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ALERT! Advice needed for new gaming rig. Help requested!
Alright folks, I need your help. It's time to retire my homebuilt Core i7-920 @ 2.66 GHz/AMD Radeon 6850 1GB GPU machine. You can guess the state of the rest of my specs. It's sad. BG2 and Terraria are basically the only games that don't send my system into a seizure. So it's time for a new rig and I'd rather have someone else build it for me this time. Just like I can wash my own car, but sometimes I'll pay to have someone else detail that mother while I sit back and watch. With that said to avoid "Go to newegg and do it yourself brah" posts, on we go....
I mainly play MMOs, RPGs, Crafting/Survival and Strategy games. Examples include: SWTOR, WoW, FFXIV, Warthunder, WoT, FO4, GTA V, Witcher 3, EUIV, CK2, Stellaris, Civ 6, Life is Feudal, D3 etc.
So, what parts would you guys choose to build this kind of a system? Does anyone having experience with any of these companies? Are there other comanies you would recommend? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Also, I understand there is probably some new architecture/system right around the corner that will forever change the way we game but I've procrastinated on getting a new machine long enough. I'm pulling the trigger now, not in November.
Thanks everyone!
I mainly play MMOs, RPGs, Crafting/Survival and Strategy games. Examples include: SWTOR, WoW, FFXIV, Warthunder, WoT, FO4, GTA V, Witcher 3, EUIV, CK2, Stellaris, Civ 6, Life is Feudal, D3 etc.
- Would like to play all of these and other current games of these genres at maximum settings
- Not brand loyal to either Intel or AMD
- Do not plan on overclocking/nor do I have a desire to
- Not planning on doing VR any time soon but having the capability to would be nice
- Would like a fairly quiet system
- Open to fans or liquid cooling (no experience with liquid)
- A couple SSDs would probably be enough for my uses
- Don't know if i7-6700 and Nvidia 8GB 1070 Founder's Edition is overkill or just right
- 16GB of memory enough? Unsure of what/best kind to use
- Budget is between $500 and $3,000. Would prefer if the final price came to around $1,500-$1,800
- Looking at having this done at somewhere like Origin, iBuyPower,
CyberPC or something similar.
So, what parts would you guys choose to build this kind of a system? Does anyone having experience with any of these companies? Are there other comanies you would recommend? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Also, I understand there is probably some new architecture/system right around the corner that will forever change the way we game but I've procrastinated on getting a new machine long enough. I'm pulling the trigger now, not in November.
Thanks everyone!
Post edited by barryd on
Comments
Not saying build it yourself, but I am saying you can do the research and save some headache.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K
GPU: GTX 1080
Motherboard: MSI B350 PC Mate
Storage: Crucial MX300 1TB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive
Power Supply: EVGA 850 G2
RAM: 16GB DDR4
Case: Enthoo Pro
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S SE-AM4
Operating System: Windows 10
You should be able to do this for under 2k or so.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Other parts that impact noise are your CPU cooler, PSU, and hard disks. For CPU cooler there are plenty of fairly quiet parts available, just check that part before buying.
For PSU there are passive PSUs available up to 520W they are completely silent, like:
https://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-Nightjar-Completely-Acoustics-NJ520/dp/B00KHO0IG0
but you don't need to spend that much money you can also get a good PSU with active cooling and it'll be quiet enough.
For hard disks SSD is silent, spinning hard disks are not. If you build a system with only SSD, or with big enough SSD that you only need to use the hard disk infrequently, that drops the noise level by a lot.
Also make sure to check what kind of case fans you get to your system. A couple of good quality large case fans going at low RPM can be virtually silent and make the cooling a lot better.
2. You can choose either liquid or air cooling and both will do the trick. The quality of parts, and checking reviews that that particular part doesn't make too much noise, is more important than whether you choose air or liquid.
3. Don't get NVidia's founder edition cards if you want quiet system. They're one of the noisiest card out there. GTX 1070 is a good card, but get something with other cooling system instead
EDIT: For GTX 1070 good silent graphic cards are EVGA GTX 1070 SC Gaming, and MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X
Look here for comparison:
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/evga_geforce_gtx_1070_sc_superclocked_gaming_review,11.html
4. 16GB is enough. Most likely you'll want 2x8GB set of DDR4 memory. But the final choice of memory type depends on your PSU and motherboard.
If you get a motherboard with 4 memory slots you can get 2x8GB now, and if you ever need more buy another 2x8GB later on. But getting 16GB now is plenty enough, more would be overkill. It's unlikely you'd need more in the future.
Skytech Omega Gaming Computer $1899.99
Mobo: MSI B350 TOMAHAWK.
Cooler: No Need as the AMD stock cooler is excellent and very quiet.
GPU: Radeon RX580 or Nvidia GTX1070. Depends on your budget.
RAM: 8-16 GB DDR4. Get high speed RAM (Max 3200) Ryzen loves it.
HDD: Whatever (I recommend Seagate or Western Digital).
SSD: Whatever (All major brands (Corsair, Toshiba, Samsung, Kingston, etc) are good).
Voila!
One things for sure AMD might be better for General Use, but now I am favoring Intel more because of the CPU Instructions making game-play on certain older games and such more smooth and the way it handles processing seems to be better.
Allow me to shock you. Right now Seagate has the worst HDDs, and... HGST Deskstars are the best.
If so then I would take the time to research parts, order them and have it built.
This way you can custom build your pc with quality components and save money over ordering from someone like ibuypower.
If that's not an option then go with a vendor like origin.
Any other suggestions are welcome.
Another question: Are sound cards needed anymore? Even if I wanted to plug in my guitar to screw around with something like Rocksmith, isn't onboard audio good enough these days?
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
Having someone else build your computer does eat up part of the budget, but for many people, it's really a question of whether you have more spare money or spare time. You've got a large enough budget that paying to get it assembled need not mean settling for inferior hardware.
Personally, I don't even use my onboard sound. Went pure digital sound with a USB to speaker. Most onboard sound is good enough, but won't meet the demands of an audiophile. Even from the higher end boards. So like I said it really just depends on how far you want to push it.
After doing more research, I'm beginning to think I dont need a cutting edge machine to satisfy my requirements. Perhaps the best way to phrase it at this point is, going off my game list, what would be the optimal setup to have built for around $1500-$1800? Case, OS, everything included.
i7 will add $100-200 to a prebuilt markup and won't really give you any better gaming performance - but if it fits your budget then why not.
that type of rig may be overkill now, but that's a lot better than "not enough" and will give you some legs to get some good use out of it
I've heard mixed reports about CyberPower and iBuyPower - you have to be very careful in your product selection (if you let anything go to default you will get junk), and if you. Red to rely on their warranty your going to have a bad time.
Personally, as a gamer, I favor I5 chips, the extra threads on an I7 rarely come into play in games. If you run a lot of extra threads, I would chose a Ryzen chip over an Intel at the moment. Far as I am concerned, from a gamers perspective is that the graphics card is the primary importance at present. A 1070 or 1080 is the minimum I would recommend. If you are not intent on 4k the 1070 will probably do, but the 1080 is necessary for 4k.
You can still put a good system together for under $1200 if you are careful. Those $2000+ rigs won't double your performance, maybe up it by a third at best.
While I've been perusing builds I'm seeing a lot of 16GB m.2 pcinvme (or something) + mechanical drive. What the hell are these m.2 things and do I need one? Isnt just a 500GB SSD as a boot drive and game drive still good enough?
Just aim for the cheapest $/GB when choosing which SSD to buy.
EDIT: On second though, the M.2. SSD prices have been going down. If you get a good deal on one, you could also buy a M.2. SSD.
But just buy whichever is cheapest. And if you buy M.2. SSD check that your motherboard supports it. Most modern motherboards already do, but not all. /EDIT
I totally agree with - aim for cheapest $/GB when selecting your drive. Also take a gander at the controller chip to make sure you aren't getting something that's complete junk - that's rarer these days now that the market as matured a lot, but still possible if you are pursuing the lowest priced options.
Intel Optane is probably what you are seeing in the 16G range. Those are M2 NVMe drives, and Optane is a bit different than your standard SSD. It's meant to augment a traditional hard drive and allow it to act as fast as a standard SSD. Basically it allows you to turn any hard drive into a hybrid SSD/HDD drive. In reality - why bother, just get the standard SSD boot drive + game drive like you say - it's easier to deal with, performance is more consistent, and the cost isn't going to be all that different.
Intel is pushing them hard right now, but they don't make a lot of sense in a lot of cases, it's only available on motherboards where, if you have the budget to buy that model of motherboard, you have the budget to buy an SSD instead of a HDD in the first place. And, as you may know, with the SSD Boot + HDD Data model, speeding up that Data HDD doesn't buy a lot of performance increase for most people because that data is either rarely used, or not speed critical.
Also, at 1080p gaming - yeah, what you are thinking will work well. The 1060 (either 3 or 6G edition), the RX570, and the RX580 are all good options of the current generation. Cryptominers are going crazy right now and GPU prices are all over the place: a GTX970/980 or AMD Fury/470/480 are good alternatives from previous generations that are worth considering if you can find them at a good price and the prices for the current gen are completely bonkers.
The computer loads in 5 seconds, although a M2 drive would make it a bit faster, and it does take like 5 seconds because I have Blizzard & Steam auto starting.
All other games go on a up to date Regular Western Digital Drive.
And my "Desktop" "Music" "Downloads" "Videos" "Pictures" folder have all been moved to a different hard-drive and off my SSD to prevent early failure.