Is Black Friday a good time to upgrade your PC?
CPU: Definitely need something newer.
I don't play the newest FPS or multiplayer games, but I do like the occasional RPG (Watcher 3, Fallout 4, Kingdom Come) so I'm thinking something that will have at least 4 cores (to support current games) and slightly more to support future games as well, as I don't plan to upgrade it in a year or 2.
Was thinking of 2600x, but I'm not sure I'll need the 12 cores (with HyperThreading), and also seen people having bad experience with AMD CPUs being unreliable.
Was also considering i5-8400, which is similarly priced. My concern here is if the 6 cores will be enough for future gaming needs.
If they're priced the same it's a no brainer: get the 2600X. You save some money because you won't need to buy another cooler for the 8400 (the Wraith cooler that comes with Ryzen is much better than the intel stock cooler). Also you can keep the motherboard and upgrade the CPU later on because they share the same socket, unlike Intel sockets that change every two generations or so. Besides the 2600X will last longer because of more threads and cores and future games will take advantage of this. Consider also that you'll stream at 4K on your TV, so extra cores is what you need.
That said, the 8400 IS NOT a bad CPU, if you can find a better price.
Motherboard:
Frankly, I don't really understand the differences between the mid-range and expensive motherboards. (except being pretty)
I prefer a full TX form factor, just because it's more convenient to work with.
But other than that I have no preferences.
If you're getting Ryzen, go for a B450 motherboard because B350 motherboards need a BIOS update for Ryzen 2000 series to work. You'll save some hassle. A good choice is the Aorus B450 PRO and there's a version with built-in wifi too.
"I don't really understand the differences between the mid-range and expensive motherboards." Clarifying this point: expensive motherboards offer extra PWM connectors for better cooling and allow for more tweaking when it comes into overclocking (memory speeds and latency, voltages and so on). Most come with LED lights just to make them look more sleek and therefore more expensive. However actual improvements are often a better circuitry with a more stable current voltage, more expansion ports, support for SLI/Crossfire builds and NVME slots for SSDs. Another important thing is that good quality motherboards use passive heatsinks on critical parts like bridges and capacitors.
Memory: I presume 16GB DDR4 would be appropriate.
Yes, but Ryzen works best with higher speeds. Look for Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000 mhz or G.Skill Ripjaws 3200 mhz. There's not a huge price difference between these and 2600 mhz sticks. For Intel builds memory speed is not that important, but a nice extra nonetheless.
GPU: As mentioned, I plan to upgrade to GTX 1080 during BF, as I believe it will be in the sub $400 (maybe even sub $350) range.
Maybe you can find a 2070, but i wouldn't bet my life on it, they cost a fucking lot. Otherwise the 1080 is basically a forced option, as there are not AMD products competitive enough for that price point.
Power Supply & Case: I don't plan to upgrade right now.
You don't need to, the EVGA GQ will work fine. Hell, you won't even need 750W.
Disk Space: I don't really plan to upgrade it, as 1TB SSD is too expensive at the moment, and I don't think that 250 -> 500 upgrade is really necessary right now (as I have plenty of available disk space as is).
It's up to you to decide if you need more space. If you end up getting the Aorus motherboard above just keep in mind that your next SSD can be a NVME one, so you won't need to buy another SATA disk.
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Thanks for the amazing answer!
RE CPU:
I've re-checked the prices, and the 2600X was sold around $160 cheapest during last year, and i5-8400 was $130 cheapest. So the 2600x is slightly more (if these prices return during BF sales).
(I don't live in the US, so for each of those, I will need to add ~$20 shipping and ~20% tax)
RE Motherboard:
So if I don't plan to overclock, or use SLI, don't need additional slots (except the maybe NVME, but not sure I need it) will a more expensive mobo worth the price difference?
NVME vs. SATA3:
Faster always sounds good. I loved what going from HDD to SSD did to my Windows boot time and game loading times.
The question is whether NVME (which is supposedly x7 times faster) will do the same?
The internet seems to think it won't:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3525647/nvme-sata-real-world-performance.html
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RE CPU:
I've re-checked the prices, and the 2600X was sold around $160 cheapest during last year, and i5-8400 was $130 cheapest. So the 2600x is slightly more (if these prices return during BF sales).
(I don't live in the US, so for each of those, I will need to add $20 shipping and 20% tax)
If you get the 8400 that $30 you save will be spent on a decent cooler, so you end up spending basically the same as the 2600X. I mean, you COULD use the Intel stock cooler, but an aftermarket cooler runs quieter and extends the lifespan of your CPU.
RE Motherboard:
So if I don't plan to overclock, or use SLI, don't need additional slots (except the maybe NVME, but not sure I need it) will a more expensive mobo worth the price difference?
If you don't plan to use those features, an X470 (or X chipsets in general) is a waste of money. Just get a B450, the Aorus above has everything you'll need (and a couple of nice extras too, like a NVME slot and heatsinks). Another good choice is the MSI B450 Tomahawk.
NVME vs. SATA3:
Faster always sounds good. I loved what going from HDD to SSD did to my Windows boot time and game loading times.
The question is whether NVME (which is supposedly x7 times faster) will do the same?
The internet seems to think it won't:
I don't use a NVME disk, so i can't talk out of experience, but yes, apparently the difference is not that huge considering that those drives are also more expensive than normal SATA SSDs. If you use a lot of disk swapping, VMs or have some exotic software that benefits from high read/write speeds i guess it's a nice extra, but for gaming and browsing purposes a standard SATA SSD works just fine. Some games won't even benefit of an SSD either.
Bottom line, invest that extra money on bigger SSDs, not faster.
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If you get the 8400 that $30 you save will be spent on a decent cooler, so you end up spending basically the same as the 2600X. I mean, you COULD use the Intel stock cooler, but an aftermarket cooler runs quieter and extends the lifespan of your CPU.
So they pretty much even out. So would Intel CPU be more reliable than AMD's?
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You are going to stream games on the TV so the Ryzen is a more sensible choice. To elaborate: Intel CPUs have higher IPC which means that on single calculations are faster, but AMD CPUs make up with much better performances on multicore applications, which include streaming, virtual machines and multitasking. In the future, games will fully use multiple cores, allowing AMD to regain some edge against Intel's supremacy of the last decade or so.
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This is highly speculative though. As for Games, Intel is still the best choice as the single cores from Intel outperform AMD's. Also, most games do not make use of that many cores yet.
If he isn't into Adobe Premiere/Sony Vegas/etc. I'd still recommend the Intel CPU.
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NVMe is great for a boot drive, it's 4X faster than any SSD. But I would not use it for anything other than a boot drive because of the price.
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As thresher said, NVME isn't worth it. The performance difference for games and general productivity tasks is minimal. You're better off using that money to buy a bigger SATA SSD.
And the i5-8400 + Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo is going to be about the same as the Ryzen 2600X with the stock cooler. The i5 will likely be faster in most games, the 2600X will be faster in most non-gaming things. The real difference is what kind of bundle you can get. There are often CPU + X bundles that may translate into significant savings. Also, sometimes the 2700X is priced at the same price as the 2600X, so make sure to compare prices before you buy.
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I agree that with the 8400 you're going to get better performances in gaming right now, but in 5-6 years you'll need to buy a new motherboard if you want to upgrade because of the new chipsets. The AM4 chipset will be backwards compatible with the future AMD CPUs instead, saving up some good bucks in the future.
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Well, the socket AM3 lasted for over 8 years and so did the AM2 since the + versions were all backwards compatible. There's no reason to think that AMD will change plans now, and besides they already said that at least the next Ryzens will be compatible.
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Darn. If I could LOVE or LIKE your answer, I would :D
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I just got an Vega 64 Nitro for 410€ so there might be a pricepoint at 400€ on black firday...
This is (ATM) the best deal if you don't care about power consuming...
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CPU: 2600X is a decent choice. Or just a plain 2600. The industry seems to move towards multithreading in many ways, and the Ryzens match the Intels in gaming performance in the same price range, but beat them severely in other applications (like compressing or CPU-based rendering).
RAM: Yes, 16 GB for gaming is the norm nowadays. With Ryzen, try to buy something with at least 3 GHz frequency, preferably with CL17 or lower latency.
PSU and case look okay.
Storage looks okay.
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The difference is minimal so if it costs more than 15 bucks i would say stick with the 2600. Check the hardware unboxed for benchmarks.
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Depends on what you use the PC for. The 1700X has two more cores, 4 more threads. With this combo, it is around 10% faster in fully multithreaded calculations, like encrypting, rendering, or compressing.
In games, the difference is around 1%.
The 2600 one has a bit better and more modern motherboards where you may have a chance left to upgrade the CPU only.
Additionally, it has a much lower power consumption, so easier to cool.
If you do a lot of non-gaming stuff and you are okay with probably having a year or so less in your rig until the next upgrade phase, the 1700X is an economic pick.
Otherwise, the 2600 seems like a more solid solution.
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The first generation Ryzen CPUs were known to have a lot of RAM compatibility issues. I'm not sure if they were ever able to fix it with firmware upgrades.
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Me too, but
Seeing that BF is coming...
made me rethink. 😲
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Its stupid at this point not to go with ryzen 5 2600 or better as long as your budget allows it.
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I will upgrade too, this is the configuration :
CPU : Ryzen 2600
MOBO : MSI B450 TOMAHAWK (from my research this is the best Mobo for this range and my current MOBO is from MSI and is working withouth issues since 2010 :) so definitely I will go with MSI )
RAM : 2x DDR4 @3200 MHz
PSU : Seasonic 520 W (a modular one will be great)
HDD and SSD I have alreadym and as a GPU I will take the cheapest one (RX580 or 1060 :) )
Case : Coller Master 5
Happy shopping.
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PSU : Seasonic 520 W (a modular one will be great)
What Seasonic? Some models are great, some are really really bad, depending on the original manufacturer. If you need a modular PSU i can suggest you the Corsair CX550M which is fairly cheap and semimodular.
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S12II-520 Bronze 520W (mine is not modular, but I'm very happy with my choice)
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It's quite old by today standards, but it's still a very solid PSU. You can keep it until it dies.
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Seasonic is considered the best currently on the market. A minimum is a gold-certified version.
Many other brands use Seasonic Architecture. Example: be Quiet!, evga, older corsair etc.
The Corsair CX series is okay, I am just happy you did not recommend getting the CM series since that has a rep of shorting out and taking everything with it.
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Seasonic is a great brand overall, but some people might want to save up a few dollars by picking an equally good and cheaper PSU. That's why i ofter recommend EVGA and (some) Corsair models, which share platforms with Antec, FSP and Seasonic. Still, i know that some S12II and M12II models can suffer from coil whine
And yes, CM and VS series are very crappy, but CX and Vengeance series are not, with the Vengeance even going full jap for its capacitors and extremely low ripple for just around $70.
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AMD for Battlefield games has always worked great, if that is your main reason for upgrading.
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можешь в группе у нас спросить в разделе софт и железо =) bra1ex может посоветует что)
для райзен 1600 или 2600 лучше взять материнку которая x370 из-за лучшей системы питания)
чтобы можно было и проц и оперативку чуть подразогнать в будущем)
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GPU: Go AMD
Memory: 16gb at least.
GPU : what about a second hand 1080ti? Look if you can find a good deal. If not, 1080 is very fine.
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There aren't so many options, but
Ryzen 2600
2x8 GB RAM 3000Mhz
B450 motherboard
240 SSD and 1 TB HDD
case and power supply
if I would also buy a monitor , then I would go for 1080p resolution freesync 75 Hz and RX 580 or 144 Hz and Vega 56, no nVidia because g-sync monitor prices are too high but worth checking if this is the case in your country maybe 1070ti and g-sync monitor is an option but i doubt it. I can tell you from my experience that I rather play Quake Champions or PUBG with 75 fps cap and freesync enabled rather than 120 fps without freesync. Imagine how smooth other games are with freesync/g-sync like witcher, RTS games, driving simulators, etc If I change my monitor response time higher than 1 ms my eyes hurt in shooters or fighting games. I cant imagine how playing on a TV is for you.
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There are already great answers already considering GPU and MoBo, so I would cover the TV / Monitor side of things.
It will be an epic experience to play on 4K on a 65" display but know that 4K is only 60 Hz supported as of now. Won't even go to the native TV input lag. If you strive for visual fidelity over reaction times go with this.
From personal experience, I can tell you that going from 1080p 60Hz to 1440p 120Hz gaming FPS was comparable to migrating my OS from old 2TB 5400 rpm HDD to decent SSD.
Of course, you can test how you feel playing an FPS on the TV and decide if it suits you or you need swifter reactions.
Cheers on the upgrade. It's always a good time for that ^_^
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CPU: i5-8400 is going to be faster in most games (particularly games that care more about single-core speed), 2600X is likely to be faster in productivity apps, both will be great. Games are only now expanding beyond 4 cores, so 6 cores should be good for the foreseeable future - particularly at 4K where the burden is on the GPU. If you go the i5 route, I recommend the Cooler Master Hyper 212+ Evo heatsink as a great replacement - it's inexpensive and very quiet.
GPU: If your goal is 4K, try to get a 1080Ti, it will let you play. Ebay 15% off coupon days are your best bet. You could also look at a gently used model with a transferable warranty (EVGA, Gigabyte), which often go for the price of a new 1080.
Memory: Definitely get 16GB, and I recommend 3200 MHz to eliminate memory as a bottleneck for more stable frametimes.
Motherboard: I'm not up to date on current motherboards, but I recommend Asus and Gigabyte in general. Usually the more expensive motherboards have better hardware for overclocking, so if you're not overclocking you're fine with a more basic model. Do go for the latest chipset though, as those tend to have nice performance increases.
Edit: Oh, and I forgot to mention, look for bundles. You may save a fair bit by buying a bundle of the CPU + Motherboard or GPU or Memory.
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CPU: i5-8400 is going to be faster in most games (particularly games that care more about single-core speed), 2600X is likely to be faster in productivity apps, both will be great. Games are only now expanding beyond 4 cores, so 6 cores should be good for the foreseeable future - particularly at 4K where the burden is on the GPU. If you go the i5 route, I recommend the Cooler Master Hyper 212+ Evo heatsink as a great replacement - it's inexpensive and very quiet.
What do you consider "foreseeable future"?
I do not plan to upgrade it again in the next 3-4 years (at least), so do you think 6 cores will still be enough then?
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Yes, that's exactly what I meant. The majority of PC users still have 4-core processors, and the PS4 and XBO are effectively 7 core consoles (one is reserved for the OS), so I don't see games scaling much beyond 6 cores in the next 5 years. And at 4K, the difference in the games that do scale beyond 6 cores is 0-5%.
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Buy a nintendo switch instead and play mario party.
Its so much fun.
(Im just jealous of ur new PC)
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I'm not sure where you're getting your price expectations for the video card. I would not expect to find a 1080 for less than $500 - and that would only be the 8GB 256-bit models.
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GTX 1080 has already been sold for $299 refurbished (https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/comments/95qgne/gpu_evga_gtx_1080_29999_bstock/)
and $399 new (https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/comments/9id4an/gpu_gigabyte_gtx_1080_turbo_oc_8g_blower_399/).
So I expect to get them at same or lower prices, especially considering this is going to be the first major sale since RTX series was released, and a new AMD card is released in 4 days,
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I am not considering refurbished or used on eBay. I didn't think you were either. If you are, that does change the price expectations.
Monoprice, though, is going to be featuring prices that are pretty much what you can expect on Black Friday from bigger retailers.
I'll be happy if I'm wrong.
BTW, your title really comes across like you're buying an upgrade for your BoyFriend.
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I'm not keeping refurbished out of the question. Or GTX 1070 TI for example.
But considering the 1080 are regularly sold below $500 (https://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-ZT-P10800C-10P-IceStorm-Wraparound-Ultra-wide/dp/B01GCAVRSU), I don't think it's out of the question they will sell for $400 during black friday sales.
BTW, your title really comes across like you're buying an upgrade for your BoyFriend.
I know, I know... changed it now :)
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That price is for Prime members. If you are one already, great. If you are not, It's a $99 yearly fee, which erases the discount.
Again, I hope I'm wrong and you find your best deal. But I doubt it. The release of the 2080 has not made the 1080 less of a king than it is. And you are comparing specials prices, not regular day-to-day prices. I have built all my computers on Black Friday prices. And it helps. But my experience has been that for quality parts, Black Friday discounts are generall 15-20%. So I would guess you will find cards at cheapest about $450 - and those won't be the cards you necessarily want to choose. And, those lowest deals will sell out the fastest.
I always map out the parts I want, including which specific models, and then I see what price those items drop to on Black Friday.
Best of shopping luck to you!
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I paid $420 brand new for a Gigabyte 1080 after rebate about a month ago.
I would not buy refurbished because they typically only have 30 day warranties
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Here, bookmark these sites to find good deals:
https://slickdeals.net/deals/video-card/
https://bensbargains.com/categories/video-cards-35/
As you can see, a 1070Ti is $355 right now. You should be able to get a 1080 sub 400 sometime soonish.
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You've got some solid advice would just add that first gen Ryzens, particularly the 1600s and 1700s, have been popping up in decent sale deals for a few months now. Worth keeping an eye out for a ridiculous deal or two during Black Friday if you're looking for good price/performance.
GL with it.
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Get a Ryzen if you're on a budget. If you have the money and don't want to deal with upgrading in the next 5 years, get an Intel. Unless you have a 144hz monitor and insist on 144 fps 1080p gaming, 1070 is better for your build since it won't get bottlenecked down to the 4th layer of hell.
I'd recommend a MSI 1070 Quicksilver Edt. (or any 1070, i just really like QS Edt.) and a Ryzen 2600. AFAIK X version is unnecessarily dependent on RAM frequency for some reason and a regular 2600 OC's almost just as fine.
For comparison, I have a 1070 + 1700X and never had trouble running any game below 60 FPS. I also have a 144hz monitor, most games run at 140+ FPS on medium-high, sometimes ultra.
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I don't intend to OC, so I'm looking at 2600x because it will give me an extra kick. (not sure it will be worth the money though)
I don't have a 144Hz monitor, and no plans for one in the foreseeable future. I do have a 4K TV that supports Steam streaming, so I'm looking for a card that will able to handle it.
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Ryzen is great, my 1600 pairs great with my GTX 1080 and with a small NVMe boot drive I couldn't be more happy. The Ryzen 1600 and 2600 chips come with a great cooler, you can overclock right out of the box with the wraith spire. I never had an Intel chip come with such a great stock cooler.
I only use the NVMe as a boot drive, I have 4 TB of HDD and another 500GB of SATA SSD for my shtuff.
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3.8 for sure but I've heard of some lucky people with big pc cases that can get it higher
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Commenting for later as we are about to build two new PCs here (for the first time in ages)
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OK, so here's the Black Friday 2018 punishment summary:
GPU: Radeon Vega 64 - $340
CPU: Radeon 5 2600 - $145
MOBO: MSI B450A PRO - $75
Memory: G.Skill Sniper X 3200Mhz 16GB - $130
Subtotal: $690
To everything tax + shipping needs to be added.
So the real total: ~$800
FUCK ME...
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Seeing ColdOut's thread, and the excellent answers he got there (https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/Ay926/pc-building) inspired me to open my own thread on the subject.
Seeing that BF is coming, I'm considering to use it to upgrade my PC.
What I have right now:
CPU: Intel i3-4130
Motherboard: ASUS H87M-PLUS
Memory: 8GB DDR3
GPU: Nvidia GTX 770
Disk Space: 250GB SSD (for OS + 1 game), 1TB WD black for mostly games, older 250GB WD for misc downloads.
Power Supply: EVGA 750W GQ
Case: Don't remember which company, but from a major brand. Just bought it this year. It has 3 120mm fans, and place for 2 more.
I've had the main parts (MOBO + CPU + RAM) for 5 years now, and they served me well.
But I plan to upgrade to GTX 1080 on BF, and feel they might bottleneck the rig,
What I'm thinking:
CPU: Definitely need something newer.
I don't play the newest FPS or multiplayer games, but I do like the occasional RPG (Watcher 3, Fallout 4, Kingdom Come) so I'm thinking something that will have at least 4 cores (to support current games) and slightly more to support future games as well, as I don't plan to upgrade it in a year or 2.
Was thinking of 2600x, but I'm not sure I'll need the 12 cores (with HyperThreading), and also seen people having bad experience with AMD CPUs being unreliable.
Was also considering i5-8400, which is similarly priced. My concern here is if the 6 cores will be enough for future gaming needs.
Motherboard:
Frankly, I don't really understand the differences between the mid-range and expensive motherboards. (except being pretty)
I prefer a full TX form factor, just because it's more convenient to work with.
But other than that I have no preferences.
Memory: I presume 16GB DDR4 would be appropriate.
GPU: As mentioned, I plan to upgrade to GTX 1080 during BF, as I believe it will be in the sub $400 (maybe even sub $350) range.
Disk Space: I don't really plan to upgrade it, as 1TB SSD is too expensive at the moment, and I don't think that 250 -> 500 upgrade is really necessary right now (as I have plenty of available disk space as is).
Power Supply & Case: I don't plan to upgrade right now.
All your advice is greatly appreciated, and all helpful advisers will be added to my WL.
EDIT: Forgot to mention the overclocking situation.
I don't overclock anything, because I believe it should be left for people who know what they're doing. And I don't know what I'm doing.
I have 5 - 10 precious gaming hours per week, and I don't plan to waste them learning how to get additional 10% performance boost. I prefer to get 27 fps instead of 30 fps, than spend my time tweaking my components for overclocking.
But I do want the games I do play to look good and play well.
EDIT2:
Would Ryzen 7 1700x be a better choice than Ryzen 5 2600.2600x?
EDIT3:
OK, so here's the Black Friday 2018 punishment summary:
GPU: Radeon Vega 64 - $340
CPU: Radeon 5 2600 - $145
MOBO: MSI B450A PRO - $75
Memory: G.Skill Sniper X 3200Mhz 16GB - $130
Subtotal: $690
To everything tax + shipping needs to be added.
So the real total: ~$800
FUCK ME...
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