Building a computer
- Thread starter Donteventrii
- Start date
Swoops
Legend
Definitely use pcpartpicker.com. It filters to make sure everything you're getting is compatible, and you can see the price history of anything at all of their supported stores (Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (BX80646I54690K) - PCPartPicker). Lets you know what price to look out for if you're waiting on sales.
Look at getting your cpu and motherboard at Microcenter if you aren't too far from one. They have great bundle deals on them. Their prices on everything else might be a bit higher than newegg/amazon depending on shipping and tax.
Reddit is reddit, but the BuildaPC and BuildaPCSales subreddits are actually pretty decent. BuildaPC has daily simple questions threads and a lot of good intro guides to get an idea of what you're doing. If you really want to go all out on research, you can search for pretty much any specific part on there and find a nitpicky argument about it. Definitely keep tabs on buildapcsales, I found some pretty good deals from it when I was putting my computer together last year.
willix
Legend
It's a Decent setup for the price, but it's old hardware. You're literally looking at someone's clearance sale, which will pretty much mean no warranty or future support.
Video editing/rendering would benefit from more cores + hyper threading, so an i7 would be better than an i5 for that, but no game out there will take advantage of hyper threading. Realistically, you could buy the cheapest dual core CPU and put it on a cheap board if you really want to save money, but still get good performance for gaming. It won't help you when you're doing editing/rendering, but for gaming it's ideal on a budget.
Intel Core i7-4790K, Asus GeForce GTX 970, NZXT H440 (White/Black) - System Build - PCPartPicker
Would be ideal for editing/rendering.
However, the first build I linked would also allow you to edit/render, just be less efficient at it (especially the rendering).
Z boards and K CPUs are the overclocking ones. A 4690k is only about $6 more than a 4690, so might as well get the 4690k just in case you decide to overclock later. Z boards, however, tend to be more expensive. So if you want to save money on a board, you can buy a B or H series board and save 40-50%. Video cards are also one of those things that don't really make a huge difference in Wow. A GTX 750 ti is a great Wow card for 1080p, and would only chug in heavily populated areas. Stepping up to a GTX 960, 970, or 980 is not really going to give you a noticeable increase in performance except in heavily populated areas. Right now I have my Wow settings up as high as they go on a GTX 750 ti and I get anywhere from 20-200 FPS, depending on area.
One thing to note, however, is that Nvidia branded cards have a leg up with Shadowplay. You can stream/record video using the card's built in h.264 encoder and take that load off the CPU.
OP
OP
Donteventrii
OG
Thanks for the input thus far everyone. Willy, I am confused when you say the video card doesn't make a huge difference in WoW. I thought it was the only difference.
I currently have a Intel Core i7-740QM 1.73GHz / HyperBoost single core to 2.93GHz / 6M and a NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M (dxdiag say 4046MB memory. But I thought it was a 2GB card. Not sure of the terminology to differentiate).
Perhaps I could continue to use my current machine for video editing/rendering? It seems to do ok with it. I'm not sure of what I'm missing out on though.
As a final last ditch effort to remain a miser, could my performance issues be altogether dependent on heat? The laptop hasn't been opened in over a year by a Dell tech when he replaced the Mobo. (A quick aside - Dell XPS Hardware warranty support is amazing. It's next day service, and I've had the mobo replace twice, as well as the display.) I have read just a little about OCing this thing; I still have a year of warranty support yet, so I haven't researched further. Do any laptop cooling options exist? This thing can get HOT.
I currently have a Intel Core i7-740QM 1.73GHz / HyperBoost single core to 2.93GHz / 6M and a NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M (dxdiag say 4046MB memory. But I thought it was a 2GB card. Not sure of the terminology to differentiate).
Perhaps I could continue to use my current machine for video editing/rendering? It seems to do ok with it. I'm not sure of what I'm missing out on though.
As a final last ditch effort to remain a miser, could my performance issues be altogether dependent on heat? The laptop hasn't been opened in over a year by a Dell tech when he replaced the Mobo. (A quick aside - Dell XPS Hardware warranty support is amazing. It's next day service, and I've had the mobo replace twice, as well as the display.) I have read just a little about OCing this thing; I still have a year of warranty support yet, so I haven't researched further. Do any laptop cooling options exist? This thing can get HOT.
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willix
Legend
Donteventrii said:
Your video card is a 435m, which is a 5 year old mobile version of a desktop card. You would see a huge improvement in performance between that video card and any current gen video card you bought today. What I meant by what I said was that between the different options in the current generation (9xx is the most recent, along with the GTX 750 ti) you won't notice a huge performance difference in Wow. Here's a list of current gen cards:
1. GTX 750 ti $149 with $20 rebate and $150 worth of in game currency for the selected games.
2. GTX 960 $209 no rebate or in game credit.
3. GTX 970 $339 no rebate or in game credit.
4. GTX 980 $569 $10 rebate no in game credit.
This generation of video cards is going to allow you to max out Wow settings and the only major difference will be the resolution you can play at and the FPS in crowded areas. Wow has gone from a game that didn't care about video card to a game that requires somewhat of a decent video card, especially if you want to max settings. As you can see, there's a pretty substantial price difference between these cards, one that won't reflect performance gains in a game like Wow.
World of Warcraft is actually what they call a 'CPU bound' game. This means that your CPU is a bigger factor in performance than anything else. Which is why people have been able to play Wow on just about anything, even your $399 e-machine special from Walmart or Best buy. I put a GTX 960 in your particular build because it's a brand new card that uses less power than it's predecessors while still maintaining high performance in games. That particular card has been marketed specifically to the kinds of gamers who play MOBAs, which are also CPU bound games.
It features 4k sampling which gives you sharper images without a hit to performance, while downscaling your picture to be whatever resolution your monitor is. It's a good card, and for $210 I would recommend that for a new machine over the GTX 750 ti (which is what I have atm), unless of course you really don't have that extra $60. I wouldn't get anything less than a 750 ti, even when on a budget. Make sacrifices elsewhere and get at least that.
Donteventrii said:
Notebooks share your video memory with the internal memory (side effect of being integrated within the same PCB) so while it will list 4046MB video memory, your card probably only has 500-1000MB dedicated, and the rest is probably your RAM. You can find out by subtracting the amount of RAM you have from the total video memory, and that number would be actual video card memory.
The downside to playing on a notebook is that the components are less powerful versions of desktop parts. A Geforce 435M is closer to a desktop 420 in terms of power/performance. An i7-740QM is a true quad core with hyper threading, but the core clock speed is limited to 1.7GHz and the turbo only boosts that to 2.9GHz. The current gen desktop i7 base clock speed is 4.0GHz and it turbos to 4.4GHz. The current i5 base clock is 3.5GHz and it turbos to 3.9GHz. We're talking double/triple the performance in most tasks with a desktop CPU.
Donteventrii said:
You certainly could do that. I'm pretty sure that even a budget oriented desktop build would do a better job of it though.
Donteventrii said:
Well, heat is the major drawback for doing anything performance related on a notebook. The parts themselves rely on a combination of passive cooling and compact design in order to remain cool. Your GPU/CPU most likely share a cooler, and probably only has 1 tiny fan drawing air through the heatsink. There are external cooling units meant to help provide airflow to the bottom of the notebook (where the intake panel is), but they don't do a particularly good job of helping keep your machine cool. You can't really expect much from a cooling system designed to be sandwiched together like notebook components are.
I wouldn't try OCing your notebook, they're really not designed for it. What little performance gains you could get are probably not worth the risk of damaging the notebook you have. The upside, however, is that if you were to damage your PC from trying to OC it, Dell would likely replace the entire thing with something newer since I doubt they have any more of that model kicking around. I should also tell you that the only major strides that have been made in computers within the last 10-15 years are heat and power consumption. The current gen of CPU/GPU technology is fabricated on much smaller die than they used to be, increasing the number of transistors contained within the same space, while being able to add more/faster cores, use less energy, and generate less heat.
If you're still interested in buying a new PC, I would definitely budget $600-800, reuse your monitor/SSD, and go with Intel/Nvidia. You won't be able to get any insane deals, though some manufacturers will offer a rebate or a discount, which might sway you to a particular item over another similar item, but for the most part, you can take comfort in buying a certain level of quality/performance with the lists I've provided. If you want, I can do a few more lists, to get the price down.
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OP
OP
Donteventrii
OG
I have 8GB of budget DDR3 1333 Ram.
Thanks for the extensive writeup. One of the first Wall-O's from you that I've appreciated.
I'm going to first try taking apart the laptop and seeing if there is significant dust buildup that I can clean before I start picking up parts.
Thanks for the extensive writeup. One of the first Wall-O's from you that I've appreciated.
I'm going to first try taking apart the laptop and seeing if there is significant dust buildup that I can clean before I start picking up parts.
Ohai
OG
Collection of random thoughts in lieu of a better post:
I live and die by benchmarks and charts on Tomshardware: Best Graphics Cards for the Money: March 2015
As people have mentioned PCPartpicker is great for making lists and comparisons.
You apparently already check slickdeals, which in combination with PCPartpicker should provide you with about all the deals you're going to find.
IMHO if you are rendering a lot of videos i7 is the way to go but you can def get away with an i5, both desktop processors are more than enough for WoW.
As a guy rocking a full tower, the benefit is just... space. The drawback is space (its fucking huge). If I was building my computer again, I'd go mid tower, maybe a coolermaster or fractal design. My case is awesome but would be better if i really took the time to design my own liquid cooling. I just went with an H100i and called it a day. Working in a full tower case is a dream, never felt cramped.
I have pretty much alternated between AMD (ATI) and Nvidia for GFX, never noticed much of a difference in quality. I was a strong AMD CPU guy, but I finally switched to an i7. AMD just can't compete at the highest level with intel anymore. They are making a big push with their APU designs to the entry level market, but high end just doesn't cut it on benchmarks.
Make sure you do the math if you start adding GFX cards that you get the right power supply. 500W or 750W should do you, unless you go crazy and SLI. I know you are on a budget but I like modular supplies, so much less clutter.
I think in terms of future proofing, 16GB of RAM is the magic number. I've run virtual machines and still not capped it.
Optical drives are for rookies
SSDs are king
I live and die by benchmarks and charts on Tomshardware: Best Graphics Cards for the Money: March 2015
As people have mentioned PCPartpicker is great for making lists and comparisons.
You apparently already check slickdeals, which in combination with PCPartpicker should provide you with about all the deals you're going to find.
IMHO if you are rendering a lot of videos i7 is the way to go but you can def get away with an i5, both desktop processors are more than enough for WoW.
As a guy rocking a full tower, the benefit is just... space. The drawback is space (its fucking huge). If I was building my computer again, I'd go mid tower, maybe a coolermaster or fractal design. My case is awesome but would be better if i really took the time to design my own liquid cooling. I just went with an H100i and called it a day. Working in a full tower case is a dream, never felt cramped.
I have pretty much alternated between AMD (ATI) and Nvidia for GFX, never noticed much of a difference in quality. I was a strong AMD CPU guy, but I finally switched to an i7. AMD just can't compete at the highest level with intel anymore. They are making a big push with their APU designs to the entry level market, but high end just doesn't cut it on benchmarks.
Make sure you do the math if you start adding GFX cards that you get the right power supply. 500W or 750W should do you, unless you go crazy and SLI. I know you are on a budget but I like modular supplies, so much less clutter.
I think in terms of future proofing, 16GB of RAM is the magic number. I've run virtual machines and still not capped it.
Optical drives are for rookies
SSDs are king
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willix
Legend
AMD has been rebadging GPUs for the last 2 years. They haven't done a thing to cut power consumption or heat. They only reason AMD even made a profit last year was because everyone was using their cards for bitcoin mining due to the cheaper investment costs. If you don't mind higher temps under load, AMD is a good choice.