Help Ily build a computer for $1000~
I know about as much about Processors as I do Quantum Mechanics, the only thing I have a solid grasp on is Power Supply, cooling and GPU.
That said for $1000~ with a Nvidia 960 ($300~) or equivalent AMD GPU what can I build and would you guys be willing to help me out.
I plan to build this thing during the first week of June after I've had a month at the new job.
Thanks in advance,
-Ily
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Ygpm
Do you have any parts you'll be recycling or need all new everything?
Pretty much all new everything except for a headset, mouse and keyboard.
I've had a laptop for the past 3 years and the only PC I have is something like 8 years old at this point.
EDIT: I've got an unopened ATX 600 W Power supply in my house I bought a few years ago, still shrink wrapped
Alright so, just throwing parts that looked good for the price into PCPartPicker I managed to build this. Criticize or suggest as you see fit. I just grabbed things that looked like they'd do what I wanted for a decent price.
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/nYzMf7
EDIT: I know I haven't included an SSD that isn't in my price range for the initial build, that said I may add one before the Summer is out. (Or possibly with the build if I can be sold on one, I've got an entire Summer to plan the build after all.)
Ditch the GTX 960 and go with a 380.
It was just a placeholder for the build. Other than that how do the other parts look?
You could probably save a little on the CPU as well. I wouldn't think you would need anything other than a quad core for gaming really.
As much as it kills me deep at my core, if you have a budget of 1K, don't build on an AMD platform... There I said it. I feel sick, but until AMD get's their head out of their ass and finally release a new enthusiast CPU architecture, you are just buying into a dead end platform. For extreme budget builds, sure, AMD, but with 1K to play with.... Get an Intel Skylake based system. Seriously, AMD has been on that platform since 2011 without a whole lot of improvement in that time. Don't buy 2011 tech with 2016 money unless you are strapped enough for performance per dollar that you have to do it. 1K is enough to buy into an up to date platform and better CPU architecture.
Also if you are going for a single drive configuration at 2TB, get the SSHD with the solid state dynamic cache instead. I've installed on them and they are not shabby. Later down the road you can pull the shackles all the way off and get a nice M.2 drive but it's probably a little outside your budget if you need a new monitor.
Speaking of, try to budget for a model that does freesync assuming you want to go with the R9 380x (best bang for your buck card right now, plays everything in 1080P with settings maxed) Viewsonic has a couple freesync models in budget territory, if a 24" is adequate that feature will only cost you about $30 more than you had budgeted and it's going to improve your experience gaming by allowing you to turn off V Sync and just let the card and the monitor work it out together. No tearing, clean image, lowers the overhead from V Sync so it improves performance. It will be worth having long term.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ztm8FT
Those are good words and I agree with them.
Pretty solid build here. Depending on your storage needs, I'd personally opt for a smaller SSD as boot + main games drive, then grab yourself an extra large drive later to install those rarely played games or long-term storage (separate from cloud backup, right!?!?!)
As mentioned above I own a 600w Corsair PSU so the price there can be disregarded.
After talking with some people I reformatted the build a little, deciding to stick with a full sized case/motherboard at the recommendation of some other Icrontians. Feel free to look it over.
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/mZ8YP6
EDIT: With the money I save on a PSU I managed to throw in a 1TB drive alongside a 250GB SSD
That latest build comes in over budget, but I would buy that in a heartbeat.
So, update.
I found a seller, Direct Computers selling the majority of the hardware on my list on promotion (Up to $50 off, free, insured shipping)
Thing is I don't know the difference between OEM and Retail hardware, reason this is important is because the warranty is 1 year vs 30 days respectively.
I'd love to buy the parts on promotion now, because all I'd need would be monitor, GPU, RAM and OS but I'd rather have them under warranty once I go to build the computer.
Hopefully you guys have some insight on that.
Website is Direct Canada.ca as memory serves
Retail generally comes in a nice box with accessories such as screws, cables, manual, software, and extended warranty protection.
OEM usually comes white box, no accessories, no cables, no driver disk, just the "thing".
Would I get a manufacturer warranty with the purchase?
I really want to take advantage of the promotion, just not if, when I put this thing together next month I end up with a potential hundred dollar paperweight.
Usually you get a warranty, yes, but it's generally only something like 30 days. Depends on the manufacturer.
Illy, due to short warranty on OEM parts (which is from purchase date usually), I would either buy right before you build or go with non-OEM parts if you see a good deal but plan to build later. I know this goes against your buy cheapest you can for the value heart, but trust me a lot of experience says it is best advice I can offer.
Yeah, I was looking at the deals today but thought better of it when I considered that, not building for a month and a bit the warranty would be over before I'd get to test if they work or not.
Hopefully the deals come back by the time I buy but it's better to buy with the guarantee that I'll be able to replace them instead of have really expensive bricks lying around.
Thanks again for the help so far everyone.
My recommendation on buying ahead, Case, monitor, power supply, storage are usually safe bets as their tech doesn't change as quickly, so if you can get a fantastic deal on a case, monitor, power supply, or even an SSD or Hard Drive, it's usually okay to buy ahead without remorse, just make sure you test any OEM products you buy somehow if you are going to store them beyond their return period.
Don't buy your platform products until you are truly ready to build, your motherboard, CPU, GPU, RAM, the tech there can change every couple months, prices flux, things generally get better all the time. No sense boxing yourself in there until you are ready to build. With all the new GPU hype in another month AMD and Nvidia could start dropping prices to clear inventory for the new products so you don't want to buy now and have your card drop 10% by time to build. CPU's are similar, often those will drop every couple months as they prepare new product release and refresh certain parts. Pick your core platform components up only when you are ready to build.
Here's an old thread that I get to resurrect! The memory should probably be saved on. Unless you're planning on doing a lot of compiling, or overclocking, go with the far cheaper DDR4 2400 speeds. I've not seen a benchmark that can justify the additional cost except for a few cases. AMD has announced a pretty impressive card for the $200 USD mark, but obviously "it's not out yet".