Looking for Help Buying A New system

Comments

• Quizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,348

  February 2019

  Are you willing to assemble parts yourself and just need to know what parts to get?  Or do you need a prebuilt computer, which will mean that that budget doesn't get you nearly as good of parts?
  
  I generally recommend that you get at least double the GPU performance of your old system, as you don't want to pay a ton of money for only a modest upgrade.  That would put you roughly into GTX 1080/Vega 64/RTX 2070 territory, and spending around $500 on the video card is doable on your budget if you can assemble the computer yourself.

  
• ThumbtackJ Member UncommonPosts: 669

  February 2019

  Quizzical said:

  Are you willing to assemble parts yourself and just need to know what parts to get?  Or do you need a prebuilt computer, which will mean that that budget doesn't get you nearly as good of parts?
  
  I generally recommend that you get at least double the GPU performance of your old system, as you don't want to pay a ton of money for only a modest upgrade.  That would put you roughly into GTX 1080/Vega 64/RTX 2070 territory, and spending around $500 on the video card is doable on your budget if you can assemble the computer yourself.

  Oh yeah I can absolutely assemble it myself. I'm just lost on what specific parts to pick to get the most bang for my buck' so to speak.
• Quizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,348

  February 2019

  Here you go:
  
  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113497
  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144177
  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820156178
  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153
  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313773
  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151202
  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416892
  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487413
  
  That comes to $1304, including shipping and before rebates.  One alternative that you may want to consider is saving $100 on the video card by getting this instead:
  
  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202326
  
  I should warn you that the latter card is going to be loud.  It's not an AMD versus Nvidia thing; it's more that I don't trust that cooler to to be able to dissipate the heat that it needs to without making a lot of noise.  A Vega 64 with a better cooler costs $500, at which point, I'd sooner get the RTX 2070 unless you have a strong preference for AMD.
  
  Do note that the memory is currently on a "shell shocker" deal for $90; don't buy that particular kit if it's $120 or something like that when you go to buy it.  What you really want for memory is 2x8 GB (for 16 GB total), 2666 MHz, 1.2 V.
  
  I'm assuming that you'll use the stock CPU cooler.  AMD's stock coolers aren't great, but they're considerably better than Intel's, at least apart from the one nice one that Intel shipped with their Gulftown CPUs in 2010.
  
  I'm also assuming that 1 TB of storage is plenty for you, since it's considerably more than you have now.  The SSD is SATA in an M.2 form factor, not PCI-E, so it will perform like a SATA SSD.  If you'd prefer the usual 2.5" form factor, you can get the same drive for the same price in that form factor.
  
  There's no optical drive there, as I'm assuming that you don't need one.  If you do, get a DVD burner for around $20.
  
  I'm also assuming that you reuse your surge protector or UPS from your old computer, though you didn't explicitly state that you would.

  
• frostymug Member RarePosts: 645

  February 2019

  If you're not planning to continue using the old PC you can deactivate the Windows activation code on it and reuse it. $100ish bucks to use elsewhere.
• ThumbtackJ Member UncommonPosts: 669

  February 2019

  Quizzical said:

  
  Do note that the memory is currently on a "shell shocker" deal for $90; don't buy that particular kit if it's $120 or something like that when you go to buy it.  What you really want for memory is 2x8 GB (for 16 GB total), 2666 MHz, 1.2 V.
  
  I'm assuming that you'll use the stock CPU cooler.  AMD's stock coolers aren't great, but they're considerably better than Intel's, at least apart from the one nice one that Intel shipped with their Gulftown CPUs in 2010.
  
  I'm also assuming that 1 TB of storage is plenty for you, since it's considerably more than you have now.  The SSD is SATA in an M.2 form factor, not PCI-E, so it will perform like a SATA SSD.  If you'd prefer the usual 2.5" form factor, you can get the same drive for the same price in that form factor.
  
  There's no optical drive there, as I'm assuming that you don't need one.  If you do, get a DVD burner for around $20.
  
  I'm also assuming that you reuse your surge protector or UPS from your old computer, though you didn't explicitly state that you would.

  Thank you for taking the time to do this man. I greatly appreciate it. Yeah I'm okay with the stock cooler for now. I'm currently using a Hyper 212 Evo, so would one of those be fine should I chose to grab an aftermarket down the line? Also, is there anything 'extra' about the m.2 form factor (does it just hang loose with a cord, or is there a slot specifically for it on the mobo)? And yeah, I don't have an optical drive. I do have a surge protector, it's just a black $30 GE one, probably not that great but if theres a better type/brand I'd love some recommendations.
• Quizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,348

  February 2019

  frostymug said:

  If you're not planning to continue using the old PC you can deactivate the Windows activation code on it and reuse it. $100ish bucks to use elsewhere.

  The old computer should still be worth a lot more than $100.
• Quizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,348

  February 2019

  ThumbtackJ said:

  Quizzical said:

  
  Do note that the memory is currently on a "shell shocker" deal for $90; don't buy that particular kit if it's $120 or something like that when you go to buy it.  What you really want for memory is 2x8 GB (for 16 GB total), 2666 MHz, 1.2 V.
  
  I'm assuming that you'll use the stock CPU cooler.  AMD's stock coolers aren't great, but they're considerably better than Intel's, at least apart from the one nice one that Intel shipped with their Gulftown CPUs in 2010.
  
  I'm also assuming that 1 TB of storage is plenty for you, since it's considerably more than you have now.  The SSD is SATA in an M.2 form factor, not PCI-E, so it will perform like a SATA SSD.  If you'd prefer the usual 2.5" form factor, you can get the same drive for the same price in that form factor.
  
  There's no optical drive there, as I'm assuming that you don't need one.  If you do, get a DVD burner for around $20.
  
  I'm also assuming that you reuse your surge protector or UPS from your old computer, though you didn't explicitly state that you would.

  Thank you for taking the time to do this man. I greatly appreciate it. Yeah I'm okay with the stock cooler for now. I'm currently using a Hyper 212 Evo, so would one of those be fine should I chose to grab an aftermarket down the line? Also, is there anything 'extra' about the m.2 form factor (does it just hang loose with a cord, or is there a slot specifically for it on the mobo)? And yeah, I don't have an optical drive. I do have a surge protector, it's just a black $30 GE one, probably not that great but if theres a better type/brand I'd love some recommendations.

  An M.2 drive goes in a different slot on the motherboard.  Where motherboard vendors put it can vary a lot, but on the one I linked, it's between the CPU and the GPU.
  
  In a laptop, you'd much prefer an M.2 SSD to a SATA one just because it's physically smaller.  In a desktop, that doesn't matter.  The M.2 form factor can go over SATA or PCI Express, and the latter can offer much higher performance.  It also comes with a higher price tag.  Here's the 2.5" version of the same SSD that I linked above:
  
  https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820156174
  
  Same price, same performance, just a question of which form factor you prefer.
• Quizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,348

  February 2019

  One correction:  the motherboard I linked has two M.2 slots, and the one between the CPU and GPU doesn't support SATA.  The one near the bottom of the motherboard does.  I would edit my post above, but the edit button seems to have vanished.
• frostymug Member RarePosts: 645

  February 2019

  Quizzical said:

  frostymug said:

  If you're not planning to continue using the old PC you can deactivate the Windows activation code on it and reuse it. $100ish bucks to use elsewhere.

  The old computer should still be worth a lot more than $100.

  And not much less whether it has Windows on it or not since Windows is now tied to your Microsoft account anyways. If you sell it, the new owner will have to activate Windows anyways unless you give them your Microsoft account
  
  
  
• ThumbtackJ Member UncommonPosts: 669

  February 2019

  Hey I just wanted to update this and say thanks for the advice and part list. I got everything assembled and it's working fantastic so far!