I have two specific questions I would like to ask and any knowledge would be helpful, this is my first post here and I apologize if this has been asked 100 times!
Is it really worth going above and beyond to a high end build anymore these days?
I built a high end machine back in 2008 and spent around $1,200. I see people suggesting about every 3-5 years they replace their machines, and now that 2016 is rolling over my machine will be about 8 years old, and seems to run just "ok" so I am sure any newer build will show improvements.
As a broke college graduate student I am asking should I spend the $1,200 or more again and find myself building another machine in another 8 years or should I build a $4-600 machine and upgrade more frequently?
I guess I just can't fathom with new builds does a high end build really out perform a mid grade build for real life tasks like CS:GO and light photo/video editing or am I paying for higher synthetic bench mark scores? Am I actually investing in better and newer technology? Or is it bells and whistles that are just the latest and greatest and just a tad faster?
Arbitrary Example would be like if a 600$ build gets me 200FPS in CSGO will a 2000$ build give me 600FPS and even if it did would I notice it?
Also would you save anything from my previous build in 2008?
Previous Build (Intel Core 2 Duo 3.3, 4GB of DDR2, GTX 260, 750GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Case, 600Watt PSU etc.)
I just don't want bottlenecks or old stuff causing harm to new components like the PSU if it were to go bad.
Thanks again!
Chris
only thing worth saving is the hard drive, and DVD drive. possibly case depending on size. i would upgrade to to a new processor with either high speed ddr3 ram or mid speed ddr4 and of course a new main board will be needed as well. i would change the power supply every 4-12 years depending on the model and wattage, as well as load being placed on it. load closer to maximum wattage replace sooner rather than later. the graphics card is super dated and should be. replaced with a upper middle range card. id go with a amd r9 290 or a amd r9 390 depending on deals you can find. (side note not a fan of nvida and the constant tom foolery and will not recommend a single nvida card.)
as far as cpu goes its all a matter of choice if you want the best with all the latest and greatest bells and whistles right now intel is the way to go. if you dont mind a little behind AMD is not a bad choice and does not hurt wallet that bad.
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It depends mostly on the resolution you're going to game at, generally I wouldn't spend an obscene amount of money on a PC and use the money in other places like a better chair/desk ect
Is CS:GO your main game? Because then a 1080p 144hz Free-sync display would be the way to go for around $250 and any mid range GPU is going to be able to push that fps with an i5 at a $600 PC, and given that an FM2+ quad core or an ivy bridge i5 can still play games well, an i5 4460 is going to last a good long while
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It can come down to many factors one what games are you playing if all your playing is csgo that 600fps wont do you much good but if your playing fallout 4 shadow of mordor and batman Arkham knight and you want solid fps at 60 or even 100 fps on higher resolution with all settings cranked to ultra then a high end build may be better you would gain more fps. When I was in college I built around a $1200 build and its worked out great because it allowed me to just upgrade the graphics card and ram down the road instead of cpu motherboard and possibly ssd. So it can depend alot on what you use it for me personaly I use my build for video editing/photo editing and gaming. That being said here are two builds one at the $600 and one at the $2000
First build came out a little above the 600 mark but its pretty well rounded and for gaming it should be pretty soled the cpu is pretty good as well so you may only need to upgrade the graphics card down the road. I would also reuse the hard drive from your prevous build as long as its 7200rpm for storage and the ssd for your os you can also use the dvd drive that shouldn't have any problems I used a new psu because that one is pretty old and its better to get a new one.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/p7pHP6
Here is the second build for around $2000 All right it came out a little under but still a pretty well rounded build I would wait until the i7 price drops because $400 plus is a bit expensive for it.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/NWJMzy
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My case is the Antec P180 and honestly the HDD and DVD rom have been sketching me out for a while as in they seem to be working ok, but I feel like I have run into some issues over the last year with them so IDK how much I trust them anymore. So at this point I feel I might just want to buy all new stuff and just keep this build as is.
As for the new stuff, I guess I used to be a brand chaser and a guy that wanted my PC to look sweet... but really it sits underneath my desk and no one cares what it looks like. I just need a solid PC that can browse the web, word process, and game CS:GO and other like titles without crashing. The only reason CS:GO is the choice of game is because its the only game I have seriously stuck with since 1.5 years ago. Ive played WOW, WC3, LOL, BF3, and other titles but not in years, CS:GO is the only thing that I stick with I guess.
So brand and stuff doesn't matter to me as much anymore I just want a solid build and was curious like I know changing from my 8 year old computer will be a HUGE improvement no matter what I get but will say the same improvement from a 500$ to a 1000$ PC be seen or will it be minimal in the everyday tasks I do?
Street Guru that was what I was thinking I have two 1080p monitors that I want to say are 60Hz (the acer H233H and H213H) that I use now and have older peripherals like a saitek eclipse II keyboard and a logitech G500 mouse that I dont know if any are worth keeping or should just replace for new stuff and the money I save on not going all out with the PC I should invest in new peripherals
shadowvengence
I only play games like CS:GO and havent dabbled in the other. Honestly IDK why but I only have stuck to CS and play as competiviely as possible. So to me having everything on high isnt as important as making sure the FPS are high enough to not have crashes or a shitty gaming experence. I think the 600$ is more in the price range as I could possibly do that sooner rather than later. With the way technology changes and people saying they upgrade so frequently I rather just keep building a brand new machine every 5 years than dropping triple the price and still having to do a similar rebuild or upgrade components still
You can probably reuse the psu if its reasonable quality, do you know what model it is.
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From memory that was a good psu back in its day, but unless you are on a really tight budget i would probably get a new psu and save that as a backup. I would go for something like the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438054&cm_re=EVGA_SuperNOVA-_-17-438-054-_-Product or something from the Seasonic G series.
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Yeah I spent a good amount of time finding all the best and right parts back for my original build and I am attempting to do that over again. Solid parts that have a good reputation and can last awhile and perform with the best but dont need to be top tier. Also I wouldnt mind a modular PSU to get rid of all the extra cable garbage!
I wouldn't worry about getting the highest quality everything, how much did you want to spend? and if you do indeed play a lot of CS:GO and other shooters you'd want the 144hz display with it most likely, plus you could do triple monitor gaming as well
I always had a question about monitors does me plugging multiple monitors in drop my fps significantly vs having only 1 plugged in?
So you would keep these 2 60 Hz Monitors? I mean 3 screens sounds sweet I just feel like its been so long since ive been looking into parts that I didnt know if they were still any good to use on modern day systems.
As for price realalitcally under $600 probably for the tower. Now if you told me like hey man everything from 4-500$ is going to be the same and you will get WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY better performance if you spend another 100$ I will but like if you say yeah man everything from 6-900$ is about the same just what bells and whistles do you want then the cheaper the better. Like I said I am sure a new quad core, SSD, GPU and more RAM will destroy my old 2 core, 4 gb ram, and HDD, GTX 260. So if you tell me like for another 300$ i can get 5% improvement I dont wanna do it but if you say it will be double the performance I will way my options haha but lets stick to around 5-600 I guess
Secondly I guess I wouldnt mind spending the money I save into extra pheripals like a new keyboard, monitor, mouse, headset etc. I can get all that shit 1 at a time, but like IDK what is the standard or good anymore. Like is there more crap you need to buy? like I use a MIC on my desk and a pair of headphones that arent like anything amazing but they work. Do I need a new headset or a DAC or sound card to make it worth my while or should I really get a mechanical keyboard that everyone has now haha I am not old but I just feel like there is a standard everyone is at and my goal is to get back to being "modern" or up to date with shit and hopefully not fall back behind
here is a video with my $650 build specs playing csgo should be pretty solid for your needs. Also if you go with the 250gb ssd you could put csgo on the ssd for faster load times.
Yeah this looks good better than my all low settings ranging from 50-100fps and crashing the PC if a smoke gernade goes off in front of me lol. Hard to get out of LE when your afraid a smoke gernade will crash your game. Since the patch its crashed every game atleast once if not more! -_- this is what brought upon this ... I need to get a new PC ASAP. lol
I know pherphials are a whole to each their own preference but would you upgrade or suggest anything that would really make a difference that I should look into to complement the tower?
I was watching my buddy play cs:go last weekend at a tournament. He got 200fps solid with a intel g3258 and some potato gfx card. no idea what the settings were but i don't know how relevant that is, he had the colours all weird on the monitor to see better lol
Though I'm not a fan with being locked into one type of gpu a freesync monitor would be a great complement because you get 120fps and less stutter because of freesync tech. Something like this wouldn't be a bad complement.
Also if you looking for other peripherals I love my mechanical keyboard
Although if you live in a dorm setting I would go with chary mx orange which will be quieter.
As for a mouse I use a
But I play a lot of mmos so it work's for me I'm really not to knowledgeable about a good mouse for shooters but the other two are pretty solid.
yeah the game doesnt really require a lot, because my current config at everything super low settings and like a 800x600 resolution I can push like 125fps but like I feel I have tried every config to optimize performance for this thing, but now im just thinking its time for a new pc because if I cant get over 125 fps and the game crashes from a smoke gernade and seriously Ive kept up on maintence and everything I shouldnt have to worry about such low fps from such low settings.