Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
[Help] Looking for a new budget build
lilreap2k3
Member UncommonPosts: 353
in Hardware
I built my current pc in April 2011, and the only thing I have upgraded since then was the video card. Here are my current specs:
i5 2500k
GTX 770
16gigs DDR3 1600
Crappy motherboard
Crappy power supply
I have held off of building a new pc because what I have has worked pretty well for the games I typically play. But, recently I have been running into instances where I need to reduce my video settings to make games playable. Sooo, I figure it is probably time to upgrade.
I am not a streamer, I don't care about VR, and 1080p is just fine. I just want to be able to play my games without turning settings to low.
I am trying to stay under like $1,200, and I need to buy the following:
- Processor
- Motherboard
- Video card
- Memory
- Power supply
- Cooling (never done liquid cooling, but would be willing to try it out)
- Case
Would love any recommendations you guys can give. I haven't been keeping up with what is out there over the past 7-8 years. Also, I am horrible at cabling and hiding wires. So, whatever makes that process easier would be an extra benefit.
Thanks!
i5 2500k
GTX 770
16gigs DDR3 1600
Crappy motherboard
Crappy power supply
I have held off of building a new pc because what I have has worked pretty well for the games I typically play. But, recently I have been running into instances where I need to reduce my video settings to make games playable. Sooo, I figure it is probably time to upgrade.
I am not a streamer, I don't care about VR, and 1080p is just fine. I just want to be able to play my games without turning settings to low.
I am trying to stay under like $1,200, and I need to buy the following:
- Processor
- Motherboard
- Video card
- Memory
- Power supply
- Cooling (never done liquid cooling, but would be willing to try it out)
- Case
Would love any recommendations you guys can give. I haven't been keeping up with what is out there over the past 7-8 years. Also, I am horrible at cabling and hiding wires. So, whatever makes that process easier would be an extra benefit.
Thanks!
Playing - Minecraft, 7 Days To Die, Darkfall:ROA, Path of Exile
Waiting for -
Comments
https://www.newegg.com/amd-ryzen-5-3600x/p/N82E16819113568
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813157884
https://www.newegg.com/asus-radeon-rx-5700-rx5700-8g/p/N82E16814126328
https://www.newegg.com/seasonic-focus-plus-550-gold-ssr-550fx-550w/p/N82E16817151189
https://www.newegg.com/geil-16gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820158755
https://www.newegg.com/crucial-p1-1tb/p/N82E16820156199
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811147237
https://www.newegg.com/microsoft-windows-10-home-64-bit/p/N82E16832416892
That comes to $1104, including shipping and before rebates. I'm assuming that you use the stock CPU cooler that comes with the CPU. AMD's stock coolers aren't great, but they sure are massively better than Intel's. You could justify spending $50 on an air cooler if you really wanted to, but the only real reason to liquid cool your CPU is if you really want to liquid cool it.
You didn't mention needing storage, but if you haven't upgraded it since 2011, you need a new SSD. You also didn't mention a Windows license, but I threw one in anyway. I'm not going to advocate software piracy.
The cooler on that video card really isn't the best, but that's probably why the price tag is. Do note the promo code; as of this writing, the card is $300, before a $20 rebate. The power supply is fully modular, which will help with cabling.
https://www.letsbld.com/bld/step4?price=1000&draft=8156629934
Hopefully that link works. Really nice 510 glass case. I switched out the M.2 on the $1000 build to a 1TB and it's well under $1200 and you don't have to do anything but plug it in. and I went INTEL because I prefer them. AMD is still good as well. Intel benches better in gaming.
Or PCparkpicker is really decent too. Lets you throw parts together easily.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/QGspb8
That one hits $1180 without shipping. Also Intel. I would go with the NZXT build personally. warranty and no worry about a single part being bad. That's really frustrating. I also went with a good MB and gold rated Power supply that is fully modular so no annoying extra power cables that aren't needed. I also do not include DVD/CD drives. they are useless, to me. You may not agree. so you would have to add that to the cost.
- Coolermaster V8 for air cooling - Good cooling but takes up a ton of space. I had to remove my side case fan to fit it.
- SanDisk 920gb SATA SSD - Not sure on exact model, and unable to look up the order for it as I paid cash. It is maybe 3 years old.
- Windows 10 - I didn't include it, because I was planning on purchasing a copy regardless of the build specs.
Playing - Minecraft, 7 Days To Die, Darkfall:ROA, Path of Exile
Waiting for -
That Coolermaster V8 would still be good cooler, but I think it doesn't fit current AMD motherboards. It would still fit Intel's LGA 1151 motherboards, but imho it's not good enough to stay Intel over going AMD's otherwise better processor option just to keep using that cooler.
You might also want to consider option of buying all new parts and keeping the old computer intact if you've got any use for a second PC.
EDIT: Also as an addition to my previous post about GPUs. That ASUS Strix is worth its extra price if you get it for $25 more than that stock cooler RX 5700, but not if the price difference after promos is more than $100. It looks like newegg.com is adjusting both the price and toggling the promotion on and off, or has some algorithm that that shows it only after you've spent enough time surfing on their website, or something.
MB - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SXF8GY3/ref=crt_ewc_title_srh_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Memory - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0143UM4TC/ref=crt_ewc_title_srh_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
PSU - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LYGFRL6/ref=crt_ewc_title_srh_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
CPU - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SQBFN2D/ref=crt_ewc_title_srh_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Video Card - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07X979L92/ref=crt_ewc_title_srh_6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Case - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FL1D5RV/ref=crt_ewc_title_srh_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Build comes to $1,090. But, I have a few questions about it.
1. Is 650w enough power for this if I ended up adding another 16gb of ram and/or additional storage later on?
2. Is everything compatible? I believe it is, but better safe than sorry.
3. I like the case, but how will it work out for cabling with that PSU enclosure?
Playing - Minecraft, 7 Days To Die, Darkfall:ROA, Path of Exile
Waiting for -
2. Everything looks compatible
3. It should work fine
That motherboard is quite expensive. If you want something that's specifically on that motherboard, like WiFi support, then it's often a good idea to buy expensive motherboard. But that's so expensive that you might want to consider saving money with some cheap motherboard.
Buying a cheap motherboard for Ryzen 5 3600X is a bit tricky, because while all X570 chipset motherboards support it, the cheaper earlier generation motherboards only support it if they've got new enough BIOS. But if you can do something like ask your local store for a B450 motherboard that has already BIOS version compatible with Ryzen 5 3600X, you could get a good enough motherboard for less than $100.
Also just to repeat, I recommended that Asus Strix back when newegg.com was showing me less than $25 price difference compared to the stock cooled model. It looks like the price difference right now on Amazon.com is $70, and that's quite large price difference just for a better cooler. If you're ok with the computer making a lot of noise, then it's not worth it. But if you're sensitive to noise, then it might be worth even $70 price difference. I don't know.
I like this one also, for just a little more. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DRVHBWK/ref=s9_acsd_top_hd_bw_b2Ore_c_x_1_w?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-10&pf_rd_r=WNH6GJ66S4C0MQGA5DR9&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=d86586dc-cb37-5f03-ab99-d10d920284d4&pf_rd_i=572238#
As far as motherboards go... is this usable? https://www.amazon.com/ROG-Strix-B450-F-Gaming-Motherboard/dp/B07FKTZC4M/ref=pd_di_sccai_1/132-7392487-5678242?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07FKTZC4M&pd_rd_r=0be1b3a4-e4bb-4fdc-be4d-85a17e567d45&pd_rd_w=vaVyB&pd_rd_wg=Cbmyx&pf_rd_p=6e941abd-b4a2-4c12-8143-c53200ac8e44&pf_rd_r=F9MQXX9Z0E5PX1MNRYBH&psc=1&refRID=F9MQXX9Z0E5PX1MNRYBH
Also, would you recommend water-cooling?
Playing - Minecraft, 7 Days To Die, Darkfall:ROA, Path of Exile
Waiting for -
What AMD will let you do now if you think the card is too noisy is to go into Radeon Wattman and scale back the clock speed, which will automatically scale back voltage, too. It's easy to do (and to undo, if you later need the extra performance), and as it's underclocking, you don't get the usual risks of overclocking. That's what I did with my Vega 64, and giving up about 10% of my performance sure saves a whole lot of heat and noise.
On power supplies, that particular unit is probably good, but so many power supply vendors do confusing things with their lineup that I've completely given up on non-Seasonic power supplies. I realize that there are a lot of other good power supplies out there, but EVGA offers some very nice ones and also some not so good ones, and tries to get people to buy one of the latter cheaply thinking that it's a lot better than it actually is. If you can find a review from a reputable site that says that particular SKU is good, then you're fine, but don't think that just because one power supply with "EVGA SuperNova" in the name is good that they all are.
The case airflow will be fine, as three 120 mm fans is quite a bit of airflow. The front fans pull air from in front of your case, and it goes through the case and then out the top or back. That's how most gaming mid-tower cases handle airflow, and it works. Well, unless you're stupid about it and block the air vents with something else.
https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2261?vs=2520
The AMD CPU there is clocked the same as the one I picked, and the Intel CPU is clocked 100 MHz higher than the one you picked. It's the same architecture in both cases. In that comparison, AMD wins nearly all of the gaming benchmarks, and some of them by a lot. Intel wins a handful that are essentially tied, with winning one by 2.1 frames per second its only one of a full frame per second or more.
The problem is that your information is outdated. Yes, Sky Lake Refresh Refresh Refresh (or whatever they're on now) did have higher IPC than second generation Ryzen, but it's not higher IPC than third generation Ryzen.
Here is what I came up with based on the suggestions given:
https://imgur.com/a/vNw4tBh
Opinions? Ways to drop the cost without sacrificing too much?
Thanks!
Playing - Minecraft, 7 Days To Die, Darkfall:ROA, Path of Exile
Waiting for -
There's also no need to buy your own thermal paste. Any cooler will come with thermal paste, and while it absolutely matters that you use thermal paste, the difference between one paste and another is typically a rounding error.
You don't really need to buy your own case fan. Plenty of cases will come with plenty of fans. Speaking of which, there are a lot of cases you could buy that will do a fine job of cooling a gaming rig for half the price of the one you've chosen. If you're really fond of how it looks, then go ahead, but don't expect paying $100+ for a gaming case to result in a meaningfully better rig.
Between those three things alone, you could probably take $100 off the price tag without making any difference that you'd care about.
If you want to get back to $1200, you could drop the aftermarket CPU cooler, though the stock cooler would commonly drop your CPU clock speed by some tens of MHz in a lot of situations. You could also get a cheaper video card. At that point, you're giving up some performance, so it's really just a question of what you want to spend.
I'm curious how much different the following card is to the Pulse I linked above. It's $50 cheaper, but is only 5700 without the XT.
https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Overclocked-DisplayPort-Graphics-DUAL-RX5700-O8G-EVO/dp/B07WRMT3BH/ref=sxbs_sxwds-stvp?keywords=5700&pd_rd_i=B07WRMT3BH&pd_rd_r=ca611cea-fab3-4b1a-8af3-ac9f051aee4d&pd_rd_w=e8eVs&pd_rd_wg=QsZqP&pf_rd_p=a6d018ad-f20b-46c9-8920-433972c7d9b7&pf_rd_r=P7E1K09R2QVNTR6XHE7V&qid=1571176724
Playing - Minecraft, 7 Days To Die, Darkfall:ROA, Path of Exile
Waiting for -
But what matters is not just how the cards compare to each other, but also how they compare to what you have now. A Radeon RX 5700 is about three times as fast as the GeForce GTX 770 that you already have if you chain together benchmarks. The real-world difference could easily be more than that, as Kepler was such a weird, broken architecture, and hasn't gotten driver optimizations in years.
My general advice on upgrading a video card is that you should get at least double the performance of your old card in order to justify the upgrade. A Radeon RX 5700 easily clears that bar. So does a GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, even though it's slower than the RX 5700. But it's also cheaper, which is why I bring it up.
I'm not telling you not to get the faster card. Rather, it's your money, not mine, and so it's your choice of whether to spend more for higher performance or spend less for lower performance.
That's not what I'd do myself, which is why I linked a cheap case in my original build. That's not just some random cheap case; it's the case that I use myself. The only functional issue with it that I have is that the thumbscrews aren't. That is, you'll need a screwdriver for them. Between a Vega 64 and a Ryzen 7 2700X, I'm using higher power parts than what you're looking at, too. But if you think it's ugly and are willing to pay more for a case you like the looks of, that's your choice. Personally, I put my case behind my desk, so I don't see it much anyway.