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PC Builds

2019 Computer Build – Part 1 – Specs

By October 6, 2019January 7th, 2023One Comment

So-

I have been rocking my current combo for a while since roughly 2015. I upgraded my GPU this year however, after my 290x was unable to keep up in VR. But- for this project, I will be upgrading my current rig, as well as building a new mid-tier PC. I will completed both of these builds for < 1,000$.

Goals:

This started out as a project to build my step-son a new gaming PC. Since my PC is due for an upgrade, I took the opportunity to both upgrade my PC as well as building a fairly high-end build for him. My current processor is able to power through every workload I have thrown at it, so, it will be a perfect fit for his PC.

  1. Upgrade my current gaming / development PC back to high-end specs.
  2. Build a new PC for the step-son capable of playing any current game with max settings at 1920×1080.

Current specs / Original PC:

Build 1: My high-end gaming / development PC.

Total Price: 822$

Existing parts were not factored into the pricing.

Build 2: A capable mid-tier gaming PC.

Total Prices: 312$

Existing parts salvaged from the original PC were not factored in.

The only new parts required: Keyboard, Mouse, PSU, Case, GPU.

Q&A around production decisions

Q: Why not choose the R5 3600x or the R7?
A: Overlocked performance of the R5 3600 is equal to the 3600X. Not enough performance improvement to offset the additional cost of the R7.

Q: Why not Intel?
A: Because AMD is ahead of the game right now. Intel can’t compete on the price / performance mark currently.

Q: Why the case (For the gaming PC)?
A: Because it is simple, and sleek. I don’t need flashy lights everywhere. I prefer smaller, and simpler. I nearly got the variant without a window.

Q: Why the case (For the budget gaming pc)?
A: Because it is flashy. I can almost guarentee that a 10 year old is going to love flashy lights, and LEDs everywhere.

Q: Why do you use such a shitty keyboard? (Chinese geezer mechanical)
A: I have actually preferred this 20$ amazon keyboard over my Logitech G10 keyboard sitting behind my screen. For 20$, I have been using this keyboard for a while now. Just… don’t expect support. I don’t even think you can buy it still.

Q: Why the RX 570 for the budget gaming PC? Why not a GTX 1050 or RX 560 or RX 580?
A: It costed 10$ more then the RX 560, and offers very good gains. In the price range, the 2060 was not even close to the price / performance. Since his current gaming PC contains a HD6870, this will be a MASSIVE improvement, and will be able to play any non-VR game at close to maximum settings for a very reasonable price.

My Expectations

I expect to over double in processor / compute performance. As well, the new Samsung M.2 NVMe SSDs will out perform my current existing SSDs by a very large margin. I expect my boot times to go from 6 seconds, down to around 3 seconds. Game load times may increase as well. I don’t expect game performance to improve much for most games, since my limitation is 1080p @ 60FPS. However- CPU intensive games such as Oxygen Not Included will likely benefit alot.

Stay tuned for a post detailing the build. Each PC will have a separate build post. This content should be available by this weekend.

Results

Gaming workstation – Build / Results

Budget gaming PC build / results