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I'm building my first gaming PC. I'm not in any way experienced in computers. I am very much a novice when working on computers. I do have enough knowledge , I believe, to put the pieces together. I have disassembled and replaced parts for upgrading store bought pc's. With that said, let's get to my build
I'm starting with a:
MSI ddr4 3000 LGA 2011-3 x99a board
Intel i7 5820k 3.3 2011-v3 cpu. (2011-3 and 2011-v3 the same?)
EVGA GeForce GTX 980ti 6gb graphcard

I haven't bought any items yet because I am trying to get a complete build list together first
I need to know how many years am I going to get out of these items. I know computers get outdated pretty fast so I'm trying to get the most out of my first pc as I can.
Also looking at RAM. So many different brands and sizes. I'm not sure we're to begin.
I want to be able to run any game I want at maximum resolution.

Welcome to the Tech Report!

Do you have a specific application that needs the 12 threads of the i7-5820k or would a Skylake Core i7-6700k or i5-6600k be sufficient?

Have you read the system guide?
http://techreport.com/review/29453/the- ... 15-edition

Going easy means you need to read the entire dymt reloaded thread only once.

What display(s) will you be using? Do you have those already, or will they be part of the build?

JustAnEngineer wrote:

Welcome to the Tech Report!

Do you have a specific application that needs the 12 threads of the i7-5820k or would a Skylake Core i7-6700k or i5-6600k be sufficient?

Have you read the system guide?

Yes I did read that link. And I found it very informative. I think I might switch my gc to an Asus 980ti.
I do most my shopping through Amazon and the only 2011 cup I was seeing were the i7 I mentioned and Intel Xeon. I'll look for the Skylake now. A co-worker that turned me to this site said Xeon wasn't very ideal. I plan on doing live streaming and multiple moniters. Was thinking 4k but I think I going to stick with 2k

I second JustAnEngineer - reading the System Guide is the best place to start.

Personally, I'm not a believer in "staying ahead" of rapidly advancing technology by buying overkill now. Not unless someone else is covering the bill. It just seems to make more sense to buy reasonable components and replace them more often. I cringe every time someone tells me he paid 2-3x as much to "future-proof" his system.


You want to run any game at maximum resolution? Well, what is the resolution of your monitor? Or what resolution monitor will you buy?

Twitch gamers tend to prefer lower resolution at high frame rates. Think 1920x1080 at 144 Hz. RPG gamers and strategy gamers might prefer something more expansive, say 3840x2160 at 60 Hz. Now we're seeing a compromise emerge as 2560x1440 monitors are available that can do higher frame rates. And some of them can even display decent looking colors while doing so. You'll want to pick a resolution and refresh rate that appeals to your style (and won't kill your budget considering you need to buy a beefier graphics card to handle a tougher load).

Also, if you haven't been paying attention, variable refresh technology has emerged as the next huge deal for gamers. Instead of refreshing the monitor at a fixed rate whether or not there is a new frame available from the graphics card, variable refresh technology, like G-sync and Free-sync, refresh the monitor only when a new frame is ready. This increases the perceived smoothness of a game for a given frame rate. Scott wrote that with variable refresh, 40 fps feels like 60. Perhaps we could extrapolate that to mean 80 fps feels like 120. You'll definitely want to assess if variable refresh fits into your plans and budget. But as of now, monitors vendor-lock this feature to your brand of graphics card. So choose carefully.


If I were buying this year, I'd wait to see whether the green team or the red team has more appealing GPU's once the next batch are out. Then get a 2560x1440 90+ Hz variable refresh monitor to match. Then scale which GPU I want from that more appealing team based on budget and the games that look good to me.

The monitor I am set on is BenQ 2560x1440 144hz

1) Regardless of whether you've got the money for a $3500 rig, it's important to understand that there is a very strong law of diminishing returns on PC hardware. Spending 3x more does NOT get you 3x the performance.

2) New graphics cards based on a new smaller process technology are due to arrive this year around June. We've been stuck at 28nm since...2012-ish, the new process will be 16nm. The new cards will inherently be a big step up in terms of performance and power efficiency. Buying a 980Ti right now might not be the best idea.

3) You'll get asked this many more times until you answer, but what is your intended usage? Also what type/resolution of monitor(s) are you going to use? We want to make sure your workload is justifying this pretty high price machine, otherwise you're basically throwing money away. Obviously, there are people out there that need/use this high end hardware, so don't feel like we're attacking you. But don't pick out the highest end hardware only because it's the highest end hardware available.

4) You're still missing: Storage, Case, Power Supply, Monitor(s), Keyboard, Mouse, etc etc from your list.

I am aware of all the additional pieces I am missing in my list but I need to buy a case that fits my board , then select enough power to supply everything properly. I have start some where then add what is compatible. I'm not going to buy a case first then try and settle for a board that fits. I have 2 boards I'm picking from and both are ddr4. And both take 2011 socket. So that limits my proccessor. GC seem versatile so I'm going to pick the most bang for my buck. I don't plan on building this in one week. This will be months of building. I'm not really on a tight budget. And I'm willing to save money over time and buy big. I'm looking at a corsair 300 case though.
500gb ssd
2tb hdd
And still waiting on ram recommendations. I'll have 8 slots

StanFAM5Tx wrote:

I am aware of all the additional pieces I am missing in my list but I need to buy a case that fits my board , then select enough power to supply everything properly. I have start some where then add what is compatible. I'm not going to buy a case first then try and settle for a board that fits. I have 2 boards I'm picking from and both are ddr4. And both take 2011 socket. So that limits my proccessor. GC seem versatile so I'm going to pick the most bang for my buck. I don't plan on building this in one week. This will be months of building. I'm not really on a tight budget. And I'm willing to save money over time and buy big. I'm looking at a corsair 300 case though.
500gb ssd
2tb hdd
And still waiting on ram recommendations. I'll have 8 slots

Regardless of your budget, what people are saying is that there really isn't any legitimate reason to go cutting edge on a gaming machine. If you just want to be able to say you've got the latest and greatest thing out, and money isn't an object, then by all means go for it... but it's not really necessary from a performance perspective.

Money may not be an issue now, but chances are in five years you're going to start replacing parts. Why pay 3X the cost for parts that aren't really going to improve your experience in any meaningful way?

Since time isn't an issue, I'd wait until around July to buy a video card, since it's expected that those'll see some major improvement. I'd cut back on the CPU because you'll never use 12 threads. 500gb ssd and 2tb hdd sound good. Buy 8gb of the fastest RAM your board will support; more is always cool but you don't really need more for a gaming rig.

I have used my forum moderator powers to move this thread to the System Builders Anonymous forum.

StanFAM5Tx wrote:

I don't plan on building this in one week. This will be months of building. I'm not really on a tight budget. And I'm willing to save money over time and buy big.

This is your biggest mistake by far. Buy all of your pieces at close to the same time and assemble your system as soon as they arrive. Almost nothing depreciates as quickly as computer parts that you've purchased but not yet installed. There is always something better, faster & cheaper coming down the pike. If you buy a component now to use months later, you will pay more and get less than you would if you waited to buy the whole thing at once.

StanFAM5Tx wrote:

I have 2 boards I'm picking from and both take 2011-v3 socket. So that limits my proccessor.

I believe that this is a second mistake. Without an application that really needs the parallelism of a 6-core/12-thread 3.3 (3.6 turbo) GHz processor, you will spend more and get less performance going this route than with a faster 4-core/8-thread 4.0 (4.2 turbo) GHz processor like the Core i7-6700K. For most gaming applications, you're even behind the attractively-priced 4-core/4-thread 3.5 (3.9 turbo) GHz Core i5-6600K.
http://ark.intel.com/compare/82932,88195,88191


Just because a component is more expensive does not necessarily mean that it provides better performance for your application.


Here are some components that I suggest for you to consider and for the other fine folks in the forum to comment and improve upon:

$400 Intel Core i7-6700K quad-core hyperthreaded 4.0/4.2 GHz unlocked LGA1151 processor
or $250 Intel Core i5-6600K quad-core 3.5/3.9 GHz unlocked LGA1151 processor.
The Core i7-6700K is the best available CPU for gaming performance. A shortage of chips from Intel has caused e-tailers like Newegg to mark up the price and gouge consumers for an extra $50-60 of profit for themselves. That makes the slightly less capable i5-6600K look like an even better bargain.

$29½ Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo LGA1151 CPU cooler
This inexpensive cooler will run nearly silently at stock speed and allows easy overclocking. We will need to be careful to select a case that is wide enough to accept the height of this tower cooler.

$158 Asus Z170 Pro Gaming LGA1151 ATX motherboard
This is a quality motherboard with the best chipset for overclocking (Z170), USB3.1 type C, M.2 slot, Intel LAN, DisplayPort, SPDIF, etc. Asus is the number one motherboard manufacturer in the world.

$70 2x8 GiB PC4-19200 G.Skill F4-2400C15D-16GNT (DDR4-2400, 15-15-15-35, 1.2 V)
or $90 2x8 GiB PC4-22400 G.Skill F4-2800C16D-16GVR (DDR4-2800, 16-16-16-36, 1.2 V)
LGA1151 processors have two memory channels, so we want a pair of DIMMs. 16 GiB of memory is more than enough for all gaming needs. You can add a second pair of DIMMs later if you really need it. DDR4 memory will get faster and cheaper in the next year, so it doesn't make sense to buy much more than this to start with. Upgrading memory is one of the easiest things to do later.

$299 Radeon R9-390 8 GiB
or $314 EVGA 04G-P4-3973-KR GeForce GTX970 3½+½ GiB
or $340 Radeon R9-390X 8 GiB
or $640 EVGA 06G-P4-4996-KR GeForce GTX980Ti 6 GiB
The GeForce GTX980Ti is a monster gaming graphics card, but how are you going to feel six months from now when something costing less performs better? Because we are close to a significant change in GPU manufacturing process technology (going from 28 nm to 14/16 nm with FinFETs), you might consider spending less now for a card that will let you get by with acceptable performance until the end of the year when better/faster/cheaper/cooler graphics cards will be available and we may even have some good DirectX 12 games to play on them. However, if you're committed to getting top-notch gaming performance right now, then the GTX980Ti will fit the bill.

$120 0.51 TB Mushkin MKNSSDEC512GB 2½" SATA SSD
or $160 0.50 TB Crucial CT500MX200SSD1
You'll want an SSD for your operating system and your most-used programs. 240 GB is the smallest size that I would consider, but half-terabyte SSDs like this one can be reasonably priced. SSDs continue to get bigger and cheaper. M.2 PCIe NVMe drives offer better performance, but right now they carry a huge price premium over similar 2½" SATA AHCI drives in plastic cases. We should expect better deals on M.2 PCIe NVMe SSDs in the future.

$82 3.0 TB Toshiba HDKPC08 7200-rpm 3½" SATA hard-drive
If you need to store more than will fit on a reasonably-priced SSD, then add a spinning hard-drive for cheap and reliable storage of stuff that doesn't have to load quite as quickly as the programs that you have installed on your SSD.

$47½ LG WH14NS40 Blu-ray burner
Occasionally, you will want to read or write an optical disk. This drive will handle 'em all.

$90 Fractal Design R5 ATX case
This is a well-regarded case with plenty of room.

$90 SeaSonic SSR-650RM ATX power supply (54 A @ +12V, 80+ Gold, Modular)
or $100 EVGA SuperNOVA 220-P2-0650-X1 (54 A @ +12V, 80+ Platinum, Modular)
SeaSonic is a premier brand for power supplies. You could spend a little more to get 80+ Platinum efficiency, but this one will get the job done.

$90 Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM
or $125 Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit OEM
This is the operating system to have if you're going to play games.

Total: $1475 before we add a monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Hcfzzy

Video card

To be clear, nothing you can currently buy will run the latest AAA games 2560x1440 @ 144 fps with maxed settings. A 980 Ti at 1440p playing modern AAA games with all settings maxed will probably tend to be in the 70-90 fps range, with occasional exceptions for stuff like Witcher 3. Things look quite a bit better if you're OK with not maxing everything. Some tweaking of settings could often get you an extra 20 fps with little visual difference.

If long-term viability is a top priority, I don't actually like Nvidia that much. They have a history of becoming obsolete more quickly with new generations, and their current architecture has some features that only make that look more likely (even in the absence of Vulkan/DX12 use). However, they do make the fastest card you can buy right now (you found it - 980 Ti). Nvidia also tends to be a bit more power efficient, with one exception. Some options:

* GeForce 980 Ti - 100% performance, 250 watt, ~$650, 6GB. Its relative performance is likely to be more similar to the AMD stuff on games released next year (IMHO).
* GeForce 980 - 75-80% performance, 165 watt, ~$500, 4GB.
* GeForce 970 - 65-70% performance, 145 watt, ~$325, 3.5+0.5GB.
* Radeon Nano - 70~90% performance, 175 watt, ~$500, 4GB. The only way you'll run out of 4GB VRAM at 1440p is with some particular uber-settings, like the uncompressed textures in Shadow of Mordor.
* Radeon 390X - 65~80% performance, 275 watt, ~$400, 8GB.

Buying cheaper cards ($300~350) more often will tend to be less expensive for a given average level of performance in the long run. I would seriously consider getting a 970 now and upgrading next year.

There will be new cards sometime this year, and they're going to be cheaper and use less power, but I don't expect the cards that are actually faster until next year. Make of that what you will.

Processor

4 cores will be fine if you're just gaming and streaming. Cores beyond 4 show diminishing returns, and while some new tech may make those returns less diminishing, a high-clocked quad will keep pace with a medium-clocked hexacore just fine for the forseeable future, while being notably cheaper. I'd recommend the i7-6700k (socket 1151).

RAM

16 GB will be plenty for gaming/streaming for the mid-term future, quite likely through the current console generation. DDR4-2800 or 3000 looks to be worth it. Generally it's better for speed/stability to use as few slots as are necessary for speed (so 2 for socket 1151 or 4 for 2011). You'll almost certainly get recommendations for Crucial RAM as the finest stuff, and that's correct. I generally go with G.Skill, as it's usually cheaper (sometimes by quite a lot) and still very solid.

Motherboard

The widely recognized high-end brands are Asus and Gigabyte. ASRock is great bang for the buck, with no significant downsides as far as I've been able to tell (it's my choice). I'm unimpressed by MSI, but they have their fans. If you're using socket 1151, you'll want something with a Z170 chipset. It sounds like you may have some more specific requirements in mind here, and we would find them very useful to know when recommending parts.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

Here are some components that I suggest for you to consider and for the other fine folks in the forum to comment and improve upon:

$400 Intel Core i7-6700K quad-core hyperthreaded 4.0/4.2 GHz unlocked LGA1151 processor
or $250 Intel Core i5-6600K quad-core 3.5/3.9 GHz unlocked LGA1151 processor.
The Core i7-6700K is the best available CPU for gaming performance. A shortage of chips from Intel has caused e-tailers like Newegg to mark up the price and gouge consumers for an extra $50-60 of profit for themselves. That makes the slightly less capable i5-6600K look like an even better bargain.

$29½ Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo LGA1151 CPU cooler
This inexpensive cooler will run nearly silently at stock speed and allows easy overclocking. We will need to be careful to select a case that is wide enough to accept the height of this tower cooler.

$158 Asus Z170 Pro Gaming LGA1151 ATX motherboard
This is a quality motherboard with the best chipset for overclocking (Z170), USB3.1 type C, M.2 slot, Intel LAN, DisplayPort, SPDIF, etc. Asus is the number one motherboard manufacturer in the world.

$70 2x8 GiB PC4-19200 G.Skill F4-2400C15D-16GNT (DDR4-2400, 15-15-15-35, 1.2 V)
or $90 2x8 GiB PC4-22400 G.Skill F4-2800C16D-16GVR (DDR4-2800, 16-16-16-36, 1.2 V)
LGA1151 processors have two memory channels, so we want a pair of DIMMs. 16 GiB of memory is more than enough for all gaming needs. You can add a second pair of DIMMs later if you really need it. DDR4 memory will get faster and cheaper in the next year, so it doesn't make sense to buy much more than this to start with. Upgrading memory is one of the easiest things to do later.

$314 EVGA 04G-P4-3973-KR GeForce GTX970 3½+½ GiB
or $299 Radeon R9-390 8 GiB
or $640 EVGA 06G-P4-4996-KR GeForce GTX980Ti 6 GiB
The GeForce GTX980Ti is a monster gaming graphics card, but how are you going to feel six months from now when something costing less performs better? Because we are close to a significant change in GPU manufacturing process technology (going from 28 nm to 16 nm with FinFETs), you might consider spending less now for a card that will let you get by with acceptable performance until the end of the year when better/faster/cheaper/cooler graphics cards will be available and we may even have some good DirectX 12 games to play on them. However, if you're committed to getting top-notch gaming performance right now, then the GTX980Ti will fit the bill.

$120 0.51 TB Mushkin MKNSSDEC512GB 2½" SATA SSD
You'll want an SSD for your operating system and your most-used programs. 240 GB is the smallest size that I would consider, but half-terabyte SSDs like this one can be reasonably priced. SSDs continue to get bigger and cheaper. M.2 PCIe NVMe drives offer better performance, but right now they carry a huge price premium over similar 2½" SATA AHCI drives in plastic cases. We should expect better deals on M.2 PCIe NVMe SSDs in the future.

$82 3.0 TB Toshiba HDKPC08 7200-rpm 3½" SATA hard-drive
If you need to store more than will fit on a reasonably-priced SSD, then add a spinning hard-drive for cheap and reliable storage of stuff that doesn't have to load quite as quickly as the programs that you have installed on your SSD.

$47½ LG WH14NS40 Blu-ray burner
Occasionally, you will want to read or write an optical disk. This drive will handle 'em all.

$90 Fractal Design R5 ATX case
This is a well-regarded case with plenty of room.

$90 SeaSonic SSR-650RM ATX power supply (54 A @ +12V, 80+ Gold, Modular)
or $100 EVGA SuperNOVA 220-P2-0650-X1 (54 A @ +12V, 80+ Platinum, Modular)
SeaSonic is a premier brand for power supplies. You could spend a little more to get 80+ Platinum efficiency, but this one will get the job done.

$90 Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM
This is the operating system to have if you're going to play games.

Total: $1490 before we add a monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Y8hkFT

CLOSE TO PERFECT

I applaud your PSU choices-Too many people today go for larger No's-lower quality PSU's.
NEVER CHEAP OUT ON PSU.
High quality PSU's can often last many upgrades/builds--Just look at the 7/10 year warranties................

Personally I would change your storage choices.

HD-Have had good and bad reports on Toshiba drives-Conclusion spend a little more and buy Hitachi.................

SSD-I'd have a really hard time recommending a Sandforce drive-also the flash seems to be not cut and binned by Micron,
This is one of my requirements in a SSD-Only buy SSD's where the flash is cut and binned by manufacturer-Remember-
that's what killed OCZ.Conclusion spend a little more on a Samsung or Sandisk..........................

And as much as I agree with your statement-
"Just because a component is more expensive does not necessarily mean that it provides better performance for your application"
I think spending a little more on SSD and HD is worthwhile....................................................

(Split post because I had to do some stuff IRL)

Drives

For SSDs, Intel makes the top quality stuff, but they tend to be a bit pricey. Crucial and Samsung are the usual mid-range suspects, but both have detractors. I'm OK with Crucial and don't like Samsung, but that's just me. Crucial's issues seem more to be compatibility-related than anything, and if they're working they tend to stay working. Samsung has sketchy firmware quality control and doesn't have a good track record of standing behind their stuff when they mess up. Samsung does make the fastest stuff around, though. Sandisk and Kingston are my picks among the low-end names. Both make cheap stuff that's pretty reliable. It's a component that can cause you enough hassle by failing (even with decent backups) that I dislike cheaping out on an SSD beyond what Sandisk or Kingston will sell, but it is a valid option.

I'm not going to comment on hard drives. I don't do spinning rust anymore, and haven't been paying enough attention to them lately to have opinions.

Power

Seasonic is the usual recommendation you'll get for power supplies, and it's not a bad one, I've just got a personal favorite. The EVGA G2 is, as far as I can tell, the best-built thing in the price range. They tend to run about $10 more than the Seasonic competition. Judge for yourself:

EVGA GS (Seasonic-built): http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=424
EVGA G2 (Super Flower-built): http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=429

I use a G2 550W, and the only nitpick I could possibly find with it is the fan and its control. It's ball bearing, so extremely durable (including when horizontally mounted), but it does make a touch more noise than the FDB stuff. I still don't hear it unless I'm in a very quiet environment, and I probably wouldn't even then if it weren't the only moving part in my system at idle. The fanless mode isn't truly fanless - it turns on for a couple minutes every couple hours in my ~17*C environment with good convective airflow to it and the system at a good idle.

As another random note on that, the EVGA P2 is supposed to be a more efficient version of the G2, but where the G2 has very few failure reports, the P2 has them all over the place. Dunno why, but if you want platinum efficiency, I would look elsewhere.

Random stuff

Cases are more personal preference than anything, so long as it will physically fit what you want. Some good brands are Fractal Design, Corsair, Phanteks, Silverstone, and maybe Lian-Li. The Define R5 that JustAnEngineer recommended is good - heavily built, with lots of sound dampening. Corsair's Obsidian stuff is very nice to work with, but might be a bit less sturdy than others. I don't know much about Phanteks except that various people whose opinions I trust like them. Silverstone is more known for their compact stuff, and I don't know what they do in this space. Lian-Li does oddball stuff fairly often, but always with top-notch all-aluminum build quality.

The one spot I'll disagree with JustAnEngineer's excellent post is in Windows versions - Win10 Home does some really nutty stuff like reboots without your permission (for updates), which I think makes the upgrade to Pro 100% worth it.

I was going to add some links for a parts list, but this took longer than I thought and I should get some sleep. Maybe tomorrow.

I should mention that I've also hit Crucial firmware bugs (i.e. it just doesn't like a given machine, either small issues or big ones), but that Samsung's drives seem solid aside from the 840/evo's. I've never seen them not get detected on POST (while I have seen an M500 do that, and an MX100 drop off the SATA bus every now and then while Windows is running). Although it'd be kinda nice if everyone stuck to the spec, avoiding this crap (I've never seen HDDs just not get detected unless something was failing). As of late, I'm liking Sandisk drives - the Extreme Pro's aren't too expensive for pro MLC drives (compared to Intel or Samsung 850 Pros), but they're rock solid. I have 2, no issues. I also have an Ultra II in a 2010 Macbook, also running very smoothly.

As for Windows... mind you, I've complained plenty about 10, and I only run pro (my biz stuff shipped with Win7 or 8 pro). That still does nutty stuff, although it gives you slightly more control (i.e. you can make updates nag, but not auto download/install, and you can use group polices to tame certain things).

Getting a 980ti at this point isn't a good idea. 2016's new cards are going to be the largest leap in years.

To finish out your build:

$40 Cyber Acoustics CA-3602 2.1-channel speaker system

$12 Logitech MK120 basic USB keyboard
or $85 Cooler Master CM Storm QuickFire XT mechanical keyswitch gaming keyboard

$45 Logitech G402 gaming mouse

$250 2560x1440 27" Monoprice 13808 IPS 60 Hz monitor
or $481 2560x1440 27" Asus MG279Q IPS 144 Hz FreeSync monitor
or $766 2560x1440 27" Acer Predator XB271HU IPS 144 Hz G-Sync monitor
or $703 3840x2160 27" ViewSonic XG2700-4K IPS FreeSync monitor
We probably need to wait a while longer for overpriced proprietary G-Sync to die off and for NVidia to finally accept the international standard VESA Adaptive Sync method used by AMD's FreeSync.