Build me a PC

1LT (Ret) Burke

1LT (Ret) Burke

11A Infantry Officer
I'm lazy and I need to build the first PC in probably 10 years so I'm not hip to the new shit that's gone down in desktop PC's.  I'm ready to have a desktop again and I have a budget of $1500-$2000ish so I'm calling on you hardware nerds to tell me what to buy.

I have one component:
A core i7 7700K 4.2Ghz, 8Mb cache, LGA1151

Now I just need everything else.  What do you suggest?
 
I put together a list real quick. Many of the parts can be replaced with something cheaper if needed and others will probably have some ideas on improvements.

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Peskyboyz/saved/7kkkTW
 
Redman's outfit looks great. if you want to spend more i suggest 32gb ram instead of 16, and a secondary SSD in addition to the SSD and HDD, but neither are necesary at all and only if you wanted to splurge
 
PV2 Madsen said:
Redman's outfit looks great. if you want to spend more i suggest 32gb ram instead of 16, and a secondary SSD in addition to the SSD and HDD, but neither are necesary at all and only if you wanted to splurge
Click to expand...

You could also always upgrade in the future LT. Hopefully RAM prices will be down by then.
 
I'm more about function than looking pretty.  I like that build.

What's the deal with the M2 vs SATA drives?  There's a 1TB Cruicial SSD for $200

Also the 750W power supply was $20 cheaper on amazon for some reason.

I'm also going to need monitor(s). EDIT: Now that I think about it, I may have a spare 32" HDTV around here somewhere.
 
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DpjMFt

Case and monitors are at your discretion, you can also swap the 1TB SSD for 2 500gb ones (one for windows and non-gaming stuff and the other one for gaming). Optical drive also at your discretion and the difference between M2 and SATA is that M2 SSDs are connected directly through a PCIe slot (they're useful for when you have an HDD as your primary drive with heavy duty games, other than that, just stay with SATA)

That setup is not so different to the one I currently have, mainly the only difference is that I use an I5 7600k @ 4.9ghz (OCed).

The setup allows you US$700 for monitors, and I chose the 1060 because it will still give you a lot of bang for your buck for, at least, 1,5 to 2 years.

Hope it helps you!

Edit: Buy another fan for the CPU cooler (don't go on the cheap if you can help it), I'm using that one and rendering videos at max CPU capacity, my temperature doesn't go above 55 Celsius (I use a negative pressure air cooling system)
 
1LT Burke said:
I'm more about function than looking pretty.  I like that build.

What's the deal with the M2 vs SATA drives?  There's a 1TB Cruicial SSD for $200

Also the 750W power supply was $20 cheaper on amazon for some reason.

I'm also going to need monitor(s). EDIT: Now that I think about it, I may have a spare 32" HDTV around here somewhere.
Click to expand...

M.2 is actually just the form factor AKA the physical shape and location of the drive. You can get M.2 drives in SATA and PCIe interfaces to connect with your RAM and in turn, CPU. PCIe is noticeably faster, but more expensive usually. Most modern gaming motherboards should have 1 or 2 M.2 slots.

That SSD looks really good for 1TB. I got my Samsung 1TB for $330 so clearly as technology gets better, the prices are going down.
 
1LT Burke said:
What practical difference would I see between these two cards:
ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce GTX 1080 TI 11GB VR Ready 5K HD Gaming Graphics Card (ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-11G-GAMING)

EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FTW GAMING ACX 3.0, 8GB GDDR5X, RGB LED, 10CM FAN, 10 Power Phases, Double BIOS, DX12 OSD Support (PXOC) Graphics Card 08G-P4-6286-KR
Click to expand...

The 1080 TI (first link) is a different GPU from the 1080 (second link). The 1080 TI is the top of the line gaming card and is 21% better in overall performance than the 1080 as well as having 3GB more VRAM.

As for EVGA vs ASUS, both are great and you won't see much of a different between their coolers. Both sell OC versions of these cards which ship with a higher base clock for faster out of the box results compared to, say the founder's edition card by Nvidia themselves.

If you have the money to spend and are driving multiple monitors or one 4K one, you might as well get the 1080 TI.
 
Personally I would bump to a 750w and drop the extra $40 on a 8700k. That would be almost exactly the same rig as mine and it's a beast.
 
I haven't went through all of the comments but, without being to specific to the brands and models, I recommend two RAID 0 SSDs (for your OS especially and even Arma can benefit from this - if you get a UEFI Motherboard you will get stellar speeds) and for those mega graphics I'd say you even SLI two video cards (depending on your budget - I wouldn't be able to afford this). And I recommend against high speed RAM memory. Just get a lot of it. Unless you do 3D graphics and shit, it is a waste of money.
 
PV1 Price said:
I haven't went through all of the comments but, without being to specific to the brands and models, I recommend two RAID 0 SSDs (for your OS especially and even Arma can benefit from this - if you get a UEFI Motherboard you will get stellar speeds) and for those mega graphics I'd say you even SLI two video cards (depending on your budget - I wouldn't be able to afford this). And I recommend against high speed RAM memory. Just get a lot of it. Unless you do 3D graphics and shit, it is a waste of money.
Click to expand...

High speed ram is a huge deal for frames in 6th gen and above CPUs.
 
CW2 Bowman said:
High speed ram is a huge deal for frames in 6th gen and above CPUs.
Click to expand...

I guess I skipped that class :D Do as the chief says, then. Did you like my everything else, though?
 
I'm willing to help you out on this! I'm a master with the PC industry.

Help me answer these questions please so I can give you the best of what you actually need.

1. What is the exact amount you are willing to spend?
2. What do you want to do with your PC? Just gaming in general? Or all you care about is Arma 3? Are you going to make a video editing and want to stream your games?
3. If all you care about is gaming, Do you want a high refresh rate monitor Like 100hz and 144hz etc? or normal 60hz
4. what resolution do want to play on? 4k, 1440p or 1080p.
5. Do you want RGB in your system? "Christmas tree" on your desk.

Sorry I'm too serious but I have to be like that. Trust me, I can give you the best value for your money. I can't just put PC parts without a single information :D

Oh sorry I just saw that you already own the 7700k. Ok we can start from here.

Is the 7700k used or compliantly new? If it's compliantly new and never been used, then I highly recommend you to sell it with the original MSRP price if you can! Or maybe 50$ cheaper.





 
I built it already. 

I took the basic build from SSG Redman and upgraded the motherboard to ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E and power supply to 750W and graphics card to an ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce GTX 1080 TI 11GB.
 
Yeah that's a solid rig that will last you quite awhile.

My advice is to grab a cheap SSD just for Arma. That's what I have and it loads really, really, really fast.
 
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