Building a PC - Worth it?

ancapailldorcha

degrassinoel wrote: »

got a really decent price on a logitech joystick off them last year

But yeah their components are generally over what ye'd pay for elsewhere, same as peats used to be before they went bust, though i do miss peats

Used to pop into their Dame street store back in the day before Uni. Time was, a 128 MB USB stick cost nearly €100.

Anyway, how long do custom PCs tend to stay able to play games. I was looking at the recommended specs for some games like Crysis 3 and it recommended a processor I was looking at, an Intel i5 costing nearly £200 from Amazon. Is this processor likely to be unable to cope with games released in 2-5 years time?

degrassinoel

i'm really clueless about hardware specs these days, i have to constantly check sysreqlab to reassure myself

The last pc i bought (this one) was nearly 3 years ago, it's got an i7 4820, a GTX 780 and 8 gig of ram - i'm only really having to drop from ultra on the most recent games atm running it on a 1920 x 1080 bog standard monitor

got it at a staff discount too so it's proving it's worth now, though the warranty is well gone, the parts are all running everything i play really well (touch wood)

Probably the first thing on a pc i've always seemed to fork out for first as a replacement is memory, then gpu, and if it comes to replacing a cpu it's time to flog the lot but that's just myself and it's been years since i was anywhere close to being an expert

I seriously doubt my charm with former workmates is gonna swing me another discount the next time i need a new rig, so i'll probably end up building one from scratch myself.

Digital Solitude

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Used to pop into their Dame street store back in the day before Uni. Time was, a 128 MB USB stick cost nearly €100.

Anyway, how long do custom PCs tend to stay able to play games. I was looking at the recommended specs for some games like Crysis 3 and it recommended a processor I was looking at, an Intel i5 costing nearly £200 from Amazon. Is this processor likely to be unable to cope with games released in 2-5 years time?

i5 will last for 5 years minimum I'd say. Theyre crazy powerful. The second get i5s are now 5 years old, and will go obsolete at essentially the same time as the newest ones.

GPU refreshal every second year will keep you at max settings, if that's what you want.

Skerries

yeah it's crazy how relevant the i5-2500k still is these days even though it's 5 years old now

Vicxas

i5-2500k and the 3570k are pretty much timeless workhorses these days.

My answer would be yes, you should definitely build your own PC. There is something very satisfying about watching all the lights come on and the fans spin up for the first time.

It makes all the cuts on your fingers and the crying all worth it.

ancapailldorcha

degrassinoel wrote: »

i'm really clueless about hardware specs these days, i have to constantly check sysreqlab to reassure myself

The last pc i bought (this one) was nearly 3 years ago, it's got an i7 4820, a GTX 780 and 8 gig of ram - i'm only really having to drop from ultra on the most recent games atm running it on a 1920 x 1080 bog standard monitor

got it at a staff discount too so it's proving it's worth now, though the warranty is well gone, the parts are all running everything i play really well (touch wood)

Probably the first thing on a pc i've always seemed to fork out for first as a replacement is memory, then gpu, and if it comes to replacing a cpu it's time to flog the lot but that's just myself and it's been years since i was anywhere close to being an expert

I seriously doubt my charm with former workmates is gonna swing me another discount the next time i need a new rig, so i'll probably end up building one from scratch myself.

You must've spent a fortune. i7's aren't cheap nowadays.

Digital Solitude wrote: »

i5 will last for 5 years minimum I'd say. Theyre crazy powerful. The second get i5s are now 5 years old, and will go obsolete at essentially the same time as the newest ones.

GPU refreshal every second year will keep you at max settings, if that's what you want.

Oh cool. I began looking at requirements for different games and got a bit spooked. Don’t know if I’d need the ultimate, very best best best settings for 5 years straight but I’d like to think it could last a good while if I were to spend £200-£300 on a Graphics card. Out of curiousity, is upgrading a graphics card hard? My housemate mentioned precautions he took to be absolutely 100% that none of the old card’s drivers remained on his system.

Skerries wrote: »

yeah it's crazy how relevant the i5-2500k still is these days even though it's 5 years old now

Good to hear! I was looking at i5’s.

Vicxas wrote: »

i5-2500k and the 3570k are pretty much timeless workhorses these days.

My answer would be yes, you should definitely build your own PC. There is something very satisfying about watching all the lights come on and the fans spin up for the first time.

It makes all the cuts on your fingers and the crying all worth it.

I suspect so. I’d like to use it for films and Netflix as well. The laptop is good but it’s showing its age which is a disparity that will only worsen with time.

Digital Solitude

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Oh cool. I began looking at requirements for different games and got a bit spooked. Don’t know if I’d need the ultimate, very best best best settings for 5 years straight but I’d like to think it could last a good while if I were to spend £200-£300 on a Graphics card. Out of curiousity, is upgrading a graphics card hard? My housemate mentioned precautions he took to be absolutely 100% that none of the old card’s drivers remained on his system.

Requirements are out the window in most cases tbh, a lot of games recommend AMD chips alongside far superior Intel ones, as if they're the same level.

I think it's one of the Wolfenstein games, recommends an i7 yet runs with 0% difference between an i3 and an i7

You boot into safe mode, run a program called DDU that wipes the drivers out, open the PC and take out the GPU (30 second job that, no other component needs touching), install new GPU, boot Windows and then run the new drivers. It takes about 5-10 mins

Generic Dreadhead

I built one 3 years ago, definitely worth it

lmimmfn

Just throwing it out there but Im still rocking an x58 mobo and ram from my build in March 2009, i changed the CPU 18 months ago to a 6 core Xeon i7( released in 2010 and cost 80euro second hand ) and OC'd it to 4.4Ghz. I upgraded to a 980Ti last July( i have a 34" ultrawide 3440x1440 screen so needs the extra grunt,i.e. 5 million pixels vs 2 million for 1080p ). I game on Ultra settings and for the most part get 50-60FPS @ 3440x1440( GTA V, Witcher 3, Fallout 4 ). I get a score of >16000 in 3DMark Firestrike( better than 97% of results apparently )

If you buy/build a decent PC it will last years, especially as there hasnt been much in terms of performance improvements with CPUs in the past few generations, DX12 should reduce the need for massive gains in single core performance also. Thankfully gone are the days where you had to upgrade your cpu,mobo and gfx card every 2-3 years to play the latest games on ultra

lmimmfn

Holy double post batman

degrassinoel

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

You must've spent a fortune. i7's aren't cheap nowadays.

just over 1k in total

ancapailldorcha

degrassinoel wrote: »

just over 1k in total

That's what I might budget for.

degrassinoel

i always cheap out on peripherals - bogstandard keyboard fcukin MX115 mouse that's almost as old as i am xD and a 7 year old monitor, that's all stuff ye can pick up later in sales and so on

ye should be able to do it with 1k easily enough - i'd be interested to know how ye get on with it as i'll definitely be doing the same in a year or two

challengemaster

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Out of curiousity, is upgrading a graphics card hard? My housemate mentioned precautions he took to be absolutely 100% that none of the old card’s drivers remained on his system.

Digital Solitude wrote: »

You boot into safe mode, run a program called DDU that wipes the drivers out, open the PC and take out the GPU (30 second job that, no other component needs touching), install new GPU, boot Windows and then run the new drivers. It takes about 5-10 mins

That's if you're being absolutely anal about it. I'd wager the vast majority of people never do more than a uninstall from within windows programs & features. Most probably just install new drivers over the old ones. Even if you did it in the worst practice (ie. don't bother uninstalling old drivers at all, just swap graphics card) - nothing significant will happen. Your PC won't blow up, no hardware will be damaged... What will likely happen is you'll get lower FPS than what you should with the newer card, and games/apps relying on the GPU might spontaneously crash or throw errors.

That's speaking from experience - I was very lazy when swapping a gpu at one point

ScumLord

degrassinoel wrote: »

i always cheap out on peripherals - bogstandard keyboard fcukin MX115 mouse that's almost as old as i am xD and a 7 year old monitor, that's all stuff ye can pick up later in sales and so on

Yeah, I have some parts of my PC that are over 15 years old. My speakers and the second monitor for example. I have a nice PC now, but it was put together over years, piece by piece, and through two different towers.

degrassinoel

i actually only replaced my old dell speakers, they'd have been 10 years old when they got twitchy and intermittently stopped working (break in the wire somewhere)

I got a great set of logitech z213's for 30 quid in harvey normans just before christmas, heh they should last me another ten years

ScumLord

degrassinoel wrote: »

I got a great set of logitech z213's for 30 quid in harvey normans just before christmas, heh they should last me another ten years

Excellent decision. My 15+ year old speakers are logitech 5.1. Still perfect.

ancapailldorcha

degrassinoel wrote: »

i always cheap out on peripherals - bogstandard keyboard fcukin MX115 mouse that's almost as old as i am xD and a 7 year old monitor, that's all stuff ye can pick up later in sales and so on

ye should be able to do it with 1k easily enough - i'd be interested to know how ye get on with it as i'll definitely be doing the same in a year or two

Fair enough! It'll be a good while yet as I need to sort out another job and a bedroom bigger than the work bathroom.

I have a few lingering questions though.

Are sound cards used at all? They're not often recommended in the PCBU forum here. Also, how do you install Windows without a CD as optical drives don't seem to be recommended much either?

degrassinoel

no idea about soundcards personally, i've not gone out of my way to use much more than onboard sound ever - if i can pipe it to speakers or a headset it suits me. But i'd say if ye were going for surround or really high quality sound ye might want a dedicated soundcard

challengemaster

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Are sound cards used at all? They're not often recommended in the PCBU forum here. Also, how do you install Windows without a CD as optical drives don't seem to be recommended much either?

10-15 years ago, soundcards were massive for gaming. Now there's literally no benefit with the quality of onboard sound. Unless you need it for actually working with audio files as part of your job, or are an audiophile, then they're entirely pointless waste of money.

Ever since Windows 7 came out you're able to install windows 7/8/8.1/10 from a USB drive. Not only is it more convenient and saves buying the essentially obsolete optical drive - it's way faster installing from a USB. You just download the ISO file for the disk image and burn it to the USB drive so you have a bootable USB. Then use the CDKey from the OS you purchase / already own.

lmimmfn

challengemaster wrote: »

10-15 years ago, soundcards were massive for gaming. Now there's literally no benefit with the quality of onboard sound. Unless you need it for actually working with audio files as part of your job, or are an audiophile, then they're entirely pointless waste of money.

Ever since Windows 7 came out you're able to install windows 7/8/8.1/10 from a USB drive. Not only is it more convenient and saves buying the essentially obsolete optical drive - it's way faster installing from a USB. You just download the ISO file for the disk image and burn it to the USB drive so you have a bootable USB. Then use the CDKey from the OS you purchase / already own.

Onboard audio is awful if you're using headphones with no amp, I just removed my soundcard last week to free up airflow for my GPU as I have a USB headset which has the sound card built in and also GPUs have built in soundcards also for HDCP.

So I'd recommend a soundcard only if you have a regular set of cans with no amp

ancapailldorcha

lmimmfn wrote: »

Onboard audio is awful if you're using headphones with no amp, I just removed my soundcard last week to free up airflow for my GPU as I have a USB headset which has the sound card built in and also GPUs have built in soundcards also for HDCP.

So I'd recommend a soundcard only if you have a regular set of cans with no amp

I was probably just going to look into a set of speakers. Don't think I've ever used an amp in my life.

lmimmfn

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I was probably just going to look into a set of speakers. Don't think I've ever used an amp in my life.

You should be fine with speakers as they generally have built in amps e.g Logitech speakers. Basically if you plug regular headphones into onboard audio the volume range is crap and will be too low( there are some mobos with decent soundcards built in but generally it's realtek crap ) so they need an amp to boost the volume

nesf

You may need a soundcard or an external DAC/Amp if you're planning on buying something other than Logitech (or similar) speakers. Other than that, yeah unless you're plugging in hi-fi heaphones instead of ones aimed at gamers there shouldn't be any issue with onboard.

Digital Solitude

If you don't think you'll need a soundcard, you don't need a soundcard :pac:

Its probably a nice to have and I imagine it makes a big difference if you've the setup for it, but that'd knock about 50% off your budget to justify it

challengemaster

lmimmfn wrote: »

Onboard audio is awful if you're using headphones with no amp, I just removed my soundcard last week to free up airflow for my GPU as I have a USB headset which has the sound card built in and also GPUs have built in soundcards also for HDCP.

So I'd recommend a soundcard only if you have a regular set of cans with no amp

Please, tell me more about how exactly onboard audio and non-amp headphones are awful. I haven't noticed any issues in the last 13 years of using them.

ancapailldorcha

Was probably either going to take a leaf out of D's book and get speakers or just use my standard Sennheiser earbud headphones. Think I'll be leaving it. Ta.

lmimmfn

challengemaster wrote: »

Please, tell me more about how exactly onboard audio and non-amp headphones are awful. I haven't noticed any issues in the last 13 years of using them.

I dont respond to crap posting

CruelCoin

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

So, after posting a fair bit in the XCOM 2 thread I mentioned that I might look into building a gaming PC. It's something I've wanted to do for years now ever since I saw a previous flatmate's rig render various games at 1080p @ 60fps or more. I think I'd be able to afford it at this stage but my employment contract runs out this year and I need to sort out something else so I thought I'd post this and do some research though there are a dazzling range of bits to choose from.

TLDR, did ye feel that spending the time and money on yer rigs was a sound investment or a waste of time, money and space? I strongly suspect answers of resounding satisfaction.

I overspent massively on my build.

A 4790k cpu which i never overclocked for example.
16gb of ram @ 2400mhz that never gets above 6gb usage.

Am i happy with it though? **** yeah.

Sometimes all you need is a Mondeo, but you know what? I'd rather have the Ferarri.

CruelCoin

lmimmfn wrote: »

Onboard audio is awful if you're using headphones with no amp, I just removed my soundcard last week to free up airflow for my GPU as I have a USB headset which has the sound card built in and also GPUs have built in soundcards also for HDCP.

So I'd recommend a soundcard only if you have a regular set of cans with no amp

Any half decent motherboard has great onboard sound. Very few people benefit from having a soundcard, and if you're not running 7.1 speakers, its largely wasted.