$1000-$1500 CDN budget for Gaming/Work PC

[Savedwow]

Hi there,

I quit WoW two or so years ago and I'm considering coming back. Additionally, I need a desktop computer for work, so I figured now is the time to upgrade. I quit WoW because input lag was absolutely destroying the game for me as I enjoyed raiding at a high level, and not getting in the most optimal actions per minute really can start to effect raid performance / DPS, so I quit rather than upgrade. Sold my i7 3770k / gtx 670 based system and haven't looked back.

If I build, I would want a system that wouldn't have to worry about input lag / bad FPS during raid encounters.

I don't have any monitors / keyboards/mice anymore, so the cheaper I can build the tower the better.

Would ideally prefer 1440p gaming.

R9 380/390 GPU is pretty good bang for the buck, no? Newegg.ca has a 4690k for $324.99 + $50.00 off I believe, so I was thinking of that processor.

What are your thoughts? Parts would be purchased online in Canada.

[Fascinate]

Your old rig wasnt the problem with input lag, you could buy the highest end rig possible and it would play WoW at the exact same lvl as your 3770k/gtx 670 rig. My rig is fully capable of ultra but i toss it on high and CMAA antialiasing for raids and bg's (they have a seperate setting for this now).

The most likely problem you had was with ISP routing, about two years ago at certain times of the day i would get a crazy lag that i could not attribute to my ISP or WoW servers, it turned out to be a mom and pop ISP in the chain and i had to contact them via social media, they finally fixed it after 2 months of pestering them. (figured this out by running multiple trace routes)

That said, id stick with nvidia for a WoW rig and your budget:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($324.95 @ shopRBC)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 51.7 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($49.99 @ BestDirect)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-E ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($169.99 @ NCIX)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($79.88 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Crucial MX200 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($189.99 @ Canada Computers)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($422.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($92.98 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.98 @ Amazon Canada)
Total: $1420.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-26 19:03 EDT-0400

[durrtygoodz]

If you mean the input lag some of us had in 25man hc, that's been completely fixed this expansion. I haven't had it at all in WoD and I got it super bad in MoP. Especially in SoO.

[Fascinate]

If you mean the input lag some of us had in 25man hc, that's been completely fixed this expansion. I haven't had it at all in WoD and I got it super bad in MoP. Especially in SoO.

Ya i thought that too, but he sold his old rig so he needs a new one now.

[Savedwow]

Ya i thought that too, but he sold his old rig so he needs a new one now.

Yeah I definitely need a new rig - sold my old rig for way too much (I got somewhere around 1800 CDN for my rig 2 years ago?)


I heard that input lag was fixed which is why I've even been considering an i3 6100 or an i5 4960k (Newegg has a deal on them).

GTX 970 vs R9 390? The 390 is cheaper and performs better, no?

What if I wanted a small form factor pc?

- - - Updated - - -

I would also like to get the best performance for the dollar, though. If I don't need an i5 6600k or 4690k, or an r9 390, I would rather not. I want good performance at at least 1080p, but 1440p if it is worth it. I need to buy new monitors, too, so... I have to be careful.

[Fascinate]

970 vs 390 is down to individual games, some games the 390 takes and others the 970 takes (MMO's especially). People on here love to recommend the 390 over the 970 because they are guessing it will have better dx12 support down the line, but that kind of speculation is really silly imo. If this rig is mainly for WoW, stick to nvidia.

The 970 is overkill for WoW make no doubt about it, i just had a hard time suggesting a gtx 950/960 to someone who already had a card as fast lol. The 970 is a true upgrade over your old 670 (nearly twice as fast).

And for mini itx system its absolutely possible to fit fast hardware inside it, they make itx versions of many cards including the 970.

About the i3, a year ago i would have had no problem suggesting an i3 but going forward its very possible dx12 will be able to leverage more cores i believe the i3 is near the end of its life cycle (as evidenced in atom chips).

[Savedwow]

Care to take a stab at suggesting a build around $1000-$1500 (closer to the $1k mark if possible so I can buy monitors and peripherals)? Any recommended cases? I would love a small form factor pc over a large tower, though if it costs a ton more then screw that!

I would probably be buying within the next week or two. Would buy a few parts now if I had to, due to sales (such as the i5 4690k being on sale for 50 dollars off)

I'd probably only need a 120gb or 240gb SSD, for what it's worth.

[Fascinate]

That 4690k isnt "really" on sale. They marked it up before putting it on sale, at this point i think the 6600k is the better buy (ddr4 support, newer platform etc).

Depending on the games you play you could drop down in GPU horsepower:

This is about as low as i could get it in an itx system, i went true "small" form factor but there are cases much larger for itx depending on what you want:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($324.95 @ shopRBC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120V 86.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($69.99 @ NCIX)
Motherboard: ASRock Z170M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($190.43 @ DirectCanada)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($88.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($76.76 @ Amazon Canada)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 2GB OC Edition Video Card ($197.45 @ Vuugo)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($69.75 @ Vuugo)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.98 @ Amazon Canada)
Total: $1108.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-26 19:41 EDT-0400

[Kagthul]

970 vs 390 is down to individual games, some games the 390 takes and others the 970 takes (MMO's especially).

Neither of these statements is true. The 390, since the release of the Crimson Drivers, has been faster than the 970 pretty much across the board. By as much as 15%, in a lot of cases.

People on here love to recommend the 390 over the 970 because they are guessing it will have better dx12 support down the line, but that kind of speculation is really silly imo.

No one is speculating. Literally no one. The hardware required to take advantage of the most powerful new feature in DirectX 12, Asynchronous Compute, does not physically exist on nVidia's Maxwell (GTX 9XX) cards. Thats not a speculation, that's a fact, plain and simple. The "DirectX 12 will let more cores be useful" comment you make down below? Not on nVidia's current lineup, it wont, because what you're talking about... is Asynchronous Compute.

The 970 is overkill for WoW make no doubt about it, i just had a hard time suggesting a gtx 950/960 to someone who already had a card as fast lol. The 970 is a true upgrade over your old 670 (nearly twice as fast).

And for mini itx system its absolutely possible to fit fast hardware inside it, they make itx versions of many cards including the 970.

Except you dont even need to use the "ITX" versions of cards (which are noisy as all hell and run hot) in all but the most gimmicky, microscopic cases. Most mITX cases are engineered to fit up to 12" cards.

About the i3, a year ago i would have had no problem suggesting an i3 but going forward its very possible dx12 will be able to leverage more cores i believe the i3 is near the end of its life cycle (as evidenced in atom chips).

If you're on a budget, the i3 is still the way to go. If you've got more than about 700$ USD to spend, stop considering the i3.

- - - Updated - - -

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 2GB OC Edition Video Card ($197.45 @ Vuugo)

I see we missed the part were he wanted 1440p.

I'm going to assume you dont do any really heavy work if you were considering an i3, so you dont need an 8-core part or something.

Now, not to rag on Fascinate too much about the 1440p thing.. you're not going to get near that at ~1000$ CAN. You guys get pooch screwed on prices up there in Canadia.

[Denpepe]

I will add to this that if you want to play in 1440p you should consider the GTX 970 or AMD equivalent as the GTX950 and 960 are meant for 1080p.

[Kagthul]

hokay, so.. to get you as close to 1440p potential as possible, i skimped on the monitor and keyboard/mouse; i didnt look for speakers but you can probably find a decent set of servicable Logitech 2.1 speakers in the 30-40$ CAN range, as they run about 22-25 here in the US.

You will also be using Windows 10 as a Windows Insider, as there was no budget for Windows. Not that this is really an issue - ive been using the Insider builds since launch, and have had no issues of any kind.

The case is small form factor (and no, you wouldnt really save a lot of money by going back to ATX, yes the mITX boards are a little more expensive but they have built in WiFi and Bluetooth, which cheaper ATX boards do not, so you'd have to buy a dongle or add-in card and thatd put you back up over the prce of the mITX board.

This monitor and KB/Mouse are meant to be hold-overs until you can save some money and get a good 1440p Monitor and better keyboard/mouse (though ive played around with the bundle listed at a Microcenter. They aren't amazeballs but theyre plenty servicable.

The case is sorta plain-jane for mITX, but better to have a plain case and powerhouse parts. I also went with 8GB of RAM - which is plenty for now, but went with 1x8GB so you can just grab another 8GB for 16GB whenever you have the cash.

PCPartPicker part list: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/DFnzbv
Price breakdown by merchant: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/DFnzbv/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($324.95 @ shopRBC)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS2X CPU Cooler ($27.70 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: ASRock Z170M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($190.43 @ DirectCanada)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($41.00 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive ($87.98 @ DirectCanada)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 390X 8GB Video Card ($523.75 @ Vuugo)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($69.75 @ Vuugo)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($63.50 @ Vuugo)
Monitor: Acer UM.WV6AA.B01 60Hz 21.5" Monitor ($124.44 @ DirectCanada)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($38.45 @ Vuugo)
Total: $1491.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-26 21:44 EDT-0400

[Fascinate]

Thing is, he said "monitors". I wasnt sure how many displays he wanted so i left 400 dollars of wiggle room. I completely agree on the itx video card comment, its just that i was trying to keep the budget down as much as possible and that gigabyte card was about 10 bucks cheaper than any other gtx 950. I could easily change my recommendation depending on how loud his room is.

Gonna disagree on the i3 comment. I know an i3 will mop the floor with an amd 6/8 core in games NOW (but again, some games a fx cpu will destory an i3 like battlefield), but we really dont know the story once dx12 comes to the mainstream.

[Savedwow]

Hey guys, thanks for the suggestions. It's quite late where I'm at but I'll log in tomorrow and reply to everyone and maybe give a better idea of what I am thinking now that there are some suggestions.

At the end of the day, as long as I have a rather future proof (i.e the next few years) computer that can play current games at good resolutions, and has the ability for me to upgrade it down the line (screw intel for constantly changing chip sets)... I'm happy. A small form factor pc would be nice but it is a lower priority.