Looking for a new computer at the end of this Summer. I've used laptops most my life (you know once they were a viable option about 10-15 years ago). I've done research on this and blah blah blah, I know about pc part picker and all that.
lets say I have between $1000-2000 to spend here
That's a lot. You might want to consider to aim low and upgrade the graphics card along the way. Generally speaking you'll be hard pressed to find games which can put more than 50% load on a 200$ CPU while playing on FullHD.
Mainly what I'd like to know is:
a) Whats a good price for a motherboard?
b) How about a case?
c) Power supply?
d) Fan?
I've never had to worry about these things with laptops so any like indicators or rules of thumb would be helpful.
e) ancillary question:
Is there a graphics card company that can give better performance for about the same price than nvidia? I know who's doing best with processors is always changing so, what do ya think?
Very brief tips. Please check the other threads.
a) Depends on your focus. You can get a rock solid motherboard with 7.1 sound and USB3 for less than 100$. Even major brand. Or you can spend 300$ for one which can brew you coffee - and which is exactly as fast as the cheap one. Since my geeky days are over I would lean to a relatively cheap m/b by a brand manufacturer.
b) Doesn't matter all that much. A carefully selected 25$ case will do, especially if you don't plan on changing parts out every few weeks. You can get suprisingly good and attractive cases at low end. More luxurious cases have their advantages too though.
I'm running a cheap case now and I've spent 200€ on a noise-isolated case before. I was satisfied with both decisions.
c) Major brand only. No compromise. Get some 80%+ certified product. Low noise (verify! - everybody claims this) and cable management are nice to have.
c2) RAM: Given your budget go for 16 GB right away. Major brand only. Go for mainstream stuff. High end isn't worth it.
These 2 are *the* most important parts apart from the m/b. The priority is stability.
d) I'll leave that one out. There's a lot of good product in all price ranges on the market. Make sure you understand with 100% certainty how to attach the fan & cooler to the CPU without applying too much pressure. Nowadays this is more or less the only point at which you can actually destroy components.
Case fans: Buy some low noise stuff. Not really a cost factor.
e) nVidia or AMD/ATI is a matter of taste. I would simply go for a card in the mainstream sector (roundabout 150 - 250$ plus extras) and replace the card when the PS5 comes out. Beware of noise. Loud cards sound like a helicopter. Good reviews mention how loud the card is with and without load.
Don't spend less, but only spend more if you're gaming on a higher resolution than 1080p.
My general advice - YMMV:
- Performance differences less than 10% don't matter at all. At 30% it gets really interesting.
- SSDs are good.
- 2 - 3 monitors are an immense time saver.
- Noise & heat are the devil.
- Games don't profit from i7 CPUs compared to i5.
- Mainstream parts are fast and reliable nowadays. Hardcore parts are no longer necessary. But of course they're fun if you're into this stuff.
- Upgrading is irrelevant. Buy what you need now. At the time you'll consider an upgrade you'll for sure replace a whole sub-system, for example mainboard + CPU + cooler. Nobody wants to plug a fast new part into an old mainboard.
- Low noise has become cheap. 100$ more for everything should do it.
