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First PC Build - Budget: $550

by Bradley42

18
27 Comments

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Part List View full price breakdown

Details

Date Published

Jan. 11, 2019

Date Built

Oct. 9, 2018

CPU Clock Rate

3.6 GHz

GPU Core Clock Rate

1.076 GHz

GPU Effective Memory Clock Rate

7 GHz

Description

Hello! I am (or was) 15 at the time of building this machine. I came into this community a little over a year ago with the mindset of I was going to learn nearly everything there is to know (which seemed like a lot at the time but now that I look at it, it's really not that much) to satisfy myself. I wanted a gaming/schoolwork rig to get away from my PS4 console which I felt was holding me back in terms of frame rate and usefulness. I put together this machine based off of parts I was referenced to by the guys at the PCPARTPICKER discord and by the knowledge I had at the time. Looking back now I definitely overpaid for the GPU (GTX 970) which I bought used and the fan sounds super loud,which I think is because the fan is bad, but the temperatures are not affected by the bad fan. Overall the building experience was super fun and exciting. Comment what you think! :). Once again the only negative I have about this PC is the GPU fan makes it super obnoxious if I'm not wearing headphones because of how loud it is.

Comments Sorted by:

connor333 3 points 6 days ago

I had a 970 for past 3 years and it's a good card! Too bad it's loud. Not sure if the promotion is still taking place but you can get an RX 580 with 2 free games (I believe division 2, Resident evil 2, and devil may cry) for about 186 bucks or so. So if those games are something you were going to buy anyways then it's like getting a new GPU for 66 bucks.

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Bradley42 submitter 1 Build 1 point 6 days ago

Thanks for the info! I think for now I’ll just be sticking with the 970 until I just can’t stand it anymore.

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connor333 1 point 6 days ago

Don't blame you. I have a gpu that is making very minor coil whine and doing the same thing lol. Wife thinks i'm crazy but when you build your own pc in the end you want everythign to be perfect. Good job with build.

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Bradley42 submitter 1 Build 1 point 6 days ago

I appreciate it!

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Otterman366 10 Builds 1 point 6 days ago

I'd rate it 3.5/4

/s

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Bradley42 submitter 1 Build 1 point 6 days ago

:)

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Gibbytronix 1 point 6 days ago

That is good for a first build!

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Bradley42 submitter 1 Build 1 point 6 days ago

Thank you! I put a lot of time and research into it.

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ooferino 1 point 6 days ago

Great PC man! I'm actually quite surprised you didn't go Ryzen for budget, but nevertheless its great! Good cable management, too!

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Bradley42 submitter 1 Build 1 point 6 days ago

Honestly for atleast 10 months I had Ryzen on my mind but at the last second I was brain washed by the Intel fanboys and went for the i3 8100 over the 2200g which I previously had on there but I don’t really know what made me change my mind. I built my brother’s build with the r5 2600 though and man can I say, Ryzen packaging quality and stock fan is far superior to what I recieved with Intel.

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MithrandirTheGreat 1 point 4 days ago

Im thinking of doing a build like this as well (same case). Not sure weather to pick i3-8100 or 2200 g.

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Bradley42 submitter 1 Build 1 point 3 days ago

Either are great options personally would go with the 2200g cause it’s cheaper.

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Bradley42 submitter 1 Build 1 point 3 days ago

Plus the integrated graphics incase your gpu goes bad.

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LeMMingSlayeR 22 Builds 1 point 6 days ago

Very nice budget build! I think for the money spent here you have a very good mid-level gaming PC. This thing should be able to handle 1080p60 on all the newest games with high settings. In the future another 8GB module of memory would be beneficial, but I don't think having just a single 8GB module is going to cripple your experience.

I'm sure the 970 does get pretty loud, IMO that GPU is too much card for just a single-fan cooler, but aside from the noise it is a very good card for the price you paid.

Well done on your first build!

+1

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Bradley42 submitter 1 Build 1 point 6 days ago

Thanks! Will definately be upgrading to 16 gigs of ram as one of my next upgrades.

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daUnitedpotato 1 Build 1 point 6 days ago

Awesome build! :)

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Bradley42 submitter 1 Build 1 point 6 days ago

Thanks :)!

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MithrandirTheGreat 1 point 4 days ago

How is the case? Airflow?

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Bradley42 submitter 1 Build 1 point 3 days ago

Pretty good it has alot of holes and the dust filter on the front and top to stop dust from coming in. In Fortnite and Rocket League the temps are at around 65-70 Celsius on the cpu and gpu.

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annasoh323 3 Builds 1 point 1 day ago

I think you did fine for a first build. I think you did okay on the video card purchase as well - I bought a 1060 3GB for just slightly over that juuust before the crazy GPU inflation bubble so, to me, a 970 for that much doesn't seem like such a bad deal. As others have said, whenever you feel a need to upgrade, there are numerous points in your build which are easy swaps and you'll be off to the races. Well done and welcome to the club!

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Bradley42 submitter 1 Build 1 point 1 day ago

Thanks!

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AHHSNAP -1 points 6 days ago

I recommend a Z370 board from msi and i3-8350K with a 120mm Aio cooler and a 1060 for ant future upgrades. Also 8gb is fine for a while but it be nice to upgrade to 16. lastly mabey a few more case fans to improve airflow. But perfect pc for a first build A1 my man

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Peanut123 1 point 6 days ago

970 and 1060 are rougly the same and why would he buy another motherboard, cooler, and cpu for still 4c 4t? When with all that he could buy a $20 air cooler and an 8400 and get roughly the same performance for less money?

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Bradley42 submitter 1 Build 1 point 6 days ago

Thanks for the recommendations. Much appreciated.

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DaRealDanny -2 points 6 days ago

honestly, you could get better ram, you can get a dual channel with proper heatsink (cuz aegis ram are know for some bad heatsink). Sure maybe the bus speed is not high maybe 2666 MHz but it's good.

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ooferino 4 points 6 days ago

budget?

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Bradley42 submitter 1 Build 1 point 6 days ago

Honestly at the time I was just looking for some RAM that was cheap and had high MHZ saw 3000 mhz caught my eye but it won’t run at 3000 I think i either got it up to 2400 or 2666 not sure.

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