Forums: Does this Gaming Desktop build look good?

Are you planning to use the CPU cooler from Intel or an aftermarket one? You can get good options for around $20,- If you can spare it, I'd suggest adding one to your build.

Yeah, I'll be doing that now that I've looked into it, thanks.

Recommendations:

Don't use the default Intel heatsink. It works, but only just, and is overall just rather shit. Check out the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO: it's one of the most trusted and highly praised aftermarket heatsinks out there, and it only costs $30. It's also compatible with all modern consumer-grade motherboards, and on both Intel and AMD sockets. It'll fit on whatever you're buying as well as almost certainly anything you'll upgrade to in the foreseeable future.
Get the 4 GB version of the GTX 960. 2 GB is only barely enough for a lot of current games (provided you're running your games at max settings at at least 1080p), and likely will not cut it in a year or two.
Consider buying a higher Wattage PSU. While 500W should be enough for this system, it's a good idea to get a PSU with a bit more Wattage than you absolutely need, since power supplies aren't 100% efficient and may also degrade slightly over time from continuous usage (especially cheaper ones), and it's also a good idea to leave some room for upgrading to more powerful and power-hungry components in the future. Be wary though; you don't ever want to skimp out on your power supply. Refer to this list when choosing a PSU.
Are you sure you don't want to build it yourself? While NCIX is a great retailer and is probably who I'd have build a PC for me if I wasn't willing to do so myself, you should at least consider doing it yourself if it means either saving a little money or having some extra money to put towards the actual components. It's honestly incredibly easy to assemble a computer, and as long as you're being reasonably gentle with the components and taking the proper precautions to prevent ESD from damaging anything (i.e. buying a $5 anti-static wriststrap off the internet and wearing it while you build the computer), it's pretty damn hard to break anything unless you're actually trying to do so. Here's a video guide on the process of building a PC; you'll likely be surprised by how simple it is.

I'll definitely be going for that upgraded Cooler Master heatsink, thanks for that.

I am going to stick with the current video card simply because of budgeting, I can always upgrade to something beefier in a few years when I'm not buying a whole system in one go.

And I think I'll be upping to a higher PSU, but it looks like Corsairs at 600W and 750W are getting bad reviews for dying out within less than 12 months of purchasing. I think I may go for a Seasonic G-650 Gold 650W ATX 80PLUS Modular 120mm Fan Power Supply PSU DC to DC at the cost of a little extra money for more power and peace of mind.

As for building it myself... I have zero experience with building PCs, the most I've done is remove an old DVD-RW drive from a tower. They actually only charge $50 to assemble and test the unit and I'd rather they do that and get any hiccups out of the way before it gets to me so I can just start to enjoy my machine from the get go.

Thanks so much for all of that, it's very much appreciated.

Pakaku

Sep 27, 2015

The processor is Intel, and the graphics card is NVIDIA. Sounds good to me.

>implying AMD is bad

You get what you pay for, and AMD is a cheap overheating brand.

Edited Sep 28, 2015

Erm, no. AMD Processors are fine. A bit old by now, but they hold up fairly well. AMD processors only draw marginally more power and generate slightly more heat than Intel chips, and modern thermal protection keeps the chip from overheating unless you've overclocked it stupidly high without proper cooling, which would be entirely your own fault. Their main drawbacks compared to comparable Intel CPUs are lower IPC and poorer single-thread performance.

AMD graphics cards are just as good as Nvidia cards. AMD and Nvidia have different approaches to graphics architecture and have different design philosophies, but both make excellent cards with their own specific advantages and disadvantages. Choosing what to buy should simply be a matter of selecting which card performs best for its cost within the price range you're buying from.

And for the record, even though this shouldn't matter, my rig uses an AMD CPU (FX-6300) and an Nvidia GPU (GTX 970)

Thanks

It all comes down to personal preference. First the fan that is included with the CPU if it is the default one tends to be noisy. A high end quite CPU cooler fan does wonders to the noise level of a room. Secondly I personally think a GTX 970 would be a better choice as the GTX 960 is considerably slower. A GTX 970 is also one of the cards recommended for developers to set as a benchmark for the Oculus virtual reality headset, Which in my opinion will be popular among gaming enthusiasts. Last of all integrated sound cards are something you need to be careful of as I have seen so many that have a strange static noise to them. It is true that some of the better quality motherboards isolate the sound card so that it does not do this.

The I5-4460 CPU currently scores at 6638 at www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_… Consider this an I7-2600 that is year 2011 technology scores currently at 8261. CPU's have focused a great deal on power efficiency in the last few years and have not gone up in performance as much. I think when you get a good CPU initially it will last a lot longer than it used to before it becomes too slow to use.

The CPU's not especially important anymore unless you're doing hardcore video editing or lots of live streaming. CPU performance has not changed significantly for a while, and basically for most people, any Intel i5 or i7 from the past three or four years or any AMD 6 to 8 core FX CPU will work fine. This is a especially true for gaming PCs where the most you need is a CPU fast enough to not bottleneck your video card.

Two of the fans are at 18.9 dbA, which is pretty quiet, not sure for the other two, but noisy fans isn't a huge issue for me because anything will be better than my current dinosaur's horrible sounding fan. I doubt I'll ever be the owner of a virtual reality headset, plus the GTX 970 would add another $175 to my cost, so I think I'll still stick with the 960, but thanks for that. As for the sound card, I have a shit set of speakers and even shittier headphones so I'd basically be wasting money if I took the time to buy a quality sound card. All my previous PCs had stock sound cards without much issue.

Some CPU options are in my price range, here's what I've got to choose from:

Intel Core i5 I5-4460 Haswell 3.2GHZ Processor LGA1150 6MB Cache Retail$238 (current choice)
Intel Core i5 4670 Quad Core 3.4GHZ Processor LGA1150 Haswell 6MB Cache Retail+$22
Intel Core i5 I5-4590 Haswell 3.3GHZ Processor LGA1150 6MB Cache Retail+$50
Intel Core i5 I5-4690 Haswell 3.5GHZ Processor LGA1150 6MB Cache Retail+$83

Everything I7-**** winds up being several hundred dollars more and I'm not ready to spend that much more.

Thanks so much for taking the time to look at all that, I really appreciate it!

Edited Sep 28, 2015

It's probably actually better if you get a less powerful CPU and a more powerful GPU. Consider stepping down to an AMD FX-8370 or FX-8350. As for the GPU, while the GTX 970 is a good card and I love mine, I can't recommend it right now, as the R9 390 currently outperforms it slightly for about $20 cheaper last I heard. VR is better on AMD cards anyways, thanks to the GCN architecture's asynchronous computation capabilities.

pyrohmstr

Sep 27, 2015

Yeah, that'll work great for gaming. Not a bad price either

Unless you need the DVD drive they're ugly and pretty much useless these days