My brother (12 years old) is looking for a decent gaming computer. Price should be around $1000 (More or less.). He'd rather get a laptop, but I told him a tower would be better in that price range. He doesn't appear to care about 1080p displays. Other details don't really matter, as long as it works fine for gaming.

I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but he wants to host a Minecraft server on it. (Realistic?)

Edit: I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but we are in Canada.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Aug 26 2013, 4:57 am by Apos.

Assuming your budget is just the tower:


Assuming your budget needs a monitor and peripherals:


On both builds, I picked a high efficiency PSU, because I'm assuming it's going to be running 24/7 from your Minecraft server note. Both machines are way more powerful than Minecraft's specs, and if that's all your brother intends to play, you can scale back the GPU.

The first build has the latest and greatest of Intel's processor architectures (Haswell). The second build is on the old yet reliable Sandy Bridge architecture. You can see how these two CPUs compare here. Just a note: the 3350P doesn't have onboard graphics, but that shouldn't be a problem as you'll be rocking the GTX 760 in either build for your display needs.

Both motherboards have USB 3.0 on them, and both cases support USB 3.0 on the front panel. Not a significant difference in the cases, so you can just pick your preference.

The RAM for both machines is the cheapest DDR3-1600 available right now. I selected 8GB for both builds because it will be plenty for what the computer will be used for. Remember: more RAM won't make a computer faster if it's going to be unused. You shouldn't be seeing it hit 8GB even if you're running several applications and a couple games.

Both builds have an SSD + HDD; the only difference is size. The first build has double the storage space for both the SSD and HDD.

The second build has an inexpensive 23" monitor, a cheap keyboard to fit the budget (mechanical keyboards are pricey, but if you want to move some money around to get one, feel free), and a gaming mouse that looks pretty cool.

A laptop isn't very good for gaming (they tend to run hot), but if by "gaming" you mean Minecraft-level games, then it should definitely be workable. If you're not afraid of refurbished, this Asus looks like a pretty good deal. Also, Lenovo has back-to-school deals running right now, so you can pick up a y410p for a pretty good price (I'd get the third model because it has an SSD for the OS, which will make a world of difference in regards to performance).

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 26 2013, 3:12 am by Roy.

Minecraft's requirements run from, "oh look you're rendering boxes, cute" to "omfg why are you rendering so many boxes? Bleh x_x"

Nothing a 760 can't handle though. With my 7970 I usually float around 200+ fps with occasional drops into the 100s at 1080p. I run into problems when I try to play with any texture packs, and I drop below 100. I'm unsure of the effect visual mods like shadows and lighting would have, but I can't say they would help performance. I really wouldn't consider any 128+ texture packs unless I was running Crossfire, though; and that's on the second fastest Radeon card money can buy.

As far as a Minecraft server goes, I'm not sure he's thought it through. That means a portion of your resources (including bandwidth) is going to be eaten up all of the time. If it's like three people then it's probably okay. But for any serious server business, it would probably be better setting up a separate machine specifically for being a server.

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I echo Roy's suggestions. My only caveat is with the memory, and that's because it's pretty slow as far as timing goes with Cas latency 10. But you get what you pay for, and I doubt it'll have any significant impact on performance. (I'm looking at your link and it's showing up as $29.99 after MIR).

Yeah, but you're not going to get a gaming rig and a server out of a $1000 budget.

You can see the price moved from the graph at the bottom. I'd recommend http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-memory-cml8gx3m2a1866c9b if you're buying RAM right this instant, though prices are always changing.

I'm not sure, so take this more as a question rather than a suggestion, but wouldn't the server requirement mean that he'd need more RAM? Or is minecraft really modest in that regard?

If you mean running a server as in installing Windows Server or a Linux server as the OS, then yes, depending on how big the server is meant to be, more RAM would be better. From the post, though, it sounds like this is just going to be a small thing between friends.

Perusing through http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1212583-how-much-ram-for-a-server/ and http://www.canihostaminecraftserver.com/ it seems like your bottleneck is going to be more likely your bandwidth than RAM. 1GB of RAM will support up to 12 players, and considering that most data plans in the US don't have an upload speed greater than 5Mbps (and apparently Canada's average upload speeds are lower than ours), the max amount of players excluding a RAM limitation will be around 15 players.

Renting a server makes more sense than spending another $50 on RAM.

I can't imagine that he'd want to put a server for more than just a few friends.

Interesting thoughts guys.

The internet speed is 30mb/s down and 10mb/s up (We actually get a couple more mb/s than that in practice though...). (Internet cap at 500 GB per month.)

For the towers suggested above, including shipping and taxes, the price would be around $1200. (Pieces cost more in Canada apparently.) (I consider that price to be fine.)

For the laptop, I looked around, and I found the 15.6" version: (IdeaPad Model 59370001 at $999)


Is it a good idea to get extended warranties? (3 years and such?)

You're doing yourself a disservice by getting a laptop lacking an SSD for at least the OS.

Depends on who covers the warranty; a lot of them aren't worth the hassle, in my opinion and experience, and the regular warranties and return policies will cover DOAs and faulty hardware 95% of the time. It's a waste of money to get the extended warranty (again, in my opinion).

Edit: tried again, now that I know you're in Canada.


Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Aug 29 2013, 11:58 am by Roy.

I highly recommend you price match at ncix so you get everything from them. If you spend a certain amount there, they will give you free shipping, or you can ship to store.

Here is my try at it. If I understand correctly, this is a good build?

This first one has a Micro-ATX motherboard: (Saves a bit of money, but I'm not sure if it's good.)

While this one has an ATX motherboard:


All those parts are available on NCIX for ~$34 of shipping costs and price match. (I guess it's simpler to buy all the part through a single vendor?)

I didn't include the mouse since the price went way up and I probably have one anyway.

I wouldn't go with the Micro-ATX but that's me. I'd also prefer the WD Caviar Blue 1TB EZEX over the Seagate. They're on sale for great prices (Think I saw one for 59$ USD last week?), 64MB cache, and the new denser 1TB platters. I would highly recommend them as I've bought one myself already and will probably get another.

The case is...well its crap. If you want a cheap case either get an NZXT Gamma or Antec VSK-4000. The VSK is not much better than what you have picked out but I've built in it and its not a terrible case. I know the budget is tight but if you're going to spend 1000$ why would you get some flimsy sub-75$ case? Can you get a CoolerMaster HAF 922 for cheap? They weren't expensive last I checked but its been awhile.

I also feel like you could get a better PSU for cheaper. Try any Antec/Corsair/XFX units around 550-650w. I'm sure you can find one cheaper than that EVGA. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but save money where you can and put it to better use (Like the case. )

Other than that it looks alright. I'm not a fan of that chipset, I'd go with a Z or H series personally but since you aren't overclocking or anything it will probably hold up fine.


Edit:
Build with my proposed changes.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.75 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: ASRock H87 Performance ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($100.00 @ Vuugo)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($55.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Storage: A-Data XPG SX900 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($169.99 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($66.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($257.75 @ Vuugo)
Case: Antec One ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Canada Computers)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($72.99 @ NCIX)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($15.79 @ DirectCanada)
Monitor: BenQ GW2255 60Hz 21.5" Monitor ($99.99 @ Canada Computers)
Keyboard: Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard ($12.00 @ Vuugo)
Total: $1096.22
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-06 00:30 EDT-0400)

That was fun Better case, better psu(?) and better storage for less? Why not.

Chipset = The things that are on the CPU right?

Edit1: Ninja'd and pwned
Edit2: Merged the changes and found a lower priced PSU. Is the motherboard you picked a huge difference?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Sep 6 2013, 5:00 am by Apos.

since you're getting a non k processor, motherboard quality shouldn't matter. What does matter is the chipset (b85 vs H87). I doubt that you will notice the difference between a business chipset and a consumer chipset, but the first thing that jumps out to me is the lack of 8 channel sound in the rear ports. The second thing is 2 less usb 3.0 ports and 2 sata 2.0 instead of 2 3.0 ports.

On top of that, it's only $4 for 7.1 audio, so you may as well go for the asrock. On top of that, businesses pay extra to have less shit on it that they don't need, which you as a consumer probably want.

Changed the motherboard back and change the memory back (Is the G.Skill Ripjaws X better or is the Corsair the way to go? I ask this since with the Corsair, there was a compatibility note about being higher than 1.50V.):

The PSU I picked is cheaper, but is there a catch?

Get the XFX instead. Its made by SeaSonic and is probably one of the best you can buy. Not that there's anything wrong with Corsair but for the price the XFX is a steal.

Everything else looks fine.

Thanks a lot everyone!!! Final result:


(There is a good chance I'll want to use it too since it pwns the laptop I bought back in 2011 by a large margin )

Actually, the motherboard ends up costing ~$150. Instead, I found two alternatives:

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gah87d3h
Spec ----> http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4491#sp
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-h87plus
Spec ----> http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H87PLUS/#specifications


Is there any major difference between those two? Which is best?

I dealt with the Gigabyte board at work. It was a fucking gorgeous board, more so than the pictures show. It was just beautiful. The build with it went good too.

I don't have any experience with the ASUS model. I imagine either one will be fine, but my money would be on the Gigabyte.

Sold. FinalV2:

It cost more than the other one, but I end up paying less on shipping.