Building a PC - Does this seem good?

[SKBPinkie]

Hey guys,

Seeing how the current console gen is going, I'm considering switching sides and getting a good gaming PC. One that's capable of running most games at 1080p and 60fps at high settings is what I'd like. However, my budget is around $600-$750. I built one on one of these "build and customize your PC" websites, and I ended up with the following config.

But this is gonna cost about $900. Given my requirements, should I just go for it even though it's slightly above my budget or should I look elsewhere OR downgrade a few of the parts?

Thanks!

 

[sneakypenguin]

Its tough to cut and still hit your 1920x1080 60fps. I'd keep the gpu might look into a cheaper amd processor.

 

[Supernova1138]

I wouldn't cut the GPU down any further if you want 1080p 60FPS. For CPU, if you want to stay with Intel, you should not go any lower than an i5, i3s may start struggling with newer games due to only being dual cores. You could go with AMD if you wanted to save some money eg. FX 6300, though you may lose some performance with CPU heavy games with poor multithreading support.

Depending on your uses for this computer there are some other things you could get away with cutting. You could get a cheaper motherboard with an H87 chipset if you don't need Z87 exclusive features like SLI/Crossfire support. You don't need liquid cooling unless you plan on overclocking, and you can't do that with an i5 4440, only the 'k' series CPUs can overclock eg. i5 4670k or i7 4770k.

If you don't plan on watching movies on your computer, you can lose the BluRay drive and get a regular DVD drive, that would save you about sixty bucks. Software isn't distributed on BluRay, so it's only good for movies, and possibly as a backup medium, but external HDDs are more cost effective these days. Also, BluRay movies require special playback software when run on PC due to DRM bullshit, some BluRay drives will come with it, but others, particularly OEM packaged drives won't. BluRay playback software costs at least $50.

You can also drop the Wireless card, and just run a wired connection if you need to shave off another 20 to 30 bucks.

 

[SKBPinkie]

Thanks for the tips, guys! I think I can cut down on the liquid cooling, motherboard, and the blu-ray drive. It could still be above $750, but I don't think it'll be too much.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

IT'S ALL WRONG!

If your budget is $750 then I highly suggest you go with an AMD setup. A lot more bang for your buck. Besides, newer games will take advantage of 8 core CPU, and older games won't take a notable hit with a good enough GPU.

My suggestion is to go with an AMD FX-8320 on Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P. That should do it for you. You'll also need at least 1Tb of HDD with at least 64mb of cache and at least 80 bronze certified PSU. And you don't need liquid cooling, unless you're planning to overclock the crap out of your CPU. And if you can get by without a Wireless adapter, do it.

How about something like this?

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P
RAM: Kingston HyperX 2x4GB Black Series
PSU: SeaSonic G Series SSR-550RM 550W 80 Gold certified
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 64MB cache, 7200rpm
GPU: Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB DDR5

This should be around $750 unless the prices are vastly different in your area for some reason. You can go cheaper if you get just 1Tb HDD and some cheap RAM. And if you can find an 80 Bronze certified PSU that will probably save you a few bucks as well. That way you can get an aftermarket cooler if you really want one. In that case just go with COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO.

 

[Island Dog]

Yeah, I'd drop the water cooler and go AMD as well.

 

[SirNerd]

A GTX 760 is half the price of the Radeon, and can run today's game at 50 FPS, also investing in a small SSD drive and loading your OS is something to consider.

 

[SKBPinkie]

Sorry I didn't update this from before, but I went ahead with the intel processor, but dropped the liquid cooling, motherboard, and bluray drive. This was a tad bit over $800, but it was reasonably worth it and only just crossed the upper limits of my budget.

Thanks for the other tips, but I went ahead with it anyways.

 

[iseko]

Pretty much what has been said already. The only thing i might add is going for a ssd drive. Seriously, you can build the fastest computer you want and the harddrive will be there to rain on your parade. Granted it doesnt do THAT much once you are in the game (sorta...). Not having one pisses me off in day to day use. A 120gig ssd doesnt cost that much. Plug in a regular 500gig or 1 tb drive for data storage and you are good to go!

 

[SKBPinkie]

Pretty much what has been said already. The only thing i might add is going for a ssd drive. Seriously, you can build the fastest computer you want and the harddrive will be there to rain on your parade. Granted it doesnt do THAT much once you are in the game (sorta...). Not having one pisses me off in day to day use. A 120gig ssd doesnt cost that much. Plug in a regular 500gig or 1 tb drive for data storage and you are good to go!

I might add that at a later stage. I've already crossed my budget by a bit, so that'll have to wait for a couple months. Even 64 GB should be enough for games, right? I mean - I don't play more than two games at any one time, and I can't see that taking up more space.

 

[exobook]

Pretty much what has been said already. The only thing i might add is going for a ssd drive. Seriously, you can build the fastest computer you want and the harddrive will be there to rain on your parade. Granted it doesnt do THAT much once you are in the game (sorta...). Not having one pisses me off in day to day use. A 120gig ssd doesnt cost that much. Plug in a regular 500gig or 1 tb drive for data storage and you are good to go!

cheapest 120gb SSD for me is about £50 while a 1td hard drive is about the same price. Why double your budget on storage and cut something else for a computer that boots up a few seconds faster? I've been using normal hard drives for years and they do the job fine. No point putting in more costs for what is basically an added bonus.

 

[Denamic]

Pretty much what has been said already. The only thing i might add is going for a ssd drive. Seriously, you can build the fastest computer you want and the harddrive will be there to rain on your parade. Granted it doesnt do THAT much once you are in the game (sorta...). Not having one pisses me off in day to day use. A 120gig ssd doesnt cost that much. Plug in a regular 500gig or 1 tb drive for data storage and you are good to go!

cheapest 120gb SSD for me is about £50 while a 1td hard drive is about the same price. Why double your budget on storage and cut something else for a computer that boots up a few seconds faster? I've been using normal hard drives for years and they do the job fine. No point putting in more costs for what is basically an added bonus.

It's not just booting up a few seconds faster. Also having the swap file on the SSD speeds up EVERYTHING. Every facet of your experience gets improved to a point that using a non-SSD computer pisses you off. An SSD is one of the biggest upgrades you can buy on a computer, even if it doesn't directly increase FPS in games.

 

[Comocat]

Liquid cooling is nice because its quiet. My PC sounded like a damn train until I installed a cooling kit.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Liquid cooling is nice because its quiet. My PC sounded like a damn train until I installed a cooling kit.

I would beg to differ. I have Noctua air coolers in my case and they barely make any sound during full load when playing graphical stressing games.

OT: You don't really need liquid cooling, you will do just fine going for the air cooling instead.

 

[loc978]

Honestly, the only thing in that build I'd be wary of is the power supply (depending on who manufactured the video card, anyway... GPU and RAM isn't all that goes into one of those). Is it some sort of standard 80-plus bronze from Cooler Master, Seasonic, Antec, et cetera... or is it some cutrate uncertified POS from a company with a name designed to sound almost like a trusted name in hardware?
Example: Logisys [http://www.logisyscomputer.com/]. Seriously, they combined Logitech and Linksys in an attempt to sound respectable.

 

[omega 616]

I have a similar thing, so I can butt in on the parade? No use creating a whole new thread for "what that other guy asked" is there?

Anywhoo, remember that scene in fast and furious where Jesse says "not a bad way to spend 10 grand" ... well my 10 grand is actually about £360. I know I am not going to set the gaming world on fire, as long as it can play stuff like bioshock infinite that is all that matters ... 30 fps in 1366x768 and I am happy!

My brother wants me get this "bundle" from his work, which is an "Intel i5-3570K 3.8GHz + Asus P8Z77-V LX + 8GB Memory Motherboard Kit" now all I see is the code, I need one of you brain boxes who sees a blonde, brunette, redhead to tell me, is my brother just trying to boost his numbers or is this an ok use of £360?

If it isn't a good use, what would you recommend?

 

[loc978]

I have a similar thing, so I can butt in on the parade? No use creating a whole new thread for "what that other guy asked" is there?

Anywhoo, remember that scene in fast and furious where Jesse says "not a bad way to spend 10 grand" ... well my 10 grand is actually about £360. I know I am not going to set the gaming world on fire, as long as it can play stuff like bioshock infinite that is all that matters ... 30 fps in 1366x768 and I am happy!

My brother wants me get this "bundle" from his work, which is an "Intel i5-3570K 3.8GHz + Asus P8Z77-V LX + 8GB Memory Motherboard Kit" now all I see is the code, I need one of you brain boxes who sees a blonde, brunette, redhead to tell me, is my brother just trying to boost his numbers or is this an ok use of £360?

If it isn't a good use, what would you recommend?

...that would be three parts (CPU, motherboard and RAM, respectively), not a whole computer... I won't comment on the price, since in the UK everything looks ridiculously overpriced to me.

But unless your brother is offering to give you a hard drive, case, power supply, video card, optical drive and an operating system installation, I'd say those parts would be a waste of your money.

Just a guess... since, again, UK prices... but I think you would be best served with a low to midrange AMD APU system on your budget (probably an A4 or A6, maybe an A8). I build 'em for around $300 in parts pretty regularly.

 

[omega 616]

...that would be three parts (CPU, motherboard and RAM, respectively), not a whole computer... I won't comment on the price, since in the UK everything looks ridiculously overpriced to me.

But unless your brother is offering to give you a hard drive, case, power supply, video card, optical drive and an operating system installation, I'd say those parts would be a waste of your money.

Just a guess... since, again, UK prices... but I think you would be best served with a low to midrange AMD APU system on your budget (probably an A4 or A6, maybe an A8). I build 'em for around $300 in parts pretty regularly.

I have a corpse of a computer here, it's just old and dead (press the power button and it just beeps) so I figured "time for a new one".

So I have everything you listed really, video card is a little worrying since the one in my dead PC is a hd 5770 (or something).

I just have a nagging feeling that my old motherboard limits what I could put on it.

Thanks.

 

[Weaver]

Unlike others, I don't see any reason to go with an AMD CPU now a days.

 

[Zac Jovanovic]

Unlike others, I don't see any reason to go with an AMD CPU now a days.

Better bang/buck ratio in most regions and potential future proofing. There are 8 core AMDs in the price range of dual core i3s right now. I3s fall behind hard in benchmarks in any game that can use more than 2 cores already, seeing that both new consoles use 8core AMD CPUs it might turn out that I5s which are the current sweet spot might not quite cut it in a year or two.