Sherdog PC Build/Buy Thread, v6: My Power Supply Burned Down My House

Yo one question, would it be a bit smarter to buy every part one by one after every check I get? Like next week I can just buy the ssd, and than buy the shit that lowest prices things first, than buy the big parts in December? Since I will get more hours in December most definitely. And one other question, I have cats in my house one of them rest on things like my notebook or my laptop that I use to have, and sometimes she throws up on them, if there gets throw up on something like the motherboard or the CPU or GPU, will that mess it up?

(As you guys can tell I'm actually a complete noob to this PC building thing I was going to try and build one last year but than I decided to buy a gaming laptop. That did not turn out well lol)
No crime against being a noob, dude. Welcome! We love the company.

Nothing prohibits you from buying the parts over the course of a few months, while hunting for the best deals, but first, keep in mind that electronics tend to age quickly, so you don't want to take too long, and second, you're in the wrong time of year to do that.

That's a strategy for summer through early fall. Prices will only increase for the holiday season after Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In fact, historically, it has been demonstrated that tech companies tend to inch prices up over those summer and fall months until the peak so that everything but the "doorbusters" on BF/CM are actually a bit higher than the best low prices seen during the summer and early fall. That's why sales in the summer and early fall tend to be ideal. Only a few components see their prices determined more by supply shortages than yearly timing (ex. RAM).

For example, the i5-8400 is the Intel competitor to the R5-2600 (or R7-1700). Just several months ago we were seeing that component prices down around $170-$175. Right now the best price I'm seeing is $221.

I think we have honed in on a strategy and skeleton that is likely to be your build:
  • CPU: R5-2600
  • MoBo: B450 ATX (cheapest available will suffice)
  • GPU: RX 580 8GB or GTX 1060 6GB
  • RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3000 or better is your target
  • SSD: 250GB/256GB class, budget-oriented 2.5"
  • HDD: 2TB-3TB 7200 RPM w/64MB cache (best price per GB)
  • PSU: cheapest Tier 3 quality (or better) with 600W+ power
  • Case: Cheapest ATX case with a strong reputation; aesthetic preferences are yours alone to decide
  • WiFi: Asus AC-BT55E; possibly a cheaper USB 802.11ac dongle (this is #1 bestseller on Amazon) if the router is nearby to where you plan to sit the PC
  • OS: Windows 10 (to avoid those subscription fees, and to have the ideal gaming OS)

Sales that are popping off right now are pretty strong. I wouldn't hesitate. I'll go over those Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals in more detail this weekend to get an idea of which component you might hold off on buying now because you'll get a really good deal.

You don't need to parcel out your disposable income across paychecks to build above this skeleton. If you have to parcel out to achieve a build that matches the performance of this skeleton, which will probably situate you around $850-$900, then yes, you'll want to pursue that strategy.

Another thing I didn't mention about choosing the RX 580 vs. GTX 1060 6GB since you're trying to make every dollar count. I assume you are gaming on a TV or an old monitor. You next step will be in upgrading this. Your GPU company will likely be one of the biggest influences on this decision. The choice will be between a Freesync (AMD) and G-Sync (NVIDIA) monitor. These technologies eliminate screen tearing. Well, the G-Sync monitors still carry a $150-$500 premium over identically spec'd and performing Freesync monitors depending on the size and class. So that's a hidden premium to NVIDIA GPUs for gamers seeking the ultimate visual experience.
 
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Man, I can't believe the EVGA RTX 2080ti water cooled card dropped, and I just don't give a fuck.

I've had the 1080ti Hydro since it released and for the first time since the GTX 480, I have no ambition to upgrade. I haven't even SLI'd it yet.

The ray-tracing looks amazing but the raw horsepower that I usually crave just isn't needed.

I honestly think it is going to take RDR2 to force me to upgrade, but that could be 8 months from now, or even a year. The only other game I can think of is Metro: Exodus.
 
No crime against being a noob, dude. Welcome! We love the company.

Nothing prohibits you from buying the parts over the course of a few months, while hunting for the best deals, but first, keep in mind that electronics tend to age quickly, so you don't want to take too long, and second, you're in the wrong time of year to do that.

That's a strategy for summer through early fall. Prices will only increase for the holiday season after Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In fact, historically, it has been demonstrated that tech companies tend to inch prices up over those summer and fall months until the peak so that everything but the "doorbusters" on BF/CM are actually a bit higher than the best low prices seen during the summer and early fall. That's why sales in the summer and early fall tend to be ideal. Only a few components see their prices determined more by supply shortages than yearly timing (ex. RAM).

For example, the i5-8400 is the Intel competitor to the R5-2600 (or R7-1700). Just several months ago we were seeing that component prices down around $170-$175. Right now the best price I'm seeing is $221.

I think we have honed in on a strategy and skeleton that is likely to be your build:
  • CPU: R5-2600
  • MoBo: B450 ATX (cheapest available will suffice)
  • GPU: RX 580 8GB or GTX 1060 6GB
  • RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3000 or better is your target
  • SSD: 250GB/256GB class, budget-oriented 2.5"
  • HDD: 2TB-3TB 7200 RPM w/64MB cache (best price per GB)
  • PSU: cheapest Tier 3 quality (or better) with 600W+ power
  • Case: Cheapest ATX case with a strong reputation; aesthetic preferences are yours alone to decide
  • WiFi: Asus AC-BT55E; possibly a cheaper USB 802.11ac dongle (this is #1 bestseller on Amazon) if the router is nearby to where you plan to sit the PC
  • OS: Windows 10 (to avoid those subscription fees, and to have the ideal gaming OS)

Sales that are popping off right now are pretty strong. I wouldn't hesitate. I'll go over those Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals in more detail this weekend to get an idea of which component you might hold off on buying now because you'll get a really good deal.

You don't need to parcel out your disposable income across paychecks to build above this skeleton. If you have to parcel out to achieve a build that matches the performance of this skeleton, which will probably situate you around $850-$900, then yes, you'll want to pursue that strategy.

Another thing I didn't mention about choosing the RX 580 vs. GTX 1060 6GB since you're trying to make every dollar count. I assume you are gaming on a TV or an old monitor. You next step will be in upgrading this. Your GPU company will likely be one of the biggest influences on this decision. The choice will be between a Freesync (AMD) and G-Sync (NVIDIA) monitor. These technologies eliminate screen tearing. Well, the G-Sync monitors still carry a $150-$500 premium over identically spec'd and performing Freesync monitors depending on the size and class. So that's a hidden premium to NVIDIA GPUs for gamers seeking the ultimate visual experience.

Ok well if there are any good deals in the winter by the end of Jan 15th, lmk. I'll actually be working 2 jobs after I quit this one. The other one is just a delivery driver job, on the weekends, but my cuz told me I can make tips. So yeah. I'll probably get each part by new years, and I'm also trying to put more money down, on my driving fines too. Since it's a lot of money. I got over 900 left on one. 400 left on another and 430 leff on another one. Plus a surcharge (yeah fuck my life ik). Hopefully everything goes as planned.


Just let me know any deals, I'll try to look some up too.
 
Go to your build page, and find the box that says "Permalink". Copy that link to share the build with us.

It's true that there is an imbalance between the CPU and GPU, but looking forward, if the GPU you select meets the ceiling of your current demand, and you're staying within your budget, then this strategy actually makes more sense than any other. The reason is simple. CPU upgrades are rarely needed. GPU upgrades are the most commonly required. This is especially true since the current (Intel 8th) generation is the first core-shift in a decade, and while it looks like expanding cores is going to become more frequent, since it's become much more difficult to shrink the die size, I still strongly doubt that the i7-8700 won't meet the "Recommended" (above "Minimum") requirements for even AAA games for at least the next 5-6 years.

So buying a big overhead for CPU power while buying the minimum needed for your GPU right now may be imbalanced, but strategically optimal if you don't mind installing GPU upgrades in the future yourself (which is very, very simple).

About VRAM: more VRAM doesn't equal more speed. Either you have enough to meet your demands, or you don't. If you don't have enough for a certain setting, it will allocate the VRAM overflow demands to system RAM, which is much slower, and that will tend to break your framerate, and force you to lower settings until they can fit within amount of VRAM you possess. 4GB is absolutely enough for 1080p settings right now. There's probably only a few games on the market currently that require more than that for Ultra@1080p. One thing that tends to suck up more VRAM than anything else are higher resolutions, first, and intensive modding (which sometimes uses textures rendered natively at a higher resolution, then downsampled).

To get an idea of current marketing prebuild pricing the Amazon Desktop Computer > Tower bestseller list tends to be a great eyeball reference:
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers...ctronics/13896597011/ref=zg_bs_nav_e_4_565098
Right now that is:
  • #4 -- [$799] CyberPowerPC (i5-8400 + GTX 1060 3GB + 8GB DDR4 + 120GB SSD + 1TB HDD)
  • #7 -- [$779] CyberPowerPC (i5-8400 + RX 580 4GB + 8GB DDR4 + 1TB HDD)
  • #27 -- [$1499] iBuyPower (i7-8700K + GTX 1070 Ti + 16GB DDR4 + 240GB + 1TB HDD, Overclockable)
  • #34 -- [$1099] CyberpowerPC (i7-8700 + GTX 1060 3GB + 16GB DDR4 + 120GB + 1TB HDD)
Both the Newegg and ABS builds that you linked beat the pants off this green build in terms of value.

You can watch Slickdeals for other sales, and also scour Reddit's /buildapc:
https://slickdeals.net/deals/desktop/
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/

Unfortunately, it looks like you just missed this Slickdeal because I was too lazy to create this post three nights ago:
https://slickdeals.net/f/12175663-c...700x-16gb-ddr4-gtx-1070-ti-1139?src=catpagev2
  • R7-2700X (w/X370 Motherboard = overclockable)
  • GTX 1070 Ti 8GB
  • 16GB DDR4 RAM
  • 240GB SSD
  • 2TB HDD
  • 600W PSU 80+
  • 802.11ac WiFi
  • CPPC Keyboard + Mouse included
  • Thermaltake Core G21 Case
  • $1159 (included shipping cost)

I did spot a great sale coming up on Black Friday:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...eflyer-_-111918-112418-_-83-230-377-_-pg3pos4
  • R7-2700X (w/X370 Motherboard = Overclockable)
  • GTX 1080 8GB
  • 8GB DDR4-3000 RAM (ADATA XPG Z1 DDR4-3000MHz RAM)
  • 240GB SSD
  • 1TB HDD
  • 600W PSU 80+ (Thermaltake Smart Series)
  • CPPC Keyboard + Mouse included
  • CyberPowerPC Onyxia Black Gaming Case w/Window
  • $1099 (on Black Friday)

Bummer it doesn't come with WiFi, but it's ~$15 for a USB 802.11ac adapter if you want that. You'll definitely want to add a stick of RAM, but that won't run you more than $62 or so. Meanwhile, the GTX 1080 is nearly twice as fast as the RX 580 4GB, and it comes with double the VRAM:
https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1080-vs-AMD-RX-580/3603vs3923


how do i know whether the mother board has the right slot setup to add more ram? i have seen people complaining about prebuilts with 8 gb that it are actually 4x2 and the MB has only 2 slots, which means they basically need to throw out the 4x2 and get a 16x1 or 8x2.

how does that reddit user know what the black friday price will be? does newegg publish that in advance? that is generally where i shop and i haven't seen them "tip" what the final black friday price will be.



nevermind, i think this is it

https://www.theblackfriday.com/newegg-black-friday-ad.shtml?page=3
 
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Ok well if there are any good deals in the winter by the end of Jan 15th, lmk. I'll actually be working 2 jobs after I quit this one. The other one is just a delivery driver job, on the weekends, but my cuz told me I can make tips. So yeah. I'll probably get each part by new years, and I'm also trying to put more money down, on my driving fines too. Since it's a lot of money. I got over 900 left on one. 400 left on another and 430 leff on another one. Plus a surcharge (yeah fuck my life ik). Hopefully everything goes as planned.


Just let me know any deals, I'll try to look some up too.

There's a couple of things you can save money on right away and add later down the road when you get more money. For example you can get away with only 8gb of RAM now, and add 8gb later on down the road. You just have to make sure you buy a motherboard with 4 RAM slots.
Same with the SSD or HDD. You could just get the SSD and only have a couple of games installed or just go with the hard drive and deal with the slower load times.
 
There's a couple of things you can save money on right away and add later down the road when you get more money. For example you can get away with only 8gb of RAM now, and add 8gb later on down the road. You just have to make sure you buy a motherboard with 4 RAM slots.
Same with the SSD or HDD. You could just get the SSD and only have a couple of games installed or just go with the hard drive and deal with the slower load times.

Alright I will buy one 8gb and than but another one later. The motherboard and ram and storage might be the most important and affordable right now.
 
Alright I will buy one 8gb and than but another one later. The motherboard and ram and storage might be the most important and affordable right now.
Buy a kit of ram that has two 4gb sticks. You should always do ram in pairs, it increases performance.
 
No crime against being a noob, dude. Welcome! We love the company.

Nothing prohibits you from buying the parts over the course of a few months, while hunting for the best deals, but first, keep in mind that electronics tend to age quickly, so you don't want to take too long, and second, you're in the wrong time of year to do that.

That's a strategy for summer through early fall. Prices will only increase for the holiday season after Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In fact, historically, it has been demonstrated that tech companies tend to inch prices up over those summer and fall months until the peak so that everything but the "doorbusters" on BF/CM are actually a bit higher than the best low prices seen during the summer and early fall. That's why sales in the summer and early fall tend to be ideal. Only a few components see their prices determined more by supply shortages than yearly timing (ex. RAM).

For example, the i5-8400 is the Intel competitor to the R5-2600 (or R7-1700). Just several months ago we were seeing that component prices down around $170-$175. Right now the best price I'm seeing is $221.

I think we have honed in on a strategy and skeleton that is likely to be your build:
  • CPU: R5-2600
  • MoBo: B450 ATX (cheapest available will suffice)
  • GPU: RX 580 8GB or GTX 1060 6GB
  • RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3000 or better is your target
  • SSD: 250GB/256GB class, budget-oriented 2.5"
  • HDD: 2TB-3TB 7200 RPM w/64MB cache (best price per GB)
  • PSU: cheapest Tier 3 quality (or better) with 600W+ power
  • Case: Cheapest ATX case with a strong reputation; aesthetic preferences are yours alone to decide
  • WiFi: Asus AC-BT55E; possibly a cheaper USB 802.11ac dongle (this is #1 bestseller on Amazon) if the router is nearby to where you plan to sit the PC
  • OS: Windows 10 (to avoid those subscription fees, and to have the ideal gaming OS)

Sales that are popping off right now are pretty strong. I wouldn't hesitate. I'll go over those Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals in more detail this weekend to get an idea of which component you might hold off on buying now because you'll get a really good deal.

You don't need to parcel out your disposable income across paychecks to build above this skeleton. If you have to parcel out to achieve a build that matches the performance of this skeleton, which will probably situate you around $850-$900, then yes, you'll want to pursue that strategy.

Another thing I didn't mention about choosing the RX 580 vs. GTX 1060 6GB since you're trying to make every dollar count. I assume you are gaming on a TV or an old monitor. You next step will be in upgrading this. Your GPU company will likely be one of the biggest influences on this decision. The choice will be between a Freesync (AMD) and G-Sync (NVIDIA) monitor. These technologies eliminate screen tearing. Well, the G-Sync monitors still carry a $150-$500 premium over identically spec'd and performing Freesync monitors depending on the size and class. So that's a hidden premium to NVIDIA GPUs for gamers seeking the ultimate visual experience.

Dont' want to butt into your build, the Ryzen 5 1600 is $130 on Amazon right now
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XNRQHG4/?tag=pcpapi-20
 
Yo one question, would it be a bit smarter to buy every part one by one after every check I get? Like next week I can just buy the ssd, and than buy the shit that lowest prices things first, than buy the big parts in December? Since I will get more hours in December most definitely. And one other question, I have cats in my house one of them rest on things like my notebook or my laptop that I use to have, and sometimes she throws up on them, if there gets throw up on something like the motherboard or the CPU or GPU, will that mess it up?


(As you guys can tell I'm actually a complete noob to this PC building thing I was going to try and build one last year but than I decided to buy a gaming laptop. That did not turn out well lol)
What resolution do you plan on playing at? What types of games?
 
No crime against being a noob, dude. Welcome! We love the company.

Nothing prohibits you from buying the parts over the course of a few months, while hunting for the best deals, but first, keep in mind that electronics tend to age quickly, so you don't want to take too long, and second, you're in the wrong time of year to do that.

That's a strategy for summer through early fall. Prices will only increase for the holiday season after Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In fact, historically, it has been demonstrated that tech companies tend to inch prices up over those summer and fall months until the peak so that everything but the "doorbusters" on BF/CM are actually a bit higher than the best low prices seen during the summer and early fall. That's why sales in the summer and early fall tend to be ideal. Only a few components see their prices determined more by supply shortages than yearly timing (ex. RAM).

For example, the i5-8400 is the Intel competitor to the R5-2600 (or R7-1700). Just several months ago we were seeing that component prices down around $170-$175. Right now the best price I'm seeing is $221.

I think we have honed in on a strategy and skeleton that is likely to be your build:
  • CPU: R5-2600
  • MoBo: B450 ATX (cheapest available will suffice)
  • GPU: RX 580 8GB or GTX 1060 6GB
  • RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3000 or better is your target
  • SSD: 250GB/256GB class, budget-oriented 2.5"
  • HDD: 2TB-3TB 7200 RPM w/64MB cache (best price per GB)
  • PSU: cheapest Tier 3 quality (or better) with 600W+ power
  • Case: Cheapest ATX case with a strong reputation; aesthetic preferences are yours alone to decide
  • WiFi: Asus AC-BT55E; possibly a cheaper USB 802.11ac dongle (this is #1 bestseller on Amazon) if the router is nearby to where you plan to sit the PC
  • OS: Windows 10 (to avoid those subscription fees, and to have the ideal gaming OS)

Sales that are popping off right now are pretty strong. I wouldn't hesitate. I'll go over those Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals in more detail this weekend to get an idea of which component you might hold off on buying now because you'll get a really good deal.

You don't need to parcel out your disposable income across paychecks to build above this skeleton. If you have to parcel out to achieve a build that matches the performance of this skeleton, which will probably situate you around $850-$900, then yes, you'll want to pursue that strategy.

Another thing I didn't mention about choosing the RX 580 vs. GTX 1060 6GB since you're trying to make every dollar count. I assume you are gaming on a TV or an old monitor. You next step will be in upgrading this. Your GPU company will likely be one of the biggest influences on this decision. The choice will be between a Freesync (AMD) and G-Sync (NVIDIA) monitor. These technologies eliminate screen tearing. Well, the G-Sync monitors still carry a $150-$500 premium over identically spec'd and performing Freesync monitors depending on the size and class. So that's a hidden premium to NVIDIA GPUs for gamers seeking the ultimate visual experience.
Amazon has the i5 8400 for $200 with free shipping.
 
I noticed your location and there's a Micro Center close by in Paterson. They tend to have excellent deals on CPU/Mobo combos. They also have the i5 8400 in stock for $200 and a $260 i5 8400/H370 Mobo combo (you don't need a Z370 Mobo since it's a locked CPU).

https://www.microcenter.com/product...00,-gigabyte-h370-hd3,-cpu-motherboard-bundle

I'm trying to spend the least amount of money but have a good PC build, so I'll go with the AMD chip for now. But I will but everything before new years I'm really trying to save my money and I have a ticket to pay after sun of $139. I got other things to focus on like work, and a civil service exam, and I'm also trying to get a credit score so I can buy a new car. So $200 is a lot for now but maybe the following week it might not be.
 
I'm trying to spend the least amount of money but have a good PC build, so I'll go with the AMD chip for now. But I will but everything before new years I'm really trying to save my money and I have a ticket to pay after sun of $139. I got other things to focus on like work, and a civil service exam, and I'm also trying to get a credit score so I can buy a new car. So $200 is a lot for now but maybe the following week it might not be.
You're good either way, the AMD chip is fine for gaming and certainly better than the i5 8400 in other things besides gaming.
 
I'm trying to spend the least amount of money but have a good PC build, so I'll go with the AMD chip for now. But I will but everything before new years I'm really trying to save my money and I have a ticket to pay after sun of $139. I got other things to focus on like work, and a civil service exam, and I'm also trying to get a credit score so I can buy a new car. So $200 is a lot for now but maybe the following week it might not be.

If you're trying for a budget, here's a Ryzen 5 1600for $130, it will be slightly slower than the the Ryzen 5 2600 you and @Madmick talked about. At $130, it's an absolutely insane deal. The Ram I posted below is a great deal as well.
The motherboard isn't a Black Friday deal, that's usually what it sits at.

CPU $130 - Ryzen 5 1600
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XNRQHG4/?tag=pcpapi-20

Motherboard to pair it with $60 - MSI B350 PC MATE
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144029&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker, LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Ram $110 - G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3000

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232756&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker, LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
 
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