Building my first PC

[King_JCD]

So. The time has come. After living off my Macbook Pro for who knows how long, I think it's finally time I build myself a dedicated Gaming/Game Development PC (mostly because my macbook can barely handle my games).

I was wondering what words of wisdom y'all had for me (and whoever else this topic applies to) when it comes to what I need to get to achieve the most bang for my buck.
My budget is approximately $1,000 and after some researching I've gathered that:

• I'm gonna want at least two HD monitors to handle multitasking as I go through all the game dev software
• I'll want a Windows, not sure which version tho
• I'll probably get an SSD and not an HDD
• PCPartPicker is a great website for reference.

For those worried that they won't know what is best for a game dev pc, it's basically the same as a gaming pc + maybe a little more RAM and such to handle the heavy app multitasking.
Thanks![DOUBLEPOST=1415136147][/DOUBLEPOST]This is the default build that PCPartPicker recommends for a $1,000 budget. Does it seem like a good deal? http://pcpartpicker.com/guide/JW32FT/1000-gaming-build

 

[PrestoN]

That build looks fine to me other than I'd drop the water cooling and get a 212 Evo(water simply isn't necessary unless you're gonna do some OCing), and with that extra cash you could consider getting a Samsung 840 EVO SSD as they're well known, typically stable, and according to specs slightly higher read speed and significantly higher write speed.

wait does your $1000 budget include the monitors or no?

 

[DamageINC]

Two monitors alone could easily run you $500. Is that separate from your budget? Windows is another chunk, but that's easy enough to acquire a little......cheaper.

Also, i'd recommend getting a secondary HDD for storage. New Games are taking up huge amounts of space these days.

A good place to post is Tom's hardware forum. Post in the New builds section and you should get some good advice.

 

[The Moment]

How close to $1000 does this have to be? Also, does the $1000 include Windows and Monitors? If you give me a few minutes, I can cook up a list.

 

[King_JCD]

The $1,000 is strictly for the pc rig itself. The dual-monitors is a stretch goal (i already have one monitor that I use as a second monitor for my macbook) and I could probably get a copy of windows from a family member.
@The Moment I would be willing to go a hundred or two over the budget if it's worth it.
@DamageINC Wait so I'd have an SSD and an HDD? How does that work? Or are you saying just get two HDDs? Cuzz all the recomendations I've seen on the internet so far say I should go with an SSD.
@PrestoN Thats actually almost exactly what some people were saying in the comments on that page

 

[PrestoN]

@King_JCD SSDs are typically much smaller but read/write much faster. They're for your OS and important programs mainly. People have second HDDs for games/media. 128 GB wouldn't be enough for you to use. Pretty much have to drop some $ for an HDD.

 

[King_JCD]

So basically I'd get an SSD (like the Samsung 840 Evo you mentioned) as well as an HDD and get the benefits of the speed of an SSD plus the added storage of an HDD? That seems super convenient!

 

[PrestoN]

Anything on the SSD gets the speed, everything on the HDD gets the HDD's speed.

 

[The Moment]

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/The_Moment/saved/YjVfrH

@King_JCD It's not all that different, but I've heard good things about the case. I know from personal experience that the Hyper 212 Evo is an awesome cooler, and Western Digital's hard drives are legendary when it comes to reliability and performance.

This copy includes Windows 8.1 at $89.98, but you can get a student copy (might only be for college students) for about $20 cheaper.

Also, I'm not an expert in anything Intel related because I have an AMD cpu on my system. AMD is cheaper, but you sacrifice some performance with that cost.

 

[WaLLy]

Apart from getting a different SSD, your list looks pretty good. You already have an HDD on your list, so you'll be fine.

If you're interested in having the best of both worlds (OS X Yosemite and Windows) you should look into building a Hackintosh http://www.tonymacx86.com/446-building-customac-buyer-s-guide-october-2014.html It's not for the faint-hearted. But the results are worth it.

 

[DamageINC]

Your motherboard will be able to support multiple hard drives. It's no different than a PC having multiple USB ports that you can use simultaneously. The Mobo will have multiple SATA ports for hard drives. I have three plugged into mine ATM, and two more externals that plug in via USB.

The SSD would house windows and probably your most used/important programs so they could take advantage of the SSD.

The HDD would be best for storing movies, games, music, pictures etc. In other words, things that don't really need a SSD.

I think you could do a lot better on the case.

Also, as i mentioned earlier, posting in this forum can be very helpful. It really helped me when i was building my PC, as i didn't have a clue.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/31/build.html

 

[King_JCD]

@The Moment how well do you reckon that setup would run modern games? Sorry but while I have a basic understanding of how everything works now, I still have never really played quality games on a pc (minus cod4 on lowest settings on my mac) and so I don't really have any frame of reference

 

[PrestoN]

@The Moment how well do you reckon that setup would run modern games? Sorry but while I have a basic understanding of how everything works now, I still have never really played quality games on a pc (minus cod4 on lowest settings on my mac) and so I don't really have any frame of reference

It'll run anything currently on the market at max settings.

Oh and idk when you plan on building but wait a few weeks for holiday sales.

 

[The Moment]

One thing you don't wanna do is rush into buying these parts. Don't go get them tonight. Do a little more research on products and look at reviews of them. Some people will invariably hate products and love others. Don't let one bad review put the piece off for you.[DOUBLEPOST=1415146209,1415146155][/DOUBLEPOST]Will type more in depth when I get home.

 

[King_JCD]

One thing you don't wanna do is rush into buying these parts. Don't go get them tonight. Do a little more research on products and look at reviews of them. Some people will invariably hate products and love others. Don't let one bad review put the piece off for you.[DOUBLEPOST=1415146209,1415146155][/DOUBLEPOST]Will type more in depth when I get home.

I was getting it all going sometime this month, but my dad said he would help me financially with it and now he just told me to wait until the semester's over, so I definitely have time to study up some more [DOUBLEPOST=1415146451][/DOUBLEPOST]

It'll run anything currently on the market at max settings.

Oh and idk when you plan on building but wait a few weeks for holiday sales.

Why do I see builds that can be like 2,000 or more dollars then? It sounds like what we've got here would run anything you'd need.[DOUBLEPOST=1415146483][/DOUBLEPOST]

Apart from getting a different SSD, your list looks pretty good. You already have an HDD on your list, so you'll be fine.

If you're interested in having the best of both worlds (OS X Yosemite and Windows) you should look into building a Hackintosh http://www.tonymacx86.com/446-building-customac-buyer-s-guide-october-2014.html It's not for the faint-hearted. But the results are worth it.

I am definitely playing it safe the first time around

 

[PrestoN]

@King_JCD Some of the newer games will probably drop below 60 frames occasionally. Some people also have higher refresh rates on their monitors so they need games to run even better to accommodate. Also future proofing, hobbies, or maybe they just plain have the money and said fuck it. Some builds when people work and game they get good hardware that isn't necessary for the gaming but cuts down on time spent during their work projects.

I think a lot of people(including myself) would do it for future proofing.

 

[The Moment]

The GTX 970 is an awesome card. It will run games very well at 1920x1080, but may not run the newest games on Ultra settings at 60fps. It's everything that you need in a card, but for some people, they just want to push the edge all the time. I would suggest if it's in your budget to consider upgrading peripherals.

I use a Zowie EC1 Evo for my mouse and a Cooler Master Quickfire TK Tenkeyless for my keyboard. It's a mechanical keyboard and is the best keyboard I've ever used. Mechanical Keyboards are . There are tons of options on keyboards and mice out there, so really it's a toss up as to what to pick.

If you're going to be waiting for a while to buy parts, consider looking for Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. Newegg is doing a whole month of November sale, but only on specific items per day.

Just for a little help with getting things set up when you start: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8mG-RkN2uTwlcLU_rv29Gt4578XfgJm_
I subscribed to LinusTechTips initially because he had really good build guides. I've since been watching because of his videos about new hardware. There's lots of good videos about building a computer out there, but I find Linus' videos to be some of the best.

 

[WaLLy]

I am definitely playing it safe the first time around

The faint-hearted part was actually trying to make the thing work, ie. making a bootable USB installer, getting it to boot, troubleshooting if it doesn't boot to the installer, and/or it crashes. But the build is no different than what you're already trying to do, just using a different motherboard and compatible GPU.