Hello all, I'm considering fully switching from console gaming to PC gaming. I have an outdated PC a friend helped me build from exactly 10 years ago, and it has never been upgraded. I currently have a Nintendo Switch and Xbox (360, One, and most recently Series X). I did this mainly because I liked physical games, such that I have kept boxes, manuals, and discs for my games. However, I have been getting more and more frustrated with console gaming as the years progress and am thinking of switching to fully PC, including emulation up to Switch of older game systems. I know nothing about building a PC, the one I had in college was for games technically but was not top of the line even then, and I mostly used it for torrenting, CAD modeling, and old emulation (up to Nintendo 64 at the time). I'm thinking of transitioning that fully to a NAS if possible as I build out my media library, and build a new one from scratch for gaming. Any advice on what a price range would be and components to look for would be appreciated! I see secondhand builds on Facebook marketplace or similar but don't have a good feel for if they are even good deals or not. For what it's worth, I will probably need new everything (hardware, case, and peripherals like mouse, keyboard, and monitors). So, if anyone could help guide to me what a good price I should be expecting would be and some benchmark specifications that I could keep an eye out, that would be lovely.
Edit: for what it's worth, I generally play games a few years after release when they go on sale, unless they came up on Xbox game pass or I received it as a gift to play. Additionally, I had an Oculus Rift hooked up to my PC but it struggled with many things on it, so I plan to upgrade that at some point with maybe the Valve Index system. That doesn't need to be an immediate buy as I'd rather my money go into the computer hardware itself first.
AMD GPUs are better on Linux than Nvidia, if that's important to you (which it should be). I've made nv work through the years but it is not for beginners.
I was considering Linux but I don't think I'd use it daily for gaming. I am interested in using Playnite which I believe is Windows only for my main games launcher.
Fyi an alternative to Playnite with a similar goal is Lutris. You can even integrate several platforms like Steam and GOG to download games directly through the Lutris interface.
On top of that, it's super easy to install games via exe's, custom install scripts, add existing install folders, etc. The UI is a little bit spartan compared to Playnite, but it's very powerful.
I say this because, among other things, a huge benefit of Linux is that it's great for older hardware. From the sounds of it, you aren't looking for the latest and greatest in terms of build specs, so Linux may be right up your alley (also no built in spyware, ads, forced online connections, and resource hogging processes that can't be disabled).
Yeah I have been considering switching to Linux at home, if nothing else other than to be familiar with multiple OS styles (I use Windows for work, and used MacOS in college). Do you know if Lutris have an ability to integrate some achievement unlocking ability/tracker? Additionally, do you suggest an OS/desktop environment to setup?
Can you expand on this please? I am on Tumbleweed and just install the nvidia driver and have never had any issues. I go full AMD otherwise but in the land of old crap where I live, I pick up things like used 1060s for cheap.
It's mostly kernel upgrades that can be a problem. If you stick to the repo, you will generally be fine. If you need a specific version of CUDA, or a feature that's only in the newest driver release, you'll have to build the kernel module yourself. It's not a huge deal after you learn how it works but you're almost guaranteed to break it at some point and then you're on the command line. If that scares you, go AMD.