desktop Would someone be able to look at my upgrades real quick and make sure they are a good deal?

[PresidentZach]

Budget: $700 USD

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Minecraft, Fortnite, FL Studio

 

Hello everyone. I am looking to upgrade my currently existing computer. It's an old boy, DDR3 ram, hard drive, and everything else. It runs fairly well actually, but I want to upgrade before college starts because I'm afraid that even though it runs decent, it could run better, and I'm afraid the software we will use will be too overwhelming. Plus, I wouldn't mind my programs and games running better. So, I've compared these parts to other sites and everything and surprisingly, it seems Amazon has the better deals which like never happens. I don't need anything over extreme, I'm fine with what I have now and I feel these are worthy upgrades. I don't think I need to upgrade my power supply, it's 650 but I figured I might as well. I really only play Fortnite, Minecraft, and FL Studio which are all light softwares, and I believe we will use Unreal Engine in college, which my computer can run decently, so I have no doubt this new one will run. I already have all the other parts not listed, which is basically only a case and graphics card lmao. I'm confident in the parts I chose, but can someone more knowledgeable just check it over real quick before I press the purchase button? Thank you.

[Jurrunio]

980 Pro is definitely.extreme, I suppose the price isnt as insane as Samsung's Pro drives were but still.

[PresidentZach]

2 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

980 Pro is definitely.extreme, I suppose the price isnt as insane as Samsung's Pro drives were but still.

Thank you. I was gonna go with a SK hynix one for $100, but I wanted to make sure it would last me a long time, atleast 4 years lol. Should I ever upgrade again anytime soon, which I'm not planning on, I would like to be able to just take the old ssd out and slip it in the new one. Should I just go with the SK hynix one? SK hynix Gold P31 1TB PCIe NVMe Gen3 M.2 2280 Internal SSD | Up to 3500MB/S | Compact M.2 SSD Form Factor SK hynix SSD | Internal Solid State Drive with 128-Layer NAND Flash

[brob]

The RMx 850 pricing is very suspect. That model is usually around US$130.

[jaslion]

Just now, brob said:

The RMx 850 pricing is very suspect. That model is usually around US$130.

Its a used unit condition good. So in other words extremelt suspect. Half price for a good condition used unit is waaay too good to be true.

[PresidentZach]

8 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Its a used unit condition good. So in other words extremelt suspect. Half price for a good condition used unit is waaay too good to be true.

Oh I just assumed they were trying to get rid of it. So should I just stick with the 650 I have or go for a new one? I figured if it arrived in poor condition, I could just return it because Amazon's return policy is really good.

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

23 minutes ago, PresidentZach said:

I could just return it because Amazon's return policy is really good

Not worth the headache IMO.

24 minutes ago, PresidentZach said:

So should I just stick with the 650 I have or go for a new one?

We'll need to know exactly what PSU that is as well as all the parts that will be in this build in order to make a recommendation on that.

[jaslion]

56 minutes ago, PresidentZach said:

Oh I just assumed they were trying to get rid of it. So should I just stick with the 650 I have or go for a new one? I figured if it arrived in poor condition, I could just return it because Amazon's return policy is really good.

What 650 do you have?

 

 

[PresidentZach]

3 hours ago, Hairless Monkey Boy said:

Not worth the headache IMO.

We'll need to know exactly what PSU that is as well as all the parts that will be in this build in order to make a recommendation on that.

I'm sorry, but I don't understand what PSU is. Also, the return is no big deal I've done it plenty of times and it's very easy.

[PresidentZach]

2 hours ago, jaslion said:

What 650 do you have?

 

 

Honestly some off brand one that I got with the computer that's probably a fire hazard. Saying it in my head, it makes sense to get a new one lmao.

[brob]

2 hours ago, PresidentZach said:

I'm sorry, but I don't understand what PSU is. Also, the return is no big deal I've done it plenty of times and it's very easy.

 

Power Supply Unit

[jaslion]

2 hours ago, PresidentZach said:

Honestly some off brand one that I got with the computer that's probably a fire hazard. Saying it in my head, it makes sense to get a new one lmao.

Defo get a new one. the reason I'm sketched out by the used one is that a psu is one of those parts that can make or literally break your pc. The rm850 is a TOP of the line unit but them being this cheap for refurbs is super sketchy. No refurb of them goes that cheap.

 

Thing is they can seem to work fine too thats the issue with a psu it can seem fine whilst it's not and by the time you notice a problem it's usually too late.

 

Again these psu's are top of the line stuff and have a bunch of protections built in but still I am just sketched out.

[PresidentZach]

1 hour ago, jaslion said:

Defo get a new one. the reason I'm sketched out by the used one is that a psu is one of those parts that can make or literally break your pc. The rm850 is a TOP of the line unit but them being this cheap for refurbs is super sketchy. No refurb of them goes that cheap.

 

Thing is they can seem to work fine too thats the issue with a psu it can seem fine whilst it's not and by the time you notice a problem it's usually too late.

 

Again these psu's are top of the line stuff and have a bunch of protections built in but still I am just sketched out.

Awesome! Thank you for the response. I also had a question about the Wattage. I was just gonna get a high-wattaged one because what the hell, but should I look for a cheaper, less-wattaged one, and how do I know the minimum wattage I need?

[cmndr]

Some bits and pieces

1. Most of the time the software you need for college can be handled by a $200 chromebook.
2. Spending money on an FAST SSD should be very low on your list of priorities.
3. You're probably better off with a 12600k and a budget B660 motherboard.

 

12 hours ago, PresidentZach said:

Thank you. I was gonna go with a SK hynix one for $100, but I wanted to make sure it would last me a long time, atleast 4 years lol. Should I ever upgrade again anytime soon, which I'm not planning on, I would like to be able to just take the old ssd out and slip it in the new one. Should I just go with the SK hynix one? SK hynix Gold P31 1TB PCIe NVMe Gen3 M.2 2280 Internal SSD | Up to 3500MB/S | Compact M.2 SSD Form Factor SK hynix SSD | Internal Solid State Drive with 128-Layer NAND Flash

Future proofing doesn't really work with computers. Spending a little bit more on a shovel or some other tool might be worth it... but you can get the same level of performance in a few years for like half or a fourth of the price. There are some benefits in some cases to spending a little bit more but... not so much with SSDs. I say this as someone with a 1.5TB optane drive (only benefits me when I'm out of RAM, which happens).

 

The P31 gold when it's on sale for around $90 isn't a bad choice.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16012/the-sk-hynix-gold-p31-ssd-review/8

 

 

 

If you're looking for a budget solution on SSDs this could work (check reviews, I only looked at price).

https://slickdeals.net/f/15873553-msi-spatium-m390-1tb-m-2-gen-3-nvme-1-4-solid-state-drive-74-99

[jaslion]

17 minutes ago, PresidentZach said:

Awesome! Thank you for the response. I also had a question about the Wattage. I was just gonna get a high-wattaged one because what the hell, but should I look for a cheaper, less-wattaged one, and how do I know the minimum wattage I need?

It depends on the rest of the system. Can you give your full desired specs?

[cmndr]

27 minutes ago, PresidentZach said:

Awesome! Thank you for the response. I also had a question about the Wattage. I was just gonna get a high-wattaged one because what the hell, but should I look for a cheaper, less-wattaged one, and how do I know the minimum wattage I need?

You're probably fine with your existing PSU.

This is a case of a solution looking for a problem. PSUs are probably the thing that lasts the longest these days.

 

 

If you want to get a feel though, try a wattage calculator
https://www.newegg.com/tools/power-supply-calculator/
https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator
https://www.coolermaster.com/power-supply-calculator/

 

One caveat is that newer GPUs (think RTX 3080) tend to have higher transient spikes (think power draw for a tiny fraction of a second) and newer PSUs can handle those better usually. If you're overspecced on an older PSU, it's still fine. If you're using something like a 3060, this is unlikely to matter.

[thewelshbrummie]

17 hours ago, PresidentZach said:

Thank you. I was gonna go with a SK hynix one for $100, but I wanted to make sure it would last me a long time, atleast 4 years lol. Should I ever upgrade again anytime soon, which I'm not planning on, I would like to be able to just take the old ssd out and slip it in the new one. Should I just go with the SK hynix one? SK hynix Gold P31 1TB PCIe NVMe Gen3 M.2 2280 Internal SSD | Up to 3500MB/S | Compact M.2 SSD Form Factor SK hynix SSD | Internal Solid State Drive with 128-Layer NAND Flash

Might be worth considering the newer and faster Platinum that has finally launched. PCI-E 4.0 support and faster speeds, 1TB for $150, minus 15% with a coupon on Amazon.

 

Not too many reviews as it's still a very new release but here's one from Toms Hardware.

 

I've bought 3 P31s in the last 12 months and have booted off of all of them. Great drives, though the 2TB Crucial P5 SSD I bought for my parents new PC definitely felt like it booted faster thanks to being gen4. The Platinum P41 may well solve that so it's probably worth paying the extra for the faster drive. SK Hynix also appear to have switched all of their drives to black PCBs rather than green on the original P31s that I have, the 2nd 500GB drive has a black PCB.

[PresidentZach]

14 hours ago, cmndr said:

Some bits and pieces

1. Most of the time the software you need for college can be handled by a $200 chromebook.
2. Spending money on an FAST SSD should be very low on your list of priorities.
3. You're probably better off with a 12600k and a budget B660 motherboard.

 

Future proofing doesn't really work with computers. Spending a little bit more on a shovel or some other tool might be worth it... but you can get the same level of performance in a few years for like half or a fourth of the price. There are some benefits in some cases to spending a little bit more but... not so much with SSDs. I say this as someone with a 1.5TB optane drive (only benefits me when I'm out of RAM, which happens).

 

The P31 gold when it's on sale for around $90 isn't a bad choice.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16012/the-sk-hynix-gold-p31-ssd-review/8

 

 

 

If you're looking for a budget solution on SSDs this could work (check reviews, I only looked at price).

https://slickdeals.net/f/15873553-msi-spatium-m390-1tb-m-2-gen-3-nvme-1-4-solid-state-drive-74-99

Hello. Thank you for the response. After watching the video you sent, along with a couple others, I've decided to now go with the basic Samsung 980 for $100, $40 cheaper than the one I selected. I am sticking with Samsung instead of saving the $10 because should something go wrong, I've heard Samsungs data recovery service, while not free, is really good and reliable, and I really care about my data lol. Thank you for saving me $40.

[cmndr]

7 hours ago, PresidentZach said:

Hello. Thank you for the response. After watching the video you sent, along with a couple others, I've decided to now go with the basic Samsung 980 for $100, $40 cheaper than the one I selected. I am sticking with Samsung instead of saving the $10 because should something go wrong, I've heard Samsungs data recovery service, while not free, is really good and reliable, and I really care about my data lol. Thank you for saving me $40.

If you need a data recovery service it means you failed at having backups.

You'd be better off buying a refurbed 3TB HDD or two for like $35ish and periodically making backups. heck even a $20ish flash drive or sd card(be sure to power this on around once a year NAND cells lose charge over time) if you have critical files.

 

Data recovery is VERY expensive and not a guarantee.

https://www.veeam.com/blog/321-backup-rule.html

 

I'm also not a huge fan of the 980 non-pro, decent "burst" performance but anything sustained takes a hit.