My First Build

[Quin1275]

hi Carbonite friends/family.

Been on here for a little over a year now and finally had the financial ability to build a starting pc for myself. Was lucky enough to have bought a CPU off Aucor a while ago and was stressing a bit if it works or not and over the weekend i got very lucky with a 2nd hand pc that only required a CPU. So with some luck, i picked up the pc on Sunday and had it working on Sunday afternoon. Everything below, except for the CPU was purchased from the same buyer.

Specs:
I7 9700 3ghz CPU
Asus Rox Strix Z370-H motherboard
8gb Ballistix 2400mhz ram x 1 off (will look for another one)
4gb Samsung 2400mhz ram
Has a 128gb NVme. (going to be honest, this is very new for me, so would appreciate some advice on this in terms of how it works and if i should go for a bigger one and how to use it to its full potential. Currently have my OS on it)
128gb SSD hdd, but will upgrade later and add another normal HDD
Antec NX110 box, which will also be replaced at a later stage.
400W power supply.

Things I’d Like to upgrade in the future.
Add another 8gb ram to match the one I have. Maybe look at going 2x 8gb 3200mHz ram
Bigger power supply.
GPU of course, as i do not currently have one
Another case perhaps, but not now.
Better cooler system for it. Would air cooling be fine and if so any recommendations or would liquid cooling be better?

I have looked at a one fan liquid cooling CPU system, which would be quite nice perhaps.

I guess we all have to start somewhere right😅

If someone has some recommendations on what to do regarding adding more fans etc, please feel free to let me know, would love some input from people with a more knowledge than i have.

 

[PaladinLaw]

Congrats on your first pc.

Below "advise" is personal preference.

Step 1. Determine which GPU you want.

This will be the most expensive part, but personal opinion is to get a GPU in the ASAP.

Depending on your budget you could look at (lowest to highest)
RX580 8GB here off carb
6600 / 6600XT (off carb or new depending on whether you want new or not)
3060 / 3060ti (off carb or new depending on whether you want new or not)

Step 2. Once you decide on a GPU, check its power requirement, add 25% (my general rule of thumb) and get a decent name brand of equivalent. For eg, manufacturer recommends a 500w psu, look for a 600-650w. Bigger is generally better though (too a point), so even a 750w would be good. Going larger than that (in this example) would be relatively pointless. Look for corsair, coolermaster, etc. Would not personally touch gamdiaz or raidmax. No experience with antec.

Step 3. Purchase PSU and GPU.

Step 4. Seap the ram out. Personally 16GB is fine for most things, but 32GB can't hurt. A good 3200mhz or 3600mhz kit will make a reasonable difference. I'd suggest looking for a matching pair (kit) you can pick them up relatively cheap on carb. Just double check your motherboards documentation on supported ram. Most ram will work whether listed or not, but when looking for faster ram and playing with xmp profiles you wanna know it'll work, so best to get a kit listed as confirmed to work.

Step 5. Cooling depends largely on your case, so decide how long you want to keep your current case for. If long, you can "build cooling" around that, otherwise, wait until you get a new case.

My general rule of thumb though is to create a very slightly more positive air flow than negative. So more intakes than exhausts. But generally only 1 more. 3 intakes 2 exhausts is a good balance, for eg. Positive air flow helps keep the dust out.

With regards to liquid vs air.

Most mid range air coolers will out perform most good 120mm/140mm AIO's.

If you're gonna liquid cool, a 240 AIO is minimum. Otherwise, any decent beefy air cooler will be just fine.

As an eg, I've got an old system, running an overclocked 3570k. She runs 4.2ghz on all cores, and I'm using a mammoth coolermaster hyper 612.

I've not yet found a 240mm AIO that keeps her cooler than my 612.


This is personal experience, and all systems are different, but my opinion is generally, AIO's are simply for "flashy builds". Performance wise, a good air cooler will do the job just fine, if not better.

Again, this is all personal opinion so take it with a grain of salt.

Good luck my dude

 

[ThatGuyJD]

hi Carbonite friends/family.

Been on here for a little over a year now and finally had the financial ability to build a starting pc for myself. Was lucky enough to have bought a CPU off Aucor a while ago and was stressing a bit if it works or not and over the weekend i got very lucky with a 2nd hand pc that only required a CPU. So with some luck, i picked up the pc on Sunday and had it working on Sunday afternoon. Everything below, except for the CPU was purchased from the same buyer.

Specs:
I7 9700 3ghz CPU
Asus Rox Strix Z370-H motherboard
8gb Ballistix 2400mhz ram x 1 off (will look for another one)
4gb Samsung 2400mhz ram
Has a 128gb NVme. (going to be honest, this is very new for me, so would appreciate some advice on this in terms of how it works and if i should go for a bigger one and how to use it to its full potential. Currently have my OS on it)
128gb SSD hdd, but will upgrade later and add another normal HDD
Antec NX110 box, which will also be replaced at a later stage.
400W power supply.

Things I’d Like to upgrade in the future.
Add another 8gb ram to match the one I have. Maybe look at going 2x 8gb 3200mHz ram
Bigger power supply.
GPU of course, as i do not currently have one
Another case perhaps, but not now.
Better cooler system for it. Would air cooling be fine and if so any recommendations or would liquid cooling be better?

I have looked at a one fan liquid cooling CPU system, which would be quite nice perhaps.

I guess we all have to start somewhere right😅

If someone has some recommendations on what to do regarding adding more fans etc, please feel free to let me know, would love some input from people with a more knowledge than i have.

Not bad for a first PC, nice man.

Okay so first off, the NVME is just storage same as any other storage is. Would recommend that you keep only the basics on a smaller one like that but no need to replace it with a bigger one, good thing is that you already have your OS on it. More drives would be for game storage and such.

Yeah more ram would be a good addition nothing wrong with that.

Definitely first replace the power supply before getting a new GPU although be careful of getting a PSU that doesn't have enough PCIe power connectors for the GPU, some people suggest to save up and when you find a GPU that meets your needs buying a PSU at the same time that matches it. I'm more one to overspec a PSU and sometimes it's completely unnecessary and you spend more than you need to but getting a PSU that has two dedicated PCIe chains and then it'll be fine powering anything that isn't a 3080+ card.

A better case would be a nice add but at worst case you could just take the front panel off the current one for more airflow.

Would not advise a 120/140mm AIO, 240s really aren't that expensive and provide much better cooling a decent aircooler will do fine. All the techtubers have cooler reviews the AK620 has tested well and isn't the biggest but as a dual tower still going to have to make sure it fits in your case. Check reviews for RAM clearance stuffs.

Also case fans, can't overstate how important case fans are for getting air exchange in your case.

 

[Quin1275]

Not bad for a first PC, nice man.

Okay so first off, the NVME is just storage same as any other storage is. Would recommend that you keep only the basics on a smaller one like that but no need to replace it with a bigger one, good thing is that you already have your OS on it. More drives would be for game storage and such.

Yeah more ram would be a good addition nothing wrong with that.

Definitely first replace the power supply before getting a new GPU although be careful of getting a PSU that doesn't have enough PCIe power connectors for the GPU, some people suggest to save up and when you find a GPU that meets your needs buying a PSU at the same time that matches it. I'm more one to overspec a PSU and sometimes it's completely unnecessary and you spend more than you need to but getting a PSU that has two dedicated PCIe chains and then it'll be fine powering anything that isn't a 3080+ card.

A better case would be a nice add but at worst case you could just take the front panel off the current one for more airflow.

Would not advise a 120/140mm AIO, 240s really aren't that expensive and provide much better cooling a decent aircooler will do fine. All the techtubers have cooler reviews the AK620 has tested well and isn't the biggest but as a dual tower still going to have to make sure it fits in your case. Check reviews for RAM clearance stuffs.

Also case fans, can't overstate how important case fans are for getting air exchange in your case.

Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to type that all out for me, really do appreciate it a lot!

I will start looking around for the items recommended above.

Yes, sadly the case isn't quite the biggest and does have some space problems, but it'll do the job for the mean time hopefully.

I've looked at the specs of the case and i can fit 3 120mm fans in the front of the case, obviously it does take up a lot of space and would have issues with my GPU size, length, then.

Fun times ahead at least.

Would the CPU at least be fine for another 3 or 4 years to game with perhaps? I know currently we sitting at 12th gen, but this is a lot better than my old i5 3470 at least

 

[Quin1275]

Congrats on your first pc.

Below "advise" is personal preference.

Step 1. Determine which GPU you want.

This will be the most expensive part, but personal opinion is to get a GPU in the ASAP.

Depending on your budget you could look at (lowest to highest)
RX580 8GB here off carb
6600 / 6600XT (off carb or new depending on whether you want new or not)
3060 / 3060ti (off carb or new depending on whether you want new or not)

Step 2. Once you decide on a GPU, check its power requirement, add 25% (my general rule of thumb) and get a decent name brand of equivalent. For eg, manufacturer recommends a 500w psu, look for a 600-650w. Bigger is generally better though (too a point), so even a 750w would be good. Going larger than that (in this example) would be relatively pointless. Look for corsair, coolermaster, etc. Would not personally touch gamdiaz or raidmax. No experience with antec.

Step 3. Purchase PSU and GPU.

Step 4. Seap the ram out. Personally 16GB is fine for most things, but 32GB can't hurt. A good 3200mhz or 3600mhz kit will make a reasonable difference. I'd suggest looking for a matching pair (kit) you can pick them up relatively cheap on carb. Just double check your motherboards documentation on supported ram. Most ram will work whether listed or not, but when looking for faster ram and playing with xmp profiles you wanna know it'll work, so best to get a kit listed as confirmed to work.

Step 5. Cooling depends largely on your case, so decide how long you want to keep your current case for. If long, you can "build cooling" around that, otherwise, wait until you get a new case.

My general rule of thumb though is to create a very slightly more positive air flow than negative. So more intakes than exhausts. But generally only 1 more. 3 intakes 2 exhausts is a good balance, for eg. Positive air flow helps keep the dust out.

With regards to liquid vs air.

Most mid range air coolers will out perform most good 120mm/140mm AIO's.

If you're gonna liquid cool, a 240 AIO is minimum. Otherwise, any decent beefy air cooler will be just fine.

As an eg, I've got an old system, running an overclocked 3570k. She runs 4.2ghz on all cores, and I'm using a mammoth coolermaster hyper 612.

I've not yet found a 240mm AIO that keeps her cooler than my 612.


This is personal experience, and all systems are different, but my opinion is generally, AIO's are simply for "flashy builds". Performance wise, a good air cooler will do the job just fine, if not better.

Again, this is all personal opinion so take it with a grain of salt.

Good luck my dude

Wow, just also want to thank you for your Advice here, it really does help a lot and definitely appreciated a lot as well.

Will look at the above and then prices etc and work from there.

nothing like some good old excell sheets soon to get things in order.

 

[ThatGuyJD]

Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to type that all out for me, really do appreciate it a lot!

I will start looking around for the items recommended above.

Yes, sadly the case isn't quite the biggest and does have some space problems, but it'll do the job for the mean time hopefully.

I've looked at the specs of the case and i can fit 3 120mm fans in the front of the case, obviously it does take up a lot of space and would have issues with my GPU size, length, then.

Fun times ahead at least.

Would the CPU at least be fine for another 3 or 4 years to game with perhaps? I know currently we sitting at 12th gen, but this is a lot better than my old i5 3470 at least

Yeah that 9700 will last for a while still.

 

[PaladinLaw]

Would the CPU at least be fine for another 3 or 4 years to game with perhaps?

Still gaming strong on my 500yo 3570k.

The 9700 is gonna last you a good long while bud.

 

[Quin1275]

So ended up getting a ASUS 1060 6gb which was within my budget.

Haven’t played anything yet, but installing a few games.

Will be temporarily, until there’s more funds available.

Want to add 2 fans in front to suck air in and then want to add more hdd space in. After that is the bigger psu and better ram with a better cooler for the CPU.

I guess we’ll get there slowly but surely

 

[dash09]

So ended up getting a ASUS 1060 6gb which was within my budget.

Haven’t played anything yet, but installing a few games.

Will be temporarily, until there’s more funds available.

Want to add 2 fans in front to suck air in and then want to add more hdd space in. After that is the bigger psu and better ram with a better cooler for the CPU.

I guess we’ll get there slowly but surely

I'd say a good quality psu should be priority from here, thing is a shitty psu could decide it doesn't want to live on this planet and take the whole system with it, you want some protection from this.
Thereafter a matched ram set, this can make a noticeable difference to gaming.

Go with the temp fix until you improve cooling: open the front and side panels when gaming.
As for hdd, where are you located? I might have an old spare laying about that you can have

 

[Quin1275]

I'd say a good quality psu should be priority from here, thing is a shitty psu could decide it doesn't want to live on this planet and take the whole system with it, you want some protection from this.
Thereafter a matched ram set, this can make a noticeable difference to gaming.

Go with the temp fix until you improve cooling: open the front and side panels when gaming.
As for hdd, where are you located? I might have an old spare laying about that you can have

Thank you so much for the advice! Will definitely follow that sequence then. What W power supply should i look at perhaps?

I'm located in Edenvale, Jhb.

 

[dash09]

Thank you so much for the advice! Will definitely follow that sequence then. What W power supply should i look at perhaps?

I'm located in Edenvale, Jhb.

Depends on gpu but 650w-750w is relatively safe, can go higher if you have the budget. Superflower and fractal psu's are well priced.
I'm very sure I have some 1tb drives somewhere, will pm if I find them, I'm in benoni