Gaming PC build. Approx $2000. June 2017

[Gold Member]

Hi all, starting this thread in response to Knighta21 who hit me up in the PUBG thread on the video games board...

Looking at getting a Gaming Rig to play this (Plus other games)
Does anyone have some advice for a PC build
Gold Member
YippeeYiYeo
A build that would cost around $1800-2k
Don't mind like Keyboard/mouse/headset on top of that.

Interesting times to build. For too long the options have been limited to i5 cpu & your choice of GPU and not much else really feasible for that kind of budget.
Enter AMD Ryzen....

Mate I've made a few different wishlists for you to peruse. Each has it's pros & cons to consider and there are a few items I omitted with would boil down to personal preference.
A few things may seem over specced due to things I'd like to change on my PC. For example an m.2 ssd vs a cheaper SATA ssd but I'd personally pay for the higher read speeds of an m.2 which would directly impact boot times.

Add whatever case you want as long as it will fit an ATX motherboard.
Add whatever KB & Mouse & Headset you want.
Buy a Win 10 PRO 64 Bit key off Ebay for under $20.

The other thing is I play all shooters on the lowest setting possible. I want the highest framerates and I want less visual clutter (foliage etc) to help spot players and get my aim on point as fast as possible.

-------------------

Intel i5 main build.
https://www.pccasegear.com/wish_lists/720402
Pros: Long established as the go to gaming chip. Mature bios & drivers for Dx10 & Dx11.
Cons: 4 physical cores. Will struggle to multitask, game & stream simultaneously.

AMD Ryzen 1600 main build.
https://www.pccasegear.com/wish_lists/720403/AMD Ryzen Build
Pros: 6 physical cores, 6 virtual threads. Will destroy the i5 for multitask, game & stream or video encoding..
Cons: New architecture, immature bios revisions & drivers (room for improvement)

Notes:
i5 will run most of today's games slightly better than the Ryzen 1600 as most games up until now have only ever leveraged 2 cpu cores.
More AAA titles are now being built around the new Dx12/Vulkan standard which gives games the ability to leverage additional CPU cores which will translate into FPS gains.

---------------------

Next up are the GPU & Monitor choices.
No doubt you have a 24'' 1080p 60hz garden variety screen lying around to start with which will be fine until you realise that your PC is pumping out 180 fps and 120 of them are going down the toilet.

I've added a 27" 144+hz 2560x1440p monitor to each wishlist just to make a point. You're not choosing a graphics card, you're choosing between G-Sync & Freesync technologies. Both of which work on the premise of syncing your graphics output and the monitor's refresh rate to increase smoothness and eliminate screen tearing. The difference being that whilst Freesync manages this with software, Nvidia's G-sync uses hardware which is patented & licensed and therefore costs a premium.. Of course G-sync is better but to justify the increased cost.....??

AMD GPU & Monitor.
https://www.pccasegear.com/wish_lists/720400
Pros: Good mid range card, will run almost anything at 2560x1440 at lower settings to achieve 100+ fps.
Cons: Stock shortage right now and overpriced by a good $80 thanks to the current Crypto currency mining craze. AMD cards mine better than Nvidia.

Nvidia GPU & Monitor.
https://www.pccasegear.com/wish_lists/720401
Pros: Good mid range card, will run almost anything at 2560x1440 at lower settings to achieve 100+ fps. G-Sync runs smoother and has a wider operational range than Freesync.
Cons: G-Sync cost more than Freesync, usually ~$300 extra for a similar level of performance, although right now the price gap is reduced thanks to crypto currency.

Notes:
I'd be looking at the Ryzen 1600 cpu & motherboard combo over the Intel i5 or i7 offerings.
If you have to buy right now I'd probably look at the Nvidia cards & probably stretch for a 1070 card.
If you are looking to buy in a month or so keep an eye on the RX580's and as demand drops the price should settle back to the low $400's.

-------------

For the record my system is a 3 generation old i5 with an RX 480 4gb and 16gb ram. I play Battlefield 1 at 120+ fps at 2560x1400 and PUBG at 90 fps at 1920x1080.

PUBG is an absolute resource hog right now and is crippling everyone's machines. After optimisation and the full game release and I'd be hoping for similar performance to BF1..

 

[Knighta21]

Cheers man. Thanks for all that information

 

[Gold Member]

Cheers man. Thanks for all that information

Haha yep, hopefully not overload...

 

[Black Flag]

my sammy 850 pro m.2 uses sata interface... question is is the drive pcie/nvme or sata.... m.2 is just a form factor.

i opted for sata as is was half the price (at the time) and unless you're doing tasks that really hammer storage you'll find sata plenty quick enough. esp for games.

 

[Gold Member]

my sammy 850 pro m.2 uses sata interface... question is is the drive pcie/nvme or sata.... m.2 is just a form factor.

i opted for sata as is was half the price (at the time) and unless you're doing tasks that really hammer storage you'll find sata plenty quick enough. esp for games.

Yeah, like I said it's probably overspecced.
The 500gb m.2 Samsung EVO on PCIE interface is 3200mb/s for $339
An equivalent 2.5mm SATA Samsung EVO 500gb is 500mb/s for $249

If I were building again now, I'd 100% spend the extra $90 to turn a 40 second windows boot ordeal into a 15 second thing..

I have a buddy who plays PUBG off a mech drive and half the time buildings and textures haven't loaded for him for a good 30-60 seconds after we have landed our jumps.

 

[Black Flag]

Yeah, like I said it's probably overspecced.
The 500gb m.2 Samsung EVO on PCIE interface is 3200mb/s for $339
An equivalent 2.5mm SATA Samsung EVO 500gb is 500mb/s for $249

If I were building again now, I'd 100% spend the extra $90 to turn a 40 second windows boot ordeal into a 15 second thing..

I have a buddy who plays PUBG off a mech drive and half the time buildings and textures haven't loaded for him for a good 30-60 seconds after we have landed our jumps.

for 90 extra bucks would consider more strongly. when i was in the market 9 months ago it was literally double.

that said, my sata system boots to login (after POST) in 2 or 3 seconds. (win 10 and linux)

another factor for me was that nvme runs a lot hotter and i have specific temp requirements.

anyways, too many ppl jerk off over theoretical performance, specs and benchmarks. real world performance is something else. but it depends on what you're using your comp for mainly.

 

[Gold Member]

for 90 extra bucks would consider more strongly. when i was in the market 9 months ago it was literally double.

that said, my sata system boots to login (after POST) in 2 or 3 seconds. (win 10 and linux)

another factor for me was that nvme runs a lot hotter and i have specific temp requirements.

anyways, too many ppl jerk off over theoretical performance, specs and benchmarks. real world performance is something else. but it depends on what you're using your comp for mainly.

Apologies good sir, I stand corrected...
I never really looked into PCIE NVME vs SATA SSD properly as my Z87 platform doesn't support booting from PCIE storage..
I just saw the 3200mb/s read speeds and went on assumption extrapolated out from the difference from mechanical to SATA SSD.

Will go edit the wishlists.

 

[Long Live HFC]

cryptocurrency miners are ****ing the GPU market. if you can hold out until things normalise, i'd recommend it. eg 1070s are $50+ more expensive now than what i paid for my 1080 2 months ago. 1080s are almost $200 more expensive. ridiculous.

 

[ep2018]

Just keep your PC in sleep mode, no need to worry about start up times... but still get the Samsung pcie m2 drive. Just make sure you're running Windows 8 or higher on it as Windows 7 wont find the drive and even after a bit of tinkering to get it working, Windows spends ages trying to load the drivers each start up so you end up booting into Windows even slower than using a standard SSD... my 2c

 

[typeclub]

Notes:
I'd be looking at the Ryzen 1600 cpu & motherboard combo over the Intel i5 or i7 offerings.
If you have to buy right now I'd probably look at the Nvidia cards & probably stretch for a 1070 card.
If you are looking to buy in a month or so keep an eye on the RX580's and as demand drops the price should settle back to the low $400's.

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/8YFktJ

What do you think of this assembly for right now? Could I make any improvements?

The main things I'm interested in are the SSD / don't need optical drive / upgradeability.

I want to play PUBG as well and be ready for new games coming up. Would this handle 4k?

 

[Gold Member]

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/8YFktJ

What do you think of this assembly for right now? Could I make any improvements?

The main things I'm interested in are the SSD / don't need optical drive / upgradeability.

I want to play PUBG as well and be ready for new games coming up. Would this handle 4k?

Looks like a solid build. 4k would be a stretch though. You could comfortably play 1440p resolution with a 1070 at medium ish settings & get 80+ frames per second.

3 things.
Triple check your ram is ryzen compatible as they have had some issues with ram.
Seriously look at a 480/500gb SSD. I used to have a 250gb and it fills up surprisingly fast. 3 games and your is and that's about it!
I'd strongly consider spending an extra $50 to get a 6 core 12 thread ryzen 1600 over the 4 core 8 thread 1500..

 

[typeclub]

Looks like a solid build. 4k would be a stretch though. You could comfortably play 1440p resolution with a 1070 at medium ish settings & get 80+ frames per second.

3 things.
Triple check your ram is ryzen compatible as they have had some issues with ram.
Seriously look at a 480/500gb SSD. I used to have a 250gb and it fills up surprisingly fast. 3 games and your is and that's about it!
I'd strongly consider spending an extra $50 to get a 6 core 12 thread ryzen 1600 over the 4 core 8 thread 1500..

Thanks, I think I will look at the WD 500gb SSD then as its a pretty good price. I will look at the 1600 Ryzen apparently the Wraith Spier stock cooler is really good.

 

[Gold Member]

Good news, https://www.overclock3d.net/news/gp...arket_as_ethereum_s_price_crashes_below_150/1

Hopefully not too long until GPU pricing and availability return to somewhat normal levels, especially AMD gear..

 

[Seagrave_Holmes]

I recently somewhat completed a ~$2000 gaming rig for July. If anyone wants help, more than happy to lend some pointers like Gold Member has done.

I spent weeks doing research before pulling the trigger on this.

Went with the following;


Very happy with it so far. Boot up times are around 10 seconds with the SSD and it's nice being the first into the game when servers change maps when gaming. I haven't updated my BIOS yet so my RAM is still running at the default lowest speed. The case is nice and quiet too, although a lot bigger than I was expecting.

I will also try my hand at overclocking the CPU to 3.8-4 Ghz to get even more performance.

I kept my 650W seasonic PSU from my previous rig, only had it for 4 years so didn't see the point buying a new one. Pretty sure it came with a 7 year warranty. Seasonic is the GOAT PSU brand.

Currently rocking my old AMD 7950 GPU. Didn't get a new one due to the prices atm and the fact that Vega is just around the corner.

I will either get a Vega 56 or a 1070/1080. Don't like how power hungry the new Vega 64 is projecting to be, cbf getting a new PSU just for the GPU.

I am aiming or either a 1080p / 144hz monitor or go all out and get a 1440p / 144hz. I probably need to decide on the monitor first then choose the GPU.

 

[Gold Member]

I recently somewhat completed a ~$2000 gaming rig for July. If anyone wants help, more than happy to lend some pointers like Gold Member has done.

I spent weeks doing research before pulling the trigger on this.

Went with the following;

View attachment 403369
Very happy with it so far. Boot up times are around 10 seconds with the SSD and it's nice being the first into the game when servers change maps when gaming. I haven't updated my BIOS yet so my RAM is still running at the default lowest speed. The case is nice and quiet too, although a lot bigger than I was expecting.

I will also try my hand at overclocking the CPU to 3.8-4 Ghz to get even more performance.

I kept my 650W seasonic PSU from my previous rig, only had it for 4 years so didn't see the point buying a new one. Pretty sure it came with a 7 year warranty. Seasonic is the GOAT PSU brand.

Currently rocking my old AMD 7950 GPU. Didn't get a new one due to the prices atm and the fact that Vega is just around the corner.

I will either get a Vega 56 or a 1070/1080. Don't like how power hungry the new Vega 64 is projecting to be, cbf getting a new PSU just for the GPU.

I am aiming or either a 1080p / 144hz monitor or go all out and get a 1440p / 144hz. I probably need to decide on the monitor first then choose the GPU.

Nice man, it's hard to justify a 1080 144hz monitor for $500 when a 1440 144hz monitor is only $100/$200 more...

The VEGA lineup looks solid so far, hoping the crypto mining flogs stay away.

 

[Xtreme]

My current pc is 5 years old and has served me well in that time. I've mentioned this before, but I'm surprised that there has not been as big of a leap in technology in this time as there was in previous instances where I'd have a new machine. While yes there are newer and "better" cpu processors, ram sticks, video cards etc.............. but the machine I have is still somewhat "current" and matches up reasonably well against today's systems (it's only taken until now for the system requirements of games to catch up and pretty much be level with what my pc has).

I went from a 486 sx/33, to a P2-350mhz, to a p4 2.4ghz, to an i7 930 3.0ghz (which didn't last long because the computer shop cheapenedd out in their pre built system including a dodgy power supply which blew up a year and a half into owning it lol). Current system - i5 3570k (purchased in July 2012). Going from the i7 to the i5, I did things differently, the pre built system actually cost more in 2010.... I saved money and still put together a more powerful system in 2012. I cheapened out on the video card (was always going to upgrade it 1-2 years after buying the computer........ I wound up buying a 780ti around the time of Don Bradman Cricket 14's release). After more tinkering (adding additional hdd's, then changing them over for higher storage), going from dvd burner, to blu-ray burner, back to dvd burner. The only thing I can really do to it now is upgrade the ram. I should be able to survive on the 780ti for a while, I'm not that hung up on graphics (don't need 1440p! - my pc monitor is still the one I got with the previous computer back in 2010).

 

[Benny78]

Nice. Just built my mate one. GTX1080/7600k/Asus strix mobo/G skill 16gb/Fractal R5/Antec TP classic 550w etc. Touch under 2k from the dodgy msy place across the road!

Got a 3570k myself. Asus ROG motherboard (overclocks to 4.7ghz on stock cooler), gonna upgrade the old gtx 460 card to a 1080 once the prices sort themselves out. Will be good for another 5 years.

 

[Xtreme]

Nice. Just built my mate one. GTX1080/7600k/Asus strix mobo/G skill 16gb/Fractal R5/Antec TP classic 550w etc. Touch under 2k from the dodgy msy place across the road!

Got a 3570k myself. Asus ROG motherboard (overclocks to 4.7ghz on stock cooler), gonna upgrade the old gtx 460 card to a 1080 once the prices sort themselves out. Will be good for another 5 years.

I should overclock my 3570k I'm just lazy and more likely would oc it to the point it blows up lol.

The 460 was a good card (had it in my last pc), moved to a 560ti when I decided on parts for my current pc, then the 780ti.

I'd love to upgrade to a 1080ti or the next NEXT gen cards that come out. But my case is a tight squeeze already, if video cards get any longer I won't be able to fit one in.

 

[dav3]

I should overclock my 3570k I'm just lazy and more likely would oc it to the point it blows up lol.

The 460 was a good card (had it in my last pc), moved to a 560ti when I decided on parts for my current pc, then the 780ti.

I'd love to upgrade to a 1080ti or the next NEXT gen cards that come out. But my case is a tight squeeze already, if video cards get any longer I won't be able to fit one in.

CPUs these days are pretty good at protecting themselves, they should just shutdown instead of burning out. Overclocking is pretty simple these days too, there's no more ****ing around with jumpers, bus speeds, and voltages, you just pick a speed in BIOS and see if it works.

 

[Xtreme]

I'm going to give it a go if I do blow it up, thats a good excuse to buy a new one!

I do need a new laptop, the Toshiba I own no longer has any audio. Have had it for 4 years and was pretty good in that time

 

[Cleric]

Go with Ryzen as in the future most top game engines will be multithread heavy so there should be a longer life with the AMD product. Plus AMD is better value than Intel.

 

[Sofiahambly]

Gaming PC is 2000$ is too much last night purchase a gaming laptop in under 1000$ MSI GL62M 7RE-407 Gaming Laptop

 

[typeclub]

Could we get a fresh recommendation up. GPU prices don't seem to have fallen much.

 

[Long Live HFC]

Could we get a fresh recommendation up. GPU prices don't seem to have fallen much.

it depends on what you want it for and what CPU you're pairing it with. my 4th gen i5 is making my 1080 ugly.

$999 1080 ti
$729 1080
$699 1070 ti
$599 1070

cheapest prices on PC case gear. id choose the 1070 or 1080 over the other 2. no idea about Team Red, as I haven't bought one of their cards for a while.

 

[JamesKJ]

Will DDR4 prices be going down any time soon?
I heard 80%+ of DRAM production are chinese corporations, and they're colluding to create an artificial shortage to raise the prices, which are insane right now. 16gb of DDR4 ram costs as much as a good CPU.