Archaea
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2004
- Messages
- 11,828
A buddy of mine wants me to build him a complete, long lasting gaming machine that’ll play everything maxed out, with new monitor for $1600 budget. It’ll primarily be a gaming box but also a general purpose home use PC for anything and everything. He holds onto his equipment a long time. He’s rocking a hex core x58 Xeon, 12GB RAM, and a 970 right now that I built him in the past. He wants a solid upgrade from that. All in at $1600.
Here’s what I’m thinking:
Mobo $100 (MicroCenter Gigabyte 470)
https://www.microcenter.com/single_...&MccGuid=cf519e30-c48a-4608-acca-710302e71efb
16GB DDR4 3200 MHz CAS 15 RAM $120
Whatever's available on Slickdeals at the time
Ryzen 2700 CPU with SPIRE heatsink and fan - $230 (I want an 8 core CPU because the next generation Xbox and Sony consoles are using 8 Core Ryzens - this should allow for greatest gaming longevity, matching core count with the upcoming consoles. I'd choose Intel for the clock speed improvement and IPC, but buying an 8 Core/16 thread intel would swing the price up at least $300 and that isn't in this budget)
https://www.microcenter.com/single_...&MccGuid=cf519e30-c48a-4608-acca-710302e71efb
EVGA G3 GOLD 850 watt modular PSU - $85
I have an almost new spare on hand
WD Blue 500GB NVME - $63 (OS drive, he can add a spare drive if he needs more space)
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...mc=EMC-GD012319-_-landing-_-Item-_-20-250-091
Allowance for Case - $100
Whatever's available on Slickdeals at the time and meets his subjective preference
AMD Vega 64 - $370 (nothing faster from AMD right now, and the Radeon VII will be $700 and is out of budget. The Vega 64 is basically NVidia 1080 level performance these days, and is cheaper than a 1080 - plus native freesync is ?potentially? more reliable than Nvidia's recent announcement that they will support freesync?)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/PowerColor...AAOSwHIlZ0Oi9:rk:4:pf:0&LH_ItemCondition=1000
34” MSI ultra widescreen 100hz, Freesync 3440x1440 - $380 He wants a new monitor - coming from a 24" 1080p display. He wants it to be high refresh rate, and a nice upgrade from what he has. It's either this, or a 32" 16x9 for around $300 range. A gsync monitor is probably out of the price range. I'm a little worried the Vega64 won't be able to handle the 3440x1440 resolution, so maybe the 2560x1440 resolution of a 32" 16x9 is preferable, and cheaper.
https://www.microcenter.com/product...vi-hdmi-dp-freesync-curved-gaming-led-monitor
Windows 10 - $15 alt market grey key
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This totals to $1462, but doesn’t include tax. Some of this will be purchased at microcenter so there will be tax. It should come out a hair under $1600ish.
Giving the requirement for it to be a long running gaming machine with the best performance for the dollar, and as much future proofing as possible for the budget, does anyone have any alternate suggestions I should consider?
Here’s what I’m thinking:
Mobo $100 (MicroCenter Gigabyte 470)
https://www.microcenter.com/single_...&MccGuid=cf519e30-c48a-4608-acca-710302e71efb
16GB DDR4 3200 MHz CAS 15 RAM $120
Whatever's available on Slickdeals at the time
Ryzen 2700 CPU with SPIRE heatsink and fan - $230 (I want an 8 core CPU because the next generation Xbox and Sony consoles are using 8 Core Ryzens - this should allow for greatest gaming longevity, matching core count with the upcoming consoles. I'd choose Intel for the clock speed improvement and IPC, but buying an 8 Core/16 thread intel would swing the price up at least $300 and that isn't in this budget)
https://www.microcenter.com/single_...&MccGuid=cf519e30-c48a-4608-acca-710302e71efb
EVGA G3 GOLD 850 watt modular PSU - $85
I have an almost new spare on hand
WD Blue 500GB NVME - $63 (OS drive, he can add a spare drive if he needs more space)
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...mc=EMC-GD012319-_-landing-_-Item-_-20-250-091
Allowance for Case - $100
Whatever's available on Slickdeals at the time and meets his subjective preference
AMD Vega 64 - $370 (nothing faster from AMD right now, and the Radeon VII will be $700 and is out of budget. The Vega 64 is basically NVidia 1080 level performance these days, and is cheaper than a 1080 - plus native freesync is ?potentially? more reliable than Nvidia's recent announcement that they will support freesync?)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/PowerColor...AAOSwHIlZ0Oi9:rk:4:pf:0&LH_ItemCondition=1000
34” MSI ultra widescreen 100hz, Freesync 3440x1440 - $380 He wants a new monitor - coming from a 24" 1080p display. He wants it to be high refresh rate, and a nice upgrade from what he has. It's either this, or a 32" 16x9 for around $300 range. A gsync monitor is probably out of the price range. I'm a little worried the Vega64 won't be able to handle the 3440x1440 resolution, so maybe the 2560x1440 resolution of a 32" 16x9 is preferable, and cheaper.
https://www.microcenter.com/product...vi-hdmi-dp-freesync-curved-gaming-led-monitor
Windows 10 - $15 alt market grey key
----------
This totals to $1462, but doesn’t include tax. Some of this will be purchased at microcenter so there will be tax. It should come out a hair under $1600ish.
Giving the requirement for it to be a long running gaming machine with the best performance for the dollar, and as much future proofing as possible for the budget, does anyone have any alternate suggestions I should consider?
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