Finally. I have been stalling on this post because I have been so stumped with a lot of work promoting the blog and other properties. Before we move on, I would like to thank all the friends that helped me make this. Thanks to Andy, Gerald, and the other Dwight! Now it is time to put it to the test by putting the entire system online for people to analyze and provide feedback.
My motherboard
We start things off with the ASRock X99 WS motherboard. ASRock is a “rock”, I would say, in terms of providing great, somewhat affordable, motherboards that have a lot of good features. There are a ton of options with this board (like multiple USB ports and a good amount of other functional ports) and it was much more affordable than other boards with similar options.
The Processor
For my CPU, I got an i7-5960X. It is an extreme quad-core processing unit and cost a lot of my money. The overclocked speed is at 4.4 Ghz thanks to some modding, overclocking, and a little bit of trouble I had to go through to bring it from the standard 3.8 Ghz to 4.4 Ghz. You will notice that a lot of pre-built desktop systems have these kinds of processors, but most of them do not overclock them for you (like the ones recommended on this site: http://reviews.mysteryblock.com/best-gaming-desktops-under-1000/. You have to do it yourself if you truly want all the gaming performance potential that your processor can provide. Others may argue, but in my opinion, you are just maximizing the value of your dollar by overclocking your own hardware.
Video card
The video card is such an important piece to PC gaming so you already know I had to go with the GTX 980. I had the one manufactured by EVGA (can not go wrong there; there are definitely cheaper options, however) and it is labeled as the GTX 980 SC ACX. It is superclocked, hence the SC, plus it comes with a handy cooling unit rather than having to rely on a system-based cooling solution.
This was one of the more expensive parts I had to go for, but I am still impressed by its gaming capabilities. It can play a lot of the new games on high settings, which is good because I love eye candy. On 1080p resolution, this card was a gift from the gods.
Memory
You can’t forget about memory! RAM is also a very important piece you have to worry about and not try to buy too little of. I do not see a point in going with an expensive card like the GTX 980 super clocked and then only having 4GB of RAM. It just does not make sense. You are wasting the GTX 980’s potential because your RAM is insufficient.
For this, I chose Corsair’s Vengeance RAM series. I got twin sticks of 16 GB for a total of 32 GB. Obviously, I went a little max there with the RAM but that is just anticipation for more need for it in the future.
You can, if you wish, go with a lower option like 16GB, which should be fine for your needs. However, I do not suggest going any lower than that just for the fact that computer programs and games are not getting any smaller and the amount of data your computer needs to store at any one time will also not get any smaller. This post would disagree against me, but seriously, think about it. Games are not going to get smaller and you will have to upgrade eventually. You might as well get the most out of your entire system and upgrade your RAM as soon as you can.
Storage: SSDs… always
I always go with SSDs whenever I am doing a build. Depending on the budget, it almost always has to be an SSD but sometimes if the spending limit does not fit, I will go with a hard drive. But I have found that solid state drives work really well and actually meshes all the components together.
For this, I go with a Corsair Neutron XT drive with a capacity of 480 GB. I initially wanted to get two drives so I can store more games and whatnot, but ultimately I cheaped out.
That is it for my build; this is the one that I made recently. I used to have a much slower and less competitive computer back in 2015, but this year I chose to go a little bit much on the spending. It has worked out well and I love using this computer every day. It is quick, looks amazing, and is somewhat of a trophy because I spent so much time building and buying parts.
dwightscomputer 