD mix) for the vast majority of your files as many things don't need or see a tangible benefit from a SSD In reality.
That SSD was crazy, and I was actually considering going for a less expensive harddrive solution, so I will probably end up doing this.
The PSU is overkill, you don't need 850w with a single card (you don't even need 750w, but it's on sale). Power usage will only go down with future parts as well. So 750W will be adequate for a looooong time.
I never thought about that! I just wanted to make sure, that of all things, my PC wouldn't have heat issues.
Don't let the money burn a hole in your pocket because you have it. Billy's build was intended to be sarcastic to a point to show you how crazy you could get for the cost of the parts you were spending on that MSI machine. The performance difference between those two builds one which is 1/2 the price is much smaller than you think. Save the extra money and use it down the line to upgrade or buy a new top of the line machine when you feel you need an upgrade. Technology becomes outdated fairly fast and you can't beat time by buying super expensive, it just doesn't work.
This is awesome advice. I definitely wasn't going to buy anything before I got everyone's input here, and I'm glad I did. =D
I would advise against going SLI (not all games scale well with two graphics cards, and for those that do it's rarely even linear scaling), but it's your call. If you've got the money and want to go all-in on a PC, then go for it.
edit: you can also get faster RAM, I think
Y'all have convinced me to not go SLI, and I also need to look at monitors and whatnot so saving money by not getting two GPUs will make up for that.
i know i recommended that build to you but it was really only to show you what you could get for the price. if you're just gaming you don't really need 32GB ram or 2x 1080's. 16GB and a single 1080 is more than enough to last you many years yet. 2133mhz ram is the standard speed for DDR4 ram but don't buy sticks only capable of 2133. get ones that can do 3000 and just run them as fast as possible. most games won't see much a difference but the price between 2133 and 3000 is very small. as for SLI cards i personally tend to avoid using multiple GPU's as it can cause problems. a single card will work much better.
here is a revised build:
PCPartPicker part list /
Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($345.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($129.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($150.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($82.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 PRO 2TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($847.89 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Founders Edition Video Card ($699.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Fractal Design Define S ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $2501.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-16 15:18 EDT-0400
there are a couple things here i should mention. the CPU cooler is liquid cooled which is generally better than air cooling but of course more expensive. personally i'm happy with my Cooler Master Hyper 212X (air) cooler which costs only $25-30. you can get a decent CPU overclock with the 212X. i would only recommend liquid cooling if you want to get every last drop of performance out your CPU and want to keep it as cool as possible. of course also if you don't mind the thought of liquids being near such expensive parts. failures are very low in these All-in-1's but it's something i just avoid altogether.
Awesome! Thanks for this build. I actually do want liquid cooling, so I think I'll go with that but I appreciate your air cooling alternative. The room my PC would be in can get hot, so I want to make sure it'll be as cool as possible.
the motherboard in part comes down to personal preference. if you want to overclock it has to be a Z170. when it came to decided what motherboard to get i just got one that had all the ports i needed (so video/audio output, amount of usb ports, etc) and one that i thought looked cool.
for the GPU, this lists the EVGA founder's edition. don't buy a founder edition card. go for an aftermarket one with custom coolers by brands like EVGA, msi, asus, gigabyte etc.
while SSD prices are dropping lower and lower they are still quite expensive. figure out how much storage you are going to need. 2TB might be way too much. for me 1TB is more than enough. if you need a lot of storage, say 2TB+, but also want the benefits of an SSD then what a lot of people do is buy a small capacity SSD, 128-512GB, to install Windows + favourite games on and then get a mechanical 7200RPM HD that can hold 1/2/3/4TB to store other games and files. HDD's are way cheaper than SSD's.
as for the case, again it comes down to preference. what one looks nice, how big is it, how many fans can it hold, does it have space/support for liquid cooling, does it have enough HDD/ODD bays, does it have a built in fan controller, is it easy to clean, is cable management easy?
This is stuff I'll have to research to, and make sure I get the right parts that fit what I want/the look of it. My main concern is reliability, power, and manageability (ease to clean, cable management). I would rather have those things than have something that looks cool design wise.
Anyway, I'm going to look at all the new builds and suggestions, and I'll come back with the potential final build to see if there's anything that should be changed/fixed. I'm going to get NCIX to build it as well, so now I feel like I can really customize it without feeling like I have to worry about putting it together incorrectly.
