So my attempts to by a laptop were thwarted and now I’m a looking into buying a desktop with Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals. Here’s the PC I’ve assembled within my rough budget of 1000-1400:
https://pcpartpicker.com/user/garthbartin/saved/2Wef
What do you guys think? My primary interest is handling games solidly in 1440p. Would it be a good idea to drop the CPU down to an i5 and buy a better GPU? Is that SSD good? I’m trying to get one that costs more but has higher read/write speeds. Is the benefit noticeable or should I just buy the cheapest 240GB SSD?
EDIT: I’m looking into switching out the GPU, and the AATI free BF4 bundles seem pretty good, but I am entirely unfamiliar with ATI video cards. What one of these would be pretty comparable to the 770 I currently have (with the BF4 bundle)?
BF4 bundled cards
EDIT2: Changed build to include a Radeon R9 290 with free BF4. I’m worried that my 700W psu won’t be able to handle this. It has one 6 pin and one 6+2 pin and one 8 pin. People in the video card’s reviews were recommending against using the 6+2. Is this a good warning? Can I plug the 6+2 pin into my mbo and use the 8 pin for the GPU without concern? Here’s my PSU. It’s also listed in the PCpartpicker link.
Might want 16GB of RAM.
I think that PSU will be fine - I have a 5.5 year old 850w PSU running a system with similar power requirements without issues.
This suggests a 500w PSU minimum for that system.
As for the SSD, you might like the Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB: comparison
Welp after looking into it I decided to get a new case. My old GPU is 10.5 inches and my new GPU is going to be 10.8 inches. Given the clearance of about .3 inches with my old GPU, the new one would theoretically fit, but it’s cutting it way too close to for comfort. Also my mobo I don’t think will support my case’s old front USB 2.0s. I’ll use the old case and hardware to run a steam stream machine for my living room. Uped the ram and switched the SSD as you suggested. The RAM I listed is sold out, I’m using it as a place holder for comparable RAM because PC partpicker doesn’t seem to have the two sticks I picked out on newegg listed. I also swapped out the MOBO for a more expensive one with the LG1150 CPU socket so that I could get a slightly better CPU for the same price.
In case you’re still looking for parts:
I personally wouldn’t buy such a big SSD. I use a 120GB SSD, and it has Windows and some programs installed on it, and nothing else. SSDs are getting a lot better, but generally you still want to stress them as little as possible, because their lifespans are measured in read/write cycles. I experimented with having Steam and some of my frequently played games on my SSD and didn’t really see any difference in load times. Instead, I have a 7200RPM hard drive dedicated solely to Steam, and it works great, a lot better than when it was sharing the drive with Windows, and that mechanical drive will last a lot longer under the kind of strain Steam puts on it. So, you might save some money with a slightly smaller SSD.
You noted that your RAM was a placeholder; I looked at G.Skill when I was building my machine, but actually ended up with a Corsair Vengeance kit, because it went on sale. It works great, so if the G.Skill doesn’t become available, I recommend it.
i5 is definitely all you need for gaming. I have an i5 2500k (Sandy Bridge) running at stock speeds and it chews up everything I throw at it.
I’m an nVidia guy, so I don’t know how powerful that graphics card is without doing a little research - apparently it’s equivalent to the GTX 780. If by 1440p you mean 1440x900, then there’s no reason your machine shouldn’t pull off 1920x1080. My machine runs a GTX 580 - the most powerful reasonable graphics card in nVidia’s GTX 5 series, aside from the 590 (which is ludicrous-tier; basically two 580’s stuck together, and more than I’d ever need), and it can run anything - Crysis 2, Metro 2033, Black Mesa - smoothly at full 1080p.
Have you thought about aftermarket cooling? I use a Coolermaster Hyper 212+ CPU cooler with two fans, and it keeps my cores icy cold - below 50 even at full load, most of the time - and it’s really affordable, only about thirty bucks. If you’re thinking about overclocking, it’ll be a must - but again, the i5 does really well even without overclocking. I also installed three additional intake fans on my machine (two in front, and one on the bottom) - you can get 120mm fans really cheap. I got a four-pack of basic Coolermaster sleeve bearing 120mm fans for under twenty bucks, and they’ve been running really well and really quietly for the last two and half years.
EDIT: I also bought most of the components for my PC on Amazon, not Newegg, as they had slightly better prices and the products were all covered by manufacturer warranties. Amazon is having a Cyber Monday Deals Week sale on PC components right now, so you might check there for some better prices.
1440p is 2560 x 1440 resolution.