Spending $26,000 on new computers..

[hobbit_miester]

Hello everyone!

I thought you guys here at Linus Tech Tips are probably the most intelligent people to ask for serious advice regarding a big financial commitment I'm about to make at the end of this year.

So any way, I run a Multiplayer Video Gaming organization. It's primarily a social development group, where we use the multiplayer video gaming culture to put on events for the kids, teengers and young adults of local communities in New Zealand, giving them something productive to do in the weekends. We drive a lot of social initiatives with our events, such as combating suicide, depression and underage drug and alcohol abuse.

So long story short, I started out a year ago with 30 x Toshiba Tecra m10's. They are horribly outdated, but we managed to build quite a big community following playing multiplayer games like Minecraft, Call of Duty United Offensive, Counter Strike Source, Half Life Deathmatch. However, not having games like Fortnite and PUBG is seriously hindering our growth.

So I've decided to buy 20 new computers the end of this year. I have to make every dollar count. I know enough about computers, but there might be some things I'm not considering when about to spend more money than I ever have in my life, so I've come to you guys to ask for some advice.

Understand that I am from New Zealand so prices will be in NZD.

Currently I have priced up 20 x machines for $26,000, so that will remain my absolute max budget. Here is the PC PARTS PICKER list for it;

https://nz.pcpartpicker.com/list/hktXhy

Can you guys let me know what you think of my choice? How many years do you think I am expected to get out of it? I plan to get enough use out of these 20 x computers to grow to 50 x computers with the exact same parts over the next 3 years, so will they still be any good in 3 years time?

Also, is now a good time to be buying these components? Are there other components on the horizon that will be much better value for money? I'd hate to buy up now and realize I've made a dreadful mistake not waiting another few months.

Also is there any issues with certain motherboards for these components? I've understood that sometimes certain motherboard revisions have issues with certain processors, there aren't any motherboards I should avoid with this processor? I may swap the motherboard I've chosen for another kind depending on how well I can fit the WiFi card and GPU in the case I have designed.

Understand too that my operation is fully mobile, I cart all the computers around in a trailer and set up events at various venues around the country, so that's why WIFI is crucial, so I don't have to deal with ethernet cables.

If you are going to make a recommondation of changing certain components, I would really appreciate it if you can send me your own PCPARTSPICKER Permalinks for future reference, that would be fantastic!

EDIT: We are ONLY ever going to be running in 1080p with the screens we have, also easily being able to stream is a huge priority for us too, so Shadowplay on Nvidia cards we are pretty biased towards, as opposed to Radeon ATI cards, but I guess we could substitute with OBS or something to get much better cards for less cost.

I would really appreciate all the help! Thank you very much

[NelizMastr]

While it's a great list, you've probably noticed you're paying $200+ NZD for an i3, which isn't a gaming processor.

 

I've made some changes that make the systems better for the future, with room for a better GPU and more RAM. The GPU is the same performance level, but for quite a better price.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor  ($258.50 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME B450M-K Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($132.00 @ PC Force) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($139.00 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($101.99 @ PB Technologies) 
Video Card: Sapphire - Radeon RX 580 8GB PULSE Video Card  ($459.89 @ Ascent Technology) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($169.00 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link - TL-WDN4800 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter 
Total: $1260.38
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-25 23:38 NZDT+1300

[hobbit_miester]

3 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

While it's a great list, you've probably noticed you're paying $200+ NZD for an i3, which isn't a gaming processor.

 

I've made some changes that make the systems better for the future, with room for a better GPU and more RAM. The GPU is the same performance level, but for quite a better price.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor  ($258.50 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME B450M-K Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($132.00 @ PC Force) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($139.00 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($101.99 @ PB Technologies) 
Video Card: Sapphire - Radeon RX 580 8GB PULSE Video Card  ($459.89 @ Ascent Technology) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($169.00 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link - TL-WDN4800 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter 
Total: $1260.38
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-25 23:38 NZDT+1300

Thanks NelizMastr!

Ok so I'm going to need some serious convincing to convert to AMD, I see lots of trolling about them on the PCMR forums, and I see a lot of people have issues with Ryzen cpu's having compatibility issues with certain games. Intel and Nvidia cards always seem to have priority with optimization, which games seem to run a bit better on. Also streaming on individual computers is going to be a massive thing for us next year, so does Radeon cards have a shadowplay equivilant? If not can you reccommend a good shadowplay compatible build? I guess we could resort to OBS if we had to instead of shadowplay, we just wanted the ease of access to streaming for first time users!

[TrigrH]

6 minutes ago, hobbit_miester said:

Thanks NelizMastr!

Ok so I'm going to need some serious convincing to convert to AMD, I see lots of trolling about them on the PCMR forums, and I see a lot of people have issues with Ryzen cpu's having compatibility issues with certain games. Intel and Nvidia cards always seem to have priority with optimization, which games seem to run a bit better on. Also streaming on individual computers is going to be a massive thing for us next year, so does Radeon cards have a shadowplay equivilant? If not can you reccommend a good shadowplay compatible build? I guess we could resort to OBS if we had to instead of shadowplay, we just wanted the ease of access to streaming for first time users!

the difference between his build and yours is night and day, feel free to go for the 1060, but you really will want that ryzen 2600.

[TrigrH]

8 minutes ago, hobbit_miester said:

Thanks NelizMastr!

Ok so I'm going to need some serious convincing to convert to AMD, I see lots of trolling about them on the PCMR forums, and I see a lot of people have issues with Ryzen cpu's having compatibility issues with certain games. Intel and Nvidia cards always seem to have priority with optimization, which games seem to run a bit better on. Also streaming on individual computers is going to be a massive thing for us next year, so does Radeon cards have a shadowplay equivilant? If not can you reccommend a good shadowplay compatible build? I guess we could resort to OBS if we had to instead of shadowplay, we just wanted the ease of access to streaming for first time users!

radeon has relive, its just as good,

[antimatterdynamite]

since you specifically mentioned PUBG and fortnite you should stick to the 1060, from benchmarks there is at least a 10% difference in performance between the graphic cards on those titles (since it's an unreal engine game which nvidia helped develop) and since you focus on mainstream games i'd say 4 cores is all you need - since that's still the majority of the market and those games optimize for that

[NelizMastr]

39 minutes ago, hobbit_miester said:

Ok so I'm going to need some serious convincing to convert to AMD, I see lots of trolling about them on the PCMR forums

Those are the saltiest and most elitist douches without actual knowledge, so disregard their opinion  

 

14 minutes ago, antimatterdynamite said:

since you specifically mentioned PUBG and fortnite you should stick to the 1060, from benchmarks there is at least a 10% difference in performance between the graphic cards on those titles (since it's an unreal engine game which nvidia helped develop) and since you focus on mainstream games i'd say 4 cores is all you need - since that's still the majority of the market and those games optimize for that

Well yeah, but you're paying for a 4-core that was at least 20% cheaper two months ago and now costs more than the i5 did at the time. That's poor value. The Ryzen 5 is a beast of a CPU for the current games. The Nvidia optimization argument is somewhat justified, but I'd pick a cheaper card than the one proposed as it's overpriced for a 1060. It's all about value, brand preference is dumb.

 

Here's the 1060 version of my proposed system:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor  ($258.50 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME B450M-K Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($132.00 @ PC Force) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($139.00 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($101.99 @ PB Technologies) 
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB WINDFORCE OC 6G Video Card  ($499.00 @ DTC Systems) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($169.00 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link - TL-WDN4800 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter 
Total: $1299.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-26 00:21 NZDT+1300

[Supportsneedlove]

Why the 2 TB hardrive? Save yourself 50 bucks and go with an 240 GB A400 Kingston SSD. Since I doubt you'll need all that extra storage. 

 

[r2724r16]

1 minute ago, Supportsneedlove said:

Why the 2 TB hardrive? Save yourself 50 bucks and go with an 240 GB A400 Kingston SSD. Since I doubt you'll need all that extra storage. 

The A400 is a terrible SSD

[LukeSavenije]

https://nz.pcpartpicker.com/list/KqdmRJ

but you might want to wait until ryzen 2 comes out

[Supportsneedlove]

2 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

but you might want to wait until ryzen 2 comes out

hmm?

[LukeSavenije]

Just now, Supportsneedlove said:

hmm?

the 7nm chips, ryzen 2000 is more of a refresh

[MandoPanda]

@hobbit_miester Do you already have standard ATX cases? What about your wifi cards? can they be re-used? Same goes for storage? What are the details on your current setup(s)?

 

Or are we starting from scratch? case and Windows and everything?

[NelizMastr]

41 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

https://nz.pcpartpicker.com/list/KqdmRJ

but you might want to wait until ryzen 2 comes out

Zen 2. Ryzen 2 already exists. Zen 2 = Ryzen 3 and Epyc 2  

 

54 minutes ago, r2724r16 said:

The A400 is a terrible SSD

It's a bottom of the barrel model, but it works. if it has to be cheap, the Crucial BX500 is the next option and those are pretty good.

 

[hobbit_miester]

5 hours ago, Supportsneedlove said:

Why the 2 TB hardrive? Save yourself 50 bucks and go with an 240 GB A400 Kingston SSD. Since I doubt you'll need all that extra storage. 

 

Games are HUGE these days, for example a few of the kids want to have ARK ready to go all the time, that's like 120 GB alone, 1/5 of our SSD space used already

[hobbit_miester]

5 hours ago, LukeSavenije said:

https://nz.pcpartpicker.com/list/KqdmRJ

but you might want to wait until ryzen 2 comes out

RYZEN 2??? Explain to me more this 

[hobbit_miester]

4 hours ago, MandoPanda said:

@hobbit_miester Do you already have standard ATX cases? What about your wifi cards? can they be re-used? Same goes for storage? What are the details on your current setup(s)?

 

Or are we starting from scratch? case and Windows and everything?

Case I have designed and built my own with built in screens and speakers. Wifi Cards are just PCI x1, so they can be resused, current setup is basically what I've put in the PCPARTSPICKER list. Starting from scratch, just going to get windows keys from Kingwin

[LukeSavenije]

15 minutes ago, hobbit_miester said:

RYZEN 2??? Explain to me more this 

At the start of next year there will be new zen 2 chips on 7nm. They maybe even have pcie 4.0, but thats only a rumor

[brob]

As others have suggested a Ryzen 5 2600 is a better choice.

A motherboard with onboard WiFi is expensive but a more robust solution.

A 450W psu is more than enough power for each system.

Save a bit on the gpu, the performance differences are quite small between models.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor  ($258.50 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Motherboard: ASRock - B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($159.00 @ Paradigm PCs) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($139.00 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($101.99 @ PB Technologies) 
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB GT OCV1 Video Card  ($469.00 @ 1stWave Technologies) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($149.95 @ Computer Lounge) 
Total: $1277.44
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-26 06:26 NZDT+1300