To Build or To Buy or To Buy & Upgrade?

[marlowe221]

I am in the research/planning stages of buying and/or building a gaming PC.

I have questions and I trust the folks here on Racketboy.

Budget: Roughly $800, give or take.

Games: When it comes to PC games, I mostly play strategy games - usually TBS or real-time 4x games. Think Civ V, Distant Worlds, Crusader Kings II/EUIV, etc. I also like western-style RPGs like Skyrim and the Witcher series. But I'm not looking to run Crisis on Ultra or anything like that. I also like the occasional space sim.

(I also like other, non-demanding games like GOG stuff, indie games, etc. but that's probably not relevant to this discussion).

With that in mind, here are my questions:

1. CPU: Intel vs. AMD - what's the deal here? Is Intel worth the price increase? Are the AMD chips any good?

2. Graphics cards - There are a lot of them out there and I don't always understand all the technical specifications. How do I know if a card is "good enough" or under-powered? What are the key specs to look at on them? If I go with an AMD chip is there any benefit to also choosing an AMD GPU?

3. Here's the biggie: Do I build or buy? What does everyone think of the ibuypower/cyberpc build-to-order route? How much technical expertise does building a PC myself actually require? I can use a screwdriver and know how to install an operating system but I get a little hazy beyond that...

Thanks all!

[Hazerd]

1. Go AMD if you want to stay in your $800 budget, you wont find a NEW i5 from Amazon or Newegg for less than $180, while you can get a top tier AMD CPU for $120.

I preferr Intel currently, but if your on a budget, go AMD.

Quad Core Intel i5 3470 - $189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115234

Six Core AMD FX-6300 - $119.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819113286

2. For video cards, its really personal preference imo, right now im suggesting the Geforce GTX 750 Ti, one can be had for $150.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

Runs very cool, doesnt use as much power as a rival AMD card currently, and you can run any game out on the market without a problem.

Here's a review to everything you need to know about the 750 Ti.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gef ... ,3750.html

3. If you build it yourself, youll know exactly whats in it and wont need to update your Power Supply later on, because pre-built Power Supplies generally suck, along with the motherboards, they are generally very generic and lack features.

I CANT ultimately tell you to build or buy, as im biased and would never buy a pre-built ever.

I can however suggest this Lenovo X700, but its $1350, and you wont find a better prebuilt for the price, but its way above your budget.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6883265536

Here's a review on the X700
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/len ... ,3645.html

Good Luck!

[isiolia]

1. Modern CPUs are all multi-core. Basically, one chip, multiple CPUs. Increasingly, the workload put on them can be split up into multiple "threads", which can be divvied up between cores. Or, of course, if you're running multiple programs at a time, modern OSes will split them between cores.

That to say, Intel has better per-core performance. AMD tends to work in more cores at a given price point, at least to a point. So for low/midrange CPUs, the choice can be influenced some by workload. Once you go up the product line to the point where it's core-for-core, Intel wins.

For what your price range and stated wants, probably the AMD FX-6300 or 6350. Civilization, offhand, is a heavily threaded game, and similar titles will follow if they haven't already.

2. In general, just buy the most expensive one that you can fit in the budget, and you'll probably come out fine
The GPU series, number of shader cores, and RAM are relevant, along with clock rate.

IMO, get a general price range that it needs to fit in, see which ones cost about that, and read some reviews. Both companies are good, and pricing can change rapidly.

(if you want suggestions http://www.logicalincrements.com/ is a good quick thing to check)

3. It's not that difficult. There's very little you can actually screw up by doing something wrong, and most of it should be painfully obvious (I have see people not install motherboard stand-offs, for example). Mostly, things don't plug in where they aren't supposed to.

I'd recommend building. Few people I've known to start building their own PCs go back to prebuilt. There's that initial hurdle of spending hundreds on a pile of parts, but if you've installed parts and OSes before, that's basically all it is.

[noiseredux]

Plus building is so rewarding...

[Hazerd]

Plus building is so rewarding...

This, and the components nowadays are so damn sexy, get a case with a window and BAM, hardware porn!

[noiseredux]

Plus building is so rewarding...

This, and the components nowadays are so damn sexy, get a case with a window and BAM, hardware porn!

Haha, it's true. My mouse and keyboard don't need to glow blue. But for some reason I love that they do.

[marlowe221]

...3. It's not that difficult. There's very little you can actually screw up by doing something wrong, and most of it should be painfully obvious (I have see people not install motherboard stand-offs, for example). Mostly, things don't plug in where they aren't supposed to.

Let's say I have no idea what a "motherboard stand-off" is, and that represents my level of hardware expertise. Am I still going to be able to build one?

Installing Windows, I can do. You just stick the disc in the machine and push "next" a few times, type in a little personal/geographical info and watch a couple of progress bars.

Otherwise it's nice to see you all mentioning parts that I have already been looking at lately. At least I'm on something close to the right track.

So if I go with an AMD CPU and a couple years later decide I want to change it out for an Intel... is that just kind of a pop-it-in kind of deal or are we talking about major surgery?

And what about cooling? I know that's something to be concerned about. Right now I do my PC gaming on a laptop with a dedicated AMD GPU and it gets HOT when I play Civ V or Crusader Kings 2. I have a cooling stand underneath it with built in fans running the whole time so I don't self destruct. But I know nothing about Desktop-style cooling.

One thing I have figured out already though - I won't skimp on the power supply!

@isiolia - Thank you for the link to logicalincrements.com - 10 minutes on that site has already de-mystified a lot!

[Hazerd]

...3. It's not that difficult. There's very little you can actually screw up by doing something wrong, and most of it should be painfully obvious (I have see people not install motherboard stand-offs, for example). Mostly, things don't plug in where they aren't supposed to.

Let's say I have no idea what a "motherboard stand-off" is, and that represents my level of hardware expertise. Am I still going to be able to build one?

Installing Windows, I can do. You just stick the disc in the machine and push "next" a few times, type in a little personal/geographical info and watch a couple of progress bars.

Otherwise it's nice to see you all mentioning parts that I have already been looking at lately. At least I'm on something close to the right track.

So if I go with an AMD CPU and a couple years later decide I want to change it out for an Intel... is that just kind of a pop-it-in kind of deal or are we talking about major surgery?

And what about cooling? I know that's something to be concerned about. Right now I do my PC gaming on a laptop with a dedicated AMD GPU and it gets HOT when I play Civ V or Crusader Kings 2. I have a cooling stand underneath it with built in fans running the whole time so I don't self destruct. But I know nothing about Desktop-style cooling.

One thing I have figured out already though - I won't skimp on the power supply!

@isiolia - Thank you for the link to logicalincrements.com - 10 minutes on that site has already de-mystified a lot!

Motherboard standoffs are just little screws that you place in the case, and then set the motherboard on top of and screw down on, its really simple once you see it.

And yeah installing windows is as easy as going into the BIOS and setting the CD-ROM to the first boot priority and popping in the disc.

If you go from AMD to INTEL you need to swap motherboards entirely, the most used AMD socket is called AM3+, and the newest socket for Intel i5's is socket LGA 1150, so make sure when you buy a motherboard the socket type on the CPU matches that of the Motherboard.

If your on a budget and not that knowledgeable, i would just go with the Stock heatsink/fan that comes with the CPU.

If your case has extra fan slots on it, all you need to know how big the slots are in MM, most fans are between 90mm and 120mm.

Laptops are on a completely different level of cooling than Desktops, i wouldnt worry about the heat problem if your building a desktop, unless you plan on doing some major Overclocking.

[Frag Mortuus]

I started out in the same boat you are in. I knew next to nothing about PC's and 10 years later I'm an IT professional with a passion for everything tech related and it all started with wanting to build my own PC.

My advice is this: get guidance on your parts (which you are doing by asking the folks here), but ask a buddy that knows what they are doing to guide you through the build. I would have him let you build it, but have him there to ensure you are doing it properly. You would hate to bend a pin on your motherboard because you tried to put the CPU in the wrong way or something. You could also watch tutorial videos to help you out if you don't have a friend that know how build a PC.

As for your question: If you decide you want to switch from AMD to Intel down the road, you will have to change your motherboard. The only two parts that are intertwined are the Motherboard and the CPU. The rest of the parts are independent of CPU type. Meaning Video Cards, RAM, Powersupply, DVD Drive, Case, etc can be used on all motherboards. But again, you have to buy the motherboard that supports your CPU.

Like others have mentioned, AMD is great for a budget build. They are going to offer great performance for the money in the lower price points. The two things that I feel are crucial are your CPU and your Video Card for gaming. If you don't plan to overclock your CPU or think you'll ever want to add a second Video Card, I would buy a cheaper, good quality motherboard and put the savings into the either upgrading your CPU or VC. Also, if you don't care about the aesthetics of your case, but a cheap one and again, put the money towards one of the other two pieces. RAM doesn't need to be expensive, but I would go with at least 8gb. Again, I would concentrate on getting good quality inexpensive parts that will do their jobs and splurge on the CPU and Video Card.

Tomshardware.com has a running series of articles where they build PC's of all budgets to show you have to get the most PC for your money. They would be a great asset to help you plan your build.

[fastbilly1]

Well if you dont want to skimp on PSU I have a OCZ ZX Series 850W for sale/trade. But that is a $250 PSU so a bit out of your pricepoint for your build.

As for the rest of the topic, everyone has hit your points fairly througholy. But after a couple AMD builds blow out on me back in the Athlon XP days I went nothing but Intel and havent looked back. You will find alot of builders are very bias towards companies that havent had a component die on them yet.