PC gamers, I need your power!!!

[Lokgamer]

Many years ago I made the decision to leave consoles behind and buy a PC gamer. Next month I'll have enough money to get a decent PC; the problem is that I'm not an expert in hardware (software is usually my thing), so I need your help and tips about what components my PC should have, especially the CPU and video card, given I don't want to spend money on a PC that is more or much more than what I need. I'm planning to play modern games (anything that wasn't released on PS4 or other generations), but I'm not demanding when it comes to performance; playing at 1080 and 30 fps is enough for me.

Your help is much appreciated.

 

[SteelSamurai99]

There's a website called pcpartpicker and I highly recommend it. It's a website that can help you put together a part list for a pc build, I use it all the time to help me decide what components to buy. RAM is definitely going to be the most expensive component to acquire because of the current ram shortage going on though.

 

[Blackkneph]

Just keep in mind that should you in the future want to do any type of AI video generation...video ram MATTERS big time. 8gb of video ram video is very low end for AI video generation, meanwhile any card that has 8gb or more will definitely be great for gaming AND AI video generation. Regular physical ram doesn't help with AI video generation, but gaming uses physical ram, so the more physical ram you have, the better your gaming will be.

 

[Lokgamer]

There's a website called pcpartpicker and I highly recommend it. It's a website that can help you put together a part list for a pc build, I use it all the time to help me decide what components to buy. RAM is definitely going to be the most expensive component to acquire because of the current ram shortage going on though.

I'll check it out. Thanks!

 

[lestagio]

There's a website called pcpartpicker and I highly recommend it. It's a website that can help you put together a part list for a pc build, I use it all the time to help me decide what components to buy. RAM is definitely going to be the most expensive component to acquire because of the current ram shortage going on though.

I second this.

Something else I'd like to point out is that, while RAM is expensive, you'll be just fine with 16gb DDR4. People *love* to tell you that you need 32gb, but you really don't. You only need it if you're playing games with tons and tons and tons of mods, or doing heavy development and compiling. To put it another way, if you need 32gb, you'll know you need 32gb.

You don't need the newest components either, especially for what you're trying to play. I personally have a 6600XT (2021, mid-range GPU) that I have no problems with, even the rare occasion that I play a modern game. I have a 12100F CPU which is also a pretty midrange CPU from 2022. I've had no issues with my current components. My point being that you do NOT have to go for the absolute newest things, despite what the internet may tell you. That being said, certainly don't go shooting for parts that are 10 years old, either.

I really use a mix of Reddit, PCMag, Tom's Hardware and UserBenchmark whenever I build a PC. Don't bank on UserBenchmark for everything because there's been some biases and such found on it, but for a broad idea, it can be helpful to compare parts to some degree, especially since the folks over on Reddit love to tell people that they need the newest components to run fucking Doom. PcPartPicker will tell you if anything is incompatible... Outside of that, if you just get parts from around the same couple of years and can see that they all seem to be decent enough, you'll be fine. There's lots of different options out there, but you're not going to suddenly screw everything over by buying the wrong parts.

Another little tip is that you can buy some components used. Your CPU, and especially GPU can be purchased used which can help you save a lot of money. I've been building PCs for many years and most GPUs I've ever had were used. You can get a used GPU for $50-100 cheaper than buying new. CPUs are similar, although arguably a LITTLE riskier. RAM is also possible to buy used without too much risk, but I doubt you'll find it a ton cheaper right now. DO NOT buy a PSU or hard drive used, as a used drive could fail, and the odds of getting a bad used PSU are decently high and you wouldn't want your PSU going bad.

Anyway, that's my long ass ramble— sorry if there's too much info in there, lol.

 

[AceWhatever]

I wouldn't call myself an expert either but I can recommend what I think is the minimum setup you can aim for (I know the current global situation is screwing things up price-wise but I don't know what can be done about it unfortunately):

CPU: 10th gen i7 or equivalent
GPU: RTX 3050 or equivalent

The above two choices will probably be considered overkill by more experienced users who will tell you to settle for an i5 and a cheaper GPU instead, but since you say you want to play modern games you'll need the juice. Also, no matter how much you think you know what you'll use the PC for, something new will always come up that will test the max limits of your specs. In short, a little future proofing isn't a bad idea if you can afford it or find a good deal on used parts. Think of how much extra you're willing to pay to have things work mostly out of the box instead of spending time tweaking settings.

RAM: 16GB in 8+8 configuration.

I think the consensus on this will be pretty unanimous. Not much reason to go lower. Only go higher if you know exactly what you need the extra RAM for.

Storage: 1x 256-512 GB Nvme + The largest SSD you can afford.

This one is my personal preference. A M2 stick for the OS and apps is what most people recommend, but the secondary drive is where I put my personal files, videos and game installations. A HDD for secondary may still be viable if you can find it much cheaper but defer to more experienced users for the preference.

Read up a bit on what to look for in motherboards. The other components are more dependent on what you have access to. Good luck!

 

[beefbowl]

Disclaimer: I don't understand PC hardware, it is a tool to play games, surf the web and occasionally edit funny pictures/videos. I don't do AI, 3D rendering, game development etc.

Since I don't understand hardware I just went with a premade Asus ROG pcs with a 3070 graphics card (only thing I know about this pc). It lets me play everything I want, emulate PS3 and the consoles before. It just works for me. I also put in a 4 tb HDD to store roms and stuff, there was a space in the case to put it in.

I know people despise premade pcs but it may work for you, just like it did for me.

 

[Bagleman]

What are you trying to run? Also what market are you in? Do you have any parts like an ssd and ram? Where I live you can get a system based around a used am5 or am4 board and a 9070xt for a bit over 1200usd. If you go with an AMD x3d chip with v-cache then you can go for cheaper ram as well. Avoid current gen intel or am4 if your goal is ps3. AM5 has better hardware avx512 which helps a lot for that emulation. Upcoming intel nova lake will support it as well but is expected to be pricey(and good).

If you are not willing to buy some parts second hand then I also reccomend a prebuild (again amd AM5 based if you want PS3). You will pay probably 2x the price vs the used parts and 9070xt though.

Hope it goes well for you!

Edit - I just saw your performance needs XD. What i recommended is overkill. Used 11th gen intel(avx 512) and a used RX5700xt would be my budget recommendation if you want to build and still run ps3.

 

[Sorion]

If you're sticking to PS4 era games, honestly a Mid range graphics card from today can easily destroy any game from that generation, an rtx 5060 plus a ryzen 5 5600x would get you 1440p 60fps on all of those games with very few exceptions (maybe cyberpunk 2077 or red dead redemption 2 will give you more trouble), a build like that would be considered as a budget system these days.
If you're trying to run PS5 generation games though things get a lot more tricky, you might have heared how Unreal Engine 5 is super hated among pc gamers and it's for a good reason, many games that uses UE5 have severe optimization problems and you might want a beefier system if you're interested in running newere games, the most common issue when it comes to UE5 games is VRAM usage, it's not asecret that Nvidia has been milking their useres for quite a while now and they're selling underpowered hardware in order to increase margins, the mid-range gpus have suffered the most in that regard, 60 class GPUs often come with just 8GB of VRAM which is not enough for a lot of games, specially at 1440p, so if you want to play newer games just go for a graphics card with more VRAM, the 5060 won't cut it so you should go for either the 9060 XT 16GB or the 5060 ti 16GB, both of them have 8GB variants as well, avoid those like the plague. When it comes to CPU choises I often recommend AMD systems since Intel has been struggling to compete lately, they even pushed their 13th and 14th gen cpus a bit too far and those have reliablity issues as a result, the newer intel core series seem somewhat promising, I've heard good things about their newer revisions and I've also heard they're trying to make a comeback with a new 3D cache technology in order to compete with AMD, only time will tell if this is true or not.
Getting back to the topic, you should pick an AMD CPU if you're planning to run ps5 gen games, your best choises for that are either the 7000 series or the 9000 series, 5000 series is also good if you're on a budget but it's a bit older now, it uses the oldre ddr4 ram standard and that can cause stutters in some memory heavy games. your best mid range options right now are the ryzen 5 7600x, or the ryzen 5 9600x, if you can afford it go with a ryzen 7 instead. the performance difference between the 7000 and 9000 series isn't that large so if the 9000 alternatives come at a premium in your country, the 7000 variants are still totally worth it.

 

[Lokgamer]

I second this.

Something else I'd like to point out is that, while RAM is expensive, you'll be just fine with 16gb DDR4. People *love* to tell you that you need 32gb, but you really don't. You only need it if you're playing games with tons and tons and tons of mods, or doing heavy development and compiling. To put it another way, if you need 32gb, you'll know you need 32gb.

You don't need the newest components either, especially for what you're trying to play. I personally have a 6600XT (2021, mid-range GPU) that I have no problems with, even the rare occasion that I play a modern game. I have a 12100F CPU which is also a pretty midrange CPU from 2022. I've had no issues with my current components. My point being that you do NOT have to go for the absolute newest things, despite what the internet may tell you. That being said, certainly don't go shooting for parts that are 10 years old, either.

I really use a mix of Reddit, PCMag, Tom's Hardware and UserBenchmark whenever I build a PC. Don't bank on UserBenchmark for everything because there's been some biases and such found on it, but for a broad idea, it can be helpful to compare parts to some degree, especially since the folks over on Reddit love to tell people that they need the newest components to run fucking Doom. PcPartPicker will tell you if anything is incompatible... Outside of that, if you just get parts from around the same couple of years and can see that they all seem to be decent enough, you'll be fine. There's lots of different options out there, but you're not going to suddenly screw everything over by buying the wrong parts.

Another little tip is that you can buy some components used. Your CPU, and especially GPU can be purchased used which can help you save a lot of money. I've been building PCs for many years and most GPUs I've ever had were used. You can get a used GPU for $50-100 cheaper than buying new. CPUs are similar, although arguably a LITTLE riskier. RAM is also possible to buy used without too much risk, but I doubt you'll find it a ton cheaper right now. DO NOT buy a PSU or hard drive used, as a used drive could fail, and the odds of getting a bad used PSU are decently high and you wouldn't want your PSU going bad.

Anyway, that's my long ass ramble— sorry if there's too much info in there, lol.

Thanks you very much. I really liked that your answer was well developed. Now I have of better idea of what I need.

Post automatically merged: Today at 5:16 AM

I wouldn't call myself an expert either but I can recommend what I think is the minimum setup you can aim for (I know the current global situation is screwing things up price-wise but I don't know what can be done about it unfortunately):

CPU: 10th gen i7 or equivalent
GPU: RTX 3050 or equivalent

The above two choices will probably be considered overkill by more experienced users who will tell you to settle for an i5 and a cheaper GPU instead, but since you say you want to play modern games you'll need the juice. Also, no matter how much you think you know what you'll use the PC for, something new will always come up that will test the max limits of your specs. In short, a little future proofing isn't a bad idea if you can afford it or find a good deal on used parts. Think of how much extra you're willing to pay to have things work mostly out of the box instead of spending time tweaking settings.

RAM: 16GB in 8+8 configuration.

I think the consensus on this will be pretty unanimous. Not much reason to go lower. Only go higher if you know exactly what you need the extra RAM for.

Storage: 1x 256-512 GB Nvme + The largest SSD you can afford.

This one is my personal preference. A M2 stick for the OS and apps is what most people recommend, but the secondary drive is where I put my personal files, videos and game installations. A HDD for secondary may still be viable if you can find it much cheaper but defer to more experienced users for the preference.

Read up a bit on what to look for in motherboards. The other components are more dependent on what you have access to. Good luck!

Thank you very much for help.

Post automatically merged: Today at 5:24 AM

What are you trying to run? Also what market are you in? Do you have any parts like an ssd and ram? Where I live you can get a system based around a used am5 or am4 board and a 9070xt for a bit over 1200usd. If you go with an AMD x3d chip with v-cache then you can go for cheaper ram as well. Avoid current gen intel or am4 if your goal is ps3. AM5 has better hardware avx512 which helps a lot for that emulation. Upcoming intel nova lake will support it as well but is expected to be pricey(and good).

If you are not willing to buy some parts second hand then I also reccomend a prebuild (again amd AM5 based if you want PS3). You will pay probably 2x the price vs the used parts and 9070xt though.

Hope it goes well for you!

Edit - I just saw your performance needs XD. What i recommended is overkill. Used 11th gen intel(avx 512) and a used RX5700xt would be my budget recommendation if you want to build and still run ps3.

Thanks for your tips. But I want to leave clear that won't use this PC for emulation (I got real PS3 and other retro hardware for that). XD What I want to play are current gen games (PS5/Xbox series)

 

[Turbo Kid]

I think devices like the Steamdeck Oled or Xbox Ally X are the easiest way to get into PC gaming. They can all be docked and used on an actual TV. You don't need much knowledge to get them set up and running with modern games. Not as user friendly as actual consoles, but you don't need to actually learn how to build a PC or what specs to look for in a PC. Turn it on, plug and play, and they can handle most modern games with minimal compromises, especially the Xbox Ally X which is more powerful than a Steamdeck and currently cheaper too.

 

[Lokgamer]

If you're sticking to PS4 era games, honestly a Mid range graphics card from today can easily destroy any game from that generation, an rtx 5060 plus a ryzen 5 5600x would get you 1440p 60fps on all of those games with very few exceptions (maybe cyberpunk 2077 or red dead redemption 2 will give you more trouble), a build like that would be considered as a budget system these days.
If you're trying to run PS5 generation games though things get a lot more tricky, you might have heared how Unreal Engine 5 is super hated among pc gamers and it's for a good reason, many games that uses UE5 have severe optimization problems and you might want a beefier system if you're interested in running newere games, the most common issue when it comes to UE5 games is VRAM usage, it's not asecret that Nvidia has been milking their useres for quite a while now and they're selling underpowered hardware in order to increase margins, the mid-range gpus have suffered the most in that regard, 60 class GPUs often come with just 8GB of VRAM which is not enough for a lot of games, specially at 1440p, so if you want to play newer games just go for a graphics card with more VRAM, the 5060 won't cut it so you should go for either the 9060 XT 16GB or the 5060 ti 16GB, both of them have 8GB variants as well, avoid those like the plague. When it comes to CPU choises I often recommend AMD systems since Intel has been struggling to compete lately, they even pushed their 13th and 14th gen cpus a bit too far and those have reliablity issues as a result, the newer intel core series seem somewhat promising, I've heard good things about their newer revisions and I've also heard they're trying to make a comeback with a new 3D cache technology in order to compete with AMD, only time will tell if this is true or not.
Getting back to the topic, you should pick an AMD CPU if you're planning to run ps5 gen games, your best choises for that are either the 7000 series or the 9000 series, 5000 series is also good if you're on a budget but it's a bit older now, it uses the oldre ddr4 ram standard and that can cause stutters in some memory heavy games. your best mid range options right now are the ryzen 5 7600x, or the ryzen 5 9600x, if you can afford it go with a ryzen 7 instead. the performance difference between the 7000 and 9000 series isn't that large so if the 9000 alternatives come at a premium in your country, the 7000 variants are still totally worth it.

I see. Thank you for taking the time to write a well developed answer. It was really useful when I requested a quote.

Post automatically merged: Today at 5:43 AM

Something I forgot to add, was my budget, which is 20000 pesos (1150 Dollars).

 

[Sorion]

I see. Thank you for taking the time to write a well developed answer. It was really useful when I requested a quote.

Post automatically merged: Today at 5:43 AM

Something I forgot to add, was my budget, which is 20000 pesos (1150 Dollars).

If that's the case you should go for either an RTX 5060 ti or an rx 9060 xt, if you can go a tier above those two (rtx 5070 or RX 9070) it's totally worth it, keep in mind the gpu is usually the most expensive part of the computer and it's normal to use about half your budget on the gpu, or at least that was the case until RAM prices drastically increased, if you can afford it try to go for 16GB of RAM (2x8GB config) with a mid range CPU (either a ryzen 5 7600x or the ryzen 5 9600x if it isn't that much more expensive), a 80 dollar power supply should be enough for a build like that, try to go for a 700w model of a reputable brand (corsair, EVGA or seasonic) with a high certification (80 plus gold or above), when it comes to storage try to get a 1TB NVME ssd, if it's a bit outside your budget you can also go with a 512GB NVME SSD plus a 1TB mechanical hard drive, just put the older games on the HDD and leave your favorites on the SSD, you might run into storage limitations for some larger games but that's unfortunately normal in the world of expensive memory we live nowdays.

 

[Generic Edgelord]

I grant you the power of the PC master race.