What happened to OC? - CLOSED Carnage?!
Kill_joy03

A Build for a Friend

A friend of mine sent me a message the other day asking for a PC build for him, he stated that he was needing a new PC that could run Arma 3, Overwatch, Ghost recon wildlands, and a few other older games. 

  

They required a build that would be best performance per dollar with 3 monitors a keyboard and mouse, they have a budget of $3000 (AUD) and requested it was using this site: https://www.pccasegear.com/ Which uses AUD as default currency.

 

The reason I posted here is due to me not keeping up with any of the newer tech, and I was was wondering if anybody could suggest a build for him to those specs. If any body could it would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 


This one's for everyone that's ever lost anyone does real closure even exist?
Tryna find a bit of peace
Can't help but feel like everything is said and done we're still left stricken with grief

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Tiddy-bits:

I wish he'd tell us what resolution he wanted to play at and whether or not he wants to overclock. For now, I'll go by the most common resolution on Steam's hardware survey, 1080p, with no CPU overclocking.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-7600 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($294.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-HD3 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($115.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Memory: G.Skill Flare X 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($169.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($235.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 8GB G1 Gaming Video Card  ($615.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case  ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($119.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSD1 DVD/CD Writer  ($19.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit  ($139.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Monitor: BenQ GL2460HM 24.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor  ($199.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Monitor: BenQ GL2460HM 24.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor  ($199.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Monitor: ViewSonic XG2401 23.6" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor  ($399.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Keyboard: Corsair STRAFE Wired Gaming Keyboard  ($135.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Mouse: Corsair M65 PRO RGB FPS Wired Optical Mouse  ($89.00 @ PCCaseGear) 
Total: $2835.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-01 19:00 AEDT+1100

 

This list features a GTX 1070 and a 3.5 GHz i5-7600 which should be way more than enough to power through Overwatch at 1080p at well over 144 FPS. To complement this, one monitor is 1080p @ 144 Hz with 1 ms response time, and this is the monitor he should play games on. Note that the GTX 1070 has three DisplayPort ports, one HDMI port, and one DVI port. Plug the 144 Hz monitor into a DisplayPort port. Plug the other two using any of the other available ports. Make sure to set up monitor positioning in Windows's settings.

 

And yes, I went as close to the wire as possible, as being limited to one retailer greatly limited my options. Had he have gone with more than one retailer, the price and parts list would have been much more optimized.

 

Anyway, here are some options to go from here if he chooses to use this build:

  • If your friend is fine with 1080p at 60 Hz, downgrade to a 6 GB GTX 1060 and replace the 144 Hz monitor with another 60 Hz. (-$436)
    • If he does this, he can also get a slower i5 or an i3 without significantly bottlenecking his graphics card:
      • 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5-7500 (-$40)
      • 3.0 GHz Intel Core i5-7400 (-$55)
      • 3.7 GHz Intel Core i3-7100 (-$154)
      • 3.5 GHz Intel Pentium G4560 (-$220)
    • Note that i3s and Kaby Lake Pentiums, although clocked higher than i5s, only have two cores with hyper threading, so in some cases where more than two CPU threads are utilized, they may perform considerably slower. Most games still benefit from greater single thread performance, but this may change in the future.
  • If your friend wants to game on all three monitors simultaneously, either:
    • Replace the two 60 Hz monitors with 144 Hz monitors (+$400), or...
    • Replace the 144 Hz monitor with a 60 Hz monitor (-$200)
      • If your friend does this, he may want to get a lower-end graphics card as described previously.
    • I say this because while it's possible to game on multiple monitors running at different refresh rates, it looks bad.
  • If your friend wants to game at 1440p, then he can replace the 144 Hz monitor with a 1440p 60 Hz monitor (a 1440p 144 Hz monitor will go way out of the budget). (+$0)
  • If your friend wants to overclock his CPU, get an i5-7600K, a Hyper 212 EVO CPU cooler, and a Z270 chipset motherboard. (+$150)
  • I added the optical drive anticipating that some games would be installed via a DVD. If he isn't planning on doing this or installing Windows 10 with it, you can omit the DVD drive. (-$19)
  • If the keyboard, mouse, or case are not quite what he wants, or he wants nice things like LEDs, he has $165 of wiggle room. If he picks a different case, he should make sure it has at least one 5.25" bay for his optical drive if he's getting one.

 

If you click the Price breakdown by merchant link, you'll get links for each part on each listed Australian merchant's site if they have the part. The topmost one will be PCCaseGear because they have all of the parts.

Takka, ShikuTeshi and Kill_joy03 like this

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Thanks for the help with 002 the reason he was only looking at PCCG was due to him living quite close to it so he didn't have to pay for shipping and could just pick it up. But anyways looks good  I'll pass it onto him :D

 


This one's for everyone that's ever lost anyone does real closure even exist?
Tryna find a bit of peace
Can't help but feel like everything is said and done we're still left stricken with grief

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I've done some math and I've updated my post with numbers next to each option to show you how much more money you'll spend or save by going with them.

 

Going with three 60 Hz monitors, a GTX 1060, and a 3 GHz i5-7400, and no optical drive, he can shave off $510, and even more if he goes with an i3 or Pentium (I recommend sticking with the i5s, but the i3 and Pentium should still do okay on most of those games), or if he chooses to go with a cheaper case like an NZXT S340.

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On 4/1/2017 at 1:35 PM, 002 said:

I've done some math and I've updated my post with numbers next to each option to show you how much more money you'll spend or save by going with them.

 

Going with three 60 Hz monitors, a GTX 1060, and a 3 GHz i5-7400, and no optical drive, he can shave off $510, and even more if he goes with an i3 or Pentium (I recommend sticking with the i5s, but the i3 and Pentium should still do okay on most of those games), or if he chooses to go with a cheaper case like an NZXT S340.

I probably wouldn't go any lower than an i5 if it's for gaming. I can't say anything about the i3 since they're dual-core with hyper-threading, but the Pentium doesn't play well with most games. I used it in my cousins rig, and while it works, even on lowest settings in most games it runs at 30-45 fps while droping below 25 sometimes.

 

The idea to go with 3 60 Hz 1080p monitors and going with a 1060 I support. Though there are some games that don't sustain a 60fps on max settings, so a 1070 is still a good option.

Of course this is if he plans to game on one monitor, with the extra 2 for other things. If he plans to triple monitor game, which I don't recommend, he's likely going to want a 1080.

 

I wouldn't buy an OEM key because those are one time use. While Windows 10 does have a resetting feature, if he gets an advance virus on his computer somehow (namely those that programs don't detect and remove properly), he's going to want to do a complete reset. That includes permanently deleting all the data off the storage unit. If he bought an OEM copy, he wont be able to reinstall Windows with a valid key.

 

Edited by ShikuTeshi
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On April 2, 2017 at 9:24 PM, ShikuTeshi said:

I probably wouldn't go any lower than an i5 if it's for gaming. I can't say anything about the i3 since they're dual-core with hyper-threading, but the Pentium doesn't play well with most games. I used it in my cousins rig, and while it works, even on lowest settings in most games it runs at 30-45 fps while droping below 25 sometimes.

 

The idea to go with 3 60 Hz 1080p monitors and going with a 1060 I support. Though there are some games that don't sustain a 60fps on max settings, so a 1070 is still a good option.

Of course this is if he plans to game on one monitor, with the extra 2 for other things. If he plans to triple monitor game, which I don't recommend, he's likely going to want a 1080.

 

I wouldn't buy an OEM key because those are one time use. While Windows 10 does have a resetting feature, if he gets an advance virus on his computer somehow (namely those that programs don't detect and remove properly), he's going to want to do a complete reset. That includes permanently deleting all the data off the storage unit. If he bought an OEM copy, he wont be able to reinstall Windows with a valid key.

 

Kaby Lake Pentiums are pretty much the same thing as Skylake i3s. Same cache and same dual core with hyperthreading and around the same clock speed, except with better graphics and a lower price point, so I'd imagine it'd perform exactly the same, then. The only thing that differentiates them between the Kaby Lake i3s is that the Kaby Lake i3s have had a slight increase in cache and clock speed. You're probably thinking of the older dual core Pentiums which are prior to Kaby Lake. You can go with an i3 for gaming, and if you're building an entry level system with a card such as a RX 460, GTX 1050, GTX 1050 Ti, RX 470, it may not be a bad idea in the short term. i3s have excellent single core performance. But an i5 presents the best sweet spot for gaming.

 

As for monitors, the issue is that we don't know what the two side monitors are being used for, as the OP's friend wasn't specific on the uses of the monitors. This is why I've mentioned having either one 144 Hz monitor plus two 60 Hz monitors, three 144 Hz monitors, or three 60 Hz monitors.

  • If the user is gaming on all three monitors, then the user should get monitors with identical refresh rates. It'll look like crap, otherwise.
  • If the user is gaming on one monitor but is, for instance, a streamer, that user may end up using the other two monitors for doing things like monitoring the stream chat, having a video chat with someone, etc. They don't need 144 Hz monitors in that case.

I bring up the GTX 1070 in the case you want to play at frame rates higher than 144 FPS. If you just want to play at 60+ FPS, the 1060 is more than enough.

 

As for keys, if you install Windows 10 on a system, you can reinstall it on the same hardware and it will reactivate itself assuming there isn't any hardware changes. You don't even need to reenter the product key as long as it has been activated at least once on that hardware. I've personally done this myself, albeit with a retail key, but it should be equally possible with an OEM key. OEM keys only forbid transferring to a new system. This doesn't necessarily mean that they can only be installed once. That said, if one is planning on upgrading to a new system in the future, it might be worthwhile to spend a bit more on a retail key so it can be reused. You won't have to buy Windows 10 again, in that case.

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