See part one here
Specs
- Processor: Intel i5-4690k
- Processor Fan: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
- Memory: G.Skill RipjawsX 8GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 1866MHz (16GB total)
- Motherboard: ASUS z97-e
- GPU: XFX Radeon RX 570 RS
- SSD1 (OS): Seagate 600 240GB SATA ST240HM000
- SSD2 (Games): Crucial BX200 480GB SATA CT480BX200SSD1
- DVD: None. Case does not have room for one.
- Case: Thermaltake V200 Tempered Glass RGB Edition
- PSU: ROSEWILL 80+ GOLD 500w
- Keyboard: Redragon S101
- Mouse: Redragon S101
Build
Monday – Parts arrive
2 days after the order had been placed, the parts showed up on my door.
GPU, PSU, Keyboard / Mouse 
Thermaltake case
However- Before I can acquire the CPU/MOBO/RAM from my old PC, I need to wait for the case to arrive for my High-End Gaming PC Build. We will continue Friday.
Friday – Build Day
Time to get started with the build! I didn’t document this build as well. But- here are a few images during the build.
After building the PC, I stole the old SATA SSDs from my main PC. It has 970 M.2 evos now.
Here are a few shots showing the current lighting. Ignore the plastic on the side- this is intended as a Christmas gift for my 10 year old step-son. The protective plastic wrapping will be removed later. Without the protective plastic, it will not appear cloudy.
Lastly- here is a hyper-lapse of the case lighting, taken over a minute or two.
But wait, there is more!
Next week, I will be installing RGB strips inside of the case which will be synced with the case lighting. I will take another video then.
RGB Lighting Install
As promised, it is time to install some more RGB Lighting! I ordered some RGB LED Strips off of amazon.
But, I ran into an issue, where I did not have a proper place to plug in the RGB Strips. The motherboard did not have support for RGB, so, all of the lightning was controlled by a small chip included with the case.
The case DID have an extra RGB out plug, however, it was the wrong socket type.
To remediate the issue, I pulled out my soldering iron, and soldered a plug onto the pins.
Final Build Results
Here is the finished result.
Benchmark / Results
Far Cry New Dawn – Ultra @ 1080p
60 fps average, 81 maximum, and a brief spike down to 38. Overall- the game would be perfectly playable. Pretty respectable numbers from a budget build.
Crystal Benchmark
Since this PC will be using the same hard drives from my old PC, I am reusing the Crystal benchmarks from that build.
OS Drive
Gaming Drive
User Benchmark
Round 1.
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/20884252
Notes:
- Ram is not clocked properly. 1,600mhz instead of 1,866mhz.
- CPU Clock is wrong. It will run 4.2ghz all day long with no issues. Currently running 3.5-3.7ghz.
- Needs fresh install of windows….
- Will perform more benchmarks later on…
Final Verdict
This will be a more then adequate gaming PC for my step-son. It is capable of playing Far Cry New Dawn at Ultra settings with no issues. I assume it should have no issues play any AAA game out currently.
Before I box it up for x-mas, I will do a fresh install of windows, with proper drivers, and the proper RAM/CPU clocks in place, which should boost the benchmark scores further.
As well, as noted above, next week, I will be installing RGB strips inside of the case which will be synced the the color of the case lighting. It should look pretty decent for him.
Lastly- I do believe it should benchmark around 10-15% higher after I do a fresh install, install the proper up to date drivers, set the proper CPU/RAM clock speeds, and give the GPU a little OC.
Overall, for a 300$ investment, not bad at all. If you were wanting to produce a similar build, without reusing parts as I did, you could build something on-par for around 500$
- Budget NVMe 500GB SSD: 50-60$.
- CPU – Ryzen 3 1200 – 60$
- Budget AM4 Motherboard – 50$
- 16 GB DDR-4 2,666mhz – 65$
Chances are- the above components would likely be faster then my ancient i5-4690k.
