I was thinking of building my own PC around christmas this year, and I have previously seen some pretty good looking advise on this topic on this forum.

What site/forum/channel/person is best? Whose advise should I take and when? Is it best to buy all your parts on boxing day, or some other sale day?


I am not looking for anything specific, just a nice stable long lasting PC that will play new games. I would sort of like it compact, if possible, and do not really need large storage abilities as the one I am running now has a lot of room left (I was sort of thinking just a small-medium SSD). In the $400 dollar range, seemed more than good enough to me.

10 years ago*

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400$ isn't probably enough for a gaming PC. That's why I save up and buy 1000$ PC :)

10 years ago
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Also, buy your parts when you have money for your whole PC, because some newer/better parts may come out and then you could get them, or the ones you chose before for a cheaper price :)

10 years ago
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"I was sort of thinking just a small-medium SSD".
Define small-medium? Because a 120 GB SSD, on its own, is gonna run you just under $100. $70-90 range. Minus your hdd since you already have one, there's still going to be 6 essential parts after that, and they're each gonna be in the $100 range, give or take, too.

Save for the processor, that could be a bit more.. $200 range for an i5.

Generally speaking, you can probably get away with setting about $700-800 aside for a budget build.. but I wouldn't go much lower than that if you want it to run modern games. And run them well. And last awhile. You did mention wanting it to be stable and long-term.

10 years ago
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I was seeing a bunch of $400 builds, are they all just full of shit?

It seems pretty cheap and easy to get something that is 2-4 times the power of my old one.

10 years ago
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Can't really say anything without seeing them, lol. Could you link them? :)

10 years ago
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I saw a neat looking youtube one on this forum a month ago. Guy was playing like BF3 ultra setting on it or something. It worked, you don't need 12 gb of ram to play the latest games.

Now, I am seeing a bunch of OK spec rigs in the 4-5 range. http://www.gamersnexus.net/pc-builds/1407-ultra-budget-gaming-pc-april
I would feel comfortable stepping it up to $6 possibly, this definitely does not look like too bad: http://lifehacker.com/5840963/the-best-pcs-you-can-build-for-600-and-1200

10 years ago
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We weren't talking about the ram. Basically, you need good GPU :)

10 years ago
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Here it is, in my youtube history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtLVktnzO2M

At the time really looked like he did his research, will need to go over in more detail.

10 years ago
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Well, I myself would want to get best thing for my money too. That's why I'm saving up to buy 1000$ gaming PC. Then I really wouldn't have to buy new parts over a year (at least for a while). What I'm trying to say, you probably have better computer than I have. Try to save up for around a year and you won't regret it :)

10 years ago
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They just often use AMD CPUs which a bunch of hillbillies still talk down for not tearing apart synthetic benchmarks introduced to make Intel CPUs look less pricey. So no, they're not necessarily bad, however 400$ is a tight budget so don't expect too much, usually graphics cards are insanely expensive already and outdate fast, so go for mid-range hardware and replace it every 2-3 years.

10 years ago
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400$ is not enough to run the current games on max.

10 years ago
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Could care less about max.

10 years ago
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Well 400 bucks is too less to build a proper pc for current games.

10 years ago
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This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

10 years ago
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If your budget is $400, save another $100 and you can get a $500 PC that will run all modern games on max

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jMPPvK

for $600 you can get this that will run any game you throw at it at 1080p 55-60 FPS on max settings

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/pxTMXL

10 years ago
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Not Crysis 3, probably not AC 4 and ARMA 3 :P This is me saying that without seeing it though as I can't click in links with my tablet. BTW there's a 200$ differential between 400$ and 600$.

10 years ago
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10 years ago
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It looks good but you should mention what monitor you are going to use and on what resolution you are planning to play? Atm I'm reading this review for your GPU of choice.

10 years ago
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I have two old 1680x1050 flatrons, that work fine still. Only game on one at a time.

10 years ago
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They are actually really nice. Two input ports, old and new style. So you can hook each one up to two PCs at a time (or actually do a "dual" monitor setup with only one monitor, with a push button to switch between them). Great for tech work and multiple tower setups.

10 years ago
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Nice. Did not even notice all those nice ports.

Never even heard about a DP port.

Wait, 23 pages?

10 years ago
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Most of the pages contains charts in which they compare the GPU they review with other GPUs. I find it useful when comes to read reviews for most of new and some of old hardware.
Anyway if you plug only one of the monitors to the PC I doubt you will have much of trouble when comes to gaming.
Also you may try to get 450w power supply just to be on save side.

10 years ago
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10 years ago
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+1 for LinusTechTips also recommending his other channel Techquickie

10 years ago
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channel ##hardware on http://webchat.freenode.net/

10 years ago
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I'd personally wait until you get about a 1000 dollars to buy a nice rig that will last at least 2 console generations. Thats what I did and I'm still able to run the latest games on at least high without problems and I got it about 2 years ago.

10 years ago
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"At least two console generations"? That would be a PC lasting for 12-16 years without any upgrades, don't think that would work too good.

10 years ago
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Either wait and save more for a killer rig or just get a shitty console.

10 years ago
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