Decent computer?

[Butcher]

If I may chime in, I built my PC from scratch 3 years ago without having built one in over 10 years. You can put together a pretty nice package yourself if you don't Ibuypower was my fathers choice.

[Tinkles]

If I may chime in, I built my PC from scratch 3 years ago without having built one in over 10 years. You can put together a pretty nice package yourself if you don't Ibuypower was my fathers choice.

I lack the knowledge to put together a rig.  From basic component knowledge to case size. I've wanted to ask you guys to sort of 'build one' but it seemed.. inappropriate to ask.   I've went to pcpartpicker and various other sites to 'build' my own computer. But I don't know if the parts I pick are the best deal for what I picked, or if I could get better or similar components for less.   Again, I lack the knowledge to build my own computer, so I am very nervous on picking the parts.

[Butcher]

I lack the knowledge to put together a rig.  From basic component knowledge to case size. I've wanted to ask you guys to sort of 'build one' but it seemed.. inappropriate to ask.   I've went to pcpartpicker and various other sites to 'build' my own computer. But I don't know if the parts I pick are the best deal for what I picked, or if I could get better or similar components for less.   Again, I lack the knowledge to build my own computer, so I am very nervous on picking the parts.

If you broadcast where you live, maybe someone can help put it together. Also Tinkles do you have Skype? What is your price range? I just put together a few badass PC's for only $900, everything top except a second rate video card (pretty much what I did).

[Tinkles]

If you broadcast where you live, maybe someone can help put it together. Also Tinkles do you have Skype? What is your price range? I just put together a few badass PC's for only $900, everything top except a second rate video card (pretty much what I did).

Price range is $700-$1000. 

I live in Hudson, Michigan. 15miles southeast of MIS Superspeedway. Right off US 127 (10 miles from Ohio border). 

[Butcher]

Price range is $700-$1000. 

I live in Hudson, Michigan. 15miles southeast of MIS Superspeedway. Right off US 127 (10 miles from Ohio border). 

Here's what I put together for only $900
Azza Fusion 3000 Full Tower Case
Intel I7-4820k Quad-Core 3.70 GHZ 10MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011
Thermaltake Frio OCK Cpu Cooler
Asus P9X79 LE ATX 3 way SLI
8GB DD3/1600 Squad Channel Memory
Nvidia GTX 750 2GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0
Corsair CX500 500 Watt 80 plus Bronze power supply
1TB Sata III 6GB 7200RPM - Whatever the hell western digital has, if you want more speed you can either get another HD later and Raid 0 them, or get a SSD drive, honestly I went with two harddrives because back then the price of SSD were nuts, not sure about now. Also because its an Intel, get a SSD for the RAM cache, I have a 64GB Cache and does wonders.

Total price is around $940, the video card isn't high end, but it goes up to $250+ for the next model, another thing is you can always wait until the video card is on sale, buy another to throw inside and SLI them.

[Tinkles]

Here's what I put together for only $900
Azza Fusion 3000 Full Tower Case
Intel I7-4820k Quad-Core 3.70 GHZ 10MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011
Thermaltake Frio OCK Cpu Cooler
Asus P9X79 LE ATX 3 way SLI
8GB DD3/1600 Squad Channel Memory
Nvidia GTX 750 2GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0
Corsair CX500 500 Watt 80 plus Bronze power supply
1TB Sata III 6GB 7200RPM - Whatever the hell western digital has, if you want more speed you can either get another HD later and Raid 0 them, or get a SSD drive, honestly I went with two harddrives because back then the price of SSD were nuts, not sure about now. Also because its an Intel, get a SSD for the RAM cache, I have a 64GB Cache and does wonders.

Total price is around $940, the video card isn't high end, but it goes up to $250+ for the next model, another thing is you can always wait until the video card is on sale, buy another to throw inside and SLI them.

What games besides Aces High do you play on that computer?

As a side note: on PC part picker your CPU is a 'combo', with another motherboard. Both together are $720  


Went to PC part picker looking up what you posted, here is what I got.

CPU - Baggage (mentioned above).
CPU Cooler - not found
Motherboard - not found
Memory - not found
Storage - not found
Video Card - not found (was very surprised)
Power supply - $44.00 USD
Case - $170, w/ $30 Mail In Rebate, looks nice 

So, yeah.. didn't find much of what you have.

[Butcher]

What games besides Aces High do you play on that computer?

As a side note: on PC part picker your CPU is a 'combo', with another motherboard. Both together are $720   

I play only a few games, Diablo III and Aces, most are Real time strategy or board games, I did have Skyrim installed. Max Graphics in Aces and Skyrim are 60fps with a 30 inch POS dell monitor from 7 years ago.
I was using Tigerdirect and newegg to price out the stuff, just to put together something so you had an idea of what to put together later on. Not sure how its $720, that chip is only $310, motherboard is $260, you don't necessarily need that motherboard, if you can build off that chip you can get a decent PC.

[Tinkles]

What games besides Aces High do you play on that computer?

As a side note: on PC part picker your CPU is a 'combo', with another motherboard. Both together are $720  


Went to PC part picker looking up what you posted, here is what I got.

CPU - Baggage (mentioned above).
CPU Cooler - not found
Motherboard - not found
Memory - not found
Storage - not found
Video Card - not found (was very surprised)
Power supply - $44.00 USD
Case - $170, w/ $30 Mail In Rebate, looks nice 

So, yeah.. didn't find much of what you have.

And like I said before, I have no idea what I am doing.. and with so much (at least for me) money at 'stake' I'm walking on egg shells.

[Butcher]

And like I said before, I have no idea what I am doing.. and with so much (at least for me) money at 'stake' I'm walking on egg shells.

Tell me about it, few years ago I broke down - I had a laptop that barely ran 10FPS in Aces high with no graphics on. I ended up getting screwed having someone build it for me, so I ended up building it myself.
I was fortunate it lasted two years, except my GPU blew up and I ended up just upgrading again.

Don't rush buying it, if someone can help you locally or someone you absolutely trust - then go with them. These websites that sell PC's have been decent, my father bought one a few years ago and he still likes it, paid $900 for a facebook gaming PC LOL
I'm sorry I can't help you in picking which site is best, I haven't used them in 7 years, not sure which is better then the next or which one sucks.

[Bizman]

Tink, feel free to build a computer with pcpartpicker and publish your compilation here for evaluation. Others have done it before and hopefully they've got valuable advice about what to change and why. Like you noticed, Butcher's case sure looks nice but you can find a good one for one quarter of the price and use the money saved for a better video card for example. Also, for AH an i7 would be overkill. Also, as Butcher said, a trustworthy local helper is good to go with. PC-partpicker is a very good tool for planning but I'd rather let a local guy take care of ordering the parts and building the computer. An online builder shop will also do, if they have all the AH community approved parts listed.

[Tinkles]

Tink, feel free to build a computer with pcpartpicker and publish your compilation here for evaluation. Others have done it before and hopefully they've got valuable advice about what to change and why. Like you noticed, Butcher's case sure looks nice but you can find a good one for one quarter of the price and use the money saved for a better video card for example. Also, for AH an i7 would be overkill. Also, as Butcher said, a trustworthy local helper is good to go with. PC-partpicker is a very good tool for planning but I'd rather let a local guy take care of ordering the parts and building the computer. An online builder shop will also do, if they have all the AH community approved parts listed.

Found this website yesterday. Has pre-built computers that you can change the parts depending on what tier of computer you chose.

http://buildmygamingpc.com/shop/amd-captain-class/tarf/

[Bizman]

I'd rather choose Intel for AH, although AMD may have solved the issues it had concerning AH and some other games. Call it minimizing the risk or something like that...

I played a little with the Intel builder and noticed the price would be somewhat higher than with the AMD.

What I'd like to criticize is that they don't actually tell anything about the brands of the components. I suppose that means they try to find a cheap alternative fitting each category. So, although the idea looks nice you might step into crap knee deep. If I were you, I'd rather not buy anything from that site. Find one who tells the exact models and types of each component.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Here's what I put together for only $900
Azza Fusion 3000 Full Tower Case
Intel I7-4820k Quad-Core 3.70 GHZ 10MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011
Thermaltake Frio OCK Cpu Cooler
Asus P9X79 LE ATX 3 way SLI
8GB DD3/1600 Squad Channel Memory
Nvidia GTX 750 2GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0
Corsair CX500 500 Watt 80 plus Bronze power supply
1TB Sata III 6GB 7200RPM - Whatever the hell western digital has, if you want more speed you can either get another HD later and Raid 0 them, or get a SSD drive, honestly I went with two harddrives because back then the price of SSD were nuts, not sure about now. Also because its an Intel, get a SSD for the RAM cache, I have a 64GB Cache and does wonders.

Total price is around $940, the video card isn't high end, but it goes up to $250+ for the next model, another thing is you can always wait until the video card is on sale, buy another to throw inside and SLI them.

There's only one problem: AH does not support SLI (or SLI doesn't have an optimized profile for AH). Your setup looked pretty good except the i7 is an unnecessary cost especially if the graphics card will be a measly 750. Much better bang for buck would be to have an i3 or i5 k-series together with a 760 or 770 for the same money.

[Butcher]

There's only one problem: AH does not support SLI (or SLI doesn't have an optimized profile for AH). Your setup looked pretty good except the i7 is an unnecessary cost especially if the graphics card will be a measly 750. Much better bang for buck would be to have an i3 or i5 k-series together with a 760 or 770 for the same money.

Yeah thats one of the reasons I never honestly got a second video card, when my GPU blew up I went and bought a Nvidia GeForce GTX 780, I actually find it way more powerful then I actually need. I figured if Aces ever upgrades to allow SLI or the graphics improve, I can always throw a second card in.
It really depends on what a person does gaming wise, back in the old days I had two voodoo 2 cards (8MB) video cards for Quake tournaments, I haven't had two cards since then because I really don't game all that much.

Diablo 3 runs fine on all graphics, Aces and Skyrim, most of the other games I play are either board or 3D.