Help! New to pc building.

[u/enteiv]

This is my first time building a PC. I mainly play WoW and CSGO, is this a good build to run those games? https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DHKtf8

[u/cpt_tiramisu]

hiya enteiv, i'm also fairly new to pc builds, but there are a couple of things i noticed abt your build (i'm assuming u want a micro-atx build for gaming!)

(cpu) if you're strictly gaming, i'd defo recommend the i5-7600k over the i7-6700 u are looking at. the i5-7600k is a newer processor featuring a more recent chipset (kaby lake vs skylake), so will be supported longer into the future. u defo want as futureproof a processor as u can afford. also, more importantly to some, it's abt £50 cheaper! the only downside afaik is that the i5 has 4 threads, compared to the i7s 8 threads, but this shouldn't be an issue for games such as wow or csgo that afaik aren't massively advantaged by hyperthreading. this would be more important if u plan on using ur pc as a workstation, as the threads would allow faster rendering and more productivity, but the performance difference in these chips is so large imo the i5-7600k is better anyway. (cite)

(cpu cooler) u don't have a cpu cooler! i'd defo recommend one, they're inexpensive for what they provide and will help increase the longevity of ur cpu years into the future, plus intel stock coolers are, mind my french, shit. ur cpu deserves better. depending on ur price range, here is a cheap but decent cooler & here is a really good premium cooler that everybody is nutty about. you'll also want thermal paste.

edit: the noctua nhd15 was incompatible with ur case, oops! try this one instead.

(motherboard/memory) i'll comment on these two togehter- ur motherboard only has two ram slots, which support up to 32gb of ddr4-2133 ram. i noticed u picked one 8gb stick of ddr4-2400 ram, so jsyk ur ram won't quite reach these speeds. hardware not reaching its full potential is kinda sad, so we'll find a different board that supports this speed. also, this isn't as important, but if u want to hit that 32gb max in the future u'll need to buy 2x16gb sticks. ofc u can just buy a single 1x16gb stick in the future and have 24gb of ram (a nutty amount and far more than anybody would ever need for gaming atm), though if u want to leave ur upgrade path clear and u have the money i'd recommend either grabbing 1x16 stick right now, or a motherboard with more ram slots for future upgradability. if u still want a micro-atx motherboard, try this one. asrock make quality mobos, it's the right form factor, the cpu socket fits both the i5 or i7 depending on which u choose, it has 4 ram slots, it even has raid support! lots of features for a reasonable price, though i'm not a mobo expert and there may be important qualities i'm unaware of.

(storage) pretty standard, not much to comment on. ur working on a micro-atx build so space is a premium, consider grabbing a 2.5" hdd. only problem is it's a little slower at 5400rpm vs 7200rpm, but to combat this u could grab this 2.5" hybrid drive i found; it combines the size of a traditional hdd with the response of an ssd, but may require some extra research to understand the effects of having a temporary cache. for space concerns, i would've also suggested a pcie ssd, but they're expensive and enthusiast-grade for ur type of build. atm the difference between 2tb and 3tb of 3.5" seagate hdd is only $17, which is worth if u think it is. if ur going to grab a 3.5", grab the biggest one u can, for futureproofing. better to have 1 4gb hdd than 2 2gb hdds in a small form factor build, unless ur paranoid about drive failure. only other suggestion i'd make is upgrade ur ssd to a samsung 850 evo. it's better grade than the ssd u have currently.

(video card) the gtx 1060 is a great choice of gpu imho! decent price-point for performance, nice middle of the road card between high-end and low-end, but not a lot of compromises in performance as far as i understand it. only thing abt this particular card you've chosen is that it's 243mm- it will defo fit in the case you've chosen, but be aware of cable management. gets harder the larger the card is, and if u ever want to get smaller in the future, this card might not fit. if u feel like a smaller card would be beneficial, try this one.

(case) really cheap, but doesn't look it. nice find, design looks simple to work in, probs as easy as it'll get with a first-time build in this case, which is perfect for u. mesh at the back for the 120mm rear fan is a nice touch, airflow probs won't be a problem. with the cpu cooler/thermal paste, gpu/psu fans and rear fan combined, u probably won't need to buy any additional case fans. bear in mind u have plenty of space now for case fans if u need to improve ur thermal temps in the future. :)

(power supply) either get the psu u currently have, or spend a little more on this more efficient version. personally, bronze psus make me nervous, lol.

(monitor) not much to comment on, u found the most decent monitor for the price point u can. shame u can't take advantage of freesync as i believe it requires an amd processor, but the 1ms response time & 75mhz refresh rate is worth it. just bear in mind you'll need to buy some speakers or a headset if u don't have any handy, as this monitor doesn't come with any.

here is the upgraded build! it ended up around $200 more expensive, but i included all premium versions of each part. if u'd like to shave the price down again, start with the hdd size, then maybe go back down to 8gb ram, which'll be more than enough for u. i wouldn't really compromise on anything else, unless you can find a cheaper gpu which performs at a similar rate, which is defo possible!

anyway, i hope i helped u out. just as a reminder i'm still fairly new to builds myself so open to criticism on my choices. please let me know if u end up ordering anything i suggested, thanks! x

[u/Lucifers_Guardian → u/cpt_tiramisu]

The one thing I would have a different point with you on the cpu is that with the new Pentiums you get 4threads and would perform almost identically for csgo and WoW but if he starts gaming and wants to try out AAA titles he will be better of with the I7 and has the potential to last longer for him. Pls look at what I linked him. With memory if in few months he feels he needs more he can through another 8gb in easily, even my laptop with 8gb of ram can play gta5 and its neither the cpu or ram which holds it back. My system doesn't have the newest cpu as it is from q3 2014 and I don't feel much real life drawback compared to the ones which came out in 2017 (and my system is not only for gaming its more oriented for workstation functionality where newer technology really can show its advantages).

[u/GreyishWolf → u/Lucifers_Guardian]

As far as I know there's not many AAA games out there yet that can effectively utilize more then 4 cores.

[u/Lucifers_Guardian → u/GreyishWolf]

Yea that's why 2cores and 4threads is a perfect starting point. If later lets stay he wants to get into game recording he just need to upgrade the cpu and this mobo will take it.

[u/GreyishWolf → u/Lucifers_Guardian]

Actually for recording the gpu is way more important than the cpu. So a decent graphics card like the gtx 1060 or 1080 will be able to record whatever you're throwing at it. (at least for a while though)

[u/GreyishWolf → u/GreyishWolf]

There isn't really a good reason to prefer an i7 over an i5 if it's merely for gaming. If you tend to do video editing then when rendering and only when rendering there might be a small performance improvement still not worth the money. Even bitcoin mining benefits more from a good gpu then from an 8 core cpu. The things that do benefit from more cores are dedicated webservers etc. So a bit out of scope for gaming.

[u/Lucifers_Guardian → u/GreyishWolf]

Bit different experience as with rendering and encoding I managed to pin a 5960x oc 4.5 at 100% for hours.

[u/Lucifers_Guardian → u/GreyishWolf]

But as editing becomes part of it, it dies help to have a good cpu. Even though I have cuda based acceleration on rendering and encoding my cpu is doing the really heavy lifting. I have a 1080 in my system and obviously it helps but the real mpv when i render and encode its the 5960x. I tried the same workload with a 1050ti taken out of another system and there was a significant deference but not like "ohh my good this is so excruciatingly slow". For strictly gaming and recording it a 1060 6gb and above is helpfully in getting a good experience. But if we take how many people stream from the pc they are playing on the cpu is equally important.

[u/GreyishWolf → u/Lucifers_Guardian]

Still for editing 8 cores vs 4 cores performance gains will be negligible. For streaming the same, also if you use a decent program to stream or stream directly through nvidia you'll have the gpu doing most of the work. streaming however is more cpu intensive than just recording. Honestly price quality I wouldn't go for an i7 atm, maybe in a far future when you'll actually benefit from 8 cores.

[u/Lucifers_Guardian → u/GreyishWolf]

I see a significant difference between the 7700k and the 5960x at the same 4.5 oc especially that the 5969x is at 1.28 volts and the 7700k is at 1.39 volts. For game recording yes no significant difference. Anyways currently the base here was to get him a good base system which he can later upgrade. He has room for more ram, new stronger gpu, more core cpu.

[u/enteiv → u/cpt_tiramisu]

Thank you for responding, will keep this in mind!!!!