• New gaming rig - advice and suggestions please
    20 replies, posted
Reposting this in the right section. Hi all, I've seen and read a lot about Rust and have decided that it's time to get back into some desktop gaming (having been an Xbox convert for the past decade), as well as missing out on a lot of the PC graphics in games such as Battlefield and ARMA... To give you some scope of how far behind the times I am, the last rig I played on had a GeForce 6000 series graphics card in it, so that would be about 10 years ago. Obviously things have progressed a lot since then and I'm at a bit of a loss when it comes to finding a decent rig. To give me some steer, I've come across the system below which looks to be a good quality system for a good price: [url]http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/Primal...C-248p2543.htm[/url] Topline system info below: Intel® Core™ i5 6400 CPU ◾8GB 2133Mhz DDR4 ◾MSI GeForce® GTX 960 4GB [OC] ◾1TB HDD ◾Gigabyte Z170 Gaming Motherboard ◾Windows 10 ◾Corsair Spec-01 Case ◾Corsair 450W PSU I can upgrade the RAM to 16GB for an extra £20, so would probably do that, along with a case fan to keep thins running nice and chilly. As a second question, should I go for the i5 2.7GHz with the 960 4GB graphics card, or go for the faster i5 3GHz but slip down to the 960 2GB to offset the cost? Any advice would be great - I'm based in London (UK) and my max budget is £700/US$1000, but would like to go below that if possible.
Are you open to the idea of self-building, or is it being shop-bought a must?
I built my similar rig (i5 6500k, GTX 970) back in february and the thing I regret the most is not going for 16 GB of RAM, so absolutely get that if you can. I relatively often run out of memory when doing big things in Photoshop. Both Nvidia and AMD are in the process of, or about to, roll out their new GPU architectures and series, so you can probably find some insane deals on used cards if you're patient in the next few weeks so you can get both a 960 4GB or better, and the 6500k. If you do not get the 6500k or 6600k then you should at least consider getting a different motherboard. The Z170 chipset is made for overclocking, so if you don't buy an overclockable CPU you might want to save a bit and go for H170 instead. [URL="https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Z170-H170-H110-B170-Q150-Q170---What-is-the-Difference-635/"]See this link for info about the different Skylake chipsets and find whichever suits your needs.[/URL]
Yes, personally I would at drop the mobo cost down a bit by going with a H series chipset and putting the money into going up a GPU tier.
Hi rhx123 - I've dabbled with things in the past and can identify parts inside a PC and what goes where (have self installed upgraded RAM, graphics cards etc) but I don't have any experience of true self build and so wouldn't feel comfortable spending a few hundred on something for it to potentially go very wrong. Noobcake - interesting point you've made on used cards... do you mean buying via auction sites etc? My only concern with that you don't really know what you're getting in the post, and would then be leaning towards self build again?
Oh, I didn't realize you were looking at a prebuilt computer. I would highly recommend building yourself, it's easy and much cheaper than buying a prebuilt! On a budget like that, while [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXTqz3Fd28M"]getting Windows for cheap[/URL], I put together [URL="http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3zkdnn"]an equivalent build with 16 gigs of RAM[/URL] and about £320 leftover for a graphics card. [editline]24th May 2016[/editline] Yes, I'm leaning towards self build. It's pretty much "don't put the square peg in the round hole" except for adults. Watch some videos on it and seriously consider building yourself. That's what I did and it was both surprisingly easy and not scary!
[QUOTE=A Noobcake;50382408]Oh, I didn't realize you were looking at a prebuilt computer. I would highly recommend building yourself, it's easy and much cheaper than buying a prebuilt! On a budget like that, while [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXTqz3Fd28M"]getting Windows for cheap[/URL], I put together [URL="http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3zkdnn"]an equivalent build with 16 gigs of RAM[/URL] and about £320 leftover for a graphics card. [editline]24th May 2016[/editline] Yes, I'm leaning towards self build. It's pretty much "don't put the square peg in the round hole" except for adults. Watch some videos on it and seriously consider building yourself. That's what I did and it was both surprisingly easy and not scary![/QUOTE] Nice build, but I'd ditch the cooler and spend the budget on an SSD. With no OCing going on the stock cooler is good enough.
You're right, I didn't realize the 6400 comes with a stock cooler.
Thanks both. I will look into self build, as it sounds like there's a fair bit extra that could be left over to whack some power into the rig. Going back to an earlier question, if a trade off is needed between either a strong graphics card (say 970 4GB v 960 4GB) or a faster CPU (say i5 2.7GHz v i5 3.0GHz), is it better to go for the faster CPU or the stronger graphics card? Also, any tips on where I can buy the hardware for self build at a decent price?
If this rig is mostly for gaming I'd say a better graphics card is more important than a slightly faster CPU. As far as I know there are no games where any graphics card is going to be held back or bottlenecked by any i5 6000 series CPU.
Certainly put the money into the GPU. I have a i5-3470 and 780 and don't ever feel like I'm being CPU bottlenecked.
Thanks both. Does anyone have any tips on where I can buy the hardware for self build at a decent price?
[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;50385364]The PCPartpicker link has prices and links to where you can buy the parts. I'm gonna edit this though. That power supply is just awful for throwing a high powered GPU under it. [editline]25th May 2016[/editline] [URL="http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/dZTCm8"]PCPartPicker part list[/URL] / [URL="http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/dZTCm8/by_merchant/"]Price breakdown by merchant[/URL] [/QUOTE] Good build, but why the Hyper 212? The i5-6400 stock fan is fine.
[QUOTE=taipan;50388346]Good build, but why the Hyper 212? The i5-6400 stock fan is fine.[/QUOTE] Even though Skylake doesn't need that much of a heatsink, it couldn't hurt. And for 26GBP more its not like its expensive overkill. You never know if you're going to want to overclock, and it allows for more tolerance in case something goes wrong. If they rather have the money in their pocket or could be allocated to anything else.. why not?
[QUOTE=Richard Simmons;50388545]Even though Skylake doesn't need that much of a heatsink, it couldn't hurt. And for 26GBP more its not like its expensive overkill. You never know if you're going to want to overclock, and it allows for more tolerance in case something goes wrong. If they rather have the money in their pocket or could be allocated to anything else.. why not?[/QUOTE] Because his budget is £700 and that build is £698 [I]without[/I] windows, the £26 is required getting windows from /r/microsoftsoftwareswap or something.
[QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;50388546]Can't overclock anyway. H170 board and non K processor.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=rhx123;50388551]Because his budget is £700 and that build is £698 [I]without[/I] windows, the £26 is required getting windows from /r/microsoftsoftwareswap or something.[/QUOTE] Well then in this case, put the money towards the operating system.
[QUOTE=Richard Simmons;50388545]Even though Skylake doesn't need that much of a heatsink, it couldn't hurt. And for 26GBP more its not like its expensive overkill. You never know if you're going to want to overclock, and it allows for more tolerance in case something goes wrong. If they rather have the money in their pocket or could be allocated to anything else.. why not?[/QUOTE] It's way overkill compared to even a TX3.
Thanks for the advice all. I'm going to have a look at placing the order this weekend - will choose what looks decent and paste it back here for you lot to review.
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