wifi gaming desktop

[giveuanxiety]

I dont know a whole lot about computers. What would be a good gaming desktop that is wifi and can stream good quality? prize cap is $1.500

[edeholland]

This is not AoE3 general, will be moved.

Anyways, you should definitely build your own computer and make sure to add a wifi-card. Those are quite cheap and fast if you have them internal. With 1500 dollars you can make a very powerful computer with a GTX 1070, i5-6600k, 16gb ram and 500gb SSD for example.

[momuuu]

If it's not with wifi you can always try to install a wifi adapter. Theres a few different ones which receive decently well. Not going to give you the perfect lagfree scenario if the router is far away or if theres a lot of pollution but thats wifi for you.

[JakeyBoyTH]

Don't bother with a 500GB SSD. Terrible price/performance.

edeholland is right about the other stuff, but I'd grab a 256GB Samsung EVO + a WD 2TB Hard Drive. Then you can fit your games on the SSD and still have room for all your porn.
If you are not into overclocking don't bother with the k-series chip. Go for a good B150 Mobo and a i5 6500. Then you also don't need to buy a decent cooler

Often B150 Mobos have wifi built in, but make sure if you get an adapter to get a ac compatible one. PCI-e adapters are also much better than USB ones in terms of latency. Really if you want to stream though you should be looking at ethernet if you can. Ethernet can keep up a constant 1Gb, while Wi-Fi speeds can vary.

[giveuanxiety]

I have heard before that I should build a computer rather than buy one. But to be honest I dont know a lot about computers and dont want to go through the stress of that project and probably end up doing something wrong along the way. I would rather find one online and buy it built and have it get shipped to be asap from when I can purchase it. and the ability of having it wifi is very important. Also I dont even know what to buy or how to make a computer that isnt wifi work with wifi.

[Metis]

Here are my recommendations for a computer that has an excellent performance to price ratio. I've built quite a few systems over the past 30 years and find if I hit the "sweet spot" of price to performance that I will both have a system that is capable of handling any software that comes out in the next five to seven years and also save quite a bit of money than if I had purchased the "latest and greatest thing".

Example:

Motherboard

Go with Asus, Gigabyte or the higher-end AsRocks. Although my current system has a Gigabyte board, I think that Asus may have slightly better ones now. ALso, don't pay a huge amount of money for a "gaming" board. Very few people even install quad-sli video cards and its not necessary to overclock modern systems. Therefore, get a later revision standard board that has the hardware and firmware bugs worked out.

By looking around, you can find a great deal on a board that those who don't know any better might consider a "lesser" one. This board has a good audio chipset and is $90 after rebate. The H170 chipset does not support overclocking but most don't overclock anyway.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813132575

RAM

Crucial is the retail branch of Micron. Micron makes the actual chips that most of the best RAM companies use. You can save money by purchasing direct from Micron. You don't need any flashy "bells and whistles" on your Ram sticks, just a good reliable matched set. Crucial RAM is warranted for life. Make sure that you match the RAM to the board. Unless you do a lot of top-end video rendering, 8 GB is plenty. $50.

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/h170-pro-gaming/CT8029443

CPU

Go for a "sweet spot" CPU that is compatible with your motherboard. This CPU is plenty fast enough for gaming and has a decent performance to price ratio. $220

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

Video card

Some games are better optimized for NVIDIA chipsets while othera re better played on AMD chipsets. You can pay out the wazoo for a video card but you can get a pretty good one for under $200 that will play most video games on the higest settings and all games if you tweak the settings a bit.

Sapphire makes good AMD chipset video cards. This one is $170.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814202230

Gigabyte makes good NVIDIA cards This one costs more but, as @JakeyBoyTH

notification

, pointed out, it is better too.

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 WINDFORCE GV-N1060D5-6GD $250
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product


SSD

Crucial SSDs may not be the fastest but they have been proven to be among the most error-free. SSD prices have gone down considerably and this 275 GB drive is only $80. Put your operating system and games on this drive. Use a HDD for large data files.

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/h170-pro-gaming/CT8387075

HDD

Western Digital blacks are the best. I have never had a WD drive fail. 1 TB is plenty and only costs $75.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

WiFi adapter

Get the adapter that best siuts your needs. This is an example at $95.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833320173

PSU

The PSU is the heart and lifeblood of your system. Don't skimp here. 650 W is plenty enough power for a single-vido-card sustem. Seasonic makes the best PSU's by far. $110

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product


Case

Cases are personal preference so just get one that you like. Here is a decent case similar to the one I have for $50.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811139058

Peripherals

Use the ones you have or get what you like. At the same price point, one keyboard is about as good as another and most mice are about the same quality too. Both can be had for around $100 total.


Operating System

Don't forget to budget in Win 10, unless you already have a retail copy that can be transferred. $140


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

TOTAL PRICE about $1,200

[JakeyBoyTH]

I have heard before that I should build a computer rather than buy one. But to be honest I dont know a lot about computers and dont want to go through the stress of that project and probably end up doing something wrong along the way. I would rather find one online and buy it built and have it get shipped to be asap from when I can purchase it. and the ability of having it wifi is very important. Also I dont even know what to buy or how to make a computer that isnt wifi work with wifi.

It's just much cheaper to build it yourself. Pre-built systems tend to be pretty bad for what you get, and the ones that are good are quite pricey. You can however find a custom-build online shop, such as Puget Systems, or I think Origin PCs might still do them. Puget Systems is very good, you get a manual with everything you could need and even customized push/pull configuration.

I don't know where to go if you don't live in the US though

[Metis]

Watch these videos and you will see that building is not all that hard and a lot of fun too.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIF43-0mDk4[/video]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls[/video]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxaVBsXEiok[/video]

[JakeyBoyTH]

@Metis

notification

I wanted to quote you, but I don't want another wall of text. Also wish the admins would fix the transparent text issue when replying and a new post comes up.

You need a LGA 1150 motherboard for that CPU. H170 is a 1151 Skylake socket.

Also don't bother with brands for RAM, just make sure they have a good warranty. I don't even look at speeds anymore. RAM hasn't been a bottleneck since 2010.

The video card is a potato. Sapphire used to make good AMD video cards, but now AMD are much more lower-end focused. The best bang-for-the-buck is the Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB for DirectX 11 games and below (Inc. AoE). A 470 will run the games, but i'm not comfortable recommending such a low-powered card, with a large waste of money. If OP wants to run any other games, such as DOOM or Battlefield for example, the 1060 is a much better choice for the money.

I'll take your word on the SSD though. Just don't buy any budget SSD's. They are not worth the plastic they are made of. Make sure to buy at least an NVMe SSD, and not a TLC one.

[iNcog]

-- deleted post --

[Metis]

PCIe adapter cards with cable ports and external antennas have the advantage of being positionable for the best signal reception and can detect weak signals better than many cheaper plug-in USB adapters due to the fact that they have access to more power. PCIe adapters are generally faster for LAN use too. However, if the OP has Wifi broadcast by a hotspot located close to his computer within his house then a USB adapter will probably suffice. A good USB WiFi adapter plus a good cable is about the same price as a good PCIE adapter but if the WIfi source is really close a cheaper adapter might suffice.

[Metis]

H170 is a 1151 Skylake socket.

Good catch, I correct this. I had a bunch of windows open and posted the wrong link.

I wouldn't call the GTX 470 a "potato" as it one of the better cards you can get for the price. The GTX 1060 is a better card but you are playing considerably more money for one unless you go with a "cheap" brand, which I don't recommend. When building a system, unless you have an unlimited budget, you have to make a few compromises. However, if the OP wants to add a hundred dollars to the price of the system then this would be the card I'd recommend:

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 WINDFORCE GV-N1060D5-6GD $250
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

[iNcog]

-- deleted post --

[Dolan]

If you want a prebuilt, you can get an

Intel NUC Kit NUC6i7KYK


577$
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC-Kit-NU ... B01DJ9XS52

All you need is add an SSD drive and some RAM (and an HDD if you want). It already has an Ethernet card and a Wifi card inside.

SDD:
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (you can get a PCI SSD if you want, it supports both)
$94.99
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch ... B00OAJ412U

RAM:
Kingston Technology HyperX Impact 16GB RAM DDR4 2133 HX421S13IBK2/16 (or get one single 16GB stick, but it costs a bit more)
$94.20
https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Technol ... B014R8JRRW

TOTAL: 765$

You save up to 750$.

If you think you need more GPU power, you can buy later an external eGPU case:

http://www.razerzone.com/store/razer-core
US$499.99

And some decent GPU for about 250 bucks:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814125901
$259

Then connect the external GPU to the NUC via the Thunderbolt 3 port.

You don't need to build another tower PC for gaming. It's 2016, you can use a modular approach.

[iNcog]

-- deleted post --

[Dolan]

He said he wanted a prebuilt, so this is the best compromise between a prebuilt and a somewhat decent gaming rig, that is easy to service and replace parts later.

This modular approach allows you to build a gaming rig and replace parts much easier than you would with a tower, where you need to get a case, a power source, make sure they fit together, calculate how much power your system needs based on the installed components (mobo, gpu, cpu etc), then install them piece by piece.

For me, the NUC would be enough, but some people just can't live without the latest 1070 GTX and mah 4K gaming at maxed graphics.

[Dolan]

The external GPU part is optional, maybe he finds the Intel Iris Pro included in the NUC enough. Then he can save up to 750 bucks.

[iNcog]

-- deleted post --

[Dolan]

The NUC has an i7 CPU.

The external GPU is a bit over the top, I agree, but it's an interesting solution, especially if you don't want your gaming rig to be static (you're planning on moving it around). It's also easy to replace the GPU inside and it has a Thuderbolt 3 connector, which allows up to 40Gbps data transfer between the GPU and the PC.

the cooling of your CPU is bad as well

Source?

[Metis]

A NUC computer is OK for watching videos or surfing the web but it doesn't come anywhere near the capabilities of a tower system. Think you are going to add an external high-end video card to a NUC for gaming? Well, think again -- no NUC has the power capacity to run a gaming video card, even if one was available with an adapter that allowed it to be attached.

Briefly put, if someone needs or wants a system with a dedicated graphics card, the Skull Canyon NUC isn’t worth consideration. -- PC Magazine

[Dolan]

The skull trail i7 NUC is not an ordinary NUC, it has a 45W TDP CPU, that's why it's targeted for gaming.

Yeah, sure, it's not as powerful as a tower but it's good enough for gaming, and if you need extra gpu power you can use an external gpu which has its own power source.
That's what you pay for prebuilts, which is what OP said he wanted. Everyone keeps recommending custom-built towers when OP said specifically he doesn't want that.

[iNcog]

-- deleted post --

[Dolan]

He wants a prebuilt tower, most likely.

Personally I'm starting to like the beefier NUCs. Of course, they are less powerful than custom-built towers, but I'm not gaming much myself and for what I need it's more than enough (working with text editors, browsers, watching videos, music playback, photoshop). So, a maxed out thin client is more than enough for me.

That's why I said if I'd ever think I need more GPU power I would consider using an external GPU with a Thunderbolt 3 connection, which would allow me to play games on high graphics and use CAD programs. But I don't really need that right now.

Imo, the tower system format is a bit outdated today. Gaming is probably the only use case for which you'd consider a custom built tower today. And workstations for offices. But for home users, for anything else, a thin client is more than enough.

[iNcog]

-- deleted post --

[Dolan]

I played AOE3 and LoL on an HTPC with Intel Pro graphics for years.

And it was fine, coz I don't play on high graphics, I set it up to work for best performance.

That NUC with the i7 is surely much better than what I have right now, so I'd probably be able to play on higher graphics and resolutions. It supports 4K too and has some great I/O (display port, thunderbolt etc). So, it's gonna be more than fine for casual gaming, which is what I do.