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in the market for a new pc
Donpoohbear
Member UncommonPosts: 85
in PC Gaming
so I want a new pc I'm capping my budget at 2500 id like to just buy a premade from a company bc of the warranty since i don't really know much about pc hardware. I'm looking for suggestions on companies and on any models, you guys would recommend . im honestly looking to get something that will let me play anything at max settings for the next 5 years or so
Comments
Processor: Look for Intel's I7-8700K, I5-8600K or I7-7700K. 8700K is the best, but it's also the most expensive. 8600K and 7700K are very close in gaming performance.
RAM: Look for at least 16GB
GPU: Look for GTX 1080 Ti, GTX 1080 or GTX 1070 Ti. 1080 Ti is the fastest. 1080 and 1070 Ti are very close to each other in performance.
SSD: At that price range you should look for computer with large SSD. Any model is good enough and fast enough for gaming needs, but the larger it is the better.
Hard disk: SSD space is expensive. If you want to have more than 1 TB of storage space, then look for a model that has HDD for storage in addition to SSD. If you're okay with 1 TB or less space then you don't need HDD at all you can just use the SSD for everything.
PSU: You can't normally decide PSU of a pre-build computer, but look for a computer where the PSU's model is told to you, not just its power. Then google for the PSU's reviews and check that it's been getting at least decent reviews.
Different power supplies have different quality. You don't need to get top quality power supply, but try to check it to make sure it's not junk.
Case: If you've got room for it in your house, avoid small form factor cases. A good sized case has room for more reliable and effective cooling, and if you ever need to change or add parts later on it's easier if the case is good sized
I don't live in USA and don't know USA's Black Friday deals so I can't make you any good suggestions today I can only tell what to look for.
I put together two more or less equivalent builds that are right around your budget. All I really did for these builds was make sure the power supply wasn't utter junk and went with default on most everything else, so there's a lot of room to make changes if you wanted to. These builds will work well as they stand though, but I wouldn't go so far as to say there is no room for improvement.
I should also add - these builds are PC only. No monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. If you need all of that, they will gladly sell it to you as well, but you'll need to dial back on the hardware some in order to get those components within your budget. That, and you can likely get those components cheaper if you just purchase it yourself on Amazon or someplace similar.
Yes, you can do a lot better building yourself, but if you don't want to, or can't, I really don't fault you on that at all. Yes, you can get a lot better hardware by going someplace like CyberPower or iBuyPower, they may have the same hardware, but you have to be careful, they will also gleefully sell you something that's utter junk and laugh when you try to get it serviced.
Hardware breaks, that's just a fact of life. It's pretty common when building a computer, that at least one piece of the puzzle ships DOA and you have to deal with it. When your building a PC, and a part ships DOA, it's usually a quick 5-7 day return process with the retailer so long as it is within 15 or 30 days. The manufacturer's warranty covers a much longer period, 3-5 years is typical, and some parts can go out longer, but manufacturer returns often take several weeks to process, and a good deal of paperwork to fill out.
A system builder will at least be able to say the system ran when it shipped to you, and you hope they have enough knowledge to be able to select components that are going to be (a) High Quality and (b) work well together. But it still has to ship, and there's a much higher chance of a component coming loose in shipping and getting damaged. Good system builders will package it in such a manner that it's minimized (both Falcon NW and Origin do this), but it's still a risk.
Using a pre-built or system builder adds some convenience, your warranty is all with one company. But that's usually a much shorter warranty than each individual component has, and all they are really doing is handling the manufacturer warranty for you, as they don't actually fabricate or provide anything themselves, they are just putting the package together.
The inconvenient part about dealing with a pre-built or system builder is, when any part goes out, you often have to send the entire PC back for repair. And you are typically paying for shipping on that.
If you DIY, then you just send back the part that's broke, and often you can use a replacement, spare, or something else to keep your PC running in the mean time. But that assumes that you can figure out which part broke, and sometimes that's more of an art than a science.
Pros and cons both ways.
RX 580 and other non-Vega cards are for cheaper PCs.
Right now AMD doesn't have anything that would be competitive with NVidia at high-end gaming PCs.
Get the best performance for the price. The only downfall to Vega right now is that it's not available in AIB configurations that I know of - you either get the stock reference blower, or the stock reference water cooler. The stock blower works, but it's a blower. The water cooler is awesome, but $$$
You want to be looking for
AMD Ryzen 5 or 7
AMD Threadripper (high end)
Intel 7000 series or 8000 series, Core i5 or i7
Changing the processor also means you'll need to change to a compatible motherboard and probably DDR4 RAM.
Other than that suggestion, it looks like your build would work out fine.
Modern games normally use about 4 of the processor cores well, you'll get some advantage for getting 6, small additional advantage for getting 8, and almost no advantage for getting more cores than that.
Clock speed allows your CPU to do each task faster and it's easier stat to understand because it will always give you speed advantage. But clock speed isn't the only thing that affects how fast your CPU does a task: Intel's processor is faster than Ryzen when running at same clock speed, and Ryzen is faster than AMD's FX processors when running at same clock speed.
Processors are so complex and their speed is influenced by so many factors that you actually shouldn't try to look at numbers too much or understand everything. It's much easier to just look benchmarks and use them to make a decision. This website is good, you can compare any two processors you wish:
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-8600K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-1700X/3941vs3915
If your plan is to run only a single game at a time then at your price range Intel's processors are likely your best option. If you want to multibox, or stream games, or something similar that can take advantage of huge core numbers then Ryzen 7 is good.
Your RAM needs to be compatible with your motherboard, so DDR4 RAM, not DDR3 RAM.
The power supply you've chose in good, but you don't need to have that much overpowered power supply. Unless you plan on buying a second graphic card and running them SLI, something like 650W or 700W should be good enough and those are much cheaper.
There are some ins and outs when building a new pc, but overall anyone can do it. You will be proud of it after you get it done. I am envious of your 2500 dollar budget, you can do a lot more with that money by building it than having someone else build it.
If at first you dont succeed, call it version 1.0
Loved EQ Classic and hates that carebears had it changed.
Step 1) The Processor
The processor you go for affects the motherboard which in turn affects the RAM, so I always start here. My budget has never been particularly high, so what I tend to do is set my budget for the processor (usually £100 - £150 for me) and then go look at some benchmarking scores.
Personally, I'm an AMD man when it comes to processors. Mostly this is for ethical reasons. I believe AMD to be the better company both technically and price wise, but during the 1990s and 2000s Intel bribed most major manufacturers into using their chips in prebuilt PCs. This is the only reason Intel are the market leaders. The EU have fined Intel 1.3billion euros (the largest fine ever issued at the time) but sadly the damage is already done.
Anyways, look at benchmarking scores for your price range. If you can afford the absolute top end then Intel are the way to go, but if you drop below the top end then AMD very quickly become competitive and once you reach the mid-tier processors, AMD are generally much better value for money.
Step 2) The motherboard
Whatever processor you choose will set the "socket" that you need. This is the part of the motherboard that your CPU slots into, so it has to match otherwise the CPU wont fit on your motherboard. The Ryzen series uses an AM4 socket, for example, which means you have to get a motherboard with an AM4 socket.
Once you've filtered by the correct socket, you then need to consider what the motherboard offers. I'm generally not too fussed personally, I don't fully understand the differences or where to get the extra performance. So, generally all I look for is the number of RAM slots and the max capacity of RAM, then the same for PCI-e slots. I generally look for 4 RAM slots, each with a max capacity of at least 8gb. I don't bother with SLI or Crossfire (meaning I only have 1 graphics card) so I only need 1 PCI-e slot. If you want 2 gfc cards, you'll need 2 PCI-e slots.
You should also look at the number / type of SATA connections. Most modern motherboards have loads so it isn't an issue, but if you're planning on having a blu-ray / dvd player and multiple hard drives then you need to ensure your mobo has the connections to support them.
Step 3) The RAM
Your processor and motherboard will determine the general category of RAM you get. Generally, this will be DDR4 RAM and your motherboard will likely support 8gb sticks.
So, just choose what you want. I would suggest that 2x8gb DDR4 sticks will be more than enough (I only have 8gb total and never even come close to running out). The main thing you need to pay attention to is the speed of the ram, usually given as Mhz. The higher the better, but your motherboard may have a limit (e.g. your ram might be 3000mhz but if your mobo only supports 2400 mhz then you're wasting money).
I think modern mobos are pretty forgiving if you happen to get the wrong speed, but certainly in the old days if you got the wrong speed then the ram simply wouldn't work.
Step 4) The Graphics Card
Generally, as a gamer, always go Nvidia. Developers usually work very closely with Nvidia in order to optimise their games and Nvidia often release new drivers specifically optimised for AAA releases (e.g. they recently released a new driver to support Final Fantasy 15). That said, AMD have been steadily improving over the years, so it's really up to you.
Again, I generally base my decision on benchmarking results. Check out some sites, look at the scores and pick the best one in your price range.
the big thing to look out for, once you've picked a GPU, is the cooling. The same GPU will be marketed by 10 different companies who all have their own casing and cooling which can dramatically affect performance and longevity. I tend to just go by reviews and trusted manufacturers but there are probably better ways to choose! My last one, I selected one as it was supposed to be "silent", but nope, if it's got a fan it'll never be silent!
Step 5) Power Supply
This is usually straight forwards. Based on your above choices just pick a power supply that will give you what you need. Make sure the power supply has the connections you need, so if you're going with 2 graphics cards in SLI setup then ensure the supply has 2 connections for graphics cards.
Beyond correct connections, 600w+ is enough power for pretty much everything. Just make sure that it has a good rating and warranty. If you can be bothered, go for a modular power supply so that you can disconnect any unneeded cables for a really neat case at the end.
Step 6) Case
I can never remember all the abbreviations and it always confuses me. Basically, you want a big case so that it'll fit your big motherboard and large graphics card into it.
Once it can fit everything in, the next most important thing is air flow. Hard to test, so just look at reviews, there are plenty out there.
If you're going for liquid cooling then also ensure that the case is big enough to fit your water cooler into it.
Step 7) Everything else.
The easier option is just to look at some pre-built machines, copy their specs and then try to buy the components separately and build it yourself. It removes the doubt and also lowers the price! In my experience though, most pre-built machines tend to include at least 1 "junk" component which can catch you out.