Price and Specs. For new gaming PC
Price and Specs. For new gaming PC
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 I have an outdated PC a friend helped me build from exactly 10 years ago, and it has never been upgraded.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.
pcpartpicker has some community builds that can give you an idea of cost, value, and performance.
https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/
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).
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.
You can build an entry level PC (all new parts) for about 600 USD. That will play most games at decent frame rates at 1080p. From there there's almost no upper limit. So it's best to first set your budget and then see what you can get for that. I'd recommend budgeting at least 1000-1500 USD, if that's possible. That should buy you something pretty decent.
I think that budget sounds reasonable. What does that extra amount get me if the entry level is already playing most games?
Higher frame rates and higher resolutions and better settings. The better your machine, the higher settings you can use, which looks nicer. For $1000-1500 you should be able to go up to 1440p. It depends on what kinds of games you play. If you play competitive shooters, a higher frame rate will be a real advantage. For pretty much everything else it's all about the eye candy.
Edit: here's a video with a few build examples. This channel is pretty good for choosing components to get the best performance for your money.
You can build a fabulous PC for not much, but you can also end up feeling disappointed for a few times more. It's about expectations and targets.
What resolution gaming are you trying to do? Are you wanting insane frame rates or is 60fps enough? There's a huge difference between 60fps 1080p and 120fps 4k. Since you mentioned PC VR, the target is really high as it's usually rendering higher than 4k, and smooth, high FPS is critical. You may still want more than a 4080 can give you in some games.
I just built a PC for my nephew, he got my old 2080 (used cost is $200-$300), and some mid-tier AM5 combo deal from Microcenter. He's super happy with it because it does what he wanted it to do. I helped him keep his expectations within his budget, critically an entry level 1080p gaming monitor as he wanted to get high FPS on Valorant.
I think 60fps would be fine, but like I said I can always upgrade later to include VR as there is no immediacy. When you say huge difference, I assume you mean huge price difference between those correct?
At minimum, I would like it to be at least as good as my current gaming ecosystems on consoles are, which I imagine is fairly cheap. However, I am willing to go higher to future proof myself as I don't want to spend $500+ each year just to keep top of the line parts in the system. Someone mentioned around $1500 which seems reasonable at this time, especially because I plan to sell off my existing consoles and games to help offset the cost.
Right, huge price difference. Performance isn't totally linear like this, but it's still helpful to think of it in terms of pixels and fps. 4k is for times the pixels of 1080p, 120fps is twice the frames. So to go from smooth 1080p 60fps to smooth 4k 120fps you need 16 times more graphics power.
Your screen resolution and fps goals (capped by your screen's refresh rate) are something you want to nail down. I think the jump to OLED 120hz or higher screen is better than 4k partly because getting high fps out of 4k is much harder.
A $1500 budget can go a long way. Don't think about future proof, think about meeting your goals in games today, whatever you build will be fine for 8 years as long as your standards don't change. Outside of pushing 4k and high fps, graphics demands have plateaued compared to 10+ years ago. Ray tracing was the last big wow, and AI processing in the pipeline has done wonders at improving performance. I don't see the value of a motherboard that costs more than $200, and the best value CPU for gaming is the 7800x3d which is $400 when not on sale. You don't need more than 32gb of RAM, decent kit is about $100. Cases are looks subjective, airflow objective, runs $30 to $150, up to crazy high for gamerz styles. Any PSU over $100 is a waste of money, even driving a 4080 super. For storage get a well rated NVME within your capacity goals, $100 gets you a good brand with decent space. That would leave $500 for a graphics card, buying new won't get you top of the line, but you could get last generation's best with that. If you live near a Microcenter and can wait for a good bundle, you can save a few hundred. Sorry for ballparking, writing from my phone. Use pcpartpicker and have fun with it.
It's not a question of price range, it's a question of budget. You can do all of those things on a few hundred dollar PC, or you could get all that and more, and a separate NAS or server for as much as you want to spend.
Yes that's a good point, I guess I was looking for minimums to set my expectations. With the $1500 someone mentioned, that is way more than a few hundred that you mention so that discrepancy is where I get a bit lost. When you say "and more", what is the more that I am getting?