Ultimate Buyer's Guide!

[REX.exe]

I thought I might make a buyer's guide to put in my signature to help out newbies. I would like this to get into the guides catalog but I don't think that'll happen. Warning, this thing is about 2000 words long.

 

CPU:

Buying a CPU can be a bit challenging for some people, often they are overwhelmed by intel fanboys and have no way of seeing what the benefits of AMD can be, which are practically none. Intel has been king for a while now and doesn't seem to be getting kicked off the top of the hill any time soon. They just make better CPUs, nothing more to say.

 

But, some people select a 4790K or better because they want to do "video editing", which in most cases just means messing around with pictures in photoshop and doing stupid shit in after affects. Make sure you actually need a powerful CPU!

 

What to look out for when selecting a CPU:

 

What's it's clock speed and boost clock speed? (more is better)

Explanation:

clock speed is the speed at which the CPU runs, most popular CPUs like the 4690K, 4790K and 5820K are unlocked, meaning they are made for overclocking and can be tuned with no difficulty. But, not all CPUs are like this. For intel, the "K" series are the CPUs thar are unlocked and overclocking ready. For AMD, it's the "Black edition" that has this. However, some CPUs are better than others regardless of their clock speed. for example, the 5960X has a clock speed of 3.0Ghz, but outperforms the 4690K that has a clock speed of 3.5Ghz. just keep this in mind when buying. Ask the community what the CPU is like.

 

Is it overclockable?

 

Will it bottleneck your GPU?

Explanation:

If you don't know what bottlenecking is, it's basically when a component in your system is holding back the performance of the other components due to the fact it's not as good. This can be avoided by simply asking someone, or buying components that don't vary in price very heavily. Mainly CPU and GPU. Most of the time as long as your CPU isn't a total piece of dog poop the bottleneck won't be there.

 

Does it have hyper-threading?

Explanation:

This applies to a very small percentage of people. Essentially, hyper-threading helps with multi-tasking and other CPU intensive tasks, not many CPUs have it. The most popular range of CPUs with this feature is the Intel Core i7 range. but it's not the most amazing thing in the world and isn't necessary in most cases.

 

How many cores does it have?

Explanation:

The amount of cores a CPU has varies quite a lot. AMD is known for making CPUs with more cores, but AMD cores have been proven to be weaker making them unpopular. In most cases though, 4 cores is plenty. CPUs that run on the X99 platform tend to have more cores than those on other platforms. With CPUs like the 5820K having 6 cores, the 5960X having 8 and the mammoth Xeon E5 2699 V3 having a wopping 18! Knowing the right amount of cores is tough, but for most PCs 4 powerful cores is enough, REMEMBER, Xeons have slower cores than other Intel CPUs.

 

The only other thing you should look for is just raw performance, is it overkill? Or is it not good enough?

 

Cooling:

 

Cooling is something that many people get confused about, should you water cool or air cool? This is sort of up to personal preference, but, I'll share my opinion and give you some pointers to help you decide.

 

COST:

Fairly simple, air cooling is MUCH more affordable and coolers like the 212 EVO and 212X are great budget air coolers that deliver great performance at a low cost. Even the high end air coolers that deliver similar (or better) results than mid range water coolers air significantly cheaper. e.g - Cryorig R1 Ultimate/Universal, Noctua NH-D15, Dark Rock Pro 3, etc.. 

 

WINNER: AIR COOLING

 

AESTHETICS:

This can vary between different coolers. Some water coolers are butt ugly, some aren't. Some air coolers air butt ugly and some aren't. But the majority of water coolers are smexy. Again, it's sort of hard to decide which solution looks better. Some people prefer a big bulky heatsink, some prefer a sleek water block and radiator.

 

Examples (Water Cooling):

 

Kraken X61/X41

H***i GTX/GT

Raijintek TRITON

 

Examples (Air Cooling)

 

Cryorig R1 Ultimate/Universal

Pretty Much all Be Quiet! Coolers

 

WINNER: DRAW

 

NOISE:

For the most part, air coolers are quieter than water coolers. Water coolers not only need to have any where from 1-3 fans going for the radiator, but the pump also makes noise. Only a very small amount of AIO water coolers are quiet. So if you're a silence enthusiast a good air cooler is the way to go.

 

WINNER: AIR COOLING

 

COMPATIBILITY:

 

This mainly applies to those who are making a Mini ITX system as selecting cooling that compatible with a mini ITX case can be tough. If we have a think about how much stuff actually is in an AIO we realize how much room one actually takes up. You not only need to fit in a water block, raditator AND fans, but you also need to twist tubing around neatly to dliever good airflow and still work. single fan, low profile air coolers on the other hand have a simple installation and won't get in the way of anything. But, AIO will clearly beat a low profile air cooler with temps. So factor that in.

 

But, the contest is compatibility, and with the limited amount of rad sizes compatible with mITX, air cooling takes the cake here.

 

WINNER: AIR COOLING

 

PERFORMANCE (TEMPS):

 

The final thing to factor in when selecting a cooling solution is temps. Low-end AIOs are worse than low-end air coolers. But, high end AIOs like the H100i  GT and the Kraken X61 will outperform the high-end air coolers like the R1 Ultimate and NH-D15. The test is to see which solution gets better temps. And for this it's going to be water cooling.

 

WINNER: WATER COOLING

 

FINAL WINNER:

 

In the end it's all up to your needs. Do you want silence AND good cooling? Do you just want awesome temps and not care for noise? Are you an aesthetics freak? These are the questions you need to ask yourself before choosing.

 

Also, there is custom water cooling. Which is better than both solutions. But is MUCH more expensive than even the most expensive off the shelf cooler by hundreds of dollars and isn't the best option for first timers.

 

MOTHERBOARD:

 

Choosing a motherboard is probably the most simple thing in your whole system, it's essentially just picking a board that has the features you want, the support for all your hardware and for some, if it looks good.

 

Obviously, your board needs to use the same socket as your CPU, 

 

Popular Sockets:

 

- LGA1150

-LGA2011-3

-LGA1155

-FM2

-AM3

 

Then there is chipset, some chipsets are need to be paired with your CPU in order for it to be overclockable. For the current 4690K and 4790k you need a Z97 board to enable overclocking. if you do not want to overclock or using a Xeon, H97 is the way to go.

For more expensive CPUs like the 5820K, 5930K and 5960X, X99 is the ONLY chipset available, and it does enable overclocking. Some older chipsets are still compatible with newer CPUs, but a BIOS update will be required and you may not get the same performance out of your chip.

 

Popular chipsets and their sockets

 

X99 - LGA2011-3

Z97 - LGA1150

H97 - LGA1150

Z87(older version of Z97) - LGA1150

990X - AM3/AM3+

 

MEMORY (RAM):

 

RAM is very simple, but a lot of people think that just because they do a bit of mucking around in after affects they need 16GB+. Not true.

Here is the general amount for RAM:

 

4GB - Simple internet browsing, word processing and video watching.

8GB - Gaming and VERY simple video editing

12-16GB - High video editing and rendering, super heavy multi-tasking

32GB - 3D modelling and rendering, lots of heavy video editing and rendering.

64GB - Bragging rights

128GB - If you're Linus Sebastian (or use chrome)

 

Then there's speeds and CAS. CAS is the latency, the lower the CAS, the lower the latency (lower is better).

Speed is obviously...the speed! (high is better)

 

Depending on your platform (Z97 or X99 types) the channel of your RAM will vary. DDR3 is what you find on Z97/H97 boards (dual-channel max) and X99 is DDR4 (quad channel). It is better to get more higher amount sticks with less GBs of space and fill up all slots of the same overall amount than to get 1 stick of the same amount.

 

STORAGE:

 

All you need to do here is select the right amount of space and the right RPM. Faster RPM equals more noise which may be a problem to silence enthusiasts.

 

For SSDs just get the right amount as well. Stay away from the Kingston SSDnow V300. The Samsung 850 Pro Series is awesome as well as the Intel 730 and Intel 750 series. The kingston savage, fury, and 3K are also amazing and so is the Corsair Force LS and LX.

 

GPU

 

AMD or Nvidia? It's the question that all newbies want to ask, only to start a flame war and in the end get attracted to Nvidia.

 

It all depends on what you want to play and what resolution, FPS and settings you want to play them at. Don't go buy a Titan X if you only want to play minecraft on low settings. Just ask the community what a good card is for your needs. and remember NVIDIA AND AMD BOTH MAKE AWESOME CARDS. Don't become a fanboy, please.

 

But I will recommend some cards. The GTX 970 (nVidia), R9 290/290X (AMD) are great for 1080p gaming and can max out most games at 60FPS high-ultra settings. Other more budget friendly cards are the GTX 960 (nVidia) and the r9 280X (AMD) which will be able to do 1080p 60FPS but at lower settings.

 

PSU:

 

The PSU is the most important component as if it fails it can do anything from just die by itself to set on fire and burn your house to the ground. This is why you need to buy a QUALITY one with a good warranty and efficiency. Make sure you get enough watts for all your hardware, especially if you're overclocking.

 

A good efficiency is important too. Gold is probably the best for the price and I would definitely spend the extra money to get the high efficiency. Platinum and Titanium are even better but do come with a hefty premium.

 

Also opting for a fully (or semi) modular PSU is a good decision. With the removable cables a full modular PSU makes cable management a breeze as you can remove any cables you aren't using.

 

CASE:

 

The case is always fun to choose. If you want to look at all your gorgeous hardware make sure you get a side window, most case do come with one. Also make sure it has good airflow to allow your hardware fresh air. If you case doesn't come with any fans or you feel as if it needs more make sure they are AIRFLOW fans and not static pressure. And, of course it has to look nice and have all the nice features like motherboard cut out, hard drive covers and a PSU cover. These aren't mandatory but do look nice 

 

 

MONITOR:

 

Make sure you have the right resolution, a good response time and a solid refresh rate. There's also other nice things like G-Sync and IPS but those do come with a premium and shouldn't be prioritized. And, try to avoid anything below 24".

 

 

There is also Ultrawide (21:9), which is essentially just a wider monitor and slightly higher resolution to give a more immersive experience, there are also Ultrawide "curved". Remember, sizes are different with ultrawide, a 25" Ultrawide has the same height as a 21.5" 16:0 monitor. I would avoid anything below 29" in this catagory as anything below doesn't really give you the experience that you pay this premium for.

 

Compatibility is also a big issue with 21:9 monitors as their strange resolution makes them quite unique, this is not always a good thing and you'll fine that more of the smaller games (indie and other games on a budget) will have a lot of difficulty playing at your resolution and you'll often find that a lot of tweaking will be involved or you will have to play with black bars... Which sucks balls.

 

[Gofspar]

I buy i7's for the e-peen and hwbot points. ;p

[anthonyc813]

Awesome thread. Thank you for putting in the time to write it

[shujin]

great article thanks for writing it

[arnavvr]

@REX.exe X99 is 2011-3 not 2011-2 lol

[REX.exe]

@REX.exe X99 is 2011-3 not 2011-2 lol

Just a mistake, I know it is. I fixed it now.

[iiTzNiinjaz]

Helped out a lot!! Thank you so much

[Curufinwe_wins]

Hey on your ssd comments you should really recommend the crucial x100 series. Very mid-range performance at by far the lowest cost in the 120-1tb segments.

[Majinferno]

How about the 750ti for lower end PCs? I was hoping to grab one for an older machine w/ a 300Watt power supply, but my friend mentioned that the 750ti wouldn't be future proof.

I've never really been a huge gamer that Max's everything out. I simply play the games I like to play at a playable fps. The only time I do get upset is if my PC can't run a specific new title at all. I'm fine with a stable 30 fps

[Shirkan]

Awesome article, really do appreciate it! Thanks for the time and effort!

[REX.exe]

Hey on your ssd comments you should really recommend the crucial x100 series. Very mid-range performance at by far the lowest cost in the 120-1tb segments.

I don't really want to point fingers at what to buy, that's why it's a buyers guide. This is to help people pick their own parts and help newbs learn a bit more about building PCs!

[REX.exe]

EDIT 1: Added in small section (2 paragraphs) on 21:9 Ultrawide monitors and if you should buy one or not. Enjoy

[Curufinwe_wins]

I don't really want to point fingers at what to buy, that's why it's a buyers guide. This is to help people pick their own parts and help newbs learn a bit more about building PCs!

But you mention everything else except the crucial so you are disrecommending them by omission which is bad considering at almost every value point at the moment it's crucial or 850 evo.

[bhcool12]

wish i read this before i bought my parts lol

[NannerBeans]

I bought an i7 because I found a really good deal on it and the resale value is better so I actually spend around the same if you include how much I get back after I'm done with the cpu and sell it.

[mikat]

I buy i7's for the e-peen and hwbot points. ;p

I also like it because the rendering performance.

bought it for the minecraft fps, but it's sitting at 15% usage... damn shaders 100% gpu usage..

and yes, the e-peen and the cinebench scores are nice

[Gofspar]

same, but i also like it because the rendering performance.

bought it for the minecraft fps, but it's sitting at 15% usage... damn shaders 100% gpu usage..

Oh I know that feel, 5820K at 10% usage when my 980's vram is getting capped, lol.

[mikat]

Oh I know that feel, 5820K at 10% usage when my 980's vram is getting capped, lol.

dat sweet moment when all cores are at 100% in an XTU stesstest or cinebench

i watched my macbook do cinebench today, it was painfully slow, i need to email the peeps where i bought my psu, to get it replaced so i can enjoy that i7 again ;(

[REX.exe]

@Shirkan

@bhcool12

@iiTzNiinjaz

Thanks for the support guys