It's that time again...

lilreap2k3

It has been quite a few years, and my current PC has done me well up until now, but I feel like it is about the time to upgrade once again.

I am looking for a build for around $1,000 or less. I have monitors, mouse, keyboard, speakers, OS, SSD, etc. Just looking for the following components:

• Processor
• Motherboard
• Memory
• Graphics Card
• Power Supply
• Cooling
• Case

The chipset and component landscape seems to have changed a bit since my previous build and I am out of the loop on what people are using nowadays. I prefer Intel+EVGA, but any suggestions you guys have would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Quizzical

Keeping peripherals is fine.  Keeping an old SSD is possible, but may be inadvisable, depending on its age.  What SSD is it, and how old is it?

As for an OS, whether you can transfer the Windows license to a new computer depends on what you have.  Or at least I assume that you're using Windows and not something else like Linux.

I hope you don't expect to just plug the old SSD into a new computer and have it just work.  You'll at minimum need to reinstall Windows with the new hardware present so that the proper drivers for it get installed.  Unless you conveniently have a large, unused partition on it, that means wiping it so that you can reinstall.

SSDs have also gotten a lot cheaper than they used to be, with 500 GB now under $70.  That doesn't mean that you can't reuse your old SSD, but it does mean that getting a new one is cheaper than you might have thought.

Usually people don't come in requesting not merely a particular GPU vendor, but also a particular board partner.  You can get a GTX 1070 from EVGA if you want, but from New Egg's current prices, you'll pay about $30 more than for an equivalent card from Asus.

Or if a $334 video card doesn't fit your budget and you drop down to a 6 GB GTX 1060, an EVGA model on that costs $50 more than a comparable card from Zotac and $60 more than an 8 GB Radeon RX 580 from XFX.

It's your money, so if you really think that buying from EVGA in particular is worth that much more than other board partners, you can spend it how you want.  But it's not what I would do.  Especially with some cards basically on clearance after the end of cryptocurrency mining, I think it makes more sense to buy one of the deeply discounted models rather than paying full price for EVGA.

You say that you have "monitors" plural.  What monitors do you have, and perhaps more to the point, how many and which monitor ports?  Unless you need something bizarre, it's usually easy enough to choose video cards with the ports you need.  But with multiple monitors, it's likely that not all cards will have what you need.

Vrika

I'd buy something like this:
  https://pcpartpicker.com/list/d6QkP3

It's atm $780 after rebates, so it'd come under $1 000 even if you'd decide to buy new SSD.

Wizardry

mail in rebates,no thanks
MICRO board again been there done that,no thanks.
Stick to Intel.
IMO search your local ads,it is Christmas time,you would be surprised how some people need money bad and will sell their old computer.Or there are also people selling their PC because they want a new one.
Like i am looking at a nice PC on Kijji for 1500 bucks.Buying from someone ,a private sales,there is nobody trying to make a profit on it,they are simply selling it.Soon you get into stores they have a markup that adds needlessly to the prices.

Quizzical

Wizardry said:

mail in rebates,no thanks
MICRO board again been there done that,no thanks.
Stick to Intel.
IMO search your local ads,it is Christmas time,you would be surprised how some people need money bad and will sell their old computer.Or there are also people selling their PC because they want a new one.
Like i am looking at a nice PC on Kijji for 1500 bucks.Buying from someone ,a private sales,there is nobody trying to make a profit on it,they are simply selling it.Soon you get into stores they have a markup that adds needlessly to the prices.

$1500 for a used computer?  That would get you something awfully nice for a new computer, and without the risk that someone else is trying to get rid of it because it has problems.

Also, did you realize that it's possible to play FFXI on an AMD CPU, a Micro ATX motherboard, and whatever else you're recommending against?