Advice for Building a Desktop

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Advice for Building a Desktop

Post Post #0 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 6:13 am

Post by Pine »

What it says on the tin.

My laptop crapped out on me towards the end of the summer. Lately, I’ve been making do with an ancient (circa 2012) notebook and borrowing my wife’s laptop any time I want to do some serious work, but neither of these has the performance capabilities I’m looking for. They’re both too old to even connect to a 5G network, for goodness sake, and are slower than molasses by my standards.

I am looking to build a new computer. Laptops have served me well, but I’m sick of them having short life expectancies due to wear and tear. As such, I have decided to grow up and build a desktop.

I have never built a computer from parts before, and am a bit out of my depth.

I am looking for serious gaming-quality hardware, but it need not be bleeding-edge competition-grade stuff. Ideally, this desktop would last me at least five years with modest maintenance, perhaps a bit longer with upgrades over time.

I am in no hurry on this, and with Fall upon us, I am happy to wait for November to take advantage of Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, or even farm this out to family for Christmas gifts. They’re always complaining that I never ask for anything.

Parts I currently have:
-A quality mouse
-A USB Keyboard
-Speakers
-A CD/DVD drive
-A nearly-new 1TB SSD, salvaged from my old machine. ~8-10 months old
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Post Post #1 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 6:16 am

Post by Pine »

Image

This is the pre-constructed desktop I was looking at when I decided to build my own, for reference.
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Post Post #2 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 7:46 am

Post by Aristophanes »

Ooo I used to be really into computers and replacing parts and stuff!

I'll take a look at this later and see what I can advise :)
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Post Post #3 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 9:52 am

Post by profii »

I always tried to just set a budget and get the best stuff I could for that much money

I tend to figure it was largely the same if you are going to spend X bucks and when you hone in on a price range there will be a generally recommend product in your range

I used to nerd out on stuff like this and then I stopped caring ha but it takes the stress away I guess
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Post Post #4 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 2:05 pm

Post by Pine »

Yeah...I don’t really know enough about hardware or parts to know what the right stuff is though, or what to prioritize. Shell out for a graphics card? Processor? Is mainboard the priority for longevity?
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Post Post #5 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 2:44 pm

Post by Aristophanes »

Nvidia does nice graphics cards and drivers
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Post Post #6 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 2:45 pm

Post by Aristophanes »

i7 Quad core processor is best imo
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Post Post #7 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 2:56 pm

Post by Alisae »

What's your budget?
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Post Post #8 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 2:58 pm

Post by Alisae »

I built my own computer and my friends helped me find the parts that were within my budget, so I can help you here :]
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Post Post #9 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 3:16 pm

Post by popsofctown »

I wanna hijack this thread like a douchecanoe

I have a gaming PC I spent a lot of money on a couple years ago, but it doesn't seem able to run Borderlands 3 at smooth framerate.

It seems like I can't be more than 1 part away from actually having it be on par with BL3 but I don't know enough about PCs to figure that out. My friends helped me build it but then when I ask them about the parts later it is less exciting to them than building it in the first place was.

The graphics card is "NVidia GeForce GTX 970". The processor is "Intel Cor i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz", and it says that 8 times so I guess I have 8 of them?
Is there any other part that would matter?
I have a fancy water based cooling system I'm supposed to replace every 2 years but didn't, but my core temp monitor says 30 degrees Celsius which ought to be ok?

Maybe I should just overclock? I think I'm not overclocking right now.

Thanks if anyone knows stuff.

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Post Post #10 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 3:22 pm

Post by Alisae »

I pinged Shiro on discord and gave them the thread
I'm sure they'll be able to help anyone who needs it.

Plus, any help I would have given would have been probably just asking them or anyone else I knew and then posting that information here.
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Post Post #11 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 4:15 pm

Post by Pine »

Die, Pops

As for budget...flexible. Less than $1500, but as I said above, I’m planning on taking advantage of Black Friday sales, asking for parts for Christmas, etc.
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Post Post #12 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 4:25 pm

Post by popsofctown »

:(
"Let us say that you are right and there are two worlds. How much, then, is this 'other world' worth to you? What do you have there that you do not have here? Money? Power? Something worth causing the prince so much pain for?'"
"Well, I..."
"What? Nothing? You would make the prince suffer over... nothing?"
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Post Post #13 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 4:41 pm

Post by Bins »

In post 9, popsofctown wrote:I have a gaming PC I spent a lot of money on a couple years ago, but it doesn't seem able to run Borderlands 3 at smooth framerate.
Isn't BL3 having performance issues for a bunch of people?
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Post Post #14 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 4:48 pm

Post by popsofctown »

According to google it doesn't have a reliable framerate even on consoles, which is precisely targetted hardware.

So you're right, the game probably has a performance bug and I should chill.

Now Pine will hate me xtra
"Let us say that you are right and there are two worlds. How much, then, is this 'other world' worth to you? What do you have there that you do not have here? Money? Power? Something worth causing the prince so much pain for?'"
"Well, I..."
"What? Nothing? You would make the prince suffer over... nothing?"
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Post Post #15 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 4:54 pm

Post by Aristophanes »

Like anyone could actually hate you Pops XD

The i7 is a quad core so saying you're running 8 of them is kinda accurate since I believe that's how they classify it.

I've had good luck with Nvidia, like I say. Have you updated the driver software? That might be why it's lagging on framerates.

Also water coolinf is efficient AF but adds a hefty price tag. Personally I'd never get the use out of it but for any prolonged gamint it is such a great feature!

Sounds like your friends built you a great machine there, Pops!
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Post Post #16 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 5:00 pm

Post by Bins »

I built my PC... two years ago? So my knowledge is pretty out of date on parts, but r/buildapc was very helpful. I also tracked everything on pcpartpicker.

I remember the key decisions for me were:

1. Graphics card. Pretty much the area I knew I couldn't cheap out on if I wanted a good gaming PC. I opted for the GTX 1060 6GB GPU, which was basically the best priced gamer (but not pro gamer) quality card out there at the time.
2. CPU. Honestly, Intel and Ryzen are pretty comparable and I saw good arguments for both. At the time, I was most comfortable going for an i5. My budget was around $1100 (CAD, not USD). I knew I only wanted to do gaming, and the i5 is sufficient for those needs. If you want to run some heavier software and multitask and do editing, then get an i7. But really, if just for gaming, consider an i5 to save money. I was heavily debating on Ryzen, though.
3. A mini vs. full-size motherboard. I went with mini to save money, because I knew I was likely not going to upgrade further past what I made. If you want more flexibility, go bigger.
4. To SSD or to not SSD? I didn't. But I can always add one on later. I have had no reason to so far currently. Performance is fine.
5. I went lower than 750W on the power supply... by a lot... I can't remember, but I think I did a lot of research and found the lowest that would still work for me, and that was around 550W, I think (I can check if you want). I got it fully modular too.
6. The only regret I have I think is not getting more or better RAM. I have 8GB and I feel for the rest of the build its the weakest link.
is this where I tell you to swipe right

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Post Post #17 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 5:44 pm

Post by popsofctown »

My one thing is maybe I should get more memory, I have to uninstall games I actually might have a whim to play to make room sometimes.

I remembered to check on driver software I think it might just be borderlands three.
"Let us say that you are right and there are two worlds. How much, then, is this 'other world' worth to you? What do you have there that you do not have here? Money? Power? Something worth causing the prince so much pain for?'"
"Well, I..."
"What? Nothing? You would make the prince suffer over... nothing?"
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Post Post #18 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 6:51 pm

Post by Shiro »

In post 6, Aristophanes wrote:i7 Quad core processor is best imo
I personally advice against buy intel processor,

While yes they are a little bit better than amd ones the price difference isnt worth it plus the ryzen series is future proof motherboard wise since unlike intel amd doesnt change the socket for each iteration of the same processor.
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Post Post #19 (ISO) » Sun Sep 15, 2019 6:55 pm

Post by Shiro »

I will be more comprehensive later I just woke up :P
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Post Post #20 (ISO) » Mon Sep 16, 2019 3:39 am

Post by Flubbernugget »

Are RAM/GPUs still super expensive?

Pretty sure the RAM still is. Pre-builts have been stuck at 8(ish)gb for a while
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Post Post #21 (ISO) » Mon Sep 16, 2019 3:41 am

Post by Flubbernugget »

Kind of also wonder if processors have been getting faster after that speculative exectution nightmare
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Post Post #22 (ISO) » Mon Sep 16, 2019 3:44 am

Post by Flubbernugget »

In post 9, popsofctown wrote:The processor is "Intel Cor i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz", and it says that 8 times so I guess I have 8 of them?
You most likely have one processor with four computational units (cores) that are able to perform trickery on the code they run to make your OS think you have 8 cores.
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Post Post #23 (ISO) » Mon Sep 16, 2019 3:46 am

Post by Pine »

In post 22, Flubbernugget wrote:
In post 9, popsofctown wrote:The processor is "Intel Cor i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz", and it says that 8 times so I guess I have 8 of them?
You most likely have one processor with four computational units (cores) that are able to perform trickery on the code they run to make your OS think you have 8 cores.
See, I don’t even know what the hell that means
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Post Post #24 (ISO) » Mon Sep 16, 2019 3:47 am

Post by Flubbernugget »

To answer your question of performance, wait for driver and borderlands updates before you think about buying anything. Pushing out a new game always brings a slew of PC issues. It's really tough to get one codebase to work correctly on millions of different machines.
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