CPU: $133 GPU: $267 MBO: $117 RAM: $83 And if you're looking for a quick sale, I'd be willing to drop the price by $50-$$33 per item, bringing the whole bundle down to about $500 .
Look, I don't know exactly how much you're currently in the red, but if you're sitting at a break-even point or even slightly ahead, it might actually make more sense to dip into the negatives a bit and just pick up a full setup with cash right now.
It sounds like you're comparing this to a GTX 780, but honestly, those cards are pretty much on par. The main perk of the GTX 770 is just lower power consumption, whereas the R9 280 X is significantly more budget-friendly. As for PhysX being more widespread—sure, if you want to get technical—but I can't think of many notable games besides Batman that actually utilize it. Besides, even today’s high-end processors handle those effects without breaking a sweat. In my opinion, the R9 280 X is the smarter buy, though I still tend to lean toward NVIDIA. I'll probably pick up a GTX 770 once I see a good sale, but I might just grab a GTX 760 instead. EDIT: Metro: Last Light and The Witcher also use PhysX.
I'm inclined to agree that people are overreacting; looking at the benchmarks, the performance gap isn't actually that massive. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7481/t...-290-review/15
Timothy Kim60 said:Honestly, you aren't going to find anything decent for under $400. Any offers floating around in that range just aren't worth the headache.$150 It’s actually infuriating how cheap they are right now. It's almost insulting. I'm looking for something new.
You’ve definitely landed a solid opportunity here. But let’s not jump to conclusions—it doesn't necessarily mean the guy is clueless. It’s entirely possible he’s just being pragmatic and wanted to close the deal quickly.
I’m telling you, some of these used components are just overpriced. And what Fosna is saying about zast is... $500 Used is always a solid bet when you can snag something practically brand new for a fraction of the retail price. $667I wasn't even suggesting the guy was being foolish; he was just being pragmatic. He moved over to a newer platform and decided it was time to cash out, which honestly worked out well for me. I suppose some people just have a hard time accepting that something they paid a premium for a few years ago isn't worth nearly as much today.
As for dual channel, I can't say for certain. To be safe, you really want sticks from the same manufacturer with matching frequencies and latencies. It might work if they aren't from the same brand as long as the timings align, but honestly, why gamble? You're better off just grabbing two identical sticks or a matched kit so you don't have to worry about stability later on.
Even the lowest prices you see on eBay aren't always realistic. For instance, I managed to snag a Q6600 for $117, whereas most people are asking anywhere from 400 to $200. Even those listing them at $150 struggle to find buyers, despite it being a fairly sought-after CPU. Looking at the components mentioned in the last ten posts, I’d personally suggest even lower prices if someone were looking to buy the entire build at once. If you're just picking out individual parts, I'd stick to the estimates provided by Benjamin King2. At the end of the day, you always have eBay, so feel free to set whatever price you like. If you want to delude yourself into thinking you own a high-value machine, go ahead and inflate your prices—but if you actually want to sell it, you'll eventually have to come back down to earth....
It really depends on the specific situation. If I'm currently struggling with just 2GB of RAM, then upgrading is a no-brainer. But if everything is running smoothly? I wouldn't bother—it would just be throwing money down the drain.
If I were in your shoes, I’d just pick up a used Phenom II X4. For something like Far Cry 3, you aren't really going to see a massive difference by dropping in an FX chip or an Intel Core i5. The real question is whether your current processor would even hit 100% utilization anyway. And even if it doesn't max out, that doesn't necessarily mean you're dealing with a bottleneck.
Timothy Fisher79 said:Not exactly the cheapest? 😂 I honestly have no idea which stores you’re visiting where they'd be any cheaper than Micro Center.
I can't say I agree, but who even are you?
Take a look at the difference.
It’s the exact same product ID and it’s a full kit in both cases (full Retail 1.00 and free shipping, so $48 Edigital wins on savings here.)) And here are just a few more shops where prices are lower: http://www.nabava.net/search.php?tp=...GB+840+Evo+kit Moving on.
AMD FX-Series X8 8350 i5 3570K Wow, Micro Center, where are you hiding? I’m checking power supplies now, and they aren't the cheapest either... Do I really need to keep going? Corsair Obsidian 550 D Even the case isn't. Is it just GPUs left? Sapphire R9 290 radeon Basically, except for a few exceptions, most graphics cards are cheaper elsewhere. For everything else, it's hit or miss... but they are clearly not the cheapest, period.
Larry Ortiz5 said:Looking at the competition from other online retailers, they really are the cheapest option. But then again, if you don't have ten days to sit around waiting for your shipment to arrive, you don't really have much of a choice. 😁
From what I can tell, they aren't actually the cheapest. Their graphics cards might be the lowest priced most of the time, with a few exceptions, but the rest of their inventory is... let's call it "modest."
Personally, I’d steer you toward the r9 280x or a GTX 980. Given that high resolution you're aiming for, the 290 or a GTX 780 is basically asking to melt inside a case when running at QHD versus FHD. Even once the 280x starts feeling its age, the 290 will be right there with it; the only way that card keeps an edge is if you start cranking down the settings. When you invest in a high-end card, you're buying peace of mind for a long time. Someone who bought a Radeon HD 5970 back in the day might just be starting to feel the itch to upgrade now—assuming it hasn't kicked the bucket already. Honestly, rather than paying the premium for those top-tier options plus the cost of a cooler (which is roughly $117), I'd suggest saving that cash. If you sell your current setup, the leftover difference should be enough to pick up a solid mid-range card later on... P.S. I’m also of the mind that you don't need anything beefier than an i5-3570K or an FX-8350, especially with that high resolution in play. In fact, if you grab an i7-4770 instead of the FX-8350, it costs twice as much, which leaves you with $333 more in your pocket. It really comes down to either McLovin's suggestion or Woodu's alternative, though I personally lean toward the weaker GPU option here. David Sanders4 Take a look at this benchmark featuring the GTX 680; check out how little difference there is between Intel processors at lower resolutions compared to the one you'll actually be gaming on. There's almost no gap. It's pretty much the same phenomenon where you see a $100 AMD chip performing nearly as well as an Intel chip that costs three times as much.
If you’re looking to move up from a GeForce GTX series, I wouldn't suggest jumping straight to a GeForce GTX 780. Honestly, the only upgrade that's actually going to feel significant is moving to something like an R9 280 x or a GTX 770. Your best bet is probably holding onto your current card until you can get a decent chunk of change for it—maybe around $800-$300. If you manage that, picking up an R9 270x might make sense, though you won't notice a massive leap in performance. It's mostly just about having a newer, more capable card that might still hold some resale value in a year or two. If you do go that route, I highly recommend getting a 36-month warranty; it'll be much easier to offload the card in two years if you can prove it was covered.
Honestly, looking at this motherboard, even Gigabyte starts to look like a premium choice to me. It’s a similar story with HP—they have their Power line and gaming cards that catch the eye just as much as a Dell Sabertooth with its thermal armor or an Asrock OC Formula or even a fatal error series. Some brands even go as far as offering 3-year warranties. HP even claims in their ads that they individually test every single card before it ever hits the shelves. When you actually break things down by tier, I don't see any one brand holding a clear advantage over the others. My main priority would simply be finding parts that look cohesive together in a build. Even regarding price, Dell isn't necessarily more overpriced than the rest when you're looking at motherboards, though their graphics cards have always seemed unnecessarily expensive, regardless of whether there's any justification for it.
Timothy Kim60 said:Actually, I wouldn't say that’s quite right—you end up overpaying massively in the high-end segment. If you look at just the last year, a Titan comes out for $1,500, then two or three months later, you get a nearly identical GTX 780 for $500 less. Today, we see a 290 hitting the market for $550—all within a single year. By the next generation, you'll be looking at something like a 290x for roughly $2--$833
For instance, what is the point of an i7 costing over $750 when no game can even properly utilize a standard i7 priced at $350--$833? It won't happen anytime soon, either. You're just going to waste money.
My philosophy is always the same: it's better to upgrade more frequently. If you have the cash, invest it in a high-quality case worth $150 instead; everything will run smoothly, and if you aren't happy with it later, you can just sell it and grab something else.
That’s pretty much it. You shouldn't view buying components like you're buying a car. You need to look at it through one vital lens: time. Essentially, aim to spend as little as possible over a long period while maintaining stable components. For gamers, I always measure value by cost per FPS...
Robert Rodriguez2 said:🙄 It doesn't actually have to be PCIe 3.0. A 2.0 setup works just fine.
The main thing is that it's 16x 8x 8x 8x 🙂
Technically possible, sure, but nobody is looking to deal with that kind of scenario—though, to be fair, I haven't personally run into such a massive performance hit anywhere else. http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m...e=1&print=true