[I would like to preface that the theme of my build is "Futureproof".] There is also a bit of a moral at the end of the story if you want to know the best way to build your PC.
It was in the middle of July, a time around midnight by the fire. My eldest brother had come up to me with a job opportunity to be able to work at the same place of which he does. A Bar & Grill. I think to myself, "Yes, this is an opportunity to get my gaming on ultra".
My initial idea was to get a laptop. But not just any laptop, the most overpowered laptop ever. A $2000 machine with a desktop processor and a 980M. I will not go into details as this idea was later scrapped in favor of a desktop.
There I started. The first two weeks of work went relatively well, earning around $250 for about 21 hours of work over that time, which of course I was happy with as being 17, $250 was like winning the lottery to me.
I set out to decide "What shall I get for this new machine o' mine?". Decidedly, I picked up an InWin GT1 gaming desktop case. All was well, at this time. I also picked up a refurbished motherboard, a GIGABYTE Z97-HD3, not sure which revision.
More weeks pass, I picked up the RAM, and the Corsair H100i Liquid Cooling unit. This is where I hit a snag. The InWin GT1 does not support dual 120mm radiators. This was a bit of a bummer and I still have the case, but decided to pick up a new one. After doing some searching, it was decided the Fractal Design R5 would be the best bet for watercooling support.
(Please not I forget when I bought my RAM)
Two more weeks pass, and then I am finally able to get the new case. With one solid ding on the packaging [Thanks UPS], and the PSU came later that same day. The PSU is a Rosewill Photon 750W 80+ Gold unit with 4 sata/ide/other power outs, an 8-pin processor power out, 20+4 pin Motherboard power, and two 8 pin outs which lead into a pair of 6+2 pin connectors each. Everything is coming together but I cannot run the machine yet.
Yet another two weeks and my pay and salvage operation have netted enough for the processor to be ordered and for the machine to finally roar! With the $492.66 i7-4790K installed, Watercooler setup, RAM installed, and everything Cable-managed. I find myself finally ready to let the beast roar to life. On my kitchen table, I plug in the 1250W rated power cable and press the power button, and it roars with the loudness of the default Corsair H100i fans.
Then it is now, with only 3 weeks to go until I get the GPU, an All-in-one watercooled GTX 980 Ti, the machine will be nearly complete, and given my hours at work (pulling $400CAD bi-weekly), I should be able to get a fancy 1TB SSD and a pair of 3TB WD drives before Christmas, and still have enough to celebrate with the family.
In short, if you want to build a PC, build it over time instead of setting a budget. When I started I had no money whatsoever and way able to build my PC from scratch over the period of several months. While if you have major bills than it might take longer than the 4 months or so it's taken me thus far, but you'll be better off in the long run if you don't set a budget, but build it over the months.
Regards,
Nolan.
It was in the middle of July, a time around midnight by the fire. My eldest brother had come up to me with a job opportunity to be able to work at the same place of which he does. A Bar & Grill. I think to myself, "Yes, this is an opportunity to get my gaming on ultra".
My initial idea was to get a laptop. But not just any laptop, the most overpowered laptop ever. A $2000 machine with a desktop processor and a 980M. I will not go into details as this idea was later scrapped in favor of a desktop.
There I started. The first two weeks of work went relatively well, earning around $250 for about 21 hours of work over that time, which of course I was happy with as being 17, $250 was like winning the lottery to me.
I set out to decide "What shall I get for this new machine o' mine?". Decidedly, I picked up an InWin GT1 gaming desktop case. All was well, at this time. I also picked up a refurbished motherboard, a GIGABYTE Z97-HD3, not sure which revision.
More weeks pass, I picked up the RAM, and the Corsair H100i Liquid Cooling unit. This is where I hit a snag. The InWin GT1 does not support dual 120mm radiators. This was a bit of a bummer and I still have the case, but decided to pick up a new one. After doing some searching, it was decided the Fractal Design R5 would be the best bet for watercooling support.
(Please not I forget when I bought my RAM)
Two more weeks pass, and then I am finally able to get the new case. With one solid ding on the packaging [Thanks UPS], and the PSU came later that same day. The PSU is a Rosewill Photon 750W 80+ Gold unit with 4 sata/ide/other power outs, an 8-pin processor power out, 20+4 pin Motherboard power, and two 8 pin outs which lead into a pair of 6+2 pin connectors each. Everything is coming together but I cannot run the machine yet.
Yet another two weeks and my pay and salvage operation have netted enough for the processor to be ordered and for the machine to finally roar! With the $492.66 i7-4790K installed, Watercooler setup, RAM installed, and everything Cable-managed. I find myself finally ready to let the beast roar to life. On my kitchen table, I plug in the 1250W rated power cable and press the power button, and it roars with the loudness of the default Corsair H100i fans.
Then it is now, with only 3 weeks to go until I get the GPU, an All-in-one watercooled GTX 980 Ti, the machine will be nearly complete, and given my hours at work (pulling $400CAD bi-weekly), I should be able to get a fancy 1TB SSD and a pair of 3TB WD drives before Christmas, and still have enough to celebrate with the family.
In short, if you want to build a PC, build it over time instead of setting a budget. When I started I had no money whatsoever and way able to build my PC from scratch over the period of several months. While if you have major bills than it might take longer than the 4 months or so it's taken me thus far, but you'll be better off in the long run if you don't set a budget, but build it over the months.
Regards,
Nolan.
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