Ready to hit 'buy now' on my first build, any last improvements?

Hey it's Shane!

Howdy,

I'll be playing AAA games, doing a lot of Photoshop/Illustrator/Corel with tablet drawing, Sony Vegas for video editing and a small bit of music editing, indie game design and music production - all casual, all I'll be doing work wise is writing a few marco's and some database management.

Budget is €1,200 but will stretch to €1,500. (this excludes case, monitor, keyboard, mouse, O/S)

I've never built and this is a what suggestion after suggestion has led to me on my final build.

Boards browsers and PC building God/s, am I on the right track? Is there any rookie mistakes in the build?

I found the cheapest place for buying all parts was Mindfactory in Germany (since I had the case and I'm buying the RAM locally).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600X 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor (€244.82 @MindFactory)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - MasterAir Pro 4 66.7 CFM CPU Cooler (€41.95 @MindFactory)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME B350-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard (€94.90 @MindFactory)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (€90 @Buying locally)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€89.91 @MindFactory)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€45.44 @MindFactory)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card (€519 @MindFactory)
Case: NZXT - S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (€70 @bought 3 weeks ago on holiday's in Prague!)
Power Supply: Cooler Master - 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€109.35 @MindFactory)
Shipping: (€30.00)
Total: ** €1,335.37**

Am I truly good to go?

(The only bit I don't like is the HDD is silver and blue, but I can change that to suit the colour scheme down the line if I find it to be a hang up :P )

Final note, when I had 50% of the parts picked I came across this video by Paul's Hardware that really cemented the the full list choice!

K.O.Kiki

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (€217.78 @ Mindfactory)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright - TRUE Spirit 140 Direct 73.6 CFM CPU Cooler (€42.80 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME B350-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard (€92.56)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (€132.94 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€90.60 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (€73.84 @ Mindfactory)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card (€519.00)
Case: NZXT - S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For €0.00)
Power Supply: Cooler Master - 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€107.68)
Total: €1277.20
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-06-23 19:10 CEST+0200

No need for the 1600X if you're going to overclock, they all seem to hit the same 3.8-4.0GHz limit.
Changed CPU cooler to the well-reviewed True Spirit 140.
Doubled HDD to 2Tb for €20 more.
Rest is fine.

TerrorFirmer

Also if not overclocking just get the 1600X as planned and use the cooler that comes with it, it's pretty good. Still cheaper than buying the 1600 non-x and a decent cooler. Overall though build is fine.

Monitor wise, for gaming and editing alike, 27" 1440P is the sweet spot for most.

K.O.Kiki

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Also if not overclocking just get the 1600X as planned and use the cooler that comes with it, it's pretty good. Still cheaper than buying the 1600 non-x and a decent cooler. Overall though build is fine.

Monitor wise, for gaming and editing alike, 27" 1440P is the sweet spot for most.

1600X doesn't come with a cooler though.

Billy86

- 1600 comes with a cooler, no need to spend €40 on another.

- 1080 is only €20 more than that 1070, meaning you're still up €20 after dropping the cooler - https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/ymrcCJ/asus-geforce-gtx-1080-8gb-video-card-turbo-gtx1080-8g

- Alternatively, you can get a 1070 from the UK for what works out to €403 - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/frvZxr/palit-geforce-gtx-1070-8gb-video-card-ne51070015p2-1041j . You could pretty much upgrade to something like an i7 7700K or 1700X on the CPU for that price difference.

- You can also get a SuperNova 650W fully modular gold+ PSU for a little less - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/9q4NnQ/evga-power-supply-220g20650y1

TerrorFirmer

Yeah, that's my mistake about the 1600x, I thought it came with the wraith spire like the 1600.

Hey it's Shane!

I know I'm being nit picky here, but the videos I've been watching have the stock cooler seem to struggle a little bit when the 1600 is pushed to its maximum, rather than how the after market cooler would deal with the 1600X being stretched no problem.

DDR4 can be stretched to the 3200 on the 1600X, but only 2933 on the 1600 (being watching a lot of comparison, it's only 1-3% improvement with 3200, but want to future proof as much as possible).

But in saying that, I'll probably before I do my purchase and go with the 1600, it does make more sense (purchasing Thursday!)

Going to look at the True Spirit 140 cooler and a decent 27" 1440P monitor.

1080 for €20 more is very tempting, as is the alternative 1070.

Thanks for all the feedback guys, highly appreciated!

BloodBath

Just a few notes. If you have to reduce timings to increase RAM frequency speed then there is no point. To get 3200+ on Ryzen that actually improves performance requires much more expensive DDR4. Samsung B-die stuff that's usually around €170 the last I checked for 16GB. That Corsair 3000 is fine but I wouldn't bother trying to get it above 3000.

Also if you're getting everything from mindfactory run the parts through geizhals.de to get a discount on everything. €520 for a fairly average 1070 seems expensive when you can get this 1080 for €559. (Through Geizhals) Don't get 1 with a ****e cooler just because it's cheaper. These cards are hot.

https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/8GB-MSI-GeForce-GTX-1080-GAMING-X-8G-Aktiv-PCIe-3-0-x16--Retail-_1067767.html

Hey it's Shane!

Gotchya on the 3,000 limit, first build so probably trying to overachieve in the wrong areas.

Second person to suggest the upgrade to 1080.

Will take a look through Geizhals now, thanks!

Hey it's Shane!

Went through Geizhals to Mindfactory, but pricing was the same, strange one.
(Went incognito so it wouldn't pick up my current account, went to Geizhals, started with the 1600X, clicked 'go to store' build the basket, ended up at exactly €1,270.45, same as my first basket)

Is it only on certain items, or should it always trigger a little cheaper?

Hey it's Shane!

Oh man..

MSI are doing €110 cashback on the GTX 1080 if bought before the 30/06/2017.

... if you're a resident of the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Italy, Norway,Sweden, Denmark or Turkey.

No love for Ireland

Have emailed, might see if delivering to Parcel Motel in the North would qualify.

K.O.Kiki

If you can't stretch to the MSI, KFA2's model is probably ok at €539
https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/8GB-KFA2-GeForce-GTX-1080-EX-OC-Edition-Aktiv-PCIe-3-0-x16--Retail-_1063005.html // http://www.hw4all.com/kfa2-geforce-gtx-1080-exoc-review-test/

TerrorFirmer

OCUK also have some good models for around €600 delivered to Ireland (Palit Gamerock for example) but they include Destiny 2 so the difference isn't huge.

Hey it's Shane!

Just going to go for the 1080, seems to be 20% better in all departments and I'll kick myself for not stretching the extra €40.

It's a pain that the cash back is everywhere in Europe bar Ireland.

Also might upgrade to LED RAM, another €20