[mikemhg]

Quick question for you folks. My computer is old as fuck, I probably built it roughly 8 or so years ago..This box has a Radeon 5700 to get an idea how old this thing is.

The reason for this post is that I've been out of the game for a while now in terms of building a new PC, so I need some ideas here. I used to buy my stuff from NCIX but a friend of mine told me Memory Express is the better option?

I'm looking to keep the new PC around $800 tops, i5 processor, mid-level video card, I assume 12/16GB of ram, etc.

Any suggestions here for a build? Is there a better time to maximize sales at either NCIX or Memory Express to buy my parts, etc?

FYI: I plan to game on this build, but nothing crazy, I'm definitely looking to put a bargain box together here.

[MikeyStyle]

pcpartpicker (https://ca.pcpartpicker.com) is a great site to use to find the cheapest prices online and figure out what kind of build you want to go with

after deciding what parts you want, check to see if memory express (http://memoryexpress.com) carries them. you can get an additional savings with their über price beat (http://memoryexpress.com/Policies/PriceProtection.cm.aspx) assuming if somewhere else sells it for cheaper

[Razor Ramon HG]

Intel Core i5-6500, MSI Radeon R9 380, Cooler Master N200 - System Build - PCPartPicker Canada (http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/G76W23)

Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
MSI Radeon R9 380 2GB Video Card
Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case
EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply

Base Total: $850.37
Mail-in Rebates: -$30.00
Shipping: $8.99
Total: $829.36

[mikemhg]

You know what's funny, most of your choices were one's I was actually looking at specifically the Vid card and motherboard.

You think this is a pretty good build?

Intel Core i5-6500, MSI Radeon R9 380, Cooler Master N200 - System Build - PCPartPicker Canada (http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/G76W23)

Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
MSI Radeon R9 380 2GB Video Card
Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case
EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply

Base Total: $850.37
Mail-in Rebates: -$30.00
Shipping: $8.99
Total: $829.36

[Razor Ramon HG]

Probably best you're going to get for that money. PC parts are expensive now.

[LuHua]

If you can take a slightly increase in cost, I'd suggest going for a WD Black HDD, I've had far better luck with those than with Seagates in the past.

[AzNightmare]

To get the best prices, use shopbot.ca to check prices on the products you want.
Then price match at Memory Express.

[Ferra]

2016 and not using SSD? :badpokerface:


If your budget is limited, I would rather get a cheaper cpu or vid card and upgrade to an SSD

[N.V.M.]

2016 and not using SSD? :badpokerface:


If your budget is limited, I would rather get a cheaper cpu or vid card and upgrade to an SSD

exactly what i was thinking. SSD has to be your C drive, mechanical for secondary drives.

[Hondaracer]

SSD is a must.

also, i'd recommend min 100GB, anything smaller gets filled up even using it minimally.

[mikemhg]

Jeez I must really be behind the ball here, LOL. I have a 500 GB drive that I was planning to pop into this new PC, but you guys are saying SSD is a must? Is there that much of a performance difference?

Cheers

[flipkronikz]

With 8-900 u could get a newly built gaming rig with quality brand names with warranty off of craigslist. Same setups in ncix would cost 4-500 more plus putting it together. Id go that route if i needed a upgrade but my rig from 4 years ago still maxing out graphics on 1080p and 1440p

[mikemhg]

I never thought to buy a PC off craigslist TBH. What warranty if it's a private sale? Are you talking through an actual shop, or just off a random?

With 8-900 u could get a newly built gaming rig with quality brand names with warranty off of craigslist. Same setups in store would cost 4-500 more plus putting it together. Id go that route if i needed a upgrade but my rig from 4 years ago still maxing out graphics on 1080p and 1440p

[Nlkko]

SSD. Night and day. The single best performance upgrade. You need a 200gb one top. Use the slow and shitty mechanical for archives.

[Nlkko]

I had a rig from 2009 last year. was pissed at how slow it would load everything. Spent 80 bucks on an SSD. Never look back. If your CPU is decent and your GPU isnt too bad (not maxing settings in games) just try the SSD upgrade first.

[Presto]

What kind of gaming do you plan on doing? I, recently, built a super-budget PC for my nephew. I wanted to make sure that it was something he could play Minecraft on.

I went with AMD's Athlon 5350 APU. It's a quad-core processor that has an integrated GPU (Radeon 8400). The processor was under $60, and the mobo was on sale for $30 (normally $55). Add in another $150 for case/psu/ram, and you've got a decent entry-level system. It runs Minecraft well. I even tried Arkham City with most options turned on, and it ran nicely. Later on, I can drop in a new GPU for more power.

[flipkronikz]

I never thought to buy a PC off craigslist TBH. What warranty if it's a private sale? Are you talking through an actual shop, or just off a random?

Looks like a shop advertising on craigslist. Best Gaming PC 2016 - i5-4460 | GTX960 | 8GB | 120GB SSD | 1TB HD (http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/rch/syd/5473441640.html)

[mikemhg]

Looking to play Fallout 4, Star Citizen, maybe Division, etc. So I definitely don't want something entry level, more mid-level. Jeez now I'm lost if it really makes sense building a box?

What kind of gaming do you plan on doing? I, recently, built a super-budget PC for my nephew. I wanted to make sure that it was something he could play Minecraft on.

I went with AMD's Athlon 5350 APU. It's a quad-core processor that has an integrated GPU (Radeon 8400). The processor was under $60, and the mobo was on sale for $30 (normally $55). Add in another $150 for case/psu/ram, and you've got a decent entry-level system. It runs Minecraft well. I even tried Arkham City with most options turned on, and it ran nicely. Later on, I can drop in a new GPU for more power.

[mikemhg]

Looks like a shop advertising on craigslist. Best Gaming PC 2016 - i5-4460 | GTX960 | 8GB | 120GB SSD | 1TB HD (http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/rch/syd/5473441640.html)

That actually doesn't look all that bad price-wise.

[Nlkko]

You'll need motherboard, CPU, graphic card (most $ should be invested in here), RAMs, SSD. You can possibly reuse power supply if you had one with enough juice.

I just rebuilt mine couple weeks ago here what's I used. All overnight parts from ... NCIX. I reused the rest: case, power supplies, cable.

ADATA Premier SP550 240GB 2.5” SATA 3 Solid State Drive (SSD) 89.99
AMD FX-8320 8 Core 3.5/4.0GHZ Processor AM3+ 16MB Cache 125W Retail Box 199.98
GIGABYTE 970 Gaming AM3+ DDR3 PCIEx16 PCIEx4 2PCI-E1 2PCI USB 3.1 SATA3 CrossFire ATX Motherboard 104.99
GIGABYTE Radeon R9 380 G1 990MHZ 4GB 5.7GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Video Card 269.99
Some random RAMs $80

Total 744.95+tax

This CPU fan makes a bit of noise, you can replace by a 20 bucks one optional.

Couple hours to put everything together and install new OS.

[Gh0stRider]

im in the same boat, had my dell xps desktop for awhile now and looking to get a gaming pc, however my budget is $1500ish


http://derickbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/meme.jpg

[flipkronikz]

im in the same boat, had my dell xps desktop for awhile now and looking to get a gaming pc, however my budget is $1500ish


http://derickbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/meme.jpg

$1500 gaming pc would run latest games for years :fuckyea:

[TjAlmeida]

Might relate to op, my tower is is also about 6-7 years old and I am looking for a budget upgrade.
I have never been a tech person but I do enjoy pc gaming.

I'm going to try and reuse my current case and psu and hdd

Been looking on pcpartpicker.com and came up with this possible.

I5 4690k
Evga gtx 960 2gb
Gskill 2x4gb 1600 ddr3
Ga-z97-hd3
Samsung Evo 240gb ssd

Iv only been reading over the past two weeks or so but in my opinion this seems like a well rounded build, Its a bit above op budget but I think this also leaves room to grow with the next release of gpu's? I think the ram, mobo, and cpu will be able to handle next gen gpu's or no? Or even say a single 980ti once their prices drop.

[AzNightmare]

SSD is night and day difference. And go with the biggest size you can afford.
SSD's slow down drastically when their storage capacity gets filled up, so don't actually think you'll be able to (or should) be using up full capacity of whatever size you decide.

I have a 120gb SSD, and even when I have around 30gb left, I can feel it lagging. I wouldn't ever think of using up the rest of that gb to store stuff. As soon as I started deleting stuff, SSD was fast again.

[Gh0stRider]

SSD is night and day difference. And go with the biggest size you can afford.
SSD's slow down drastically when their storage capacity gets filled up, so don't actually think you'll be able to (or should) be using up full capacity of whatever size you decide.

I have a 120gb SSD, and even when I have around 30gb left, I can feel it lagging. I wouldn't ever think of using up the rest of that gb to store stuff. As soon as I started deleting stuff, SSD was fast again.

at what capacity does the ssd start to slow down at? 70%?

[willystyle]

^ About 75% of max. capacity.

[lilaznviper]

at what capacity does the ssd start to slow down at? 70%?

I've had an ssd with 500mb of free space left. still faster than a mechanical drive.

[XplicitLuder]

i love this thread. been using a lenovo laptop for the past 5 years and gaming has become a pain in the ass..my budget was 800$ as well but i am like Gh0strider where i have NO idea what im doing or looking for lol

[twitchyzero]

there's a building thread here
look at pcppartpicker for ideas at your budget level...then ask us to critique it

[theevilslave]

Logical Increments (http://www.logicalincrements.com/)

I used this site last year. That table of parts give you a good idea how much you are going to spend. I used it last year (along with my own knowledge, of course) to build a rig.

I haven't used pcpartpicker, apologies if they're identical.

[mikemhg]

So looking at the build it myself route, doesn't seem to save me much in terms of cash.

I was looking at this place here in Richmond, what are you guy's thoughts on this box, pricewise and components, I would opt for an SSD as well.

Brand New Gaming PC i5-4460 with GTX960 and 8GB with 1TB HD (http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/rch/syd/5509457538.html)

Never heard of the store though, Sonex Computers? Sketchy?

[twitchyzero]

looks decent but i'm not too current with pricing since our dollar tanked

you can just ask NCIX to put it together..iirc it's only $50

[jcmaz]

I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole because it's overpriced and you are using a generic (if not crappy) 500W psu on a GTX960. I would rather pick the parts from NCIX or Memory Express and tell them to build it instead.

[twitchyzero]

oops didn't see the generic PSU...yes I second buying a reputable branded one.

[Manic!]

I think Sonex has been around for ever. I am pretty sure you could pay extra for a better PSU.

[AzNightmare]

NCIX forums are pretty good to ask questions too. Should sign up an account if you have not.

If anything, their forums are even better since most of the users are PC techie guys.
And they can directly add links to the parts that are suggested from the NCIX store and then you can individually research them and find better pricing, etc.