In December of 2007, I built my first home computer. It was a computer that lasted me 10 years, having undergone several upgrades between the 5-8 year range. These days, 5 years seems to be the average life of parts keeping up with the performance and graphics demands of new and upcoming games. Lately, I've really been getting into Fortnite: Battle Royale, which itself is very demanding of CPU and GPU centered around its 100-player Free-for-All game mode. I've also gotten back into streaming my games, something that we know only adds more CPU demand. My old computer was struggling to run both at anything higher than 40 FPS on average...
After a solid 10-year run with the old comp, I decided to build myself a new rig! Below you'll find my new setup and some pictures during assembly. Overall, I was looking to spend around $1,000-$1,500 for the system. Most of my parts are mid-range in terms of performance and cost. The theory is that I will likely need to upgrade in another 5 years, so getting top-of-the-line components is not really necessary. Here are the results. Enjoy!
Configuration and Purchases:
For my build, I did a lot of research on
pcpartpicker.com, a great site for putting parts together, reading reviews from other PC builders, ensuring compatibility, and gathering price comparisons from multiple vendors.
|
Product |
Vendor |
Cost |
| Processor |
Intel Core i5-8600K Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.6 GHz LGA 1151 (300
Series) |
Newegg |
$244.99 |
| CPU Cooler |
Cooler Master Hyper RR-212E-20PK-R2 LED CPU Cooler |
Amazon |
$29.99 |
| Cooling Gel |
Arctic Silver 5 AS5-3.5G Thermal Paste |
Amazon |
$6.51 |
| Motherboard |
ASUS Prime Z370-A LGA 1151 (300 Series) |
Newegg |
$164.52 |
| Memory |
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 3000
SDRAM |
Newegg |
$164.99 |
| Video Card |
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC GAMING, 06G-P4-6163-KR, 6GB GDDR5 |
Newegg |
$319.99 |
| Case |
RAIDMAX Cobra Z ATX-502WBU Black/Blue ATX Mid Tower |
Newegg |
$39.99 |
| Power Supply |
EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G1 120-G1-0650-XR 80+ GOLD 650W Fully
Modular |
Newegg |
$69.99 |
| Operating System |
Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit System Builder OEM |
Amazon |
$101.08 |
| Primary Monitor |
ViewSonic XG2701 27" 144 Hz 1ms Free Sync Gaming Monitor |
Newegg |
$319.99 |
| Ethernet Adapter |
TP-Link TG-3468 Gigabit Ethernet PCI-Express Network Adapter
Card |
Amazon |
$16.29 |
|
|
Total |
$1,478.33 |
Computer Assembly:
Built on May 7, 2018
For my case, I decided to go with Raidmax, which was the brand I used for my previous computer. Their cases are not only affordable, but the material feels nice and I like their look and layout.
For the motherboard, I was deciding between ASUS and Gigabyte. For me, it came down to reputation and BIOS functionality, so I went with ASUS even though they are slightly more expensive on average. In determining a CPU, I looked at
user benchmark results with Fortnite to determine which CPU produced the best benchmark at a reasonable cost. Because the i5 8600K performed almost the same as the i7 8700K and was some $80 cheaper, it was a no-brainer to go with the top i5 model. I've always used Intel, so I was not interested in switching to AMD at this time. While I could have gone for the minimum of 8GB of RAM, memory is so cheap these days that there was no reason not to just go for 16GB and not have to worry about RAM for a while.
Since the CPU didn't come with a fan/cooler, I needed to add one myself. I went with a popular Cooler Master and honestly, it was the biggest bitch to figure out how to mount above the processor. The instruction pamphlet had no words, only pictures. The videos I found online all omitted a very important step for my particular motherboard, which is that there are plastic spacers to add to the mounting screws in order for the cooler to be installed correctly. Ignorantly, I tried installing it without these spacers and found myself wasting an hour trying to force the bracket on. Eventually I figured it out and it should have been much simplier than I made it to be.
The power supply was pretty standard. I selected one that supplies more than the estimated power I needed and had a 80+ gold rating for optimal energy performance. I also wanted a modular one to gain the convenience of easy cable management (the shorter and less needed, the better).
At the time of this build, video card prices were 2-3x more then they should be, due to cryptocurrency mining...ugh. Again, I looked at
Fortnite benchmarks to determine what GPU would produce the the highest average FPS while maintaining a reasonable cost. I ended up going with the GeForce GTX 1060 [6GB] because it maintained close to 120 FPS and was valued around my price range of $300.
For this computer, I didn't have to buy any storage, as the 2 SSDs (128GB and 250GB) and SATA (320GB) drive from my old computer were fairly new and more than sufficient for my data needs. I also moved the DVD-RW drive over, because why not?
Overall, it took me 5 hours to put everything together (1 hour wasted on that damn CPU cooler, lol). I took my time putting the computer together because I wanted to make sure everything was done carefully and properly. Some of you may freak out that I assembled it all together on my bed, but don't worry, I used anti-static bags to rest the important parts on and discharged myself on a metal chair nearby.
It was then time to boot the computer up and voila, success! At first, one of the RAM sticks wasn't being detected as well as a case fan, so I had to re-open the case and reseat the RAM and move the fan's power cable to another motherboard port.
I installed Windows 10 on this computer because Windows 7 is no longer being supported in 2020, so might as well get the "upgrade" now than have to worry about it two years later. At first, I was hesitant to use Windows 10 based on all the horror stories of telemetry and data sent to Microsoft, but I did my research and was able to disable just about all of it. Windows 10 runs fine for me with no real concerns and now I think it's just as good as Windows 7, you just have to learn how to make it operate how you want it to.
The final step was to purchase a new monitor capable of a 120Hz refresh rate. Newer games are now able to produce over 100 FPS and I currently play Fortnite at 120 FPS without any latency issues. I needed a 120Hz+ monitor to actually see the higher framerate and wow, it really is noticeable just how much smoother the gameplay looks. It makes sense, that's twice the frames as the standard 60 FPS of your common HDTV. I use a dual-monitor setup at home, both Viewsonic (love the brand, I've now owned 5 total in my lifetime) and at 27" each.
I'm so happy with my new computer. Everything runs super fast and looks amazing. Windows loads up in literally 5 seconds. Fortnite runs perfectly at 120FPS and I'm enjoy every aspect of the new comp. If you're interested in watching me play Fortnite on my new rig, you can find me on my Twitch stream:
https://www.twitch.tv/atrain64
Thanks for stopping by and happy building/gaming!
