Stage 2- Finalizing my Gaming PC

[Left]

I was up 4 hours last night deciding what I wanted to do about a gaming PC. I came to some conclusions:

I will buy one, and it won't be prebuilt.

Final specs:

Mini-ITX
Modern Pentium
8GB RAM
7200RPM hard drive
Ubuntu instead of Windows
An amazing, high rated power supply for what I can afford.
This graphics card since I have Gamestop credit: Radeon R9 Nano 4GB HBM 4M (3x DP, HDMI) for PC | GameStop

If you have any questions, let me know. Just know I'm a little hardheaded when it comes to some of my computer ideas.

I'm getting such a powerful graphics card with the plan to possibly run 1440p or 4K in the future.

I simply have Gamestop credit to buy a graphics card, but little actual money to buy other parts from Amazon. Which is why you see a Pentium paired with a $500 graphics card. But it may just work out.

 

[mark kennedy]

That's interesting, I'm buying a gaming computer next week. Been checking out New Egg, prebuilt Windows 10 systems:

(ABS Chaser FX390 ALA027 Desktop PC AMD FX-8350 (4.0 GHz) 8 GB DDR3 2 TB HDD R9-390 Windows 10 Home)

I haven't decided on this one in particular, for nearly 900 I think I can find something a little better.

 

[Left]

That's interesting, I'm buying a gaming computer next week. Been checking out New Egg, prebuilt Windows 10 systems:

(ABS Chaser FX390 ALA027 Desktop PC AMD FX-8350 (4.0 GHz) 8 GB DDR3 2 TB HDD R9-390 Windows 10 Home)

I haven't decided on this one in particular, for nearly 900 I think I can find something a little better.

Maybe. I kind of think so too.

 

[Wookiee]

I was up 4 hours last night deciding what I wanted to do about a gaming PC. I came to some conclusions:

I will buy one, and it won't be prebuilt.

Final specs:

Mini-ITX
Modern Pentium
8GB RAM
7200RPM hard drive
Ubuntu instead of Windows
An amazing, high rated power supply for what I can afford.
This graphics card since I have Gamestop credit: Radeon R9 Nano 4GB HBM 4M (3x DP, HDMI) for PC | GameStop

If you have any questions, let me know. Just know I'm a little hardheaded when it comes to some of my computer ideas.

I'm getting such a powerful graphics card with the plan to possibly run 1440p or 4K in the future.

I simply have Gamestop credit to buy a graphics card, but little actual money to buy other parts from Amazon. Which is why you see a Pentium paired with a $500 graphics card. But it may just work out.

What power supply are you looking at? There's a tendency in the PC gaming community to get unnecessarily large capacity power supplies...

That's interesting, I'm buying a gaming computer next week. Been checking out New Egg, prebuilt Windows 10 systems:

(ABS Chaser FX390 ALA027 Desktop PC AMD FX-8350 (4.0 GHz) 8 GB DDR3 2 TB HDD R9-390 Windows 10 Home)

I haven't decided on this one in particular, for nearly 900 I think I can find something a little better.

Are there any on New Egg with Ryzen? They perform a lot better than FX.

 

[Left]

Well I need like 600 watts to be on the safe side with a R9 Nano.

 

[Left]

Are there any on New Egg with Ryzen? They perform a lot better than FX.

You know, the weird thing about Ryzen is while the parts are often cheaper than Intel if buying just the processor, the prebuilt systems with Ryzen can still be expensive.

 

[mark kennedy]

What power supply are you looking at? There's a tendency in the PC gaming community to get unnecessarily large capacity power supplies...

I have no idea, really not an issue for me. I'm more concerned with the processor and video card.

Are there any on New Egg with Ryzen? They perform a lot better than FX.

Sure, some are Ryzen 7. ADM Ryzen gaming computers

 

[Left]

mark kennedy - I take back what I said about Ryzen being too expensive. It's not too expensive on Newegg. I'd get a Ryzen PC.

 

[High Fidelity]

I would be very careful.

What specific CPU are you looking at? If you aren't careful then you will bottleneck and run in to performance issues.

Personally I'd avoid the GPU as well and go for an NVIDIA. For the price you're paying for that card you can get a GTX 1080 for about $30 more and it's far better.

AMD do some great budget stuff but honestly if you're spending a reasonable amount of money I'd definitely go Intel/NVIDIA.

 

[mark kennedy]

mark kennedy - I take back what I said about Ryzen being too expensive. It's not too expensive on Newegg. I'd get a Ryzen PC.

Their not cheap, I could get one with the Ryzen 7 for under 1000 dollars, not too bad. For the longest time it was hard to beat Intel but I like Ryzen 7, going to seriously consider it.

 

[Left]

I would be very careful.

What specific CPU are you looking at? If you aren't careful then you will bottleneck and run in to performance issues.

Personally I'd avoid the GPU as well and go for an NVIDIA. For the price you're paying for that card you can get a GTX 1080 for about $30 more and it's far better.

AMD do some great budget stuff but honestly if you're spending a reasonable amount of money I'd definitely go Intel/NVIDIA.

I was looking at Pentium G4560 I think.

Kaby Lake Pentium.

 

[mark kennedy]

I would be very careful.

What specific CPU are you looking at? If you aren't careful then you will bottleneck and run in to performance issues.

Personally I'd avoid the GPU as well and go for an NVIDIA. For the price you're paying for that card you can get a GTX 1080 for about $30 more and it's far better.

AMD do some great budget stuff but honestly if you're spending a reasonable amount of money I'd definitely go Intel/NVIDIA.

Took a look around and the GTX is certainly a strong selling point, I have been told a reasonable threshold is 1060. I'm thinking NVIDIA as some real possibilities if I want to upgrade later.

 

[High Fidelity]

I was looking at Pentium G4560 I think.

Kaby Lake Pentium.

I think you'd run in to a lot of problems running that with a high end GPU.

If you want to run high end graphics games, or just modern games, I wouldn't go below an i5. The i5 4690K is incredible and very powerful and below i7 that's the one I'd recommend and use myself too.

Also, the r9 nano won't do too well with 4K. At least not for gaming.

Honestly I'd go with NVIDIA. The 1080 is basically the same price and more or less twice as powerful.

Case wise you'd definitely want a mid tower if not a full tower. Micro cases are really too small for gaming because there's simply not enough air flow. You can get a really nice mid tower for about $75-100.

Lastly, Linux for gaming is honestly more hassle than it's worth. I love Linux for some things, but virtually no games now are made with Linux support and you have to go through a lot of hassle to get them to work and even then it's not always running as it's intended to run on Windows/Mac.

Your best bet is just keep saving. If you buy the system specs you linked I think you'd run in to issues and be disappointed and feel you'd need to start over. With PCs is best to just save, buy it right the first time and not worry after

If you like I can put together a build that should do you well.

 

[High Fidelity]

Took a look around and the GTX is certainly a strong selling point, I have been told a reasonable threshold is 1060. I'm thinking NVIDIA as some real possibilities if I want to upgrade later.

The 1060 is incredible for the price. If budget was an issue then I'd rather someone go for a 1060 instead of a 1080 and put the extra money in to a CPU.

 

[mark kennedy]

If you like I can put together a build that should do you well.

I know I would like to see it.

 

[mark kennedy]

The 1060 is incredible for the price. If budget was an issue then I'd rather someone go for a 1060 instead of a 1080 and put the extra money in to a CPU.

So could you preach a little to me about the CPU and video card? I'm fighting a learning curve and about a thousand dollars burning a hole in my pocket, with me wanting a gaming computer that is good for 3D modeling as well.

 

[Left]

I think you'd run in to a lot of problems running that with a high end GPU.

If you want to run high end graphics games, or just modern games, I wouldn't go below an i5. The i5 4690K is incredible and very powerful and below i7 that's the one I'd recommend and use myself too.

Also, the r9 nano won't do too well with 4K. At least not for gaming.

Honestly I'd go with NVIDIA. The 1080 is basically the same price and more or less twice as powerful.

Case wise you'd definitely want a mid tower if not a full tower. Micro cases are really too small for gaming because there's simply not enough air flow. You can get a really nice mid tower for about $75-100.

Lastly, Linux for gaming is honestly more hassle than it's worth. I love Linux for some things, but virtually no games now are made with Linux support and you have to go through a lot of hassle to get them to work and even then it's not always running as it's intended to run on Windows/Mac.

Your best bet is just keep saving. If you buy the system specs you linked I think you'd run in to issues and be disappointed and feel you'd need to start over. With PCs is best to just save, buy it right the first time and not worry after

If you like I can put together a build that should do you well.

Hmm. Would you believe me if I said my brother in law has a Pentium G3258, and a Radeon card pretty much the equivalent of a GTX 960, and it runs a lot of games well, but absolutely cannot run Forza PC for some reason?

It's one of the only issues I'm aware of.

 

[High Fidelity]

So could you preach a little to me about the CPU and video card? I'm fighting a learning curve and about a thousand dollars burning a hole in my pocket, with me wanting a gaming computer that is good for 3D modeling as well.

Well I've been using and building PCs for gaming and performance for over 10 years. I believe AMD/ATI do some great budget stuff and with Ryzen they're starting to catch up(but still have a long way to go), but Intel/NVIDIA reign supreme where performance is concerned.

I am building a system on a part picking website right now and I think I could easily build a copy of my older system easily for $1000.

 

[High Fidelity]

Hmm. Would you believe me if I said my brother in law has a Pentium G3258, and a Radeon card pretty much the equivalent of a GTX 960, and it runs a lot of games well, but absolutely cannot run Forza PC for some reason?

It's one of the only issues I'm aware of.

The 960 is really quite a dated card though and if you want something capable of 1440p or 4K then you're definitely going to need something more up to date. The higher end 9xx series NVIDIA cards handle 1440p okay but 4K is another story.

This new series by NVIDIA is a new architecture and a lot better. If you want a capable card with some future-proofing for games already out and those coming out, your best bet is getting a 1060 or higher.

Your brother-in-law is probably running in to the issue with that CPU on certain games, particularly so with newer games: it's a very cheap CPU and its performance is reflected in its price. Great for general systems for not much stress, but when you need a CPU that's capable of putting out a lot of power, especially in games with a lot of physics actively being processed, you want something more.

 

[High Fidelity]

Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core, GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB GAMING X, Enthoo Pro M Acrylic ATX Mid Tower - System Build - PCPartPicker

This is the sort of thing you can get for $900-1000~

Granted you want some extra fans for the case, which is probably another $50.

You can even get LED fans if you want a pretty cool additional touch. Let me find my old PC photos...

The case had space for 3 x 120mm fans so I added a red, white and blue LED fan. The 140mm fans on the front and rear are red.