Good PC Builds

RangerBoo

RangerBoo

Resident Schizo Poster
I have been thinking of upgrading my PC once I get the money for it. Does anyone know of good of a good build that can handle most of of the games out today while being not too expensive.
 
I just recently got myself a GTX 970 and an i5-6500 relatively cheap. Pretty confident those will last me a good while.
 
Might want to wait til august~ or so. There is a big transition in the gpu world, nvidia and amd gpus are going from 28nm to 14nm architectures (polaris for amd and pascal for nvidia) and this might improve the performance and efficiency by quite alot. Current Nvidia gpus can last you some time, but they have a big disadvantage in directx12 and vulcan against amd cards, in that they do not have asynchronous compute built in, and might suffer in some titles against amd. Current amd cards on the other hand generally use more power, so i guess the best thing to do now would be to wait for the new generation cards if possible.
 
AskWazzup said:
Might want to wait til august~ or so. There is a big transition in the gpu world, nvidia and amd gpus are going from 28nm to 14nm architectures (polaris for amd and pascal for nvidia) and this might improve the performance and efficiency by quite alot. Current Nvidia gpus can last you some time, but they have a big disadvantage in directx12 and vulcan against amd cards, in that they do not have asynchronous compute built in, and might suffer in some titles against amd. Current amd cards on the other hand generally use more power, so i guess the best thing to do now would be to wait for the new generation cards if possible.
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Well, he did ask for something "not too expensive" so looking at the next top-of-the-line models might not be the best idea. It might be worth waiting just for the drop in prices on the older cards, however.
 
aenemic said:
Well, he did ask for something "not too expensive" so looking at the next top-of-the-line models might not be the best idea. It might be worth waiting just for the drop in prices on the older cards, however.
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The new generation does not imply only high end cards, there will be lower tier ones as well.
 
aenemic said:
Well, he did ask for something "not too expensive" so looking at the next top-of-the-line models might not be the best idea. It might be worth waiting just for the drop in prices on the older cards, however.
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Isn't Ranger a she, or does he sound even more feminine than I do?

@RangerBoo We need some more exact numbers, here. Are you thinking less than $1000 USD, $900, $750, $600? It all depends on what kind of budget you have.
 
Ben Soto said:
Isn't Ranger a she, or does he sound even more feminine than I do?

@RangerBoo We need some more exact numbers, here. Are you thinking less than $1000 USD, $900, $750, $600? It all depends on what kind of budget you have.
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Somewhere around a $1000. I hope to be able to get the money for it by August or September. I want to be able to have my computer updated so it can handle most of the newer games out there.
 
RangerBoo said:
Somewhere around a $1000. I hope to be able to get the money for it by August or September. I want to be able to have my computer updated so it can handle most of the newer games out there.
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That's a really good budget, actually. Are you factoring in the cost of the monitor/keyboard/mouse or are you just looking for the actual computer?
 
Oh, you're not looking to build a new PC but just want to upgrade an old one? Alright. Do you have a list of your current specs (including the power supply)?
 
The graphics card is a GEForce GT 640, the Motherboard is a M5A 78L-M LX Plus, the CPU is a AMD AM3+ FX-6300. I don't know what model the power supply is but I reckon it may need to be upgraded too.
 
RangerBoo said:
The graphics card is a GEForce GT 640
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Damn! Were you able to play modern games with that? Well I'd probably just start with a clean slate if I were you(unless you want to keep the case). If you did need a case though, the one I've been using for the past couple of years was only $100 even though it's a large case. If you're curious I could post a link.
 
MercenarySnake said:
Damn! Were you able to play modern games with that? Well I'd probably just start with a clean slate if I were you(unless you want to keep the case). If you did need a case though, the one I've been using for the past couple of years was only $100 even though it's a large case. If you're curious I could post a link.
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Plays most games like New Vegas and even Skyrim just fine. The case is fine its just that I need new parts. The $700 dollar one that Spacemunkey put up looks like it will do the trick.
Edit: Found out my processor is a FX 6300. I reckon that needs upgrading too?
 
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RangerBoo said:
Edit: Found out my processor is a FX 6300. I reckon that needs upgrading too?
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Depends on what gpu you're going to buy and what games you're going to play. It has a pretty weak IPC (instructions per clock), but on the upside it's a 6 core processor, so new games that utilize all the cores will run better on it. Plus, directx 12 and vulkan generally lessen the load on cpu (in games that were build for directx 12/vulkan). But if you are going to buy a stronger gpu like nvidia 970, or the amd r9 390 (or one of the stronger upcoming ones) it could be a bottleneck.



Keep in mind these are dx11 games. Might be less of a penalty for dx12 games.

Also, don't forget that if you are changing the cpu, you will have to change the motherboard (in this case you don't have worthwhile options for the am3 board) and potentialy the ram too (if you opt for a intel skylake cpu, which needs ddr4 ram).
 
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RangerBoo said:
The graphics card is a GEForce GT 640, the Motherboard is a M5A 78L-M LX Plus, the CPU is a AMD AM3+ FX-6300. I don't know what model the power supply is but I reckon it may need to be upgraded too.
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Okay, just build a new one at that point. You're gonna want something much more powerful. I'll go onto PCPartPicker and see what I can pull up.

EDIT: Here you go! You'll see much improvement with this rig.
 
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These are all good builds but I think I will go for the one Spacemunkey put up, the $700 build. It looks like it can handle most of the newer games out there without spending too much. All I need is just to replace the graphics card and processor.
 
AskWazzup said:
Depends on what gpu you're going to buy and what games you're going to play. It has a pretty weak IPC (instructions per clock), but on the upside it's a 6 core processor, so new games that utilize all the cores will run better on it. Plus, directx 12 and vulkan generally lessen the load on cpu (in games that were build for directx 12/vulkan). But if you are going to buy a stronger gpu like nvidia 970, or the amd r9 390 (or one of the stronger upcoming ones) it could be a bottleneck.



Keep in mind these are dx11 games. Might be less of a penalty for dx12 games.

Also, don't forget that if you are changing the cpu, you will have to change the motherboard (in this case you don't have worthwhile options for the am3 board) and potentialy the ram too (if you opt for a intel skylake cpu, which needs ddr4 ram).
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so dx12 somehow enchance performance? enlighten me please :)
 
That 700$ build linked above looks pretty good, I personally would change the PSU to an 80+ gold or higher preferably Corsair, and a WD Black for the warranty alone (5 years instead of 2 with the blue.) Oh and an SSD for the OS to be loaded onto as it will go so fucking fast with one of those. Do you already know what OS you are going to be using btw?
 
eissa said:
so dx12 somehow enchance performance? enlighten me please :)
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"Following AMD's lead with Mantle, Microsoft aims to provide console-level efficiency with "closer to the metal" access to hardware resources as well as reduced CPU and graphics driver overhead."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-why-directx-12-is-a-gamechanger

"The figures demonstrate in particular how under-utilised the geometry engines are on our GPUs."

It seems the fx 6300 get's a pretty good boost too:

"Also note that the FX 6300's DX12 results on R7 260X, GTX 970 and R9 290X comprehensively beat the more expensive Core i3 4130."

But most benefits will come in the future:

"Massively increasing draw calls is a fascinating metric, but it is only one small component of a typical game engine. It's going to take new engines built explicitly around the new API to see real gains in terms of denser, more richer worlds, but the opportunities of the inevitable DX12 patches we'll see in the short term are still exciting"

All of this is also true for the open standart API "Vulkan" (directx 12 competition).
 
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