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Hey! It's about time to retire my old, trustworthy (eh) partner and get myself a trophy wife. However, I've been out of the loop for ages and I feel thoroughly confused as I browse hardware nowadays. I was no connoisseur to begin with but pls ):
The main point for me is to futureproof myself with a high-quality PC that when cared for has good future projections.
What is your budget?
I could go $2.5k, but around $2k - $2.2k is preferable.
What is your monitor's native resolution?
1920 * 1080 - running a dual BenQ XL2430T setup at the moment.
What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings?
Nothing demanding - yet. I've started branching out from being MOBA exclusive to try out games such as H1Z1 and SW: Battlefront and I hope to stay somewhat current for as long as the budget allows. I want my casual gaming to be visually pleasing instead of turning things down all the time ):
What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming?
I use MSOffice, Skype, Spotify, a media player, a browser... Stuff my 2012 PC does well at the same time. Oh, yeah, screen capture. Not necessarily games but as crisp screen capture as possible would be amazing.
Do you intend to overclock?
Nope.
Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire?
Yes.
Do you need an operating system?
Yes.
Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget?
Nope.
If you have any requirements or brand preferences, please specify.
I have the possibility to grab ASUS stuff for 15-20% discount. I don't know if they deliver so if you deem them crap then leave it out. I want to fit my HyperX Predator PCI HDD in there - it's 240GB.
I use a lot of photo/video for work so reliable HDD and as much space as possible. I've got external hard drives which I transfer on a monthly basis but I'm keeping current customers and projects (with a history of 6 months) on the PC and atm it's about 1.4TB on the PC and 3.3 TB externally. I'm starting to fill up with a 2TB storage drive and I'm worried about the reliability so good HDD quality en masse is preferred.
Edit - Oh, and if it can be made somewhat quiet, that'd be cool. My office is in my apartment and it has affected what fans I've used before.
What country will you be buying your parts in?
Sweden.
If you have any retailer preferences, please specify.
Nope.
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Hey guys planning on building or buying a new computer. It is a long time overdue.
I really want the best deal possible in my price range. I have some experience building my own PC in the past. So if my best deal is building my own or is somewhere like Ibuypowerpc.com or some other site is my best bet I am fine.
My price range is around $1250 after any rebates. So if I buy something and it comes to 1345$ but has a $100 rebate that is fine..
Uses: A gaming PC I want it to be able to play most new games on high or ultra settings. Also basic PC uses for a family as my wife will use it also for her pictures and videos.
Over clocking: yes I can/will OC
SLI: prefer not to and price range isn't going to be high enough to buy 2 really high end video cards.
OS: Yes I will need Windows
Monitor: yes I will need a monitor. Just 1 I have 1 that isn't very great I will use as my
Secondary monitor. But I will need a primary monitor that will look good/great
I live in the USA and I he a micro center close by. Will buy next week.
Thanks a lot!
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Blazinghand
United States25560 Posts
Setting aside $100 for Windows OS, you'll have a budget of $1,150 for the computer proper and monitor. Not microcenter-specific, since this build was for a friend, but here's something in your range:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor ($180.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($25.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($133.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($45.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($62.44 @ OutletPC)
Storage: *Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($42.50 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card ($309.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($47.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($106.24 @ Amazon)
Monitor: Dell S2240M 60Hz 21.5" Monitor ($136.37 @ Amazon)
Total: $1092.38
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-10 11:18 EST-0500
Don’t pay too much attention to the memory and HDD, but the basic idea holds up.
The i5-6400 is one of Intel’s cheaper i5s and I don’t think it’s unlocked, but it’s a fine CPU. Standard cooler and motherboard. If you’re spending over a grand on a computer, it’s a good idea to have an SSD for your OS and some core programs, and an HDD for everything else, so that’s what I went with here.
Samsung 850 EVO is a great SSD, reliable and fast. I’ve heard good things about sandisk and I haven an intel 530 series SSD in a laptop that works well also.
8gb of Ram is all you need for gaming, but 16 might be more appropriate for some uses.
R9 390 is about the right price point for you, and the MSI one has a good cooler (though your case needs moderate airflow since it’s a blower cooler rather than a reference style cooler)
Corsair 200R doesn’t have a lot of drive bays (just a couple) but is otherwise a great case. I have had good times with Corsair PSUs but any PSU from a good manufacturer that can put out 550+ W should be fine.
Dell monitor is just a nice 21” monitor. You can get nicer 24” monitors for more, or acceptable 21” monitors for as little as $99. You’ll probably want to make your own decision on this.
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Estonia4644 Posts
Z170 board doesnt make too much sense with a lowest end, locked i5, you could save another ~30$+ on the mobo by going with a B150 board or the like
The higher clocks (already out of the box) in the case of 6600k (only unlocked 1151 cpu in your price range) would help a ton in gaming but add ca 90$
On the other hand, going 6400 and Z170 would make it easy to upgrade to a 6600k (~270$) or even a 6700k (370?) down the line for tons of performance without swapping mobo out as well. But I still feel like overspeccing on the MB for the future and skimping on CPU is gonna make less sense
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Blazinghand
United States25560 Posts
On November 11 2015 05:03 fusefuse wrote:
Z170 board doesnt make too much sense with a lowest end, locked i5, you could save another ~30$+ on the mobo by going with a B150 board or the like
The higher clocks (already out of the box) in the case of 6600k (only unlocked 1151 cpu in your price range) would help a ton in gaming but add ca 90$
On the other hand, going 6400 and Z170 would make it easy to upgrade to a 6600k (~270$) or even a 6700k (370?) down the line for tons of performance without swapping mobo out as well. But I still feel like overspeccing on the MB for the future and skimping on CPU is gonna make less sense
oh yeah actually the Z170 is only needed if you're OCing this is true. Probably better to go with something less high-end. I think this board had a MIR back when I did this that made it more comparable with the cheaper boards.
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http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8v7hf7
This is what I'm thinking so far. Looking for advice from someone more knowledgeable than me.
What is your budget?
Aiming for <1200 USD but I can go a little over
What is your monitor's native resolution?
1600x900. May upgrade at some point in the not too distant future
What games do you intend to play on this computer? What settings?
I'm setting the bar for this computer to run Fallout 4 with pretty high settings. What's more important is that this rig is fairly future proof. I'm not sure if I should be looking at higher end processors given that objective.
What do you intend to use the computer for besides gaming?
Nothing too serious. MATLab and comparable programs, maybe some C++ and 3D drafting.
Do you intend to overclock?
No. Maybe in the future but I have no reason to do so currently
Do you intend to do SLI / Crossfire?
Same situation with overclocking.
Do you need an operating system?
Yes, probably Win8 64 bit
Do you need a monitor or any other peripherals and is this part of your budget?
No.
What country will you be buying your parts in?
United States
Edit: Changed build
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Thanks a lot BH I sent you a PM but Ill post it here also.
Its a combo deal I saw can I get your input on it plz.
The Combo costs $1073 and has a $25 rebate and will give me a $10 gift card.
Processor: Intel Core i7-6700K 8M Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1151 95W BX80662I76700K Desktop Processor Intel® HD Graphics 530
Motherboard: MSI Z170A PC MATE LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Memory Kit Model F4-2133C15D-16GRR
Video Card: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 970 ZT-90101-10P 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support G-SYNC Support Video Card
SSD: Mushkin Enhanced ECO2 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MKNSSDEC120GB
HDD: TOSHIBA DT01ACA100 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Power Supply: Rosewill ARC-650, ARC Series 650W Power Supply, 80 PLUS Bronze Certified, Single +12V Rail, Intel 4th Gen CPU Ready, SLI & CrossFire Ready
Case: NZXT S340 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Case
Cooling: CORSAIR Hydro Series H50 120mm Quiet Edition Liquid CPU Cooler – Intel Only
Random Thing: DINO DCA108-DH DisplayPort male to HDMI female Adapter
Then I would need a monitor and a OS. A OS costs $100 right. and The monitor BH posted was around 130-140 So it is right at or a little over my price point but I can swing it.
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Blazinghand
United States25560 Posts
If I were going to put together a similarly priced computer to that here's what I'd change (some of this is taste, but some is legit)
I wouldn't use a water cooler-- I'd use a 212 Evo, or if I were getting super serious, maybe like a Noctua NH-12S or something. I find water cooling cumbersome and generally not worth it.
I would probably get a different case. that one is a bit no-frills and I'm not a fan of windows I mentioned another case, but for a bit more the Rosewill Thor V2 is a nice choice as well with good cooling and tons of space.
That SSD brand isn't one I trust. I recommend Intel, Samsung (post 840-series), or Sandisk if you want to save some cash.
If I was gonna drop all that cash on an unlocked i7, it would seem a bit of a waste to only get a GTX 970. Instead, I might go for the cheaper i5 6600K and use the extra cash to get a more expensive GPU-- a 980, or an R9 390X, or even something flabbergastingly expensive like an R9 Fury. This kit seems really overbalanced in favor of CPU over GPU which is not great for gaming. Basically a lot of the money being spent on this is like, increasing the power of the CPU when you'd probably be more bottlenecked by GPU on most things here.
RE: Monitors, shop around and decide what you want. I'm a dell fanboy but there are many good brands of monitors and monitor features you might desire
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Estonia4644 Posts
whats cumbersome and not worth it about a decend (as the H50 is) AIO watercooler? the install is almost as simple as in the case of a tower air cooler, sometimes even simpler!
Unless you plan on transporting the case very often, it is a great and popular choice, especially for a high performance cpu with overclocking like the 6700k
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Blazinghand
United States25560 Posts
I don't know about that watercooler, or about watercooling in general in a first-hand sense. I've only observed my friends' attempts to watercool their own boxes, which have varied from "this is amazing and doesn't really seem like too much trouble, just bolt it on" to "this is a fiasco, good thing he owns a laptop"
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Estonia4644 Posts
theres a world of difference between AIO closed-loop out of the box solutions like this one and build-your-own-plumbing-and-find-out-you-arent-very-good-at-it-and-theres-water-everywhere custom setups
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+ Show Spoiler +On November 11 2015 07:37 Onegu wrote:
Thanks a lot BH I sent you a PM but Ill post it here also.
Its a combo deal I saw can I get your input on it plz.
The Combo costs $1073 and has a $25 rebate and will give me a $10 gift card.
Processor: Intel Core i7-6700K 8M Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1151 95W BX80662I76700K Desktop Processor Intel® HD Graphics 530
Motherboard: MSI Z170A PC MATE LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Memory Kit Model F4-2133C15D-16GRR
Video Card: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 970 ZT-90101-10P 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support G-SYNC Support Video Card
SSD: Mushkin Enhanced ECO2 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MKNSSDEC120GB
HDD: TOSHIBA DT01ACA100 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Power Supply: Rosewill ARC-650, ARC Series 650W Power Supply, 80 PLUS Bronze Certified, Single +12V Rail, Intel 4th Gen CPU Ready, SLI & CrossFire Ready
Case: NZXT S340 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Case
Cooling: CORSAIR Hydro Series H50 120mm Quiet Edition Liquid CPU Cooler – Intel Only
Random Thing: DINO DCA108-DH DisplayPort male to HDMI female Adapter
Then I would need a monitor and a OS. A OS costs $100 right. and The monitor BH posted was around 130-140 So it is right at or a little over my price point but I can swing it.
CPU: for your usage, i5-6600k will save you some money while performance will be the same.
GPU: honestly gtx970 is still a great card, especially when you are gaming at 1080p. R9 390X performs slightly better, but also cost a bit more. Tbh the idea of cpu-gpu matching pair is a bit bs, just dont get something super weak like gtx750 to pair with 6600k and I dont see what else is wrong. performance difference is gonna be like 5fps. 6600k is probably among the best cpu for gaming right now, so by pairing logic one must get 989Ti. just aim for at least gtx970, and move up the rank as your budget allows
SSD: definitely get something else, like Samsung 850Evo. you want your data to be safe.
PSU: since this is unlocked cpu, you may want better psu. on phone atm, for other psu can try search for psu tier list, and go down from tier1 based on availability and budget.
case: unless you hate side panel window, this case is ok, not the best to work with, but not bad either.
cooling: nothing wrong with AIO in performance, but price will be more expensive than air cooler. some cheap AIO actually perform worse than top end air cooler while still manage to be more expensive.
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United Kingdom20338 Posts
For anyone buying 6600k/6700k; just buy ddr4 3000c15/3200c16.
h50's are terrible and there's pretty much no reason to use one ever
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Would a corsair cx600 be enough for an r9 390, i5 3570k, 1tb hdd, and 8gb ram?
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United Kingdom20338 Posts
If you have the power connectors that particular 390 needs, yes (but there are maybe better psu options if you don't already have the cx600)
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On November 11 2015 13:22 Cyro wrote:
If you have the power connectors that particular 390 needs, yes (but there are maybe better psu options if you don't already have the cx600)
What are better options? For me price is a big factor though. I try to get everything as low as possible. I was reading this recently (http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html), the recommended ones are expensive but it says corsair cx is not for gaming rigs as it belongs to tier 4.
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United Kingdom20338 Posts
I am not the one to ask for PSU options when price is a factor :D
it's been pretty dead around here recently though
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Ok I played around with things is this any better? Depending on which is better I will go ahead and buy tomorrow.
Price is $1080 with $30 mail in rebate.
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K Devil’s Canyon Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1150 BX80646I74790K Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4600
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-SLI LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
GPU: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 970 ZT-90101-10P 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support G-SYNC Support Video Card
RAM: G.SKILL Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model F3-2400C11D-16GSR
PSU: Rosewill Valens-700, Valens Series 700W Power Supply, 80 PLUS Gold Certified, Single +12V Rail, Intel 4th Gen CPU Ready, SLI & Crossfire Ready (Model:VALENS-700)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive (Model:ST1000DM003)
SSD: SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 250GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-75E250B/AM
Case: NZXT S340 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Case (Model:CA-S340W-B1)
Cooling: CORSAIR Hydro Series H50 120mm Quiet Edition Liquid CPU Cooler – Intel Only
The first one is better isnt it. Will just need to upgrade the SSD on the first one.... Sorry I am noobish about this.
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United Kingdom20338 Posts
^should be getting 6'th gen CPU + ddr4, not 4'th gen + ddr3 (and h50 is still a really bad cooler)
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Estonia4644 Posts
haswell is still legit, esp the 4790
gonna be a cheaper yet still very powerful setup, despite skylake-fetishes
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EPT
