Building my own PC for me is always the best option, there are several reasons for engaging in build projects, one reason is you save lots of money as oppose to buying a high end desktop from a manufacturer. That mainly depends on the manufacturer, the likes of HP, Dell, and even ASUS normally don't always used the best assembled components, I call it assembly line trash. Now if you're going with high end systems like Maingear, now we're talking some serious manufactured PC builds. But here's the thing, when you go with PC manufacturers like Maingear who craft their PC's so well all the way down to the screws, their PC's tend to be very pricey.
So here's the deal, using PCPartpicker I believe we can put together a PC that's comparable to the Maingear Shift Z170 and save lots of money. Or is my best option is to just buy the PC, lets get started.
Our PC Build...
First up let's go with Intel Core i7 6700K as our processor, for our motherboard we can't go wrong with the Gigabyte GA-Z170-Gaming ATX LGA1151 motherboard. Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 as our memory. It seems the top choice for SSD with PC builders is Samsung 850 EVO, for this build I'm going to flip the script and go with the SanDisk Extreme Pro 240GB, in my experience in using this SSD I actually think its better than the Samsung 850 EVO in terms of performance. As an additional storage, why not the Seagate Barracuda 1TB,we'll use the extra drive for back up and storing files.
Here's where it gets very interesting when it comes to my choice of graphic card, now I would love to go with the new Nvidia GTX 1070 because its a killer performing graphics card priced reasonably. But instead I'm going to stay within budget and use MSI GeForce 960 4GB even though its the latter year graphic card, it still can easily handle some high intense gaming.
For the computer case, my clear choice here is the Fractal Design R5 Blackout edition. Nice compact design that has tool-less removable drive cages, which for me is the biggest selling point. Now we're going to need a power supply to cook up this rig, lets go with the EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750 80+ Gold certified fully modular power supply. We're going to need keep this processor nice and frosty, instead of going with a close loop liquid cooler, my choice here is the Noctua NH-U9S 46.4 CPU air cooler. You really don't need to install a optical drive as discs are slowly fading out. Most of your content which includes,your music, movies and even your operating system can be install directly off the Internet.Lets not forget we're in the dawning age of data streaming. For the sake of this build though, we'll still install a optical drive and go with the ASUS BW-16G1HT Blu-Ray/DVD/CD-writer.
Total Price for this build: $1209.99......
MAINGEAR Shift/Z170
Now lets turn our attention to Maingear's Shift Z170. Before we begin, I must remind you that consumers have a option to go with Maingears default build, or you can choose any hardware you want installed in your system before purchase, for a added price of course. So for this Maingear system I had to do some hardware tweaking so our final price is a bit inflated as a result.
Lets see what Maingear has to offer. For its processor we have the Core i7 6700k Turbo Core CPU as the choice here, for motherboard lets try the Asus Z170A . I must admit here, the choice of RAM for this system trumps what we have for our build, 16GB HyperX Fury DDR4-2666 which has a fast clock speed over the other RAM I chose for my build. For the graphic card we went with the 4GB GeForce GTX 970. To cool the processor,let try the Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO Advanced Air cooler.
The storage setup is pretty much comparable to our build, the only thing here is a different brand SSD which is the Samsung EVO 250GB, for extra storage, 1TB Seagate Barracuda is the hard drive choice. Once again this system needs power, I picked the EVGA Super Nova 750 80 Plus Gold certified full modular power supply. Throw in 24 x Dual-Layer DVD RW, this completes and rounds out this Maingear Shift Z170 build.
The total price for the MAINGEAR Shift $2,225.99
Buy it Or Build it.......
Normally this would be a easy pick, just build it, before we make that official decision I must say this. Maingear by far make some of the best gaming PC's on the market, if not the best desktop computers period. Yes the price is insanely expensive for any budget conscious person consumer who's seeking to acquire a nice gaming desktop computer from a manufacturer. With the Maingear Shift,you really get what you pay for. A nice clean build within with a perfectly designed PC case. Maingear are innovators when it comes to air cooling setup, no one does it better.
With that said, being that the hardware is almost comparable to what Shift, just look how much money I'm saving with my build, a whopping $1,000 , and I must add I'm still getting the same outstanding performance. The decision here is to......