The thread that is now the unofficial PC builds thread :P
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Nvidia vs EVGA is the manufacturer of the cards, they use a certain GPU model (770, 760 etc) and build the board components to support it. Some cards have different outputs or different memory controllers or coolers. They're more or less the same.
I recently constructed (reconstructed rather) a similar power system for much less than that.
CPU: 3rd Gen i7-3770k ($250)
GPU: Radeon R9 290 ($400)
Motherboard: Some Z77 ($130)
RAM: 8GB DDR3-1600 ($65)
Obviously this doesn't include some of the other costs, but based on my build here I'll put out some personal recommendations.
For the CPU, based on a bit of research, it seems like the 3770k actually outperforms the 4770k in gaming. This literally makes no sense, as the 4770k has a higher IPC (Instructions per clock), so it should be faster. But it runs hotter, which means you can't get as high of a turbo boost or overclock. My 3770k seems to be a good model as well, I'm sitting at 4.5GHz with a miniscule voltage increase compared to the average model which needs a modest increase for a stable 4.5. Not to mention the 3rd gen i-series will be cheaper.
As for GPU, I was able to sneak in my purchase of an R9 290 at $400 before the price jumped to almost $600. It outpowers the 770 at a lower price, at the cost of noise (not really) and heat (really). It runs hot, but through a bit of fan speed tweaking I'm about to max at 85c without much noise increase. Basically, if you can somehow get a R9 290 for $400, jump on it. Release benchmarks show it barely scraping behind the GTX Titan for $500 less, and the performance of my card more or less confirms this.
RAM doesn't really matter for gaming particularly much.
Screw Windows 8.
If there's any way you could save ~$100 to get an SSD for the OS, do so.
I recently constructed (reconstructed rather) a similar power system for much less than that.
CPU: 3rd Gen i7-3770k ($250)
GPU: Radeon R9 290 ($400)
Motherboard: Some Z77 ($130)
RAM: 8GB DDR3-1600 ($65)
Obviously this doesn't include some of the other costs, but based on my build here I'll put out some personal recommendations.
For the CPU, based on a bit of research, it seems like the 3770k actually outperforms the 4770k in gaming. This literally makes no sense, as the 4770k has a higher IPC (Instructions per clock), so it should be faster. But it runs hotter, which means you can't get as high of a turbo boost or overclock. My 3770k seems to be a good model as well, I'm sitting at 4.5GHz with a miniscule voltage increase compared to the average model which needs a modest increase for a stable 4.5. Not to mention the 3rd gen i-series will be cheaper.
As for GPU, I was able to sneak in my purchase of an R9 290 at $400 before the price jumped to almost $600. It outpowers the 770 at a lower price, at the cost of noise (not really) and heat (really). It runs hot, but through a bit of fan speed tweaking I'm about to max at 85c without much noise increase. Basically, if you can somehow get a R9 290 for $400, jump on it. Release benchmarks show it barely scraping behind the GTX Titan for $500 less, and the performance of my card more or less confirms this.
RAM doesn't really matter for gaming particularly much.
Screw Windows 8.
If there's any way you could save ~$100 to get an SSD for the OS, do so.
Reading between the lines here, I think that means "screw the pre-built HP, and build the computer yourself". Am I correct?
Also, about SSD's: I've read that SSD's, while much faster than traditional hard drives, eventually give out over time. I don't want to buy something and put all my important data on it only to forget to back up my files and have my OS and such all go to hell when the SSD gives out.
Also, about SSD's: I've read that SSD's, while much faster than traditional hard drives, eventually give out over time. I don't want to buy something and put all my important data on it only to forget to back up my files and have my OS and such all go to hell when the SSD gives out.
Arvenski said:
Ideally, yes. An alternative would be to buy a cheap prebuilt with the correct processor, motherboard, RAM and stick the GPU of your choice in it and maybe upgrade the power supply to match. With prebuilt they generally give you one good thing (the selling point) with a lot of not so good things (the profit).
How long, exactly? I'm assuming it depends on how often they're used, but still, if I only had to change out the SSD, say, every couple of years, that would be worth the extra speed.Trevty said:
Ideally, I would build something myself. However, I don't know nearly enough about this **** to try. As for prebuilts: do all video cards fit all motherboards? Because modifying a prebuilt might not be such a bad idea. Logic says that buying a piece of crap and then upgrading it would be easier than building from scratch.Splintert said:
Kevlar
Baron
Trevty said:
Very long is an understatement. They did a survivability test where to kill an ssd you would have to be constantly moving data.
http://techreport.com/review/25889/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-500tb-update
So, even with a samsung 840 which isn't even their best scoring ssd in this test it ran without issue for what would be overkill for most.
Arvenski said:
You could try searching on youtube for some videos on how to do it yourself. All motherboards also come with instructions that are very detailed in how to install everything. If you know what you are doing it takes only ten minutes or less (more if you want good cable management).
Well, the problem with SSD's in this case is that if I was going to buy this HP that I'm looking at (which I'm thinking of doing. It might not be perfect, but as long as it's good, I'm happy), getting a 128GB SSD along with the 2TB hard drive would be another $280 ****ing dollars.
Arvenski said:
If you were to choose the parts yourself, supplier Newegg:
i5-4670K: $240, Like's been stated in the thread I made, the i7 won't give any significant benefits in gaming.
8GB RAM: ~$100
128GG SSD: ~$90 (Samsung EVO)
2TB HDD: $100 (Seagate Barracuda)
Motherboard: ~$120
OS: ~$100
PSU: ~$100
GPU: ~$350 (GTX770 2GB)
Monitor: $110 (HP Envy Pheonix 810-130qe)
Case: ~$120
=$1430, +shipping, construction costs (if you get a PC store to do it)
If you can get that PC pre-built then it's not a bad deal it seems.
Splintert said:
Would you recommend the 290? I've been considering getting the 290 for my own PC, but I've been turned off by reports of high heat, noise and power consumption.
Arvenski said:
That might actually work well. Thanks.
Screw the unnecessary 2TB drive. I can just go with the 128GB SSD (for just $90 more) and then get some cheap external hard drive from Newegg or Best Buy or the like.
If you want, but I wouldn't recommend doing something radical to save $100.
Kevlar
Baron
I would only recommend the 290 if you have watercooling in mind. I had one for a few weeks and I couldn't stand the noise at all (reference card, there are new designs that would help with noise and cooling now).
Not to mention they are overpriced significantly due to miners. I got mine for $550 after tax but good luck getting it for less than $600 pre tax now. I am hoping they drop back to that price once supply catches up with demand.
For now I would suggest getting a 7970 used if possible. Should only be $350 or cheaper. I bought my 7970 used two years ago with a waterblock for $400. The nvidia equivalent would be a 680.
Not to mention they are overpriced significantly due to miners. I got mine for $550 after tax but good luck getting it for less than $600 pre tax now. I am hoping they drop back to that price once supply catches up with demand.
For now I would suggest getting a 7970 used if possible. Should only be $350 or cheaper. I bought my 7970 used two years ago with a waterblock for $400. The nvidia equivalent would be a 680.
wyrda78 said:
My opinion follows closely behind Kevlar's with a few differences - I don't notice the noise over my old Radeon HD 6850, it runs hotter but you can use tools to change the fan profile to change that, and power consumption isn't something I take into consideration but it is within acceptable bounds for something that competes with the GTX Titan and company. I also have a reference card from HIS, but I got mine for a meagre $400. This puts it miles ahead of anything in that price range at the time.
Quite simply, it's too expensive for what it offers at $550-600 but at the MSRP of $400 it kicks some serious ass despite the heat/power/noise issues.
I've yet to find a game that maxes it out and runs at low frames, the only thing that can max it out is Arma 3 at ridiculously unrealistic settings and it still exceeds 40 FPS.
Yeah I agree with what's been said about the 290, due to the price increase it isn't worth it atm. In Australia it's $550 bundled with Battlefield 4, though I still don't think it's worth it at $100 less than the 780. I've done a bit of research between the two cards, the 780 is much quieter, uses less power and runs much cooler, and the 780 is actually perfroms the same or beter than the 290X when both overclocked. The only real benifit of the 290 is that it's got mantle and it's optimised for Battlefield 4, looking at benchmarks even the 280X competes with the 780 on Battlefield 4.
So, a trip to Staples today has led to some rethinking about things:
1.) I wasn't impressed with the 21.5" monitors they had on display, so I'm taking a look at a couple of 19.5" screens:
http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model-datasheet/UM.IG6AA.001
http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model-datasheet/UM.IS0AA.002
2.) Keyboards, mice, and such. Specifically, a question for ya'll: What are trackball mice like? I don't think I'd ever seen one until today, and they look kind of interesting.
1.) I wasn't impressed with the 21.5" monitors they had on display, so I'm taking a look at a couple of 19.5" screens:
http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model-datasheet/UM.IG6AA.001
http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model-datasheet/UM.IS0AA.002
2.) Keyboards, mice, and such. Specifically, a question for ya'll: What are trackball mice like? I don't think I'd ever seen one until today, and they look kind of interesting.
Ah, so that's why I've never seen a trackball mouse before. They're old tech. Okay, good to know.
Because the smaller Acer (which I believe was similar to those two that I linked) that I saw yesterday looked a lot better than the 21.5" 1080p screens on display (which, I grant, were made by somebody I'd never heard of. AOG, maybe? They looked like ****). I don't need anything bigger than 21.5", and I'm still shopping. Those two that I linked are just what I was looking at at the time, but the search for a monitor is still very much a work-in-progress.Trevty said:
