Moderator Action: Moved to Computer Talk forum.
New PC
- Thread starter Olleus
- Start date
I just bought one with an i5 6600; Asus z170 Mobo; a 512 GB SSD; 2 TB HDD; put in my "old" Nvidia 970; 16 GB RAM; and a 27" monitor. I got it today and am still loading programs. Path of Exile plays like a dream!!!
Olleus
Deity
Had a look at that thread and I think it's all a bit out of my price range. Based on the advice I think I'll downgrade my graphics card from a gtx 1060 to a gtx 970. My current screen is 1920x1080 so I dont think I need anything more powerful. I'll used the saved cash to upgrade my cpu to an overclocked i5-6600k and get a 250GB SSD instead of a 128. Essentially something like this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product..._act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AK4CRT169PM2P
Next question is, what's the best time to put hardware? Is it worth waiting until September when the "back to school" rush is over? Are there generally sales at that point as stores try to get rid of extra stock?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product..._act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AK4CRT169PM2P
Next question is, what's the best time to put hardware? Is it worth waiting until September when the "back to school" rush is over? Are there generally sales at that point as stores try to get rid of extra stock?
Andree Thorp
Chieftain
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2015
- Messages
- 17
Everything that were mentioned above are already good enough for a new PC specs. Remember that a good one must have a good graphic cards ( Nvidia GTX970 or AMD 290) , an intel i5-4590 processor , a 8gb of RAM , a usb port ( 3.0 ports) and an HMDI 1.3 port if possible.
I can't really find a definitively better option on Amazon UK. That's all around fairly well balanced. As for time to buy, this is actually a pretty good time. New GPUs have been coming out from AMD and nVIDIA all summer, so the time is right graphics-wise. Intel may come out with a new CPU near the end of the year, but there's no reason to believe it's worth waiting for. AMD's in early 2017 may be worth a couple months wait, but they're still 5-6 months out. So really, this is the right time.
A few general comments since there was a lot of questionable advice - although you did seem to get to the right conclusions.
SSDs are worth it. Large ones are pricey so a SSD/HDD two-drive system remains ideal. 240 GB is pretty much the sweet spot now; 120 will fill up quickly, and 512 is more pricey... although you can get a good 512 GB one for $150 nowadays, and it would almost be worth swapping the 240 for a 512, taking lower graphics now, and upgrading the GPU six months sooner. It's fairly rare to find prebuilts with a 512 GB SSD and a HDD though, and those that do often charge a premium over retail for the SSD.
Someone mentioned the Samsung 950 Pro. It's the best SSD you can get - and thus also not appropriate in the budget you're looking to keep it to. The quoted speeds are accurate, but you won't be able to tell the difference versus a regular SSD in practice 98% of the time. You will be able to notice a regular SSD versus a hard drive though.
I would not recommend the Western Digital Black series, because they're overpriced for the value. For hard drives, they're fast... but they are super-slow compared to even a low-end SSD. SSD + cheap hard drive is where it's at. The one thing I might consider spending more on with a hard drive is a second one for a backup (and it can be a slow 5400 RPM one). A lot of people don't have a good backup process for things like family pictures, and disk drives do fail occasionally. An external hard drive is still about the most cost-effective backups you can get over the long term.
The i5-6600 and 6600K are about the sweet spot of the moderate-to-moderately-high range of processors. The 6500 is almost as good as well. Since CPUs are relatively a pain to upgrade, it's not a bad idea to go for a $200 CPU like this, and it likely will last a long time.
For GPUs, the ones that are new and in your general price range are, in order of performance (and generally, price):
GTX 1060 6 GB
RX 480 8 GB, then 4 GB
GTX 1060 3 GB
RX 470 8 GB, then 4 GB
These are generally a bit more future-proof with DirectX12, and a bit more power-efficient than the previous generation. It's worth noting that the 3 GB 1060 is less powerful than the 6 GB 1060 by a wider margin than the 4 GB 480 is less powerful than the 8 GB 480 (to which it is almost as powerful in practice), so it's intentional that I sandwiched both 480's between the 1060's. At MSRPs, I think the 4 GB 480 is still the best value, but availability is still a problem, and all the more so in prebuilts.
The 970 is previous-generation, but slots in roughly where the GTX 1060 3 GB is, varying a bit by game. For the right price, it's not a bad option; if buying just the GPU at retail I'd generally advise against it, but in prebuilts it can still make sense. The GeForce 900 series is less optimized for multiple threads than either the GeForce 1000 series, or the Radeon 200/300/400 series, so it's a bit less future proof, but it's unlikely you'd be noticing within the next 2-3 years at least.
8 GB RAM is still generally adequate for gaming, but RAM is cheap currently, so 16 GB often doesn't make much of a difference in cost. I wouldn't let it be a big factor in deciding what to get either way.
A few general comments since there was a lot of questionable advice - although you did seem to get to the right conclusions.
SSDs are worth it. Large ones are pricey so a SSD/HDD two-drive system remains ideal. 240 GB is pretty much the sweet spot now; 120 will fill up quickly, and 512 is more pricey... although you can get a good 512 GB one for $150 nowadays, and it would almost be worth swapping the 240 for a 512, taking lower graphics now, and upgrading the GPU six months sooner. It's fairly rare to find prebuilts with a 512 GB SSD and a HDD though, and those that do often charge a premium over retail for the SSD.
Someone mentioned the Samsung 950 Pro. It's the best SSD you can get - and thus also not appropriate in the budget you're looking to keep it to. The quoted speeds are accurate, but you won't be able to tell the difference versus a regular SSD in practice 98% of the time. You will be able to notice a regular SSD versus a hard drive though.
I would not recommend the Western Digital Black series, because they're overpriced for the value. For hard drives, they're fast... but they are super-slow compared to even a low-end SSD. SSD + cheap hard drive is where it's at. The one thing I might consider spending more on with a hard drive is a second one for a backup (and it can be a slow 5400 RPM one). A lot of people don't have a good backup process for things like family pictures, and disk drives do fail occasionally. An external hard drive is still about the most cost-effective backups you can get over the long term.
The i5-6600 and 6600K are about the sweet spot of the moderate-to-moderately-high range of processors. The 6500 is almost as good as well. Since CPUs are relatively a pain to upgrade, it's not a bad idea to go for a $200 CPU like this, and it likely will last a long time.
For GPUs, the ones that are new and in your general price range are, in order of performance (and generally, price):
GTX 1060 6 GB
RX 480 8 GB, then 4 GB
GTX 1060 3 GB
RX 470 8 GB, then 4 GB
These are generally a bit more future-proof with DirectX12, and a bit more power-efficient than the previous generation. It's worth noting that the 3 GB 1060 is less powerful than the 6 GB 1060 by a wider margin than the 4 GB 480 is less powerful than the 8 GB 480 (to which it is almost as powerful in practice), so it's intentional that I sandwiched both 480's between the 1060's. At MSRPs, I think the 4 GB 480 is still the best value, but availability is still a problem, and all the more so in prebuilts.
The 970 is previous-generation, but slots in roughly where the GTX 1060 3 GB is, varying a bit by game. For the right price, it's not a bad option; if buying just the GPU at retail I'd generally advise against it, but in prebuilts it can still make sense. The GeForce 900 series is less optimized for multiple threads than either the GeForce 1000 series, or the Radeon 200/300/400 series, so it's a bit less future proof, but it's unlikely you'd be noticing within the next 2-3 years at least.
8 GB RAM is still generally adequate for gaming, but RAM is cheap currently, so 16 GB often doesn't make much of a difference in cost. I wouldn't let it be a big factor in deciding what to get either way.
Olleus
Deity
So you'd recommend an RX 480 above a gtx 970?
Acken
Deity
Arent they the same performance but the 480 cheaper ?
Olleus
Deity
This has the gtx substantially higher... But it also doesn't have the 1080 at the top so not sure what it's worth
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
The 970 is £10 cheaper at the place where I'm getting the rest of my build
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
The 970 is £10 cheaper at the place where I'm getting the rest of my build
More or less, yes. In general, they're about equal in DX11 games (each is better in some), but the 480 is better in DX12 games (sometimes substantially). And the 480 is generally cheaper, at least if you're buying the GPU itself.
That's one synthetic (not a real game) benchmark; if you look at RX 480 reviews that compare it with the 970, 980, 1070, Radeon R9 390, etc., such as this one, you'll see that in actual games, it varies, but on average the RX 480 is even in DirectX 11 and somewhat better in DirectX 12, including results such as 40% better in Hitman and 15% better in Total War: Warhammer, at 1920x1080 where the 970 is closest. The average of the DirectX 12 games they review is 19% in favor of the 480; you'll probably see a similar spread on other reviews.
Currently, most games are DirectX 11, but especially as Windows 10 adoption picks up (and it's already over 40% of the PC gaming market), more and more games will support DirectX 12, and generally they'll perform better with it. In other words, for today's games they're essentially equal, but for tomorrow's games the RX 480 will be better, by enough to make the difference between playable or not playable at some point. The difference is due to the hardware design, so it's not something nVIDIA could equalize with better drivers.
So I'd probably go with the RX 480 if the difference is only 10 pounds. Over the next year, it won't really make much difference, but 3-4 years down the line, it could have a noticeable longevity impact. On the other hand, if you've already ordered, no reason to cancel; the 970 is still able to handle pretty much anything you throw at it without a problem and would serve you well for a good amount of time as well.
