Building/buying a new PC (finished)

Oioi

I've decided I finally want to have a decent PC for playing games on actually able to delve into CoH 2 properly again, as the toaster I've got at the moment is bad enough, but is now showing signs of deteriorating further, so I need to ask a few things.

Firstly, I know little about specs, I know I want something pwoerful, I don't need GTX 1080 uber rigs, though something that could last a number of years without the need of many replacement parts. Not looking to get lots of new games or play any 2016 releases so far (given the disappointment that was DX MD), but possibly games like the Witcher 3.

So, I'd like some help with:
- What sort of parts will I need?
- I've considered a 980, but is it worth it?
- As it's my first desktop, can I trust myself to build it or should I go for one built by someone?

I'm looking to spend £700-£850~, though sadly Brexit has meant the rates aren't so good at the moment.

A 970 gtx or a RX 480 should be just fine. As for building a pc its pretty easy. Plenty of guides out there to DIY. Nice if you have buddy help the first time but not necessary

In that price range, you're gonna want a quad-core CPU from Intel's Skylake family, so that's either the i5-6400, 6500 or 6600. All three can easily handle all current games and COH2 will be a piece of cake. Depending on the model, that's £150-200.
For a GPU, I'd say a 980 is too expensive and it's also generally a good idea to stick to the current generation. For your budget, I'd recommend a GTX 1060 (6GB model) or RX 480 (8GB model); both start at about £230 and can handle just about any game, as long as you're not going above 1080p.
8GB of DDR4 RAM (2x4GB) should be enough for now, but you should get a motherboard with four RAM slots, so you can easily upgrade in the future.

Building yourself is totally possible - there are lots of tutorials available. It saves you money and you'll probably still do a better job than some of the guys you'd otherwise pay to do it for you.

In that price range, you're gonna want a quad-core CPU from Intel's Skylake family, so that's either the i5-6400, 6500 or 6600. All three can easily handle all current games and COH2 will be a piece of cake. Depending on the model, that's £150-200.
For a GPU, I'd say a 980 is too expensive and it's also generally a good idea to stick to the current generation. For your budget, I'd recommend a GTX 1060 (6GB model) or RX 480 (8GB model); both start at about £230 and can handle just about any game, as long as you're not going above 1080p.
8GB of DDR4 RAM (2x4GB) should be enough for now, but you should get a motherboard with four RAM slots, so you can easily upgrade in the future.

Building yourself is totally possible - there are lots of tutorials available. It saves you money and you'll probably still do a better job than some of the guys you'd otherwise pay to do it for you.

So what would be the difference, say, between a 970 and a 1060? If a 980 is too expensive (and I looked up the prices soon after this, and yeah...) then would it be more worth going for a model from the same series of lesser performance or the one from the next series on?

And thanks btw.

I'll lay out some raw statistics for you:

GTX 970 4GB (~220 £)
3DMark DX11 (1920x1080) score: 10,244
Benchmark temperature: 68 degrees C
PassMark score: 8,633

GTX 1060 3GB (~250 £)
3DMark DX11 (1920x1080) score: 10,449 (+2.5% over the GTX 970)
Benchmark temperature: 70 degrees C
PassMark score: 8,785 (+1% over the GTX 970)

GTX 1060 6GB (~300 £)
3DMark DX11 (1920x1080) score: 11,197 (+9.3% over the GTX 970)
Benchmark temperature: 75 degrees C
PassMark score: 9,039 (+4.7% over the GTX 970)

I'd go for a newer model to be more "future proof," that is, your computer will scale better into the future. The final verdict, however, is completely yours.

So what would be the difference, say, between a 970 and a 1060? If a 980 is too expensive (and I looked up the prices soon after this, and yeah...) then would it be more worth going for a model from the same series of lesser performance or the one from the next series on?

And thanks btw.

No problem!

Newer cards are generally more power efficient and therefore produce less noise and heat. They also often support newer DirectX features, although that's not the case when comparing the GTX 9 and 10 generations.

The GTX 970 currently seems to be more expensive than the GTX 1060 (3GB) while being slightly slower, so there's no reason for buying it any more. It does have an extra GB of memory, but half of that is running extremely slowly. (There was quite a scandal about that a while back.)

But buying a card with high memory is advisable if you either want to play at high resolutions or want your setup to be future-proof. So, if you're willing to spend the extra cash, I'd recommend getting the GTX 1060 6GB model, because 3GB are really not a lot any more and might become a performance bottleneck.

Prices for comparison:
http://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=gra16_512&xf=9810_5+3494+-+GTX+970&sort=p
http://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=gra16_512&xf=9810_6+3470+-+GTX+1060+3GB&sort=p
http://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=gra16_512&xf=9810_6+3855+-+GTX+1060+6GB&sort=p

Alternatively, there's the RX 480. Concerning price and performance, it's fairly equal to the GTX 1060, but you can get it with up to 8GB of memory. It might also support some DirectX features that the GTX cards don't, but I'm not sure. On the other hand, the GTX 1060 is more power-efficient. In the end, it comes down to personal preference. There are fanboys for each company, just like with Axis and Allies in COH

Prices:
http://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=gra16_512&xf=132_8192~9808_11606+-+RX+480&sort=p

Edit: Here's a build suggestion that I threw together quickly!
https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=WL-725882&sort=-p

I wish I had the know-how you lot did, thank you.

As for builds, I've seen the one you made above, but if say I went for a 1060 6GB, would it still work with that same build or one similar? Because I don't want to go for a similar thing that ends up not working properly.

Alternatively, there's the RX 480. Concerning price and performance, it's fairly equal to the GTX 1060, but you can get it with up to 8GB of memory. It might also support some DirectX features that the GTX cards don't, but I'm not sure. On the other hand, the GTX 1060 is more power-efficient.

the rx 480 supports asynchronous computing, which is a major thing in dx12 (nvidia claims to do so too, but the support is not hardware-sided and therefore useless, as it does not make anything faster, but rather slower)

Edit: Here's a build suggestion that I threw together quickly!
https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=WL-725809&sort=-p

my recommendations for change:
-i5-6500 rather than i5-6600 (20 bucks for 0.1 GHz is totally overpriced)
-DO NOT get this rx 480, always go for a custom design(aka 2 or three fans). the standart design has an issue with power supply through the mainboard, is loder, slower and hotter
-m2 ssd is not needed and i heard the mx300 is a downgrad to the mx300, not sure though
-i would go for a z170 board for the full chipset and ddr4 2400 support
- not sure about the power supply, i would generally go for a better quality one, like:
https://geizhals.eu/super-flower-golden-green-hx-550w-atx-2-3-sf-550p14xe-hx-a1039303.html

As for builds, I've seen the one you made above, but if say I went for a 1060 6GB, would it still work with that same build or one similar? Because I don't want to go for a similar thing that ends up not working properly.

all graphic cards are interchangeable, years ago people said intel+nvidia and amd+ati, but thats a thing of the past.

@swiftsabre
a couple of questions:
-are you gonna use your pc for anything else than gaming?
-do you live in a hot country?
-could you get a used 980 from a friend or why were you asking for that one?
-what parts are in your old pc?
-how much do you game?

-i5-6500 rather than i5-6600 (20 bucks for 0.1 GHz is totally overpriced)

It has a 300MHz higher turbo clock, but you're still right. Switched it out!

-DO NOT get this rx 480, always go for a custom design(aka 2 or three fans). the standart design has an issue with power supply through the mainboard, is loder, slower and hotter

Looked it up - you're right. I put in a custom card from Gigabyte.

-m2 ssd is not needed and i heard the mx300 is a downgrad to the mx300, not sure though

It costs the same as a 2,5" drive, so I'd go for M2. The MX300 had firmware problems, but I read that those are resolved now. There are faster SSDs, but it offers great value for the money.

-i would go for a z170 board for the full chipset and ddr4 2400 support

That's another £30, but I see your point. Added a nice Z170 board from Asus.

- not sure about the power supply, i would generally go for a better quality one, like:
https://geizhals.eu/super-flower-golden-green-hx-550w-atx-2-3-sf-550p14xe-hx-a1039303.html

Corsair is a solid brand. I've been using a PSU from the same product line for years without problems!

https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=WL-725882&sort=-p
If this is too expensive, you could go back to a cheaper motherboard and down to 8GB of RAM.

@swiftsabre
a couple of questions:
-are you gonna use your pc for anything else than gaming?
-do you live in a hot country?
-could you get a used 980 from a friend or why were you asking for that one?
-what parts are in your old pc?
-how much do you game?

- Probably not, can't see what else I'd be using it for, I'm no pr0 streamer
- No
- No
- None (laptop)
- Depends, I play less at the moment because playing games is mostly painful on a toaster, and it also depends on what takes my fancy, so it varies a lot, but I'd play more with a better machine

- Probably not, can't see what else I'd be using it for, I'm no pr0 streamer
- No
- No
- None (laptop)
- Depends, I play less at the moment because playing games is mostly painful on a toaster, and it also depends on what takes my fancy, so it varies a lot, but I'd play more with a better machine

You can scrap some things from laptop if you want to, an ssd drive would be great choice for example, not if you are going to continue that sad laptop proceder of course

And btw, if you want it future proof, I would go for i7, not i5. Yes it is much more expensive but benchmarks and history teach us that 6xxx i5s are slower than 3xxx i7s... (In fact comparable in benchmarks to 2xxx i7s) For the same reason, if you want it cheap, it's worth it to go for older i7s. You can get new i7-4770k for about the same price as i5-6600k and it is faster in most benchmarks.

MSG me on Steam if you want help.

Looked it up - you're right. I put in a custom card from Gigabyte.

for the rx 480 i would go for the msi or the powercolor, they are the best custom designs iirc

Corsair is a solid brand. I've been using a PSU from the same product line for years without problems!

i didnt hear the best about the corsair cx ones and i wouldnt save money on it. i had a psu from a "solid brand" aswell, it fried my motherboard....
edit:
if it has to be a corsair, then this one:
https://geizhals.de/corsair-vengeance-550m-550w-atx-2-4-cp-9020111-de-a1405278.html

https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=WL-725882&sort=-p
If this is too expensive, you could go back to a cheaper motherboard and down to 8GB of RAM.

i would not go down to 8 gigs, 16 are needed, especially if one wants to use this pc a longer time

I'd play more with a better machine

alright, then its up to you to decide whether you want the 1060 (less power needed) or 480 (more power consumption, but more futureproof)

Yes it is much more expensive but benchmarks and history teach us that 6xxx i5s are slower than 3xxx i7s

pretty much all games today are in gpu limit and it will stay like that for quite a while. and honestly, i see quite a bit of guys using a highly overclocked i5 2500k without a problem

pretty much all games today are in gpu limit and it will stay like that for quite a while. and honestly, i see quite a bit of guys using a highly overclocked i5 2500k without a problem

You are right, I'm playing coh2 on 2500k machine myself And he said its only for gaming... But if we look at it that way, why even bother with motherboards for 6xxx? If 6600k is maximum of what this pc needs, going 4xxx may be more beneficial costwise.

Btw. I am using 2500k machine for gaming, but for non gaming uses, its getting a bit slow, does anybody want to sell used 3770k for at a good price?

for the rx 480 i would go for the msi or the powercolor, they are the best custom designs iirc

i didnt hear the best about the corsair cx ones and i wouldnt save money on it. i had a psu from a "solid brand" aswell, it fried my motherboard....
edit:
if it has to be a corsair, then this one:
https://geizhals.de/corsair-vengeance-550m-550w-atx-2-4-cp-9020111-de-a1405278.html

i would not go down to 8 gigs, 16 are needed, especially if one wants to use this pc a longer time

Updated the list again. RX 480 from Powercolor and PSU from beQuiet. Went back to a cheaper B150 motherboard though, because the price went over £850. RAM seems to be crazy expensive in the UK!

I would not recommend going for an older i7. Sure, performance might be a bit better for the price. But you'd also need an older motherboard, and then you'd be stuck with DDR3 RAM and an older socket, making it impossible to upgrade your CPU in the future.

i got that quck estimation build i said id do! its not perfect but its pretty damn good depends on what you actually need. (more details required)

post when newegg lets me.

don't get a 2011 processor. instead go for a 1155.

also don't be stingy on the processor and mother board. as they are the everything your computer is.

make sure you buy proper RAM otherwise you are more bound to hurt your computer.

don't worry to much about buying an expensive GPU as i have a single gtx 780 ti and it's been doing me wonders.

And SSD is highly recommendable with a HDD for storage.

so, thanks to the glorious US Postal Service, i've had the opportunity to do some PC build planning. since i want a machine that will conquer all but don't necessarily have the budget for it, i had to do a lot comparing like you. one thing i thought about that might help...

pick a video card that you'd like to use in a SLI/CrossFire setup. something like a 1060 will do fine now, but in a year or two when you need more GPU power, you can always get a second and link them up. boom! awesome graphics for less money (at once).

the downside to this is you might spend more money on a mobo and it's going to payoff more if you start with a better processor.

at least for coh2, clock speed is more relevant than number of cores, so i agree with dreamer (LGA1155 > LGA2011).

Cor, this is going to get expensive. I'll have a look into all of this stuff and hopefully will have made up my mind and ordered this stuff by next weekend.

Ah, I also forgot to mention something too, I'm going to need a 1080p monitor and a keyboard. Nothing mega fancy, super light show keyboard silliness, just a functional mechanical keyboard and a monitor that does it's job for a good price.

Ideally I'd have factored them into my £850 budget, so that limit may need to be raised to about £900~

Also, why do certain things on the PCpartpicker site not show a price? I take it they aren't just handing stuff out for free.