Give me some pc advice

[GreyClock]

My current pc is over ten years old. It overheats, it makes a lot of noise. I get these warnings about a sector of the hd being irreparably damaged and it being prone to fail entirely (for about a year now). So maybe it's about time to get a new one.

What do I look for? Stuff like DDR4, SDD, I don't know. I don't keep up with this stuff. I saw this pre-built one for 700 euros, let's take it as a jumping off point:

Intel Core i5-9400F / 2.9 GHz / 4.1 GHz (turbo) / 6 cores / 9 MB cache
DDR4 1 x 8 GB 2666 MHz
Intel H370 chipset
AMD Radeon RX 550 (2GB)
256 GB SSD

Few questions: how does that look? Most of the numbers are meaningless to me. Turbo is a thing again? Are SSDs really finite? I read somewhere that keeping the power off fucks it up too? What are we talking here? Days? Weeks? The fact that it's only 256 GB is a way to keep the price down I assume? My old hunk of junk has 1 TB.

I don't care about realistically rendering the nose hair of an enemy at fifty feet. I just want to be able to play some games, like maybe Diablo IV when it comes out.

[FLOUNDERMAN_CLOCK]

seconded. advice/halp plz. I need an okay budget rig not a 200 dollar class action lawsuit consolation laptop from acer (dumbasses bought emachines and their legal liability with them). though it's not bad for what it is honestly. oh, and an affordable monitor that doesn't have issues with motion or clarity. I also want it all to fit in the same bag and not be heavy. also is it worth waiting till black friday to get all the components?

[VCRClock]

seconded. advice/halp plz. I need an okay budget rig not a 200 dollar class action lawsuit consolation laptop from acer (dumbasses bought emachines and their legal liability with them).

speaking as somebody who just did precisely this for well over $200...

the last time I bought a laptop, in 2013, I was replacing a macbook, so I went to the apple website, looked up the specs of the best macbook pro, and used those specs as a search filter on newegg. the $500 refurbished laptop I bought has lasted me until now, but it's just got like intel graphics so it struggles when I try to play games

I'm not a pro, but 700 euros seems expensive for that build, and that looks like it might be an old graphics card. when browsing computers I tried using wikipedia to determine when certain graphics cards were introduced, but also found the comparison tool here helpful. like "oh, this computer is $100 cheaper but that's because the gpu can't do shit"

I think SSDs are still far more expensive per GB than HDDs are, hence the small sizes, but then who needs storage anymore when you can keep your donald duck porno in the cloud

my strategy this time was "go to the website of the game I want to play, look at their recommended system specs and use THOSE as a search filter on newegg."

[PhantomCatClock]

I made the $700-800USD version on http://logicalincrements.com with some minimal changes and it has played every single game I've thrown at it

What do I look for? Stuff like DDR4, SDD, I don't know. I don't keep up with this stuff. I saw this pre-built one for 700 euros, let's take it as a jumping off point:

Intel Core i5-9400F / 2.9 GHz / 4.1 GHz (turbo) / 6 cores / 9 MB cache
DDR4 1 x 8 GB 2666 MHz
Intel H370 chipset
AMD Radeon RX 550 (2GB)
256 GB SSD

That seems really, really, really bad for 700€ considering my 700USD one blows it out of the water. That's such a weak graphics card, and that's a newer—not amazing, but good—processor that is capable of dual-channel memory. Yet that system is not configured with dual-channel memory. I almost hate to say it because I'm not the most confident, but it sounds like that computer was put together by a couple of chucklefucks who just want to make hella cash off people.



If you did use LogicalIncrements, I'm hella down to webcam in and help you put it together. Despite how much shit there is to do, there's really only one step where you can -actually- fuck up your computer, and I'll give you plenty of warning for that. I'm interested in your current system, though. Computers are definitely getting faster (and have better values for this speed) but we've kind of hit the point where a ten year old rig can still have some life squeezed out of it. Get a new SSD, definitely (I just bought a 500GB one for $us 50 and it's a brand—even model—that I trust from experience) and some of those big metal cans of compressed air. If you're okay with my All Seeing Eye seeing your computer, we can very probably get it running cooler and quieter, if not faster, with minimal new parts.

[PhantomCatClock]

Apparently it was the 800-900 bracket, whoops. I went with "Very Good" but you could do that with a 2060 for not much more. Less, even, if you aren't scared of used parts. THOUGH computer part prices are very likely going to take a considerable dip when the next generation of video game consoles comes out fairly soonish

[NintendrCkolc]

It really just boils down to what you want to do with your PC.

If you want to play some gaems you gonna need bare minimum an Nvidia 1660 or a Radeon 580. A 1650 or a 570 wouldn't be awful but some of the newer games will chug a bit.

In terms of RAM try to find something with 16GB minimum. You could get away with 8gb but 16 is the sweet spot for most systems these days and software is becoming more RAM hungry every day.

For CPU, try to find something AMD. A Ryzen 2700 is relatively cheap and superior to most mid range intel CPUs. AMD really knocked it out of the park with their current gen offerings. More cores, more threads, better performance per dollar. If you can land an AMD 3000 series CPU that'd be pretty nice. If you have to go with Intel, try to stay away from F chips.

As for SSD/HDD, you want 500g minimum. 256g is just stupid low. You better invest an external HDD if you're gonna go with a 256.

[NintendrCkolc]

https://www.newegg.com/abs-computer-technologies-ala196/p/N82E16883102947?&quicklink=true

This is decent for your price range... though admittedly I have no clue what 700 euros is in dollars and I'm too lazy to look it up but yeah...

[PhantomCatClock]

If building a computer is scary but you do want a completely new one, Nintendo's link is a much better value (but there's still a decent bit of prebuilt tax if you think you can get down and dirty for an hour)

That said, I am a little vague on what country you're in as far as finding one that's, you know, shipping from the same continent.

[NintendrCkolc]

definitely build if you can. You can put together something nicer than any prebuilt for about 800-900.

[FLOUNDERMAN_CLOCK]

https://www.newegg.com/abs-computer-technologies-ala196/p/N82E16883102947?&quicklink=true

This is decent for your price range... though admittedly I have no clue what 700 euros is in dollars and I'm too lazy to look it up but yeah...

shit that's not bad for my price range either. and I don't mind putting it together myself, could I get that same setup with a bigger ssd for the same price or less if I buy all the parts separately? at that price range I could get myself a monitor too.

[NintendrCkolc]

https://www.newegg.com/abs-computer-technologies-ala196/p/N82E16883102947?&quicklink=true

This is decent for your price range... though admittedly I have no clue what 700 euros is in dollars and I'm too lazy to look it up but yeah...

shit that's not bad for my price range either. and I don't mind putting it together myself, could I get that same setup with a bigger ssd for the same price or less if I buy all the parts separately? at that price range I could get myself a monitor too.

Potentially. Look up SSD's on newegg and see what you can find. M.2 drives are probably more expensive so a more traditional SSD would be the way to go. Also I'd try to get that thing up to at least 16gb of RAM. Ram is relatively inexpensive. I bought 2 3200mhz 8gb corsair sticks for less than 100 dollars a few months back.

[PhantomCatClock]

Going all new, the computer at that price on Logical Increments is slightly better at that price, but I know you could get a better used graphics card and stay in budget.


I don't actually know how they make their money / what their end game is, but I started basing builds off that site and kinda realized it's basically always right anyway.

The notable difference on the $760ish one to the NewEgg link a couple posts up is the graphics card is better. That's a killer performance-to-dollar processor, cool to see it in both builds.

BUT yes, you'd definitely have a couple bucks left over for a better SSD or even an m.2 as your board allows (just don't go apeshit). So the thing about LogicalIncrements is the entire computer on a left-to-right row, all the parts will work together without you having to worry. For the SSD specifically, you have free range to do whatever you want, they're just good ones for the budgets.

What's nice about building it yourself (beyond having an upgrade path that isn't just "replace the ram or buy a new computer") is you can go off the rails for things that are important to you. I just got the fucking hugest case I could. Cooling's never been an issue (I don't overclock, even though my board has an unused extra four pin) but mm mm so fucking many drives

I worry about my power supply with all these drives, being honest.

[PhantomCatClock]

On one hand, I'd say check m.2 prices again, @Nintendo. You may be surprised at how cheap they've gotten


On the other, the cheap ones are secretly about as fast as a normal SSD over SATA. Ho hum. (*In practical uses. I'm sure there's some benchmark where they shine, but in real systems, get a super good one like the 970 Evo or go the easier route and get a Crucial MX500)

AND I know it's been said recently, but these are both my computer and the only change was that I went to dual-channel mode (and that there's twice as much ram, I guess). Make SURE you're buying two identical sticks at half the size you want, instead of a single stick. It's actually way the hell faster. Before on the left, after on the right.

[NintendrCkolc]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BjNPdm

Just slapped this together real quick, for those of you who want a nice budget build. Good website overall if you're lookin to build.

[NintendrCkolc]

Truthfully AMD cpu's come with pretty decent cooling fans so you may not even need that coolermaster fan now that I think about it.

[PhantomCatClock]

I was gonna say my 1060 (the 6GB version which is apparently less common? Didn't realize there were so many) scores much higher on PassMark and I am a fan of the AMD+NVidia pairing, but uh


damn that rx 580 is a lot less expensive, even if I don't trust anything with a higher TDP than m'boy


Looks super good. Will say, though, my buddy got a NZXT prebuilt with a case that looks suspiciously identical to that one. It's fine, but the front IO could stand to be... more. Also that cooler has a static blue light and the board looks like it may have a static red light, so you could save a buck not getting the sexy tempered glass side. I can assure you, however, that you will regret not getting the tempered glass for the rest of your life.

[PhantomCatClock]

has hella space under the glass (and visible interior) for power supply/cable management/2.5" drive mounting tho, if it is the same

[NintendrCkolc]

RGB lighting is kinda neat at first but it's pretty unnecessary ultimately. If you're looking to save money, a cheap black case would do you.

[NintendrCkolc]

Anyways, um... I bought a whole bunch of shungite rocks, do you know what shungite is? Anybody know what shungite is? No, not Suge Knight, I think he's locked up in prison. I'm talkin' shungite. Anyways, it's a two billion year-old like, rock stone that protects against frequencies and unwanted frequencies that may be traveling in the air. That's my story, I bought a whole bunch of stuff. Put 'em around the la casa. Little pyramids, stuff like that.

[PhantomCatClock]

RGB lighting is kinda neat at first but it's pretty unnecessary ultimately. If you're looking to save money, a cheap black case would do you.

I mean not RGB, I'm pretty sure those components just light up




I guess now's a good time to mention, as much as I love hardware, my bias towards NVidia GPU/AMD CPU and bias against RGB lighting is probably because I use linux, where the former works absolutely flawlessly and the latter works like my work ethic on something I've promised to do for someone I see every day and would be embarrassed to not do the thing for (ie not at all)