Posts by Adam Moore3

So, what can we really conclude here? The grandkids drop by their grandpa's place every now and then, get bored, and want to hop on the PC. Honestly, I think an AMD FX 8300 and an NVIDIA GTX 950 are a bit overkill just for a few hours here and there. Unless Grandpa decides to jump in and play some Grand Theft Auto 5 himself 😬

Someone is talking about a retiree whose grandkids want to play games on his computer, so he builds them a $5,000 gaming rig with an eight-core processor and an NVIDIA GTX 950. What on earth?
It looks something like this:

ASUS Prime Motherboard, sFM2+
AMD x4 A8-7600 processor
FORTRON 400W power supply
LC POWER Cosmo Cool CC-95
1TB WD Blue HDD, 3.5", 7200RPM
2xDDR3 4GB (1x4GB) PC3-14900 1866MHz
MS PHOENIX 2 case

Total: $2,$60 newegg.com

If you need to grab a monitor too, then it’s just another $280 for THIS which brings it to a round $1000. It's an APU build; you can actually play some decent games on it, and you get the screen plus the whole PC for $1000.

With the new SSD being $117, there’s no way you’re getting $350 for a used one. Even 8 GB of RAM at Best Buy is around $170, so I wouldn't expect more than $150 on the used market—maybe even less if you want to move it quickly. $333 is perfectly fine for an Intel i5-4460. As for a 500 GB HDD for $100, I don't know, I’d probably say $20. The only thing is the case is way too cheap; I'd value that at about $25.

lonescout75 said:That’s what I figured, thanks! 👍

The PC was used for graphic design, 2D/3D work, and video editing. It handles HD perfectly, but since clients are constantly demanding 4K resolution now, it’s starting to struggle a bit.

My plan is to grab a 6700K, 32GB of RAM, and a GTX 970 along with plenty of storage. Even though it hurts to sell a machine that still works flawlessly, it's going on the market.

It’s easy to sell the drives individually. I’m running these Blue drives in a mirror, so maybe someone could use them.

Sell it off piece by piece; you'll probably walk away with more cash that way. Keep the HDDs for your next build. Most of the components are actually quite solid. The case, PSU, HDDs, RAM, SSDs, cooler, peripherals—it's all great stuff for a future setup. You really just need to swap out the CPU, motherboard, and GPU. 🙂

Jamie Kern7 said:That’s basically the plan. I’m looking to swap out the power supply and the graphics card first, then eventually upgrade to something more modern down the road. This rig is actually for my younger brother—he mostly just plays Call of Duty, FIFA, and various racing games.

What do you guys think about picking up a used NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 1GB for... $167?
Can we do any better than this?

I used to have that processor, or at least a build pretty similar to it... man, the nostalgia hits hard. 😬 Trust me when I say it’s just not worth throwing your money away on something like this. The platform is ancient, and honestly, someone with a 4400+ isn't even going to tap into a third of that GTX 560's potential. Not to mention, you'd be pairing such a power-hungry card with a bottom-tier power supply... it's a recipe for disaster.
I should probably drop about $30 into... Used. Power supply and maybe 500...$200 u used Man, what are you thinking? You're about to drop 700 bucks on an upgrade that’s basically a gamble on reliability...$267.
Take that cash and start saving up for a new rig if you actually want to get some gaming done. I mean, for that $700...$267 You've already got the new CPU, motherboard, and RAM ready to go. Honestly, that Intel Pentium you're looking at would eat an AMD Ryzen for breakfast. I spent way too much time trying to patch up my own old junk, just duct-taping things together and hoping for the best, but eventually, I realized there was just no point... 🙂

What else am I supposed to look for in an SSD besides R/W speeds? 😬 I honestly thought that was the only thing that mattered. If one Intel 535 hits 540/480 while a SanDisk 3 times slower on writes, it seems weird that you wouldn't notice the difference during actual use. But hey, if you guys say so, then fine.
And yeah, I assumed HyperX Fury would be faster than that; turns out the write speed really is just 120 😲
I'm trying to stay under $133 for the SSD because I also need to pick up a caddy to swap out my laptop's optical drive, which is another $15 or so. So Intel is out; I'd prefer a Samsung, but damn, they're over $500.

Kimberly Gomez34 said:Actually, that Z400s with the lowercase 's' is specialized for laptops, so even if the speeds aren't super impressive, its power consumption is way better than other SSDs, meaning longer battery life.

I HAD NO IDEA. You basically just made the decision for me, thanks a ton for the info! 🙂

swiftfalcon89 said:You can get the Gigabyte R9 380 at the same store for the exact same price, but with an extra year of warranty compared to the XFX. XFX click She’s technically unavailable right now, but go ahead and check with her anyway... sometimes they have stuff tucked away that isn't listed as available. 😵 )

Best Buy is definitely the way to go in that price range. R9 380

I saw it, but since it was listed as unavailable, I didn't bother... though it’s possible their website just isn't up to date.

Chris Robinson25 said:I have an H81 motherboard, so there's zero overclocking potential here.

The G3260 isn't even built for OC; I don't know what kind of overclocking you think you're talking about. If we were discussing the G3258, then maybe this conversation would make sense. Even then, trying to OC on an H81 board is a joke, so you're just talking nonsense.

shadowotter54 said:Hey everyone.
I haven't really followed GPU development for years, so I could use some help here. This PC would be hooked up to a TV via HDMI for Full HD, which would be my only "monitor." Besides watching movies, I also want to play some games. What would you recommend in the $1,000 range and around $500? Thanks.

Do you already have the rest of the build? For $500 LIKE THIS, maybe. $17 is noticeably stronger than anything else in that bracket. Below that, you have the GTX 950, but it's significantly weaker. For about $1,000, the R9 270 is your best bet; HERE you can find one cheap.

Scumbag Intel 😁 I honestly think an APU would be a much better fit here if someone is actually looking to get some gaming done. You aren't going to have any luck trying to run things at 1080p on Intel integrated graphics, no matter how fast your RAM is.

Since when did the "p" suffix in Intel processor names stop indicating models without an iGPU? 🤔 Because I honestly thought you guys had all lost your minds, building PCs for people without any dedicated graphics card at all 😁

Ugh, honestly, the prices over at Best Buy are absolutely insane. $733 for an R9 380. Seriously, how do they even sleep at night? 😲

Roger Gray8 said:it was $1100... man, that's just... it's a new card, less than a year old

In my opinion, if it’s for $200, sure, but nowadays $100 you can get a better, brand-new card in the box with a full warranty. I’d always take that route. If you think those extra $100 bucks are worth the gamble, go ahead—more power to you. 🙂 Does that used one even come with a warranty?

Aha. I see something isn't quite right here 😁

crimsonstag84 said:It's just $67 cheaper, much weaker, and basically just a rebranded HD 7850/R7 265.

I think you mixed things up; there's no way an R9 285 is even remotely close to a 7850/R7 265😁 Did you mean the 7950 maybe?

Whoa. 👍 If only those DDR4 Skylake motherboards were just a tiny bit cheaper...

Roger Gray8 said:Nice. Plus, our local shop is super cheap $400 😁 plus shipping... the guy just finished working on a rig, so I know it works.
The CPU won't be a bottleneck, maybe in a few specific games. Thinking about selling the board and processor soon to grab an i5.

I wouldn't say it's exactly cheap when you could get a brand new R9 380 for $67 more. Best Buy

EDIT: My bad, I spoke too soon🙂

fadedorca66 said:It really needs to be a beast—full DisplayPort support, all the latest bells and whistles, plenty of outputs, and multi-monitor capability. Plus, it’s gotta be able to chew through even the most demanding 4K video files.

I downloaded a 4K sample and my R9 270 can't handle it. We tried it at the office on an i7 Haswell with integrated graphics and it wouldn't play 4K there either. I need to look into this; maybe it's just a VLC issue?

Please, it should definitely work on a 270. That sounds like a software issue. Try using different players. It's not like you're trying to game on a 270 and it can't push frames, you're just watching some random video.😬

Honestly, I don't even think the human eye should be able to notice much of a difference between 24 FPS and anything higher. Take The Hobbit, for example—it was shot at 48 FPS, yet you can't really see any real difference.

crimsonstag84 said:https://www.bestbuy.com/site/graphics-card-example

Should be fine...

Wait, shouldn't he be looking for something with a DisplayPort? HDMI might only handle 4K at 30Hz, whereas DisplayPort can do 60Hz. I remember reading something about that on a tech blog ages ago, correct me if I'm wrong.