Check out our Monthly Survey Page to see what our users are running.
Building a gaming PC - Where should be my choices?
immortel Jan 27, 2016
Hi,

My PC is getting old and I starting looking to buy a gaming PC. Since my budget is not unlimited, I have choices to make and would need some advices. Where should I choose?

Video Card, Right now I have a decent one a nVidia GTX 660. Not the best.

That being said, I was looking on multiple choices.

Motherboard, there are gaming ones and more generic ones. The gaming one are a bit more expensive, does it worth it?

CPU, Intel-i5 vs i7, 4th gen vs 6th gen? if 6th gen, 6700 or 6700k. I know that the faster is better but does it worth the price/performance?

Should I keep my GTX 660 for now and upgrade to a GTX 980 when the price drops in a year or should I upgrade to a GTX 970 right away and wait longer before upgrading it?

What are your recommendations?

Thanks

Dany
Cimeryd Jan 27, 2016
What do you have today? And what is the budget like?
immortel Jan 27, 2016
I currently have the following:

Processor : 4x AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 820 Processor
Memory : 6104MB (3535MB used)
Renderer : GeForce GTX 660/PCIe/SSE2
Hard disks = 1 SSD 120 GB; 1 SSD 240 GB, 1 TB 5200 RPM, 2 TB 5200 RPM
immortel Jan 27, 2016
My budget is approx. 1500$ CAD.
lucinos Jan 27, 2016
I would mostly think going for an skylake i5-6600 and keeping for the moment the gtx 660. Especially on the graphics side makes more sense to not rush and wait and see since gtx 660 is still pretty good, it will be easy to upgrade and there are a lot of things like Vulkan happening so the more you wait the more will be known. Just some thoughts.

Unless you have something to do with so many threads (no game needs them), i7 just does not makes much sense.
Xpander Jan 28, 2016
if you care about gaming mostly, i would go with GPU first, that is the most important part for gaming(ARK, Metro, Dying Light, War Thunder, Star Conflict, etc). i upgraded from 660Ti to 970 some time ago and the GPU upgrade was huge boost, i still have shitty AMD FX8320. there are some exceptions though, strategy games mostly the ones that feral has been releasing require a lot cpu power. so depends what you play, i would go with GPU first and then with cpu/mobo/mem upgrade, that phenom 2 x4 is old, but its still enough for most todays games
immortel Jan 28, 2016
Thanks a lot for all your comments. It really helps.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
Login / Register


Or login with...
Sign in with Steam Sign in with Google
Social logins require cookies to stay logged in.