DeathMerchant's New Rig

So a couple weeks ago I decided to rebuild my computer. The majority of the parts were in the 4-5 year old range. I originally had a GTX 570, 8 Gigs of RAM, AMD 8120 8 Core CPU, 1,200 Watt Power Supply, and a 990 FX Extreme 3 Motherboard. I was still getting somewhat decent performance (50-60 FPS) in newer games as long as I kept graphics down to Medium-Low settings. I was overclocking my CPU and occasionally the GPU when I wanted to squeeze out a few more FPS. Eventually I felt it was finally time for an upgrade.

I used PC Part Picker to select what parts I wanted, and then bought them on Newegg and Superbizz.

Motherboard: ASUS Z170-A. A lot of cheap motherboards seem to either arrive dead or they die within a couple months. I didn't want to spend an absurd amount of money for one, as I just wanted something that will be reliable. No sense in buying a $200-$250 motherboard if you won't be using the extra features. This specific model had the most favorable reviews for its price so that is what I went with. The I/O Shield is a piece of junk so I left it off. Other than that it is a solid board and I have no other complaints.

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K. The most current I5 CPU. The K model means it can be overclocked, which I have no plans to do at the moment, but it is nice knowing the option in there. The clock speed is 3.5GHz.

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO. I picked this cooler as it was cheap and efficient. It runs very quiet, but that is also partially because I have yet to push my CPU to its limit.

RAM: G Skill Ripjaws V Series 32 GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 2400. I had been debating between 16GB and 32GB for a couple weeks. But considering the price was about the same, I went for the higher amount. Currently its overkill but I expect in a couple years I will be glad I made the choice.

GPU: GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 G1. Out of the GTX 1070 line, this card seemed the best. Its an amazing card for the performance/price
and it offers good cooling, for those wanting to overclock. Haven't had the time to try out many hardware intensive games, but I have played a couple early access games that are not optimized and I am very impressed with its performance. I had no desire to purchase the GTX 1080 as I do not own a 4K monitor, nor do I run multiple 1080p monitors.

PSU: Antec High Current Gamer HCG-900 900W. Not much to say about the PSU as all it needs to do is provide power and not crap out after a couple years. This one had good reviews and it wasn't expensive.

The total cost came to about $1,100 and I am rather pleased with the performance I am getting. One thing I have learned from building this PC is to always buy the most current CPU and Motherboards available. I'm not talking buying an expensive Intel I7, but buying the most current Intel I5 CPU and most current Motherboard, even if it means buying a mediocre GPU. This setup will last you many years and its as 'future proof' as you can get without breaking the bank. You can always put in a new GPU for several hundred $, but when it comes time to replace the heart of the PC (CPU/Motherboard/RAM), you will be forced to spend around $500 as when you replace 1 of those 3 parts, you almost always have to replace all 3 due to compatibility. I avoided AMD CPU's because they just cannot keep up with what Intel is currently offering. That I5 running at a stock 3.5 GHz is running circles around an 8 Core AMD overclocked to 4.4 GHz. But AMDs CPUs are so cheap you say! They are, but they will be obsolete much more quickly than an Intel CPU. You will actually spend more money in the long run because you will have to replace the CPU, Motherboard, and the RAM faster than if you chose a good Intel CPU. As for GPUs, I have never been a fan of AMD as I prefer Nvidia. Although I do view GPUs as being somewhat expendable. You can swap them out at any time and don't have to replace or buy anything else. Now bottlenecks can be a problem if you have a powerful GPU in an old CPU/Motherboard, but you can always overclock to somewhat help alleviate the problem. If you are on a low budget buy an AMD GPU or a Nvidia card that is 1 generation older, because like I said, you can always replace it for a relatively inexpensive cost.

As a bonus for those who have actually read my entire post, I have a free giveaway for the game World of Warships to whoever is the first to post in this thread and say they would like it. For this to work you have to register a new Wargaming ID account, you cannot use an existing account. The Asus Motherboard I bought came with a free code for 15 Days Premium Account and a Diana Cruiser (Soviet Premium Tier II Cruiser). While World of Warships looks like a unique and entertaining game, I won't be playing it so I decided to give it away, as I despise the company Wargaming. I won't delve too far into it, but I highly dislike their P2W game model, toxic gamer environment, and the tedious grind. There also may be a problems regarding it applying in the NA (North American) Region. Whoever I give the code to I will PM you a set of specific instructions for this to be fully applied. Remember, do not create an account before you get the code or else it will not work!