Posts by Grace Peterson17

I believe you can find better deals over at Future or even Downtown if my memory serves me right—though, honestly, everyone seems to swear by the service at Links. They really go above and beyond 🤣 you even get a special little stool to sit on while you're signing all the paperwork...
🎉

Austin Chavez6 said:Hey there,

It’s not quite a $5,000 build—maybe a little less than that—but still...
Let’s just say I’ve found a setup that hits all my requirements regarding components. Could someone give me an honest opinion on whether this is a decent deal, or if I can find something similar without emptying my wallet quite so much? 😁

Honestly, this build is a total disaster—do not buy this under any circumstances. ☕

🙂 🙂

Keith Wright2 said:Since you mentioned needing serious power for work, I went ahead and built this with a much faster, beefier processor—I opted for the LGA 2011 platform because that’s really where you’ll see the performance shine in all those heavy applications. I also threw in an NVIDIA GTX 760 right away, since this specific CPU doesn't have integrated graphics. Everything else follows exactly what you asked for; consider this a blueprint. If you've got the budget, go for it—if not, don't sweat it!

1xIntel Core i7-4930K Extreme Edition (3.4GHz, 12MB, LGA 2011) box
1xMSI X79-GD65-8D, LGA 2011, D3, S3, USB 3.0, FW, SLI, Dr
1xMSI Video Card NVIDIA GTX 760 GAMING GDDR5 2GB/256bit, 1006MHz/6008MHz, PCI-E 3.0 x16, DP, HDMI, 2xDVI, VGA Cooler (Double Slot), Retail
1xEnermax ETS-T40-Black Twister CPU cooler
1xFortron PCMag S PSU 600W, 80+ GOLD
2xKingston DDR3 1600MHz, C11, 8GB
3xADATA SSD disk ADATA 128GB, XPG SP900, 2.5" SATA 3, ASP900S3-128GM-C SSD 128BG XPG SP900, Capacity 128 GB
1xToshiba DT01ACA300, HDD 3TB Capacity, 7200rpm, 6 Gb s SATA Interface, buffer size 64MB
1xASUS DRW-24F1ST/BLK/B/AS, 90DD0190-B10000
1xZalman Z3 PLUS mid tower case
1xMS Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit US

Total:$4480 Discount 24

Intel Core i5 Intel motherboard
Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H, 1150, B85 chipset, D3, S3, USB 3.0, DVI, bulk
ADATA MEM DDR3 8GB 1600MHz (2x4) XPG v1 kit AD AX3U1600W4G9-DB
MSI GeForce GTX 770, 2GB DDR5
WD Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 3 WD10EZEX Hard Drive
Asus DVD Writer
Seasonic SS-520GM2 EVO Power Supply, 520W
Zalman mid tower case black, ZAL-ZM-Z1

$1981 Amazon (Free assembly included)

- Honestly, if you were willing to shell out just a few extra bucks and tweak things slightly, I’d definitely suggest squeezing a 120GB SSD into this build somewhere

I’d personally keep a close eye on those Samsung SSDs—they come with a solid 60-month warranty, which is hard to beat.

64GB - $135

128GB - $189

256GB - $323

Best Buy

Yeah, I don't think Windows is really the issue here—it shouldn't be the reason we let the price stay that high...

Look, I already tried telling him that—honestly, I did—but he’s just being stubborn about ordering it and waiting for everything to come together. It's becoming this whole drawn-out saga... anyway, I'll just let him know that if he's not feeling more than $1333 then so be it, whatever happens, happens

Hey everyone, could you give me a hand? A friend of mine is looking at picking up a used PC, but I’m honestly not entirely sure if it's actually worth the asking price...

Intel Core i5-3570 3.4 GHz (3.8 GHz Turbo)
ASUS P8B75-V
Corsair Vengeance 2X4GB 1600MHz (8GB RAM)
ASUS HD 7770 2GB
WD Caviar Blue 500GB
Corsair CX 500M 80+Bronze
LG GH24NS sat Bulk
Zalman Z11 case (with 5 fans)
+ Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)

He’s trying to close the deal $1500, so should I tell him to try and negotiate a lower price?

P.S. Apparently, the PC is only about a year old and supposedly in great condition.

Honestly, just go with whatever feels right to you—but if you want my two cents, I’d steer clear of places like Instar or Newegg and their ilk since they tend to be a bit pricier. You're much better off checking out Future, Best Buy, or Micro Center instead...

P.S. Kimberly Gomez34 gave you some solid advice there; it really isn't worth blowing more than $333 on those motherboards.

Scott Howard13 said:I think I'm going to settle on a build intended to last me about five years. I'll be financing it over 36 months—the interest rates are pretty steep, but I don't really have any other choice... aiming for a setup that hits a max of $2167. My plan is to grab an Intel Core i5-4670K paired with an MSI Z87 GD65 motherboard. For the GPU, I’d ideally love an Nvidia GTX 770, though the Nvidia GTX 760 is an option if I have to, but hm. Since I'm buying this on credit, the whole point is to crank everything up to Ultra settings, specifically titles from 2013, 2014, and whatever is coming down the pipeline for 2014/2015. I'm open to some AMD recommendations too, even though I'm not a huge fan because of their drivers... I had a nightmare with an AMD Radeon HD 5770 where the screen would just black out whenever I opened a web browser or anything similar, so I swapped it for the Nvidia GTX 550 I'm using now. A friend of mine also bought a laptop with an AMD card and it took him three hours just to "tweak" the drivers lol... but anyway, it doesn't matter. If there's an AMD card that might actually be a better bet than the Nvidia GTX 770, let me know 😁. For memory, I'm looking at Kingston DDR3 RAM 2x4 1600 HyperX Beast, or whatever else fits that board. I already have most of the other parts except for an SSD; I've got a Cooler Master case, an LC Power 650 Silent Giant Green Power PSU, a 500GB Caviar Black hard drive, and a CD-ROM.

Personally, I don't think you'll need anything more powerful than an Nvidia GTX 770 or an AMD Radeon R9 290; those will handle everything beautifully on Ultra settings. If I were in your shoes, though, I might skip the "K" series processor and the Intel Z87 Chipset to save some cash. Realistically, for $2167, it might be a stretch to go with the high-end CPU, the Z87 board, and a card stronger than the Nvidia GTX 770—not to mention adding an SSD, a new case, and a power supply. From what I gather, you still need the CPU, motherboard, GPU, RAM, SSD, and a case—plus, I'd definitely suggest a fresh power supply...

Here is a solid list of components with warranties that should handle all current and upcoming titles without breaking a sweat.

INTEL Core i5-4670 (3.40GHz, 1MB, 6MB, 84 W, 1150) Box, Intel HD Graphics 4600
MSI B85-G43 GAMING motherboard (S1150, DDR3, SATA II, SATA III, PS/2, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, LAN, audio Line-In, Audi
8GB DDR3 1600MHz (2x4) XMP, HyperX Beast Kingston DDR3 RAM, KHX16C9T3K2/8X
MSI GeForce GTX 770 OC, 2GB DDR5
Kingston SSD 120GB V300, 2.5" 7mm, SATA 3 6G, 3.5", drive only SV300S37A/120G
Fortron Aurum S PSU 500W, 80+ GOLD
Zalman mid tower case black, ZAL-Z9 PLUS-RMA Newegg

$2158 Best Buy (Free assembly)

Larry Ortiz5 said:So, we've got the Z97 chipset on the horizon—and get this, the Haswell refresh processors should be dropping shortly after that too.😁

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...Preview/1.html

It looks like both MSI and ASRock have their full lineups ready to go, so if anyone is planning an upgrade, you might want to take a quick peek at these.

MSI: http://wccftech.com/msi-9-series-mot...gaming-boards/

ASRock: http://www.techpowerup.com/200206/as...-detailed.html

Personally, I feel like the gap between Sandy, Ivy, Haswell, and Broadwell isn't actually all that massive—but I have a sneaking suspicion that Skylake might be the real deal here. Since we're looking at a move to a 14nm architecture, plus the introduction of the new Iris Pro integrated graphics and support for PCIe 4.0 and DDR4 memory, things are looking up. And, perhaps less crucially, they'll finally drop their first 8-core processor (the i7). It’ll likely be a similar story with Nvidia when they eventually roll out their Volta series of graphics cards, but that's a whole other conversation for another day...

Amy Vaughn12 said:

Honestly, for what you're trying to do, this is the absolute best bang for your buck—anything more than this would just be overkill for your setup.

You can easily drop your CPU temperatures just by picking up an aftermarket cooler—usually around $100 to $50—but honestly, my real concern is the cooling setup on your GPU. If I remember correctly, you're running that specific Nvidia model, which is a prime example of where the thermal design falls short. You really should have opted for something with a more robust heatsink solution, like the models from MSI, Dell, or HP...

If you don't plan on swapping out that graphics card in the next year or two, and you're still planning on pushing high-end gaming, then you'll pretty quickly realize exactly what I'm talking about...

Zachary Smith2 said:Yeah, I've still got the box and the receipt, so I can probably swap it out. What's your take on this GeForce GTX Titan Black?

I honestly don't get why you're trolling right now—if you aren't interested in getting some actual help from us, feel free to just go elsewhere...

fadedorca66 made a great point there—you really shouldn't have rushed into this, especially if this is your first serious step up into a real gaming rig. It’s one of those things where you really need to sit down and plan it all out properly beforehand...

Just because you see four cores on a processor or 2GB of VRAM on a graphics card doesn't mean those components are actually going to deliver top-tier performance when you're mid-game. You can't just take what's written on the spec sheet at face value; you really need to dig into actual benchmarks to see how they hold up. There's an old saying that's still true today: "You get what you pay for."

P.S. I'm not sure exactly which game is giving you trouble, but try dropping your settings down to Medium or even Low to see if that stabilizes things. It sounds like you might be trying to run something a bit too demanding for your current setup—your GPU probably just doesn't have enough horsepower to keep up with the demand.🙂

Zachary Smith2 said:So, I'm thinking about putting this build together: an NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti, an Intel Core i5-3470, a 230W power supply, an MSI MAG B550, and 8GB of RAM. I guess I'm wondering if this is actually a decent setup... like, will I be able to run pretty much anything? Specifically looking at stuff like Call of Duty: Battlefield or Ghosts.🙂

So, to get us moving in the right direction—could you give me a rough idea of the budget you’re working with? I don't need a line-by-line breakdown just yet, but having a ballpark figure helps immensely when I'm trying to balance performance against cost.

If you’re planning on just heading down to Best Buy and picking up everything brand new, you can definitely aim higher than that—honestly, you deserve better! Based on what I saw over at CNN, the parts you listed would set you back somewhere around $2,000. $33 You can actually squeeze a much better performance boost out of your gaming setup if you decide to pick up an NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti and swap out that current processor for a decent Ryzen model—it really makes a world of difference. Honestly, if you’re just sticking to lower resolutions, you’ll be perfectly fine and won't have to worry about any major hiccups, which should give you some peace of mind. But—and this is a big "but"—once we start talking about playing at 1080p, you might run into some real trouble, and I suspect the experience won't be nearly as smooth as you'd like it to be.

P.S. — Just so I'm clear on the logistics here—do you already have the case, the power supply, and the hard drive on hand, or are we looking to add those to the list?

Those prices are getting a bit out of hand, don't you think? 😁

P.S. A few months back, I stumbled upon this seemingly ridiculous deal over at Best Buy—an i7 3770 for just $400—but it only stayed listed for a couple of days before it completely vanished into thin air 😢

Robert Rodriguez2 said:Timothy Fisher79, why would you even bother stretching the budget for no reason?
There’s actually a pretty decent budget option here that can handle two solid graphics cards just fine.

It's on sale over at Micro Center

And check this out too:

Pff, I hadn't even bothered looking at what Micro Center had in stock—then suddenly this Best Buy Sapphire R9 280 becomes a "must-buy"...

http://www.cnn.com/details_product...-2gb-ddr5.aspx

MSI GeForce GTX760 OC TF graphics card, 2GB DDR5
- $627 CNN - Honestly, if you ask me, this card just isn't worth that kind of cash right now—prices are getting totally inflated since all the new models are hitting the shelves—but realistically, I’d say its true value is closer to about $500

If I could just scrape together another $300 or so $133 then jump up to the GTX 770

http://www.cnn.com/details_product...-2gb-ddr5.aspx

MSI GeForce GTX770 OC TF graphics card, 2GB DDR5
- $781 CNN - Now, this card? It has a much, much better price-to-performance ratio—it might actually be the best deal out there right now—and it's worth every single cent. (Back when the older GTX 670 models were moving for around $270-$$1000)