Any suggested PC Builds?

RennoDude·Oct 28, 2014·1 votes·921 views

I've been in the market for building my own pc for a while now. One powerful enough to play most games at a decent quality and stream them. In all honestly, I'm a HUGE newbie in the world of computer parts, tech and that general type of wizardry, but I was wondering if any of you out there, streamers or not, had any kind of suggested, affordable builds. (Keep in mind, I work a CA minimum wage job of nine dollars an hour) Or if maybe any of you had any helpful sites to direct me to for this kinda thing, because my research is just showing me things that I honestly cannot understand. I'm not looking for "go learn about computers," just maybe some shared builds and costs is all.

8 Comments

ZielmannOct 28, 20141 votes

A lot depends on what your definition of 'affordable' is. $600? $1000? $1200? Also, do you have a copy of Windows you can use? How about a monitor?

RennoDudeOct 28, 20141 votes

Well a monitory and a copy of Windows 8 weren't at the top of my "i don't know how to do things" list, so those are kind of on the side for now.

As for affordable, I was looking for something under $900, give or take a few dozen cents.

ZielmannOct 28, 20141 votes

Well, those things are important from a budgeting aspect, because a copy of Windows is about $100, and figure about $150 for a monitor. If you would need these, and they need to fit within the $900 overall budget as well, then we're only talking about a $650 build. This is fairly limiting, but not impossible. If you don't need them, or you aren't counting those toward the $900, then there's a lot more room to work with. I just got off work and am working on dinner, but I'll throw a couple part lists at you this evening.

RennoDudeOct 28, 20141 votes

Okay, I suppose I could have been a bit more clear, my apologies. The copy of Windows 8 and the monitor aren't going to be issues for me as far as my budget is concerned, so maybe that opens up a bit more possibility?

ZielmannOct 28, 20141 votes

As is referenced in another reply, there are sites like pcpartpicker.com that can help you pick stuff out for a build. There are also places like cyberpowerpc.com and ibuypower.com that offer custom-built PCs. The nice thing about these places is that they start off with a generic setup, and then you go go through and pick part upgrades (or downgrades) as you see fit. But it won't let you select incompatible parts. On top of that, if you order from one of those last two sites, they'll actually build and test the computer for you before it gets shipped, so you don't have to worry about the hassle of putting it all together. Once it arrives, just set it up and go.

However, if you're bent on building it yourself, tigerdirect and newegg tend to be the best places to go. I've gone through newegg for all the builds I've done in the past, so that's just what I always use. Building it yourself is pretty easy, but don't expect it to be completely without some frustration here or there.

Here's an example wish list at newegg I put together for what should be a pretty solid system for a while: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=19365934 I really shot high on the graphics card for this one, and then worked through the remaining parts to compensate. If you wanted to tone down the graphics card a bit, you could get yourself another $100 or so of wiggle room to swap around some of the other parts. Also, I just picked a sample case that was fairly inexpensive for this. You could look through and pick out whatever case you want, just realize that'll have an impact on the end price.

TyverusOct 28, 20141 votes

I'm kinda in the same boat you are, but i found a magazine that leads me through step by step and a site. So now i'm just waiting for the money to buy everything.

If you can find a tutorial it'll help immensely in exposing some of the inner workings of building it. There is a tutorial in pcmagazine from awhile ago which is what i'm working from otherwise you'll probably be able to find one online.

The site I'm using is pcpartpicker.com which allows you to build your pc online from an array of parts lists which can be daunting. This site, however, is not a build it for you and there's no commitment. It's more of a tool to check for compatibility issues, give an estimated price, and much more. Also you can set up a forum for people to critique your build, offer advice and the like. If you have time to wait, you can also set it to message you when prices drop to a certain amount.

Here's my first build, I just went through the parts, and picked and chose based on what i thought i needed, price, and reviews i found. Also at the bottom you'll see a bit of advice given to me by a fellow user. http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Tyverus/saved/2xbypg

This second build is after i made a forum for the first one and got advice from some others. This is probly the build i will use when i get the money since it's roughly the same price and gives me plenty of headroom for streaming and gaming. http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Tyverus/saved/gC4Pxr

Finally here is the forum i made to get advice. http://pcpartpicker.com/forums/topic/54919-build-research-looking-for-opinionsthoughs

Hope this helps!

BlazinHot6Oct 28, 20141 votes

The hardest part really is picking out the case you want to house everything in. Do you want a small form factor ITX (Check out the Corsair 250D) or do you want a typical mid-tower case (pretty much any other case). My pet peeve with cases is I have to have air filters on all intake ports.

Your next decision will be Intel vs AMD cpu's. I suggest Intel, but a lot of people on the league forums like AMD.

Your budget will dictate all the other things you need. I would suggest you pick one of the component bundles from tigerdirect.com or newegg.com, and upgrade over time from there.

RennoDudeOct 28, 20141 votes

Thanks, I'll check those sites out!