There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
1. What's your $ limit 2. Do you have salvageable parts like an old case or do you already own a keyboard, mouse, and monitor 3. Do you care about aesthetics or is going pure bang for your buck the goal?
There's more I'm sure but answering those will get you a lot more feedback.
As @CykaChu said, never skimp on the power supply, name brands such as EVGA are they way to go.
Usually people say about 1/3 of your budget should go towards your graphics card in a gaming system. It probably matters the most out of anything.
If you can afford a smaller SSD in addition to a hard drive, go ahead, but don't just get a tiny SSD, you'll regret it. A nice setup is a 120gb SSD for your OS and any small startup programs with a 1TB hard drive for games, etc. Don't skimp on your storage either, data tends to be important.
As far as a monitor goes, 1080p with 60Hz and anything at or below a 5ms response time should be fine for anything entry level.
However, just be careful, especially with these particular "mid range" types of cards, they were often used for crypto mining, and as many have since stopped cryptocurrency mining as it doesn't seem to be as profitable as it once was, they're selling cards that were used for this. If a card has been used for mining in the past, it has probably been under heavy load at high temperatures for most of its life time.
In other words, make sure you buy one from a single person, NOT selling 20+ of the same card as "used".
For example, this seems like a good card: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Radeon-Sapphire-NITRO-RX480-8GB-DDR5-RAM-OC/292725207542?hash=item4427c831f6%3Ag%3Ag8UAAOSw9PNbmdFG&LH_Auction=1
Although for higher end cards, nvidia seems to be better for gaming. If you prefer nvidia for any reason, the 1070 is great for high setting 1080p gaming.
Send me your link if you have the time.
- PSU: I look for a PSU that is modular, has along warranty and is at least GOLD rated. If you get one less than GOLD rated, it is a POS - avoid at all costs. EVGA is really well known, but I prefer Seasonic. Seasonic has longer warranties and better aesthetics. Don't be tempted to skimp on this part - even if you pay $100 instead of $50, this is the most "future proof"-able part of your build. Most budget builds put in 500 Watt or 550w, but again, its not a big deal to spend $20 and get a 650w that is sure to last you.
- Graphics card and CPU: Most people spend about 1/3 of the cost on the GPU. This depends on what resolution, refresh rate, and games you play. If you're curious, look at benchmarks from Hardware Unboxed youtube channel or benchmarks for your specific game. There are plenty of videos on what graphics card you should get. My caveats to the recommendations are:
- If you are playing older games, you can get away with much better frame rates than are advertised.
- Most benchmarks are played at Ultra settings, when High settings look almost identical
- Graphics card prices are very volatile. Often times, recommendations in videos and such are based on prices at the time of filming, not what's going on right now. For example, GTX 1070s used to be value kings, but now GTX 1070tis are roughly the same price, which makes them a better deal.
- Don't try to future proof your GPU or CPU. They will become obsolete eventually. Just buy a balanced system. Especially with the prices now, it is hard to go wrong.
- Ryzen is a better deal hands-down. The R5 2600 is basically a i5-8400, but it has double the threads and is great in multi-threaded workloads. The 8400 is hard to find, and is more expensive. The R5 1600 is also cheaper than the 2600. It has less performance, but here another advantage of Ryzen comes in: the AM4 socket. The R5 1600 has less performance, but it won't really bottleneck your system if you build it balanced. The AM4 socket will be around till 2020, which is past the next big processor change for AMD. It looks like it could be a huge performance uplift. This means that you could keep your motherboard and RAM even when you have to upgrade to the next processor.
- Monitor: this is really really tough to explain. There are so many specs you just have to decide what resolution and frame rate you want and research every budget option in sight. If you want G-Sync, add 100-200 bucks on the prices below. Here are the general resolutions and frame rates that most people go for:
- 1080p 60Hz 24": good budget option, $80. Doesn't require much from CPU or GPU. 75Hz should be noticeably smoother.
- 1080p 144Hz 24": wayyy smoother experience, but ~$180-250.
- 1440p 60Hz 27": really solid option. This resolution only requires a mid-range GPU and will still only run you about $200.
- 1440p 144Hz 27": solid as well. if you graphics card can put out 120+ frames at the game's graphics settings, you shouldn't really notice any tearing, so adaptive sync isn't necessary. If you end up in the 60-90FPS range, you will want adaptive sync. ~$310-500ish
- 4k 60 FPS: This costs a bunch, don't do this.
- Motherboard: make sure you have the right socket for your CPU. ATX motherboards are the most common and aren't much more expensive than other sizes, so usually the recommendation is to get ATX even if you don't need the extra slots. If you like aesthetics, go for that. I have found that ASUS is almost always overpriced. I like MSI - usually they are the cheapest but are still solid. Don't be scared by customer reviews that say something about memory (RAM), as these are fixed now. I'm only going to talk about AMD chipsets since intel sucks as a value proposition these days. Here ya go:
- B350: the original budget option for 1st gen Ryzen, basically gives you everything you need (including overclocking) with some less features (less sata ports, m.2 slots, etc). Typically lower quality, but not in a way that really matters AFAIK
- X370: B350 with more features and often more aesthetically pleasing. Should, in theory get you better overclocks. Some are really really cheap now, like the Gaming Pro Carbon
- B450: an X470 board with less sata ports and minor features. Same power delivery and everything. A little over-priced perhaps, but solid.
- X470: probably slightly better quality than a B450. The B450 however has basically made the X470 unnecessary, as it has all the fundamental features. You'll have to compare board-to-board. X470 has better aesthetics and more sata ports and more RGB headers, but no other real noteworthy differences.
- TLDR: get a B350, B450 or X370 based on price, and appearance. Make sure it has enough RGB headers and sata ports for your machine.
- Storage: lots of games these days are HUGE (80 GB or more). I cannot stand hard drives. SSDs will decrease your boot times, times to open programs and load levels in games. No-brainer. I also cannot stand having my stuff spread out over multiple drives. Therefore, I recommend a 1 TB Sata SSD. They are about the same price per GB as the smaller drives. Choose a reputable company like WD, Adata, Samsung, etc and you should be good. You can double check reviews online, but unless you get a really crappy AND low - capacity drive, you will have the same experience. M.2 drives are overpriced and the experience is going to be roughly the same as the SATA SSDs.
- Case: Make sure your cpu cooler, motherboard and gpu can fit. Other than that, get something with the aesthetics that you like. Most people like PSU shrouds so you don't see the power supply. Here are some of my recommendations:
- Metallic gear cases: look great, aluminum, and around $100
- Phanteks Eclipse series
- Phanteks Enthoo Pro TG or Enthoo Pro M TG
- Fractal Design Define C or Meshify C
- Lian Li PC-011 Dynamic
- Those are really good quality companies, so most cases from them should be pretty good.
Does this answer your question?