Bank friendly gaming tower

[Key Keeper]

Ok, I'm totally out of the pc stream so I have no idea whats good and whats not. Sure there are all kinds of diy stuff on the web on what components to pick, but a lot of them are biased towards one brand or another and I couldn't care less on what brand logo is inside my computers.

I picked up a few ps4 games and I still hate using a controller and the graphics are just shit imo. So with that said, what socket/cpu/gpu/chipset ect would make a decent gaming rig for games like BF4/5 and the like?

I have a mid ATX case and all the peripherals so I just need the guts to build a decent tower that I can play games, and chop up some gopro footage.

CPU? Intel or AMD?
MOBO? what chipset and socket. Ive always run ASUS in the past.
GPU...wtf there are so many out there Im just lost.
PSU? I know Silverstone used to be legit but don't know if they still are
RAM? 16gb? 32? more?? Any particular speed/latency that would be best for gaming?

I know there are a lot of guys on here that game a lot and are on the up and up on whats good for the $$. I don't need bleeding edge stuff that's crazy expensive, just a good list of COMPATIBLE items that would build a solid gaming rig. Winters here and that means less enduro riding for me, plus Im still licking my wounds from the latest ejection off the bike so I need to occupy my grey matter before I go bananas.

[FlyingPenguin]

I like using PcPer's Leaderboard as a guide. Any DIY system they recomnend they actually built, and you can be certain the components work together.

My only exception to their recommendations would be to avoid the high performance ram they usually recommend which requires you to tinker with timing to get it right, and instead just order some regular (not Ballistic performance) crucial ram from crucial.com by entering your motherboard's model into their database.

https://www.pcper.com/hwlb

[Executioner]

I'm no expert at selecting new hardware pieces for a new pc, but I usually always purchase used hardware to save money. I don't mind if the mobo is only 1 year old. My graphics card is mid range, but it has 6GB of ram on board (NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1060). Plays all my slim selection of games, including DOOM 2015 with almost all the settings max out. I recently switched to a Gaming Keyboard and holly hell what a different that made. I would highly recommend a gaming keyboard.
For ram, I'm only at 8 (it's an old PC that was built about 8 years ago), but my new one has 16.

[wvjohn]

Not up on the modern cpus but a few ideas.
1) take a look at top vent cases - my last builds had big fans at the top and it seems make a difference. Tou can ususally find a very good case for about $60, esp if it doen't have the friggin' LEDs.

2) What FP said about memory.

I generally buy last gen stuff. I don't need all that horsepower. Note: Ryzen might be better for video editing, don't do that myself.

3. GPU - I just got my wife a 1070 TI for about $360. Close to my 1080 which I never fully unleash because I play MMOs and have crappy rural internet that can't keep up. The the new NV part, the 2060, may be faster but only has 6 gb of ram. RTX appears to be like hairweave or whatever it was called.

4. I currently run a 4790k @ 4.4, 16 gigs of ram, and a higher end 1080 and it is honestly more than I need.

5. Loook at the gaming keyboards. There is a difference. I have a logitech G710 which has served me weel for a while.

[FlyingPenguin]

Mid range box recommended on PCPer is usually the best option.

[Key Keeper]

Thanks guys. I'll try to hone down a list of items and then report back before I pull the trigger. I dont want to buy something thats low bang for the buck.

[Losbot]

If you'd like, put the list up in here and we can look it over for recommendations/suggestions.

[FlyingPenguin]

I would recommend going with Win10 Pro instead of Home, so you can defer updates and upgrades. If you have a Win7 or Win8/8.1 license lying around then keep in mind that you can still get the free Win10 upgrade just by entering the Win7 or 8/8.1 license key during the Win10 install.

[Key Keeper]

Yeah I need to make the 10 leap. MS tried to upgrade my 7 to 10 but it said my computer was too much of a POS and it could not support the onboard video chip. Once I build something with some guts to it, I'll have to give 10 a go and trim all the fat off of it. The cortana and tile crap just makes me cringe. I may try and find some local stuff on FB marketplace or CL. Last vid card I got was off CL and it worked great but I ended up selling it for what I paid for it since I couldn't play BF4 online with only 4gb of ram. Servers kept booting me once I tried to spawn due to low resources I guess.

[Executioner]

If you hate 10, go with 8.1. The guts are about the same that is used in 10, but without all the crap like cortana. If you get 10, you need to get the PRO version.

I have a new 8.1 build that I need to finish, that is updating my old 8 year old rig with 7.

[FlyingPenguin]

I don't think he has a choice. Newer CPUs from Intel & AMD no longer support Win7 & 8.1 as far as I know. Intel for sure.

Easy enough to turn off all the crap in 10. I'll update my checklist on that.

[FlyingPenguin]

I just updated my Win10 Install Checklist. This disables all the phone-home and social crap, and gives you the classic start menu. Essentially making Win10 into a JAFOS (JUST A F@CKING OPERATING SYSTEM" like Win7. This is the way I have my Win10 PCs setup and I love it:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=60774

I think right now that AMD Ryzen CPUs are the best bang for the buck. I'm personally an NVidia fanboy, and a GTX 1060 is a LOT of GPU for the bucks. Sure, a GTX 1080 would be better but that's a big price jump. You'd have to ask Nuby what the equivalent AMD GPU would be.

Not really sold on the newer GTX 20xx line. They don't seem to be any great improvement over the 10xx except for ray tracing, and that's looking like more hype than anything else. Just Google "Can you even see ray tracing".

[Nuby1Canuby]

I think the AMD RX 580 8GB is about the same performance as the 1060 6GB. The Radeon RX 590 is about 10% faster.
The new RTX 2060 for $349 has about the same performance as the GTX 1070 Ti, which is about 45% faster then the GTX 1060.

https://youtu.be/KPGYC6ndZZU?t=241

[Key Keeper]

Great stuff guys!

I was always an nvidia guy but that was many years ago and even in the end the bloated drivers pushed me to AMD GPU cards. Their drivers and interface just seemed a lot less "piggish"

This still the case?

[FlyingPenguin]

I suspect AMD is just as bad in it's own way.

Yeah, NVidia wants to, be default, install the 3D Vision drivers (even if you don't use 3D glasses), and the "Geforce Experience" which is there do-everything app (update drivers, capture, stream, checks for updates, etc). They're forcing you to use Geforce Experience for incremental driver updates. While Geforce Experience does have a few nice features like video capture, it's a bloated monster that does all kinds of "phone home" crap in the background. I always do a custom install and ONLY install the basic drivers and the NVidia control panel to keep the bloat down.