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Raider56

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I built computers in the 80s and early 90s. I want to build one with my son. Can anybody tell me what I might want. I know it's about money. I don't even know the latest processor speeds. Liquid cooled. Wow, when did that happen. I appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance!
 
We will need a budget and know what the computer is gonna be used for.
Also if you have some specific wishes for the build. Like size.
 
Wow. I've been doing so much reading about processors and threading and clock speed and overclocking my brain is spinning. I would like to keep it under 3 grand. It's mostly used for gaming by my sons. Not even the real high end games. Minecraft, portal, things like that but they are getting into their teens. I hope I'm not being too much of a pain.
 
3 grand. Wow, that's some budget. I have assembled a system for you. Total price of ruffly 1500 bucks.
Here is a link to the list: Intel Core i5-6600K, Asus GeForce GTX 980, NZXT H440 (Black/Red) - System Build - PCPartPicker

Note that this is just an idea. What people value in computer hardware can be quite different. If i were to build a computer right now, this would be it.

CPU:
It had to a CPU with the latest architecture from Intel. Why Intel? Because AMD are currently quite behind in terms of architecture design.
You will find some AMD fans who will say otherwise, but most enthusiasts will agree that Intel is the way to go these days.
The latest Intel architecture is called skylake. It doesn't add much to the previous and great design called Haswell, but still enough to justify the quite small price difference. I choose the I5 instead of the I7 because the I7 is more expensive and meant as a CPU for enthusiasts and professionals. It adds nothing in terms of gaming.

Cooler:
The i5-6600K doesn't come with a cooler... not that you would want to use the stock cooler on such a CPU anyway... so i have chosen a very popular cooler. The 212 Evo. It's not the greatest but for it's price, it can't be beaten. It's good performing and keeps the noise lower than most other coolers.
If you want to go lequid cooling, i'll suggest something like Corsair H55 or H60.

Motherboard:
Has anything you need in a motherboard. Including overclocking capabilities. The only thing i can see missing is M.2 sata. If that's a problem, let me know.
It's also priced pretty good.

RAM:
I choose 8 gigabyte, because that's still plenty for most people. It had to be a 2x4 kit. It enables dual channel and gives you an extra boost in performance.
It has 2,4 ghz on the memory clock (which is at the better end of average) and a Cas Latency at 14. DDR4 memory's latency usually goes between 13 and 16. So 14 is a good number.

GPU:
This is a little difficult, I don't know if your son is eventually gonna play new tripe A titles. You should talk to him about it. But your budget is so high that i have no problem recommending a GTX 980. It's simply a great GPU. It's WAY!! overkill for minecraft. But if you want the system to be capable of upcoming triple A games in great details, i'll recommend ether this or something like the 970 or r9 290x.
I choose the Asus Strix version (same goes if you choose the 970). It should be the most quite of the bunch, but also have great cooling performance. As a bonus it has a back plate. Giving the card a more solid build.... and looks cool.
If you son never plays anything else than minecraft or similar performance required, than this is simply overkill and a waste of money. Let me know what you think.
The 980 is about $510, the 970 is about $320 and the R9-290X is about $340. The card chosen in the list is the 980.
You can check out the performance difference on all 3 here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8568/the-geforce-gtx-970-review-feat-evga/7

PSU:
Had to be a modular PSU and had to be at minimum gold validated. Given your budget i choose this one. I have it's little brother myself. It's amazing.
It has superb quality, nice sleeved cables and It's platinum validated (so it's very efficient)
It's made by seasonic (even though the brand is Corsair) which have a track record of delivering quality that have been recognized in the community.
It has a feature called ZeroFan. That means that it's fan only kicks in a 50% watt usages, So the fans only start spinning when he is gaming. And even when it does spin, it's very quite. So it's a quite PSU.

SSD:
The 850 Evo is a fast and reliable SSD. it's one of the most popular SATA based SSD's right now. I have it's predecessor (the 840 evo).
I choose this SSD as the only storage device in the system. That's why it had to be a big drive. 500 GB is more than the average SSD. I have officially said goodbye to mechanical drives. I don't like them. They are slow and noisy. Once you go SSD, you can't go back. Many people have a HDD as a secondary storage drives for all the big files. But since music, photos and movies are streamed instead of having them physical, i see less reason for a huge 1-3TB storage drives. I'll rather have a network harddrive away from my system that all the computers in the house can access in stead of having a noise slow HDD in my killer gaming rig. Just my 2 cents.
Feel free to add an HDD if you like.

Case.
This is a very personal opinion. I added the one i have myself to add to the total price. I can highly recommend this case.
It's good looking, quite roomy for it's size, have good cable management, a separate room for the PSU to add to it's design and hide cable mess and it also have inbuilt sound dampening material.
However the airflow isn't the best and it doesn't support DVD drives. (witch i actually like. It gives it a more slim profile because it doesn't have to make room for 5.25 inch bays)
You can find it in different color combinations. You can see it in more details here: https://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/143-h440-performance-mid-tower.html
You can also find it in green. It's "made" by Razer (not really). So you won't find it on that website.
 
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3 grands are more than you will really need.

You will basically need the basic parts, which is a shortcut of what BE said above really.

1- A motherboard to connect the parts to.

2- A CPU to process. An aftermarket cooler is better for cooling or if the CPU does not come with one but not essential to replace the stock yet highly recommended with that budget.

3- A memory (RAM).

4- An internal storage that's either a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD). The former is much cheaper per storage unit and has bigger storage and the latter is more expensive and much faster.

5- A mid-range to high-end video card for your mentioned gaming choice.

6- A case to put all this in. Make sure the video card you get fits in, it has good fans for ventilation and front USB connections for ease of use.

7- A monitor to see what you are running. One with built-in speakers is a good choice since video cards these days process audio too.

8- Input devices which are typically a keyboard and a mouse.

For more details, see the above post :D

Overclocking is not needed for normal gaming and I personally do not recommend it.

Welcome to CF :)
 
I built computers in the 80s and early 90s. I want to build one with my son. Can anybody tell me what I might want. I know it's about money. I don't even know the latest processor speeds. Liquid cooled. Wow, when did that happen. I appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance!

Wow. I've been doing so much reading about processors and threading and clock speed and overclocking my brain is spinning. I would like to keep it under 3 grand. It's mostly used for gaming by my sons. Not even the real high end games. Minecraft, portal, things like that but they are getting into their teens. I hope I'm not being too much of a pain.
Since Raider56 says that he built computers in the 80's and 90's, I can understand where the 3 grand budget came from. Back then a new computer cost $2500-$3000. Every year the computer you could build\buy for that amount was more powerful but it cost roughly the same.

We are enjoying a great time for our computing hobby as things are relatively much less expensive.

BTW, welcome to the forum Raider56!
 
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whaw, that's some difference in prices.

In that case i'll recommend another CPU.
The I5-6500. It's 50 bucks cheaper and it comes with a cooler. So that's 85 bucks in total because then he doesn't have to buy a 3-party cooler.
It's not much slower, but it's not as easy to overclock. It's still plenty of performance and a greater value.

For the GPU i'll recommend reading this article: Best Graphics Cards for the Money - Tom's Hardware
Toms hardware makes these ever second month or so. They pick the best bang for the bug in different price categories.
It's hard to recommend a GPU if you don't know if the kid is gonna play more modern games soon. Like assassin's creed syndicate. It's quite demanding. Not surprising considering how beautiful the game is.
 
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