Thinking about building my own gaming computer. So many questions

If you’re just going to be skiing around, you probably won’t notice much difference between most of those.

However, if you’re going to be doing challenges, many of them are quite twitchy so you will want to go with the better performance.

I run a 2070 super with a 3440x1440 monitor capable of 100 Hz. It is a GSync monitor so take what I say with a grain of salt.

I prefer pretty over frames, while still being responsive, so I shoot for as pretty as possible with a minimum 50 fps target. So, in your case I would shoot for something between high and ultra. High if twitch is important, ultra if it’s not.

Then I would dick around with the various AA settings, I don’t notice jaggies so I tend to go for which ever AA option is the fastest for that game.

I should add that I haven’t played a lot lately but when I do it’s MSFS 2020, DCS, Arma III (mostly) and Cyberpunk… So I haven’t seen 50 fps in a long while :rofl:

Now after having a video card for a couple days I’m over the moon. Since my monitor is only capable of 1920x1080 @ 60 Hz, the 1050 Ti is pretty much all I need. It’s at very least plenty good enough to wait a couple/few years for the market to return to sanity. At that point (2024?) maybe I could find an old 3070 for under $400, and then at the same time maybe upgrade my 10400 to an 11600K and double the ram to 32 GB, both of which should be pretty cheap by then. But for now, and for years to come, my computer is finally complete. WOOHOO!!!

The video card does indeed run cool and quiet as reviews stated. Both the CPU and new GPU idle around 31C, which is a little warm but to be expected from the oven of a case I chose. Under gaming load (Steep, Control, Hitman, etc…) both the cpu and gpu run in the low/mid 60s. 65C is the highest I’ve seen so far for either. That is just fantastic. The gpu fans kick on at 60C going 1000-ish rpm, but I almost can’t hear them at all even with my ear right next to the case. And anytime I’m gaming I’m wearing headphones and maybe 5 feet away from the case anyway.

After gaming, the fans stay on until the video card drops down to 50C, at which point they shut off and wait for it to get above 60C again. (In a perfect world I’d keep the fans running until it gets down to 40C. I may look into customizing that, which you probably can.) It takes around 20 minutes of literal idle (so maybe 30 minutes of browsing?) for that 50C to drop back down to normal low 30s idle.

The end result is that I have managed to manifest the exact computer I envisioned in every respect, and almost on budget to boot:

Item Spent Details
Motherboard 202.05 MSI MAG Z490 Tomahawk
CPU 189.19 Intel i5 10400
CPU Cooler 69.12 Dark Rock Slim
Thermal Paste 14.76 Arctic Silver 5 + kit, wrist strap
Video Card 368.85 MSI GTX 1050 Ti Gaming X
Power Supply 157.38 Seasonic Focus 750W Platinum
Memory 84.02 16GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4 3200
C: Drive 165.57 1 TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2 NVMe
D: Drive 244.59 2 TB Samsung 860 Evo 2.5" SDD
E: Drive 116.97 1 TB Samsung 860 Evo 2.5" SDD
Sata Cable 7.43 To plug in the backup drive (E:)
Case 115.9 Fractal Define 7 Compact
Case Fans 77.62 Silent Wings 3 (Two 140s, one 120)
1813.45 The computer

Just over $1800 for hardware is a little higher than I originally wanted, but still within parameters. My distribution is admittedly odd:

Component Total % of Budget
Motherboard 202.05 11.14%
CPU 189.19 10.43%
CPU Cooler 69.12 3.81%
Video Card 368.85 20.33%
Memory 84.02 4.63%
Hard Drives 527.13 29.06%
Power Supply 157.38 8.67%
Case (plus case fans) 193.52 10.67%
Paste & cables 22.19 1.22%

A “proper” build I think would spend way more on cpu, cooler, and ram at the expense of the case and hard drives. I’m happy with how I allocated the budget, though. I’m not missing processor speed or feeling like my ram is lacking at all, and I’m absolutely loving having three roomy SSDs. (With plans to eventually/soon-ish buy a fourth!) The utter silence combined with cool temperatures thanks to running low-power components worked out better than I even hoped. I almost kind of don’t even want to upgrade the video card further…

Yesterday I started playing proper both Hitman and Control. Hitman I’m already loving to death, Control I’m still not sure what’s going on or how to do anything but I’m digging it so far. I haven’t gotten very far in either but that’s because it’s so hard to tear myself away from Steep, where I’m just tooling around the various drop points at 39 fps @ 1080p Ultra+. Not to mention Grid 2 looks amazing at 80 fps @ 1080p Ultra.

A truly happy ending.

I have not played this particular game and I do not know what options are available in the graphics menu but I would reduce shadow complexity first (assuming you can), then water detail. Shadows and reflections are computationally expensive. Then lower anti-aliasing a step or two or choose a less expensive anti-aliasing method (if you can).

Those few things can make the biggest difference.

I was thinking about doing a computer upgrade this summer–mostly so that I can play Baldur’s Gate 3 when it’s released–but am now reconsidering.

The three components most in need of upgrade, I think, are:

  1. A 230 GB solid-state drive (I have a 450 GB secondary, non-SSD): it’s usually close to maxed-out, anda larger one would be nice.
  2. A GeForce GTX 1060 3GB – I know this could use an upgrade, but am guessing this is really the wrong time to upgrade it.
  3. An Intel(R) Core™ i3-6100 CPU @ 3.70GHz : I’m not even sure whether I can upgrade this without upgrading the MoBo (ASUSTek Computer, B150M-A D3; I have no idea what that means).

It also has 8 MB RAM, which isn’t a ton these days, right?

If you were putting $500 into a PC like this, how would you do it? Or would you just save that $500 until you have another big ole chunk of cash to go with it?

Yay a research question! I enjoy the planning almost as much as I enjoy the result.

I have some initial thoughts but will look into prices this afternoon to see if I have any good suggestions for you.

Does your motherboard have any M.2 drive slots?

Baldur’s Gate 3 is going to be maybe a 2022 release, possibly 2023. I would hold off on the GPU until things get better if that game is your primary focus (and the 1060 is serving you in the meanwhile). Chip supply predictions get better the closer to 2022 you get so you’d probably have more options even in December than in August.

You can upgrade the CPU up to an i7-7700(k) which you’re not going to find new (unless you’re paying inflated new “old stock” pricing). You can find it used in the $150-$175 range but I’d strongly consider seeing what’s available in new boards/RAM later this year. Even a budget offering from the new Mobo/CPUs and DDR5 due out this fall/winter will blow away upgrading your CPU. You can always say “Wait for the next release” but this one will be truly generational (in tech terms, not human terms)

That makes a lot of sense–thanks! I may go ahead and get a new SSD: I’m seeing 1Tb drives for $109 (I think I got my 230Gb drive for a lot more than that a few years back), and a drive like that would really save a lot of hassle of uninstalling old games so I can get the new ones on my drive. But I’ll hold off on the other upgrades until the new generation of stuff comes out.

Hey this is a little late for some but you should really check out Newegg’s Shuffle. It’s a drawing for a chance to buy a top of the line GPU for 10-20% over retail.

I’ve seen 3060s going for $400 on there:

That’s a solid plan. A 2.5" SSD is one of the few components that won’t be changing with this next generation coming out. Intel 12th generation changes what motherboard you want. PCIe4 changes what M.2 drive you want, and may eventually change the video card you’d want as well. DDR5 changes what RAM you want. But the trusty 2.5" SSD just uses regular ol’ SATA, so no worries about losing out on faster bus speeds or anything.

I might suggest you splurge for a 2 TB SSD instead of 1 TB. The 2 TB Samsung 870 EVO is currently $235 on Newegg, which seems reasonable. It’s the same price I paid for my 2TB 860 EVO five months ago.

Then, when you upgrade to 12th generation or later, you can get an M.2 for Windows and games (M.2 is significantly faster than 2.5" SSD) and have a nice roomy 2 TB drive for data plus spillover game installs or whatever.

Yeah, a SSD purchase makes sense right now. It’s easily transported into a new machine but will give you a nice boost now as well. Plus, solid state storage could be seeing a price increase due to Chia (cryptocurrency that uses storage space as means of earning; don’t ask). Earlier predictions of doom didn’t quite pan out but changes in the crypto market could make more people look into Chia so you might as well buy now if you were planning on buying later – I doubt SSD prices will get much cheaper in the short term.

GPU prices might be about to fall. In the past month in Germany and Austria, Nvidia 30 Series prices have fallen from 3x retail to just 2x retail, which is still “kick you in the balls” pricing, but it’s an encouraging sign, at least.

Yes, you would need to get a new motherboard if you upgraded to a 10th or 11th generation chip. And then in August, 12th generation chips will be a brand new socket type and will require another motherboard again.

I’ve read that Intel typically uses a single socket architecture for two generations, and the two generations the current motherboards support are 10th and 11th. (Yours is 6th generation, so like @Jophiel mentioned, you could look for a used higher-end 7th generation chip to add some pep.)

It’s not great, but it’s also not terrible. The problem here is if you (wisely) wait to get a fully next generation computer, you’ll want different RAM than you would be buying now.

Even still, I might look for another 8 GB of RAM right now despite knowing you likely won’t be transporting it to the eventual new machine. It can’t be that expensive (I picked up 16 GB for $80 or so) and I think going from 8 GB to 16 GB might yield actual improvement.

My price for desktop computers isn’t especially high. The 2TB drive might be worthwhile on the assumption that it’ll last many years and basically make it unnecessary to get a new drive anytime in the next, I dunno, decade?

It’s pretty unlikely I’ll buy 12th generation stuff when it comes out, but am I right in thinking that it’ll probably kick the cost of 10-11 generation way down when that comes out? If so, waiting is probably a good idea. (I’m guessing that a 12th-generation MoBo and chip and RAM are going to, together, run well above $500-$600, which is around what I’m willing to shell out, I think).

I see where you’re going with that. 1 TB is probably the better play. That’s big enough that it should always be useful but also spare the budget for better stuff.

Googling your motherboard (“B150M-A D3”):

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1175496-REG/asus_b150m_a_d3_b150m_a_d3_skylake.html

It’s a micro ATX board, which is kind of a downer in that it implies you have a micro ATX case, which may complicate future upgrades. Be mindful of that for any video card upgrades in particular, especially if you buy a used i7 6700. You might even need to look for Low Profile cards.

Also of note, no M.2 slot but you do get the standard four ram slots. You should pop the case to see how many RAM sticks you have. (One 8 GB or two 4s?) Actually I think you can find that info in the BIOS, no screwdriver required.

I think your best bet is to start with a 1 TB SSD ($110+) and another 8 GB RAM to get to 16. (Two 4 GB sticks is around $50+)

Probably under $180 all-in. The roomy drive would be a huge QoL improvement you’d appreciate for a while, and the extra 8 GB ram should improve game performance for modern big releases.

With that micro ATX motherboard I don’t think I’d want to upgrade much else in terms of components, preferring to either get a whole new prebuild or build your own with a compact ATX case instead of micro. You already have the video card, and possibly the power supply.

EDIT: If you then decide to build your own 10th or 11th gen system after 12th gen comes out, you’ll already have the SSD and 16 GB of ram you’d want anyway, so they’d both be useful both now and later. (Won’t be the fastest ram, though; buying a whole new 16 GB of faster ram for $85 might be the smarter play.)

This is my case. It should be compatible with microATX or ATX, but I’m kinda fuzzy on what that means.

Oh, nice, yeah, that case should work fine.

Here’s a pcpartpicker list to give you an idea of what $600 could get you right now if you chose to build your own using your existing parts as applicable:

Price Component Details
$114 Motherboard MSI MAG B460 Torpedo
$165 CPU i5 10400
$40 Cooler Cooler Master 212 Black or RGB
$83 RAM 16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws 3200
$157 Hard Drive 1 TB Samsung Evo Plus 870 M.2 NVMe
$559 plus tax

Shipping is included, so this should be right around or even just under $600 all in.

Userbenchmark says an i5 10400 (10th gen, not overclockable) is 40% faster than your i3 6100. That’s the same chip I chose and I love it. It’s the cheapest reasonable option. The only other real option is an i5 11600K (11th gen, overclockable) which is 19% faster than the 10400, 66% faster than the i3 6100, but costs $280 compared to the 10400’s $170.

A B460 won’t allow overclocking, but a 10400 can’t be overclocked so they pair together as a budget option quite nicely. I have an MSI motherboard and feel comfortable recommending one. The “Torpedo” is no doubt a budget line, but it still have two M.2 slots, and that’s one of your key upgrade values.

The 10400 runs cool so the cooler master 212 (your choice either black or with rgb lights) is plenty.

The RAM is actually faster than the motherboard can support, which caps out at 2666. So you could probably save a couple bucks there downgrading to 2666 memory. 16 GB is the appropriate amount.

The 1 TB M.2 drive is where you’ll get the most performance improvement. Windows should boot noticeably faster, and all your programs and games should be peppier. It really is like 2x to 3x faster than a 2.5" SSD. It’s kind of nuts, actually. Plus this would be super roomy compared to what you have now. And my favorite part is that there are no cables to plug in.

So a 40% faster cpu and 2x to 3x faster hard drive with double the ram. That would be a pretty solid upgrade, and you could even do that right now before the next generation has dropped. Maybe the prices drop enough that you could buy a nicer case. (Something like a Phanteks Eclipse P300A for $60.)

Just be sure not to wait so long that the “old” 10th / 11th generation motherboards stop being sold.

EDIT: Forgot to say, you would use your existing case, video card and power supply.

When I say an M.2 is 2x to 3x faster than a 2.5" SSD, I mean that the things you normally associate with the hard drive (like booting up) seem to go 2x to 3x times faster. In reality, a lot of processing is going on in between smaller reads. In terms of raw power, an M.2 is actually 5x or 6x faster. It’s just that bulk reads and writes almost never happen in normal usage so you only really see some of it.

Here are the hard drive benchmarks results I got right after building my PC:

https://ibb.co/85y1dLR

The left (M.2) is fully 6x faster in terms of raw speed.

It’s not quite as big a jump up as from HDD to SSD, but the jump from SSD to M.2 is at least half as big or more in terms of how much faster it just feels.

Yeah, an M2 SSD is about 10 times faster than a spinner disc, so will read/write in a tenth of the time. I’ve seen this as real speeds, my spinner rarely hit above 100MB/s write partition to partition and M2 SSD usually topped out about 1150 MB/s and largely stayed there. SATA SSDs are 450(older)-550MB/s, and I found that SSD speeds are much more consistent too.