Budget gaming PC $1500 or less.

[wraithkrown]

It has been more than 20 years since I built a computer from the ground up. My aging setup with its GTX 960 has finally hit a wall that I can not pass (does not run X4 Foundations reliably). It will be a few months before I can build this as I have to wait for income tax refund money.

I am wanting to build something that will last me at least 2 years before requiring a full system rebuild. I am not into FPS's and most of my gaming will be sims and RPG's which for the most part are not particularly demanding. I am not trying to build a machine that will run a current game at max specs, but will run one at least a year from now at medium specs.

This is the current build I have in mind. I know that things can and do change quite a lot in 3 months but this is my starting point. I have 24" monitor which, while getting a little old, suits my purposes. I tried to find a way to share my Newegg wishlist but was unsuccessful.

1. Tower: Fractal Design Meshify C
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352072
I do not care about tower noise, my priority here is good airflow/cooling and room for the GPU. I will be purchasing 4 140mm fans and a 120mm fan to use all the airflow options available to me. Was thinking of arranging them with the front and bottom sucking and the top and rear exhausting.

2. Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438094.
650 watts might be a little excessive but I want to make sure I have plenty of overhead with the GPU and 2 HD's and maybe a SSD. If I can get away with lower power and cost please let me know.

3. Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix Z370-H Gaming LGA 1151 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0ZX6HD6693
This might be where I can save the most money. As long as it will work with everything else on this list and not provide any bottlenecks this is very flexible.

4. Ram: 32 gig
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233724
I am running 32 gig right now with no issues. I do on occasion play modded Minecraft so an obscene amount of memory is helpful.

5. CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.7 GHz
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117827
From what I have seen AMD is not quite on the same level as Intel for gaming. I am running an I7 4790 right now.

5a. CPU cooler: Noctua NH-L9i 92mm SSO2 CPU Cooler
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAADY4B02495

6. GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 1070
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814126111
This is probably the area where I am most inflexable. I want something that is going to last me 2 years without be half of the cost of the build.

7. Storage: WD Black 4TB along with old WD 4TB drive
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=234-000G-000W6
Steam is a pig and I need the space. I have 3 HDs in my current system for a total of 6 gig(1 4tb and 2 1tb) of which about 2.5 gig is in use

8. OS: OEM Windows 10 Home
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416892

This list puts me at about $1700.00. I know that prices are pretty volatile and might move up or down although mostly down.

Thanks in advance for any advice and reading this monster post.

 

[King Dranzer]

If you are waiting or building this PC over 3months then I recommend waiting and not getting the list right now. AMD is probably(nothing is confirmed) throwing in some crazy stuff in coming few months. You can get better performance for your budget if you can wait.

 

[rs.anantmishra]

Your GPU is WEAK! OMG!!!!! Just upgrade your GPU to a Vega64/1080Ti and you will run everything perfectly..!
Also if you do not have an SSD, BUY IT, it will make a world of difference to your rig!

 

[gullidotwog]

Are you trying to save money on this build? I haven't tried but you don't exactly have to activate windows 10 in order to use it. If you do want an active copy of windows, is an OEM licence the best way to go if this machine is just a bridging you for a couple of years until a major upgrade? Wouldn't it be better to think about a full licence you could reuse?

That 1070 looks quite expensive however, I am not sure if I am getting the same prices as I am searching newegg from europe, but here's a EVGA for $400

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487265&Description=gtx%201070&cm_re=gtx_1070-_-14-487-265-_-Product

and a gigabyte for even less

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814932013&Description=gtx%201070&cm_re=gtx_1070-_-14-932-013-_-Product

 

[LordVile]

You have a haswell i7 now. That can wait. Personally I would upgrade to something along the lines of a 2070 for around $500-600 and then swap out everything else later down the line as we’re due a big CPU shakeup. Te rest of your system for now is fine. Though you may benifit from an SSD for your OS.

 

[wraithkrown]

Are you trying to save money on this build? I haven't tried but you don't exactly have to activate windows 10 in order to use it. If you do want an active copy of windows, is an OEM licence the best way to go if this machine is just a bridging you for a couple of years until a major upgrade? Wouldn't it be better to think about a full licence you could reuse?

That 1070 looks quite expensive however, I am not sure if I am getting the same prices as I am searching newegg from europe, but here's a EVGA for $400

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487265&Description=gtx%201070&cm_re=gtx_1070-_-14-487-265-_-Product

and a gigabyte for even less

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814932013&Description=gtx%201070&cm_re=gtx_1070-_-14-932-013-_-Product

The system I am using now is not home built. It is some HP garbage I added a power supply, ram and the GPU to. I think that using the OS for 2 years is worth buying the oem version. By the time I am wanting to completely rebuild the new PC there will most likely be a new OS out.

I am seeing the 1070 for $354 USD

 

[wraithkrown]

Your GPU is WEAK! OMG!!!!! Just upgrade your GPU to a Vega64/1080Ti and you will run everything perfectly..!
Also if you do not have an SSD, BUY IT, it will make a world of difference to your rig!

The GTX 960 really does not fit in my current setup. It will not lock in place and every few months I have to reseat it.

An SSD is not really going to add to the playability of my games. The price difference for a 4tb hd versus a 4tb SSD is large. If I had an extra $550 for the 4tb SSD then I would definitely do it

 

[wraithkrown]

You have a haswell i7 now. That can wait. Personally I would upgrade to something along the lines of a 2070 for around $500-600 and then swap out everything else later down the line as we’re due a big CPU shakeup. Te rest of your system for now is fine. Though you may benifit from an SSD for your OS.

The GPU that is inside now really doesn't fit. It does not lock in place and I have to reseat it every few months. Some of the games i play (Sims like civiization and Minecraft) would get more help from a processor upgrade that a GPU upgrade. Now if you think that even in the case of the games mentioned above that a new CPU is not really going to benefit me then I will take that into advisement as you probably know more about it than me as I really have not been following the home made PC market much over the last decade or so.

 

[enauwen]

An SSD is not really going to add to the playability of my games. The price difference for a 4tb hd versus a 4tb SSD is large. If I had an extra $550 for the 4tb SSD then I would definitely do it

Just buy a SSD for the OS and some programs like your browser etc. You dont need a 4TB SSD for your games.

 

[logainofhades]

If you shop around, you can get better deals. Put your build together, using pcpartpicker, and export the bb code for easy viewing.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($159.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H5 Universal 65 CFM CPU Cooler ($74.39 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - X470 Master SLI/AC ATX AM4 Motherboard ($153.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team - Vulcan 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($230.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($134.97 @ Amazon)
Storage: Hitachi - Deskstar NAS 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($129.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce RTX 2070 8 GB Black Video Card ($499.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design - Meshify C Dark TG ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($98.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1663.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-11 09:24 EST-0500

 

[LordVile]

Sounds like your PCIE socket is past it!

Would this do? Slightly over budget but the CPU is a big bump from the 8700K

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/k6dy7W

From my knowledge mine craft will not have issue with anything that’s an i5 it more. You can get stupid high FPS even at max chunks. Before I RMA’d my 1070 I was getting well into the 100’s with a 6600K.

Civ 6 looks like it enjoys intels high core count Broadwell E chips and not so much AMD so it should love an 8 Core 9th gen chip.

The SSD is for the OS btw and programs you use a lot

 

[R_1]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz 8-Core Processor ($329.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - X470 AORUS ULTRA GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard ($119.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Team - Vulcan 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($230.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($72.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB AMP Edition Video Card ($358.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design - Meshify C Dark TG ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ B&H)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($98.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1381.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-11 09:45 EST-0500

500GB SSD, PSU has 100 more watts and three more years on the warranty.

 

[wraithkrown]

Thank you for all the great info! I have bookmarked PCPartPicker and will definitely use it when it is closer to the time I will be spending cash.
A lot of the builds are using AMD CPU's. The limited info I have seen seems to suggest that Intel does gaming better. Is this kind of a huge price difference compared to a small Performance increase?
It looks like I did get at least one thing right with the case On the question of the case, does my airflow plan make sense?
Thanks again for all the info. I will be away for a bit as my sleep schedule is a bit weird, but I will be back in 8 hours or so. I am pleasantly surprised that so many of you were around to answer my questions so fast.

 

[R_1]

in my example the CPU is 40 dollars less and the CPU is 8% slower which is the same price for the CPU. the motherboard is where you really save. 60 bucks.the IPC difference between intel and AMD was much higher than they are now. they are now within spitting distance of each other, so close that the cheapest system wins.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-8700K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-2700X/3937vs3958
results are for the general idea only

if you only will use the system for gaming the intel will get you a better system at a higher price.always been the case. now ryzen is a champ and the price is great.

I use my PC for tons more than gaming and the extra cores and processing power will pay for themselves.
as has been suggested if waiting AMD is set to drop some silicon newness so by the time you built AMD may (optimism, ok) be the gaming champ

 

[LordVile]

AMD is a great option and I usually reccomend them but with the games you want to play preferring Intel chips by a substantial margin I cannot say AMD is the better option here.

AMD is generally within 10-15% of intel and is near always a bettter value but the 1st gen R7 chips on Civ 6 were blown away by the 7700K which has a lower core count and per core performance than the 9700K

 

[wraithkrown]

in my example the CPU is 40 dollars less and the CPU is 8% slower which is the same price for the CPU. the motherboard is where you really save. 60 bucks.the IPC difference between intel and AMD was much higher than they are now. they are now within spitting distance of each other, so close that the cheapest system wins.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-8700K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-2700X/3937vs3958
results are for the general idea only

if you only will use the system for gaming the intel will get you a better system at a higher price.always been the case. now ryzen is a champ and the price is great.

I use my PC for tons more than gaming and the extra cores and processing power will pay for themselves.
as has been suggested if waiting AMD is set to drop some silicon newness so by the time you built AMD may (optimism, ok) be the gaming champ

My rig will strictly be for gaming and internet browsing. This is strictly a recreational use PC. Thank you for the info though. Come February maybe AMD will have caught up to intel.

 

[LordVile]

AMD ain’t launching jack for consumers in Q1 2019 dude it’s all but been confirmed. They might announce some stuff but we won’t be getting a launch until at least summer. Need to get epyc chips out first and they’re due out early 2019.

 

[wraithkrown]

AMD ain’t launching jack for consumers in Q1 2019 dude it’s all but been confirmed. They might announce some stuff but we won’t be getting a launch until at least summer. Need to get epyc chips out first and they’re due out early 2019.

Ok. I was just going off what was hinted in this thread. I have no knowledge of CPU release schedules. It looks like I will be sticking with Intel then.

 

[LordVile]

Can’t remember who it was but a reviewer went over what AMD usually does for a product launch and they’ve done none of it so far therefore it’s looking likely for a late spring product announcement and a summer/autumn launch.

Plus it makes no sense to launch Ryzen 2 before Epyc. Why sell $200-300 chips when you can sell 5 grand chips?

Could be wrong but it’s highly unlikely we’re getting more than a “it’s coming” and maybe a Q of release. Maybe a graph of how many percent better it is at pointless benchmark G684-a

 

[rs.anantmishra]

Your GPU is WEAK! OMG!!!!! Just upgrade your GPU to a Vega64/1080Ti and you will run everything perfectly..!
Also if you do not have an SSD, BUY IT, it will make a world of difference to your rig!

The GTX 960 really does not fit in my current setup. It will not lock in place and every few months I have to reseat it.

An SSD is not really going to add to the playability of my games. The price difference for a 4tb hd versus a 4tb SSD is large. If I had an extra $550 for the 4tb SSD then I would definitely do it

Rather than buying an entirely new PC, just make an incremental upgrade and you will end up with a lot of money saved, seriously.

1. If you have a size problem with GTX 960, probably get a bigger cabinet.

2. You don't need to buy a 4TB SSD, you can keep you current HDD's as they are and just buy an additional 500GB SSD where you load your Windows and Games/Applications. This will greatly impact loading times in games, applications and OS.

3. Once Step 1 and Step 2 are complete, the first thing you buy should be a GPU (Vega64 or 1080 or 1080Ti).

This will upgrade your gaming performance to the level you want. The only consideration left is if your PSU will support all this, that depends on what you have right now.

Bottom line you are not going to gain anything from a CPU upgrade, focus on GPU and atleast add one SSD to your existing setup where you can load applications from.

 

[wraithkrown]

Your GPU is WEAK! OMG!!!!! Just upgrade your GPU to a Vega64/1080Ti and you will run everything perfectly..!
Also if you do not have an SSD, BUY IT, it will make a world of difference to your rig!

The GTX 960 really does not fit in my current setup. It will not lock in place and every few months I have to reseat it.

An SSD is not really going to add to the playability of my games. The price difference for a 4tb hd versus a 4tb SSD is large. If I had an extra $550 for the 4tb SSD then I would definitely do it

Rather than buying an entirely new PC, just make an incremental upgrade and you will end up with a lot of money saved, seriously.

1. If you have a size problem with GTX 960, probably get a bigger cabinet.

2. You don't need to buy a 4TB SSD, you can keep you current HDD's as they are and just buy an additional 500GB SSD where you load your Windows and Games/Applications. This will greatly impact loading times in games, applications and OS.

3. Once Step 1 and Step 2 are complete, the first thing you buy should be a GPU (Vega64 or 1080 or 1080Ti).

This will upgrade your gaming performance to the level you want. The only consideration left is if your PSU will support all this, that depends on what you have right now.

Bottom line you are not going to gain anything from a CPU upgrade, focus on GPU and atleast add one SSD to your existing setup where you can load applications from.

The CPU upgrade will help, but not by much. As stated earlier, probably 20-30% of the games I play are more CPU intensive than GPU intensive (modded minecraft, many sims and strategy games). The GPU also has clearance issues with my ram. I agree that an SSD would make my OS boot faster and run a bit faster, but this is not going to provide that much effect on my games as I keep many games installed, some of which are 60 gig+. Short of juggling games between HD and SSD this is really not going to help me. Long story short, best case would save me the price of the CPU and RAM. I would still need everything else.

If it comes down to nothing else, I WANT a new computer and I do not have the $400 for a new GPU right now anyway. My Steam account is in excess of a decade old with 400+ games on it. I sometimes will play a game I haven't played in a year or more and do not want to have to re-download and install constantly so I want the extra HD storage. Thank you for the wise advise, but in this case it is really a want more than a need. As stated previously I only have one game possibly giving me issues due to my GPU. Building one from scratch is far better than the method I have employed over the last decade or so, which is financing a non gaming tower and upgrading the GPU/PS/RAM. My credit is bad so I really get raked over the coals when financing (in excess of %30 for a 1 year term) and the sole financing option available to me is through my employer which very rarely has gaming PC's available.

Thanks very much for your helpful advice and patience