Help with Buying a New PC

[Tex]

I'm on a little bit of a budget but I would like a powerful but not too pricey gaming pc. Here's what I've built so far on iBUYPOWER.com. I'm buying a monitor seperately, so any suggestions for a nice 1600x900 (at least 20 inches) monitor under $150 would help also.

-Case, Selected :: Chimera 5 - Flame Edition
-LED Fan Lighting, Selected :: 3x [Orange] 120mm LED Case Fan
-Case Lighting, Selected :: iBUYPOWER RGB Smart Lighting
-iBUYPOWER Labs - Noise Reduction, Selected :: None
-iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion, Selected :: None
-Processor, Selected :: AMD FX-8320 CPU (8x 3.50GHz/8MB L3 Cache)
-iBUYPOWER PowerDrive, Selected :: PowerDrive Level 1 - Up to 10% Overclocking
-Processor Cooling, Selected:: Corsair Hydro Series H55 120mm Liquid CPU Cooler - ARC Silent High Performance Fan Upgrade
-Memory, Selected:: 16 GB [8 GB x2] DDR3-1866 Memory Module [AMD] - G.SKILL Ripjaws X
-Video Card, Selected:: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 - 4GB - Single Card
-SLI Bridge, Selected:: None
-Motherboard, Selected:: MSI 970A-G43 -- AMD 970 w/ 2x PCI-E 2.0 x16, 2x USB 3.0
-Power Supply, Selected:: 1000 Watt - Standard 80 PLUS Bronze
-Advance Cabling Options, Selected:: Professional Wiring - for all standard default cables inside the system
-Primary Hard Drive, Selected:: 1 TB Western Digital Caviar Blue Hard Drive -- 64MB Cache, 7200RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive
-Data Hard Drive, Selected:: 1 TB Western Digital Caviar Blue Hard Drive -- 64MB Cache, 7200RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive
-Optical Drive, Selected:: 24x Dual Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black
-2nd Optical Drive, Selected:: None
-Media Card Reader / Writer, Selected:: None
-Meter Display, Selected:: None
-Sound Card, Selected:: 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
-Network Card, Selected:: Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)
-USB Expansion Card, Selected:: None
-Operating System, Selected :: Windows 10 Home + Office 365 Trial [Free 30-Day] (64-bit)
-Additional Software:: None
-Keyboard, Selected:: [FREE] - iBUYPOWER MEK Mechanical Gaming Keyboard (Red Switch)
-Headset:: [FREE] - KWORLD G98 Gaming Headset
-Mouse, Selected:: iBUYPOWER Standard Gaming Mouse
Mousepad:: [FREE] - iBUYPOWER High Performance Gaming Mouse Pad
-External Hard Drives [USB 3.0/2.0/eSATA]:: None
-External Optical Drive:: None
-Advanced Build Options:: Tuniq TX-2 High Performance Thermal Compound

Subtotal:: $1314

Does this look pretty good so far? Sugestions or help would be nice, thanks!

[_I_]

do not go amd cpu for a new build
the msi amd board is a fire hazard
http://www.overclock.net/a/database-of-motherboard-vrm-failure-incidents

8350 cannot max out a gtx970
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html

get an i5 4460 or 4690k or 6600k and capable board
and 2x4g+ 1600+ cl9- 1.5v- ram kit

[Zoid Bacon]

I'm not too familiar with the options that iBuypower gives you, but you're definitely over-speccing in some areas. I'm guessing iBuypower pushes some of these options since they make more money the more boxes are checked. I'll go ahead and say that you're only a step or two away from building the PC yourself, which would save you money and be a fun learning experience. You could build a PC with even better components than this for (I'm ballparking) at least $400 less than what they are charging.

Anyway, the bits that jump out to me are:

CPU: That isn't a bad CPU but it is showing its age when it comes to gaming. It's true that an i5 would give you noticeably more performance.
CPU Cooler: People might disagree, but I tend not to recommend watercooling unless you are getting into to serious overclocking. It's a feature for enthusiasts and not worth the added cost and complexity for most consumers.
RAM: Nothing wrong with 16GB, but it's not strictly necessary either for gaming. You'll be fine with 8GB for now if you want to save another ~$30
PSU: Way overkill for this build, unless you plan on adding a second GTX 970 which I would not recommend. Go for 500W - 650W for a GTX 970.
Storage: I would highly recommend an SSD as your boot drive. You will love how much more responsive it makes booting up, navigating the OS, and launching your favorite programs.
Sound Card: It looks like you're using the motherboard's built in sound which is what you should do, but I'm just checking. You do not need to buy a separate sound card.

Sorry, I don't know enough about monitors to give you a good recommendation. I'm a TV gamer myself (boooo! hisssss!)

[Venlord]

I would not choose an AMD processor at this time because there no upgrade path and they are weak processors for gaming.

[SundownKid]

That processor will bottleneck the 970, go for an i5-4690k or i5-6600k.

Get a non "standard" power supply, 650-750W.

[_I_]

ibuypowers watercooling is a bad choice
get a 212evo or other air cooler over their water choices

[initiaLiSeD]

You are spending over $1000 it should have a Skylake i5, a 250GB SSD as a minimum.

[Tex]

Publicado originalmente por GehringGame:

I'm not too familiar with the options that iBuypower gives you, but you're definitely over-speccing in some areas. I'm guessing iBuypower pushes some of these options since they make more money the more boxes are checked. I'll go ahead and say that you're only a step or two away from building the PC yourself, which would save you money and be a fun learning experience. You could build a PC with even better components than this for (I'm ballparking) at least $400 less than what they are charging.

Anyway, the bits that jump out to me are:

CPU: That isn't a bad CPU but it is showing its age when it comes to gaming. It's true that an i5 would give you noticeably more performance.
CPU Cooler: People might disagree, but I tend not to recommend watercooling unless you are getting into to serious overclocking. It's a feature for enthusiasts and not worth the added cost and complexity for most consumers.
RAM: Nothing wrong with 16GB, but it's not strictly necessary either for gaming. You'll be fine with 8GB for now if you want to save another ~$30
PSU: Way overkill for this build, unless you plan on adding a second GTX 970 which I would not recommend. Go for 500W - 650W for a GTX 970.
Storage: I would highly recommend an SSD as your boot drive. You will love how much more responsive it makes booting up, navigating the OS, and launching your favorite programs.
Sound Card: It looks like you're using the motherboard's built in sound which is what you should do, but I'm just checking. You do not need to buy a separate sound card.

Sorry, I don't know enough about monitors to give you a good recommendation. I'm a TV gamer myself (boooo! hisssss!)

Do you reccomend any places/websites to custom build pcs?

[SundownKid]

Publicado originalmente por Tex:

Do you reccomend any places/websites to custom build pcs?

There's also Ecollegepc but I'm not sure if its cheaper or more pricey.

Definitely don't use Cyberpower though.

HP also has periodic desktop deals like this one: http://slickdeals.net/f/8437501-hp-envy-750se-desktop-i7-6700-2tb-hdd-16gb-ddr4-4gb-gtx-970-win-7-925-40-free-shipping

[1st Baron Keynes]

A good website to put together a custom build is pcpartpicker.com, if you want to build it yourself (which i highly recommend)

[TΩKSYK]

May i ask why 1600x900 monitor? There are reasonable 1080p monitors under $150 such as
ASUS VX228H Black 21.5" [www.newegg.com]
If i were you spending $1300+ then i would go with Skylake or Haswell.

If you write your max budget and tell us which parts you dont need then we can help you more.

[Zoid Bacon]

I have never used a custom PC builder website so I can't recommend one from experience. SunDownKid's link to that HP would definitely be a better deal than what your original build was. StarDust73 also makes a good recommendation if you want to try configuring your own to see the kind of difference building it yourself could make.

[Tex]

So I did some building on pcpartpicker.com, do you guys think this is better? I took some of your reccomendations to thought.

CPU - Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Thermal Compound - Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-B150M-D3H DDR3 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
RAM - Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
HDD - Samsung Spinpoint M9T 2TB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
SSD - Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Video Card - MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card
Case - NZXT Phantom 240 ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply - Apevia 700W ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive - Samsung SH-118CB/BEBE DVD/CD Drive
Operating System - Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit)
Network Adapter - Asus PCE-N10 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter
Monitor - Sceptre E205W-1600 60Hz 20.0" Monitor
Keyboard - Razer DeathStalker Essential Wired Gaming Keyboard
Mouse - Razer Abyssus Wired Optical Mouse
Total: $1,379.03 (Total without monitor, keyboard, or mouse: $1,203.03)

Most of the things are different because there are way more options, are they better or worse than before? Also, would I have to get a usb port extender or do you think this would be good for having both a wired mouse and keyboard?

[Tex]

Publicado originalmente por Artaxeus:

May i ask why 1600x900 monitor? There are reasonable 1080p monitors under $150 such as
ASUS VX228H Black 21.5" [www.newegg.com]
If i were you spending $1300+ then i would go with Skylake or Haswell.

If you write your max budget and tell us which parts you dont need then we can help you more.

Max budget for the pc itself is around $1200, accessories max probably around $200. The comment I just posted before this is basically what I need because I'm starting from scratch with this pc. I prefer 16:9, it looks nice.

[TΩKSYK]

Publicado originalmente por Tex:

So I did some building on pcpartpicker.com, do you guys think this is better? I took some of your reccomendations to thought.

CPU - Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Thermal Compound - Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-B150M-D3H DDR3 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
RAM - Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
HDD - Samsung Spinpoint M9T 2TB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
SSD - Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Video Card - MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card
Case - NZXT Phantom 240 ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply - Apevia 700W ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive - Samsung SH-118CB/BEBE DVD/CD Drive
Operating System - Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit)
Network Adapter - Asus PCE-N10 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter
Monitor - Sceptre E205W-1600 60Hz 20.0" Monitor
Keyboard - Razer DeathStalker Essential Wired Gaming Keyboard
Mouse - Razer Abyssus Wired Optical Mouse
Total: $1,379.03 (Total without monitor, keyboard, or mouse: $1,203.03)

Most of the things are different because there are way more options, are they better or worse than before? Also, would I have to get a usb port extender or do you think this would be good for having both a wired mouse and keyboard?

There's a permalink on top left corner, paste that link on here so we can see the price of each part.

[Tex]

Publicado originalmente por Artaxeus:

There's a permalink on top left corner, paste that link on here so we can see the price of each part.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WDXJ6h