Help Choosing a Pre-built Gaming PC Please

Not sure how far you are away from City of Industry, but that’s where NZXT is located. I bought my last pre-built from them and it’s been fantastic.

It looks like they have a rig for sale sans GPU for $799, but I don’t know if your 3070 will fit. I’ll bet some of the Big Brains of QT3 can chime in with advice on this system:

It’s possible they can custom make you a better rig since you’re local. Certainly couldn’t hurt to give them a call, and they’re 100% legit.

The H510 has a max GPU clearance of 381mm, which should be fine for a 3070. A radiator in front might impinge upon that space if one was planning on installing a 280 AIO or something, but even then I think it would be fine.

5600X from AMD or 12600K from Intel are probably around the right level? Depending on the defintion of silly.

5800X and 12700K are also excellent buys, but will start to bend the budget a bit.

some secondhand LA comparable <$1K (not recommendations, but in the right ballpark)

(only 8Gb)

(only 8Gb, ugh that case)

(Alienware case again)

I have a 5600x paired with my 3070 and it has been great

I suppose selling the 3070 and buying a Series X is not an option :)

NZXT is a good idea if you can cajole them to make a GPU-less custom build. I’d go for an AMD 5800X or better, or an Intel 12700k if a similar longevity is the goal.

Most pre-builts will come with an unneeded GPU and storage. That’s why finding a decent machine in your case leads to a lot of ebay links. Which is a perfectly acceptable way to go if you can find the right match.

It has been so long, I’m not sure what normal prices would be now. I saw the AMD 5900x cpu is $448 on Amazon, and was thinking that is a good price.

If you have the funds to buy a new computer, go with something like NZXT BLD, they’re pretty good. Otherwise check out the eBay links from the other thread.

Worst To Best:

Intel i7-10700k / Intel i9-10850k / Intel i7-11700k
AMD 5600X
AMD 5800X
Intel i5-12600K
Intel i7-12700K (highest tier that makes a real difference)
Intel i9-12900K (waste of money bragging-rights tier)

Bold = Sweet Spot at retail prices. But anything is fine at the right price, and AMD CPUs are finally being discounted below retail now. 5900X or 12700K might be justifiable if they are doing double duty for streaming.

100% just go on ebay and buy a pre-built with “no gpu” and put in your 3070.

There are so many pre-builts on Ebay with the GPU taken out for like 800 ish bucks.

Your local Microcenter in LA has this PC, Open Box, for $935:

Boom, there is the answer right there. That is a great deal, good processer and cooler, good ram and hard drive.

I had the opposite problem.

My computer was from 2013, with a 3820 CPU AND I had a 1060. So I needed an upgrade for both. IF I was keeping the gfx card, I would jump on that deal.

GPU prices are dropping pretty quickly these days, we’re reportedly only 25% over MSRP now. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could buy a 3070 for $600 in a couple of weeks.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know why that’s the case? More supply? Less demand? Both?

Nobody really knows, but it’s probably a combination of China banning cryptomining, Ethereum price cratering, Ethereum supposedly merging in proof of stake in Q2 2022, Russian sanctions blocking GPU shipments, the US president removing tariffs from videocards imported from China (primarily impacts the US, but prices everywhere are often converted from USD) and improving yields at the mature TSMC and Samsung foundries on their 7nm and 8nm processes.

Probably a bit longer of a drive than preferred, but that would be a great fit for your needs at $934+tax. You can add more RAM down the road if needed. Looks like there’s still a 1 year warranty and a 15 day return policy. It’s got a 750W PSU which is also fine for the RTX 3070 you have in-hand.

Another datapoint:

I would guess that the profit to be made dropped below what scalpers are interested in, which is accelerating the price renormalization.