Budget build now and upgrade later or save up and build a good computer?

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Bezerk

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Jan 29, 2014
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10,510
Hey guys,

I would like to know your opinion on whether I should make a $650-$750 PC build now and upgrade down the road or save up as I earn money and build a $1200 PC? The price of a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and mic don't have to be included as I already have those. I'd like to have a build that I can use for the next few years through my remaining years of high school and college. My purpose of using it will be for gaming mainly but also for some photoshop, video editing, and of course homework. I have come up with a $1200 build but I'm having some difficulties coming up with builds withing the $650- $750 range. It would be nice if someone could help me out with making some $650 - $750 builds that are upgradable in the future.

However, there is a slight problem however that may mess things up. My dad doesn't really approve of me building a computer or even upgrading the one that I currently have because "desktop PC's are dying and laptops are replacing them". He also doesn't really approve of gaming (PC or console) either so that's another problem I have. I'd also like a few tips on being able to convince him that desktop computers are still popular and on other reasons for having a built computer that is expensive. The computer that I use now was built by him and I so we both have experience building a computer and he knows that I won't break anything.

I really appreciate the help guys

Thanks

Bezerk

Also here is the build that I came up with for my $1200 build. I honestly don't care whether the CPU is Intel or AMD and whether the graphics card is AMD or Nvidea. I'd just like something that'll run my games at a decent framerate on medium or high settings.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/26OMg
 
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Bezerk

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Jan 29, 2014
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For some reason when I went to save this build on PCPartPicker it showed an incompatibility between the motherboard and the CPU. Any other motherboards you would suggest?
 
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apcs13

apcs13

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Oct 2, 2013
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I would say as long as you have a good motherboard and good CPU, you can kind of go cheap on on everything else. Now, when I say CHEAP, I don't mean poor quality, especially in the PSU's case, I mean low price. ALWAYS get high quality highly reviewed products in an expensive PC.

The reasoning behind this is that the GPU, while being the most important part in a gaming rig, is also the easiest to upgrade. If you go with a cheaper build now and have the intent to upgrade, having a powerful CPU and motherboard full of features and the ability to SLI/CrossFire will allow you to either throw in another one of your GPU's for a solid SLI/CFX rig, or simply replace the old one with another by taking it out.

If you do want to go with an expensive rig with little intent to upgrade for a while, spend more on the GPU for sure.
 
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apcs13

apcs13

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Oct 2, 2013
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Actually, taking a look at your build for the first time now, there are a lot of issues with what you put together. Your build fits their "low cost and upgrade later" feature of the OP, however you left out the "upgradeable" part of their needs. You have chosen a motherboard that doesn't allow for extra GPUs to be added, and with the 660 Ti, you will need to add more for SLI because those are not going to cut it for high quality gaming at 1080P very soon, plus the FX-8320 is pretty much AMD's best gaming CPU, so the only way you could upgrade is with RAM. Also, the power supply that you selected is too weak for this build, I would say for the parts you selected they would need at least a good quality 550 W 80+Bronze unit. Maybe if you had selected a 990FX chipset series motherboard with support for SLI this build would have worked, but in this state, that just will not work for future gaming.
 
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apcs13

apcs13

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Oct 2, 2013
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Listen, no need to throw insults around, let's be civilized here please, thank you.

Doing some research yes that motherboard does support SLI, which I didn't know before, but it is not good for overclocking, and the FX9 series is basically a heavily juiced up FX 8350, so it will not work well with the motherboard since at stock clocks it pulls in 4.7 GHz roundabouts.

Plus, there is no way no matter what a 520W power supply can support 2 GTX 660 Ti's in SLI, especially an 80+ one, I was even low when I said a 550 W, but that's the lowest that will work. If you only supply enough power for a single GTX 660 Ti, the gaming performance is going to be pretty subpar.

So do I, "mate"
 
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apcs13

apcs13

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Oct 2, 2013
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Sorry, sorry, I've had a long day and when I came on here to help people I have had to deal with a lot of smart-a**es and I am just plain exhausted. Still no excuse for the way I acted, but sorry. Yeah, you're right, seems like you put together a good build. Wish I found that mobo when I was building mine, my $95 M5A97 R2.0 doesn't support SLI...
 
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g-unit1111

g-unit1111

Titan
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Jul 27, 2011
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Oh I completely agree! The "desktops are dead" argument has been around as long as laptops have existed. My first laptop I bought in 1999 and it was a Dell Insprion, and that argument was around then! And now that tablet PCs are the norm, that argument has been resurrected. I have a Dell Venue 8 Pro and a second generation iPad, and neither can compare to what you can get from a desktop or laptop. And you know what? The DIY market is stronger than ever with companies like MSI, EVGA, NZXT, Intel, AMD, and so on and so forth marketing specifically to gamers and system builders. The desktop will never die.
 
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