PC In Pictures

Introducing the new PC. 

The next adventure begins.

After a month of things being set up now, I think it was finally time to showcase properly.

Primarily going to be used for gaming purposes (of course) and it was decided to go somewhere in the mid range in regards to power and price-point without spending surplus to get diminishing returns.

The process of selecting parts began in August and took around a week as a lot of research was done in regards to what was suitable for 1080p gaming and operations within a budget of under $1500.

First, let's take a look at the case which houses the components:

Case - Deepcool Kendomen ATX Mid-Tower

Front View - Showing USB 3.0 - 2x USB 2.0 - Audio Jacks
Power, Reset and Fan Speed Control Buttons
Pioneer 12x Blu-Ray Combo Drive

Front-Panel removed with 2 fans

Top of Case also with 2 Fans

Side-Panel with see-through window

Reverse Side-Panel showing cable management

Rear-Panel view with Motherboard and GPU Interfacing 

This case was selected as it contained 5 internal Fans within a great price range. Build quality is solid and everything fits together quite nicely with plenty of room inside.

Now getting into the internal components:

Motherboard - MSI H97 Gaming 3

A default factory photo is displayed as this PC was pre-built

Little sneak peak inside

Motherboard External Connections (GPU Far Right)

After going over various options, this motherboard was selected as it contained all necessary connections required. It fits an LGA 1150 socket CPU (Intel chip-set) while having SATA III and DDR3 RAM compatibility. Without getting too boring with the details all the external connections are visible here. It's a motherboard, nothing too interesting. 

CPU - Intel Core i5 4590 Quadcore 3.3 GHz

CPU Heatsink - Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO

RAM - G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB (2x4) DDR3 1600MHz

Centre - CPU Heatsink seated
Right - RAM

CPU and Heatsink - The second biggest decision was choosing a CPU. Initially thoughts were to go with AMD due to great value, getting something from the FX line with some variants going 6 to 8 cores. 

Ultimately research dictated the Intel route with raw performance per core winning out when it comes to gaming. This CPU is not capable of overclocking like the Intel K line though the 4590 chosen is more than ample for my needs. 

A dedicated Heatsink was chosen as they tend to generally be quieter and more efficient than a stock CPU cooler, essential to keep things running smoothly.

RAM - Again nothing interesting, RAM is RAM, and 8GB will suffice. General applications open while running a game tend to be perfect tabbing between if needed, Chrome being the only resource hog.

Storage Media and Power:
SSD - Samsung 850 EVO 120GB

HDD - Western Digital WD10-EZEX 1TB Blue 7200RPM

PSU - Thermaltake SMART 650w Bronze

The most boring part that needs no pictures.

Solid State and Hard Drive - Two drives are allocated for storage depending on usage. Utilising the SSD for super quick boot time, general day to day applications and system files, while the HDD stores games, music, documents and pictures.

Power Supply - A 650w PSU was selected that still leaves enough power draw for any component upgrades in future as well as covering everything now. The mains power, display monitor and speaker system are all hooked up to one powerboard with no issues.

GPU - MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB

Snazzy.

Inside the Case

And comes the biggest decision in any Gaming PC rig, the graphics card. Needless to say this is generally the most expensive component and one where everything else must compliment it. After having researched performance vs price among many other variables, two GPUs came down to the decision. This card, the R9 380, or nVidia's equivalent, the GTX 960.

Both cards definitely have their argument on which is better, but the R9 380 just edged it out, being a tad cheaper and generally displaying a slightly higher frame-rate according to internet benchmarks. I am one of those people who like smooth frame-rates and this card so far from what it's been used for has delivered. Every game has performed admirably on high settings with no frame dips. World of Warcraft for example being one of the games tested, runs at close to 100fps with Ultra Settings and full Anti-Aliasing. Diablo 3 also never played better.

A good test in future will be Witcher 3, which is said with the hardware I have should lock at 30FPS or 60FPS depending on settings used, with Ultra being on average somewhere between. Not bad for what people would consider a "medium" build.

Display Monitor - Benq GL2460 24" 2ms LED

A glance

Lock Screen

Choosing a monitor was easy. Pick something at an ample size that will allow my old 19" monitor to fit beside it when needed, a full HD display (1080p) and a low response time to reduce any input lag, all within a good price range. Displays are one of the most important things funny enough, and this one has shown no signs of screen tearing or motion blur and ghosting. Pretty happy if you ask me.

The monitor is a TN panel with 2 DVI and a VGA connector. Simple but all that is needed.

Keyboard and Mouse - Tt eSPORTS Commander Combo

Notice the TT endorsement, we eSports now

Keyboard general layout

Mouse with left/right click, scroll wheel and 2 side buttons

Another simple solution this one. Gaming in mind at a reasonable price. This combo as seen has a nice blue lighting to it that makes things seem flashier than they need to be but nonetheless both items are quite comfortable and also of a reliable build quality.
Keyboard is great to type on for general use and feels ergonomic during gaming sessions. The mouse is set to 1600dpi of which it has 4 stock settings for sensitivity. Not using a mouse pad at this stage as table surface is very responsive.

Spec Sheet

All items were ordered from Mwave. This list is close to entirely accurate although some items were changed after purchase (as seen cancelled item in middle of list)

A Final Look 

Everything all together

All hooked up with fan lights

Ready to game

This build's specification suits my usage perfectly, as the rig will be powerful enough to play nearly any game released prior or in the future on great settings. Redundancy is not an issue as will definitely get a few years out of it.

Overall everything worked out perfectly.