Help finish gaming pc. <$500. Time frame: March

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trickynick

trickynick

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Jan 22, 2010
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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor ($183.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($118.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($53.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $471.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-10 04:50 EST-0500

The parts above are already ourchased, therefore, are not changeable. I also have two WD Green drives that I wouldn't mind getting faster drives.

Things I know I need, graphics card, sad ans/or hdd.

I'm looking to game and would like to gpu to last several years like my 5770 did(it lasted 4+years).
 
Solution
Swordkd


It depends on the price point as to which company is better. For this particular one, the 390 edges the 970 in most games.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/R9_390_PCS_Plus/6.html 12 games prefer the Radeon 390, and 10 games prefer the nVidia 970. I only used the baseline 390 performance charts, not the exact model they were reviewing.

When I some games just flat prefer big green, out of that article 3 games significantly performed better on nVidia hardware. WoW: WoD, Wolfenstein New World Order...
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Swordkd

Swordkd

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The SSD and Gpu are easy. The HDD is mainly up to personal choice. If you don't mind using a Raid 0 array, I'd pick up a couple of WD Blue 1tb drives and start with that. That's about the fastest HDD setup you'll get(without spending considerably more money). Or, if a single drive is ok, just buy the one.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($84.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($274.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $409.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-10 12:49 EST-0500

Standard SSD, plenty big for the OS and several games. The Radeon 390 performs better in general than the nVidia 970, for less money. There are some games that just flat prefer big green though.
 
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trickynick

trickynick

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Jan 22, 2010
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The two drives I have now I would like to replace so my roommate can use my old pc.

Is the price difference large from amd to nvidia? Reason I ask I may want to try nvidia. This is my first Intel based system in 20 years and same goes for video card, used ati/amd.
 
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Swordkd

Swordkd

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Oct 3, 2012
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The price difference isn't outside of your budget, but, the 390 is generally a better graphics card. Of course, the difference isn't much, but why would you pay more money for a lesser product?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($84.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($303.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $438.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-10 13:13 EST-0500
 
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trickynick

trickynick

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Jan 22, 2010
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I was always told nVidia was better for gaming. Has this changed?

When I play games, a lot do say nVidia. But I guess amd is better now?

What did you mean some games prefer big green?

All of this will run on the 650?
 
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Swordkd

Swordkd

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Oct 3, 2012
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It depends on the price point as to which company is better. For this particular one, the 390 edges the 970 in most games.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/R9_390_PCS_Plus/6.html 12 games prefer the Radeon 390, and 10 games prefer the nVidia 970. I only used the baseline 390 performance charts, not the exact model they were reviewing.

When I some games just flat prefer big green, out of that article 3 games significantly performed better on nVidia hardware. WoW: WoD, Wolfenstein New World Order and Project CARS.

:edit: And yes, 650w is plenty of power for either a Radeon or nVidia card in this budget.
 
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