Help with my first build

Hello, I am new to the forum and I have never built a pc. I will have help from my brother with the actual building, but I thought I'd post here for help with a parts list. Please find below the form

1. What will you be doing with this PC?
Mostly web browsing, gaming (overwatch, battlefield, pubg, stellaris, ark - these are probably the most demanding things I'll play)

2. Will you be overclocking?
No

3. What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included in this budget? Is your budget flexible? Is cost a driving factor in component selection?
$1500 AUD is a ball park. I can stretch to $2000 but I'll need a monitor, keyboard and headset to fit in that budget. This includes shipping and tax.

4. Where do you live? Do you have any big B&M (brick and mortar) computer chains nearby (e.g. Microcenter, Fry's, etc)?
Adelaide, Australia. None of those sadly

5. What exact parts do you need for that budget?
Mobo, CPU (thinking i5), GPU (prefer nvidia but open to alternatives), M2.SSD (250gb should be fine), at least 500gb on a HDD or SSD if budget allows, cooling (preferably quieter so was leaning towards air cooled but open to AIO). A monitor (hoping for 144hz), mechanical keyboard and a headset, both with a minamilist aesthetic.

6. If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
I have the ncase

7. What specific features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Thunderbolt? Crossfire or SLI support? How many USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s? etc. Which is more important, size of the system or having the particular feature?
I will need wifi as wired access is off limits for the time being.

8. What resolution output do you need? 4k playback, 1080p playback, etc for HTPC or give a vertical/horizontal resolution for gaming SFF rigs. Do you need multiple monitor output?
1080p will suffice. Don't need multiple monitors.

9. Does this system need to fit into a particular space and do you need an optical drive? Think entertainment center shelves, closet space, rackmount, etc. Many modern SFF cases have either removed the optical drive or have been constructed so that removing the ODD increases the configuration possibilities immensely.
As stated above, it's an Ncase. No ODD!

10. How comfortable are you with custom case design/modification and electrical wiring?What tools do you have (Screwdrivers/Leatherman, Drill, Dremel, Metal snips, Soldering Iron, Bending Brake, CNC/Welding machines/Plasma cutter, etc...)?
I don't see a need to modify the case and I lack the tools to do so.

11. How important is the noise/silence of this sytem? HTPCs typically want to be quiet while all-out SFF gaming rigs don't care
Quieter is better and quite important to me but not at the cost of performance. A happy medium would be good.

12. How mobile does this system need to be?Need a carrying handle or carrying straps? Is weight important (carry-on bag, etc)? Water cooling quick disconnects, etc?
I may take it on a 40 minute round trip in a car once every few months, but I don't think portability is a priority.

13. Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? Remember that OEM copies of Win7 have issues with new motherboards
No I do not. Would like to run windows 10.

14. When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Immediately, in a couple weeks, 3-5 years?
Immediately!

I really appreciate any help and advice you guys can offer! Please let me know if I've missed any crucial information.

I tried the best I could but with the perfs its hard to find something YOU would like. I also had to go over your max budget by a little bit. This is what I would recommend.

Intel i5 7600k: https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/HJ4qtJ
Ryzen 1600: https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/hQbX8K

EDIT:
Noticed you said shipping and tax also. I cant find that out since lots of stores offer free shipping. Its going to be hard since you want a good monitor (144hz) and something you dont need to upgrade in 3years or so.

That looks like a pretty good list Gulvan has for you, only thing I would change is the Heatsink. You don't need that low profile in the Ncase. Go with something like the Noctua NH-D9L or the NH-U9S, both are compatible with the Ncase and have good cooling. Add a good 120mm fan to the right side of the fan bracket. That will feed fresh air to the cooler and cool the motherboard.

*cracks knuckles*

Welp! I live in Aus AND have an Ncase! Here to help! .

Mwave (my old company I used to work for), PCCG and Scorptec I suppose would be your primary purchase avenues. The latter both having Melb offices, so a little closer to you. Mwave is Sydney only. Are there any MSYs or Umarts in Adelaide??

PCCG allow easy wishlist sharing so I'll use PCCG as a baseline. Buying from one place may make things easier(though try to get a large item like a monitor locally to reduce shipping costs).

The 1600 comes with a cooler, you're not OC'ing, so use the stock cooler. Save money. Otherwise 7600k you can get the Cryorig M9I (https://www.pccasegear.com/products/33459/cryorig-m9i-cpu-cooler/) as it will do a great job at a cheap price (only a few degrees behind a much more expensive U9S from Noctua)

I will say, though, given your game choices, if you play a lot of overwatch at 1080p, you may find Intel to perform better.. I really suggest dipping your hand into overclocking if that's the case, as it will help a lot. A simple 4.5ghz on a 7600k is achievable with a few plug-in numbers and will help your FPS a fair bit

https://www.pccasegear.com/wish_lists/748565

Similar to Gulvan, bit more expensive overall because of (IMO, a better monitor and keyboard, you don't mention a mouse requirement), and RAM specific to Ryzen may help with stable higher clock speeds, otherwise grab RAM from elsewhere due to pricing. Also because of the differences in prices from different stores, whereas this is all from the same store. Tax is included in all Aus prices, so it's just shipping that will hurt you, so as I mentioned go for a local shop for your monitor, as it will drive up your shipping costs a lot.

(Buy a windows key from Kinguin for like ~30, my key I bought worked fine from them for a friend)

There's a AM4 ITX board from gigabyte too that's 20 bucks cheaper but the layout is poor and will not work well with the Ncase.

If you're not OC'ing, you won't need to worry about temps on the CPU. I find running at stock with my setup is perfectly fine without really any extra fans, and the 1060 is less power hungry than my 1070 as well. My setup in my sig in the Ncase m1.

Your primary issue is the addition of peripherals which take things $500+ over $1500. the 144hz monitor cheapest you'll find is roughly 350. So it's something to consider.

I found the same issue as Reaper had in regards to selecting a monitor. IMO the monitor you work/play on is the most important purchase outside keyboard. It is really up to you for which one you prefer but I would recommend watching some videos, reading articles if you want to find out which is the best for you and allow that to be a little more expensive.

I don't have this case and pcpartpicker didnt have it listed so I used a DAN case as a template. I would go with the cooler suggested above and a 120 noctua fan, that'll help cool things off well.

Thank you all very much for your replies! Sorry for my delayed response, it has been a busy week.

I understand I was a little ambitious with what needed to be included in the budget. After considering what you've said, and some preliminary research, I think I will try to save extra for a better monitor.

Reaper, it's nice to see others from Australia using the ncase! There's a small msy here but no umart that I am aware of. It's likely that I'll be visiting Melbourne in the near future, so I could potentially pick a few things up there.

Some follow up questions:
In each build suggested, there is only a 500gb SSD - would having one larger ssd be better than having a smaller m2 to boot off and a smaller ssd for actual storage?

Also, if I were to overclock would it be a good idea to look into delidding the cpu? And Reaper, have you dabbled in custom cabling - is that also worth it in terms of a worthwhile change in temps?

I'll look into monitors a little more and probably end up posting somewhere for second opinions. I'll likely be limited by what's available locally, as you guys have suggested.

Thank you again!

I have a 120GB M.2 SSD as a boot drive and a 960GB 2.5 SSD as a gaming drive, I would love to have a 1TB M.2 but man the price on them is crazy.

Today I'm going from 2>1 Ssds

Jc1 said:

Thank you all very much for your replies! Sorry for my delayed response, it has been a busy week.

I understand I was a little ambitious with what needed to be included in the budget. After considering what you've said, and some preliminary research, I think I will try to save extra for a better monitor.

Reaper, it's nice to see others from Australia using the ncase! There's a small msy here but no umart that I am aware of. It's likely that I'll be visiting Melbourne in the near future, so I could potentially pick a few things up there.

Some follow up questions:
In each build suggested, there is only a 500gb SSD - would having one larger ssd be better than having a smaller m2 to boot off and a smaller ssd for actual storage?

Also, if I were to overclock would it be a good idea to look into delidding the cpu? And Reaper, have you dabbled in custom cabling - is that also worth it in terms of a worthwhile change in temps?

I'll look into monitors a little more and probably end up posting somewhere for second opinions. I'll likely be limited by what's available locally, as you guys have suggested.

Thank you again!

Click to expand...

Yeah there's a few of us, though few and far between lol. MSY might be good for some smaller/less likely to fail parts like RAM and SSDs. Small items.

I personally run a 256GB SSD + 1TB SSD in the Ncase. Previously I ran the 256GB SSD with a 1TB 2.5" HDD, as it was far cheaper. You can also do this if you wanted to save money.

Delidding will definitely help temps with the Ncase, however it's really up to you if you think it's worth it.. I personally am not a fan and would rather keep my warranty and deal with 10~ degrees extra heat (give or take).

Custom cables won't really help temps. If you get them for easy cable management or for it to look nice, sure, but as long as you keep the stock cables tied up well, it really makes almost no difference to airflow or temps.