Advice for Building a Desktop

[Flubbernugget]

The processor is "Intel Cor i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz", and it says that 8 times so I guess I have 8 of them?

You most likely have one processor with four computational units (cores) that are able to perform trickery on the code they run to make your OS think you have 8 cores.

See, I don’t even know what the hell that means

I can explain when I have time!

[Pine]

Sure

[Flubbernugget]

Ok

Inside your computer is a bunch of hardware, arguably the most important of which is the central processing unit, or CPU. The CPU is a thin square flat on one side and covered in pins to connect to the motherboard on the other side. You usually can't directly see it when it's installed on the motherboard because it's covered by a fan and a heatsink, but if you crack open a motherboard and see a big ass fan sticking out of the whole thing that's probably where the CPU is.

At an obnoxiously high level, the CPU's job is to run programs. More specifically, it performs instructions fed to it from a hard drive. When you turn your computer on, open a web browser, or do whatever, you're observing the consequences of these instructions being executed.

Different processors can execute instructions at different speeds. A faster processor can execute more inductions than a slower one in the same amount of time (Think about what this means for video games, which are insanely complicated and therefore require a massive amount of instructions to run). This speed is measured in the number of instructions a processor can perform in one second as a frequency, and is therefore measured in hertz. Looking at popsofctown's post, you can see their processor can execute 4 billion instructions in a second. Impressive stuff!

Now from here we have to explain cores, things get a little more complicated. Traditionally, a processor would execute instructions one at a time, in order from start to finish. This translates to only one program running at a time. Obviously your computer can run a web browser with a few tabs while a word document is loaded in the background and so on. Windows itself is normally running a hundred or so programs just to keep everything up an running. How is this possible?
It turns out there's a few ways to create the

illusion

that two sets of instructions are running at the same time. What you do is tell the processor to run one set of instructions, and instead of running them to completion, you schedule time for the two sets to run. When the instructions run out of time, a new set of instructions is loaded into the processor to run. This switching of processes happens so fast it looks like the instructions are running at the same time. You can break this illusion by loading a program that's too computationally intensive for the processor to run and see that the whole computer locks up (im sure everyone has done this at least once before).

Originally, intel and others tried to make computers handle more instructions by upping the speed of the processor so it could run more instructions in a scheduled amount of time before it had to switch. At around the 3-4ghz range this caused too many heat issues that noone was able to mitigate. To help speed up processors, the concept of

multiple cores

became more popular. Giving a processor more cores gave it the availability to actually run sets of instructions simultaneously. If you had two cores you could run two sets of instructions and so forth. You don't get twice the processing power if you double your cores (it's closer to a 30% increase in speed and I can explain a little bit of why if anyone is interested), but it's still significant enough that it gets listed as part of most processor's system specifications.

[Flubbernugget]

The tl;dr is that clock speeds (ghz) and cores are the main indicators of a processor's performance. There's a few others like cache size but they normally take a little more digging to find the specs

[PJ.]

I feel like flubbernugget is 15 steps above where you're looking.

I highly recommend using mostly what bins wrote, but I going to elaborate because i'm an egomaniac(also @ bins, upgrading ram is super easy it's just kinda spendy cause uh...pc hardware is bullshit).

Pine, you have kinda two options, I'd avoid boutique sites, but You can find half decent prebuilts that you can slightly upgrade and be good for several years and it'll save you the work of plugging in everything but the ez shit. Option 2 is build your own, obviously.

I'm going to drop a few builds in here and tell you why they're different and you can tell me I'm a dipshit.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/C9MZx6
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/6Qkdn7

Putting these together because they're basically the same build. The difference? The more expansive one has the Pro Carbon instead of the Tomahawk which means it comes with Wi-Fi. That's literally the only difference. The reason I'd go with these instead of a 470x board is because both boards need a BIOS update to work with the 3rd generation Ryzen 5 and the 470x boards DO NOT have BIOS flashback so you're going to have to ask the manufacturer to put the BIOS update on the board before they send it out(or ask if it's been done already) and I don't like making phone calls. Aside from that the only difference is SLI capability which you don't need for two reasons - you probably aren't going to be using two GPUs and this isn't a Nvidia build so you're not worried about Nvidia shit anyway.

If you do not know or do not want to learn how to update the BIOS on the motherboard you can see if a local PC shop in your area with do it for you for a moderate fee(30 bucks). But Panzer, I don't want to make a phone calls because I'm lazy like you and I don't want to do it myself for various totally valid reasons, what do I do.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dpXPx6

x570 board that's already fully compatible without update and 4.0 PCIe instead of 3.0(if you don't know if you need 4.0 instead of 3.0, you probably don't). The reason I chose that board instead of the MSI 200 dollar motherboard is WI-FI but if you for some reason want BIOS Flashback on the x570 board then go MSI. Went with a slightly more expensive power supply on this as well.

NONE OF THESE BUILDS COME WITH MONITORS. I didn't choose a monitor for you because it's more of a taste/need thing and you can decide that on your own. I also chose a pretty standard budget case, but feel free to go with something else there, it's really what ever suits your needs(I'd personally go with no external ports cause I don't need a rom drive).


But Panzer...Reddit told me AMD is bad so I want Nvidia and Intel.


https://pcpartpicker.com/list/zY6scq

Slightly less performance on the GPU but it's cheaper, If you want more performance on the GPU go with a 2070, but it's going to run you 200 more dollars

Edit: Apparently the new Vega 56 level card is the AMD 5700 or 5700xt, so you'd probably be better of with those instead anything else. especially cause the XT blows the doors off anything that isn't double its price. Also, all the GPUs I mentioned are interchangable, regardless of if you go Intel or AMD on the processor.
basically it goes 2080s, 1080 ti, 2080 all kinda in tier 1, tier 2 is basically just the 5700xt/anniversary and the 2070s. tier 3 is the 2070, 2060s, 1080 and the 5700. Tier 4 is the 1070ti, Vega 56, and the 2060. If you want less than the tier 4 your best options are the 1660ti, 1660 and the RX 590 with the ti being weirdly in the middle of the truly budget 590/1660 and the tier 4 stuff. You don't really have to stress too much, they are the easiest part to change and upgrade. They are simultaneously the least important and most important, which makes it weird.

[Enter]

Some things to add:
1. Knowing what you want as far as monitors and things you're going to need to plug into your computer is important. If you are going to want to plug in multiple hard-drives or a hard-drive, an SSD, and a CD/DVD-ROM, you'll wanna make sure your Motherboard has the right number of SATA slots. If you're trying to run a dual monitor setup, make sure you have multiple graphics cards or a single one that has the correct slots (I wouldn't use HDMI if you're FPS gaming). If you have a lot of USB plugins, make sure you can support. Also make sure that if you are going to get a CD/DVD-ROM (a lot of your hardware will give you CDs to install drivers to your computer in case you don't have internet access) that your case can support.
2. https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/ is a great website for looking at benchmarks and comparing almost every part of your computer that you're going to need. Look at the games you play - FPS games will need a stronger GPU, if you play a lot of Civilization/RTS/Total War, I would put down the extra money for an i7 (usually an i5 will do fine).
3. SSDs are significantly cheaper than they used to be and they're typically much better than hard-drives. Your boot times will plummet with a good SSD. If you're working with a more restrictive budget, use a smaller SSD for your OS and then put your games/pictures/videos/files of other sorts on a hard drive. If your budget isn't that restrictive but you have hundreds of gigabytes of just files/pictures/movies, I would get a medium SSD for games/OS and then a larger hard-drive for files where start speed doesn't matter. It is ever so slightly more complicated to set up an SSD and a hard-drive instead of just a hard-drive, so if you don't care or your budget is super restrictive, just get a hard-drive.
4. Don't skimp too much on the motherboard - look at reviews. If it shorts, you will also lose your CPU, usually the second most expensive part of your PC.
5. Go for Gold/Platinum on power supply - if you lose power for some reason or if it fluctuates too wildly, you could seriously damage your components. Corsair makes great power supplies. You probably won't need a modular one, but they're cool and you don't have extra wires ever.
6. 16 GB of RAM has always served me well. Probably more than what y'll need.

There's probably more but it's 1 o'clock in the morning right now and I need to get to bed.

Oh. Also, Panzerjager, your build is missing a hard-drive/SSD. Other things to consider about those builds - I wouldn't worry about Wi-Fi, I just plug in my ethernet cable, but if Wi-Fi is important for you, even if your motherboard doesn't have it, you can always just buy a card later and plug it in. As far as SLI/Crossfire - this is a pretty good discussion on it: https://www.wepc.com/tips/difference-be ... crossfire/ . I don't think most people start with two GPUs, but what a lot of people do is buy one immediately and then later when it can't keep up with newer games, they buy a second one and put it in SLI/Crossfire - this helps you get a bit more life out of it. This is probably the answer pops is looking for.

[Spangled]

Bookmarking this for when my PC dies on me; it’s almost there.

[PJ.]

Oh. Also, Panzerjager, your build is missing a hard-drive/SSD. Other things to consider about those builds - I wouldn't worry about Wi-Fi, I just plug in my ethernet cable, but if Wi-Fi is important for you, even if your motherboard doesn't have it, you can always just buy a card later and plug it in. As far as SLI/Crossfire - this is a pretty good discussion on it: https://www.wepc.com/tips/difference-be ... crossfire/ . I don't think most people start with two GPUs, but what a lot of people do is buy one immediately and then later when it can't keep up with newer games, they buy a second one and put it in SLI/Crossfire - this helps you get a bit more life out of it. This is probably the answer pops is looking for.

Parts I currently have

:
-A quality mouse
-A USB Keyboard
-Speakers
-A CD/DVD drive

-A nearly-new 1TB SSD

, salvaged from my old machine. ~8-10 months old

Bolded for your convenience

Oh. Also, Panzerjager, your build is missing a hard-drive/SSD. Other things to consider about those builds - I wouldn't worry about Wi-Fi, I just plug in my ethernet cable, but if Wi-Fi is important for you, even if your motherboard doesn't have it, you can always just buy a card later and plug it in. As far as SLI/Crossfire - this is a pretty good discussion on it: https://www.wepc.com/tips/difference-be ... crossfire/ . I don't think most people start with two GPUs, but what a lot of people do is buy one immediately and then later when it can't keep up with newer games, they buy a second one and put it in SLI/Crossfire - this helps you get a bit more life out of it. This is probably the answer pops is looking for.

It's nice to have on deck wifi and not waste a slot on it. Also, there are other features on why you'd get the Pro Carbon instead the tomahawk. Also if the two best boards at a pricepoint(boards that are so good they legitimately obsolete the next two price points up) going with the one with Wi-Fi instead of BIOS Flashback(not everyone updates their BIOS or even knows what a BIOS is, but everyone knows WI-FI) is fine? If he's asking to be helped with parts, I doubt he wants to hear us compare vrm heatsinks and talk about ideal overclocking. He's not going to do either of those things most likely but being like, hey, this motherboard is really good and giving him the one that has better heatsinks and overclocking support without giving him information overload is a better way to go about it.

On Crossfire/SLI, sure, you can use it to either get to the really top end or cheapish upgrade, but a lot of game developers don't optimize for SLI/Crossfire and some games flat out don't run with multi-gpus. Just Cause 3 and Doom(2016) being semi recent examples.

[PJ.]

Also the HDMI thing literally only matters if he's trying to be johnny pro gamer and wants to get full 144hz refresh on a 1ms monitor. But like I said with PCI 4.0e, if you don't know why you need it, you probably don't. I play games on this piece of shit: https://www.cnet.com/products/hp-2009m/specs/ and never once have I been like "Oh man, My monitor is really holding me back"

edit: i have stuff to say about power supplies to but honestly, this conversation doesn't actually help the person it's supposed to be helping and is a dick measuring contest.

[Enter]

oops. My b for skimming.

[StrangerCoug]

Bookmarking this since I've built a few computers in my life and I'd like to chip in (no pun intended), but most of the advice here is pretty good.

[StrangerCoug]

OK, so here comes a wallpost I didn't want to post on my tablet:

• Whenever you build a new computer, I recommend you think about the CPU first and work your build around that since parts can be dependent on each other. You want at least an AMD Ryzen 5 or Intel Core i5 (in general AMD is cheaper than Intel for the same level of performance); if you can afford a Ryzen 7 or Core i7, you'll be glad you got that for gaming. We're at about the turning point between 9th gen and 10th gen for the Core, so if you're an Intel diehard, think about whether you really need/want a 10th gen or can get away with a 9th gen.
  
• After the CPU, you'll want a motherboard with the right socket for it. Five good motherboard manufacturers are ASRock, ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, and MSI. Research Intel and AMD's chipsets; for Intel, the top of the line right now is the Z390, but the H370 isn't too shabby, either. AMD's top of the line is the X570, but the previous-gen X470 and the B450 I'd recommend, too.
  
• If you get a CPU without onboard video you'll need a video card. Your choices are AMD and Nvidia (bearing in mind that you don't have to pair an AMD video card with an AMD motherboard if you don't want to—I would still use the same manufacturer for each, though). I can run Cities: Skylines just fine with Intel's onboard video, so make of that what you will.
  
• I wouldn't be that picky about the case beyond space requirements—just make sure your board fits. Do bear in mind that external drive bays are going out of vogue, so if you like watching Blu-rays on your computer or have a collection of old games on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM and your existing CD/DVD drive is internal, you may have to replace it with an external one. An option I've looked at if you really want an internal drive bay for your existing CD/DVD drive is the Fractal Design Define R6.
  
• The HDD/SSD thing has already been discussed at length, so all I'll add there is you don't want to run anything read/write heavy like y-cruncher on a consumer-grade SSD if you care about it. Otherwise, your existing drive should be fine.
  
• I would not recommend less than 8 GB of RAM for any reason. For gaming, it's getting to the point where 16 GB is ideal. RAM is expensive, so it's not usually worth it to exceed 16 GB of RAM unless you know you need it.

That's all I can really think of right now. Feel free to ask me any questions, and I'll do my best to give an educated answer

[Bitmap]

https://www.logicalincrements.com/

This site should give you good build suggestions.

[Bitmap]

Some people here might unleash their inner fanboy in the AMD vs Intel/NVIDIA.

Ignore them. Just pick whatever you want that's in your budget and doesn't bottleneck the other components.

[Bitmap]

If you want the custom built PC but you're really that scared of building it, I'd suggest BLD.

https://www.letsbld.com/

They charge MSRP for the parts and only tack on an extra $100 for building it.

[Pine]

I really appreciate all the work and thought that’s gone into replies to this thread so far. You guys are great!

I was researching AMD and whether I wanted to go Ryzen 5 or spring for a 7, and ran across this CPU/motherboard/heatsink combo.

It *appears* to have the requisite necessities at a plausible price, so what am I missing?

[Pine]

^Never mind, I just priced out the parts

[PJ.]

2700x just got price dropped too because 3rd Gen ryzen cards just dropped recently

[Psyche]

I use shadow pc

[Pine]

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Tanaar/saved/

Here’s where I’m at now. It’s partially a build I found on pcpartpicker, with some elements from suggestions here and elsewhere.

I think I’ve finalized the CPU, but I’m still very unsure of the graphics card options.

Thoughts on the build? Please note that I already own SSD storage, OS, monitor (I think I have a compatible one) and some peripherals. Some parts (like RAM and power supply) are on a parametric filter for current best offers within parameters.

What am I missing? Do I need a sound card if I’ll be using built-in monitor speakers and headphone jack? I don’t actually care about sound quality beyond basic use.

[Pine]

Specifically looking for advice on main board and case. Wattage, chip sets, pins, space...that’s all Greek to me still

[StrangerCoug]

I fail to see anything wrong with the build as you have it picked out. Separate sound cards haven't been relevant for many years, so I wouldn't worry about it.

[Bitmap]

The build looks good. Might want to consider R5 3600X as your processor instead of just the normal R5 3600.

If you have a bit extra money, you can splurge on a better case. It'll make building the PC a lot easier.

[Pine]

The build looks good. Might want to consider R5 3600X as your processor instead of just the normal R5 3600.

If you have a bit extra money, you can splurge on a better case. It'll make building the PC a lot easier.

Got a case recommendation? I liked the price and the aesthetics, but form is the vassal of function

[Pine]

Also, can you explain the substantive difference between the R5 3600 and the 3600X, aside from a 20-25% price increase?