Help me build my PC 2017 Catch All

Greatajax wrote:

Legion,

Those are great options, and I’d love any of those. They would totally work for the office.

I wasn’t clear with my issue. The problem is that work will buy the computer for me, and while they will be fine with a graphics card and me using it to play games on my own time, what’s not cool, at least to me, is submitting the invoice for a “Gaming” computer in the title. I don’t feel like I can ask my office to buy me a gaming computer as if that’s the primary use I intend it for, which it isn’t or I’d have written Alienware or MSI a check already. I’m trying to thread a bit of a needle here.

That certainly makes it harder.

Alright, here is the best I can do - an extremely specific version of the Dell Inspiron 15 that has a GTX 1060 but does not get listed as a "Gaming" laptop.

It's here on Amazon and here on NewEgg.

Note that the specs correctly list the CPU as an i5-7300HQ but incorrectly call it a dual-core CPU. It is a quad core CPU.

Review of this model from NotebookCheck

If not that, then there's a few laptops with GTX 1050ti GPUs out there to choose from. This is all I could find that would get up to xx60 range.

*Legion* wrote:

Alright, here is the best I can do - an extremely specific version of the Dell Inspiron 15 that has a GTX 1060 but does not get listed as a "Gaming" laptop.

It's here on Amazon and here on NewEgg.

If not that, then there's a few laptops with GTX 1050ti GPUs out there to choose from. This is all I could find that would get up to xx60 range.

Legion,

You are a wizard. That’s perfect. Thank you.

@Legion

Ordered the Dell Inspiron 15 you found. Should be here sometime next week. I haven't been excited about a new computer in about a decade. Man, the anticipation is great. I've already gone to look over all the Windows games I have on Steam and Gog, as well as the Mac games I can't run on my current one, and it's going to be exciting to open up a bigger backlog of stuff I really want to play, but haven't been able to, let alone any new games.

Thanks!

Hey Gameguru, should the title of this thread be updated?

cerithe wrote:

Any opinions out there on brands, etc? I have looked at Dell, at DogHouse Systems (Scott Johnson's podcast seem to support those), looked at brick and mortar stores (Frys and the like) and on Amazon.
Thinking in the upper middle price point (I remember building for like $800, but obviously that was prior to the crazy video card prices now).

Thank you for any advice.
Ceri

I've used Digital Storm for my last PC - build quality is on point, but it's certainly not the cheapest option.

Robear wrote:

Hey Gameguru, should the title of this thread be updated?

Maybe just remove the year?

Probably time to just make a new thread.

Someone else can do it. I’m out.

TheGameguru wrote:

Someone else can do it. I’m out.

Are you not building as much these days, or don't want to bother with updating the guides? Just wondering bud.

LeapingGnome wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

Someone else can do it. I’m out.

Are you not building as much these days, or don't want to bother with updating the guides? Just wondering bud.

I still build but in general I've stopped building PC's for friends as most people have stopped asking since upgrades are less and less important. We havent had meaningful movement in CPU and GPU tech in 2-3 years so for the most part people are asking me to upgrade less and I've not had the same reason for upgrading as well myself.

In general though the guide seems sorta pointless these days.. you can find way better pricing calculators on websites like PC Part Picker and its really hard to go wrong with anything you put together on your own.

Completely agree, GG. It's great to have a thread where PC building can be discussed and folks can get help. No guide in this format is going to keep up with pricing and market changes now. That's a lot of effort for something that may remain viable for a month or two.

TheGameguru wrote:

In general though the guide seems sorta pointless these days.. you can find way better pricing calculators on websites like PC Part Picker and its really hard to go wrong with anything you put together on your own.

Yes and no. PC Part Picker is great once you know what you're doing and what you want. This thread is a huge boon to those of us that don't have that knowledge.

Exactly. It’s the sharing of knowledge that matters here. That, and the guidance of a good, generic gaming build at several price points. Just the confidence you get from knowing that the community had a hand in putting that together, or at least in explaining it to you.

I think this thread has real value to many of us.

I agree this thread is very useful. It's probably time to start a new thread anyway, and it seems Gameguru needs a break, so someone else should start a new one!

Robear wrote:

Exactly. It’s the sharing of knowledge that matters here. That, and the guidance of a good, generic gaming build at several price points. Just the confidence you get from knowing that the community had a hand in putting that together, or at least in explaining it to you.

I think this thread has real value to many of us.

+100!

It's nice to have a place to read discussions about hardware from people I respect and trust. And I don't have to navigate dozens of news sites, reviews, etc., everything is in one place. I read this thread every morning and find it very entertaining and useful. Even if I still haven't decided to start my upgrade.

So, Gameguru was in a place to help identify useful parts at good prices, and perhaps predict a bit where the market was going. If we are going to set up a new thread, we will need a core team of folks with similar expertise, to evaluate the builds (probably 3 as we have had) every quarter or so, and update as needed. (I'm assuming the usual crew will be able to answer (and debate) questions as they come up.)

Anyone with the requisite expertise willing to volunteer? That is... do we actually have the expertise to do this *without* Gameguru?

Robear wrote:

So, Gameguru was in a place to help identify useful parts at good prices, and perhaps predict a bit where the market was going. If we are going to set up a new thread, we will need a core team of folks with similar expertise, to evaluate the builds (probably 3 as we have had) every quarter or so, and update as needed. (I'm assuming the usual crew will be able to answer (and debate) questions as they come up.)

I haven't built a PC in years (but still read the thread because it's fun to follow), but what's wrong with just linking to PCPartPicker's build guides as a jumping off point in the first post of a new thread and then telling people to ask questions or for advice freely because you all seem to enjoy talking PC building?

I assume they aren't quite as good as what Gameguru curated over the years, but it's a place to start with a lot less labour for whoever makes the thread.

Roke wrote:

I haven't built a PC in years (but still read the thread because it's fun to follow), but what's wrong with just linking to PCPartPicker's build guides as a jumping off point in the first post of a new thread and then telling people to ask questions or for advice freely because you all seem to enjoy talking PC building?

This is probably the best path. If someone mentions they're going to be working from one of those templates, the thread can chime in with options (like changing the "Modest AMD Gaming Build" to Zen2 for $150 more, going 1TB SSD and dropping the HDD for $30 more) that might suit their use case. We can also point out temporary deals that might be better *right now* that are missed by the parametric filters.

The following posting template is also used in another forum's PC Building Thread that I participate in and it helps jumpstart the conversation very effectively:

When you post, tell us the following:
What country are you in?
What are you using the system for? Web and Office? Gaming? Video or photo editing? Professional creative or scientific computing?
What's your budget? We usually specify for just the computer itself (plus Windows), but if you also need monitor/mouse/whatever, just say so.
If you’re doing professional work, what software do you need to use? What’s your typical project size and complexity? If you use multiple pieces of software, what’s your workflow?
If you're gaming, what is your monitor resolution? How fancy do you want your graphics, from “it runs” to “Ultra preset as fast as possible”?

Use PC Part Picker. It lets you piece together a system and copy-and-paste your parts list in BBcode markup. Use it. It will also prevent you from making some (but not all) bonehead moves, like getting a case too small for your motherboard.

An example post might look like this:

Looking to replace my 7-year-old gaming PC. USA, 1440p gaming, budget is a flexible $1500. Not running any odd professional software.

I think I want to stick with nVidia for the video card. Maybe raytracing will catch on?

Here's what I came up with. I'm more concerned with missing an obvious compatibility issue (or better parts for the same price) than trying to save a few pennies.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor ($239.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 GAMING X ATX AM4 Motherboard ($163.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($196.95 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($79.88 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card ($399.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case ($115.30 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($99.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $1455.04
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-09-02 11:28 EDT-0400

A few (dumb) questions:
- Can I get away with the stock cooler in this case if I'm not overclocking?
- I don't have an existing AMD CPU, so I went with an X570 board to avoid BIOS headaches. Is there any reason not to do this, other than a bit of extra cost?
- Will the 550W PSU have enough overhead? (PCPartPacker says the power draw for these parts is 384W - should I bump up to a 650W?)

See? That's why I asked. I don't use PC Parts Picker, so I would not have thought of that.

More ideas? I will probably start a thread this weekend if no one else does, or if we don't have better formatting ideas. Thank you Roke and Peanut!

We have lots of people with the knowledge. It is unclear that we have anyone other that GG with the resources to back the knowledge up with early adopter hands on experience...

I did it.. so go to the new thread.

https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/...

Hey! You were out lol! But thanks.

Legion,

Thanks so much. Just got my computer yesterday afternoon. And holy cow, friends, with EU4, on highest speed, on my old Mac, a day went by every 2-3 seconds. Now it’s like 15 days PER second. I chose XCom 2 to be my first game That I couldn’t play at all previously, and wow its gorgeous and runs so smoothly. Got a little choked up. Thanks for the help and happy gaming!

You're welcome dude, glad you're happy with it. That was an interesting challenge, and I'm happy we were able to track down something to fit the requirement.

It's magical when you find a new system that lets you run stuff you could not before. It divides your life into Before and After, and it devours your weekends and evenings for months on end.

You really nailed that recommendation, Legion. Well done.

Greatajax, there's a ton of great PC games. It's embarrassment of riches territory, really.

I have a pretty formidable backlog, but for the first time in a decade I find myself listening to the podcast and thinking, “That sounds fun, I could play that now!”

So i recently tried some VR at a mall arcade type thing and was blown away by how far the technology has come. Can somone help me figure out how to build a good VR machine as cheap as possible? is it better to go the PS4 route? i see a lot of people say i need a GTX 1070 at the minimum, does anyone have a bare bones rig that i could buy a video card for? unfortunately all i have is a razer laptop with GTX 970M so i can't upgrade very easily to do this.

Thanks in advance!

Maybe just consider getting an Oculus Quest, it's stand alone. The original min spec for the Rift was a 970. I think Oculus and Steam have system checker apps so you can see if your laptop comes close.

For the best currently possible results, you need two 90Hz high-res displays at once, which is a hellacious ask for modern video cards. You'll need a really beefy one to do VR well.

You'll probably want a desktop, because the video cards can be much faster there.