good deals on a desktop kit?

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Does anyone know of any good deals for a "bare bones" kit? I'm looking to build my own PC for moderate gaming. It doesn't have to be bleeding edge, I probably couldn't afford it, but something that has a good value to performance is what I'm after

I look on tiger direct from time to time but I can never find the good deals
 
New Egg has sales all the time, get on their email list, they send emails every other day on specials!!!

I use TigerDirect BUISNESS site for OLD hardware support. (ISA serial adapter cards with a whopping 460 KBPS speed)for some very outdated Mitsubishi PLC boards.
 
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That Asus exceeds the minimum requirements unless it truly is going to use the extra two cores. Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz and Geforce GTX 550 TI are minimum.
 
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Yeah fallout 4 is my eventual game to play. I am a console gaming fan, but the fan created content for fallout is huge
 
Fallout 4 has recommended hardware that is going to be expensive. Core i7 4790 costs $310, and the K variety even more, and then add in a Nvidia GTX 780, and there goes $650 on two parts.

The reason I like that Asus computer is because it could be upgraded in the future with a faster processor, higher rated power supply, and a cheap SSD too. Used Intel processors are very easy to sale on Ebay, so when a person does upgrade that can bring in some cash to buy a new processor or a used one.
 
Originally Posted By: daves87rs
Originally Posted By: BigD1
You can get a complete Asus computer for $350 shipped plus a $30.00 rebate. Find a Nvidia 750 TI for $100 or less, and you are golden.

ASUS Desktop PC M11AD-US009O Intel Core i3 4150 (3.50 GHz) 8 GB DDR3 2 TB HDD Windows 7 Home Premium






Wonder if that will handle the Sims 2/3?



From what I read on the minimum requirements, it exceeds it even with the Intel graphics. A core i3 has two physical cores and two virtual cores through hyper-threading.
 
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Originally Posted By: BigD1
Originally Posted By: daves87rs
Originally Posted By: BigD1
You can get a complete Asus computer for $350 shipped plus a $30.00 rebate. Find a Nvidia 750 TI for $100 or less, and you are golden.

ASUS Desktop PC M11AD-US009O Intel Core i3 4150 (3.50 GHz) 8 GB DDR3 2 TB HDD Windows 7 Home Premium






Wonder if that will handle the Sims 2/3?



From what I read on the minimum requirements, it exceeds it even with the Intel graphics. A core i3 has two physical cores and two virtual cores through hyper-threading.


That is good to know!
 
Fallout 4 will use all 4 cores.

The i3-4100 is around 4900 cpubench

the i5-2300 is around 5300

that is the min spec.

Recommended spec
The i7-4790k is 11000+
I'd skip the geforce 780 get a 970 or better.

Microcenter has very good deals..
I'd probably get at least a i5-4690k

they have a 300$ motherboard combo Z97 PRO4 LGA 1150 ATX + i5-4690k

Video card I'd go at least a geforce 960 or better or amd r9 280+

8GB of ram is fine.

500w 80+bronze or better power supply. some amd video cards might require a 600w

A 250GB ssd boot drive and a 1-4TB storage drive

I have a 970 which will be sufficient.. Hoping it doesnt chug too bad and will do high graphics with my aging [email protected]

If not I have budgeted 500$ towards upgrades..
I wouldnt mind jumping to a skylake setup but I have 16GB of ddr3 and those require ddr4

I tend to think that the I3 listed would be sufficient but do you really want to game on medium or lower settings? Most of bethesda gameworks titles seem to run pretty cpu heavy.
 
If I were going to spend a lot of money to build a new system, I would definitely choose a Skylake processor. The core i5-6500 at $199, and the core i5-6600K at $300(variable) are the sweet spots right now.

Here is a Skylake budget gaming system with the i5-6500 for $582.00. Just assemble it, and give it a go.

I forgot about Microcenter, and yes they do have some good deals, but I don't have one near me, and it seems the very best deals one has to pick up at the store unless they have changed lately.

Personally, I would buy the cheapest motherboard H81 or H97 motherboard that supported a core i7-4790 or the K variety, and buy the processor used from somebody that wanted the latest and greatest Skylake. That way I could dump more money into a video card.
 
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Just got up to speed on these Skylake processors. I would hold off buying the older Haswell core-i3 unless you could get it cheap. The latest Skylake core i3, 6100 and 6320, is looking to be the sweet spot for a budget gaming machine. NewEgg has the 6100 for $125, and I could not find a price on the 6320. The Intel 530 graphics are a little bit better too than the Haswell 4400/4600. The i3 6100/6320 both have a TDP of 51 watts, so they will be easy to cool.

I have a core i5 4690K that I bought this past January, so I am good for a while. Really have had no interest in Skylake until I started posting in this thread.
 
Yea skylake requiring a new motherboard and ram is good for people doing a full build not so great as an upgrade.

Also there seems to be a moderate price premium on them right now.. vs historical launch prices...

unfortunately I have socket 1155, If I had 1150 I would just drop in a new haswell i7

But by the time I replace both board and processor... might as well go skylake and replace the memory too.

my i5-2500k at 4.4ghz (stock 3.3) hopefully isnt to bad yet.

I also found their fallout 4 graphics card recommendation to make no sense.. the min spec nvidia card is about half as fast as the min spec AMD radeon card...
 
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so I just downloaded passmark and ran it.

my [email protected] actually scores an 8117 vs
min. spec cpu 5300
recommended cpu 10000

I would be tempted to ebay a i7-2600k if I could find one on the cheap. That should be near/over 10000 cpumark overclocked.

I'd like to hold off another 1-2 years for a full upgrade. Skylake just isnt overwhelming the increases in speed per generation are moderate at best from sandybridge on.

Note: earlier I stated my processor was at 4.4ghz that was incorrect.

If I was building one now I'd have some tough decisions.. I guess it would come down to budget. Anyone know if the processors after skylake are going to use socket 1151? that might make a difference.
 
Problem is Intel has had two tick cycles lately instead of the normal tick then tock, so it does make some hard choices.

Rand, from the gaming benchmarks I saw, your i5-2500k is better than the latest Skylake core i3-6100. Your processor is still very good I think. The core i3's have two physical cores, and two virtual cores with hyper-threading. That's why the core i3's can hang in there with most games, and the video card seems to be the most important factor.
 
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