Want to build a gaming/gamedev rig for ~$1500 AUD

[ChiefSlaya]

Budget: $1500 AUD, to be purchased in the next 6 months.

Aim: High performance 3D gaming, game development, and some general programming. Example scenarios:

• Running Elite: Dangerous supersampled to a 21:9 resolution, streamed to my phone for VR (Will likely get a Rift later)
• Building SabreCSG meshes from many brushes, and baking lighting in Unity
• Rendering videos, and sometimes 3D animated scenes
• Demoing games at conventions, possibly multiple copies with separate input

Monitors: I already have a single 21.5" 1080p monitor. A second monitor would be good, but not necessary. Preferably larger/higher resolution in case I simply can't fit both monitors on my desk.

Peripherals: Unsure whether to go with Win10 or use the Win7 installation I already own. No other peripherals needed.

Why: My current rig is 5 years old with a Radeon HD 6950 in it - holding up surprisingly well, but still definitely starting to fall off. This will be a 2-3 year midway solution until I can afford to spend $2500+ on a real workhorse, at which point it will be a convention demo machine and local server.

Currently have:

• Sapphire 2GB HD 6950
• i5 2500 @ 3.30 GHz
• 12GB G.SKILL Ripjaw DDR3 probably (Had 2x4GB, one stick died, got another 2x4GB)
• GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 motherboard
• 2x 2TB WD Caviar Black drives, not sure if they're half failing or if other things are to blame for weird issues. Both < 2years old.
• 1x 256GB SSD works fine

Scavenge what you will. When I have the money I want a full rebuild but right now I want to spend as little as I can on high performance.

Notes: I live in Australia, it gets hot here in the summer. You get bonus points if the PC isn't going to make me swelter. Performance is the primary goal, but I'd rather save money than have an excess of performance. It doesn't need to be future proofed.

 

I'll be starting to save for this in about 2 months, probably be able to afford it in 4-5. Because of this I'd like to buy the GPU first to put into my current rig for a pretty decent improvement in the meantime. Also if there are new things slated to come out in the next few months that might be worth waiting for, I'll revisit the plan when I'm closer to affording it.

I'm currently pretty set on an RX 480, which looks to be about $360. I'd rather avoid Nvidia unless there's an irresistibly better option for a comparable price.

Thanks for reading and helping out!

[MLGTurnip]

For $1130 (USD) for only a gpu, motherboard, cpu and some ram is very good. If you needed some storage the price would be higher. I would probably go for a 6700k and a 1070 but because you want an amd I would recommend a 480 like you said. Find the best motherboard and ram you can find for a good price close to you.

The money you have will be more than enough to buy a good PC.

[williamb87]

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/TjVDZ8

[gtx1060=value]

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/MQHRKZ

better hard drive than last one, mobo isn't as expensive so you can afford a full modular good 80 plus gold psu and a corsair case. 1200 usd, i think u can use this for at least 3 years and then you could buy 2 more 480s for 3 way crossfire

[Guest]

Something like this. CPU might be overkill for the gpu but it looks great

 

I love blue. For few additional money spent you get this awesome all blue themed build

 

Assuming you will have OS and Storages. Case is up to you

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($464.00 @ Shopping Express) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($65.00 @ CPL Online) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD3 Ultra ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($299.00 @ PLE Computers) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($189.00 @ CPL Online) 
Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 480 8GB GTR Video Card  ($419.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply 
Total: $1436.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-11 11:44 AEST+1000

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, gtx1060=value said:

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/MQHRKZ

better hard drive than last one, mobo isn't as expensive so you can afford a full modular good 80 plus gold psu and a corsair case. 1200 usd, i think u can use this for at least 3 years and then you could buy 2 more 480s for 3 way crossfire

FYI 1100 - 1200 USD will be around 1800+ AUD. Just switched from US to AUS in PCPArtpicker

[gtx1060=value]

1 minute ago, dexxterlab97 said:

FYI 1100 - 1200 USD will be around 1800+ AUD. Just switched from US to AUS in PCPArtpicker

Can you afford to go over by a bit? if you can wait till boxing day (not sure if they have that in australia, but canada has it and we're a british colony too) you could get the price down to about 1500 AUD

[Guest]

Just now, gtx1060=value said:

Can you afford to go over by a bit? if you can wait till boxing day (not sure if they have that in australia, but canada has it and we're a british colony too) you could get the price down to about 1500 AUD

Look at my above build. Fits nicely in the range

[gtx1060=value]

5 minutes ago, dexxterlab97 said:

Look at my above build. Fits nicely in the range

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/Hs228K

 

This is better, good power supply, has a case,

[Guest]

1 minute ago, gtx1060=value said:

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/Hs228K

 

This is better, good power supply, has a case,

You can't oc on a b mobo and g2 is a better psu

[gtx1060=value]

1 minute ago, dexxterlab97 said:

You can't oc on a b mobo and g2 is a better psu

g2 is a psu made by a no name company but branded by evga. they've been known to die and fail. 

[Guest]

Just now, gtx1060=value said:

g2 is a psu made by a no name company but branded by evga. they've been known to die and fail. 

Please check PSU Tier List

[gtx1060=value]

Just now, dexxterlab97 said:

Please check PSU Tier List

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/YpTPFd

[gtx1060=value]

1 minute ago, gtx1060=value said:

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/YpTPFd

If the rosewill was available in australia that would be great but sadly it's not 

[ChiefSlaya]

I can reuse my existing case (Aerocool PSG-R, whatever variant has a flat/mesh panelled front and no side window) but if possible a smaller one would be nice, just for the sake of transporting. Overclocking would be a nice option but I'll probably be too scared/overheated to use it, so maybe not as valuable for me as for others. I should probably just get over that though so I can save money and get better performance.

 

Good options so far though. Curious why you guys are favouring the XFX Radeon RX 480 8GB GTR (which for some reason I can't see in the search) over the Sapphire 21260-00-20G?

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, ChiefSlaya said:

I can reuse my existing case (Aerocool PSG-R, whatever variant has a flat/mesh panelled front and no side window) but if possible a smaller one would be nice, just for the sake of transporting. Overclocking would be a nice option but I'll probably be too scared/overheated to use it, so maybe not as valuable for me as for others. I should probably just get over that though so I can save money and get better performance.

 

Good options so far though. Curious why you guys are favouring the XFX Radeon RX 480 8GB GTR (which for some reason I can't see in the search) over the Sapphire 21260-00-20G?

sapphire is reference

xfx is aftermarket

[Technous285]

40 minutes ago, williamb87 said:

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/TjVDZ8

First thing: That selection is upwards of $1834.98 AUD if you swap the PCPartPicker location from US to Aus.

Second thing: Using 4x4GB for RAM is bloody useless nowadays as it wastes cash, wastes packing materials and wastes upgrade paths by forcing you to throw away at least 2 sticks of RAM if you need to add more and larger RAM sticks down the line, if you don't have a second system to toss the replaced sticks into.

 

~~~~~

 

Anyways, my part selection (keeping the SSD from the old system, replacing almost everything else) using the one shop (PCCaeGear) would be: http://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/zL8jHN

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor - $329.00 (It's not worth the extra $146 for the i7 right now IMO)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212X 82.9 CFM CPU Cooler - $55.00
Mobo: ASRock Z170 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard - $179.00
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory - $115.01 (can jump to 32GB (2x16GB) for $229 with the Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-2400 set if you wish, something I'd suggest but won't push for)
Storage: Seagate Desktop HDD 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive - $185.00 (I'm running 1 of these inside my system right now, with 3 of the older 7200RPM version in an external box)
GPU: Gigabyte Radeon RX 480 4GB G1 Gaming Video Card - $369.00 (Replace with XFX Radeon RX 480 RS 4GB at $349 to save $20)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case - $89.00
PSU: Corsair CSM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply - $139.00    
Total (8 / 8 Items): $1460.01 ($1440.01 by swapping to the XFX when it comes in)

[ChiefSlaya]

4 minutes ago, Technous285 said:

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory - $115.01 (can jump to 32GB (2x16GB) for $229 with the Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-2400 set if you wish, something I'd suggest but won't push for)

I think I'll save on the RAM, I can always add more if I need it and I won't be needing more than 32GB any time soon.

Quote

GPU: Gigabyte Radeon RX 480 4GB G1 Gaming Video Card - $369.00 (Replace with XFX Radeon RX 480 RS 4GB at $349 to save $20)

Not an 8GB one? I don't know how much GPU RAM affects things, but I'd think 4GB would be a decent bit of help. Might not mind reusing my case to make up the difference if so.

[Technous285]

2 minutes ago, ChiefSlaya said:

I think I'll save on the RAM, I can always add more if I need it and I won't be needing more than 32GB any time soon.

Not an 8GB one? I don't know how much GPU RAM affects things, but I'd think 4GB would be a decent bit of help. Might not mind reusing my case to make up the difference if so.

Well, the 8GB RX480 from XFX is $399-419, depending if it's the GTR OC 8GB ($399) or GTR Black 8GB ($419), bringing the total to $1490 for the GTR OC or $1510 for the GTR Black. Most games are fine at 1080p with 4GB V-RAM, but if you'd feel better going for the 8GB version that's fine.

And sure you can save $90 by not getting the new case (heck, that'd bring the build down to ~$1400 if reusing the case). I typically have a fresh case for a new build so I don't have spare parts just laying around the house without somewhere to store them.