PC for gaming

[GracjanP]

1. Budget & Location

~$420 USD or ~2100PLN

(Accounted for price premium during conversion, since I live in Poland)

 

2. Aim

I'm mainly going to use it to play games, preferably some newer ones.

My daily driver is still going to be my laptop, so I won't use my PC for much else.

 

3. Monitors

At the time I'm using a single 1440x900 monitor, and while I'm not planning on getting another one, I may upgrade to a 1080p display in the future. If it matters, my current monitor has a VGA input.

 

4. Peripherals

Don't need any, already have a new windows 10 license for it.

 

5. Why are you upgrading?

I've managed to land a programming job at a game company for summer vacation and want to spend the money on a new PC. My current rig has an Intel Q8300 and a GeForce GT 220, along with some no-name 300W PSU. I will keep the hard drive from it for storage for as long as it will last as well as an optical drive.

 

I pre-picked the parts looking at some recommendations, although I'd like your opinion on them.

Personally, I'm not really sure if getting a Skylake cpu and DDR4 memory is really worth it.

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/Hvdqm8

 

In addiiton to what's on the list, I'm also going to buy a case I couldn't find on there for about $18 / 90PLN.

 

I'd also like to know if there are some parts I could get a much better deal on buying used and if it's a risk worth taking.

 

Thank you for reading and if you have some questions I'll be in this thread for quite a while.

[EuphoricLlama]

Looks good but the gtx 950 is a bad choice in my opiniion. Go for a 960 at least or even a used 970, the performance differance will be massive for only $20-40 more.

[Shubham Yadav]

I would pay a few bucks extra and get an RX 470 4GB or something like a used GTX 970. The difference in performance is almost 2X. 

[M9shaboi]

3 minutes ago, Shubham Yadav said:

I would pay a few bucks extra and get an RX 470 4GB or something like a used GTX 970. The difference in performance is almost 2X. 

or the rx 480 4gb model its the same price but idk how it is in poland tho

[Kickflapper]

420 USD could be tight, I have gone through the used part path and their are some great deals. 

[Kickflapper]

420 USD could be tight, I have gone through the used part path and their are some great deals. 

[GracjanP]

2 minutes ago, M9shaboi said:

or the rx 480 4gb model its the same price but idk how it is in poland tho

I believe we don't have the 4GB model available yet, but rx 470 seems like a nice option.

[antisleep]

Got any site you're planning to order from?

[GracjanP]

1 minute ago, antisleep said:

Got any site you're planning to order from?

Preferably morele.net, but I haven't bought much hardware and don't know of any alternatives.

[Mi26]

could have gone with haswell 

[GracjanP]

2 minutes ago, Mi26 said:

could have gone with haswell 

I was also thinking about getting an i3-4170 and some ddr3 memory, but how would that compare money/performance-wise to the current setting?

[Mi26]

Its slightly cheaper if u go brand new and even more cheaper if you look for 2nd hand parts

[GracjanP]

3 minutes ago, Mi26 said:

Its slightly cheaper if u go brand new and even more cheaper if you look for 2nd hand parts

How would that look performance-wise then? And is it generally safe to buy 2nd hand cpus?

[Mi26]

Performance would be similar and it is generally safe to buy 2nd hand CPU 

[antisleep]

Slightly over budget cuz I wanted to fit in a 470. If you can't stretch it that far, get a 460 and add a 120GB SSD(Adata SP550).

Total: 2335.35 PLN

 

[GracjanP]

2 minutes ago, antisleep said:

Slightly over budget cuz I wanted to fit in a 470. If you can't stretch it that far, get a 460 and add a 120GB SSD(Adata SP550).

 

Thank you very much for spending your time making this
It is slightly over budget but I can buy a used (still on 31months warranty) i3-6100 for 80PLN cheaper and skip out on a hard drive for now, getting a 120GB ssd for os instead. I also found an Asus Strix RX 470 for a 1000PLN with delivery on a different website, so I think I'll get that one.

I have one question though. The memory you picked is 3200Mhz, while the motherboard looks like it only supports 2133MHz. Is that a problem?

[antisleep]

6 minutes ago, GracjanP said:

I have one question though. The memory you picked is 3200Mhz, while the motherboard looks like it only supports 2133MHz. Is that a problem?

I forgot to tell you about that one, it's cuz it's as cheap as the ugly 2133's that have no heatsinks in them. And yes, the 3200Mhz will get downclocked to 2133Mhz.

 

Edit: Oh shit, it's only 4GB sry. Brb.

[GracjanP]

2 minutes ago, antisleep said:

I forgot to tell you about that one, it's cuz it's as cheap as the ugly 2133's that have no heatsinks in them. And yes, the 3200Mhz will get downclocked to 2133Mhz.

I see. I was worried it won't work at all. Thanks for your help!

[antisleep]

I forgot to use translate when I was adding the ram earlier my bad.

 

Fixed list - 8gb ram and 120gb SSD

Total: 2278.87 PLN

Spoiler

 

[GracjanP]

5 minutes ago, antisleep said:

I forgot to use translate when I was adding the ram earlier my bad.

 

Fixed list - 8gb ram and 120gb SSD

Total: 2278.87 PLN

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I only just noticed the ram as well, np.
Wouldn't I be better off buying 2x4GB instead of a single 8GB, or is there not much difference?

[antisleep]

7 minutes ago, GracjanP said:

I only just noticed the ram as well, np.
Wouldn't I be better off buying 2x4GB instead of a single 8GB, or is there not much difference?

I considered dual channel but the 2x4gb's cost ~30PLN more. Also the mobo only has 2 ram slots so if you plan on upgrading to 16gb in the future, you have to buy 2x8gb's instead of just adding one 8gb stick.

 

Go for 2x4 if:

-you've no plans on upgrading to 16gb in the near future

-the 30PLN premium isn't a problem

[GracjanP]

2 minutes ago, antisleep said:

I considered dual channel but the 2x4gb's cost ~30PLN more. Also the mobo only has 2 ram slots so if you plan on upgrading to 16gb in the future, you have to buy 2x8gb's instead of just adding one 8gb stick.

 

Go for 2x4 if:

-you've no plans on upgrading to 16gb in the near future

-the 30PLN premium isn't a problem

I suppose I'll go with the 2x4 then. Thanks once again for your help