OT: Under Construction

[JustaFinnishGuy]

Nice system, especially when you're not specifically targeting for high end, demanding games to run with comfortable 60fps in like 1440p
I primarily play League and CS with the occasional Jump King right now - my system is fine for the time being, despite it not being as beefy as back in 2k15 when I built it.
My specs are as follows;
I5-4690k
GTX980 Strix
Maximus VII Ranger
16GB 1866 MHz Kingston Ram

 

[FossilFndr]

I think for video gaming Intel still holds the edge but was told for 'getting things done' AMD is a better choice. If my needs change at least I know how to upgrade. Since this was my first and flying blind I didn't want to go too crazy since it might have been an epic failure. But I did go overboard, however because of a holiday sale I got the 2700X for 40% the price of the 3700X and did not think the added performance was worth the $$. The same parts today come in over 20% more. Didn't want to build a cheap 'starter' system then have to buy lots of better components too get something I should have used to begin with. Definitely got some beefier components than necessary, but for the cost difference, like 16 vs 32GB RAM, why not? I've always bought pre built PC's including one from 2015, a Dell with i7-4790 CPU, 16GB Ram 1600MHz, AMD Radeon HD R9 270 2GB GPU. Working fine overall, but once I read about the SSD and NVMe storage and speed I wanted to give it a go. Knowing what I do now I'd tweak a couple choices. But I am not disappointed with the build.


Partitioned the 500GB M.2 NVMe with Windows on C: and Documents and Music on D:. Not sure that partitioning was necessary but while I was learning ... might as well. *added in edit: (Plus I didn't need 500GB for a boot drive). Have the 1TB M.2 NVMe E: as work drive and the HDD just for my photos. May add some SATA SSD's to replace the HDD.

I'm photo editor for a niche quarterly sports magazine and have those filed on an external HDD. Still have not figured out my new work flow since I'm used to one C: drive and then externals. Think I'll temporarily use the E: for images I'm currently working with. Ought to rip through in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Thanks for your interest, I'm an old man and this was definitely out of my comfort zone and proud of myself for tackling it. So now I'm on par with a 9 year old kid.

 

[JustaFinnishGuy]

I'd say AMD is better in both gaming and reasonable workloads at the moment, and I'll definitely upgrade to an AMD CPU whenever I think it's time to upgrade. Truth be told, I'm completely out of the loop when it comes to nvme ssd's because they became commonplace way after I was done building my PC.

The build is just fine as long as it suits your needs, and it seems like it has so far. And trust me, a PC that is in the neighborhood of 1500 dollars won't age as fast as a 600 dollar one would. My full system cost around 1500€ way back in 2015.

I bet it runs like a dream and you got your moneys worth. What I hope though is that more people realise that buying complete systems is more expensive and the system is generally less powerful when you take cost into account.

Like I said, nice system.
I would probably upgrade the CPU Cooler though but that's just my opinion. I had a AIO water cooler for quite some time but my pump for it didn't last my latest move to my apartment. Just got a 40 buck cooler that does the job excellently. And no, you don't need to upgrade it if your CPU doesn't run too hot while you're using your multimedia tools.