Now that I work at a gaming company, I need to broaden my gaming horizons a bit more, so I’ve been looking into buying a few top titles from the RPG genre and trying them out. I wasn’t sure if I should buy them to play on a PC, or if I should buy a console. Fortunately, there are a few folks at work who know a thing or two about games, so I asked them what they would do. Most of them said get a gaming PC instead of a console, assuming I could afford the price difference.
This struck me as a great idea, not just to allow gaming, but to let me stream things like Netflix and Rhapsody, and also make better use of all my media stored on NAS. Then, while browsing gaming rigs online, I stumbled across a guide to building a mid-price gaming box and I had my epiphany. I’ve been a tech guy for many years and have owned and worked on many computers, but I have never built one despite always wanting to. With my wife’s blessing, I decided to go for it and bring the kids into the act as well. It will do them good to see what a computer is made of.
So here’s the preliminary build list:
- CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K
- Motherboard: ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming
- Graphics: MSI GTX 970 4G
- Memory: 8GB DDR4 2400
- SSD: Samsung 850 Evo 25GB
- Hard disk: repurposed Seagate
- Optical drive: repurposed Samsung
- Case: Fractal Design R5 Black Window
- Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
- Power supply: Corsair CX600M 600W 80 Plus Bronze
- Keyboard: Corsair K70 Cherry MX Red
- Mouse: Razer Deathadder
- OS: Windows 10 Pro
Now, I’m off to Amazon, Newegg, and Frys to buy my gear so it gets here in time for my company’s winter shutdown. Wish me luck!