Fallout 4 Gaming Desktop

I'm still deciding on board and CPU, but I think the most important question really is what card. I can't find any benchmarks that gave me a good answer. I don't think going from a 290 series to a 390 series is worth the extra money (I don't even know what I'm gaining there). The price of a 290 is $200 AR on NewEgg. A 290X is $320.

I almost feel like the Sapphire R9 290 for $200 AR is the best deal there is, but I'm so out of the game with PC parts that I'm at a loss. My friend doesn't have a strict budget, but he's a GREAT friend, so I don't want him burning money on something that doesn't make enough of a difference.

Any suggestions? He's really excited for Fallout 4 and wants me to build him a gaming rig. I priced it out to about $1200 now with an i7 4790, 16GB RAM, SSD, and set $300 for a GPU. He's flexible on the price, but I told him I want to build him a desktop that will future-proof him for a higher res monitor. Right now I think he's running 1080p at best.

UPDATE:
- i7 4790 (thinking of an i5 6600 now b/c why not futureproof for DDR4) - not sure if the extra $100 for i7 worth it
- He saw 290x as a recommended card, but don't no if 390 or 390x offers more
- 16GB RAM
- ~250GB SSD already picked out
- PSU already got a 750W Corsair
- Got a case
- Windows 10
- Motherboards - no need to be a good OCer as I'm not going to OC anything for him

Just out of curiosity why not Skylake? The DDR4 prices have come down quite a bit since it hit the market.

http://cart.microcenter.com/cart.aspx?RedirectUrl=http://www.microcenter.com

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/KpRP4D

Looking at $1450 plus peripherals. There are items that can be cheaper but solid build with the latest platform and he can always update the GPU down the road.

Hey gm, good to see you!

Going from a 290 moving to a 390 will literally just give an additional 4GB of VRAM, virtually nothing else changes.

At that price range I would be looking at a 970 or a used 980 would be relatively close to $300 I think (maybe a little more, haven't looked for a bit).

I would also consider waiting to see what the benchmarks end up saying for FO4, from looking at leaked gameplay it doesn't appear to look that much better than Skyrim. Now granted, it will allow for modding so being able to take advantage of that with better hardware than what the game is at stock would certainly help.

Blaylock said:

Just out of curiosity why not Skylake? The DDR4 prices have come down quite a bit since it hit the market.

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I'm not against it. He's trusting my call.

Blaylock said:

http://cart.microcenter.com/cart.aspx?RedirectUrl=http://www.microcenter.com

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/KpRP4D

Looking at $1450 plus peripherals. There are items that can be cheaper but solid build with the latest platform and he can always update the GPU down the road.

Click to expand...

The microcenter cart doesn't come through, and I'm likely not going to dump in a water cooler. I want to set it and forget it with this build. He's not going to OC. The 850 evo is $75 at newegg so I may pick that up today also!

Janus67 said:

Hey gm, good to see you!

Going from a 290 moving to a 390 will literally just give an additional 4GB of VRAM, virtually nothing else changes.

At that price range I would be looking at a 970 or a used 980 would be relatively close to $300 I think (maybe a little more, haven't looked for a bit).

I would also consider waiting to see what the benchmarks end up saying for FO4, from looking at leaked gameplay it doesn't appear to look that much better than Skyrim. Now granted, it will allow for modding so being able to take advantage of that with better hardware than what the game is at stock would certainly help.

Click to expand...

I'm hesitant to go used because my friend is willing to fork out the $$ for a nice, new build. I'd rather just get him all new parts. I'm really debating between the 290 and 290x, but the price diff is quite high. I didn't know how much the 300 series offered over the 200 series for FO4.

Not overclocking? What the!!!!!!!
Here's what I have,
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Bgfz3C

or

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7R3pTW

Mandrake4565 said:

Not overclocking? What the!!!!!!!
Here's what I have,
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Bgfz3C

or

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7R3pTW

Click to expand...

So you def think I should go i7 over i5 Skylake?
Also, 390 over a 290x? I'm not going to overclock because I don't have the time to OC and test. If I don't spend the time for my own build these days, I won't do it for someone else... ya know? Yeah, the very little time I have is for a ton of other stuff, and if I could sit down, it's to watch a show with my wife.

For a gaming rig the i5 will be fine.

This is what was in the MC Cart.

Almost done. Got these, just need to narrow down between 290(x) or 390(x):
- G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2800 - $103
- ASRock Z170 Pro4 LGA 1151 - $103
- i5 6600K - $274

Just need a GPU and I'm good. I don't think the i7 6700 is worth the extra $100. He's going to use a single GPU so I don't see how the i7 will make much of a diff. This rig is mostly for gaming and other mediocre stuff. No crazy encoding/decoding or anything.

Also if you wanna save even more the ThermalTake Commander G42 looks to be pretty decent for an air cooled only case. At $45 for instore pick-up at Micro center you'll be hard pressed to beat that price with any case. Here's a nice review of it from ProClockers.

the only difference between a 290/390 and 290x and 390x is 4GB and 8GB of VRAM.

I went with the XFX 290X for $330 AR. The $200 AR deal for the Sapphire 290 looks awesome, but the cooler on it isn't great. I don't want to have to void the warranty by replacing the aftermarket cooler b/c it's not my card, so whatever... pay for quality this time. I saved him a few bucks on the CPU and mobo, so he's under budget!

Absolutly nothing wrong with the 6600k G.Man, I was just going by the $1400 price point you gave me. As far as the Gpu's go for at the Egg I see the 290x for 314.00 which is tough to beat for the price.

Jesus! I missed that you already have a case and PSU. Or did you edit that? LOL

The only differences between the r9 290 and 390 series are...
Higher base clock, higher boost clocks, much higher ram speed, hynix only memory (no elpida crap), higher bandwidth, lower tdp, better power control, dx12.1 support and no reference coolers. But sure, they are the same other wise...

Mandrake4565 said:

Absolutly nothing wrong with the 6600k G.Man, I was just going by the $1400 price point you gave me. As far as the Gpu's go for at the Egg I see the 290x for 314.00 which is tough to beat for the price.

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Yeah, they look like promising cards!

Blaylock said:

Jesus! I missed that you already have a case and PSU. Or did you edit that? LOL

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I came here not to ask about a case and psu and then thought since everyone thinks about everything anyway, may as well let you all know what I don't need.

I still kick *** with building machines and knowing what's what, but I'm just so out of the loop with what's good these days, what the best bang for your buck is, etc.

I'd seriously recommend you waiting until black Friday to buy stuff at least. Last year, 290s sold for 174$... this year should be pretty good!!

bob4933 said:

I'd seriously recommend you waiting until black Friday to buy stuff at least. Last year, 290s sold for 174$... this year should be pretty good!!

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I thought about that, but don't think my friend wants to wait a month to get this rig.

Newegg has been posting Black November sales, though they are usually pretty small. Only a few items.