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Cyro

United Kingdom20328 Posts

June 16 2018 13:06 GMT

#13501

That's a part from last year. Threadripper has been pushing Intel around in that segment since it launched, competing stronger than the more mainstream parts. The next gen launching soon is 32c64t ryzen+ ;D

jetburger

United States87 Posts

June 17 2018 02:25 GMT

#13502

Old laptop broke (I think) so I need a new comp. I'm very much out of date on technology so I need some advice. Thinking
of getting a low end desktop since my needs are very simple:

web browsing, mostly Youtube
OpenOffice
watching videos
Starcraft Broodwar (will eventually buy Remastered)
SNES emulator
Warcraft 3
listening to music
maybe a little D3 or SC2 (I can settle for med or low graphics)

Of course I'd like to be able to do these things simultaneously on two monitors. I'd like this comp to last me at least 3-4 years or more if possible. Budget is around US$500 I guess.

So I need the case and everything that goes in it. Don't need keyboard or mouse or speakers. Will buy monitor separately.
Is pre-built the way to go here? I'm not afraid to try building it myself if that's the better option.

I do not intend to overclock/SLI/Crossfire. I do need an operation system. No preferences on brands or retailers. I live in the U.S.

Thanks for any help.

Simberto

Germany11856 Posts

June 17 2018 10:06 GMT

#13503

For those needs, i'd buy something used on ebay. As far as i can see, there is nothing in there which a 10 year old desktop couldn't do without any problems. You should be able to get a used PC for 100-200$ which does all of those things very well.

Pre-built is always the way to go if you are not interested or experienced in the process of assembling a PC. You will pay slightly more, but if you count the time building a PC as anything remotely close to work time, you will work for far below minimum wage on your first few times assembling a PC.

sc-darkness

856 Posts

June 17 2018 10:20 GMT

#13504

It just depends if you want to have fun. It doesn't matter how much you earn, you don't have to make this time vs money.

Simberto

Germany11856 Posts

June 17 2018 10:26 GMT

#13505

Which is exactly what i described. If you want to build a PC because you think you'd enjoy the act of building a PC or the feeling of accomplishment after you got it done, go for it. If you want to build a PC to save money, you are probably better of working two hours overtime or something like that.

sc-darkness

856 Posts

June 17 2018 11:05 GMT

#13506

Fine, I missed that point since most of your post focuses on getting a pre-built computer.

jetburger

United States87 Posts

June 18 2018 04:18 GMT

#13507

Thanks for the replies. im a bit leary about buying a used comp though. I will look around for a cheap prebuilt.

Simberto

Germany11856 Posts

June 18 2018 06:15 GMT

#13508

When you are doing that, take a good look at all of the components. Cheap prebuilds often involve very shitty PSUs or Mainboards. When i bought my last PC (A while back), everything was fine until i upgraded my GPU. At which point the computer sometimes inexplicably shut down under load. It took me a long while to figure out that the PSU was incredibly shit and lying to me, claiming to be a 750W PSU, while after a quick google search it apparently was barely capable of delivering 350W for a continued period of time due to its shittyness. Which wasn't enough for my new GPU, hence the shutdowns.

Get a list of all of the components, including the ones people usually don't care about a lot. A quick google should tell you if something is incredibly bad.

Dangermousecatdog

United Kingdom7084 Posts

June 18 2018 10:31 GMT

#13509

If you build a computer yourself, you can save a substantial amount, like 30% of the cost. If it would had cost 1000 and now costs 700, unless you are working in a very well paid job, that is worth the 2-3 hours to build it. Only you can decide if £300 saved is worth 2-3 hours of your free time. On the otherhand of course the time taken to read the internet and the sheer nervousness of not knowing whether it will work or not may not. In my case I brought everything off a reputable site and everything worked perfectly, but it took 4-5 hours of reading guides, so in terms of money saved per hour it wasn't that much more than work hours, but in my case I can't get more money by working more hours anyways and I can use the money saved for other stuff.

But for about 500 you might as well just buy a premade if you don't know what you are doing and save yourself some time and bother, but everyone has different value on time and budget.

Cyro

United Kingdom20328 Posts

June 18 2018 23:20 GMT

#13510

It really depends on the prices of hardware, recently at times you've been able to get some prebuilt configs for less money than buying the parts individually due to the GPU and RAM price spikes

jetburger

United States87 Posts

June 20 2018 18:28 GMT

#13511

Lol, now I think I'm changing my mind and going with a custom build after all for a few reasons including learning experience and bloatware.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/6kW9KB

This is probably overkill for my needs, but I kind of want to experience the thrill of newer tech such as SSDs. And there's always the possibility of me getting a newer game someday. I am currently missing a video card (I'll get one later if I find that I need it) and operation system (dunno if I want win7 or win10).

Any comments before I pull the trigger?

Simberto

Germany11856 Posts

June 20 2018 19:53 GMT

#13512

You might want to consider also using an HDD in addition to the SSD. But you can probably use the one from your old build for this. I find it incredibly useful to just have a bunch of space to store random shit at, and with only 256Gb you will have to think about your storage a lot, which i find annoying. Standard is usually an SSD for your operating system and things which you want to load quickly, and an HDD for just lots of stuff that you want to save, but don't necessarily use daily.

And SSD is basically the one part i definitively advise everyone on getting. The change in loading times is incredibly noticeable, and it just changes the feel of the PC a lot. Instead of it taking 5 minutes to launch, it takes you 30 seconds from pressing the button to actually doing things on your PC.

Purind

Canada3562 Posts

June 20 2018 20:52 GMT

#13513

Also, with the X470 motherboard, you can use StoreMI which basically combines your SSD and HDD. They market it as "SSD performance with HDD capacity." I'm not sure if it's THAT good, but it's one of the things I'm looking forward to playing with when I make my upgrade

jetburger

United States87 Posts

June 21 2018 04:26 GMT

#13514

I actually have 3 external hard drives and I was gonna see if I can get away with that before getting an HDD. Might be annoying to manage but I guess I'll see

FFW_Rude

France10201 Posts

June 25 2018 06:40 GMT

#13515

Hello,

I want to add some RAM to a 4 year old computer. Figured i'd buy the same but it isn't sold anymore.
I have 2x8gb of Corsair Dominator Platinum (2400 CL10). I would like to go up to 32 (max for my mb).

Some games i play requires it (hello early access game) and i usually run the dedi server on my computer.

What could i buy to go with the existing RAM ? Or is it better to replace it entirely (budget problem ?) ?

Cyro

United Kingdom20328 Posts

June 25 2018 08:25 GMT

#13516

Quickest and simplest way, you can match the primary timings (e.g. 10-12-12-28, whatever's on your kit) with a different kit and it'd probably be the same type of RAM

Craton

United States17282 Posts

June 25 2018 08:36 GMT

#13517

RAM will basically just go down to the worst common speed/timings. Easiest as mentioned is to just get the same speed & timings, but something similar will still work (you may have to manually tweak the settings in the BIOS if the auto configuration chooses speed/timings that are worse than necessary, though).

FFW_Rude

France10201 Posts

June 25 2018 08:50 GMT

#13518

What would you recommand ?

Craton

United States17282 Posts

June 25 2018 16:56 GMT

#13519

Any known brand is fine.

FYI the RAM you listed earlier is still being sold in the US: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233999

FFW_Rude

France10201 Posts

June 25 2018 19:19 GMT

#13520

On June 26 2018 01:56 Craton wrote:
Any known brand is fine.

FYI the RAM you listed earlier is still being sold in the US: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233999

Not in Europe though