Best Bang for your Buck PC

[lightskintwin]

I plan on buying a PC next month and would like to get maximum performance for the least amount of money. I want to be able to emulate most if not all games on both Dolphin and PCSX2 at the highest settings as flawless as possible. However I don't want to pay more for a powerful part if it's improvement is barely noticeable compared to a cheaper part's performance . Ideally I don't want to spend more than $1000 dollars, but am willing to go up to $2000 dollars if the upgrade in performance is worth it. I'll be using this PC primarily as a gaming system for emulators and games for Windows. Any suggestions or help on what type of parts would best suit my needs for this PC build would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[NaturalViolence]

So you're planning on buying it through an OEM not building it yourself?

[admin89]

i5 3570k @ 4.4GHz
Asus Z77 mobo
Nvidia GTX 660 Ti / 670 / 680 (660Ti is best bang for the buck )
Corsair Vengeance DDR3 Ram 4x4GB

[lightskintwin]

(08-23-2012, 03:10 PM)NaturalViolence Wrote: So you're planning on buying it through an OEM not building it yourself?

I prefer not to build it myself, however if somehow the advantages of building it myself outweigh me paying somebody to build it; then I'll learn to build it myself. LOL

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(08-23-2012, 03:10 PM)admin89 Wrote: i5 3570k @ 4.4GHz
Asus Z77 mobo
Nvidia GTX 660 Ti / 670 / 680 (660Ti is best bang for the buck )
Corsair Vengeance DDR3 Ram 4x4GB

I've was definitely thinking about getting 660 Ti.

Which Asus Z77 mobo would be best as I seem to pull up so many different ones.

[admin89]

Quote:Which Asus Z77 mobo would be best

Although it's a bit expensive but it's worth it
Asus warranty service is the best of all
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131821
If it's too expensive for you then get ASrock Z77 mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157295
Thermal Compound : Arctic MX-4 or IC7 Diamond (IC7 Diamond is much better but it's expensive)
Heatsink :
http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/showthread.php?tid=24964
Intel SSD 330 120GB for only 103$ :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167121

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:however if somehow the advantages of building it myself outweigh me paying somebody to build it; then I'll learn to build it myself.

Oh where to start.....
-Greater flexibility when choosing parts
-Greater flexibility when choosing the source of your parts, you can shop around
-Lower cost (often MUCH lower)
-Higher quality parts and you know what you're getting
-Often easier to upgrade down the road
-No restrictive warranties
-No restrictive bios setups
-It requires people to actually use that solid grey organ inside their head, thus you might....gasp....learn something (this is not directed at you)
And so on....

The only benefits I see to buying from an OEM are:
-it's slightly easier
-getting it ready is slightly faster since you don't need to assemble it or install an OS
-less likely for any parts to be DOA (a slight inconvenience since if by some rare chance you get a DOA part you need to return it and wait for a replacement)
-sometimes you get some decent software preinstalled for free (but usually it's just bloatware)

[lightskintwin]

(08-23-2012, 04:11 PM)NaturalViolence Wrote:

Quote:however if somehow the advantages of building it myself outweigh me paying somebody to build it; then I'll learn to build it myself.

Oh where to start.....
-Greater flexibility when choosing parts
-Greater flexibility when choosing the source of your parts, you can shop around
-Lower cost (often MUCH lower)
-Higher quality parts and you know what you're getting
-Often easier to upgrade down the road
-No restrictive warranties
-No restrictive bios setups
-It requires people to actually use that solid grey organ inside their head, thus you might....gasp....learn something (this is not directed at you)
And so on....

The only benefits I see to buying from an OEM are:
-it's slightly easier
-getting it ready is slightly faster since you don't need to assemble it or install an OS
-less likely for any parts to be DOA (a slight inconvenience since if by some rare chance you get a DOA part you need to return it and wait for a replacement)
-sometimes you get some decent software preinstalled for free (but usually it's just bloatware)

What about using a site that allows you to select the parts and they'll put it together for you?

[DefenderX]

Yeah, that's better if you don't know, how to build a PC. But it costs some money extra, if you want your PC builded. I guess, about 30-50$ (depends on the site)

[admin89]

You will have no bargain if you let them do it for you

[lightskintwin]

(08-23-2012, 06:16 PM)admin89 Wrote: You will have no bargain if you let them do it for you

Yeah, what I planned on doing was calculating if I bought the parts independently online and compare it to a site where I bought all the parts from them and add the labor cost for them to build it and see how much I would save if I built it myself.

Something that I'm already stuck on is the Case. i have no idea where to start. I like the way HTPC cases look but wonder will I have enough space to put a powerful system in there.