Building a Gaming PC

[Rookie]

Hey guys, a little OT but this is the most active thread on PCs. I have a desktop rigged for 3D modelling but I'm looking into buying a new work laptop. I'll mostly be using Word, Powerpoint, Excel and Outlook. Maybe a little Photoshop.

I've zeroed in on this:
www.newlaptopspecs.com/lenovo-ideapad-100-80mj001bus-review-entry-budget-laptop/

Cheap and surprisingly lightweight. However I'd like to upgrade the RAM to 4GB. Problem is, the Lenovo store I'm getting it from doesn't sell parts. It's also a new model so there aren't any extensive reviews on it yet. The salesman advised me to look for a low voltage sodimm 1600mhz ram. And I found this:

www.amazon.co.uk/G-Skill-1333MHz-SO-DIMM-Low-voltage-single/dp/B00IALDZQM

(There's also a Kingston with the same specs)

Do you guys know if this RAM is compatible with the laptop? Any advice?

P.S. I was also looking at this 2-in-1 from Asus, I kinda liked it because of its longer battery life and portability.

www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-Transformer-Book-T200TA-Convertible-Review.127091.0.html

Can't help you with your question but found a good deal if you're in the market.
http://m.tigerdirect.com/products/9611137
Acer is becoming a respected brand. I've owned 3 of their PCs and have had no problems with them.
Great price for what you get.

 

[Lionheart]

Can't help you with your question but found a good deal if you're in the market.
http://m.tigerdirect.com/products/9611137
Acer is becoming a respected brand. I've owned 3 of their PCs and have had no problems with them.
Great price for what you get.

That's a damned good deal Rookie. I looked it up and its still out of my price range where I'm from (I live in the Philippines).

 

[Man Called X]

I ditched the USB drive for a wired connection.

Still having some issues and have started over and re-installed Windows 8 a couple times now. I think I have isolated the issue and believe it has something to do with the Battle.net client.

I was installing one program at a item while monitoring internet performance and noticed nothing until after the install of Battle.net. This is where the speeds dropped significantly. I uninstalled Battle.net and the internet issues still persisted.

On another fresh Windows install Battle.net was the first thing I installed and it worsened my connection again. I did some research and was unable to find anything matching my scenario but I will be avoiding installing that as I only play Hearthstone and that is easily playable on my laptop or tablet.

Very confused as to how their client can cause such issues even after uninstalling the client and restarting the PC.

Battle.net is basically a torrent client when you reach the nitty gritty of it. Not sure I've ever heard of it causing the symptoms you were experiencing though.

 

[Rookie]

@Rookie FWIW, I put together that exact build basically (it's actually better) and came out $100 cheaper:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($63.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: *Team Elite Plus 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($40.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda ES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($46.44 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GT 610 1GB Video Card ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Thermaltake Commander G42 ATX Mid Tower Case ($30.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($24.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $418.27
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-07 10:00 EDT-0400
__________________________________________________________________

But I definitely would not recommend buying it. The graphics card is pretty much worthless, the ram is at 1333hz, and Intel processors are superior to AMD.

Here's something I threw together real quick that would blow that PC out of the water for ~$100 more:
___________________________________________________________________

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: *Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($172.78 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($69.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: *A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: *Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.74 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280 3GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($35.62 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $636.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-07 10:06 EDT-0400

About to start the process.
This build still stands for the price range?

 

[NtG]

About to start the process.
This build still stands for the price range?

Something similar to that build will be around $690 if you were to buy all parts right now (Keep in mind that there isn't a monitor in there either if you need one so add another $130 to that). However, if you buy your parts slowly by watching https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/ for sales on those parts or similar ones you could save ~$80 to $100 probably.

Here's that build updated for today:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: *Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($172.78 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: *Team Dark 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($38.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: *PowerColor Radeon R9 280X 3GB TurboDuo Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($45.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: *Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $691.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-12 10:47 EDT-0400

Also of note is that some of the parts listed here (the ones with asterisks) are chosen from a parametric filter that picks the component matching the criteria with the lowest price.

 

[Rookie]

Something similar to that build will be around $690 if you were to buy all parts right now (Keep in mind that there isn't a monitor in there either if you need one so add another $130 to that). However, if you buy your parts slowly by watching https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/ for sales on those parts or similar ones you could save ~$80 to $100 probably.

Here's that build updated for today:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: *Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($172.78 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: *Team Dark 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($38.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: *PowerColor Radeon R9 280X 3GB TurboDuo Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($45.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: *Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $691.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-12 10:47 EDT-0400

Also of note is that some of the parts listed here (the ones with asterisks) are chosen from a parametric filter that picks the component matching the criteria with the lowest price.

How much money could you save doing the build around black friday, or is it even worth the wait?

Thanks a lot for the build.
Think I have to mentally prepare myself to deal with all the drivers and things not working.

 

[NtG]

How much money could you save doing the build around black friday, or is it even worth the wait?

Black Friday is okay, but not really worth the wait. There's so many sales on parts every day. Like I said, get familiar with the components and then check /r/buildapcsales every day for those parts or ones very similar.

Thanks a lot for the build.
Think I have to mentally prepare myself to deal with all the drivers and things not working.

I built mine in November and had no problems with things not working (besides the crappy wireless adapter I got and then replaced with a powerline adapter).

 

[gourimoko]

Thinking of getting either a Titan X, 295x2, or 2 980 TIs in SLI.

Wanting 4K while still having the ability to switch to 3D.

Anyone own these cards in here?

 

[TyGuy]

Thinking of getting either a Titan X, 295x2, or 2 980 TIs in SLI.

Wanting 4K while still having the ability to switch to 3D.

Anyone own these cards in here?

Sli always seemed cool, but it adds extra heat, and power and not every game has good or any sli scaling. You always hear of microstutter reports too. Sli always seemed to be more trouble than it's worth. The games with good support and scaling seem fantastic though.

Too bad a single card can't give a reliable 4k experience.

I know with 3d your monitor has to be at least 120 hz. It also requires a godly amount of gpu power. I checked out the nvidia 3d booths when they had them at frys. It was pretty neat, but I don't think you can play long sessions with it.

 

[MRMsix6]

Thinking of getting either a Titan X, 295x2, or 2 980 TIs in SLI.

Wanting 4K while still having the ability to switch to 3D.

Anyone own these cards in here?

I have a GTX 980 TI. It's a pretty incredible card.

Looking at those choices, it's hard to justify a Titan X given the still $1k price and how close in performance a single 980 TI is. I'd also add the Fury X to that short list as it scales well into 4k territory, thought it lags a bit behind at lower res compared to the 980 TI. Personally, I'm not a big fan of SLI/Crossfire setups for some of the reasons TyGuy listed. The heat, noise, power consumption, and questionable scaling in many games...etc. I used to run SLI GTX 260s a few gens ago and it just wasn't worth the extra issues. Unfortunately, if you want to come close to maxing out more recent titles at 4k you pretty much need SLI 980 TIs or X-fire Fury Xs.

I went ahead and bought a 980 TI soon after release, but I'm still waiting on the i7 6700k to become available in the US to do a full rebuild. Hopefully it should be any day now - getting an itchy trigger finger over here. My trusty old i7 930 just isn't doing it for me anymore.

 

[Jack Brickman]

If you're going to buy a top of the line video card, you might as well wait until some of the new cards tailored for DX12 start coming out.

Really, though, I think buying top of the line video cards is a waste of money since they drop in price so fast.

 

[gourimoko]

If you're going to buy a top of the line video card, you might as well wait until some of the new cards tailored for DX12 start coming out.

Really, though, I think buying top of the line video cards is a waste of money since they drop in price so fast.

My concern isn't whether the card is top of the line, but whether or not I can play 4k at 60fps minimum on most games. I want the lowest noise solution; and I'm not overly concerned with power consumption under load as much as power consumption at idle.

I don't care what class the cards are in, and money is not in the top 3 of my criteria for picking a card. If I spent $1.5k on a GPU solution that was fairly future proofed that met my needs, I would be comfortable with that.

I don't build PCs every other year - I build them every PC generation and build them to last.

 

[Jack Brickman]

My concern isn't whether the card is top of the line, but whether or not I can play 4k at 60fps minimum on most games. I want the lowest noise solution; and I'm not overly concerned with power consumption under load as much as power consumption at idle.

I don't care what class the cards are in, and money is not in the top 3 of my criteria for picking a card. If I spent $1.5k on a GPU solution that was fairly future proofed that met my needs, I would be comfortable with that.

I don't build PCs every other year - I build them every PC generation and build them to last.

Fair enough. I typically buy a mid-range card at around $300-400 and then upgrade to a newer card a few years later at a similar price point. Most mid-range cards will handle all current games on all high settings in my experience, and once it starts to struggle you can just upgrade and still save money in the long run over buying a top of the line card.

Of course, if cost isn't an issue for you, by all means, go all out.

 

[gourimoko]

Fair enough. I typically buy a mid-range card at around $300-400 and then upgrade to a newer card a few years later at a similar price point. Most mid-range cards will handle all current games on all high settings in my experience, and once it starts to struggle you can just upgrade and still save money in the long run over buying a top of the line card.

Of course, if cost isn't an issue for you, by all means, go all out.

Right, but a mid-range card isn't going to handle 4k or 3D well (AFAIK); so I can't play in my most comfortable setting at native resolution unfortunately.

What are you running btw?

 

[Jack Brickman]

Right, but a mid-range card isn't going to handle 4k or 3D well (AFAIK); so I can't play in my most comfortable setting at native resolution unfortunately.

What are you running btw?

That's true. My monitor is an HDTV, so I only have to worry about 1080p.

I've got a GTX 970 from EVGA.