Hi everyone. About six or seven years ago, based on some advice from people here (I think it was cosmicseal98 or someone similar), I picked up a PC at Micro Center with an i5 4670, R9 280X, and 8GB of DDR. It’s pretty much on its last legs now, so I’m thinking about an upgrade. I need a machine strictly for gaming with a budget of roughly $1,100. I'll probably have to go with monthly installments since I don't have the cash upfront. If possible, I'd prefer to stick with Micro Center since I've had good luck there. I have no intention of overclocking or messing around with any of that stuff. I definitely need an SSD and an HDD, but I don't need peripherals or a monitor. I gave my current 24-inch monitor to a kid after mine died, so I'm planning to pick up a 27 or 30-inch model after this arrives, so please keep that in mind. Basically, I'm looking for the best value for the money—something that lasts as long as my current rig did. Thanks and cheers.
Hi everyone. Since you guys built me a rig two years ago that’s still running perfectly, I figured I'd come back to ask for help for a friend. The budget is around $1.25. He already has a monitor—it might be an LED TV, maybe about 27 inches, I'm not entirely sure. He doesn't need a mouse or keyboard. It’s just a basic PC for some kids, ages 8 to 10, so mostly just gaming, browsing, and watching movies. Nothing too intense. I'm looking for suggestions, preferably from stores based in the US.
Sam Rodriguez55 said:I saw the rig; it's a beast. I wonder if 120 GB will be enough for you. How much space do your Windows installations usually take up?
Well, look, for just the OS and a few games I play constantly, it should be more than enough. Since everything else is on the 1 TB drive, you can always install things there. Windows itself takes about 15 GB, I guess.
Sam Rodriguez55 said:cosmicseal98's build and the flat screen setup
cosmicseal98 Intel Core i7 with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 AMD X8 FX-8320 Asus M5A97 R2.0 ...... 1TB Western Digital Caviar Blue 7200 RPM Dell OptiPlex Thermaltake Chaser A21 Zalman 120mm CPU cooler Corsair RM550 Total $2.50 cash
If I add a monitor at $0.50, the total comes to $3.00 for the more expensive version. I suppose I should wonder if either of these builds needs a beefier cooler or something similar. In my experience, my previous PCs always seemed to run too hot.
That wasn't mine, just one option I looked at. I ended up going with the Intel route—you can see the breakdown a few pages back. I guess I've been pretty satisfied so far, given how little time I've actually spent gaming. As for an SSD, man, if my math is right, Windows 7 boots in about 6 seconds. 🙂 Games load just as fast, so I'd say go for the SSD if you can. Maybe grab the Zalman Z5; it seems decent. Regarding the GPU, I had to step up to a stronger card because I play at very high resolutions. I might even regret not picking the 290. For instance, running Crysis 3 at max settings on a 2500p resolution, my FPS sometimes drops to 15 or 20. If I dial things back a bit, it looks fine. I haven't heard any loud noise from the GPU or the system in general. It’s quite quiet, I suppose. It might be thanks to the three fans in the Z5 and the CPU cooler. I'll post photos later; I promised I'd wait until I calmed down after this busy week. Poz
If I may weigh in briefly—when I stopped by Micro Center this morning, they had exactly one R9 290 left in stock. Online, the price is listed at about $550 cash, though I suspect you could probably snag it for closer to $520 if you play your cards right. They aren't sure when the next shipment arrives, so maybe this helps someone out. Timothy Fisher79 will likely give this a thumbs up.
Larry Ortiz5 said:That's it, Benjamin King2 will probably be crying tears of joy. 😁
I doubt that's likely🙂, but I suppose it's fine to include a photo of some random gear I bought since people are offering help and actually providing it. I should clarify the title: this is an $800 build. That was the plan originally because I intended to put it on credit, but then I came into some extra cash and could only stretch to about $750. I didn't want to bother everyone with more requests for recommendations. Besides, Timothy Fisher79 put this together for me, so thanks again, I guess.
Just so it doesn't look like I've been bothering you all for nothing over the last month, here are the receipt photos. It’s actually quite unbelievable 🙂, honestly. I suppose I'll just wait until Friday for the junk to arrive. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions; you were all pretty helpful, and I might have ended up in a bit of a mess if it weren't for you guys. Merry Christmas to everyone and happy New Year Best
Benjamin King2 said:Is that the plan for this year, boss? 😁
Nice 😁 , hopefully. I’m hitting up the Foot Locker on Monday. I went a bit overboard, so I'm paying cash now—I won't be dropping more than $7,500 on sneakers.
Grace Peterson17 said:Look, it really just depends on your luck—you might stumble upon a particularly buggy, cracked version of Windows, or you might find that people are right when they say there isn't actually any difference and the stability issues don't even exist. If the idea of using a pirated version makes you nervous, then go ahead and get the legitimate one—even if it means sacrificing a few extra bucks for components—but personally, I'm just not a huge fan of that whole approach.🤷
Grace, please send me a private message when you can, thanks. sorry for the interruption
I think I posted this yesterday, but it didn't seem to go through. This is an offer from Future. They don't have the RAM I was looking for or the CPU cooler I wanted, and everything is based on that initial suggestion from Microsoft. I guess I'm wondering if what they're offering actually makes sense,
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 1.600,00 AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 500,00 ASUS ROG Strix X670E 623,07 Transcend DDR3 2x4GB 1600 TS 589,00 HDD 1TB Caviar Blue 7200 448,26 Samsung DVD Writer 148,50 Thermaltake Chaser A21 381,1 Zalman CPU cooler 120mm FAN 249,00 Corsair RM550 489,35 Total $2.50 cash
I suppose I could always install that cooler later on. If I did that, would I lose the warranty on my graphics card? It's not that I'm planning to mess with it myself, but if I were just buying a bucket of parts, I'd want to know. Also, I forgot to mention one thing at the start: I was thinking about reusing the sound card from my old rig. It's a Creative Labs Audigy SB 5.1. I paid about $50 for it ages ago. Back then, I needed 5.1 surround because I was grinding on aa2X. My question is whether the onboard audio on this motherboard I've picked out is actually any better than my old junk. I’m using 5.1 headphones—they're old Zalman ones, but they're decent enough, I guess
graniteharbor85 said:Here is the full build again:
FX 8320 ENERMAX T40 BLACK T. ASUS M5A97 R2.0 EVO PATRIOT VIPER 2X4 GB 1600 MHZ (8GB) SEAGATE 3,5 1TB SATA 3 SSHD SAPPHIRE R9 290 4GB DDR5 LG GH24NS95 SATA FORTRON FSP RAIDER 650W 80+ SILVER ZALMAN Z5 PLUS
$2695 - Futura it
You have a different issue now because you can't find an Accelero Xtreme anywhere in the States. I suppose it might be easier to just save yourself the headache with the MSI GTX 780 3GB OC TF IV GAMING. You would get decent cooling right out of the box and a better warranty. Price-wise, it might even end up being similar once you factor in the cost of a separate cooler.
I've already forgotten if you actually need an HDD since this thread has dragged on so long—this one is a hybrid HDD/SSD, so it offers better performance than a standard hard drive while keeping the high capacity.
If you don't need one, my recommendation for an ssd remains the same.
Good grief, I'm going to lose my mind, honestly. 🙂
Does anyone know if the R9 290 cards have hit the shelves here in the States yet? I can't seem to find them anywhere. It’s the same story with the R9 280 Toxic; they just aren't showing up in my searches. 🤷 Also, I should mention that my financial situation suddenly improved, so I'll be paying in cash. 😁 The reason I'm asking about these two specifically is that I plan on grabbing whichever one I find first. If anyone has info, a quick reply would be appreciated. Thanks.
Timothy Kim60 said:If you’re just using a standard monitor—nothing higher than 1920x1200—I suppose you should just grab the 280x. There isn't much of a noticeable difference compared to the 290 (click), so you might as well save your money. Though, it seems like they aren't even in stock at our local stores right now
They aren't available yet. Based on what I've heard, they shouldn't arrive until around January 15th. Personally, I've put off buying my gear because of this. I don't think the 290s are in stock either
Benjamin King2 said:Good grief, you still haven't picked up that PC? 😁
No, I suppose I had to get my finances in order first so the bank would approve my loan 😂. I'm heading to the mall later this week. It’s not particularly convenient, really. If I had gone for that other setup I mentioned in my first post, I might have had it home by now, but it probably wouldn't have been much of a deal. This way, I should end up with something better for the same amount of cash. A week or two doesn't matter much, I guess.
If you have the study guides, I suppose taking a bit of extra time to really digest the material is the way to go. I think they might even try to install an Accelero cooler for me later at the service center. I’ve been checking out Tom's hardware site, but Firefox isn't showing any videos for some reason. Based on the text, they should be there, but nothing is loading. I guess I'm just stuck using my kid's computer right now.
