Sherdog PC Build/Buy Thread, v5: Stop Thinking of Your Router as a Peripheral

[Cygnus A]

Lacking HDMI 2.0 is a real deal breaker for me no idea what AMD was thinking?

They were probably thinking "The time is NOW!"

 

[Weuylf]

Does anyone know how much the price varies in stores? Is it the highest online = stores?

Generally.

 

[Cygnus A]

Does anyone know how much the price varies in stores? Is it the highest online = stores?

Generally.

Which store? A lot of stores will price match online prices now.

I got 60$ knocked off my i7 @ Frys by price matching.

 

[Weuylf]

Private stores for example. Depends on the seller?

 

[Weuylf]

440 € in the store I checked personally. 400 € for a 970. What a rip-off.

 

[Madmick]

I'm thinking about a 970 as well. You can get them on Newegg for $350. I'm gonna probably wait until the fall, and maybe a deal comes around.

I just saw a Zotac 970 for $297 yesterday on PC Part Picker. Think it was NCIX. Now is the time for deals. They'll be better now than they will on Black Friday or Cyber Monday after they've inflated pricing for several months. Doorbusters are the best, but good luck getting one.

 

[Zuni]

Anyone interested in mid range cards might find this video by digital foundry interesting. GTX 960 vs R9 280 vs R9 380. Apparently they have a lot more info coming out on these cards. DF say that this is the range of card where VRAM starts to matter, as in 2GB vs 4GB.

 

[MGLucas]

You guys that keep track of all this crap are really hardcore. I haven't built a tower for some years and now that I'm looking to build a new machine I'm finding that I'm completely out of touch. Is it possible to build a decent gaming/media tower these days for around $3K?

 

[Vitamin C]

You guys that keep track of all this crap are really hardcore. I haven't built a tower for some years and now that I'm looking to build a new machine I'm finding that I'm completely out of touch. Is it possible to build a decent gaming/media tower these days for around $3K?

I was in your same shoes. Built a nice computer for $1200, including a decent 27" monitor. Had a hand me down GPU though, so that helped the price. Waiting to upgrade that when 4gb GPUs won't rack me up another $500.

For $3,000 I imagine you'll build a future proofed beast of a machine.

 

[Cygnus A]

You guys that keep track of all this crap are really hardcore. I haven't built a tower for some years and now that I'm looking to build a new machine I'm finding that I'm completely out of touch. Is it possible to build a decent gaming/media tower these days for around $3K?

There is literally no reason to spend $3K unless you want to run at 4K resolution. You can max out all current games at 1080p for $1500-2000, maybe even 1440p.

 

[OPM]

I would imagine you could max out near a grand.

A 4690k and a 970 would get you close.

 

[GhostZ06]

You guys that keep track of all this crap are really hardcore. I haven't built a tower for some years and now that I'm looking to build a new machine I'm finding that I'm completely out of touch. Is it possible to build a decent gaming/media tower these days for around $3K?

ha you could do x2 295 x2s with a nice 4k monitor for that price.


right now im gong for Tri-cross fire, but with that you could do Quad

 

[Weuylf]

You guys that keep track of all this crap are really hardcore. I haven't built a tower for some years and now that I'm looking to build a new machine I'm finding that I'm completely out of touch. Is it possible to build a decent gaming/media tower these days for around $3K?

With that kind of cash you might be able to run Minecraft, if you stare at the sky constantly.

 

[Shoemaker]

You guys that keep track of all this crap are really hardcore. I haven't built a tower for some years and now that I'm looking to build a new machine I'm finding that I'm completely out of touch. Is it possible to build a decent gaming/media tower these days for around $3K?

I think you'll find something.

 

[MGLucas]

ha you could do x2 295 x2s with a nice 4k monitor for that price.


right now im gong for Tri-cross fire, but with that you could do Quad

*blank stare*

I recognized most of those words but the meaning is beyond me.

Is there a way of determining a compatible list of parts online or should I just bite the bullet and go get fleeced by a computer store? I've been looking through newegg.ca but I've been out of the loop too long and I don't know what's compatible with what or if a particular part is worth a shit or not.

Here's my list so far, suggestions are welcome:

Case: RAIDMAX Viper GX II ATX-522WBO Black/Orange Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $99.99
CPU: Intel Core i7-5930K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.5GHz LGA 2011-v3 140W $709.99
Board: ASUS RAMPAGE V EXTREME LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard $569.99
RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2666 (PC4-21300) $429.99
Video Card: 2 X ASUS R9390-DC2-8GD5 Radeon R9 390 8GB 512-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support $444.99 (x2)
Power Supply: EVGA 120-G2-1600-X1 80 PLUS GOLD 1600 W 10 yr Warranty Fully Modular NVIDIA SLI Ready and Crossfire Support $389.99
Hard Drive: SAMSUNG 850 EVO MZ-75E500B/AM 2.5" 500GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive $219.99

Total price before tax and shipping: $3309.92

 

[Weuylf]

Dat CPU is extreme overkill. Everything in your build is overkill but the CPU and the Motherboard really stand out. You should save money on those one and get better GPUs. 390's are good cards but with 3k cash it's not your best option.

This is a nice case but I'd say there are cooler ones with the same specs.

What do you want to do with this PC, mind if I ask? If you tell us what you need it for specifically we can help much easier. What are your goals?

 

[KaNesDeath]

Is it possible to build a decent gaming/media tower these days for around $3K?

Its still the same as years ago. Except the CPU socket and ram type required.

Easiest and best way to build a new system is to grandfather in your mouse, keyboard, monitor, tower, soundcard, headphones, mousepad, microphone, hard drives and power supply. Moment you need to start adding the above is when the price will at least double for quality items.

System i built last fall cost me $1,200. i7 5820K with 16 gigs of ram and a 970 GTX.

 

[ToxicShocker]

Can anyone tell me what this new icon is?

It's annoying cause its covering a bunch of my file previews on windows 8.1 now. I think it appeared in the last two weeks.

Edit:
Figured it out. It's Norton 360 saying this file has not been backed up yet.

 

[GhostZ06]

*blank stare*

I recognized most of those words but the meaning is beyond me.

Is there a way of determining a compatible list of parts online or should I just bite the bullet and go get fleeced by a computer store? I've been looking through newegg.ca but I've been out of the loop too long and I don't know what's compatible with what or if a particular part is worth a shit or not.

Here's my list so far, suggestions are welcome:

Case: RAIDMAX Viper GX II ATX-522WBO Black/Orange Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $99.99
CPU: Intel Core i7-5930K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.5GHz LGA 2011-v3 140W $709.99
Board: ASUS RAMPAGE V EXTREME LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard $569.99
RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2666 (PC4-21300) $429.99
Video Card: 2 X ASUS R9390-DC2-8GD5 Radeon R9 390 8GB 512-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support $444.99 (x2)
Power Supply: EVGA 120-G2-1600-X1 80 PLUS GOLD 1600 W 10 yr Warranty Fully Modular NVIDIA SLI Ready and Crossfire Support $389.99
Hard Drive: SAMSUNG 850 EVO MZ-75E500B/AM 2.5" 500GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive $219.99

Total price before tax and shipping: $3309.92

id say you get a Cooler Master Cosmos II Ultra Tower thats the tower im getting when i up the power on mine, im surprised you didnt water cool

 

[Madmick]

*blank stare*

I recognized most of those words but the meaning is beyond me.

Is there a way of determining a compatible list of parts online or should I just bite the bullet and go get fleeced by a computer store? I've been looking through newegg.ca but I've been out of the loop too long and I don't know what's compatible with what or if a particular part is worth a shit or not.

PC Part Picker should alert you to component incompatibility. I don't think it's perfect, but it's pretty spot on.
http://pcpartpicker.com/

Here's my list so far, suggestions are welcome:

Case: RAIDMAX Viper GX II ATX-522WBO Black/Orange Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $99.99
CPU: Intel Core i7-5930K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.5GHz LGA 2011-v3 140W $709.99
Board: ASUS RAMPAGE V EXTREME LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard $569.99
RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2666 (PC4-21300) $429.99
Video Card: 2 X ASUS R9390-DC2-8GD5 Radeon R9 390 8GB 512-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support $444.99 (x2)
Power Supply: EVGA 120-G2-1600-X1 80 PLUS GOLD 1600 W 10 yr Warranty Fully Modular NVIDIA SLI Ready and Crossfire Support $389.99
Hard Drive: SAMSUNG 850 EVO MZ-75E500B/AM 2.5" 500GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive $219.99

Total price before tax and shipping: $3309.92

God no. That's a horrible value even on a pre-built AIO desktop for gaming. As many have pointed out, the i7-4790(K) is outperformed only incrementally by the i7-5820K and i7-5930K in almost all games because almost no games out there load up the 5th core and beyond. Only enthusiasts, and typically overclockers who buy top quality aftermarket CPU cooling and ramp up the low native clocking of those i7's, tend to desire the 6-core i7's. Them and guys who just want the most overall computational power possible. Editing software benefits from this. Similarly, 32GB of RAM is overkill, 1600W in the PSU is overkill, and even the Asus RAMPAGE motherboard is overkill unless you intend to overclock and calibrate other advanced tweakings for gaming in the motherboard BIOS.

So it looks like you want someone to assembled your PC for you. I just stopped by iBuyPower and put together a similar Dual-GPU build at this enthusiast level using the "Summer Special Intel Z97 i7" that matches this one on performance by cutting down the fat (even bests it on the boot drive via the PCI SSD), and also sees to it you get a higher "build quality" in terms of cooling for your build, sound dampening of the PC, and on the general quality of non-computational components like the case and PSU. Additionally, it has real storage capacity (4TB) since games are huge these days, though that superfast PCIe SSD is big enough to hold the several games you're playing at any given time conveniently using a drive transfer utility tool, and by doing that you will have INSTANT load times. It also has a Blu-Ray drive if you want to use free software like Pot Player to play back Blu-Rays from the Redbox. A final few perks are that it comes with several free items and a cheaply added 1-yr return service tacked onto the standard 3-yr warranty.
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Summer-Special-Intel-Z97-i7

• Case: Zalman MS 800 Plus Gaming (if upgrading, recommend Corsair 550D)
• Noise Reduction: Basic (sound dampening material, not case fan upgrades)
• CPU: i7-4790 4.0GHz Quad Core Processor (unless you want to overclock, don't need the "K" version)
• CPU Cooler: Asetek 550LC + Single Arc Silent Fan Upgrade
• RAM: DDR3-2133 16GB, G. Skill Ripjaw X
• GPU: 2 x AMD Radeon 390 8GB, Crossfire Mode
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3
• PSU: EVGA Supernova 1000W (Tier 2 PSU; the successor G2 scored "10" Performance & "9.5" Build Quality from JonnyGuru)
• SSD (OS): Intel 750 400GB PCI-E SSD (2500 MB/s Read & 1200MB/s Write)
• HDD (Media): 2 x 2TB 7200RPM 64MB Cache SATA3
• Optical: LG 14x Blu-Ray Rewriter Burner Combo Drive
• OS: Windows 8.1
• Keyboard: iBuyPower Standard Gaming Keyboard
• Mouse: iBuyPower Standard Gaming Mouse
• Warranty: added 1-Year Return Shipping Service

Included Free Items:

• NZXT Doko HTPC Streaming Device
• Turtle Beach Z1 Gaming Headset
• 802.11ac WiFi Adapter
• Note: You have the option to add the Gamdias Hebe V2 Stereo GHS3300 Gaming Headset to this purchase for $39; free after $39 mail-in rebate.

TOTAL: $2387

I didn't include the Asus Xonar DX because I didn't know if you had the headphones or sound system to warrant it. Also, really, that's something you literally just plug into the motherboard, and the OS does the rest these days. No reason to pay them $25 to plug a card in for you (the premium over the best web price for that card as an individual component). The same goes for all the other peripherals they're trying to pimp.
You could also opt for the GTX 970 in SLI instead, but at $132 more than the brand new R9 380's, here, I don't think it's an equal buy. The only thing that offsets that is a free copy of Batman: Arkham Knight. Unfortunately, they really start to charge ridiculous amounts, especially for the second card, once you start selecting the 980/390X or better, and the performance/price gains steeply drop off.

This rig will run 1440p/1600p no problem for anything. It will run most games in 4K@60fps+ and almost all games @45fps+ on high/ultra settings (games like Crysis 3 are an exception).