well
-i think the h7 (and most air coolers) comes with a tube of thermal compound already so you can save a bit of cash by not buying extra compound although the arctic silver one is def better

-idk if it bothers you that much or this was intentional but the cpu you're buying rn is not from the latest generation of intel cpus, but that doesn't mean the 7700k is bad cpu, idk how big is your budget but you can go for a 8700k for 40usd more which seems to be a straight upgrade from the 7700k or a 8600k which give you around the same, if not, better performance than the 7700k, if you end up buying either of those CPUs i mentioned you also need a new mobo

-idk how you feel about overclocking but you're buying a K cpu (cpus that can overclock) with a motherboard that can't overclock, if your main focus is mostly playing tf2 and you're scared of overclocking then i would reccomend going for the cpu/mobo combo you have rn since the 7700k has a higher stock frequency compared to the 8600k/8700k and tf2 depends a lot on the cpu's ghz

-you can also find a 240hz monitor for the price of that one although it won't have stuff like gsync i believe

that's just stuff i could point out of just the part list, i would reccomend taking my post with my grain of salt if anything and wait for someone like setsul to post

.

Hi, I've been wanting to build a PC to replace my laptop for a while now, and I was just wondering what kind of setup I could get if I were to give myself around 1000€ of budget for both the PC and one or two monitors (not changing mouse, mouse pad nor headset for now), say one main monitor for gaming and a smaller, cheaper second one for other tasks. It would be mostly for gaming, including pretty demanding games like Witcher III, Subnautica, Arkham Knight and such, and some good old fashioned TF2 of course. Build would occur in September or so anyway so I'm just doing a bit of research for now really.
Thanks in advance for the time you're putting into this thread Setsul !

#2942
Basically what #2943 with some minor additions and one correction.
Arctic Silver 5 is ancient and actually worse than what most brands (Phanteks, Noctua, Thermalright, Xigmatek, be quiet!, Scythe, etc.) include with their coolers anyway. https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-performance-benchmark,3616-18.html
It's certainly not worth spending 5$ on thermal paste when you're buying a 35$ cooler. A 40$ got a better chance at improving temperatures and if you're going to buy thermal paste at all buy something better than AS5.

The additions:
-non-oc 7700K vs 8600K is complicated because the 7700K is clocked a bit higher. Oc'd 8600K hands down.
-860 Evo is a thing.
-200R is meh, no dust filters at that price is a bit embarrassing.
-PSU is a bit overkill. 450/500W (depending on which steps the line uses) is just fine.

#2944
120 Hz for the main monitor?
Also keeping the keyboard?

Oh lel, forgot the keyboard indeed, tried to rip it off of the laptop but didn't work :/ could be added as extra budget tho, the 1000€ is mostly for PC and monitor
120/144 Hz for main monitor would be nice indeed, don't know much about optimal refresh rate tho, I'm just assuming 144Hz is better (i.e. feels smoother) for tf2
Btw I said 1000€ but if you think that's overkill for a robust gaming rig I don't mind sparing a bit of course...
Thanks for quick response :)

https://fr.pcpartpicker.com/list/V7mCr6
Just roughtly how it'll look like.

None of this will be relevant by September because there will be new CPUs and new GPUs and RAM should be cheaper as well.
Could also omit the HDD if you're fine with just 500GB.

Alright thanks a lot for the quick overview !
Just wondering :
- how do i3 and i7 compare in terms of performance and frequency ? Seeing as you seem to pick the latest i3 series rather than mid-range i7s in many cases : are i7s overpriced for the same performance as an i3 in some cases ?
- I might be missing something but with that setup, would I need to add cooling material or is it included in the case ? I don't know much about coolers nor thermal paste (I guess you could tell)

Frequency only depends on the exact model, there are no generalizations.
Ignore iX completely. Only the number of cores/threads and frequency matters. Otherwise they are literally the same. Except for the x8xx and x9xx models everything within a generation (e.g. all 7xxx) also use the same architecture. On top of that for Intel generations 6 to 8 (soon 9) are also the same. That means there is no difference between a 4 core/ 4 thread i5-7400 and a 4 core/ 4 thread i3-8100. In fact they literally use the same chip.
Most games, especially TF2, don't run any faster on a CPU with more than 4 threads so only the clockrate matters. Graphically demanding games will obviously stress the GPU more than the CPU, so again a better CPU doesn't help beyond a certain point. And that point is surprisingly low.
https://www.techspot.com/review/1022-batman-arkham-knight-benchmarks/page2.html
https://www.techspot.com/review/1022-batman-arkham-knight-benchmarks/page7.html
1060 ~ 970 ~ 870 Ti
That means with anything faster than a Pentium G3258 (2 core/ 2 threads, 3.2 GHz) the GPU is the limiting factor. That means the i3-8100 (4c/4t, 3.6 GHz) is actually overkill in this scenario since as fast as an i5-4690K (4c/4t, 3.9 GHz boost, but an older architecture). It might even be worth considering dropping down to a Pentium Gold with 2c/4t, but a higher clockrate (G5400 and up) to save some money that could go towards a better GPU instead.

Cooler and thermal paste are included on non-K CPUs. I'm assuming you don't want to overclock.

Hi all/Setsul :)

I'm helping my girlfriend's younger brother build his first PC later this month, and he's picked out a rough build - for context, he wants to use the computer for gaming and schoolwork, and doesn't tend to play many Source games.

His planned build: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/KfTJkd

Based on some advice a friend gave, I think he probably ought to switch out the processor and motherboard for a better processor and slightly cheaper board - something like this maybe? https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/L2y4NQ

His budget is around £650 excluding OS - are there any obvious changes he ought to make or is this going to be OK for a first build? I was also going to recommend he waits to buy everything until Amazon Prime Day in a couple of weeks' time.

NB: The case he wants is not quite right on partpicker, it's this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phanteks-PH-EC416PSTG_BR-PC-Casing/dp/B01MU2QVK2/

I'm going to be brutally honest: Both are shit.
-212 Evo.
-Generally aftermarket cooler for locked CPU.
-Z mobo for locked CPU.
-3 year old CPU
-even better, a 3 year old CPU (i3-6100) which is now sold for half the price (G5400)
-single channel RAM
-shitty SSD
-shitty PSU
-shitty, overpriced wifi adapter (does he really need that?)

On top of that spending one sixth of the budget for the pc itself on a case is not that great of an idea.

Non-shitty parts, dual channel RAM, better GPU and much better SSD would look like that.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium Gold G5400 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£47.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B360M DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£64.97 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Team - Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£74.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£58.49 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£32.39 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Phoenix Video Card (£146.39 @ Aria PC)
Case: Phanteks - ECLIPSE P400 ATX Mid Tower Case (£59.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX - XT 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£35.93 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£99.99 @ Amazon UK)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus - PCE-N10 PCI-Express x1 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter (£8.99 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: Asus - VS248HR 24.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor (£115.44 @ More Computers)
Keyboard: Logitech - K120 Wired Standard Keyboard (£13.65 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £759.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-07-04 20:43 BST+0100

Haven't looked into the monitor and keyboard yet.
He should also think about the P300 instead of the P400S.
Depending on that he could get a better CPU and/or GPU.

Very glad I asked then! Thanks for the excellent advice.

Single channel RAM was so he could buy a second stick of 8GB RAM later on when he has some more money - is this a bad idea?

I don’t think he’s super invested in one particular case - what about getting a different one would help? Just cheaper?

Whas a good and cheap mothervoard for overclocking

#2953
What about just buying a mobo that isn't terrible and got 4 slots?

Like I said the P300 is almost the same (there is a tempered glass version) except much cheaper.

#2954
Depends on the CPU. You still shouldn't get the 7700K.

ill probably settle for the 8600k

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/QNX2FT/asrock-z370-extreme4-atx-lga1151-motherboard-z370-extreme4
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/DXCrxr/msi-z370-gaming-pro-carbon-atx-lga1151-motherboard-z370-gaming-pro-carbon
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/tmF48d/evga-z370-micro-atx-micro-atx-lga1151-motherboard-121-ks-e375-kr

Roughly equivalent so get the cheapest.
If all are expensive/not available where you live I can give you some other options.

Thanks. I'd like to see the cheaper alternative motherboards and are these also compatible with the 8700k? I said I'd settle with the 8600k but I'm still deciding if I want to spend extra on the 8700k

Keep in mind you're comparing a 6c/6t to a 6c/12t CPUs. There are very-very few things that'll benefit from the extra 6 threads (Video Rendering and File Compression speeds even then having the 6 extra hyper threads would be pretty negligible). Even from a multitasking standpoint going past 6 threads really isn't that important outside of some specific cases that are very unlikely for someone who's main use is going to be at home/school and gaming.

Though this is mostly cause I'm assuming you're going to overclock, otherwise yeah the 8700k will perform better thanks to the extra 500Mhz of turbo speed. If you don't overclock though the argument should be 8600 vs 8700 not 8600k vs 8700k.

Thanks. I just want to be sure to hit a consistent 240fps and above

having some doubts about my motherboard again for no reason.
how well of an overclock should i expect from the cheapest z370s in a 8350k
i don't want to do anything like 5ghz+, but mostly something around 4.6 to 4.8 ghz
can the cheapest ATX Z370s hit that kind of oc should i try going for the mobos you mentioned in #2957 if i want to hit that

also is the cryorig h7 good enough to handle those overclocks
ty again

A user on reddit modified the list:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/pmVZ29
Is there anything that I can get for better performance/better price
reddit comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/8wwbox/want_to_get_off_of_gaming_on_a_laptop/e1ywp9f/

i don't think theres anything wrong with that build, idk if i'm missing anything

the only real problems i could notice were in the part list that was in the original post in the reddit thread, having a nonmodular power supply sounds like a pain in the ass to deal with and a micro itx motherboard in a full atx case

if you want to burn some cash you could maybe buy a more expensive 1070ti with better cooling fans or a nicer case but overall i think this is really good

wait for someone else to give their opinion on it besides me

#2958
You asked for good and cheap, not cheapest.
They would be compatible, but it's not worth it.
The extra threads do nothing for TF2 and the 8700K doesn't overclock higher either.

#2959
400 MHz actually and only 200 MHz with 6 cores loaded. But yeah, if he doesn't oc the 8600K he's doing it wrong and if he does there won't be any difference.

#2961
Shouldn't be a problem.

#2962
860 Evo would be faster, smaller SSD (+HDD if you need >250/500GB) would be cheaper.
What that guy wrote about the PSU is bullshit btw. There is absolutely no way that he knows whether or not a new PSU with no reviews yet will be more reliable.
If you want modular: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/XxvZxr/evga-b3-450w-80-bronze-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-220-b3-0450-v1
If you want modular and 80+ Gold: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Qb8j4D/seasonic-focus-gold-450w-80-gold-certified-semi-modular-atx-power-supply-ssr-450fm or
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/KmgzK8/seasonic-focus-gold-550w-80-gold-certified-semi-modular-atx-power-supply-ssr-550fm
If you want 80+ Gold and overkill because it's on sale right now: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/dMM323/evga-supernova-g3-750w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-220-g3-0750

Anyone got some recommendations for a monitor? Here's what I'm looking for

• 120/144hz
  
• Cheap but reliable (preferably less than 300 CAD)
  
• Still available today (so no refurbished monitors that are discontinued)
  
• Sold by companies that deliver in Canada
  
• Compatible with the Gigabyte 1050ti
  
• No need for Gsync or Freesync

I'm not planning on buying one within the next few months so upcoming low priced monitors are an option

I bought a VG248QE. It does exactly what you want at a good price. It gets used at a lot of CSGO tournaments due to its price

#2965
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/products/monitor/#H=120,240&sort=price&page=1
<300$ your options are:
Acer XFA240: cheapest, FreeSync, which doesn't matter to you and can't be used with a 1050 Ti.
MSI Optix G24C: curved VA panel = curved (not sure if that's a pro or a con for you), better colours, but slightly slower response time.
Acer GN246HL: FreeSync, bad colours/contrast so strictly worse than the Acer XFA240.
BenQ XL2411: Motion Blur Reduction Utility / Lightboost.
AOC G2460PF: FreeSync, don't think the image quality is better than the Acer XFA240 either.

So basically Acer XFA240 because it's cheap, MSI Optix G24C because it's curved and got better colours or BenQ XL2411 because it got Lightboost.

#2966
No, it does not. It does everything worse than cheaper monitors. It gets used at a lot of CSGO tournaments due to marketing handing them out for free.
http://www.teamfortress.tv/post/649893/good-144-hz-monitors

Been using a laptop for all my time in TF2. It's finally dying and I have no clue what I'm doing so I went through logicalincrements and used the Superb section. Mainly want to make sure the list I have now doesn't have any big improvements that can be made. Ordering in a week or so
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/KmpL7W

Budget: 1000-1200 Euros (mech keyboard/144hz monitor not included. i'll figure those out after I finalise the list)
Goal: 200+ fps on TF2. Don't really care about other games' performance. Not planning on doing video editing. Not planning on streaming (or at least not at high enough settings for it to matter)

edit: not planning on overclocking, but prices were so comparable I might as well buy the 8600k just in case I want to once I know what I'm doing

Is pcp supposed to be set to UK?
No, the prices are not comparable. You're paying 20€ more for the CPU, 60-80€ for that cooler and another 80€ for a Z mobo. Read up on overclocking now and figure out whether or not you're going to do it. Do it or don't, there is no maybe.

Storage capacity requirements?

Other than that could also drop down a bit further on the GPU, since even one or two steps down from a 1060 is still massive overkill for TF2.

Cheaper case and PSU due to better/cheaper options and appropriate downsizing, since the whole build will become a whole lot cheaper.

Wasn't paying attention to the country. My bad. Fixed in this one. Not going to overclock.
Don't really know much about storage requirements. Difference in price between 2TB and 1TB HDD is €15 so might as well play it safe?

https://be.pcpartpicker.com/list/GRHgP3
Moved down a tier with most things using logicalincrements and changed PSU and case appropriately

Thanks for the advise so far!

It's more about how much you think you'll need rather than just copying recommendations.
250GB + 1TB makes sense if you need ~1TB, it doesn't if you only need 400GB. Same if you think 2TB might not be enough.

This is TF2, so more than 4 cores won't help.
You're not going to overclock or use SLI/XFire so you don't need a mobo that supports those.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i3-8350K 4GHz Quad-Core Processor (€179.00 @ Paradigit)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - Pure Rock Slim 35.1 CFM CPU Cooler (€29.95 @ Bytes At Work)
Motherboard: ASRock - B360M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€93.95 @ Bytes At Work)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory (€96.95 @ Bytes At Work)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€71.95 @ Bytes At Work)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€66.90 @ Paradigit)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Windforce OC Video Card (€265.95 @ Bytes At Work)
Case: NZXT - S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (€64.95 @ Paradigit)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (€69.95 @ Paradigit)
Total: €939.55
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-07-11 15:55 CEST+0200
Didn't change the GPU yet, like I said you could get away with much less for TF2.
Cheaper, case just as an example.
PCP is awful for PSUs outside of the US so could find something cheaper.

The 8350K is purely for the clockrate, even though this means you'll need a cooler (-K CPUs don't come with a stock cooler), but you could get a cheaper cooler if you wanted to.
Basically your upgrade options are the 8600 (~6% compared to the 8350K) and the 8700(K) (~15%), which are disproportionately more expensive.
Obviously if you went with an 8350K, 8600K or 8700K anyway you could get a Z370 mobo and overclock, but like I said it's only worth it if you're actually going to do it. You'd get maybe 3-5% with the faster RAM that Z370 allows, but the RAM would also cost a lot more.
Essentially the question is how much are you willing to spend for an extra 10 to 20%. 100€? 200€? 300€?

As downgrade the G5600 would actually be an option. If TF2's behaviour hasn't changed significantly since I benchmarked it, the G5600 would actually be faster than the i3-8100. On pcp Belgium it's 105€ for some reason, should be ~90€. About 90-92% of the 8350K's performance at literally half the price isn't too bad.

With the G5500 as a placeholder to get a more accurate price, a cheaper GPU and potentially a cheaper PSU you could get it down to 700€. https://be.pcpartpicker.com/list/sfF2r6

The main problem is I've got no idea what settings you want to use and I've got no idea what it takes these days to get 200+ fps in TF2, especially since the requirements for 6v6 are vastly different from HL/pubs.

@Setsul Should i get this monitor? I would have to sell myself into a child kidnapping ring and make my way out, but If I do make it out it might be worth it.
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B013ZVFGQ8/?tag=pcp0f-20