Buying a gaming rig, any suggestions?

Zarkes · Feb 28, 2014

I can't build one my own and I don't have a whole lot to spend but I want to be ready for Elder Scrolls Online. I'm willing to spend 800-2000$ if I get my munnies worth. Does anyone know any good websites or models to choose from? There are some good deals on Ibuypower.com, but if there are any experts out there your advice would be greatly appreciated.

cheezMcNASTY · Feb 28, 2014

Corsair RAM. There's no substitute.

Where's Steve? Steve should be here.

TRA Rotid · Feb 28, 2014

I have two maximum PC geek friends. I ~~can ask them some advice.~~

Edit: I asked them for advice.

Dark Drakan · Feb 28, 2014

I shall be building my own in a couple of months and will be asking for plenty of advice also for good brands etc to go with. Been out of the PC gaming loop for about 8-9 years now and tech has advanced a hell of a lot since I last followed it. Also got to do a lot of research as there are certain parts of fitting these new components im not well versed in either.

TRA Rotid · Feb 28, 2014

800-2000$ is actually a huge range and you can easily get a rig for ESO with 800$ (or 1000$ if you want an SSD drive for faster loading times). The question is if you'd like a system that can go well into the future?

Initial response:

" ...for ESO and with a generous Budget it is a rather simple task. As said: An SSD seems a good choice. Also, i´d suggest a PC that offers a bit of potential for other games as well. Now budget isn´t on a tight limit and ESO won´t support Mantle, so we choose an Nvidia GFX. CPU Intel standard. RAM 8 GB min, if we can make it 16.
I likie the configuration options of the store a lot.
So... why not go with the Paladin Special?
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Intel-i7-Paladin-Special

-Case: I don´t like their choices so much, mostly cheap overpriced gamer bling-bling (and i don´t say that easily).
I suggest Corsair Graphite Series 230T in a colour of his choice.
Other than that if he wants to upgrade a lot the Erebus GT Full Tower Case but i don´t think he would EVER need that.
No other of the cases available.

-CPU: The i5-4670K seems a good choice. If he has the 50 dollar extra he can go I7 but it won´t benefit him much. He´s also not gonna overclock i guess.

-Default cooling system UNLESS he wants a quiet system. Then the Corsair Hydro Series H60 with the QUIET fan option. I would actually take that (it´s in the final pricing so he can "save" money if he goes with the default Watercooling setting).

-RAM: 16 GB but if he wants to save money 8 GB are fine too. Brand is not important for him (no OC), so default.

-GFX: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 sale - Nice offer there but the 770 is all fine for ESO. The 780 is luxury for ESO but i´d buy it with a new PC since there are other games and GFX is king nowadays. If he wants to play Skyrim with mods, he wants a 780. This is the option where he can save money however if he wants to.

-Mainboard: Default choice (Asus midrange nothing more needed)

-PSU: Bad options there, OCZ not a good choice imho. But since it´s on sale and he has RMA from the shop chooce OCZ Fatal1ty 750W

-HDD: Package of 120 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD WD Black² - This will be crucial to his ESO experience.

Leave rest on default. No more extras needed imho.

-> Ends up with a Total of: 1956

Alternative choose as NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 which will be just as fine for ESO and end up with a Total of 1716"

Zarkes · Mar 1, 2014

TRA Rotid said:
I have two maximum PC geek friends. I ~~can ask them some advice.~~

Edit: I asked them for advice.

Thanks Dude that Paladin is sick.

Dark Drakan · Mar 1, 2014

If you were to want a rig and future proof it for at least a couple of years what sort of specs would you be looking at as a guideline? Processor and GFX Cards are main advice I would need and not overly fussed about the price at the moment. I have owned both Radeon and Nvidia cards in the past and most of the time the Nvidia ones have outperformed the Radeon ones, is this still the case in the general?

I would likely get 16Gb RAM as standard is there a certain type thats recommended for gaming? Much more than 16Gb is redundant at the moment ive heard unless you do big graphics design projects. Are motherboards these days pretty universal with the GFX Cards/RAM that are supported? Remember in the past that older model motherboards only supported certain types of RAM and GFX Cards. Also is 750w power supply the general recommended wattage?

Are cases pretty flexible with what will fit inside these days? Remember in the past it was pot luck that your motherboard and PSU would fit comfortably inside the case. I had to saw a hole in one of mine and move a fan as it was blocking my processor being mounted properly too. Are most cases pretty spacious or is it best to pick components first before picking a case?

TRA Rotid · Mar 1, 2014

"-The current advantage of Nvidia: Better drivers. Usually better Card design. If you go for AMD, you should look closely at the card design - or simply pick an Asus card.
The disadvantage of Nvidia: Shameless overpricing.
The future should make AMD much more attractive, especially, when you don´t plan on spending 500 EUR on a GFX card. With the API Mantle, AMD cards should - in optimized applications which are yet few - receive a mentionable performance boost, giving you way more FPS for your money. At this point, where the success of Mantle is yet to be determined, i´d say it´s a matter of budget: Either spend a lot of money and buy Nvidia, or spend less, but then don´t buy Nvidia, the performance loss is too big but get AMD instead.

-RAM: 16 GB, nothing more needed unless he plans on doin a Ramdisk, which is also relatively useless with SSDs being cheap.

-Yes mobos are in general, RAM in high speed configurations might be an issue in rare scenarios

-PSU wattage: 600 Watts quality beats 750 Watts noname. With a good PSU, 600 Watts is alright, unless you plan on a real highend components/SLI config.

-Cases are in general compatible, but with highend GFX in some scenarios you might have trouble to fit them in. If you go for a midi case, check the measurements for GFX cards to make sure. PSU should not be an issue there (never buy PSu with case)."

So that's the gist of it.
Mantle coming in to replae DirectX will shuffle the cards for sure, but it's yet to be seen.
Nvidia more powerful but a lot more expensive
RAM manufacturer really matters only if you OC.
PSUs are very different accross manufacturers and it's no exaggeration that a quality brand will give you better performance even if the wattage is lower by like 150W.
You should be fine unless you go cheapcake like me; my new GFX can't fit into the case (the side panel is open from one side), because the connection pins are on the side instead of the backside of the card.

Dark Drakan · Mar 3, 2014

Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated and I shall no doubt have more questions in the coming months as I start buying components.

Dark Drakan · Mar 8, 2014

If someone could build their dream rig what would the specs be and how much would it cost?

Also if you could build an ideal rig for your purposes at the moment what would those purposes be (what would you want it to run) and what specs would the PC have?

Just want a basic idea of price ranges and specs between ideal rigs to run everything thats out at the moment and the very top end PC's that are out there.

Zarkes · Mar 8, 2014

Dark Drakan said:
If someone could build their dream rig what would the specs be and how much would it cost?

Also if you could build an ideal rig for your purposes at the moment what would those purposes be (what would you want it to run) and what specs would the PC have?

Just want a basic idea of price ranges and specs between ideal rigs to run everything thats out at the moment and the very top end PC's that are out there.

My Dream rig would be an all blue Erebus GT-V3, 9000$ when all is said and done. Maximum efficiency with the ability to over clock at 30% with no problems yet. The power Drakan, the power.

Azer249 · Mar 9, 2014

Zarkes said:
My Dream rig would be an all blue Erebus GT-V3, 9000$ when all is said and done. Maximum efficiency with the ability to over clock at 30% with no problems yet. The power Drakan, the power.

I'd still probably build my dream Rig, i really can't stand prebuilt systems..

I7, 4x 290x, 1200w Corsair PSU, Rampage x79 board (I like the colour scheme), Coolermaster Scout 2 case, 32 GB Ram (Kingston Hyper-x Gensis).

I like my current PC set-up though.

GPU : AMD R9 280X
CPU : I5 3750 k
PSU : Corsair HX850W
Motherboard: Asrock Z77 Extreme 4
RAM: 12GB Kingston Hyper-X Genesis
Case: Haf 912 Plus

Does the job and plays my games all on ultra for a good price. Really efficient with basically no bottlenecks. Also i noticed that earlier on in the thread that someone was mentioning getting a Keplar card, GTX 770 i believe (only skim read).

EDIT:

Right now i honestly wouldn't recommend getting a NVIDIA card. yes they do have better drivers but they are more expensive than AMD for a couple of framesYperformance. Infact i only recently went through the choice of buying a R9 280x or a GTX 770, i opted for the 280x.

With the new rendering system called Mantle that AMD are implimenting into there Architecture, it basically improves performance higher than that of the rendering capabilities of a NVIDIA card can do with Direct-X. You can basically pay for something that right now, is in development, but could potentially exceed in terms of performance when compared NVIDIA cards that are currently being sold (700 series).

Mantle is seriously something you should look into when debating NVIDIA/AMD. I was previously NVIDIA but AMD have really pulled out the stocks with their new R9 series.(i'll write something more in depth tomorrow about helping you choose a PC if you like/take a look at the site, rather tired now so i'm doing all of this off the top of my head.)

TRA Rotid said:
"
-PSU wattage: 600 Watts quality beats 750 Watts noname. With a good PSU, 600 Watts is alright, unless you plan on a real highend components/SLI config.

I don't fully agree with this either, 600W is good for something that is mid range but since you're looking at High range CPUS, GPUS and probably cooling, you're going to need a lot more power. Something like an 850W power supply would do you better and would future proof your rig aswell. You don't want to come to overclocking and find out that there isn't enough leftover to enable you to do so.

In terms of Noname always being better than the named brands, also not specificly true. Some offbrand companies that stock normal pre-built work systems and other rare gems can make good power supplys. The main thing you want to look for is the Amp output across the +/- 12V rail and then compare that to the efficiency rating and wattage output.

I think the one company i always recommend in terms of power supply is Corsair. They make a good variety of both modular, semi-modular and full wired power supply's that cater for most budget ranges , and all of them are 80 plus bronze.

BUT YEAH, AVOID OCZ. THEY ARE TEH SH**ZOR

Dark Drakan · Mar 10, 2014

Azer249 said:
I'd still probably build my dream Rig, i really can't stand prebuilt systems..

I7, 4x 290x, 1200w Corsair PSU, Rampage x79 board (I like the colour scheme), Coolermaster Scout 2 case, 32 GB Ram (Kingston Hyper-x Gensis).

I like my current PC set-up though.

GPU : AMD R9 280X
CPU : I5 3750 k
PSU : Corsair HX850W
Motherboard: Asrock Z77 Extreme 4
RAM: 12GB Kingston Hyper-X Genesis
Case: Haf 912 Plus

Does the job and plays my games all on ultra for a good price. Really efficient with basically no bottlenecks. Also i noticed that earlier on in the thread that someone was mentioning getting a Keplar card, GTX 770 i believe (only skim read).

EDIT:

Right now i honestly wouldn't recommend getting a NVIDIA card. yes they do have better drivers but they are more expensive than AMD for a couple of framesYperformance. Infact i only recently went through the choice of buying a R9 280x or a GTX 770, i opted for the 280x.

With the new rendering system called Mantle that AMD are implimenting into there Architecture, it basically improves performance higher than that of the rendering capabilities of a NVIDIA card can do with Direct-X. You can basically pay for something that right now, is in development, but could potentially exceed in terms of performance when compared NVIDIA cards that are currently being sold (700 series).

Mantle is seriously something you should look into when debating NVIDIA/AMD. I was previously NVIDIA but AMD have really pulled out the stocks with their new R9 series.(i'll write something more in depth tomorrow about helping you choose a PC if you like/take a look at the site, rather tired now so i'm doing all of this off the top of my head.)

I don't fully agree with this either, 600W is good for something that is mid range but since you're looking at High range CPUS, GPUS and probably cooling, you're going to need a lot more power. Something like an 850W power supply would do you better and would future proof your rig aswell. You don't want to come to overclocking and find out that there isn't enough leftover to enable you to do so.

In terms of Noname always being better than the named brands, also not specificly true. Some offbrand companies that stock normal pre-built work systems and other rare gems can make good power supplys. The main thing you want to look for is the Amp output across the +/- 12V rail and then compare that to the efficiency rating and wattage output.

I think the one company i always recommend in terms of power supply is Corsair. They make a good variety of both modular, semi-modular and full wired power supply's that cater for most budget ranges , and all of them are 80 plus bronze.

BUT YEAH, AVOID OCZ. THEY ARE TEH SH**ZOR

These are exactly the sort of things I was hoping to hear about as views seem to vary person to person. I have owned both Radeon and Nvidia cards but had started to lean towards Nvidia towards the end of my last PC but now I may change my mind again. I had heard about Mantle but didnt really know all that much about it so its nice to see some details. Im happy to hear plenty of more in depth debates/details on everything though as I have plenty to learn and catch up with before my build starts.

I always seem to hear good things about Corsair & Kingston so I think I have pretty much decided on those particular brands for their respective components, just got to settle on a model for each now. Think I will be going for 16Gb of RAM too. My last motherboard was an ASrock board and I was happy with it, will probably decide on that after I have decided on other components so I can make sure it has all the necessary fittings and slots. End product I would like to be a high end gaming PC that is going to remain top range for at least a couple of years before I need to upgrade anything.

Anyone have any preference on CPU brand and what sorts of speeds are they these days?

Azer249 · Mar 10, 2014

Dark Drakan said:
These are exactly the sort of things I was hoping to hear about as views seem to vary person to person. I have owned both Radeon and Nvidia cards but had started to lean towards Nvidia towards the end of my last PC but now I may change my mind again. I had heard about Mantle but didnt really know all that much about it so its nice to see some details. Im happy to hear plenty of more in depth debates/details on everything though as I have plenty to learn and catch up with before my build starts.

I always seem to hear good things about Corsair & Kingston so I think I have pretty much decided on those particular brands for their respective components, just got to settle on a model for each now. Think I will be going for 16Gb of RAM too. My last motherboard was an ASrock board and I was happy with it, will probably decide on that after I have decided on other components so I can make sure it has all the necessary fittings and slots. End product I would like to be a high end gaming PC that is going to remain top range for at least a couple of years before I need to upgrade anything.

Anyone have any preference on CPU brand and what sorts of speeds are they these days?

For gaming, intel are still the Go-to brand. AMD do make good processors but they are focused more towards the every day use and quite frankly, they're good, if you're on a budget but if you have the money i wouldn't touch them.

Speaking of processors last year Intel updated there CPUs once again with Haswell architecture. If you're going to get a brand new gaming PC, it's always good to go with the latest that's on the market but stick to series numbers that have been proven to be of high value in the past. Something like a i5-4670k @3.4GHZ would be more than plentiful for high end gaming, but if you have the money swap up to an I7 just to future proof your rig. Just make sure you get the right socket type when you buy a haswell CPU, i believe the correct socket is LGA1150, so you would need a motherboard with that.

Also with motherboards, yes Asrock are a good make, they are ore focused around budget boards though, being an offbranch of Asus. If you're looking for a really high end board that is more orientated towards high spec gaming, get something from Asus or Gigabyte.

Dark Drakan · Mar 11, 2014

Again the advice is much appreciated buddy, I had heard Intel were the go to brand for gaming & had heard bits about the Haswell architecture. Don't know many details about it but I shall be researching things in depth in next few months. Just narrowing my searches down at the moment & narrowing the brands down.

Getting a motherboard with correct slots & fittings was a concern too so I shall keep eye out for that. Haven't got the foggiest of what case to go for though. Hoping to get some decent funds to try & get best I can but don't want to spend stupid money for the sake of it if it's not worth the price difference.

Azer249 · Mar 11, 2014

Dark Drakan said:
Again the advice is much appreciated buddy, I had heard Intel were the go to brand for gaming & had heard bits about the Haswell architecture. Don't know many details about it but I shall be researching things in depth in next few months. Just narrowing my searches down at the moment & narrowing the brands down.

Getting a motherboard with correct slots & fittings was a concern too so I shall keep eye out for that. Haven't got the foggiest of what case to go for though. Hoping to get some decent funds to try & get best I can but don't want to spend stupid money for the sake of it if it's not worth the price difference.

Well if you need, if you have a budget you can shoot it me over (not actually give it me, just tell me what it is) and i'll find all of the best parts for you within that budget.

Noctus · Mar 11, 2014

Can think of no better thread to show off my new rig in.

Gigabyte Radeon R9 290X OC WindForce GPU
Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz Processor
Corsair Hydro H100i Cooler
Asus Z87 Maximum VI Formula Motherboard
(note: If you're planning to get the Corsair 750D with the Maximum VI Formula, be aware that you have to remove the armor to get it in. This was a huge bummer for me...)
Corsair Vengeance Pro Gold 16GB (2x8GB) RAM
250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD
760W Corsair AX Series PSU
Corsair Obsidian 750D
Logitech G710+ w/ Cherry MX Browns
Windows 8.1 Pro
Asus ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo 7.1 Soundcard
Asus bog standard DVD re-writer
Two 2TB Western Digital Red drives.
Dell UltraSharp U2414H 24
Audioengine A5+ Speakers

Including the new speakers this whole thing set me back 3 grand. Worth every penny.

Really, the best advice I can offer is set yourself an actual budget. $800 to $2000 is too broad. You could make a really great gaming system for $1500.

Provided that you get decent parts with a decent warranty that are 100% compatible (check manufacturer websites), you can't go too far wrong and it's all down to preference. These days though I would definitely recommend Intel processors. As for AMD vs NVidia graphics cards, honestly, there isn't much between them. I'm more interested in AMD right now due to mining abilities and Mantle. But I have no doubt you'd be pleased with an NVidia card if you got one.

If you want to post a potential set of parts here you were thinking of I could comment on them and tell you what I think - remember though, it's all about preference at the end of the day.

Also, hi, haven't been here for a while!

Dark Drakan · Mar 13, 2014

I will post potential parts and budget when I actually know my budget. Got to see how fast I can save some cash after the wedding (less than 2 months away). Soon as I know what sort of cash I have to play with I can start mapping my specs out.

Noctus · Mar 14, 2014

Aye, best to plan for a few months, reduces the chances of something just coming out that perfectly suits your needs.

Arseface · Apr 8, 2014

Definitely get a monitor.

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