NEW COMPUTER ACQUIRED - Need a Graphics Card.

[schild]

It's for gaming. I like things that last. I don't want to deal with liquid cooling. I'd like it to be stable. I will not overclock. I have no problem hand-building shit. So, links to Amazon are fine, but I wouldn't mind NOT hand-building shit either.

I'd LOVE to walk into Fry's and walk out of Fry's but if there's a better deal online to just buy the whole damn thing, I can do that too.

Hit me with it.

[Samwise]

I got tired of building my own so for my last go-round (a couple of years ago) I got an Alienware and I don't regret it.

[schild]

Hmmmm, do Alienware coupons exist?

[Trippy]

Obligatory: what's your budget?

[WayAbvPar]

Find a local shop, pick your components, dump them on the counter and hand them your credit card. In 2 days you will have a shiny new system! It is worth the $75 or whatever they charge to assemble everything and install the OS if you value your own time (and have the little bit of extra cash to make it happen).

[schild]

$1500, but I'd love to be frugal and be ~$1000 if the sacrifice is like 10% performance.

[Trippy]

No component reuse? I.e. you need everything for a new box?

[Ingmar]

I had my last one built through ibuypower.com, no complaints.

[schild]

I have 4 harddrives I'll be plugging into this bitch, but the old computer is for the wife. So, absolutely no component re-use. Not even the case.

Edit: There's nothing actually wrong with this box, she's just tired of gaming on a laptop.

Edit 2: 100% chance of Windows 7 64-bit. I don't wanna mess with Win 8.

[schild]

It does look as though I can walk into Fry's and buy most configurations of Alienware or iBuyPower PCs and walk out with it. Tempting. The question is, which one: http://www.frys.com/search?query_string=&cat=-68380&pType=pDisplay&fq=100311%20Gaming&sort=manu%20asc&start=0&cat=-68380&from=0&to=24

I would end up with Windows 8, but ehhhhh fuuuuckit. Ease of shopping.

[Paelos]

I had my last one put together on Black Friday at cyberpowerpc for around $1200.

[Trippy]

It does look as though I can walk into Fry's and buy most configurations of Alienware or iBuyPower PCs and walk out with it. Tempting. The question is, which one: http://www.frys.com/search?query_string=&cat=-68380&pType=pDisplay&fq=100311%20Gaming&sort=manu%20asc&start=0&cat=-68380&from=0&to=24

I would end up with Windows 8, but ehhhhh fuuuuckit. Ease of shopping.

Yeah the problem with those is you don't want the video cards on the ones within your budget but the ones cheap enough so you can throw away the bundled graphics card and put in your own have crap CPUs. You are also paying for hard drives you don't need (better to get at least one SSD).

This one almost works but it's not available:

http://www.frys.com/product/7331944#detailed

It has a decent CPU (though it's last gen Ivy Bridge not Haswell) and a crappy GPU so you aren't wasting much money by throwing it away.

[Trippy]

This one almost works:

http://www.frys.com/product/7912040?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

However chipset (H81) only has 4 SATA ports. You can work around it in theory if you buy a separate PCI-e SATA card but that would fill up all your PCi-e slots (it only has two of them). It also only has 2 memory slots so you would have to throw away all the memory if you wanted to upgrade to 16 GB. It also has a hideous case.

[Stokowski]

Windows 8.1 is actually OK. Seriously. Just avoid 8.0.

I swore I'd never get any species of 8 on my new computer, but faced with no choice whatsoever I ended up with 8.1, and promptly wondered why I ever though 7 was so great in the first place.

[ajax34i]

My recommendation for "to last" is a motherboard with the two video slots spaced out, so you can put in 2 mid-range video cards and install Arctic cooling fans on them, because built-in fans are noisy and pathetic at removing the heat.  I'd also recommend downloading MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision (or equivalent) to manually control your videocard fan speeds (or set temperature -> speed profiles that actually cool appropriately).  Manufacturers like to set the fans on "quiet", and you start a graphics-intensive Skyrim or whatever and burn up your video.

I don't have an actual build, sorry.  I usually hand-build from newegg.com, picking parts based on reviews, starting with the CPU-mobo combo.  No clue what the current good video cards are; need  to look at VGA charts to figure that out.

[Salamok]

I have an extra 16gb of PC3 12800 RAM that is in transit care of the retarded fuckwads at newegg, more than happy to sell it to you for the $127 it cost me instead of having to wait on hold to see how  these asshats are going to screw me again.

[Logain]

Don't waste your money on an alientware. You can get something more powerful or much cheaper at just about all of the other custom shops. I got a computer from ibuypower once and it was awesome for the price, my only complaint being the inside of the case wasn't packed like they promised and the video card/pci slot were nearly completely ripped off the board after shipping.

Buy the parts you want and pay a place to assemble it for you.

[schild]

I have an extra 16gb of PC3 12800 RAM that is in transit care of the retarded fuckwads at newegg, more than happy to sell it to you for the $127 it cost me instead of having to wait on hold to see how  these asshats are going to screw me again.

Hm. Depending on what i get, that may work.

[kildorn]

I had my last one built through ibuypower.com, no complaints.

I cycle through Alienware, ibuypower, cyberpower and my latest was via Ironside.

They're all pretty solid, and you basically build on all of them and see who strangely comes in 40% cheaper than the rest this time around or who has the least dumb preconfigured things on newegg.

[Jeff Kelly]

Do you need a new display as well in the $1500 budget or is that just for the PC components?

I usually go to anandtech for product reviews and recommendations, he has his own set of biases but at least he always discloses his testing methodology which allows you to draw your own conclusions. He currently has a few holiday buyer's guides and ongoing review features focusing on gaming at any budget, so you might look into that. http://anandtech.com/show/7541/best-desktop-cpus-holiday-2013 http://anandtech.com/show/7557/best-desktop-video-cards-holiday-2013

If I were you I'd consider a SSD as my main system drive or some form of hybrid SSD/HD solution. The boost by the SSD is probably the biggest performance upgrade you can get and is a better use of your money than 5% more CPU or GPU performance. Another factor would be if the games you usually play are more CPU bound or GPU bound. If your games are more CPU bound I'd go for the i7-4770K, if they're more GPU bound I'd go for the i5-4670K and spend the $100 saved on a better GPU. The best bet - at least for me - would be to go for the i5 since the majority of games will be GPU bound. It's $220 at the moment.

The next question would be which gaming resolution you're likely aiming for since that determines the type of GPU you'd want. If you're content with 1080p at max settings your best bet would be an ATI R9 270X at $199 while going for best 1440p gaming will mean you need to go for a Nvidia GTX 780 or ATI R9 290 for $499/$399 instead.

If it were my money I'd buy a i5-4670, the R9 270X and go from there. If you don't need over clocking or 'extreme' gamer support the MB doesn't break the bank but I would at least go for a decent Z87 MB for multi GPU support in the future.

You'd be looking at:

CPU: $220
GPU: $199
MB: $120 (the 'best' Z87 MB is currently at $180)
8GB: of RAM $80
$200 for a decent 256 GB SSD

This would be around $800 for the basic components which would get you at $1000 or less for the full package including case, power supply and CPU cooler. $500 more would get you the the i7 instead of the i5, 16 GB of RAM instead of 8GB and a ATI R9 290/NVidia 780 GTX class GPU which is a pretty decent upgrade to the basic system.

[schild]

I have 2 24" monitors. I do not need that particular part.

It's really just beginning to sound like I should buy a prebuilt or custom built box. The cost difference is within $100 and I won't have to do shit but plug it in.

[Salamok]

You can build a pretty nice system for $1100 or so:

• Z87 motherboard ($125)
• core i7 4770 ($300),
• 16gb RAM ($130)
• 650 watt PSU ($100)
• 256gb Samsung 840 Pro SSD ($220)
• a nice case ($100)
• video card ($200)

I'll reiterate that the K series Intel processors are gimped on a few features, if you are not going to overclock I would strongly recommend you not purchase a K processor.

edit - Alternatively you could pick up a refurbed Alienware x51 R2 from the dell home outlet for $1000-$1250 (depending on how it is equipped)  these are sporting an Intel Core i7 4770 chip so you know they aren't some old crap that has been sitting around for too long.  There is even a scratch and dent for $1049 right now (not preowned and usually doesn't have scratches or dents)

[Trippy]

Something like this is what I would build given the budget ($1,151.39 not including shipping and other extras):

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=23591332

For the case you can get anything you like that has at least 6 internal 3.5" bays. You'll need that many for your 4 hard drives + a new Windows boot drive + your future SSD drive. I picked Antec since they are dependable and relatively cheap in this case.

The motherboard choice is a little odd but it's one of the few that has 8 SATA ports, which again you'll need for your 4 hard drives + new Windows boot drive + your future SSD drive + your DVD-ROM drive. In other words standard motherboards that come with 6 SATA ports won't support all of your eventual drive collection. If you are okay with having some of your hard drive be external or getting a separate SATA PCI-e card for more internal SATA ports you can go with a cheaper MB. Something like MSI MB at $125 would probably work well for you.

Power supply is made by Seasonic for Corsair so you are paying a bit more for the quality. You can go with one of the Channel Well Corsairs if you want to save a few bucks.

For video card I picked one of the cheaper GTX 760's. It's easy to upgrade the GPU in the future so there's no reason to splurge now and blow your budget. I didn't check to see if there are any special deals with rebates and/or bundled games so there might be better values out there.

Ideally you would get one or more SSDs but that would take you into the $1500 range. Instead as a compromise my list has a "hybrid" drive which has a small SSD linked to a regular hard drive (like Intel's SRT technology). I use the laptop 750 GB version of that hybrid drive to boot my gaming PC from and it works pretty well. Doesn't boot quite as fast as an SSD but it's much faster than a regular hard drive. Once you get the money you can get a real SSD and put your games on that while continuing to boot off the hybrid drive (my gaming PC is setup that way).

[Hawkbit]

Trippy has a very solid build that I built back in October.  The only outstanding things I'd consider are:

1.  Going Samsung SSD in place of that Seagate.  I've used Seagate platter drives in the past and they've been great.  But Samsung is owning SSDs at this moment. 
2.  That case is a great case, but it will collect a lot of dust.  I was wiping out my 900 every week.
3.  The Cooler Master 212 was a great idea in my build, but even in my build it covers one slot of low-profile memory.  If I ever decide to jump to 16g, I'll have to pull the 212.
4.  Use a static strap.

It doesn't buckle under anything I throw at it.  Good luck!

[Pezzle]

Would not touch MSI for a new build motherboard.  You turn to them when you need a replacement board for an older system (ie you have no choice but a new system)

[calapine]

I'll reiterate that the K series Intel processors are gimped on a few features, if you are not going to overclock I would strongly recommend you not purchase a K processor.

edit - Alternatively you could pick up a refurbed Alienware x51 R2 from the dell home outlet for $1000-$1250 (depending on how it is equipped)  these are sporting an Intel Core i7 4770 chip so you know they aren't some old crap that has been sitting around for too long.  There is even a scratch and dent for $1049 right now (not preowned and usually doesn't have scratches or dents)

Agree with that. Although: Price difference between an 4470K and a 4470 on Newegg is only 30$ (339.99 vs 309.99). So a K might still be worth it, unless you are 100% sure you will never OC. If that is the case there is better alternative though: Intel Xeon E3-1230V3 (3.3GHz 8MB L3). Newegg price $ 249.99, so saving $ 80 vs getting a 4770k. Xeons are the Server equivalent of the desktop i7 variants, but with the same features (except the IGP).

Edit: And if a short trip to the BIOS isn't too much hassle you can lock the multiplier at 37x (normally single-core-load turbo speed) so it runs at 3.7 Ghz permanently. Really the go-to CPU imho for anyone who doesn't want to OC (or go beyond 3.7 Ghz)  

[schild]

I have never ever overlocked a computer.

I'm currently on Q9450. I wish new processors had a 12MB L2 cache.

Edit: Also, I guess I could just buy a 3TB harddrive and compress my current set of drives down to 1. That would probably be smart.

[schild]

Looks like I'm getting a free computer that doesn't have a graphics card. It's a last-gen i5.

Changing thread topic to reflect this.

Now I need to know what graphics card to buy.

[Teleku]

Whats your budget?   

[calapine]

Looks like I'm getting a free computer that doesn't have a graphics card. It's a last-gen i5.

Changing thread topic to reflect this.

Now I need to know what graphics card to buy.

What do you want? ;)

Total High End:
Radeon R9 290x or Geforce GTX 780Ti

~500$ High End:
Radeon R9 290 or GeForce GTX 780

Performance
Radeon R9 280x or Geforce GTX 760

Here is a little chart. Preis/Leistung stands for Price/Performance


Edit:
R9 290x <> GTX 780Ti Both aren't worth it. Extra premium for being the fastest cards. Better to take a card one step below and used the saved money to upgrade again earlier.

R9 290 <> GTX 780 is clearly in favour of the 290. Cost less and is faster. Major downside: very loud card.

R9 280X <> GTX 760 is a wash. 280 is faster, but costs more. 760 slower, but also cheaper. Both in a pretty good price/performance spot.

[schild]

How about options in the $200-$350 range?

[Goreschach]

Good luck finding a 280/290 anywhere near MSRP. Prices are jacked way the hell up because of shitcoin miners.

[schild]

wut

[schild]

The Radeon 280/290 series is the series of choice for... bitcoin miners? How stupid.

[Merusk]

I used these charts to figure out what was comparable to the GTX 570 I had that died, then hunted for a good price on Newegg & Microcenter (who have a shop local)

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/

I wound-up with a MSI GTX 760 because the Evga I bought was DOA and when I returned it they were sold-out at Microcenter that day.  I paid about $275 on sale, but the list was around what the benchmark chart has it at IIRC.