sorry for bothering anyone, I'm a developer myself, but I'm not too good on the hardware aspect of the PCs since my main focus is the programming aspect.
right now I'm looking for a $1000-$1100 PC for gaming, general use and if I could, use Unity to learn some gaming development, I've been looking at
this website for some guidance, right now I'm looking at the outstanding category for building my PC, but I'm afraid I build a wrong PC or nor good enough, so I have some questions:
would following that page be ok or should I follow another pages?
are the parts picked there good enough?
should the outstanding category be enough to keep my PC well for the next couple of years?
also, if I would want to change the graphic card from a 970 to a 980, what would be the main changes I could notice?
thank you very much for any help.
since this will be the first PC I'll be building, I'll just stcik to the normal one... I'll miss the RAM and wi-fi, though
Their part recommendations are sometimes alright, but we can do part recommendations based on current best pricing for you. Going from a GTX 970 to a GTX 980
yields a small 10~20% performance improvement, generally it's not worth the extra cost. It's also possible for a
overclocked GTX 970 to match a stock GTX 980 (depending on games and drivers and how far the card is overclocked of course), so we don't really recommend the GTX 980.
If you want a $1000~1100 PC, I recommend this parts list. Of course, if you want to have anything changed, that can be done.
PCPartPicker part list /
Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($254.88 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($115.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2800 Memory ($46.97 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($87.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($319.98 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($41.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($66.50 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($29.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1038.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-20 13:41 EST-0500
An mITX motherboard isn't what you want unless you're aiming for a super compact PC. For first time builders, a larger motherboard and case will be easier to build in. This parts list includes RAM, wifi, and bluetooth.
Yes everything is new except for my hardrive and power supply. I went from win 8>8.1>10. So you're basically saying I can't use the os on my hardrive? Wtf am I supposed to do? What does everybody else do when they build a new pc?
Correct, you cannot activate that license of Windows with a different PC. You can get a new Windows license. If they have a retail copy of Windows, it can be transferred to another PC, if they don't then they will need a new Windows license.
If you're worried about costs, then consider getting a cheap Windows license from Reddit. Here's my usual disclaimer on that:
Cheap Windows licenses can be bought from
reddit's microsoftsoftwareswap for cheap, around $15 USD or less. Windows 10 licenses are also available for a bit more. These are most likely legitimate keys that are resold from educational programs like Technet or MSDNAA/Dreamspark. However, you are dealing with a person instead of a retailer, and informal Windows keys sales are not approved by Microsoft and probably breaking some licensing agreement, but it's not illegal. The risks involved are that the person could be selling you a fake or used key, or that Microsoft may refuse to give you support and/or deactivate your license and refuse to reactivate it. That's not very likely, usually it only happens if the seller and their list of sold keys was caught. We've had people here using those keys without issues for a long time and others who say Microsoft deactivated their key after several months. The 7/8/8.1 keys should be upgradeable to Windows 10, but confirm with the seller to be sure, of course.
Heya, so I'm using the 'Great - Best Value' build (
ie this one) in the OP as a starting point for building a new PC. My budget is about £650 for the desktop itself and £200 for everything else, with a bit of wiggle room.
I basically want to run near everything at high/max settings, 1080p + 60fps, which includes games released currently and for the next couple of years. Also want to be able to run Dolphin at 1080p consistently. So with that in mind, just some queries I have:
1) A friend insisted I go for a bronze corsair power supply, any agreements/disagreements? And do you reckon 550 will be enough?
2) What are the best RAM brands to look for? That same friend recommended I try get the RAM free, either with a motherboard or another component. Will see on that as I want to go for 16GB, whether that's two 8GBs or one 16GB.
3) I reckon I'll go for the i5 4460 4C/4T CPU (non-K version) that's not overclockable. Reckon that would suffice?
4) Thinking of going for the AMD R9 290 4GB graphics card? Or would 280 3GB likely be enough for what I want?
5) Thinking of going for 120GB SSD for OS, any recommended brands? I'll also go for a 750MB/1TB HDD for everything else.
Big thanks for any help in advance, and please excuse my naivete on the subject
What parts are you looking at already? Do you have a list in mind?
1. Depends what model it is. We try not to recommend Corsair's CX line if possible, they're not that great.
2. Brand doesn't matter so much as the speed and latency does. I don't know why your friend insists on getting "free RAM" bundled with another part.
3. That processor is alright, but you may want to consider getting the newer i5 6500 if you can fit it into your budget. Keep in mind that the i5 4460 and i5 6500 aren't compatible with the same motherboard chipset and RAM.
4. Unless you're looking at used graphics cards at a low price, the R9 290 and R9 280 are discontinued and they are no longer recommended. For the UK, skinflint.co.uk is a great comparison shopping website for computer parts and it tells me that the newer
R9 390 can be had for the same price as an
R9 290, and the same goes for the
R9 380 and
R9 280. Also consider the
GTX 970 and
GTX 960 4GB. Nvidia is preferable for lower power consumption in case you go with a lower end power supply.
5. If you can go for a 240~256GB SSD instead, we'd recommend it. My experience is that 120GB can fill up rather quickly unless you strictly only keep Windows and maybe a few programs on it.
Edit: Here's a preliminary parts list for you to look at that fits into your £650 budget.
http://imgur.com/uq7FflO
1 x
Western Digital WD Blue 1TB, 64MB cache, SATA 6Gb/s (WD10EZEX)
1 x
Samsung SSD 850 Evo 250GB, SATA (MZ-75E250B)
1 x
Intel Core i5-6500, 4x 3.20GHz, boxed (BX80662I56500)
1 x
Crucial DIMM kit 8GB, DDR4-2133, CL15-15-15 (CT2K4G4DFS8213)
1 x
Sapphire Radeon R9 380 Dual-X, 2GB GDDR5, 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, lite retail (11242-02-20G)
1 x
MSI B150M Mortar (7972-002R)
1 x
SilverStone Precision PS08 black (SST-PS08B)
1 x
XFX TS Series 550W ATX 2.31 (P1-550S-GREN)
1 x
Microsoft: Windows 10 Home 64bit, DSP/SB (English) (PC) (KW9-00139)
Total of all best prices: £ 647.75
I can't be certain if the prices for the parts include VAT or shipping, so the total might be a bit higher.
