I've been toying with the idea of buying a good PC for like 5 years now... and have posted a builds on this site constantly, I've certainly settled on one fact, I want it built.

1. I'm in college and about to graduate, I don't have the resources or time to troubleshoot if something goes wrong.
2. I've never done any hardware work, and while I know everyone say it's super easy (I believe them) I'd rather try say: Just replacing a video card first, before I go whole hog into it. A first desktop is a step towards getting more comfortable with that stuff.
3. There's a cost to just finding and gathering the individual parts, mostly in time, that I don't care to pay.

So with that laid out, and with a long holiday break approaching, i'm thinking about rewarding my hard work with a new desktop, I have a paid internship arranged for the spring that I wasn't expecting to get, so I think I could absorb the cost and still maintain my savings. SO here is a built, I would love your thoughts.

My max price is 1500! If I could get the same performance as this with cheaper alternatives, that would be preferred over a little extra performance with a large price tag. Extreme future proofing isn't necessary either as I'd be willing to upgrade a few years down the road... so here it is.

Build is from CyberPower, I have classmates who have had an ok time with their stuff.

Operating System: Windows 10 Home (64-bit Edition)

Case: Thermaltake Core V31 Black Mid-Tower Gaming case w/ USB 3.0 & removable Drive Bays & Side-Panel Window

CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-6600K 3.50GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1151 (Skylake)

CPU / Processor Cooling Fan: Asetek 550LC 120mm Liquid Cooling CPU Cooler - Extreme Cooling Performance (Dual Standard 120MM Fans (Push-Pull))

Coolant for Cyberpower Xtreme Hydro Water Cooling Kits: Standard Coolant

Motherboard: ASUS Z170-PRO GAMING ATX w/ USB 3.1, 3 PCIe x16, 3 PCIe x1, 1 SATA Express, 4 SATA3, 1 Ultra M.2

RAM / System Memory: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR4/2400MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)

Video Card: AMD Radeon R9 390X 8GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 Video Card (Single Card)

Power Supply: 600 Watts - Standard 80 Plus Certified Power Supply - SLI/CrossFireX Ready

Hard Drive: 256GB SANDISK SSD + 1TB SATA III Hard Drive Combo (Combo Drive)

Optical Drive: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)

Internal Wireless Network Card: 802.11b/g/n 300Mbps PCI-E Wireless Adapter Network Card

Some specific questions/thoughts:

• It has a "Liquid Cpu Cooler" is that just a buzzword, or is it actually liquid cooling, if so why is there a fan?
• It has a "combo drive" is that actually just a bundled set of 2 hard drives (As in just a way of getting people to pay extra by throwing in the HD with the SSD), or is it like some sort of data-frankenstein like a hybrid drive? I assume it's the first.
• I know nothing about motherboards
• As a measure of what kind of games I'd want to play, I'd want to play GTAV/The witcher at a solid 30 and high settings. The benchmarks I saw said this card could do that but maybe I misread.

Anyways... I would love some input, thank you!

@mikemcn: They do indeed make hybrid SSHDs, but based on the phrasing you're getting two separate drives, which is preferable honestly.

The only thing I'd be worried about is the quality of PSUs in prebuilts. I'd replace it with an EVGA, Seasonic, or Corsair personally.

@mikemcn:regarding the cpu cooler it does use a liquid to transfer heat from the heatsink on the motherboard to the radiator, which is what the fans cool. if you're looking to save a few bucks, you could probably opt for a regular air cooled heatsink, as those still work quite well.

edit: also i don't know a ton about motherboards either but you should be good with asus and moreover with that chipset (z170)

Ok i'll aim for a brand name on that PSU, and yea, I don't want the drives combined. They would say SSHD i'm sure if thats what it was.

That makes sense, I also chose push/pull configuration on the fans of the liquid cooler, that seems like it would move air well?? I don't know, it was 8 bucks extra.

About the motherboard...do you intent do ever use all PCIe slots? if not I would recommend getting a smaller motherboard, with something like 2 PCIe slots. I have a micro ATX with only 2 PCIe slots that I use for a video card and a sound card, which is all that I care about. Also gaming motherboards are way more pricier than "normal" motherboards.

The guys at Tested build a gaming PC back in 2013 which would be even today a very good build, and possibly even cheaper now.

@mikemcn: All liquid cooling for PCs use fans to cool the radiator. In terms of push-pull vs just pull or just push for most 120mm AIO coolers like the Asetek model which use thin radiators push-pull will make very little difference compared to just pull/push in terms of performance. However, having a push pull config will allow you to run the fans at lower speeds and still get the same level of performance as running a single fan at a higher speed and hence reduce noise levels.

The motherboard you listed is a pretty good one as it has many of the same features as the higher end ASUS boards except for stuff like Wireless AC or larger number of USB 3.1 at the rear I/O. I would double check however whether or not the board is the Asus Z170-Pro or the Z170 Pro Gaming as they are different motherboards (it's probably the latter as it is a less expensive board and geared more toward the "gamer" market).

I noticed you opted for 8 GB of RAM. How much extra do they charge for 16GB as while 8GB would be enough for most games, 16GB is quite useful for stuff like web-browsing and multi-tasking. And while upgrading RAM is probably the easiest thing to do later on, you would most likely have to replace the existing RAM in there if you want to ensure that everything will run properly in dual channel.

Also are they throwing in that wireless-N card for free or is it an extra charge because I would probably opt for a Wireless AC card instead. And finally what monitor are you using? If u're on 1080p the 390X is gonna be plenty to run pretty much any game at high settings and 60+ FPS.

Oh and I would probably skip the optical drive unless it's a Bluray drive, especially if they are charging you extra for it.

There are not many Z170 mATX boards available and he probably wasn't even given that option by the builder that he is using. Also the motherboard that he listed, the Asus 170 Pro Gaming is actually a lower cost board compared to Asus's channel (non-gaming branded) boards.

From what it looks like that build should nail you decent performance at high settings for the Witcher 3 as well as GTAV for sure. The only trouble spot would be if you wanted to push for say 60fps at 1440p or higher then it might become a bit harder.

I do agree with swapping out the PSU with a name brand like EVGA or Corsair, but i'm also concerned if that 600 watt PSU will have enough power to run your rig properly. I keep seeing info on the R9 390X with a recommended minimum PSU of 700 watts. Some are saying it has similar power needs as a R9 280X but even at 550 watts it doesn't give the rest of your system any room to breath. I would suggest if you do replace the PSU, yes 80 gold standard, but also shoot for something a bit larger maybe something in the 750-800 watt range. It'll provide good headroom for you in the event you ever want to add stuff down the line.

As for the "All-in-One" Liquid cooling CPU cooler you picked up the Asetek 550LC 120mm Liquid Cooling CPU Cooler is very similar to the Corsair line of CPU coolers, most are complete kits that are fully sealed you shouldn't have to worry about the coolant for this through the typical life of the system.

The only complaint I have (and the reason why I moved away from these kind of CPU coolers) is the radiator, I too had a push/pull system in place and unless the fans are running in sync (i.e. RPM on the push fan matches the RPM on the pull fan) you may run into a noisy system while under load and about average temps in comparison to a push or a pull configuration. Another downside to push/pull I never enjoyed is you'll have to unmount one of your fans to fully clean the radiator every few months because of how dust and possibly hair (if you have a pet) builds up onto the radiator. So be prepared for that fun when it does occur.

Don't worry too much about the motherboard, ASUS is a brand I've had good luck with throughout the years and most of their boards are pretty solid for what you pay for. The mobo you got is rather nice too, it should provide a very nice platform for you to build off of if you ever decide to upgrade from an i5 to an i7 or add in extra cards, but typically you shouldn't have to worry much about the mobo.

The SSHD drive is a fancy doohicky that pretty much gives you the best of both words at a mediocre price. Yes it does provide some of the benefits of a solid state drive (quick system loads, and faster load times for programs used frequently)with also providing the cheaper storage capacity of a hard disk drive. I can't see why it would hamper your ability to play the Witcher or GTAV just fine, but i've also never encountered those kinds of drives myself.

Don't fret too much on the CPU cooler, it should do you just fine it's just more needy of your attention than an air cooler. Hope this helps address some of your concerns. If you ever want to keep an ear to the ground for parts that are on sale i'd suggest keeping tabs on this subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/ you might find a PSU that fits what you're wanting at a very good price, or a new HDD or SSD at a low price.

• Storage - I'm assuming you're right, that those are two separate drives (and that "combo drive" is just their wording for a config featuring two drives). If it was a hybrid drive, it should say "hybrid."
  
  It's generally a good idea, if you have a single SSD for your OS, programs, and games, to have a second drive for storing music, pictures, videos, downloads, etc. Larger files that are accessed less frequently, which don't need super-fast speed to access. This a.) frees up space on your SSD, and b.) makes moving your data to a new PC (or reformatting/reinstalling your OS drive) relatively painless.
  
  I am curious about the hard drive brand and speed. Speed's less important if you're just using it for data. But if you wanted to install a few games on that drive, 7200RPM would be better than 5400RPM.
• Power Supply - I'll echo others' suggestions of getting a trusted brand (my last two PSUs have been Corsair; Seasonic's also trusted; hopefully CyberPower has a list of available PSUs), and maybe bumping the power up a little. I put together your build in PCPartPicker, and it lists potential power draw at 486W, which means an efficient, reliable 600W PSU should be fine. But it never hurts to have a little headroom.

Does CyberPower list out the exact components that they use, or is it more of a crapshoot and you're never quite sure exactly what you're going to get? Terms like "1 TB SATA III Hard Drive" and "Standard Power Supply" really worry me when we're talking about something that costs this much money. The same is true for the GPU, who is the manufacturer exactly?

I get that companies like this routinely switch out components so they can make the most profit, but this kind of thing always bugged the hell out of me.

They let you upgrade to specific name brands/models for a number of components (link). You can choose an EVGA 750W SuperNova PSU, or Corsair Vengeance RAM. You can choose a 256GB Sandisk SSD (primary) and a 1TB WD Blue 7200RPM HDD (secondary). There are a number of GPUs available, but I don't see a name brand 390X. (Maybe AMD sells OEM cards direct to companies like Cyberpower? Or as you suggest, maybe you just get whatever brand CyberPower happens to have in stock.)

@spazmaster666:I like quiet, so that sounds ok, unless you think a larger fan would be better? I am on a wireless network much of the time so wireless access is a must until I can get a solid Ethernet connection. Wireless AC is just built into the MOBO? sounds neat. The wireless card there was like an extra 15. Also the optical drive was like free and it never hurts to have the option.

I'm doing 1080p on my home monitor and quite happy with it! I'll save 4K gaming for the far flung future.

@vsharres: Here is the config page I built this on. The non-gaming parts aren't an option (So no cheap mobo) but thats the price I pay for getting the desktop in a box and plugging it in.

@emumford: Ok maybe i'll go up a bit on the PSU, i've had power problems in family desktops before, not fun.

@wraithtek: It's weird it doesn't list brand or the speed on the HDD, i might end up getting the slow HDD, i'll see what happens to the price if I buy stuff separately.

I could go with a 256GB SanDisk Z400S SATA III- 546 MB/S Read & 342MB/s Write (That write is smaller than the read, problem?)

and a 1TB Western Digital Caviar Blue SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 7200 RPM HDD and save some money actually

here is the config page, seems like actual parts at least to my untrained eye? There are super cheap options that are not branded which would be sketchy.

I love how responsive the community is even after a million and one build posts, I hope to have the knowledge about this stuff to help out someone one day haha.

SO here is a built taking some recommendations into account, this is the upper limit in terms of price, and price savings to be had?

Case: Thermaltake Core V31 Black Mid­Tower Gaming case w/ USB 3.0 & removable Drive Bays & Side­Panel Window [+19]

CPU: Intel® Core™ i5­6600K 3.50GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1151 (Skylake)

CPU / Processor Cooling Fan: Asetek 550LC 120mm Liquid Cooling CPU Cooler ­ Extreme Cooling Performance (Dual Corsair Air Series AF120

Performance Edition Fan (Push­Pull) [+27])

Coolant for Cyberpower Xtreme Hydro Water Cooling Kits: Standard Coolant

Motherboard: ASUS Z170­PRO GAMING ATX w/ USB 3.1, 3 PCIe x16, 3 PCIe x1, 1 SATA Express, 4 SATA3, 1 Ultra M.2

RAM / System Memory: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR4/2400MHz Dual Channel Memory [+69] (Corsair or Major Brand)

Video Card: AMD Radeon R9 390X 8GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 Video Card [+203] (Single Card)

Power Supply: 750 Watts ­ EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G1 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply [+48]

Hard Drive: 256GB SanDisk Z400S SATA III 6.0Gb/s SSD ­ 546 MB/S Read & 342MB/s Write [­107] (Single Drive)

Secondary Hard Drive: 1TB Western Digital Caviar Blue SATA­III 6.0Gb/s 7200 RPM HDD [+63] (Single Drive)

Optical Drive: LG 14X Internal Blu­ray Burner, BD­RE, 3D Playback DVD+RW Combo Drive (Black Color) free because of holiday deal.

Internal Wireless Network Card: GIGABYTE 802.11AC Wi­Fi up to 867 Mbps + Bluetooth 4.0 Combo w/ Dual Antenna PCI­E Adapter [+29]

For $1495

I know you don't want to, but I estimate you could save $300 on that exact configuration if you built it yourself. You could put that saved money into a nice mechanical keyboard, mouse, more storage, or any number of other things. However, the build in general aside from being overpriced seems fine.

Also, I advise skipping the water cooling. You don't need it and it's just introducing more complex systems into a piece of hardware you don't want to have to do maintenance on anyway. Air coolers are extremely effective nowadays, and can be nearly silent too. Not to mention they are typically cheaper, unless you go full overkill like me and spend over $100 on one.

I pulled the trigger.... and did a kneejerk GPU upgrade after seeing multiple reviews that said the R9 was optimal for 4K gaming only, since i'm on 1080 and plan to be for a long time, that seemed wasteful. Also several reviews reported that this Nvidia 980 was very quiet for all the power it had. Budget ruined by an extra 50$.

But thanks for all the help everyone! I really appreciate it! This should perform spectacularly!

I also did some things like splitting up the hard drive purchase to get a brand name, switching to a blu ray drive (free during sale actually!) and picking a good aircooler rather than a funky liquid option, as per some recommendations. Also the card is now a brand name instead of the generic videocard I had before. All your hints helped!

CAS: Thermaltake Core V31 Black Mid-Tower Gaming case w/ USB 3.0 &

removable Drive Bays & Side-Panel Window [+19]

CD: LG 14X Internal Blu-ray Burner, BD-RE, 3D Playback DVD+RW Combo

CPU: Intel(R) Core™ i5-6600K 3.50GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1151 (Skylake)

FAN: Cooler Master GeminII S524 CPU Cooler w/ Aluminum Fins & 5 Heatpipes [+3]

HDD: 256GB SanDisk Z400S SATA III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 546 MB/S Read &

342MB/s Write [-112] (Single Drive)

HDD2: 1TB Western Digital Caviar Blue SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 7200 RPM HDD

[+63] (Single Drive)

MEMORY: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR4/2400MHz Dual Channel Memory [+69] (ADATA XPG Z1)

MOTHERBOARD: ASUS Z170-PRO GAMING ATX w/ USB 3.1, 3 PCIe x16, 3 PCIe

x1, 1 SATA Express, 4 SATA3, 1 Ultra M.2

OS: Windows 10 Home (64-bit Edition)

POWERSUPPLY: 750 Watts - EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G1 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply [+48]

VIDEO: EVGA Superclocked ACX 2.0 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB GDDR5 PCIe

3.0 x16 (Maxwell) [+278] (Single Card)

WNC: GIGABYTE 802.11AC Wi-Fi up to 867 Mbps + Bluetooth 4.0 Combo w/

Dual Antenna PCI-E Adapter [+29]

I'm sure I spent much more than I would have building it myself, but this is an initial investment in a good pc so that I can tinker with it in the future. The next build will be handbuilt i'm sure...

Yay PCs!

New PCs are exciting! Have fun...although I agree with some of the others that liquid cooling isn't really necessary for what you got.

Enjoy though! :)