New or pre-owned gaming PC?

No you wouldn't need an AMD GPU to get full performance.

Bang for buck they are better than the Intel, and being a relatively new release, I expect we could still see some BIOS updates and driver updates giving a little extra performance. haven't done the calculations myself though, someone more knowledgeable could probably offer better insight.
 
UrBaN963 said:
Bang for buck they are better than the Intel, and being a relatively new release, I expect we could still see some BIOS updates and driver updates giving a little extra performance. haven't done the calculations myself though, someone more knowledgeable could probably offer better insight.
Click to expand...

No Ryzen processor available locally offers better bang for buck than the i7-6700 @R2700.

Have a look at benchmarks comparing the R5 1400 (~R2700) vs the i7-6700/7700.
 
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biometrics said:
Get as much GPU as your budget allows imo. I'd rather get less CPU and RAM etc than skimp on the GPU.
Click to expand...

Yeah I want to do this, thanks for the advice. I also want to get a motherboard that is on the latest chipset or whatever it is that will be more future-proof.

Anybody got advice about how to select a 'good' modern motherboard? What constitutes 'good' these days? The last time I bought a motherboard was ten years ago, so is Gigabyte still considered the go-to brand?
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Yeah I want to do this, thanks for the advice. I also want to get a motherboard that is on the latest chipset or whatever it is that will be more future-proof.

Anybody got advice about how to select a 'good' modern motherboard? What constitutes 'good' these days? The last time I bought a motherboard was ten years ago, so is Gigabyte still considered the go-to brand?
Click to expand...

Just get a budget board, it will have everything you need, see post #13 above.
 
ponder said:
Just get a budget board, it will have everything you need, see post #13 above.
Click to expand...

Really? I remember reading that the motherboard is often frequently overlooked and it's an issue because it's the central nervous system of your PC. If the ... err ... is it bus speeds??? ... are too low, then it throttles the potential performance of your whole PC.

Also I should probably get a board with a decent onboard sound chip, for gaming. I think a 5.1 soundcard is over-kill because all my gaming will be via headphone, but that's why the audio chip will need to be reasonably special. Are budget motherboards just that good that none of this is a factor anymore?
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Really? I remember reading that the motherboard is often frequently overlooked and it's an issue because it's the central nervous system of your PC. If the ... err ... is it bus speeds??? ... are too low, then it throttles the potential performance of your whole PC.

Also I should probably get a board with a decent onboard sound chip, for gaming. I think a 5.1 soundcard is over-kill because all my gaming will be via headphone, but that's why the audio chip will need to be reasonably special. Are budget motherboards just that good that none of this is a factor anymore?
Click to expand...

Unless you overclock or have special needs, just get a standard board that has all the ports you want.

USB headphones?
 
biometrics said:
Unless you overclock or have special needs, just get a standard board that has all the ports you want.

USB headphones?
Click to expand...

Well honestly at the moment I'm just gaming with a standard headphone jack powering my Sennheiser HD202's, but then my laptop isn't a gaming monster and I do need something a bit more special :D Do USB headphones have better fidelity?
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Really? I remember reading that the motherboard is often frequently overlooked and it's an issue because it's the central nervous system of your PC. If the ... err ... is it bus speeds??? ... are too low, then it throttles the potential performance of your whole PC.

Also I should probably get a board with a decent onboard sound chip, for gaming. I think a 5.1 soundcard is over-kill because all my gaming will be via headphone, but that's why the audio chip will need to be reasonably special. Are budget motherboards just that good that none of this is a factor anymore?
Click to expand...

I promise you that MB will do the job. It has a metal reinforced PCIe slot, M.2 slot, 6x USB 3.1, 6x USB 2.0, 6x SATA3, 7.1 channel audio, latest Gen7 B250 chipset. You're good to go.

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B250M-PRO-VD.html#productFeature-section
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B250M-PRO-VD.html#productSpecification-section
 
ponder said:
I promise you that MB will do the job. It has a metal reinforced PCIe slot, M.2 slot, 6x USB 3.1, 6x USB 2.0, 6x SATA3, 7.1 channel audio, latest Gen7 B250 chipset. You're good to go.

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B250M-PRO-VD.html#productFeature-section
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B250M-PRO-VD.html#productSpecification-section
Click to expand...

And it'll be compatible with a GTX1060 and the i7-6700? I've got a 4K Dell monitor, so I'll just need to ensure that the system can deliver gaming performance at that resolution.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
And it'll be compatible with a GTX1060 and the i7-6700? I've got a 4K Dell monitor, so I'll just need to ensure that the system can deliver gaming performance at that resolution.
Click to expand...

Yes & yes.

Supports 6th/7th Gen Intel® Core™ i3/i5/i7 processors (All Skylake & Kabylake CPUs)
It will work with any GPU as long as your PSU is sufficient.

*** A gtx 1060 will not be able to do 4K gaming, if you wanna game at 4K then you looking at a 1080ti for any sort of decent experience. When I say 4K gaming I'm talking about AAA titles, older games from ~2010 might be ok at 4K on a 1060 or other games that are less gpu intensive.
 
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ponder said:
Yes & yes.

Supports 6th/7th Gen Intel® Core™ i3/i5/i7 processors (All Skylake & Kabylake CPUs)
It will work with any GPU as long as your PSU is sufficient.

*** A gtx 1060 will not be able to do 4K gaming, if you wanna game at 4K then you looking at a 1080ti for any sort of decent experience.
Click to expand...

Ok, so this raises more questions (and so it goes):
1: What is a 'sufficient' PSU? Good brands, good power outputs to look for?
2: Anybody know where I can get a pre-owned 1080ti that was only used by a little old granny to calculate her taxes? :D
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Ok, so this raises more questions (and so it goes):
1: What is a 'sufficient' PSU? Good brands, good power outputs to look for?
Click to expand...

If you're looking at a 1080ti you should go for a 600-650W PSU. Brand wise you can look at Antec, EVGA, Super Flower and higher end Corsair units.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Ok, so this raises more questions (and so it goes):
1: What is a 'sufficient' PSU? Good brands, good power outputs to look for?
2: Anybody know where I can get a pre-owned 1080ti that was only used by a little old granny to calculate her taxes? :D
Click to expand...

Get a 1070.
 
Soul Assassin said:
A 1070 is 80% of his budget.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Starts at R6800 new, ouch. That's unless I can get a deal on a preowned one somewhere, but how to find one that hasn't been nailed to death with mining? If anybody knows of one, please let me know.
 
biometrics said:
70%, he should be able to pick up a board, CPU and RAM combo on Carbonite for R3,000 that will be powerful enough to match the GPU (for now). I think.
Click to expand...
For R3000 he can get a 4th Gen i5 with 8GB DDR3.

My recommendation is for him to put in some over time or something and make that budget 12 or 13K then he can get it all.
 
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