What Makes You Get a New Gaming PC?

jrralls wrote:

Am I reading it right that my current computer from 2010 has more GHz than a brand new one I'm thinking about buying in 2018? Is GHz important?

You can't compare GHz across architectures directly because it neglects IPC (instructions per clock). Also it fails to note the boost clocks: the 8700 boosts up to 4.6 GHz, the 4790 tops out at 4.0 GHz.

You can compare the CPUmark score of the 8700 versus the 4790 and get an idea of the gain. In short, ~15% boost in single threaded performance, ~50% increase in all-cores-maxed performance, the latter in large part because you're getting 2 more CPU cores (6-core vs. 4-core).

Mind you, the 4790 is still a very viable CPU. Intel's upgrades since Haswell have been very incremental, not revolutionary. It's probably the strongest component in your existing build. But you're still going to be upgrading on it by a pretty good margin with an 8700.

jrralls wrote:

Am I reading it right that my current computer from 2010 has more GHz than a brand new one I'm thinking about buying in 2018? Is GHz important?

Short answer... not as much as other things.

Benchmark Comparison of the two.

SO... it may look like it's not much of an upgrade, but only if you look at the core speeds. The 8700 is a 6 core/12 thread CPU, and the 4790 is an 4 core/8 thread CPU. There's also some other technologies that have come out in the past 8 years that make the 8700 more efficient, so the clock speed doesn't need to be as high to outperform earlier chips. It's going to be a noticeable upgrade, a little over a third more effective computational speed. For me going from my Q9450 to a Ryzen 5 1600, which wasn't even as much of an upgrade as to the 8700, was extremely noticeable and that was without upgrading the GPU.

But beyond that, going from a GTX 970 to a 1080Ti is an absolutely massive upgrade. Benchmark Comparison. It's essentially a 144% speed upgrade on graphics processing.

Then you have an upgrade in RAM, as you're going from DDR3 to DDR4. The latency will be around the same, but the bandwidth will be much higher.

I built the two systems (with some placeholder parts and a couple guesses) to show a comparison of the two. Like... This is a massive upgrade, and a good deal on a prebuilt machine. I'm genuinely surprised this system is being sold by Costco.

BTW... any thoughts on what you're going to do with that 970?

The prices in here are above what I want to pay but I do want to upgrade my i3

Can I get some thoughts on a fub $500 pc?

Here are a few I am looking at.

Acer Aspire Desktop, 7th Gen Intel Core i5-7400, 12GB DDR4, 2TB HDD, Windows 10 Home, TC-780-ACKI5
*This one is on sale until Tuesday night for Prime day so if it is a lot better say so I don't miss the sale.

Alienware Steam Machine ASM100-6980BLK Desktop Console (Intel Core i7, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD) NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPU
*THere is a used one that is $500 so it is right at the top of what I want to spend.

And then I look at the refurbished stuff on Newegg.

That always changes but I see

DELL Desktop PC 9020-SFF Intel Core i7 4th Gen 4770 (3.40 GHz) 8 GB 500 GB HDD Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit which looks ok...

Anyway what would you recommend? Remember I want to be under $500 so I know I won't be able to max out settings in any game etc. but right now my Alienware Alpha i3 chugs when playing Metro 2033 Redux which I just bought. However I was very happy with the PC for playing The Witcher 3 so it isn't a horrible machine.

The Acer is going to be crap because it uses integrated graphics. The Dell is a business machine, not really built for gaming, and I'm assuming also uses integrated graphics since they don't even list what it uses.

If your current Steam machine is mostly doing ok, then upgrading to the newer version is probably your best bet. Looks like it uses the same (or very similar) GPU, but doubles the RAM and nets you a much faster CPU. That's my vote at least.

Yes the Acer has a bad gpu but I could buy a better video card for that one and stay under the $500 limit.

That is something I can't do with the Alienware....is the CPU, Ram, and Hardrive better so I should just buy a video card?

And in the Amazon q&a section them mention the Acer could support a faster CPU so it would seem to me I could make this PC last longer than the Alienware but I get very confused with the different "i" processors.

These are the processors that were tested/qualified by Acer for this model:
Supports the following Intel Kaby Lake/Skylake-S processors:
– Intel Core i7 7700 3.6G 8M 2133 Quad Core 65W Kaby Lake
– Intel Core i7 6700 4.0G 8M 2133 Quad Core 91W Skylake-S

Yes my current Alienware is great for everything I threw at it until I installed Metro. It did Witcher 3 well, X-com, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Dark Souls 3, Bioshock Infinite, and Valkyria Chronicles.

The only things it has really failed at are Metro 2033 and Subnautica. If those two played well I would be quite happy for the most part.

For some reason I was assuming you were not going to put more money into them, and going as-is. My bad. If you're planning on a base machine dump money into later, the Acer gets back on the table, but the Dell is struggling due to it's storage space and lower RAM, and the motherboard it uses. Let's start with the GPU since the other two machines will definitely need one...

Amazon has a GT 1030 for about $108 that would be fairly comparable to the GTX in the Steam machine. That pushes you to the limit of your budget, but gets you a machine you can tinker with at least.

Newegg has a "Corn Nvidia" GTX 750 Ti for $95 that would out-perform the GT 1030, but it's coming from China and I've never heard of that company, so I'd rather someone else chimed up on that card before really recommending it.

So let's compare the machines in terms of other upgrades. The Acer has 4GB more RAM than the Dell and the Alienware... Truth be told, the 8GB would probably be OK for you for quite a while, and doubling that at the moment is about $150.

For the CPU out of the box, the Alienware has the best, Dell would be next up, with the Acer trailing behind. None of them are particularly bad, but the Alienware and Dell have a pretty decent limit on how much they can be upgraded. The Dell uses a socket LGA 1150, and the CPU in it is about as good as you're getting. The Acer has a socket LGA 1151, which is why it can use those better CPU's you posted. Granted, upgrading the CPU is going to be $300 now, and probably still quite a bit a few years down the road, but at least you do have the flexibility there.

The other thing that stands out is the storage. The Dell's 500GB means you'll probably be putting another HDD in it pretty fast. HDD's aren't as expensive as other parts, but it's still money you'd have to spend. The Acer's 2TB should last you a good while, which is double the Alienware out of the box. One thing you'll likely want to consider when you have a bit more cash to put in it is a SSD to run Windows and maybe a couple games which will make a massive difference in performance. 250GB SATA SSD drives are only around $60, but even a $30 120GB SSD just to run Windows and a few programs would be so worth it.

The Acer with the GT 1030 would put you at $490.61 with the 4 year protection plan on the GPU (only a couple dollars, worth it if something happens to it). Overall I think the performance would be a little behind the Alienware but whether or not it'd be noticeable would be another matter. It should be enough machine to run Subnautica, which my system can run OK and it's only a bit better than the Alienware. And if you can afford it, throwing in a PNY 120GB SATA III SSD and mounting kit (2.5" to 3.5" kit) would put you at $528.59.

Outside of those machines... I found this SkyTech machine that has a used one for $520 after shipping. Similar CPU speed as the Acer, storage of the Alienware, 8GB of RAM like the Dell and Alienware, but the GTX 1050 is a better GPU than the GT 1030.

Thank you so much. You have really put a lot of thought into it and I appreciate it.

I just ditther so much! Now I am looking at this Xbox One dea (buy this Xbox One S for $230...) and I am going to have to look at my steam wish list and see what I can't play on PS4, Xbox, or Switch...and how much those are really worth to me...

I edited in an SSD drive. SSD's are totally worth the money, even if you only go for a small one. Wait a bit and let others comment too, I'm just a hobbyist and am often wrong, but I have time on my hands and I like comparing parts.

PurEvil wrote:

Wait a bit and let others comment too, I'm just a hobbyist and am often wrong, but I have time on my hands and I like comparing parts.

You know more than me, by far!

Looking at my Steam wish list I think almost everything would play on my i3 actually. I have "Arx Fatalis" so I have some pretty old stuff!

*edit*

In the end, after really looking at my steam wishlist I decided to buy an Xbox 1 S. Everything except Metro 2033 Redux plays well on my PC. and I was able to buy Metro, and an Xbox 1 with a prime deal for $250.

So once again I find that PC gaming is just not the way I want to spend my money (even under $500)

Fair enough.