Posts by Robert Rodriguez2

Keith Wright2 said:I simply don't have the energy to argue with narrow-minded people like you. In your opinion, the best move is to dump everything into a GPU and just cobble together whatever leftovers you find in a bargain bin? 🙂 Those cases are pure nonsense; I would never buy them myself when for $67 I can get a decent, high-quality case with great airflow. As for the power supplies, they are perfectly average. The only thing in my build that is weaker than the rest is the graphics card, but even with it, you can play anything—not to mention, as I mentioned above, it's the easiest part to swap out, along with RAM which you just plug into a slot and it costs $93. However, you aren't going to be swapping the CPU, motherboard, or case anytime soon; you'll always be limited by them if they aren't strong enough from the start. This PC Build is excellently structured for a future upgrade to a more powerful GPU, and every single component is high quality. But please, feel free to sink all your money into a single GPU, kill any possibility of a future upgrade, and play for a year before you're forced to replace the entire system because it can't run games the way it's supposed to 🙂.

Someone should ban you from this forum. 🙂

So, according to you, if it isn't an Intel Core i5, it's not a gaming PC? 😂

Fine, go build your little i5 rigs with a Radeon R9 280X and a 550W power supply or whatever... and just upgrade them piece by piece later.

The rest of us are going to build something that won't need a total overhaul in six months just to stay relevant. That's it. 🙂

Keith Wright2 said:If I were in your shoes, here is how I would build it. An i5 is an incredibly powerful and fast processor; it doesn't pull much power and stays relatively cool when paired with a solid motherboard. This setup will remain strong enough for most games for quite a while, giving you the freedom to drop in a better graphics card whenever you save up some extra cash. I’ve also included a slightly beefier power supply right from the start so you won't have to buy a new one during future upgrades. As for memory, 4GB is plenty to get you started, and later on, adding another 4GB stick is a breeze—it'll only cost about $97. You'll also get a large, high-quality hard drive for all your data and a great, well-ventilated case with a nice window and blue LED lighting so you can actually see your components. The graphics card is sufficient to run modern titles on medium to high settings, and upgrading to a much more powerful card or adding more RAM down the road is the easiest task imaginable. If you aren't sure how, just let me know and I can send over a few videos to show you the way. I focused on building a robust platform because the whole system relies on it, ensuring everything is ready for future upgrades (strong CPU, excellent motherboard, and a power supply capable of handling high-end GPUs).

Intel Core i5-4440

Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3

Sapphire R7 260 x

XFX TS Series 550W PSU

DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Corsair, 1600MHz, CL11, Value

Seagate 1 TB 3.5 HDD, Western Digital Blue 10 EZEX, 1000 GB

Zalman Z9 U3 mid tower case

Total:$1417 Best Buy offers free assembly, testing, and delivery!
Stretch those $83; it will definitely come in handy later.
I didn't include a Prilica because you won't even need it; nowadays, everything from Windows installations to multimedia is handled via USB. Besides, a Prilica is $50 a waste of money; I have one myself and haven't touched it in two years.

You blew through your budget for $83 without actually building a better PC. That power supply is overkill for these parts, the CPU is unnecessary, and the most important part for gaming is totally mismatched with the rest of the build, especially since the kid wants to play games.
And just because you haven't used an optical drive in two years doesn't mean someone else won't.

And yeah, not everyone buys a computer intending to upgrade it... believe it or not, some people just run their machines until they die.🙂

crimsonstag84 said:AMD FX 6300
Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P
Spire Kepler Rev.2 cooler
Seagate 1 TB 3.5
MSI Radeon R7 265
Patriot Signature, 1333Mhz, 8GB (1x8GB)
LG GH24NS
Spire Maverick 6009
Fortron Hexa Plus 400W

Total: $1346 Best Buy (free assembly and shipping $27)

Compared to the build listed above, you're getting a significantly stronger processor, though the power supply is a bit weaker. Everything else stays more or less the same, I guess.

Maybe a better alternative would be to just grab 1x4GB of RAM for now, then use the price difference to pick up a beefier graphics card:

http://www.bestbuy.com/details/example-link

EDIT: Yeah, I was referring to the build from graniteharbor85

Looks like a solid build. 👍

briskmason6 said:Don't tell me that blue cable goes into the motherboard instead of the GPU—like, the integrated ones. My old card had both blue and white cables that plugged straight into the card, but this R290 just has the white one....

Yeah, you gotta plug that cable into the graphics card, not the motherboard...

Ronald Bishop58 said:Hey everyone, it's finally time for a new PC. My first build was just a bunch of cheap parts used for everything except actual gaming, but now I'm looking for a real setup.

Can I find a solid gaming rig in Seattle? Looking to buy or build one for around $500—maybe a little more if needed.

edit: excluding the monitor

also, if $$1167 isn't doable, what's the best bang-for-your-buck option around that price point?

Thanks in advance to the experts!

If you pay cash, you can get way more value than using a card. In Seattle, your best bet is probably AT&T.

Patrick Cooper86 said:hope I can jump in here without offending anyone, since I'm looking to pick up a gaming rig for about $1,200 and didn't want to clutter things up with a new thread...

So, the first shop I stumbled upon looks pretty overpriced to a newbie like me:

CASE: GAMING ATX MIDI TOWER COOLERMASTER MOD. K350
PSU: ATX 700W COOLERMASTER RS700
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS P8H77-V LE LGA1155 H77
PROCESSOR: INTEL CORE i5-4460 3.20 GHz
RAM: 8 GB DDR3 1600MHZ
HARD DRIVE: SATA3 3.5” 1000GB
SATA DVD±R/±RW
MSI GAMING AMD R9 290 4GB DDR5

8 $266

thanks in advance for the help..

1 x DDR3 8GB (2x4GB) Kingston, 1866MHz, CL10, Kingston Fury
1 x HDD Seagate 1TB, Serial ATA III, 7200 rpm, DESKTOP SSHD,8GB SSD
1 x PSU Corsair 650W, CS650M Modular PSU, 650 Watt
1 x ASUS DRW-24F1ST/BLK/B/AS SATA, DVD-R 24x, DVD-RW 6x, DVD+R 24x
1 x Gigabyte R9 290 4GB OC, 4GB GDDR5 512bit, GV-R929OC-4GD ,Fractal Design Core 3000
1 x Fractal Design Core 3000 Black NEW 3.0,Midi tower, ATX, 5,25"
1 x Processor Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz, Haswell
1 x Asrock Z87 KILLER, 1150, Intel ® Z87, DDR3, 4 slots, 1333
1 x COOLERMASTER Hyper 412S, socket 1366 / 1156 / 1155 / 775 / FM1

$2879
www.microcenter.com

1 x ASRock FM2A78M HD + motherboard, FM2, FM2+, AMD A88X chipset, DDR3
1 x AMD Trinity Athlon II x4 750 processor, 3.40GHz, 4 cores
1 x Crucial 8GB DDR3 RAM, 1600MHz CL11
1 x Toshiba 500GB HDD, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB
1 x Corsair CX430 430W PSU, 80+ Bronze, EPS12V v2.3
1 x Sapphire R7 260X 1GB GDDR5 OC graphics card, 128bit, 28nm
1 x Genius KM110X keyboard and mouse combo, USB
1 x AOC E2250SWDAK monitor, 21.5", 16:9, 1920x1080, built-in speakers
1 x MSI Gemini Midi Tower case, ATX/mATX, no PSU included
1 x Thermaltake Contac 16 cooler, compatible with 775, AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, FM1, 1155, 1156

$1356
admin.com

Timothy Fisher79 said:I think you can find better deals at Future or Downtown if I recall correctly, but apparently, the service at Links is top-tier 🤣 they even give you a special little stool while you sign the paperwork...
🎉

Well, whatever. If you want that kind of treatment, you gotta go there, though maybe they aren't even legit.

Rebecca Gomez77 said:I get that. Using links is basically the only way to go given the situation with Americans and the war. 😢

So why would this build actually be good for what I'm trying to do?

yep. that's pretty much it :-D
The only thing I'd swap out is the motherboard... I don't really trust ECS even if they offer a 3-year warranty... maybe go with Gigabyte, MSI, or ASUS instead... those brands are everywhere in the States and I feel better about them...

Rebecca Gomez77 said:Hey everyone! 🙂

I'm looking to pick up a new rig strictly for Electronic Arts, and I could use some help! It has to be from a specific retailer because of how I'm paying. Budget-wise, I have $1500 for just the tower (maybe up to $5k if we include a monitor), though I could scrape together another hundred bucks to bridge the gap.

I also have this ancient 21-inch monitor, and it feels like a waste of cash and GPU power to play on it—though I might grab a new monitor separately in a few months. Since the PC itself won't be changing for a while, can you guys give me a pro/con breakdown of parts versus performance if I try to fit a monitor into this budget?

Basically, I want to play pretty much anything released up to now and everything coming out in the next couple of years without worrying about stuttering or messing with settings too much. And obviously, I want it to look good. 😉 Like running Star Wars on max settings (40-man raids and stuff), BF4, Rust, etc.

I saw a build Intel put together in an old thread and liked the vibe, so something like this:

AMD Ryzen i5 3350P BOX, LGA 1155, 3.10GHz, 7MB cache, Quad-core processor
ASUS motherboard
NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics card, 2GB DDR5
460W Power Supply, LC POWER Silent Giant GREEN POWER LC6460GP3 V2.3
PC-12800 Memory, 4GB, G.SKILL, F3-1600C11S-4GNS, DDR3 1600MHz
500.0 GB SEAGATE Hard Drive, SATA3, 16MB cache, 7200 RPM
Corsair gaming case, MIDI, black, no PSU
Samsung DVD drive, 24x, SATA, Dual layer, black, bulk

Thanks for any help and for your time! 🙂

That's a tough one if you're buying through a big-box store on a payment plan; their prices are insane.

If you're paying cash, you'll get way more bang for your buck.🙂 Better value.

feralrider92 said:A buddy asked me to put together a parts list for a gaming rig under $2000. Just wanted to see if this setup works or if I should swap anything out.
Here's the build:
http://postimg.org/image/hct22fbj9/

What about the PSU?
No power supply listed...
With that CPU, you definitely need an aftermarket cooler. The stock one won't cut it—it'll run way too hot and loud.



If he's paying cash, he could probably snag a much better deal at a local shop like Micro Center. 🙂

Don't even bother. Once he fries his board in a year 😁 then he'll finally get a clue and realize how stupid he was ☕

granitegull51 said:What does that actually get you besides looks?

Are those expensive boards more resistant to bending, heat, or whatever?

Basically better capacitors. Cleaner power delivery to the components—PCI lanes, RAM, the CPU itself.

You won't find that on a board from $100.

briskmason6 said:Look, the motherboard isn't even a priority for what I'm doing with an Intel Core i5-4440 since overclocking isn't an option anyway. It has everything I need for a basic non-OC gaming rig. I think mellowtiger83 made some good points; at the end of the day, gaming performance doesn't depend on the board one bit. Also, if anyone knows—will there be any noticeable drop in quality if I swap out the Fortron Au 600W for this Raider sa 650W which is $67 cheaper?

The whole thing isn't about whether the motherboard affects your FPS while you play.
The point is that a solid motherboard is the foundation for a decent PC. Even if the board has all your checkboxes filled, like USB 3.0 and whatever else...

Putting a $100 board in a build that costs nearly 900 bucks just to squeeze out every single frame is honestly a joke.
But hey, your money, your call. 🙂

You could've easily dropped some cash on a cheaper motherboard if you're already blowing $8,800 on this setup:-/

Anthony White65 said:Thanks for the help, everyone. I'm going with the build graniteharbor85 put together, but I think I'll just grab 4 GB of RAM for now and add another 4 GB later... I don't get why those Kingston RAM-i 2+4GB are paired like that. I thought sticks always had to match, like 2+2 or 4+4.

Go for it. Grab 1x4 now, then grab another 1x4 whenever you actually need it.🙂

Daniel Kelly3 said:Dota is more my speed... I might hop on CS here and there if I get bored with Dota 2 or if there’s nothing decent streaming on Twitch 😁 just let me know where I can order a custom build for delivery

cnn.com

They offer free assembly and shipping if you're ordering over $667 anywhere in the US 🙂.
You can just pay cash on delivery when the driver shows up
or use a card once they confirm the payment... personally, I'd go with the first option. 🙂

Daniel Kelly3

Daniel Kelly3 said:Robert Rodriguez2, your opinions are absolutely fascinating... I suppose you think this setup will actually manage to run Dota 2 and CS:GO? Because that’s exactly what I’m buying it for—to play games and watch movies 😁 beyond that, I don't need anything else...

It'll run fine without even breaking a sweat, at least hardware-wise. I'm running it on integrated graphics right now and it's no problem at all. 😁

You'll be able to crank those settings up to high without breaking a sweat. 🙂

Adam Moore3 said:Hmm, yeah, true. I like 👍 😬

It's a Fortron, though. They aren't some cheap junk 😁

I've been messing with PCs forever and I've used Fortron power supplies plenty of times. Knock on wood, but I haven't seen a single one die on me yet. 😁

fadedorca66 said:They're all 5 series. You just missed the card because his is integrated too. These cards are basically twins:

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-HD-42...adeon-3000-IGP

Yep, mine's integrated too!