starting point

[Wayout]

 Needing a new computer and I'm pretty much clueless.  It will be a general purpose family machine but I would like to do some gaming.  To begin my quest I was thinking about building around the following:

  Windows 10 Pro
  Intel Core I7-6700m 4.00gHz
  GeForce GTX 960 2Gb
  64mb DDR4 2133 mHz

 Good start  Yes/No and where do I go from here?

Thanks,
Wayout

FYI:  I am no longer a paying customer at Aces High.  My 10 year old computer put a stop to that.  I posted here because the advice given is always top notch and maybe with a new machine I'll have the ability to play again.

[Bizman]

A general purpose family machine plus some gaming? What are your general family needs? Your sketch is a high end photo/video editing monster with decent gaming ability!

Supposing you don't do any professional photoshopping and video editing, I'd cut the RAM down to 16 GB (I supposes you meant GB, not MB) and change the processor to i5-6600. I'd also consider the new GTX 1060 instead of the 960. With the money saved I might think about getting a 1070, but that won't be on top of my list unless you're going to play either on a 144 MHz monitor or 4G or VR.

A high quality power supply is what you didn't mention. That's crucial.

With that you should be able to run AH3 without issues as well as most other modern games.

[EskimoJoe]

Hey Wayout, I had no idea where to start when I made a similar thread not too long ago. Maybe it can help you out as well.

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,380637.0.html

I've been using PCpartpicker.com

So far, my parts list for a real nice gaming computer is about 1500 dollars with a decent monitor, mouse, keyboard, and the works. My original budget was pretty low for what I ended up wanting, but without much else to do around here recently it became a sort of addiction 

[DaddyAce]

Hi Wayout:

I built this machine with $600 worth of new parts and using parts form my previous machine:  http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,382567.0.html

It will run AH3 DX11 version with all graphics setting maxed out pretty consistently at 60 fps, framerate is limited by my old monitor, if I turn off VSync it goes much higher.  Just ordered a 1440p monitor today, so it'll be interesting to see what it will do with the new monitor.  IMHO anything over 8 GB ram is for things like video editing, or bragging rights, but won't get you improved AH3 performance; better use the $ for other things.  Another useful site, full disclosure it is my son's site but I can truthfully tell you it is quite popular worldwide with many puter-building gamers:  logicalincrements.com

Good luck, my suggestion is take your time and treat it as a fun learning project!

 

[Wayout]

Thanks Bizman and EskimoJoe.  Good information there.  Still leaning to the I7 processor but rethinking the graphics card and ram.  Ram: 16gb.  Graphics card: GTX 1070 - 8gb (thanks Bizman, I was making a mistake with my first choices) Power supply around a 650w?  Not sure, just pulling info from EskimoJoe's post.

[EskimoJoe]

My parts will run a lot more than just Aces High, if that's what you're looking to do.

DaddyAce's linked post looks like a pretty good price to performance ratio, especially if you're only looking to do some casual gaming.

I'm also a newb, I haven't even started ordering parts yet! I've spent quite awhile planning, rethinking, and changing a bunch of things around and I'm only finally just getting settled in to what I want with my budget capped, which turned out to be 1500. You can get maxed out performance in AH for much less, something to keep in mind.

[Bizman]

For what I've learned the high end i7 processors are overkill for gaming, you won't get a noticeable boost in performance over an i5 . They're at their best in video editing. For gaming and general use the high end i5 is perfectly fine.