Good Lordy the impatience. Scrutinize my $1300 Microcenter in-store pickup machine before I hit the button!
This is my very first build. I had to manually enter several prices from my local Microcenter and I believe some of them are post-combo prices and after mail-in rebates, which I'll probably take full advantage of. This is 100% in-store pickup in the Twin Cities. Some notes:
- CPU was an easy pick, everything else was difficult.
- I'm amped for the GPU but could probably go with something a tad less expensive, but I said fuck it.
- I decided to go with DDR4 16gb - I'm iffy on the motherboard though and I'm not sure why.
- Not too concerned with the slower HDD, the stuff I put on there will be archives of old photos, videos, documents etc that I'll occasionally access. Everyday things will be on the SSD.
- There was a message that noted that PCPartPicker could not verify that my case will have enough room for the CPU cooler, but I think it should be fine since the cooler doesn't seem big and this is a mid tower.
- I'll get my OS on a flash drive elsewhere.
Please take a look and let me know if I'm making any dumb moves. As far as I can tell, everything looks ok, but I might have overlooked something or passed up something better/cheaper/smarter/etc. Thanks!
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor | $219.99 @ Micro Center |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler | $29.99 @ Micro Center |
| Motherboard | ASRock Z170 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard | $99.99 |
| Memory | Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory | $84.99 |
| Storage | Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $84.99 @ Micro Center |
| Storage | Western Digital 2TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive | $74.99 |
| Video Card | Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE 3X Video Card | $349.99 |
| Case | Inwin GT1 Black ATX Mid Tower Case | $57.99 @ Micro Center |
| Power Supply | Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply | $64.99 |
| Monitor | Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor | $239.99 @ Micro Center |
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts | ||
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1314.90 | |
| Mail-in rebates | -$7.00 | |
| Total | $1307.90 | |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-21 15:58 EST-0500 |
UPDATE: I'm switching to the R9 390 after watching a bunch more real-world benchmark tests - it seems that it really just depends on the game though, but the 390 had a bit more of an edge on most. It will be nice to have that buffer of VRAM if I decide to mod the shit out of something anyway. I will also be switching to an EVGA SuperNova G2 650.
update 2 - G2, not GS
Posted Feb 21, 2016, 9:37 PM UTC · edited