Typically whatever RAM you buy now, yeah you'd buy the same again later (effectively doubling the total when you upgrade), whether that's an additional 2x4gb, or an additional 1x8gb, or whatever.

In terms of performance benefits from more RAM, it very much depends what you're doing. Heavier multitasking, and a few especially demanding titles on higher settings, will make good use of more than 8gb RAM - but most current/recent games on their own do ok with 8gb.

That may change fairly quickly in the next couple of years, of course, but right now I'd say 8gb is generally a decent start. If you eventually want to game at ultra settings with a dozen browser tabs and a couple apps open, then yeah, plan on working towards 16gb (and probably a higher-powered CPU/GPU!) further down the line.

Re: single- vs dual-channel, running dual-channel memory (e.g. 2x4gb sticks instead of 1x8gb for the same total RAM) can have a slight speed advantage in certain scenarios. However, in gaming - and especially gaming with 'modest' builds like this one - you're unlikely to notice much of difference as far as I'm aware (correct me if I'm wrong, someone!).

The decision in most cases comes down to a question of initial budget vs. available motherboard slots: if a mobo only has two RAM slots (DIMMs), and you can only stretch to 8gb RAM to start off, you're probably best off getting a single 8gb stick with a view to maybe adding another later. But if the mobo has four DIMMs (as this one does, by the looks of it), you can put 2x4gb sticks in now, and still have room to add another 2x4 later.

A potential benefit of dual-channel worth bearing in mind is that if one stick fails, you can still at least get the system up and running on the remaining good stick. Not so if you've only got one installed and that goes bad.

(Side note: when picking up two sticks to run in dual channel - say, two lots of 4gb for a total of 8gb - buying a '2x4gb kit' is always a better idea than buying two separately packaged 4gb sticks. The modules in a kit were made together, and come packaged together, so you know they're gonna play nice as a pair.)

Whatever you choose, it's important to check the RAM QVL (qualified vendor list) on the motherboard manufacturer website to make sure the product number of the RAM you're buying is on there. Some RAM vendors also have a reverse version of this QVL for mobos; always worth checking that out too if it's available.

16gb of memory is about as much as you’d ever need (aleast for a few years) and if you building a budget pc, spending money on 16gb of ram would be a bit of a waste. But, (if I'm inderstanding what you’re saying) 4x4gb of ram IS better then 2x8gb. (and it follows that 16x1 is the best) Though make sure your motherboard can fit 4 slots of ram, and the CPU allows it. And, of course, its the same ddr as the motherboard/CPU

Not a pro with computers, so i’d wait for comformation (from a reliable source) that this is true.

Do you mean a CPU cooler, or case fans?

The Ryzen 1400 comes with a stock cooler which should do the job if you're not overclocking. However, I believe it's the Wraith Stealth that comes with the 1400 (the smallest of the various Ryzen stock coolers), so if you ARE overclocking the CPU you may want to upgrade to an aftermarket cooler.

If you mean case fans, the Fractal Focus G Mini comes with two LED front fans - but yes, you'd likely want to add at least one more in the back. You'd still have the option of 1-2 fans up top as well, although you may not need to fill every available case fan slot on this build - none of the components draw crazy power or typically pump out a ton of heat.

I'd say for this exact build, running at stock clock speeds, you could get away with purchasing just one more case fan if that's all you wanted to buy. No real need for an aftermarket CPU cooler at stock speeds either. However, the build includes the b350 motherboard precisely so you can overclock, and if you're doing that then YMMV.

It's not obvious where the parts go imo, but YouTube will make it very easy. Also, I wouldn't do this EXACT build

If you have the extra $50 to spend, get a Ryzen 5 1600. For gaming it's not too miraculous, but everything outside of gaming feels far snappier with it.

With this GPU, you'll likely see a slight increase in CPU-heavy games, less so in GPU-bound titles - really just depends on the game. There are a few helpful benchmarking videos on YouTube comparing performance between 1400/1600. Generally, the additional two cores on the 1600 will be much more noticeable in CPU-intensive tasks and multitasking use.

The 1400 paired with a 1060 should be capable of pretty reasonable FPS at 1080p in most games - anything the 1400 struggles with is likely to be a bit of a stretch for the 1060 too (ultra max settings, much higher resolutions etc).

You can use the parametric filters on this site to search for the cheapest version of any component - for storage searches you'd want to use https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/#qq=1

Choose the type of hard drive you want using the checkboxes on the left of the page (SSD, HDD, Hybrid like the one featured in this build, etc), and then use the buttons at the top of each column to order them by price, brand, speed, capacity, whatever you like. HDDs will typically be the cheapest, as well as the noisiest and slowest, but they'll certainly get the job done. Ideally don't go lower than 7200RPM speed with an HDD if you can possibly avoid it within your budget.

This model is a very popular 1TB, 7200RPM HDD option with users of this site, and it's cheaper than the Hybrid drive used in the above build: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/MwW9TW/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex

A PC doesn't need Windows 10 to run - you could use another operating system, and free open-source ones do of course exist - but for most users and certainly the majority of gamers, yes Windows 10 will be the simplest and most widely compatible option.

Legit copies of the Windows 10 Home version, either purchased through the Microsoft website (transferrable to new builds) or as an OEM (non-transferrable) version from an approved secondary vendor, will typically set you back somewhere in the region of 90-120 £/$/Euro on top of the cost of any complete build featured on this site.

I think so yes ;)

Watch this a couple times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhX0fOUYd8Q&list=LLl1F9rCmNIKN0V25IIRcZ_Q&index=7

(note - I am a noob and barely understand the terms I am using!)

You're fine, we all start somewhere.

From what I read there shouldn't be much in it between the i3 8100 and the Ryzen 5 1400, is there anything I am missing?

The Ryzen motherboard AM4 socket is guaranteed through at least 2020, and has a pretty good upgrade path. It's also better at multitasking, but sacrifices raw speed. The i3 8100 is a fantastic starting CPU, but the only boards available for it now are overclocking boards, but the 8100 can't be overclocked. All Ryzen CPU's can be overclocked. The 8100 does have amazing single thread speeds, however, and if you're exclusively gaming and it's cheaper for you, go right ahead.

It also swaps out the larger HD for a smaller SSD, I guess that will come down to your preference on what you will use the pc for, realistically if I went for a 256GB SSD I would probably want to budget for a second hard drive.

The SSD will hold your OS and not much else. I would recommend sticking with a large HDD if you can only afford one right now.

There is quite a big price jump from 1060 to 1070, is this partly due to those damn blockchainers?

Yes, miners are back with a vengeance. If you're jonesing for a 1070, check r/buildapcsales regularly. You might get lucky.

any thoughts on whether it's worth forking out for the 1070, or is there another option upgrading on the 1060? To be honest I will be gaming in 1080p and I don't really need ultra high settings so probably 1060 is fine for me.

At 1080p 60fps, the 1060 6GB will be plenty. A mild to moderate overclock will get you into the 100+ fps territory on high/ultra settings. I'm running Witcher 3 on High/Ultra with Nvidia hairworks on and it's keeping up fine.

Probably like med-high setting 1080p no motion blur at 60fps. After the update everything is better so probably you can do high settings just turn off Motion blur. The 1060 6gb is a pretty damn good card so you should be set. Good luck

Case choice is a highly personal thing, really - you need to pick your own based on what you want it to look like, and how easy/practical to build in it's likely to be for you.

First and foremost, use the parametric filters on this site at https://pcpartpicker.com/products/case/ to narrow it down to ones within your budget, then browse through some of the more popular/higher-rated of those and see what people have said about them in terms of manufacturing quality, ease of build, airflow, looks, cable management, what extras come included etc.

Watch YouTube reviews and unboxings, and gradually whittle it down to two or three that you like the look of and feel will work well for your planned build and experience level.

As a general rule of thumb, smaller cases look super neat but are often a little more finicky to work in, and remember that a smaller (mATX or Mirco ATX) case will usually need to be paired with a smaller mATX mobo, like the pairing featured in this build.

(FWIW, I've got my current build in this and I think it's a really great case - excellent cable management, solid fittings and fixtures, decent airflow, nice glass panel. Especially good as I got it at 1/3 off!) https://pcpartpicker.com/product/kRDzK8/fractal-design-define-mini-c-tg-microatx-mid-tower-case-fd-ca-def-mini-c-bk-tg

There's always ongoing debate about RAM speed and how much effect it has (at what levels, on what build, in which tasks etc). Evidence suggests Ryzen responds fairly well to fast RAM, meaning you can potentially squeeze a tiny bit extra out of your CPU if you use very fast stuff, but you may need to manually overclock to achieve this.

But yeah, 2400 is fine for achieving the stated out-of-the-box performance levels. 2400 is still kind of a 'standard' speed for current gen stuff. Once you start incorporating much faster RAM it's kind of hit-and-hope with regards to how much of that extra headroom your CPU/mobo combo is able to use effectively - if you're not interested in manually overclocking it, then you may find your expensive fast RAM effectively gets downgraded to 2400 or 2666 in use by default.

As long as the part number for the RAM you're looking at is specifically included on the Qualified Vendor List (QVL) for your model of mobo (look for the QVL under 'support'/'compatibility' or similar at the mobo manufacturer's website), then no, you certainly won't see any neagtive impact from using 2400 on a modest build such as this.

You may miss out on an extra couple of percent performance at the top end under heavy CPU demand, but given the premium prices currently being charged for 2800+, that's a perfectly acceptable trade-off for many (me included).

It's focused around a Ryzen setup, and with it featuring the Ryzen 5 1400 there's plenty of headroom left for upgrades within the same product line both now and in future - you can go as high as Ryzen 7 1800x currently, and we're still only on first-gen products from this line. We'll know more about second gen next year.

So yes, if you wanted to stick with Ryzen then this build and mobo/RAM selection leaves plenty of room for upgrading as things stand. If you preferred to switch to an Intel build at some point, then a different mobo would be on the cards. In that scenario, no reason why the RAM shouldn't be reusable (so long as it was also on the manufacturer's QVL if you did choose to switch the mobo out).

Yes, no issues here

Never worth skimping on a PSU. If the mobo/CPU combo is the brains of your build, the PSU is the heart. You don't want your lovely new rig that you spent ages planning, saving and shopping for having a coronary on you after two months, frying itself (or worse!) for the sake of making a relatively small saving on an off-brand power supply.

550W is a solid baseline for this build as it gives you plenty of headroom, which is good in itself, with a bit of scope to upgrade components in future without necessarily having to drop another chunk of cash on immediately replacing the PSU. A decent rule of thumb with power requirements is to add together the TDP of your CPU/GPU, then add ~100W (I prefer 150!) for all other components. So for me, being super cautious, I'd be thinking in terms of 65W + 120W + 150W = 335...call it 350W just to leave plenty of headroom, especially if overclocking etc. Sure, it's an overestimate, but I prefer to go that way than to cut it fine.

In future you might like to upgrade to a ~100W CPU, or a ~180W GPU (say, a 1070ti), and/or indulge in a bit of overclocking, so you can quickly see where you'd be getting close to maxing out your power on a 450W PSU and having to buy an entirely new one. It just doesn't make much sense to go a lot lower than 500+ for such a small saving, and it never makes sense to go with a dodgy budget brand for 30-50% lower price either. Even a good PSU is already one of the cheapest elements in your rig, after all.

There's some handy info on 'tiers' of PSU quality here https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/631048-psu-tier-list-updated/ (key takeaway: most PSU brands don't actually make their own parts, and its important to know which of each brand's products contains better/worse components). You'll also find a better guide to power draw and wattage requirements here https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/199255-how-many-watts-do-i-need-check-here/ and PCIe info for graphics cards here http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm.

Does that price range include things like Windows, a monitor, and your peripherals? Remember to budget extra for those, they’ll set you back at least $200 most likely. You are also probably going to want to tinker around with the storage suggested here, these are only guides, and only you know your storage needs.

This would really be a good build for that. but I would upgrade the CPu to a ryzen 5 1600 6 core CPU in this case. It is compatible with this part list. And maybe get 16GB of memory instead of 8GB. If you have any questions let me know i'm glad to help ;)

Its a great build, but get a ryzen 5 1600. You'll want the extra 2 cores for those programs.

With any RAM purchase, the most important thing is to check that the product code of the RAM you're looking at is listed on the motherboard's QVL (qualified vendor list). This is usually found under 'support' or 'QVL' or 'compatibility' etc on the manufacturer's website for the specific board you're wanting to buy.

If you go with a RAM product that isn't listed there, it doesn't mean it won't work, but it's a bit hit-and-hope. Often it's fine, sometimes it's a bit of a headache. If you want to play totally safe, stick only to RAM modules explicitly listed on the mobo QVL.

well not really.. you only need a USB with the OS to install it and you only need philips nr. 2 to install everything

For the most part, yes. A handful of especially demanding titles might need you to drop the settings to ‘high’ rather than ‘very high/ultra’ as it’s not the fastest CPU, but it’s not going to cause you an issue (throw down for an upgrade to 1500x or ideally 1600 if you can). Either way a GTX 1060 will chew through most current games at 1080p fairly easily.

With ease!

Hi TONE_Em_Out,

Think you must be misreading something here - the Fractal Focus G Mini featured in this build states a max video card length of 380mm, while the Palit 1060 featured has a length of 252mm, well within limits. It will fit just fine - hope that helps!

Pretty much any current game will run very nicely - up to 60fps, +/- 10-20fps depending on how well optimized the game is, but all extremely playable - at 1080p (ie. a monitor resolution of 1920x1080).

This CPU includes a stock cooler. Unless you want to do a serious overclock, which since you’re new I’m not going to recommend, you don’t need anything more powerful. You can always add a comparable 3rd party cooler down the line if needed as well.

Short answer, no you don’t need to buy a cpu cooler.

Fractal do some really nice smaller cases IMO, have a look at their website. There are lots of very decent options from other manufacturers for this sort of form factor (mini tower) too. You're not short of choice or quality at this price point or slightly above.

Certainly for playing; streaming you may want to look at a slightly beefier CPU. The Ryzen 1600 would be a good choice. This one is very decent, but it depends how much of a workload you're wanting to throw at it.

You can use this tool to compare benchmarks and general stats for various models you're considering - I've put the Ryzen 1400 and 1600 side by side for you, for a quick comparison:

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-Ryzen-5-1400-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-1600/3922vs3919

Probably overkill for overwatch/csgo at 1080p . A 1050 ti should be fine for that. Maybe look at the budget build guide. If you want to play more demanding games or CSGO/overwatch at 1440p this would work great.

Also I would like to to have at least a GTX 1060

gpu and ram prices are insane right now for a variety of reasons, and they aren't likely to go down much for a while. Maybe consider waiting some months before building or just do it now if you don't care, becuase it wont drop down any time soon.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

You’d be unlikely to need anything more powerful for word processing and the majority of current games at reasonably high settings.

Fan headers are on the motherboard, not in the case. You could of course go with a bigger case if you wished - depending on what you pick, this may allow you to go with a full-size ATX motherboard, which would likely have more fan headers on it than most Micro ATX boards do. However you can add in fan splitters or a fan hub if you want to run more fans than you have available headers anyway, so it’s seldom a problem either way.

I would definitely say that this build will work with the very powerful CPU and the 2TB Hardrive. If you're a graphic designer you might want to get an ssd as well if you build this build so your storage is a bit faster. Watch many guides as well if you want a build like you want.

It will be able to play all of those. Not sure if it will be able to play all those with the details maxed out tho

lol most likely yes

I've got almost the same parts setup, but my R5 is a 1600. The GTX 1060 6gb is great for 1080p at above 60fps on a lot of games. PUBG is a system stresser, but with a moderate overclock and settings adjustment, I've got above 60fps without going over 60C.

Modify to your hearts content! So long as the parts are listed as compatible, you shouldn't have a problem.

The stock AMD cooler is actually rather fantastic for an included cooler. I've got my R5 1600 OC'd to 3.7Ghz and it's staying nice and cool.

Regarding the additional fans, I would recommend 1 additional 120mm fan for the rear of the case. You could leave the rear bare if you need to scrimp. So long as the two upfront are spinning, the case should maintain positive pressure that vents out the back. So depending on how hot you're planning to get, I'd say you'll be fine at core clock speeds.

You would need to add an adapter for wifi.

Absolutely.

1080p

There isn't one in the part list. You will need to add one.

All GPU prices are sky high or out of stock. No one knows when things will go back to normal.

Sure. Click the "Customize This Parts List" button.

It'll take you to a new page that you can edit.

Remove the case from the parts list, then click "Add Case."

If you leave the Compatibility filter on, then the list that you see will be filtered to only those cases that will fit all of the internals.

You can filter it further to select specific brands of cases, and specific form factors.

Since this motherboard is a MATX (smaller than standard ATX) I would suggest filtering for MATX mini towers or MATX mid towers.

Note that even if you go with an ATX tower, it should still fit your MATX motherboard.

The motherboard has built in audio.

Crypto-mining is the worst thing ever.

Those are great additions to be honest.

You would need to add a WiFi card, however it will have USB 3.0 rear ports and headers, and a wired Ethernet connection.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/HbZf7W alright this is MY setup you can always change your mind you can use multi monitor setup or single it really depends.For os i think there is no need for that actually what im trying to say is you can always buy really cheap keys on ebay or just look it up lol,and there a lot of free antiviruses out there that you can try out,i can make any build depending on your taste :)

When you buy the Ryzen CPU it should come with a stock cooler.

Doesn't really matter what GPU you use . I'm going with the 1050 ti 4gb as well.

Rainbow Six Siege and Overwatch are common benchmark games on YouTube so you could check out some vids there. This combo won't have any problems going past 60Hz.

GPU's are compatible with all mobo's with a PCI-E Slot except for when it comes to pairing with the CPU. If you have a lower end CPU that is being paired with a higher end GPU like for example.... a Ryzen 3 with 1060 ti 6gb. You will bottleneck. For Ryzen 3 you shouldn't go pass the 1050 ti 4gb or similar GPUs.

This computer is very capable for multitasking - games, streaming, discord, twitch, etc. None should be an issue.

I also have ssd that will be going into it, didn't put it in build.

Dam, for $1,000 you should be able to have far better parts than what you are investing for. That GPU is costing you 3/4 of your build budget.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RkmgsZ fixed :D

would you have to also add a cpu coller. this is my first build and I was just wondering because it is not included in the parts list?