Clueless Vet

Hello yall. My name is Sam. First off I love corsair products and have been using them for about two years now. Currently I play on a Mac Mini with k95 platinum keyboard, scimitar mouse and yellow jacket voids. I finally got approved for VA disability and wife said I am allowed to build or buy a gaming pc. Here is the problem. I do not know how or what I need. I play World of Warcraft mainly only because my mac mini cant play anything else. If anyone can guide me in a first step to get me started would be greatly appreciated.

Sam,

 

Thank you for your service, and welcome home.

 

I'll be happy to walk you through a build, in excruciating detail, if you'd like.

 

High level summary, though; you pick your parts and assemble them.

 

At minimum, you'll need:

 

* Case

* Motherboard

* CPU, with heatsink or fan

* RAM

* Power supply

* Graphics Card - put horsepower here for gaming

* Sound Card (maybe, the motherboard might have it built-in)

* Keyboard and Mouse you like. Can be the ones you have.

* A fan or three

 

Realistically, you need to decide on a budget up front.

 

Then, start by looking for a case you like, and a motherboard to match it.

 

Case and cooling strategy are the parts you'll have to think about "permanent roommate approval factor." She isn't going to appreciate a computer in the living room that sounds like an F-14 at ground idle.

 

Since this is your first build, I'd suggest sticking with conventional fan-cooling, and just get good ones that run quiet. Or, if you're comfortable with radiators and coolant and stuff from bigger machines, there are all-in-one radiator kits out there - Corsair's H100i and related products are well spoken of. How much of a tinkerer are you generally?

 

Case is all about having enough space for the parts you want, proper airflow, and aesthetics - do you want your computer to be subtle and discreet, like an office computer; do you want it to be big and ballsy like a jacked-up pickup truck, do you want it to have colored lights that sync to the music, with gamer/stoner appeal, etc etc.

 

I'd start by flipping through Corsair's case catalog and see what appeals to you.

 

Reach out to me anytime.

I put you together a WoW build for $330 (at the time of me writing this) on Pcpartpicker https://pcpartpicker.com/list/f7tsFd

 

This build should get a constant 60fps with max setting in WoW at 1080p. It won't do that with all current games but you didn't mention other titles. Its no frills and leaves alot of room to upgrade, and it will play WoW without a hitch.

 

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor $62

MoBo: MSI - B250M PRO-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard $62

Memory: Patriot - Signature Line 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory $27

Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 320GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $21

Graphics Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1050 2GB Video Card $105

Case: Azza - SIRIUS ATX Mid Tower Case $20

PSU: SeaSonic - S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply $25

Here is a more expensive build that can do all current titles at 1080p - Ultra - 60fps. I also added all the peripherals that you might need and took some minor liberties with nice to have options. Please feel free to use this as a template and make any changes that you see fit.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/mtMDd6

Yeah as Kcodyjr mentioned, it really is down to your budget but as a ground rule, I usually build a PC around a CPU. So I would see what the budget is first and pick a processor that fits within that budget.

 

If you can, go for an Intel Core i5-8400 because you won't get better bang for your buck at the moment. Then you can start looking at a motherboard that will be compatible with the CPU. Once you have that pegged, for the 8400, you will be using DDR4 memory so try to go for some good quality Corsair DDR4 anywhere between 8Gb and 16Gb will be nice if you can afford it. Then you need to think about a graphics card and again my rule is Nvidia, preferably MSI and anything from the GTX 1060 and above will be superb in a gaming PC. Obviously you wil want a power supply to power it and again, go for a good quality one like the Corsair series, you could probably get away with the VS650 which should be more than enough power even if you upgrade in the future. Next up is storage, but really this is a matter of how many games you want to play and how fast you want it to go. There is the standard 3.5" SATA HDD which are a good choice to keep the cost down or your could go for a 2.5" SSD which is going to make the machine really rocket but will cost substantially more. You might want a DVD combo drive but they are on the out nowadays as most games are downloaded and adding a DVD drive will limit your choice of case. That brings me to my last point which is the case.. as long as you go for a decent gaming case such as the Corsair 460x then you should be ok, although you can't have a DVD drive in that one. The rule here is if you have an ATX motherboard you need an ATX case but also be aware that the case specs should tell you the maximum length of the graphics card and maximum height of the cooler for the CPU. The Core i5-8400 can run quite hot so your going to need a decent cooler, but again as kcodyjr mentioned, air cooling will be easier than liquid.

 

I have added a link to a parts list which would be everything you need and all those parts will be compatible with each other. You will see I have put a 240Gb SSD for the boot drive and a 1TB storage drive, you can just build without the SSD if you like. This is a pretty expensive build but it would make a great gaming rig.

 

Hope that helps a little

 

PCPartPicker List

Hey Brother, Welcome home. Thanks for serving, and deeply sorry for your injury/illness. 23-year USAF vet here, I know the perils. I'm late to the party, and thrilled at anyone being able to build what they want. I hope you are happy with your build. Question - what system did you build? Not sure if I missed it in the forum., but I'd love to hear abut your

build. I'm sure others will also.

Even though the OP was made almost a year ago, others may be looking some something similiar. Here's a pretty decent way to spec out a PC based somewhat on gaming expectations:

https://www.letsbld.com/BLD

 

It does feature a different manufacturer but the core components are still the same. The price is actually very good, especially considering the ludicrous prices of GPU and Ram these days.