Real Holiday Buyer's Guide 2015

[Morgan MLGman]

So I watched the "Build the Perfect Gaming PC - Holiday Buyer's Guide 2015" video featuring three builds for 500, 1000 and 2000 US $ respectively that Linus put together and it got me wondering...

Video Link:

Why are these builds so unreasonable? I couldn't sleep at night cause of how bad these builds were so I decided to make those myself and post them here for people to look at when choosing their brand new PC's. Well... Maybe they weren't 'bad', but they were very unbalanced, the ones I made are more balanced and will be better for most people.

500$:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor  ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G46 ATX AM3+ Motherboard  ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate  1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive  ($68.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 380 4GB NITRO Dual-X OC Video Card  ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT SW ATX Mid Tower Case  ($30.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Fractal Design Tesla R2 500W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $503.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-26 02:56 EST-0500

1000$:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($239.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI B85-G43 GAMING ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($66.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Trion 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 390X 8GB DEVIL Video Card  ($399.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT SW ATX Mid Tower Case  ($30.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX TS 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-118CB/BEBE DVD/CD Drive  ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1042.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-26 03:26 EST-0500

 

2000$:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor  ($374.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  ($59.90 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Krait ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($103.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Vector 180 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($269.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card  ($649.99 @ Newegg)
Case: be quiet! SILENT BASE 600 w/Window (Silver) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($89.90 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA P2 850W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $2026.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-26 03:40 EST-0500

I have no idea why would Linus choose for example a GTX 960 over a R9 380, I don't want to accuse him of anything but this seems... Odd.
These builds offer better value for money and don't feature ridiculous 4TB HDDs

Any feedback is more than welcome, thanks for reading.

@LinusTech @Slick @nicklmg

[Yali]

So I watched the "Build the Perfect Gaming PC - Holiday Buyer's Guide 2015" video featuring three builds for 500, 1000 and 2000 US $ respectively that Linus put together and it got me wondering...

Video Link:

Why are these builds so unreasonable? I couldn't sleep at night cause of how bad these builds were so I decided to make those myself and post them here for people to look at when choosing their brand new PC's.

500$:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($74.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($66.98 @ Newegg)

Memory: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($34.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Seagate  1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive  ($68.98 @ Newegg)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card  ($189.99 @ Newegg)

Case: Deepcool TESSERACT WH ATX Mid Tower Case  ($25.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($51.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $500.91

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-21 18:47 EST-0500

1000$:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($209.99 @ Newegg)

CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC12DX_BK 68.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($49.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($81.98 @ Newegg)

Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  ($66.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: OCZ Trion 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($69.98 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($51.99 @ Newegg)

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290X 4GB Tri-X Video Card  ($333.98 @ Newegg)

Case: Deepcool TESSERACT WH ATX Mid Tower Case  ($25.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($71.98 @ Newegg)

Optical Drive: Samsung SH-118CB/BEBE DVD/CD Drive  ($19.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $982.86

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-21 18:47 EST-0500

2000$:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor  ($394.98 @ Newegg)

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  ($89.90 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Krait ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($203.98 @ Newegg)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($184.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: OCZ Trion 100 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($249.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($116.99 @ Newegg)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card  ($666.98 @ Newegg)

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 Blackout with Window ATX Mid Tower Case  ($89.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($105.98 @ Newegg)

Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  ($39.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $2143.77

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-21 18:48 EST-0500

I have no idea why would Linus choose for example a GTX 960 over a R9 380, I don't want to accuse him of anything but this seems... Odd.

These builds offer better value for money and don't feature ridiculous 4TB HDDs

Any feedback is more than welcome, thanks for reading.

@LinusTech @Slick @nicklmg

Well I kinda like Broccoli so, uhm...

[EmeraldKiwi]

On the 1000 build:

Why the 290x? Just an honest question.

[Memories4K]

Your builds are just as unreasonable/bad hahaha

[H4X3R]

On lowest end build, in which i would prefer to have an i5-3XXX with a used or refurbished mobo over any AMD processor.

 

In fact, you can get 8 cores for under 200 euros (and thus dollars) on ebay (including mobo, CPUs and RAM).

[KemoKa]

On the 1000 build:

Why the 290x? Just an honest question.

Because it's a badass fucking card for the price, that's why.

[Kobathor]

Your builds are just as unreasonable/bad hahaha

Linus put too much money in the wrong places, spending lots on storage, ect. These are more balanced and will perform better in general.

[Morgan MLGman]

On the 1000 build:

Why the 290x? Just an honest question.

 

Because it's a badass fucking card for the price, that's why.

This is basically the answer ^ It's more powerful than both 390 and 970 and costs about the same. Also, the Sapphire Tri-X doesn't overheat and performs great

[Morgan MLGman]

Your builds are just as unreasonable/bad hahaha

Care to elaborate? I beg to differ.

[EmeraldKiwi]

Well, all my questions are answered. These builds look pretty sweet. Nice plan!

[KemoKa]

On lowest end build, in which i would prefer to have an i5-3XXX with a used or refurbished mobo over any AMD processor.

 

In fact, you can get 8 cores for under 200 euros (and thus dollars) on ebay (including mobo, CPUs and RAM).

The Athlon processors are actually not that bad for the price. It's the FX processors that you want to watch out for.

Athlon chips don't have the screwed up situation with the FPUs and the shared cache. Only thing to patch is the Intel C binary compiler and then you've got a respectable system. Overclock it and it'll be on par with a stock i3/i5 in terms of IPC. Just a shame about the upgrade path.

 

[JesusOfSanity]

On lowest end build, in which i would prefer to have an i5-3XXX with a used or refurbished mobo over any AMD processor.

In fact, you can get 8 cores for under 200 euros (and thus dollars) on ebay (including mobo, CPUs and RAM).

OP was taking into consideration only new parts available on newegg, just like linus

[Morgan MLGman]

The Athlon processors are actually not that bad for the price. It's the FX processors that you want to watch out for.

Athlon chips don't have the screwed up situation with the FPUs and the shared cache. Only thing to patch is the Intel C binary compiler and then you've got a respectable system. Overclock it and it'll be on par with a stock i3/i5 in terms of IPC. Just a shame about the upgrade path.

Where did you read that? The Athlon X4 750k had the exact same "cores" (read: modules) as the FX-8350 for instance (Piledriver), the X4 860K is based on the Steamroller architecture, which is just an updated version of Piledriver with slightly higher IPC and some minor improvements, so I believe the difference between FX processors and this Athlon isn't big. Its price, however, is the most compelling thing about it.

The i3-4130 still has around 27% higher single-core speed than the X4 860K after an average OC, but the little Athlon is still a better choice for budget builds than the Pentium, which is just an expensive toy.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Where did you read that? The Athlon X4 750k had the exact same "cores" (read: modules) as the FX-8350 for instance (Piledriver), the X4 860K is based on the Steamroller architecture, which is just an updated version of Piledriver with slightly higher IPC and some minor improvements, so I believe the difference between FX processors and this Athlon isn't big. Its price, however, is the most compelling thing about it.

The i3-4130 still has around 27% higher single-core speed than the X4 860K after an average OC, but the little Athlon is still a better choice for budget builds than the Pentium, which is just an expensive toy.

 

Update to your 500 dollar build with the holidays here:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($96.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: Asus B85M-G R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($34.99 @ Newegg) 

Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($34.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: OCZ Trion 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($54.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($39.10 @ SuperBiiz) 

Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 380 4GB PCS+ Video Card  ($159.99 @ Newegg) 

Case: Deepcool TESSERACT WH ATX Mid Tower Case  ($35.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: XFX TS 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($39.99 @ Newegg) 

Total: $497.03

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-25 06:40 EST-0500

 

Pretty impressive improvement to be had. Likewise the others can be updated as well, but this was the one I wanted to share most. 

[Morgan MLGman]

Pretty impressive improvement to be had. Likewise the others can be updated as well, but this was the one I wanted to share most. 

I agree, it's better, but it's not what it's about The rules were, use newegg.com only and the mail-in rebates should be turned off, that is why yours is better, cause it's more expensive

[Curufinwe_wins]

I agree, it's better, but it's not what it's about The rules were, use newegg.com only and the mail-in rebates should be turned off, that is why yours is better, cause it's more expensive

Yours wasn't newegg only? But I could do that. The main thing is you can go back and newegg dropped a lot of prices since you posted that build.

[Morgan MLGman]

Yours wasn't newegg only? But I could do that. The main thing is you can go back and newegg dropped a lot of prices since you posted that build.

Well, black friday often makes prices drop, at the time there was nothing better. My builds are newegg only, that's how Linus did his as well

[Morgan MLGman]

Yours wasn't newegg only? But I could do that. The main thing is you can go back and newegg dropped a lot of prices since you posted that build.

To prove to you that using rebates and different shops can get you even more for 500$ than what you put together:

I fit a R9 290 in there.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor  ($89.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: Asus M5A97 PLUS ATX AM3+ Motherboard  ($29.99 @ Newegg)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($29.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: OCZ Trion 100 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($34.99 @ Amazon)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($39.10 @ SuperBiiz)

Video Card: HIS Radeon R9 290 4GB IceQ X² Video Card  ($229.99 @ Newegg)

Case: Thermaltake Commander MS/I Snow Edition (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ Micro Center)

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($32.99 @ NCIX US)

Total: $499.03

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-27 01:44 EST-0500

[Curufinwe_wins]

To prove to you that using rebates and different shops can get you even more for 500$ than what you put together:

I fit a R9 290 in there.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor  ($89.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: Asus M5A97 PLUS ATX AM3+ Motherboard  ($29.99 @ Newegg)

Memory: Mushkin ECO2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($29.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: OCZ Trion 100 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($34.99 @ Amazon)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($39.10 @ SuperBiiz)

Video Card: HIS Radeon R9 290 4GB IceQ X² Video Card  ($229.99 @ Newegg)

Case: Enermax OSTROG ATX Mid Tower Case  ($22.00 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: XFX TS 650W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($39.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $503.04

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-25 16:12 EST-0500

I mean I don't agree that the above is a better system than the alternative I suggested, but then again, as I said, I just thought it could be much updated to reflect the reduced prices on numerous of the components you had originally selected.

[Morgan MLGman]

I mean I don't agree that the above is a better system than the alternative I suggested, but then again, as I said, I just thought it could be much updated to reflect the reduced prices on numerous of the components you had originally selected.

Hahaha, it would absolutely outperform the i3+380 in any AAA title you throw at it ^^ Literally any new game that comes out ^^ It would also last for a longer period of time, the 6300 is up to 50% more powerful overall even though its single threaded performance is around 26-30% slower

[Curufinwe_wins]

Hahaha, it would absolutely outperform the i3+380 in any AAA title you throw at it ^^ Literally any new game that comes out ^^

And it would absolutely suck in everything else... (besides, both systems will end up targeting exactly the same settings anyways for 60 FPS 1080p gaming, so what does it matter... )

 

I mean fuck. You can't even get USB3.0 anywhere in that system without an add-in card.

 

AGAIN THAT WASN'T EVEN THE POINT OF MY COMMENT IN THE FIRST PLACE JESUS.

[Morgan MLGman]

And it would absolutely suck in everything else... (besides, both systems will end up targeting exactly the same settings anyways for 60 FPS 1080p gaming, so what does it matter... )

 

I mean fuck. You can't even get USB3.0 anywhere in that system without an add-in card.

 

AGAIN THAT WASN'T EVEN THE POINT OF MY COMMENT IN THE FIRST PLACE JESUS.

No, the 290 is significantly better than a 380 m8, it's even better than the 380X, and it's nearly all up to the GPU how the games perform. Anyway, the other point of your comment isn't relevant, not everywhere you can get the rebates and the rules were to only follow newegg, so what it meant was to not use any other site and not use the rebates option, of course the prices dropped but that was to be expected cause of the season now, I bet people have enough brain to improve some of the components if they see the overall price dropped.

I also have no idea why you think that an FX-6300 would suck in everything else, too much bias apparently ^^"

@App4that tested his R9 390 vs R9 290 after he overclocked both, the FPS difference was like 3 FPS in Heaven or Valley benchmark. Now think about a difference between a 380 and a 390, substract 3 FPS and you see what you can get with that

Benchmarks by Anandatech from 2 days ago.

[App4that]

Yeah, and I used both the Vapor-x 290 and Nitro 390 OC, both top of their generational games. Almost kept the 290 for myself and let the wife have the 390. But she's not going to monitor her shit, girl reasons, and I want her to have the temp changing LED that's in the Vapor-X so she doesn't cook it.

[Morgan MLGman]

Yeah, and I used both the Vapor-x 290 and Nitro 390 OC, both top of their generational games. Almost kept the 290 for myself and let the wife have the 390. But she's not going to monitor her shit, girl reasons, and I want her to have the temp changing LED that's in the Vapor-X so she doesn't cook it.

Sorry for tagging you several times about this, you're the best example I can give to anyone cause you actually own both, tested both and saw the results, you're more reliable than any benchmarks out there

[App4that]

Sorry for tagging you several times about this, you're the best example I can give to anyone cause you actually own both, tested both and saw the results, you're more reliable than any benchmarks out there

No, do it. That's why I did it. If I had talked to someone like myself that tested them both in the same case I may have gone with the 290x. Don't know though, as the 390 does run cooler and use less power. But I'd be better off with the 290x as a single card, as anyone would I think.