Hey all, it's been over a decade since I built my last pc, but got the goahead from Mrs. Horrible to make a new one, with the caveat that is not a full size case. I put this together, and hope y'all can take a look and make sure it is all compatible and nothing major is missing or just completely out of whack (like if the processor was so slow that added ram is pointless, i don't think that is the case here but some logic like that). Thanks in advance!

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LxkQCJ

I only see a 480gb SSD. Are you going to add an HD for storage?

Good catch. I do have a 6 TB external NAS for music, videos, doc storage, etc. pretty much thinking the internal drive will just be OS, office type applications, and maybe 2-3 games...

Gotta be careful with mini cases, gfx cards and coolers are notorious for not fitting. I would recommend a all in one water cooler for your cpu. Will save room and run much cooler than air, especially in mini.

Second, any reason you want intel vs an amd processor? An 8 core 4ghz(4.3 turbo) unlocked amd runs 150ish vs the intel at 340. Would save you a bunch of change that you can apply to other parts.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009O7YUF6/?tag=pcpapi-20

32gb of ram is overkill, 16 is really all you will need for the coming future. Unless you're running multiple programs at once that are ram intensive, you will never come close to hitting 32gb.

Pick up some artic silver 5 thermal paste as well.

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Gotta be careful with mini cases, gfx cards and coolers are notorious for not fitting. I would recommend a all in one water cooler for your cpu. Will save room and run much cooler than air, especially in mini.

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Thanks for the tip on the water cooler. I'll take a look. Water and electronics did not seem to mesh mentally with me so I didn't put anything like that in originally! I hear ya on stuff not fitting. I read about that and it seemed like this one made accommodations for that by moving the psu to the front and not having anything directly above the mb. Please let me know if it doesn't seem like it would fit here.

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Second, any reason you want intel vs an amd processor? An 8 core 4ghz(4.3 turbo) unlocked amd runs 150ish vs the intel at 340. Would save you a bunch of change that you can apply to other parts.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009O7YUF6/?tag=pcpapi-20

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No real reason, and have traditionally been an AMD fanboy, but I think there wasn't an AMD/mb combo that worked with that class of ram. Maybe the answer is changing my class of ram. Or it might have been the itx mb. Don't remember.

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32gb of ram is overkill, 16 is really all you will need for the coming future. Unless you're running multiple programs at once that are ram intensive, you will never come close to hitting 32gb.

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I was basically trying to future proof on this. My only comparison is my work computer with 4GB, and it always seems like ram is the bottleneck over cpu processing.

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Pick up some artic silver 5 thermal paste as well.

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Thanks and will do! I would have forgotten that part.

I might try to work up another version and see what it looks like.

Consider m-ATX over m-ITX, similar size cases, but more connections. My current build is an m-itx and I wish I had more USB ports and another PCI-E lane. I'm considering an m-atx skylake build soon.

You don't need the 6700k unless you plan on overclocking, get the non-k, and you could save money by going with i5.

Do you really need an optical drive? The drives are of limited use these days and take up a lot of room in small cases reducing airflow and limiting your cooler choice. Consider an external drive.

The CPU cooler you picked is great and will cool as well as any AIO water cooler. The only downside to the air cooler is you risk damaging your processor if you move your tower with it still attached. Unless you plan to overclock the CPU, you really don't need an aftermarket cooler.

Newegg has g skill ripjaws v 32gb ddr4 on sale for $90 this weekend.

Personally, I'd change my CPU to the 6500 and put that money into the gpu, but I play a lot of games.

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Consider m-ATX over m-ITX, similar size cases, but more connections. My current build is an m-itx and I wish I had more USB ports and another PCI-E lane. I'm considering an m-atx skylake build soon.

You don't need the 6700k unless you plan on overclocking, get the non-k, and you could save money by going with i5.

Do you really need an optical drive? The drives are of limited use these days and take up a lot of room in small cases reducing airflow and limiting your cooler choice. Consider an external drive.

The CPU cooler you picked is great and will cool as well as any AIO water cooler. The only downside to the air cooler is you risk damaging your processor if you move your tower with it still attached. Unless you plan to overclock the CPU, you really don't need an aftermarket cooler.

Newegg has g skill ripjaws v 32gb ddr4 on sale for $90 this weekend.

Personally, I'd change my CPU to the 6500 and put that money into the gpu, but I play a lot of games.

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Thanks, I'll take another look at the processor/man/ram combo. Any tips on the GPU? I really don't even know what I should be looking for on that, but I don't think the games I play have too heavy of a GPU usage requirement (Diablo, RTS stuff, etc).

I do think I need an optical drive, as I was to watch and rip blurays, DVDs and music CDs. This will be the only computer in the house that does have one. I hadn't thought about external, because I assumed the transfer speed would suffer.

Whatever you get, make sure it has usb3.0 ports. The more the better. If you have an external sata port as well, you can easily go external optical with no speed loss and save room/heat in case. I would still recommend an AIO cooler. They run the same price as your air one. Top notch ones around 85ish on newegg.

For GPU, best bang for the buck at the moment (team green anyhow) is the GTX 970. BUT, Nvidia is going to announce 2 new gpus next week based on their Pascal architecture. Even if you aren't waiting for the latest and greatest, with a little luck, prices should drop a bit on the current 900 series afterward.

I was a longtime AMD fan myself, but there's a reason they are so cheap right now. There is zero reason to go with AMD from a performance standpoint and the only reason you would go with AMD is if you were trying to build an absolute budget build. If you need to shave a few bucks, get the 6500 instead of the 6700, though if you're gaming or video editing, the 6700 will be worth the extra money.

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Second, any reason you want intel vs an amd processor? An 8 core 4ghz(4.3 turbo) unlocked amd runs 150ish vs the intel at 340. Would save you a bunch of change that you can apply to other parts.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009O7YUF6/?tag=pcpapi-20

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Because amd sucks?

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I was a longtime AMD fan myself, but there's a reason they are so cheap right now. There is zero reason to go with AMD from a performance standpoint and the only reason you would go with AMD is if you were trying to build an absolute budget build. If you need to shave a few bucks, get the 6500 instead of the 6700, though if you're gaming or video editing, the 6700 will be worth the extra money.

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Video editing yes, gaming, no.

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I was a longtime AMD fan myself, but there's a reason they are so cheap right now. There is zero reason to go with AMD from a performance standpoint and the only reason you would go with AMD is if you were trying to build an absolute budget build. If you need to shave a few bucks, get the 6500 instead of the 6700, though if you're gaming or video editing, the 6700 will be worth the extra money.

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Video editing yes, gaming, no.

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True, the gaming part is definitely game dependent.

Thanks for the help guys. I think I'm settling on this one after thinking things over some more. Feel free to let me know what y'all think or if something just still seems way out of line!

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8KwxLk

Looks like a very solid build!

The only issue is timing on the graphics card, since as others have mentioned l, NVIDIA will be announcing their new architecture in the next week and the new cards should be out in June. Of course that's a good price on a great card already if you don't want to wait.

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Thanks for the help guys. I think I'm settling on this one after thinking things over some more. Feel free to let me know what y'all think or if something just still seems way out of line!

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8KwxLk

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I would change out your cooler to a better rated one. This one below is right about the same price $10 cheaper after rebate with MUCH better reviews and quantity of reviews.
CORSAIR Hydro Series H50 120mm Quiet Edition Liquid CPU Cooler - Intel Only

I run the H55 in my PC and it works great. Cant go wrong with the cooler above.

Good catch!

Thanks for that find! I'll swap it out.

I really can't wait to get the new graphics card. My old computer just went belly up, so need something soon. Plus I want to pull the trigger before Mrs. Horrible changes her mind!

Dr. H,

Great deal on 6700k on ebay today for $310 from an authorized seller:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Boxed-Core-I7-6700K-4-00-GHz-8M-Processor-Cache-4-LGA-1151-BX80662I76700K-/222099946572?

Haha, yeah I understand that.

I've been nursing my old rig (3570K build) along for a while and would probably have already upgraded myself had I not inherited an older model Titan graphics card when my buddy upgraded to SLI Titan X's. That was enough of a boost to get me to this next gen. Well, that and overclocking the hell out of my old i5 thanks to the my Corsair Hydro H100 cooler.

Yup! I saw that. That's part of why I'm trying to get the build budget finalized so I can get approval from the boss!

Thanks all for the help! Here is what my final build ended up as, after some changes based on part availability. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kBNkGX

Got everything ordered this morning, so should hopefully be up and running by next weekend!

Solid build

Nice job, take your time on the assembly and we look forward to the completed build!

Looks great. Post pics and benchmarks when it's done!

I was going to post and say stick with the intel and upgrade to a 970. Then I realized you already built.

So... good choices!

Mostly up and running! Just waiting on a couple of parts still to come in before I wrap it up.

Does anyone have a recommendation on a diagnostic utility where I can monitor system temps, disk health, etc?

I wish I had the skills to build one. I know a little bit about internals, as I've swapped out my video card and power supply on my current PC. But starting from scratch.. Terrifying. Do you just put it all together then throw the Windows CD in there?

Yes, pretty much. If you can plug in a lamp and use a screwdriver you 100% have the skills to build a computer. Pick your parts on PC part picker to confirm compatibility, read the manual of the motherboard to make sure you plug all the power cables in correctly and make sure you seat the processor right (line up arrows on processor with socket arrows) and you're golden.

MSI Afterburner is a nice video card overclocking utility that also provides extensive monitoring capabilities.

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Mostly up and running! Just waiting on a couple of parts still to come in before I wrap it up.

Does anyone have a recommendation on a diagnostic utility where I can monitor system temps, disk health, etc?

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Memtest to test ram
Prime95 to test CPU and core temps under 100% load
CrystalDiskInfo for disk health
CPU-Z to monitor your systems specs
CoreTemp or RealTemp for temp monitoring, i like CoreTemp best.

All are free

Thanks! Although I'm surprised no one has consolidated them into a single utility yet. Or maybe they have, and just not free.

MSI Afterburner does most of that, at least in terms of real time monitoring. I used (or use when I first build a system to do initial tests) most of those before switching to Afterburner.

The big one it doesn't do is disk health monitoring, but I have the Samsung utilities for that.

https://gaming.msi.com/features/afterburner

Note that you don't have to have MSI components to use it (I don't have a single one in my current system).