[Help] Building a gaming PC : Othor Games

» Tue Jan 13, 2015 10:09 pm

Hello, everyone. I've finally decided to make the jump to PC gaming, specifically for The Witcher 3. Instead of buying pre-built, I've decided to try my hand at building my own. Here is what I've come up with: PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rGkXZL

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rGkXZL/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($159.99 @ Newegg)

Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($68.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.97 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($344.99 @ Amazon)

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($94.01 @ Amazon)

Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 660W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($119.99 @ Newegg)

Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($16.98 @ OutletPC)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)

Keyboard: SteelSeries APEX Wired Gaming Keyboard ($84.99 @ Amazon)

Mouse: Corsair Vengeance M65 Wired Laser Mouse ($61.16 @ Amazon)

Headphones: Sennheiser PC333D 7.1 Channel Headset ($136.99 @ Amazon)

Total: $1580.02

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-13 01:21 EST-0500

I expect $1,600 to be my final budget. I've been told I should go with an i-5 4960K, even though TW3's requirements for recommended settings call for an i-7. Supposedly, i-7 aren't necessary for gaming and an i-5 will suffice. Is this accurate? I went with the Xeon over the i-7 4770 to save some money. Is this a reasonable build for a rookie? Will this be hard to put together? I plan to get a monitor later and hook it up to my TV in the meantime. This is possible, correct? The tower will an HDMI port, correct? Should I add a for cooling?

Any help will be appreciated.

» Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:55 pm

I'd go with an 8 core processor if I were you, not a quad. There are already a couple of games on the market that recommend them, "Assassin's Creed: Unity" and "Shadow of Mordor", and there will most likely be more available in the future. Especially with the new consoles using 8 core processors.

» Tue Jan 13, 2015 9:45 pm

Just because the new consoles have 8 cores, doesn't games use that many. In fact not all the are available for games in the consoles. Besides, that Xeon has hyperthreading, meaning 8 threads with 4 cores.

I would take bigger hard drive. 1TB is a bit small and with games getting bigger that can fill up quickly. And there is no such thing as too much space.

PSU is a bit oversized (you'll be using about one third of its capacity) but the model itself is a great choice.

That 7.1 channel thingie in headphones sounds terrible idea. I'd take normal, high quality stereo headphones.