Need Advice on Building my First PC

[KingShort]

Hi,
I am planning on building a PC for the first time for both gaming and streaming and have a budget of £1000. These are the specs:

Processor - Ryzen 5 1600k
Motherboard - MSI B350 Tomahawk
RAM - Ballistix Sport LT 8GB
GPU - Palit GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB Dual Boost Graphics Card
Optical Drive - Seagate Barracuda - 2 TB internal hard drive
Case - NZXT CA-S340MB-GR Source 340 Midi Tower Case - Black/Red

Do I need to add or change anything and will this be able to cope with streaming games on Twitch 1080p

Thanks

[Bruce]

I wouldn’t build a PC these days without a SSD, so unless budget is a critical factor, consider including one of those.
A 120GB one is all you’d need as Windows and default programs (Office, AV, Adobe etc) combined will use less than 60GB of that 120GB SSD.
but depending on how many games and other software you may want, for a small increase in $$$, you could get a 256GB SSD.
as to brand, I use Samsung EVO’s, there are faster I/O ones out there, but Samsung has a solid reputation for longevity and reliability.

you don’t mention a PSU - go for one above 650watts.

and why the AMD processor and MSI motherboard?
I’m not saying they are bad and I don’t want to start a “this brand is better” war, I’m just saying have you done your research and decided those brands were for you?

price is a driving factor when building, especially your first one (congrats on that too by the way )
but I like to go above and beyond what you think your current needs are and get the foundations right at the start, that is, the mobo and CPU.
they are the buggers that are ******* to fiddle with down the track, other components just pull off and push on for updating and are based on specs versus cost.
so I would also suggest going slightly higher on those two then you may have wished on the hope that in years to come, you have future proofed your rig as best as you can hope for. better graphics cards and more memory are also required eventually anyway - especially if gaming will be your thing.

[jmarket]

Could I suggest you get the biggest SSD you can afford, say a minimum of 250GB. Reason is as you have probably read is SSD’s have a limited life of read/write cycles and although its not the issue it once was still exists. SSD drive manufacturers usually design the drives to share the read write data evenly across the drive, meaning the larger the drive the more unused space there is to share read/write cycles. A smaller drive will have less free space therefore that free space will incur more use and a shorter lifespan.

[KingShort]

I wouldn’t build a PC these days without a SSD, so unless budget is a critical factor, consider including one of those.
A 120GB one is all you’d need as Windows and default programs (Office, AV, Adobe etc) combined will use less than 60GB of that 120GB SSD.
but depending on how many games and other software you may want, for a small increase in $$$, you could get a 256GB SSD.
as to brand, I use Samsung EVO’s, there are faster I/O ones out there, but Samsung has a solid reputation for longevity and reliability.

you don’t mention a PSU - go for one above 650watts.

and why the AMD processor and MSI motherboard?
I’m not saying they are bad and I don’t want to start a “this brand is better” war, I’m just saying have you done your research and decided those brands were for you?

price is a driving factor when building, especially your first one (congrats on that too by the way )
but I like to go above and beyond what you think your current needs are and get the foundations right at the start, that is, the mobo and CPU.
they are the buggers that are ******* to fiddle with down the track, other components just pull off and push on for updating and are based on specs versus cost.
so I would also suggest going slightly higher on those two then you may have wished on the hope that in years to come, you have future proofed your rig as best as you can hope for. better graphics cards and more memory are also required eventually anyway - especially if gaming will be your thing.

Hi Bruce,
Thank you for replying and sharing your advice. I based this build of a YouTube video I watched and they didn’t mention a PSU ( I don’t really know the function of them), which one would you recommend and how much would they cost. In terms of using an AMD processor and MSI motherboard, this is what they used, do i have to have them the same? The price is really tight, would you recommend me only getting a 1TB drive and then I would be able to get the SSD as well?

After looking at prices I can get the 1TB hard drive and a 250GB SSD from Samsung, as these both fit my budget. Also, what’s the difference between the
‘GIGABYTE GV-N107TGAMING-8GD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070Ti T Gaming Fan FH PCI Express Graphics Card’ and 'Palit GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB Dual Boost Graphics Card’. These are both roughly the same price so i’m not sure if there;s a difference.

Thanks

[Bruce]

the amount of storage will be directly related to how much data you want to keep (pics, movies, music etc) and how many games you want to have installed at the same time.
so if you have a small’ish media library and only play say 10 games concurrently, then 1TB may be enough (i’m just using rough estimates here) but if you want to play 20 games depending on what mood you are in that day, then a 2TB may be better.

as to those two graphics cards, both use the nVidia geforce 1070ti 8gb configuration, so differences will be either nil or so slight that it’ll be the cost that determines your choice.

as to PSU (Power Supply Unit), something in the $AUD100-150 range will suffice. I’ve been using Corsair for years and have had no failure rate. look for Plus 80 certification and either Bronze, Silver or Gold (Bronze would be fine).

can I perhaps suggest (based on your own self assessment), most computer shops will build all this for you for a small fee. where I get my parts from, they do that service for $AUD80, so not only to they do all the heavy lifting, they’ll know as you place the order if the parts will all work together, anything you may have missed, ideas for improvement (like front USB3 ports, or that SSD), they load the operating system (that wasn’t in your spec list). so the $80’ish bucks just doesn’t get you a ready to go PC, you a paying for their experience and advice too.

[phillpower2]

Any update KingShort?

[KingShort]

the amount of storage will be directly related to how much data you want to keep (pics, movies, music etc) and how many games you want to have installed at the same time.
so if you have a small’ish media library and only play say 10 games concurrently, then 1TB may be enough (i’m just using rough estimates here) but if you want to play 20 games depending on what mood you are in that day, then a 2TB may be better.

as to those two graphics cards, both use the nVidia geforce 1070ti 8gb configuration, so differences will be either nil or so slight that it’ll be the cost that determines your choice.

as to PSU (Power Supply Unit), something in the $AUD100-150 range will suffice. I’ve been using Corsair for years and have had no failure rate. look for Plus 80 certification and either Bronze, Silver or Gold (Bronze would be fine).

can I perhaps suggest (based on your own self assessment), most computer shops will build all this for you for a small fee. where I get my parts from, they do that service for $AUD80, so not only to they do all the heavy lifting, they’ll know as you place the order if the parts will all work together, anything you may have missed, ideas for improvement (like front USB3 ports, or that SSD), they load the operating system (that wasn’t in your spec list). so the $80’ish bucks just doesn’t get you a ready to go PC, you a paying for their experience and advice too.

Any update KingShort?

Hi,
Really sorry for the late reply, been really busy these last few days and completely forgot about this. I’ve decided to go with the following:

Processor - Ryzen 5 1600k
Motherboard - MSI B350 Tomahawk
RAM - Ballistix Sport LT 8GB
GPU - Palit GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB Dual Boost Graphics Card
Optical Drive - Seagate Barracuda - 1 TB internal hard drive
SSD - Samsung 250 GB 860 EVO Sata III 64L V NAND Solid State Drive
PSU - EVGA 550 B3, 80+ BRONZE 550W, Fully Modular, EVGA ECO Mode, Compact 150mm Size, Power Supply 220-B3-0550-V3
Case - NZXT CA-S340MB-GR Source 340 Midi Tower Case - Black/Red

Thanks for all the advice, just to double check, will this be able to stream games in high quality to Twitch?

[phillpower2]

With the exception of the PSU the build looks fine but not being into streaming or Twitch I cannot comment on that.

The EVGA PSU is a good one but for a spec of build like yours I would recommend a Gold efficiency rated unit be used, example here 650W, has a seven year warranty and only costs around the same as the EVGA.

[Bruce]

Hi,
Thanks for all the advice, just to double check, will this be able to stream games in high quality to Twitch?

The high quality streaming will be totally at the mercy of your internet speeds.
And as well as the SSD, you may want to consider a normal HDD for storage.
You typically use the SSD only for Windows and programs so they load super fast and a mechanical drive for the data storage as speed isn’t the primary concern.
If only having a SSD, consider a larger one, but then cost of those units get expensive.

[phillpower2]

Any update for us KingShort?