Hi all, I'd like a new PC... I've been out of the game for a while so I don't really know what's suggested anymore. The "is it cheaper to build you own pc" thread shocked me a bit as in the past it was never even a question, it's why lots of people got in to DIY because it was a lot cheaper and was never that complex. Just to give you an idea as to how long I've not paid attention to anything, the last time I built a PC it had a 2500k Sandy Bridge in it... So it's been a while. That in mind, are there any new developments I really should be aware of? I understand that M2 drives are now the thing, especially for a boot drive or am I misinformed? Anything else come to mind?? Budget: £1,500. Some give or take here. Main uses of intended build: Nothing heavy, my favourite game is currently Fallout New Vegas so I'm not looking to run the latest most demanding games at 4k max quality. I do play some newer games but have never been that bothered about everything set to max. As long as the rig can handle a recent game on mid to high settings at 1920 x 1080 I'm happy. Parts required: All of them, monitor included. Previous build information (list details of parts): What? Monitor resolution: I've never had 4k, not sure if it's required or worth it? Maybe? I generally prefer a two monitor setup so I can have Netflix on whilst I do something else so... Yeah I don't know. Storage requirements: Minimal. Sub half a TB. Will you be overclocking: No Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): Not really. Extra information about desired system: That's about it!
The general cheap but decent template [assuming buying new, ymmv buying used. 1st gen Ryzen, 2nd gen [2600/2600X] if your wallet is up to it. B350/B450 board 1050 ti cheap nvme m.2 SSD [Intel 760p or Samsung 970 EVO] if you want speed, Crucial MX500 [SATA] if you want a known-quanitiy hgh[er] capacity SATA option. 16GB of your DDR4 of choice. Ancilliaries [case, psu etc] of choice.
This clocks in at a smidge under £900 without Monitor, Mouse or Keyboard... Some corners were cut a bit [el-cheapo case and cpu cooler] but you might be able to squeeze a 1060 into the budget and/or a Ryzen 2700[X] into the mix depending on your choice of monitor and other things.
If Fallout: New Vegas is the limits of your gaming endeavours, then yes the 1050ti should be more than fine. If not, then you're looking at a ~£50 bump to the 3GB slightly-gimped 1060 and ~£100 to the 6GB 1060 iirc. Bit out of the loop myself on these things so someone else might give you better answers on the GPU front.
Why limit to £900 when he posted £1500 as a budget? Anyway, he’s on the right path with most. I’d grab the 2700X, though. It’s faster, and you’ve got the budget. Grab a better cooler and case. You could also squeeze a 1070 or even a 1080 into the budget if you stretch a little.
It was mainly to demonstrate what the general spec in my preceding point came to. Plus I was trying to keep it at/around the £1000 as the £1500 also has to cover MMK as well. But as you said, you could probably squeeze a 2700[X] and a few other things in whilst still leaving enough for a decent monitor/mouse/keyboard.
I would probably go for the 2600x. 2 extra cores won't add much for gaming and that spare bit of budget on a gpu would weild greater benefits. For £1500 you can get a 1070 in there easy I've included a mouse keyboard and headset, but these will very much be up to personal preference. I've also gone for a 500gb m2 drive as get windows and couple of big games on and you'll fill a 250. I'm not sure what the monitor I'm put in is like, but there's some wiggle room in the budget to stretch that out. I've NOT included windows as you can get digital keyes from load of places for around 20quid.
£1500 is a big budget for an 8 year old game! Go for it if you've got the cash burning a hole in your pocket, but you could easily build a PC for a few hundred pounds to play it. I've got a 2500k and 970 and it plays all modern games with a few shiny settings turned down a little (including single core alphas).
Has to cover Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse as well though and you can easily spend a significant part of a £1500 budget on those, in fact it makes sense to do so as crappy peripherals will negatively impact the user experience until the end of times. (I might have taken some liberties with the end of times part)
Why spend all your budget when you can pocket the difference?? It's not worth getting into the regions of diminishing returns when the build is specifically targetted at mid range. I did a mid range build about 16 months ago and got a 29" 21:9 display - I love it, I think it's totally worthwhile. Only thing to consider is the use of an AMD card, because only the crazy expensive monitors support G-Sync (I have also been converted to adaptive sync in the process!). There're 580s that aren't going for crazy amounts now (e.g. this at scan). The only other thing I'd suggest is dropping to an mATX motherboard - it'll save you a few tenners and a fair amount of space, and I've never wanted for some of the more sophisticated features on the high-end boards. Edit: cheaper card here or here (at the time of writing)
Console + PC to handle all non gaming stuff + TV + annual sub for the console ain't exactly a low total... And even if we ignore all that like a lot of console gamers do, among the consoles the PS4 has the biggest selection of games available and the Switch is portable, leaving no reason to buy an Xbox.
I'm assuming he has a TV already, your phone can do most of the non gaming things, if not, an old office desktop on the cheap in the tv. 'biggest range of games' is subjective depending what of the exclusives you want, if you want the back catalogue they offer etc. But both will have 99% of blockbuster AAA Battle of Creed 2019 games. The biggest factor will probably be what your friends already have.
Try telling that to the japanese developers who after more than a decade of xbox still treat it like a leper colony. If you want to lock yourself out of a large part of the "AAA" market that is perfectly fine, you do you and all that, but recommending that others do so? That is just plain wrong. As for friends, advertise your console username in your steam profile and the friend invites will follow.
A bit of a curve ball but what about a gaming laptop: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...7-8750h-8gb-ddr4-gaming-laptop-lt-25n-as.html There is also a £899 version with an i5 (4c8t) but it seems to have disappeared from OCUK's website. Can obviously hook up an external monitor, KB & mouse if you want and has the advantage of being portable. Plenty of poke for 1080p gaming on even the latest titles (the 1060 is just a downclocked desktop 1060). I am tempted to get one for the mrs.
