A couple weeks ago, I got it in my head that I wanted to start building another PC. I've got a fair amount of money stashed away, though it isn't nearly enough to spend frivolously on the latest and greatest, but enough for some moderate gaming and other tasks. My current setup, astonishingly enough, has gone nearly 4 years without much of any hiccups, aside from a couple minor upgrades of cases, fans, and PSU. It's only been within the past year or so that I noticed my system has begun lagging, especially when it comes to more recently released games. After having watched a good number of tech videos on YouTube, I recalled hearing about a website called PCPartPicker, and felt I could give it a shot to see what I could put together, given that my budget is within the $750 range.
I originally wanted to put together an AMD build, and here's what I came up with:
Mid-range 2017 Gaming Rig Build
Then as I began to delve into it, I came to the conclusion that the AM3+ chipset, while still viable in many respects, is showing its age, in both its power-hungry CPUs and the mixed reviews of its motherboards of late. Even some of the boards manufacturers have produced within the past couple years, to fill the gap until AMD released Ryzen, are more hit-or-miss.
It wasn't until within the last day, that the thought came to mind: What if I could put together a budget-friendly Intel setup? Here's what I put together:
Budget Intro to Intel 2017
Unlike the AMD build, finding the parts were relatively simple, seeing that I transferred much of the same hardware over that was compatible between rigs. This is to act as an initial introduction to Intel, being that I've always run my computers on AMD platforms, but this will give me some flexibility, and possible future upgradability to higher end CPUs.
The PSU is a placeholder, for the time being, for a EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750 that's been running solidly since I got it about 3 years ago, and was planning to move it over to the new build, should I decide to. It's also noticeable that one of the more crucial aspects of a computer, the video card, is missing. The reason is that, after looking through the newer video cards, even the moderately priced cards of $150-225, they would've swelled my current budget beyond what I could afford, and felt the MSI R9 270 I have presently can soldier on for a few more months, until I can afford a reasonably priced 4-6 GB card to replace it. And you'll also notice, how the OS is missing as well. The reason for it is in the same vein as the video card: cost. When I have the money, I'll be looking to upgrade to either Windows 8.1 or 10.