Spira Spitzer 22 - $61 over at Newegg featuring dual 12cm LED fans (just toss one in the back and you've basically got a high-airflow chassis right there $67)
If you can't make that work, you're going to have to drop the price down to the 200s. From where I'm sitting, if you're looking at $1300 - $500, you could pick up brand new, comparable 4-core/8-thread Ryzen processors. Even better, for about $1700 - $600, you could grab a much more modern platform—think DDR4 RAM, NVMe drives, and the whole nine yards—all brand new with a full warranty.
By the way, are you absolutely certain about those specs? You listed an LGA 1155 socket with an LGA 1150 CPU. That just doesn't add up.
Personally, I’d rather just cut corners on the motherboard and grab an H110 instead. You could probably save about $5 or so by opting for a cheaper case and some budget RAM, all so you can afford to drop money on a decent power supply, like a Hex 400W.
I’m not even a huge fan of the VRAM on that specific model, but if we’re looking at $567 current standards, it’s essentially his only viable option and his strongest GPU choice. If you checked out those benchmarks for 29 different titles I linked, the only game where that 3GB limit actually bites is Resident Evil 7. Even then, you might lose a few minor visual details, but the FPS would still jump up significantly. Hardware Unboxed mentioned they’ll be running tests specifically to see how much you need to dial back the settings in that title, but everything else should be totally fine.
Look, the version itself is perfectly fine. The only real downside is that you’re stuck with the standard two-year warranty, but honestly, at that price point, there isn't much of a dilemma. Just make sure they didn't screw up and sell you the 3GB version for $667, and definitely double-check that it hasn't been refurbished.
The only thing here even remotely reasonably priced is the GTX 1060 6GB. That RX 480 is actually more expensive than what you'd find at Best Buy, and don't even get me started on the price of the 970—it’s absolutely ridiculous.
Bottom line: don't buy anything unless you can inspect it in person first.
Adam Moore3 said:True, the 470 was always the weaker, budget-friendly option. But the 570 actually gets pretty close to the performance of the 1060—they're right in that ballpark. Click Plus, it's a newer card and comes with an extra gig of VRAM. It’s not a massive leap, but it definitely helps. So, if you can snag a 570 for around $1600, it's a solid deal; honestly, I’d probably pick it over the 1060 any day.
At this point, the RX 570 has caught up. When it first launched, the 1060 3GB was noticeably faster than the RX 470, but now it all really just depends on which game you're running.
Radeon RX 570 vs GeForce GTX 1060 3GB: 29 Games Tested!
At the end of the day, if the RX 570 isn't significantly cheaper than the GeForce GTX 1060 3, then there isn't really a clear winner; it just comes down to preference. Up until recently, you could snag a 470 for around $500, while the 1060 3GB was sitting near $190, so the choice was obvious. But if demand stays this high, AMD might struggle to undercut Nvidia's pricing for a while.
The i3 line is a dead end no matter how you look at it; Intel basically killed its momentum with the G4560. Unless they start offering quad-core chips while keeping prices in the $900-$333 range.
It was supposed to be Q4 2017 or maybe Q1 2018. Now I'm hearing some rumors about Q3 of this year, though I honestly have no idea how much truth there is to that.
When it comes to picking up a new CPU, we're looking at the best window we've seen in over five years. On the flip side, though, RAM and SSD prices have absolutely skyrocketed. It feels impossible for everything to line up perfectly at once.
I could have sworn the link specifically mentioned the GTX 1050 Ti. It’s obvious you’re going to go with that version instead.
Just grab the one Robert Rodriguez2 linked; it’s about $50 cheaper$20 at CNN compared to other places.
EVGA is a solid choice if you plan on registering it, since you get a 5-year warranty—though if you buy through a third party, you're stuck with just 2 years.
Of course, go with the new GTX 1050 Ti. You get a full three-year warranty, it’s noticeably more power-efficient, and honestly, the R9 380 isn't even stronger than it.
There's an info section over on PayPal explaining the details. It covers how to register your card and how the promotion works for the first 200 customers. At the time I sat down to write this, they were already at 131/200. Everyone I've seen using it so far is on Visa 👎
Look, those 1440p benchmarks make it look like an RX 480. If you’re playing well-optimized titles, you can actually pull off Ultra settings The problem is with poorly optimized junk like Mafia 3, which struggles to even hit 35-40fps at 1080p. Ultimately, it all just comes down to what you're playing.
Supposedly there's quite a bit of variation from one unit to the next (like backlight bleed, for example), but honestly, that's pretty standard for monitors
