Holiday Buyer's Guide 2015

[Zednix]

A version using Canadian prices would be super handy considering how awful the Canadian dollar is these days.

[nicklmg]

The YouTube version is here for all the non-Vessel peeps!

[Streetguru]

I'd maybe stick to suggesting a 380/x over a 960, mostly due to potential DX12 support for the near future, same with the 390 over a 970, plus you save cash on free-sync vs G-sync in the future if you go that route

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150730&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker,%20LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=


And I'd probably go with 16gbs of RAM and step up the motherboard to the sabertooth board which has a ton of nice features and dust proofness

Also at 2k it might be a good idea to invest some of the budget into a solid 4k display rather than spending 2k on a PC for someones 1080p display

[Lotus]

I'm very surprised at the $1k build. $300 for storage is a bit nuts especially because it's the easiest thing in the world to add on later if your needs increase. I would much rather have seen a Xeon E3 1231 V3 if they need multi-threaded performance or an i5-4690k (or even i5-6600k) for gaming performance instead of that huge extra storage expense. Also the PSU choice is ridiculous.

 

The $500 build is better, but I still probably would have tried to shoehorn in an i5-4460 and h81 board, even dropping down to a 1TB HDD and a GTX 950 if I had to.

[Kirky2k15]

Curious why the 970 was chosen yet again, everyone and his granny knows the 390 is the choice at this price point...

 

Also why no PCIe SSD for the $2k build?

 

Also thought it was funny at 8:02 in the video Linus looks at his smart watch... did he have somewhere else better to be?

[W3dge]

I was considering a 4460 and then I remembered that I wanted to do some video editing. Now I will be getting a 6600k.

[Jared_1]

Why no Skylake? My new PC is going to have the i5-6500.

[Ivam50]

Single core is what it's about unless you're doing a bunch of video editing. 

no, single core is for older games, newer AAA titles use more cores so better multi-core performance is better.

[Oberon.Smite]

Lol RIP me my 280 is now considered low end. Fuck. I need an upgrade.

[don_svetlio]

recommending a 960 when you can get a 380 for cheaper is mind-boggling to me. I don't get it, like, at all. Who came up with that again?

[Zyre]

How much money did Nvidia put under you're nose Linus? You recommend a 970 while for the same price you can get a R9 390 which has more VRAM and outperforms the 970?

 

This is some bullshit guide dude.

[Zyre]

recommending a 960 when you can get a 380 for cheaper is mind-boggling to me. I don't get it, like, at all. Who came up with that again?

We've known for a while that Linus loves the money Nvidia throws at him.

 

Wouldn't be surprised with the size of his channel that he accepts payments.

[VinnyC]

Just priced the $2000 system on Amazon.UK @ £1771 which is $2696 using current exchange rate. Awesome not

Vinny

[IMPERIUS]

Imo you went overkill on the storage while skimping on the case and gpu.

 

While yes a 500gb ssd is nice to have, a 4tb hdd is not worth it right now. Imo a good thing is to get just a 250gb ssd and a 1tb hdd for now, get a better case since the case fans on the source 210 will probably be waaay too loud for your liking and you could spend the savings on a 390. And if needed then get a bigger hdd/ ssd in the future

[SandorTheHound]

Recommending a 960 over 380/280X, and 970 over 390. Unbelievable. There's only so much you can try to convince us you're not biased. After the numerous explanations on some earlier WAN shows I wanted to believe you weren't. Then you pull this. This is the straw that broke the camel's back for me.

[Megaburn]

I tried to make my own versions of the catagories:

 

$500 - http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WzCX8d

 

$1000 - http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DtRPCJ

 

$2000 - http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YcvyhM

[wei2coolman]

IMO the biggest sin, is comparing the 960 to the 370, with 0 mentions of the 280, 285, 280x, 380, and the upcoming 380x.... All with in similar price point.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around suggesting the 970 over the 390, but that's a lot less of an egregious of a mistake than the 960 suggestion...

[riklaunim]

Ivy Bridge could be still a viable option - from ebay. I have i5-3570T and it works really well - played Witcher 3 on it and R9 270.

 

BTW. do you think i7-6700 is worth the extra price over i5-6500?

[Sidarta]

I'm building a new gaming system using a i5-6400 but I'm not sure if I should get a DDR4 combo or stick with a DDR3 combo. The price difference would be about $82 Canadian Dollars from the DDR4 to the DDR3. Is the DDR4 perfomance worth the difference?  What about the amount of memory, 8GB or 16GB?

[wei2coolman]

I'm building a new gaming system using a i5-6400 but I'm not sure if I should get a DDR4 combo or stick with a DDR3 combo. The price difference would be about $82 Canadian Dollars from the DDR4 to the DDR3. Is the DDR4 perfomance worth the difference?  What about the amount of memory, 8GB or 16GB?

If strictly talking about gaming, there's no difference between DDR3 and DDR4 as of yet.

 

As far as amount of memory, 8gb should be fine for all gaming purposes, though 16gb is probably best if you're a heavy multi-tasker.

[Sidarta]

If strictly talking about gaming, there's no difference between DDR3 and DDR4 as of yet.

 

As far as amount of memory, 8gb should be fine for all gaming purposes, though 16gb is probably best if you're a heavy multi-tasker.

 

The money I can save from the DDR4 motherboard compared to a DDR3 one I can get 16GB of DDR3 instead of 8GB of DDR4. I think that would be better considering the unoptimized games on the market like Batman and Black Ops 3.

 

This leads me to another question, is it ok to get a cheap motherboard? Since the i5 6400 is not overclockable I think I don't need an expensive motherboard. What do you guys think?

[stconquest]

The money I can save from the DDR4 motherboard compared to a DDR3 one I can get 16GB of DDR3 instead of 8GB of DDR4. I think that would be better considering the unoptimized games on the market like Batman and Black Ops 3.

 

This leads me to another question, is it ok to get a cheap motherboard? Since the i5 6400 is not overclockable I think I don't need an expensive motherboard. What do you guys think?

 

I would not do the 6400.  Is this too expensive for you?:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($194.99 @ B&H)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($54.99 @ Amazon)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($48.65 @ OutletPC)

Total: $298.63

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-20 15:54 EST-0500

[Sidarta]

I would not do the 6400.  Is this too expensive for you?:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($194.99 @ B&H)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($54.99 @ Amazon)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($48.65 @ OutletPC)

Total: $298.63

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-20 15:54 EST-0500

 

I'm in Canada so the prices are a little bit higher.

 

Actually I already got the 6400 (C$ 239.99 + tax), I might try to change it for a 6500 (C$ 259.99 + tax) since I didn't open the box yet. It would be a $23 difference. 

 

I found the same motherboard on newegg.ca for $69.99 + $12 shipping. I liked the price, is it a good motherboard?

 

Do you think these prices can get much lower on Black Friday? I'm not sure if I should buy now or wait.

[stconquest]

I'm in Canada so the prices are a little bit higher.

 

Actually I already got the 6400 (C$ 239.99 + tax), I might try to change it for a 6500 (C$ 259.99 + tax) since I didn't open the box yet. It would be a $23 difference. 

 

I found the same motherboard on newegg.ca for $69.99 + $12 shipping. I liked the price, is it a good motherboard?

 

Do you think these prices can get much lower on Black Friday? I'm not sure if I should buy now or wait.

 

I live in Toronto, I know your pain.

 

2.7GHz to 3.2GHz for $23... sounds like a good idea to me... no really, it is the smarter choice.

 

The motherboard is good.  If you have Neweggs "will-call" service in your area, you can forego the shipping and go pick it up.  I do this to keep the last-leg UPS guy from throwing my electronics around, AND to save on shipping.

[ybriK]

Changed the 970 to 390, all good to go! System is running great.