Description

What's the PC for?

I built this PC for 1080p gaming, desktop computing when I work from home, and some photo editing when I'm feeling ambitious.

The "Why"

I started researching PCs a few months ago with my knowledge starting at the "What's a CPU?" level. I knew next to nothing. I wanted something fast (doesn't everyone?) that could handle light gaming and desktop computing. My five-year-old laptop was struggling.

I first bought a pre-built from Costco for around $1,400 CAD (please flame me in the comments) that had an i7-8700 and RX-580. This met my needs for a couple of months, until a friend pointed me to this site. I dug into my pre-built's specs a little more. Its 450 W power supply and graphics card temperatures regularly floating around 90 C made me a little uncomfortable. After watching some YouTube how-to videos and looking at plenty of similar builds at my budget, I bought my parts list, returned my Costco computer (props for the 90-days no-questions-asked return policy!) and gave a custom build a shot.

The Build

Goals:

  1. Keep my budget around $1,400 CAD

  2. Maintain the same level of CPU and GPU performance as the pre-built I was using; for example, don't downgrade from an RX 580 to an RX 570

  3. Stick to a white/black aesthetic as much as possible (Note on the photos: I don't have photo editing software on this computer yet. The white balance on my photos is a little off, which caused the RGB lights to appear blue-ish. This is what happens when you don't set your camera's white balance, kids!)

I won't dive deep on the parts list. Take a look if you're interested. I'd love to hear your feedback to see where I could've improved. Generally, I tried to keep my RAM fast-ish to complement the Ryzen processor. I also wanted an M.2 drive for fast boot times. I may have sacrificed some performance in exchange for aesthetics. For example, I likely could've bought faster RAM that wouldn't have been white. The 750 W power supply may seem like overkill, but I wanted some GPU/CPU upgrade potential in the future.

Conclusion

This was a great experience and something I'll definitely do again. Thanks to PC Part Picker and its users for providing much-needed knowledge and guidelines.

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Comments

  • 11 months ago
  • 2 points

Personally, I would have purchased an ADATA 1tb SSD. You might not know this, but NVMe doesn't drastically increase boot times. (hence why i would just go with a larger storage ssd)

Additionally, 750W of power is quite unneccesary, as most systems don't need more than 550w even, and 650-750 for mid-high end PCs.

I love how you executed the theme, and I would recommend getting an LED strip for your desk, and improving on cable management.

+1

  • 11 months ago
  • 2 points

Thanks for the feedback, and that's good to know regarding the power supply and SSD. Just curious, how would you improve the cable management? I'm definitely open to improving what I've done.

  • 11 months ago
  • 1 point

Ah, i made a mistake in my message and forgot to identify what I was referring to.

The cable clutter on your desk could be distracting, and could be fixed by possibly putting the desk against the wall (if it isnt already, hard to tell with the angle) and moving the PC against it, then the monitor and peripherals to align with the hole for cables.

Additionally, the keyboard does not have to go through the monitor hole, and purchasing a wireless mouse (perhaps the new Harpoon wireless?) would definitely help

  • 11 months ago
  • 2 points

Perfect. Thanks for the clarification. I'll give that a shot.

  • 11 months ago
  • 1 point

Excuse me good sir, I'm also new to PC building and wanted to learn more about it. As for the SSDs. As for as I know (from youtube and other threads) is that m.2 NVMe are way faster than normal sata SSD. 2.5" sata SSD can have 500+- Mb/s read and write while the can have NVMe 3500+- Mb/s (970 EVOplus) that is like 7x faster? IDK. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Thank you.

  • 11 months ago
  • 1 point

Yes, that is indeed true. However, the application of these devices vary. In terms of boot time and gaming, an NVMe's speeds are wasted, and show little improvement over a good sata ssd (EX: 860Evo, MX500, SU800).

Mass movements of raw 4k video, or other files that are large sizes on a regular basis is the main use case for NVMe.

  • 11 months ago
  • 2 points

Ryzen 5 2600 + rx 580 is always a good choice :) +1

  • 11 months ago
  • 1 point

Thank you :D

  • 11 months ago
  • 2 points

This is precisely the build I'm going for, except with a 1660 ti instead of an RX 580. The RX 580 is fine, but I wanted my GPU to last for a while so I upgraded. I agree with spending an extra $20 for RAM just because it's white xD. Glad someone shares my opinion. Happy Gaming!

  • 11 months ago
  • 1 point

Yeah, sacrificing some performance for something I enjoyed looking at was an easy trade-off for me. And good call on the 1660 ti. NVIDIA launched that card after I had already finished my build. I'm eager to see how it performs. I'll keep an eye our for your completed build. Thanks for the comment.

  • 11 months ago
  • 1 point

nice build! And real quick how do u use the mouse ur using in the pics for gaming?

  • 11 months ago
  • 1 point

Not well! Buying a better mouse is on my list. And thanks for the comment!

  • 11 months ago
  • 1 point

np!

  • 11 months ago
  • 1 point

GREAT cable management (10x better than mine), and regarding the SSD, I'm curious why you didn't add a hard drive to store most of your photo edits in, a 1TB HDD doesn't cost that much, or you could get an external one, for portability and for more storage. I mean, you don't need one, but I'd recommend one for you. I know a lot of people said 750W is overkill, but I think it's just future-proof. That RX 580 though, looks beautiful, but I must ask, how does it perform to gaming or daily usage? I currently use a crappy one, so I would like to know how yours works out?

  • 11 months ago
  • 1 point

Thanks for the compliments on cable management!

As for the HDD, I have a 1 TB HDD with this build, which I included in the parts list. I've been using it to store my games. It's working well, but I plan to eventually upgrade or complement the drive with an SSD for faster read/write speeds. My M2 drive is mainly just for boot.

The 580 has been great so far. I've had no issues. I'm 1080p gaming and it has handled the handful of games I've played at high, very high and ultra settings. Granted, I haven't played graphics-intensive titles like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Ghost Deacon, etc...I may need to bump the settings down a bit or explore overclocking if I wanted to play those at the highest/higher settings.

Thanks for your comment!

  • 11 months ago
  • 0 points

Great cable management, however that 750w power supply is a bit over kill for a system like that.

  • 11 months ago
  • 1 point

Yeah, I may have give myself a little too much room for upgrades with the PSU, but I didn't want to run into an issue down the road when I'm ready to upgrade. The part list say it's semi-modular but it's actually a fully-modular unit, which was a bonus. Either way, that's good information for next time -- I can probably stick with a 550 - 650 W unit and be good.

And thanks for the compliments on the cable management. I appreciate it!