The 'Build Me A PC' Thread

[Trippy]

The 1060 is the better value.

[MisterNoisy]

Yeah - it's pretty much in the same spot as the 970 was a year or so ago.  They're still marked up a bit (mine was $420) due to demand, but I got the offer on my 380, so I decided to jump.    The real bang for the buck card is probably the AMD RX480 or the 1060, but it doesn't really represent much of an improvement over the 970 I already had - they're pretty much neck and neck in a lot of benchmarks.

[Rasix]

Right now I'm running a 760 GTX.

[Trippy]

Yeah - it's pretty much in the same spot as the 970 was a year or so ago.  They're still marked up a bit (mine was $420) due to demand, but I got the offer on my 380, so I decided to jump.    The real bang for the buck card is probably the AMD RX480 or the 1060, but it doesn't really represent much of an improvement over the 970 I already had - they're pretty much neck and neck in a lot of benchmarks.

The 1060 (6 GB) is as fast or faster than the 980 so it would be very rare for the 1060 to be "neck and neck" with the 970 for a particular game.

[MisterNoisy]

Yeah - it's pretty much in the same spot as the 970 was a year or so ago.  They're still marked up a bit (mine was $420) due to demand, but I got the offer on my 380, so I decided to jump.    The real bang for the buck card is probably the AMD RX480 or the 1060, but it doesn't really represent much of an improvement over the 970 I already had - they're pretty much neck and neck in a lot of benchmarks.

The 1060 (6 GB) is as fast or faster than the 980 so it would be very rare for the 1060 to be "neck and neck" with the 970 for a particular game.

True - for me, it was kind of in that 'not as much of a jump as I want in a new card', space though.

[Sky]

Right now I'm running a 760 GTX.

Turn in your card on the way out, heathen.

[Rasix]

Hey, it runs things. I do turn shadows down a lot, however.

It's not quite d_mipcap 3. We've come a long way.

[Nebu]

Right now I'm running a 760 GTX.

I have the same card and it seems just fine. 

I'm not sure what Sky is going on about.  I don't feel a need to upgrade yet.

[Rasix]

I've noticed slowdowns and frame rate issues in some games I play. Plus, I now have to lower certain options to get passable frame rates in some situations. I feel like I'm teetering on the edge for AAA games. Most indie bullshit runs fine.

[Nebu]

I rarely ever play games on the best settings.  That could be it.

[Sky]

I rarely ever play games on the best settings.  That could be it.

Your card, too. 

[Furiously]

Right now I'm running a 760 GTX.

I have the same card and it seems just fine. 

I'm not sure what Sky is going on about.  I don't feel a need to upgrade yet.

I'm waiting for the Christmas bump in prices on the 1070....

[Rasix]

The 1060 is the better value.

Any advice on a specific card? I've had good luck with this EVGA. 

[MisterNoisy]

The 1060 is the better value.

Any advice on a specific card? I've had good luck with this EVGA. 

I like the MSI 'Gaming' series cards just because the coolers are pretty fantastic and I like the aesthetics, but there's really not a ton of difference between most of the two-fan heat pipe cards from the big vendors.  If you're overclocking, you'll look for fancier power delivery and cooling, but that's about it.

If I'm honest, I really like the 'mini' 1060s (like this Gigabyte or this Zotac), just because I like building small form factor boxes.

[Mosesandstick]

So my graphics card has started glitching. It could be the windows 10 update but my PC is around 4 years old and I don't mind buying a new one. I tend to play games only a couple of years after they come out, so I'm not fussed about top of the line performance, though I definitely want it when doing my photo processing. Thoughts/comments? Thanks in advance.

- i5 6500
- h110m micro-ATX mobo (is there any reason to go for b150/h170/z170?)
- 2x8GB DDR4-2400 dual channel sticks (does dual/quad channel matter?!)
- RX 480 (worth going for a GTX 1060?)
- 275GB Crucial MX300 m.2 SSD
- WD Blue 1TB
- WD Green 3TB (Carried over from current pc)
- 650W PSU
- Micro ATX case (Is it possible to use a Micro ATX case with a M.2 SSD + 2 HDD? Any disadvantages in doing so apart from airflow?)

[KallDrexx]

480 is probably only better than 1060 if you want a Freesync monitor.  Otherwise I think 1060 is a better perf / $ deal

[Nebu]

Looking at a 1060 myself.  Is it worth it to get the 6GB over the 3GB?  What types of games tend to be more GPU demanding and will the extra memory help this significantly? 

Sorry if a dumb question. 

[apocrypha]

What resolution are you gaming at? I can't imagine needing 6GB unless you're running a 4K monitor. Very heavily modded Skyrim might be the only case where it might help.

[Nebu]

What resolution are you gaming at? I can't imagine needing 6GB unless you're running a 4K monitor. Very heavily modded Skyrim might be the only case where it might help.

That covers my question perfectly.  I'm not using a 4K monitor.  Hell, I don't even care about pristine graphics.  I just like playing pvp games and hate it when my framerates drop below 60fps on decent settings.

[KallDrexx]

More and More games are going past the previous 4GB vram limit, even without 4k.  Even at 1080p max textures can use all 8Gb of VRAM on games like Mirrors Edge Catalyst, and I think Deus Ex can blow past 4Gb pretty easily too.

However, you won't get a FPS hit as much as you'll just have to lower texture details which you may not even notice.

[Nebu]

More and More games are going past the previous 4GB vram limit, even without 4k.  Even at 1080p max textures can use all 8Gb of VRAM on games like Mirrors Edge Catalyst, and I think Deus Ex can blow past 4Gb pretty easily too.

However, you won't get a FPS hit as much as you'll just have to lower texture details which you may not even notice.

Good stuff.  Thank you very much. 

[Samprimary]

so i have to start saving up for a new computer. slowly. i want to do more of them pseudo-gamefaqs articles things.

i will have to pretty much start from scratch. everything in my computer is too old. so what can you get for 400-600 these days

[Viin]

How from scratch are you talking? What do you got now?

[KallDrexx]

so i have to start saving up for a new computer. slowly. i want to do more of them pseudo-gamefaqs articles things.

i will have to pretty much start from scratch. everything in my computer is too old. so what can you get for 400-600 these days

If you are building it yourself I'd look at https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/, they have some good guides that you should be able to tweak in your price range.

[Trippy]

So my graphics card has started glitching. It could be the windows 10 update but my PC is around 4 years old and I don't mind buying a new one. I tend to play games only a couple of years after they come out, so I'm not fussed about top of the line performance, though I definitely want it when doing my photo processing. Thoughts/comments? Thanks in advance.

- i5 6500
- h110m micro-ATX mobo (is there any reason to go for b150/h170/z170?)
- 2x8GB DDR4-2400 dual channel sticks (does dual/quad channel matter?!)
- RX 480 (worth going for a GTX 1060?)
- 275GB Crucial MX300 m.2 SSD
- WD Blue 1TB
- WD Green 3TB (Carried over from current pc)
- 650W PSU
- Micro ATX case (Is it possible to use a Micro ATX case with a M.2 SSD + 2 HDD? Any disadvantages in doing so apart from airflow?)

The H110 is a horrible horrible chipset for gaming. Avoid it at all costs.

[rattran]

So my graphics card has started glitching. It could be the windows 10 update but my PC is around 4 years old and I don't mind buying a new one. I tend to play games only a couple of years after they come out, so I'm not fussed about top of the line performance, though I definitely want it when doing my photo processing. Thoughts/comments? Thanks in advance.

- i5 6500
- h110m micro-ATX mobo (is there any reason to go for b150/h170/z170?)
- 2x8GB DDR4-2400 dual channel sticks (does dual/quad channel matter?!)
- RX 480 (worth going for a GTX 1060?)
- 275GB Crucial MX300 m.2 SSD
- WD Blue 1TB
- WD Green 3TB (Carried over from current pc)
- 650W PSU
- Micro ATX case (Is it possible to use a Micro ATX case with a M.2 SSD + 2 HDD? Any disadvantages in doing so apart from airflow?)

It depends on the case, just pick one that will have the number of drive slots you need. You could even go mini-itx and have room for a few drives with something like this.

[Mosesandstick]

Thanks for all the advice folks. Here's my next iteration:

Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
Samsung PM961 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Western Digital Blue 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Western Digital Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (old)
Palit GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB Dual Video Card
Thermaltake Core V21 MicroATX Mini Tower Case
EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

The mobo has m.2 and supports DDR4 (2133MHz), which are I think the only real requirements to be compatible with everything else. And everything should fit with plenty of space in the box. I also picked Palit as the cheapest dual fan GTX 1060 but if anyone thinks it's a good idea to go with a different brand I don't mind paying a bit more.

[rattran]

I got overly excited at that mini-itx, bought one and built a system. Fiddly and small to get set up, but quiet and everything is running cool. Seems amazingly snappy compared to my I7-920

• I5-6600k
• Noctua Low-Profile NH-L9I
• Corsair Obsidian 250D Mini ITX Case
• Gigabyte LGA1151 Intel Z170 Mini-ITX DDR4 Motherboards GA-Z170N-Gaming 5
• 8gb ddr4

Threw in the ssds, 570, blu-ray drive and psu from the last machine. I'll get a 1070 at some point.

[Trippy]

Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard

You are still potentially gimping your video card performance with the chipset on that board. The H110 (your previous board) only has 6 PCI-e lanes at PCI-e 2.0 (!). This board at least supports PCI-e 3.0 but only goes up to 8 lanes. It would best to get something that supports at least 16 lanes so you are not throttling your video card bandwidth.

[Mosesandstick]

Thanks for that. I thought I'd done a fair bit of research but I missed the importance of the chipset PCI-e lanes. Mobo replaced with: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5585#ov (h170m, m.2, DDR4 2166).

[Samprimary]

How from scratch are you talking? What do you got now?

A case. A keyboard. A monitor. The case is filled with archaic junk I would ideally just want to be done with. I can post the specs if need be later.

[hal1]

There are good links here, I won't dis them but anandtech general hardware forum  mid range gamer build is up dated weekly and has been going for years and years. They have a 1k build and a 500-600 build and the difference is generally vid card so your up grade path is easy if your power supply can handle the up graded vid card. Just another option another something to look at.

[Reg]

Anandtech is a good information source. I like to get my recommendations here though because then if anything goes wrong I have someone to blame. 

[Mosesandstick]

More questions, monitor time! I'm looking for a monitor with good colour reproduction and contrast for my photo editing, but it should also handle the games decently. I can't think of a reason that I'll need 144Hz or G-Sync. I'm guessing I'll need an IPS panel with those requirements? Also while an ultrawide is tempting, I don't think it'll work well for either the photos or Lightroom, so I'm thinking of a 27" 1440p monitor.

Any ideas on options? I think people here are fans of the Dells which I think makes the Dell U2715H a natural option. I've found a couple of similar monitors such as the Asus MX27AQ, BenQ GW2765ht and AOC Q2775PQU (which has no reviews as it's a replacement for the Q2770PQU). From what I've read out of those models the Dell has the lowest input lag, but picture quality is pretty even and the BenQ is by far the cheapest.

[Trippy]

Make sure you getting something with a true 8-bit panel (not 6-bit plus dithering) and yes IPS would be best for photo editing. Wide gamut (e.g. ~Adobe RGB) has pluses and minuses so you'll need to do some research to determine if you want that. Also you'll want to get a good display calibration tool like a Spyder or X-Rite. The colors on most monitors are truly terrible out of the box.