Advice for buying a gaming PC!

crimsonstag84 said:Since he just went with a pre-built rig 🙂

Exactly... I almost fell for that exact same thing myself! 😉

Drew Sanchez82 said:Just go for it. Honestly, at that price point, it's a steal.

So, was it actually any good?

It's actually pretty solid. Don't let those MHz/GHz numbers trip you up too much; they aren't really the best way to measure actual performance anyway.

WHICH ONE LOOKS BETTER TO YOU?

FROM Timothy Kim60
1 x Asrock Intel LGA 1151, Intel LGA 1151 Socket A78 Chipset MB
1 x MSI GTX 750 1GB DDR5, N750-1GD5
1 x HDD WD 1TB, Caviar Blue 10EZEX, 1000 GB, SATA3,64 MB, 3.5", 24mj
1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL11
1 x MS PHOENIX case without power supply, Midi tower MBO: ATX, mATX
1 x Power Supply FORTRON 400W, HEXA 400, 12cm fan, Active PFC
1 x LG GH24NS DVD burner, DVD±RW, 24x DVD±R ,8x DL , 40x CD-R
1 x Processor AMD Trinity Athlon ii x4 750 3.40GHz 4cores
1 x Spire Kepler Rev.2 cooler, 1156/775/FM1, 96.5×51×125 mm ,92mm

$1027Amazon.com, free assembly and shipping

OR

FROM Mclovin

X4 910E
ASUS M5A78L-M LX3
KINGSTON 8GB 1600 MHZ
TOSHIBA 3.5 500 GB SATA 3
MSI R7 260X 2GB OC DDR5
FORTRON HEXA+ 400W 80+
MS PHOENIX + 80 MM FAN

Roger Mitchell4 said:WHICH ONE LOOKS BETTER TO YOU GUYS?

FROM Timothy Kim60
1 x Asrock Intel LGA 1151, Intel LGA 1151 Socket A78 Chipset MB
1 x MSI GTX 750 1GB DDR5, N750-1GD5
1 x HDD WD 1TB, Caviar Blue 10EZEX, 1000 GB, SATA3,64 MB, 3.5", 24mj
1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL11
1 x MS PHOENIX case without PSU, Midi tower MBO: ATX, mATX
1 x FORTRON 400W Power Supply, HEXA 400, 12cm fan, Active PFC
1 x LG GH24NS DVD burner, DVD±RW, 24x DVD±R ,8x DL , 40x CD-R
1 x AMD Trinity Athlon ii x4 750 processor 3.40GHz 4cores
1 x Spire Kepler Rev.2 cooler, 1156/775/FM1, 96.5×51×125 mm ,92mm

$1027 Local shop, free assembly and shipping

OR

FROM Mclovin

X4 910E
ASUS M5A78L-M LX3
KINGSTON 8GB 1600 MHZ
TOSHIBA 3.5 500 GB SATA 3
MSI R7 260X 2GB OC DDR5
FORTRON HEXA+ 400W 80+
MS PHOENIX + 80 MM FAN

Timothy Kim60's build has a stronger processor, but the platform is pretty much a dead end for upgrades and the graphics card is weaker. On the other hand, Mclovin's build has a slightly weaker CPU, but it's on a more viable platform where you can actually upgrade the processor later—plus, the graphics card is better. 🙂 It's up to you which one you prefer. 😉

The 260X and the GTX 750 are pretty much neck and neck when it comes to graphics performance, depending on which game you're running.

Timothy Kim60 said:The 260X and the GTX 750 are pretty much neck and neck performance-wise, depending on which game you're playing.

http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index...2gb-oc-edition

Mclovin has 8GB of RAM, while Timothy60 only has 4GB, so he's really pushing me to buy from him instead. What are your thoughts?

Timothy Kim60 said:The 260X and the GTX 750 are pretty much neck and neck, depending on what game you're running.

I'm not so sure about that. The 260X is a bit stronger than the standard 750—not by a massive margin, but it still holds an edge. Of course, the Ti version would blow both of them away.

HERE ARE some actual specs. I’m not just talking about benchmarks here; based on raw data, the 260X is superior across the board. It has more SPU, higher TMU counts, double the texture rate, and higher clock speeds across the map. To me, any difference in actual gaming FPS comes down to driver optimization. On paper, the 260X should definitely be the faster card.

Gaming Debate 😬

http://youtu.be/nfIyvY0MEpo?t=1m26s
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages...review,10.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7764/t...iew-maxvel/11
http://www.legitreviews.com/evga-gef...eview_137067/3 - though keep in mind this one has the 750 factory overclocked (it actually handles manual OC quite well)

Naturally, certain titles lean more toward AMD optimization (like coh2, bf4, or Hitman Absolution), while others favor NVIDIA (BioShock Infinite, for instance...). However, on average, they are neck and neck—really in the same league...
By the way, if you go with MSI, ASUS, or Gigabyte, you get an extra year of warranty coverage.

Timothy Kim60 said:Gaming debate 😬

http://youtu.be/nfIyvY0MEpo?t=1m26s
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages...review,10.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7764/t...iew-maxwell/11
http://www.legitreviews.com/evga-gef...eview_137067/3 - though keep in mind this one has a factory overclock on the GTX 750 (it usually overclocks pretty well otherwise)

Sure, some games lean more towards AMD optimization (coh2, bf4, Hitman Absolution), while others favor NVIDIA (Bioshock Infinite...), but on average they're neck and neck—they're in the same league...
BTW, if you go with MSI, ASUS, or Gigabyte, you get an extra year of warranty.

Look, I know, it’s not a legitimate benchmark; I already said that. But just look at the architecture and raw GPU power. The 750 isn't stronger in a single aspect, literally. The most important part is the SPU, specifically the shaders and shader performance, where the 260 is significantly better, along with everything else. I'm not even talking about that 8% difference mentioned by GD—that's nonsense—but just purely logically. Besides, even in the links you provided, the 260 outperformed the non-Ti 750 in 99% of cases. In some spots, it even beat the Ti version.

Comparing architectures is pretty pointless when you aren't even looking at the same chip from the same manufacturer—it’s practically a generational gap. The Maxwell architecture is an incredibly efficient GPU that draws all its power directly from the PCIe slot. At the end of the day, you have to look at practical application: what is this actually going to be used for in real life? Gaming. These two are too close to call one a definitive winner. It really comes down to which specific games the user cares about. For me personally, if the warranties are equal, price would be the deciding factor. Or maybe specific features—each card brings something different to the table...

BTW, I'm not sure which links you were checking out, because it certainly isn't true in 99% of cases. 😬

In that first link, looking at the overall results table for the tested games, the GTX 750 is slightly stronger. However, in the second link, the overclocked 750 takes the lead in every single game tested. The only massive bottleneck is in coh2, where the ATI card performs significantly better.

Thanks, everyone! 🙂

Roger Mitchell4 said:Mclovin has 8GB of RAM, while this setup from Timothy Kim60 only has 4GB. That’s why I’m leaning toward buying from Mclovin. What do you guys think?

It shouldn't be much of a headache to just toss another 4GB into Timothy Kim60's rig.😁

Timothy Kim60 said:By the way, if you go with MSI, Asus, or Gigabyte, you get an extra year of warranty.

That's true. My MSI board actually came with a 3-year warranty.
Looks like my next upgrade is probably gonna be MSI too.

So, I guess Mclovin's setup works better for me! Hahaha

Drew Sanchez82 said:It shouldn't be an issue at all to toss another 4 GB into that TNGov rig. 😁

Exactly. My MSI has three years of warranty left.
I'm honestly thinking my next upgrade will be MSI too!

Is there actually a noticeable difference in gaming when you jump from 4 GB to 8 GB of RAM!?

Roger Mitchell4 said:Is there actually any noticeable difference between 8 GB and 4 GB of RAM when gaming?

Honestly, you won't see much of a meaningful difference, though maybe bf4 might show a slight edge... but nothing I can say for certain.

I honestly just can't wrap my head around how there's no noticeable difference between 4GB and 8GB of RAM.

And if you don't even have anything to run with those 4 GB, then having any extra is just useless dead weight.

Benjamin King2 said:If you don't even have enough hardware to make use of 4 GB, then having extra won't help you at all.

I totally get that, but people are saying GTA 5 is going to need 8 GB of RAM. In that case, it definitely won't be overkill!🙂