New PC build for a friend

F

Focker

Gawd
Joined
Feb 20, 2005
Messages
794
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming only
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$800ish
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Toledo, Ohio
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc.
Case, CPU, Motherboard, Power Supply, Ram, SSD, Video Card (see below)
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
DVD drive, 500 HDD, 3 monitor setup, Keyboard, Mouse
6) Will you be overclocking?
He probably won't need to now, but in the future why not
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor?
1920x1080 on each monitor. 3 monitor setup with a racing seat, etc.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Now
9) What features do you need in a motherboard?
Raid and firewire are not important
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Yes, I believe he has windows 7, no license needed

Basically all he mostly plays is IR Racing and F1 2014, Nascar 2014, etc. But he's been stuck in the stoneage graphics wise even though he's using 3 monitors and a racing seat, G27, etc. He actually just went and bought a computer yesterday at a local "discount" computer store.. He paid $700 for..... "AMD Athlon Dual Core CPU - BioStar All-in-One MB - 4gb DDR3 RAM - 500gb HDD - DVDRW - KB & Mouse - 2 piece speakers - a case with 430W PSU - GTX 650 1GB - Windows 7.

I just talked him into returning it.
 
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Focker said:
1)
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor?
3 monitor setup with a racing seat, etc.
Click to expand...

Any idea what size monitors these are or what the max resolution of each monitor?
 
Sheesh, rough crowd. Used to be people who loved to do these things lol.
 
Zero Cool said:
For $800 this is about as good as it gets... And it's pretty damn good haha.
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It's not that good for an "$800ish" build; it's closer to $900. We don't factor in mail-in rebates since they don't translate into instant discounts.

Focker said:
Sheesh, rough crowd. Used to be people who loved to do these things lol.
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Many of those people have lives during the weekday. And most of the weeknight.

But could you confirm the true limit of your friend's budget? And whether or not he actually has a copy of Windows he could use? An $800 budget can limit what we could recommend, especially since we need to factor in a good video card for a triple monitor setup.
 
Focker said:
Sheesh, rough crowd. Used to be people who loved to do these things lol.
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As one of those people who loved to do these things, I still have a life (especially work) outside of this forum, ya know? ;)
 
Zero Cool said:
For $800 this is about as good as it gets... And it's pretty damn good haha.
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Thanks, appreciate it. When did THAT website come around? Instant bookmark, I can do this on my own now lol.
tiraides said:
It's not that good for an "$800ish" build; it's closer to $900. We don't factor in mail-in rebates since they don't translate into instant discounts.



Many of those people have lives during the weekday. And most of the weeknight.

But could you confirm the true limit of your friend's budget? And whether or not he actually has a copy of Windows he could use? An $800 budget can limit what we could recommend, especially since we need to factor in a good video card for a triple monitor setup.
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That came across as complaining instead of humor like I intended, I apologize. I'm posting at work. I agree about mail in rebates, hate them.

Dangman said:
As one of those people who loved to do these things, I still have a life (especially work) outside of this forum, ya know? ;)
Click to expand...

See above.

Long story short I have it covered with that website. :)
 
Focker said:
Thanks, appreciate it. When did THAT website come around? Instant bookmark, I can do this on my own now lol.
Click to expand...

Whoa, speedy. While PCPartsPicker can easily help you with the "what," it doesn't really explain the "why" when it comes to picking certain parts.

One thing to consider -- and the reason why I asked for a more firm budget limit earlier -- is the GPU power needed for a triple monitor setup. I know that your friend is used to worse, but is he trying to go for "good enough for right now" or "I don't want to touch this for as long as humanly possible"?

Many people would recommend a dual-card SLI or CrossFire setup for triple monitor gaming. I know, you can't really afford that eating up most of your $800 budget. The "alternative" is a high-end single-GPU card* like the GTX 770 4GB (okay) or the GTX 780 3GB (better). A good mid-range card like the GTX 760 2GB could work, but you're then limited in the amount of eye candy you could use.

* AMD/ATI Disclaimer: I'm not recommending AMD cards while their pricing and availability are still affected by the cryptocurrency craze. Most of the high-end cards aren't really good at their current values -- and a lot of what drove their original values was the fact that they were cheaper than their Nvidia "equivalents."

So, again, I have to ask:

How much eye candy does your friend want in his racing?
Which game does he plan to play most often?
What's the most (including taxes and shipping) you want to spend on this build?
 
Focker said:
Thanks, appreciate it. When did THAT website come around? Instant bookmark, I can do this on my own now lol.

That came across as complaining instead of humor like I intended, I apologize. I'm posting at work. I agree about mail in rebates, hate them.



See above.

Long story short I have it covered with that website. :)
Click to expand...

As Tiraides pointed out, you kinda don't have it covered: In addition to what Tiraides said, it still lists shitty parts, not all of the good and decent quality parts are actually good choices for the money, and also includes the MIR pricing by default. So yeah, you still need to know the why. You can see exactly what we're talking about with the very build that Zero Cool posted for several reasons:
- Since this is a gaming only PC, Intel is going to be your best
- That case is a bit overpriced at $45.
- At $20, that HSF is a tad overpriced considering that the significantly better cooling Hyper 212+ is $10 more.
 
tiraides said:
Whoa, speedy. While PCPartsPicker can easily help you with the "what," it doesn't really explain the "why" when it comes to picking certain parts.

One thing to consider -- and the reason why I asked for a more firm budget limit earlier -- is the GPU power needed for a triple monitor setup. I know that your friend is used to worse, but is he trying to go for "good enough for right now" or "I don't want to touch this for as long as humanly possible"?

Many people would recommend a dual-card SLI or CrossFire setup for triple monitor gaming. I know, you can't really afford that eating up most of your $800 budget. The "alternative" is a high-end single-GPU card* like the GTX 770 4GB (okay) or the GTX 780 3GB (better). A good mid-range card like the GTX 760 2GB could work, but you're then limited in the amount of eye candy you could use.

* AMD/ATI Disclaimer: I'm not recommending AMD cards while their pricing and availability are still affected by the cryptocurrency craze. Most of the high-end cards aren't really good at their current values -- and a lot of what drove their original values was the fact that they were cheaper than their Nvidia "equivalents."

So, again, I have to ask:

How much eye candy does your friend want in his racing?
Which game does he plan to play most often?
What's the most (including taxes and shipping) you want to spend on this build?
Click to expand...

Went with a GTX 760. Figured cheaper on the video card for now was his best choice since it's the easiest thing for him to upgrade in the future. IRacing is his biggest game, has raced against the professionals including Jr. etc. I'm actually pretty good at building PC's, just loathe price matching, narrowing down which component to get at any given day to maximize performance versus cost as prices change on a daily basis. This is where you guys on here are amazing and very helpful.
 
Did you pick out the rest of the parts? If so, what did you pick? Have you bought anything yet?
 
Dangman said:
As Tiraides pointed out, you kinda don't have it covered: In addition to what Tiraides said, it still lists shitty parts, not all of the good and decent quality parts are actually good choices for the money, and also includes the MIR pricing by default. So yeah, you still need to know the why. You can see exactly what we're talking about with the very build that Zero Cool posted for several reasons:
- Since this is a gaming only PC, Intel is going to be your best
- That case is a bit overpriced at $45.
- At $20, that HSF is a tad overpriced considering that the significantly better cooling Hyper 212+ is $10 more.
Click to expand...

Ended up using what you helped me build a year ago as a baseline. ;) http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1744326&highlight=
 
You lost me... are you saying that you bought everything below (save for the graphics card)?

Dangman said:
Then here's what I recommend:
$215 - Intel Core i5-3570K CPU
$140 - MSI Z77A-GD55 Intel Z77 ATX Motherboard
$42 - Corsair CMX8GX3M1A1333C9 8GB DDR3 16000 RAM
$195 - Gigabyte GV-R785OC-2GD Radeon HD 7850 2GB PCI-E Video Card
$119 - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2BAA 2.5" 128GB SSD
$77 - Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$18 - LG iHAS124-04 DVD Burner
$50 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite Black ATX Case
$96 - Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit OEM
----------
Total: $1006 shipped
Click to expand...
 
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Here's what I understand... please fill in the blanks....

1. You've decided to pick out the parts yourself.
2. You and your friend chose the GTX 760 as the video card.
3. ?
4. Profit?
 
Some general ideas... if you want to save money you can get a GTX 750 Ti video card. Games apparently don't use more than 8GB right now. As for motherboards for Intel platform either Gigabyte GA-H87-D3H or Asus GRYPHON Z87 motherboard depending on budget or for an AMD platform ASUS A88X-PRO.
 
Focker said:
Ended up using what you helped me build a year ago as a baseline. ;) http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1744326&highlight=
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In addition to what Tiraides' said, that wasn't a good idea as several of those parts are relatively poor buys for the money now. I.e the PSU, SSD, CPU, mobo, RAM, and case are right now not good buys at all for the money. IN other words, the only items I can still recommend today from that list would be the HDD, DVD, and the OS.
 
That is not an easy build.
Going triple monitor on so little money is hard, and you list that you want an SSD as well.

Removing the "you can¨'t go lower items" I get:
PSU $55 (S12ii-430)
RAM $70 (2x4gb)
Motherboard $75 (mATX B85)
case $50 (NZXT 210 elite)
total: $250
Leaving you with $550 for CPU, GPU and SSD.
Smallest SSD i can recommend is $75 (SSDNow V300 120GB), reducing it to $475 for CPU and GPU
You can get a i5-4570 and a GTX 760 for that money.

But I would recommend more than a GTX 760 for triple monitor, this does not include tax and shipping and possible monitor adaptors to fit the GPU up with the monitors.

EDIT

Alternatively, he can kick the SSD, frees $75 and or reduce the CPU from my initial recommendation to an i3-4330, this would free up money for a GTX 770, which will benefit him more in game.
 
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I continue to be astounded by the number of people recommending sub-$100 motherboards. I spent enough time lately to almost make my head spin and get dizzy looking at over probably 200 motherboards from Asus, MSI, Gigabyte and Asrock (socket 1155 and 1150). And to me, the cheapest board I'd go with is the Gigabyte GA-H87-D3H. In general though, the most interesting boards I found were almost always around $140.

So if you want a quick rule of thumb, if you're looking and comparing $140 motherboards, you're probably comparing the more interesting ones. Paying $60 for a motherboard will get you exactly that, a $60 motherboard. And it's even more surprising when someone says they have a budget of $800 or even $1000 and people still recommend a $60 motherboard.

Sure, I might be daring in saying you can save money by buying a GTX 750 Ti. But this is because I know if someone buys a quad core today and 8GB of RAM, I know in the future all they'd have to replace is the video card.
 
coolpurplefan said:
I continue to be astounded by the number of people recommending sub-$100 motherboards. I spent enough time lately to almost make my head spin and get dizzy looking at over probably 200 motherboards from Asus, MSI, Gigabyte and Asrock (socket 1155 and 1150). And to me, the cheapest board I'd go with is the Gigabyte GA-H87-D3H. In general though, the most interesting boards I found were almost always around $140.

So if you want a quick rule of thumb, if you're looking and comparing $140 motherboards, you're probably comparing the more interesting ones. Paying $60 for a motherboard will get you exactly that, a $60 motherboard. And it's even more surprising when someone says they have a budget of $800 or even $1000 and people still recommend a $60 motherboard.

Sure, I might be daring in saying you can save money by buying a GTX 750 Ti. But this is because I know if someone buys a quad core today and 8GB of RAM, I know in the future all they'd have to replace is the video card.
Click to expand...

The priority in this build, IMO, should be on the video card. The OP's friend is playing racing games at a 5760x1080 resolution using three separate displays. That requires some serious GPU power regardless of how much eye candy he uses.

The reason why I would recommend a $60 motherboard is simple: many users don't need all of the features of a more expensive motherboard. The majority of the boards I recommend, regardless of their value, support most (if not all) of the major CPUs designed for their sockets, support at least 16GB of RAM, have at least four SATA ports, and have onboard 5.1 (or better) audio, USB, and Gigabit Ethernet. Not everyone needs SLI/CF support, onboard wireless, or RAID, which are three of the key features that more expensive boards have. And the cheap motherboards can last just as long as their more expensive brethren with proper care and maintenance.

I'm still waiting on the OP's answers to my questions, which is why I haven't posted a complete build in this thread. But one thing I would do is try and build around a 4GB GTX 770. Failing that, I'd build around a GTX 760 with an eye towards a future GPU upgrade (either a second GTX 760 for SLI or a better single-GPU card to replace it). But I'm not looking at a $150 motherboard while I'm working with a(n assumed) firm $800 limit, especially when I plan on spending the most money on the video card.
 
coolpurplefan said:
I posted here on some motherboards: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1040686383#post1040686383
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Hmm...I don't think your criteria and judging rubric is actually complete or actually helpful: You didn't actually mention why exactly you chose those motherboards. Your statement about "some other factors were complete rear panel and expansion slots. " is rather vague. What do you mean by complete rear panel and expansion slots? What expansion slots were part of your criteria? What rear panel options were absolutely necessary?
 
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