The i3 8100 seems to be pretty good too although now I’m concerned about whether VR will be CPU-bottlenecked.
Are there cases which are known to be particularly silent?
Look for cases that take big fans - the bigger the fan the better the flow of air with a lower - quieter - RPM.
Beyond that it’s a matter of taste and budget.
That looks very much like what I need. It’s the best one yet, thank you.
For whatever it’s worth, in their yearly roundup, Linus Tech Tips gave the i5-8600K top spot for the mid-high range gaming PC based on performance vs value.
Anytime. I just got a Ryzen 7 2700 with MB and 16 GB or RAM there for $500 so I had their URL ready.
Hah!
If I think about it, it’s had 1 case, 4 motherboards, 5 processors, 4 power supplies and 6 GPUs in the past 20 years.
Hard drives and memory are less clear; typically each motherboards only got the memory that got installed with it and the processor, but I know a few times I added and/or upgraded memory without changing anything else. Hard drives are even less clear; at first, it was 2 drives, then three, then 2 again, etc… I think I now have five separate drives. I do know that one of the original 2 drives was a carry-over from the previous PC that I got in about 1997 (that was also a work-in-progress during its lifetime).
Microcenter!
Does Portatech deliver to Canada? Any idea what duties & taxes are applied when a computer is sold in the US and delivered in Canada?
It does look like it. The 9600K was released 1 month ago for about $15 more and a little higher clock. Does it offer more than that over the 8600K?
I’m having difficulty finding the part of the site where you can customize the computer.
Billing info doesn’t take country so I guess not. 
Oh well.
It may be possible to look at the individual parts on portatech then look them up on amazon. I know for a fact they sell CPUs on amazon for example.
Does the company be quiet! have a good reputation for making quiet cases and fans? It’s in the name but that doesn’t necessarily mean they deliver.
Fans: Noctua and be quiet! are generally good choices? How about others?
Now that you mention it I’ve gone into the store every time I needed something out of the ordinary, it appears you have to visit a store - sorry about that
Buying parts internationally can lead to a world of hurt if things go wrong.
Noctua is a favorite of a lot of people and usually recommended for a quality product. I haven’t heard much about the Be Quiet! line but what I’ve heard has been favorable. I’m personally fond of the Cougar Vortex line and use them in most of my builds.
Ironically, while I use Corsair AIO coolers, I’ve never liked the stock fans they come with and always replace them. So I have an iffy impression of their fans (but it may just be the stock ones) while having a favorable impression of the coolers themselves.
I meant for the CPU cooling.
I will remember Cougar vortex for the case fans.
AIO or Air? Most of the AIO coolers source the pump from the same manufacturers so it’s just a question things like tube length or radiator quality. Any of the major name brands should work fine. You still want to consider the fans though (or replace them) since you’re still pushing air through the radiator. You’ll want to find fans with a high static pressure that still meet your noise requirements.
Air cooler, the typical go-to is the Hyper 212 Evo for cost/performance. The Noctua NH-D15 does a better job of cooling but unless you’re overclocking on it, it’s probably not with the 3x price tag.
Air. Preferably cooling whispers.
I will definitely be overclocking. I’d like to take the i5 9600K at 5GHz. A stock 9600K has a TDP of 95 but I’m not sure what kind of TDP it has when you OC it to 5GHz.
I also looked at the Be quiet dark rock pro 4 or the dark rock 2. Does anyone know anything about the be quiet CPU coolers, especially the dark rock 2, 3 or 4?
Anyone have info on cases? Especially the be quiet! - SILENT BASE 601?
I suppose I can just give you the parts picker page URL if anyone would like to take a look at it: Part List - Intel Core i5-9600K, be quiet! Silent Base 601 ATX Mid Tower - PCPartPicker
(yes, there’s no GPU in the list)
Do you happen to live near a Micro Center store?
I’ve been building my own PCs for about 20 years now. Micro Center will assemble the motherboard, the CPU and the ram, for a few bucks, and bench test them, to be sure that everything plays well together. The most common problem I’ve had with new builds is that one of those components is faulty out of the box, leaving me scratching my head trying to figure out why the newly completed computer won’t boot up. It’s well worth a few bucks to have them test for me.
As long as I go when the store isn’t slammed with business, I have found that their staff is pretty good at working with me to get components that both fit my needs and my budget.
That said, assembling your own computer isn’t the money saver that is used to be. The big computer companies have moved away from the name brand components, into the equivalent of a house brand, meaning that their materials cost are cheaper than mine. They can get a better cost on 200k no name power supplies than I can get buying one from a store.
I still build my own from the ground up because I kind of like doing it ever few years, because I can control exactly the components that go into it ( both size and quality) and because I don’t start out with a new computer full of software bloat and ads.
I love Micro Center but I will note that they work on commission so have an incentive to upsell you on components if you don’t already know exactly what you want.
How common is it for parts you order to build a PC yourself to be duds? If that happens, what can be done?
Are there any Microcenters in Canada? I can’t seem to find any.
So far, PCC Zone and VersusPower have been promising. Cyberpower too perhaps although I’m not sure if the prices I see are in CAD or USD which makes a significant difference.