Help TDG with building a new desktop PC

[The Dutch Ghost]

Hello all,

I am here with a call for help to the members are knowledgeable and skilled in building their own PC setups and for others.

For a couple of years now I have been saving up for a new PC as my old one is more than a decade old now. I did have a new video card put in about five or six years ago as I already noticing that my current machine could not run some of the games that required more technical power but for the rest have delayed updating it because I had no idea what I needed it for and because of budget reasons.

When it was announced that Windows 7 would no longer be supported I realized that the time had come for that new PC even though I am not really a fan of Windows 10 because of all the stories I heard about it and that it not compatible with some older software that I still use. (I may consider a dual boot on my future computer)

I do have contact with a helpdesk that builds computers for people but the man is not exactly up to date on what is the best hardware for a decent gaming rig, this is why I have been asking my contacts online if they could help me and that is why I am asking here now as sadly the contacts I have spoken to have little experience themselves with building computers or have kind of lost their interest in gaming in general.

Now my current budget should be sufficient for a relative modern computer (for personal reasons I will not mention yet how much I have available) and I am looking to have something made that can at least handle software for the next two or three years before it may be required to have some parts upgraded.

Hopefully some of you who enjoy putting computer setups together here will be interested in helping me out.

Please either contact me here or through a PM.

 

[BigGuyCIA]

I don't stay on the cutting edge of PC building but I know the general gist of picking the right parts (and I've built my last two computers from scratch). Start with https://pcpartpicker.com/ to develop a foundation for your build. It's such a great resource because it helps you make an informed decision in terms of price, relative performance, and part compatibility.

Anything you build right now is effectively future-proofed for at least 3-4 years (probably even longer). The two things you'll likely upgrade first after this period is the RAM and Graphics card. CPUs can last for quite some time.

Benchmarks as a frame of reference:
I recommend looking at games right now that are performance hogs (Red Dead Redemption 2). The general philosophy of "can it run Crysis at 1080p?" remains true today (albeit with different games and 4k resolution). If you build a PC using a spec that can run RDR2 efficiently, you've essentially picked something that will handle similar games for the next 4 years. Game technology doesn't advance that fast, and even some of the major performance differences are only truly perceivable in graphs (not gameplay).

Just be sure to pay attention to the settings used while benchmarking the hardware. E.g., a game that performs decently at 4k will obviously run better at lower screen resolutions (etc).

Overclocking and Cooling Options:
If you start overclocking hardware it won't last as long. So that 3-4 year guess-timate can and will shrink fast. Generally, I personally feel overclocking should be avoided - I don't like pushing expensive hardware and prefer to maintain a long life with it. If you want to do it anyway you should research water-cooling for your CPU or GPU (or both).

Air-cooling is sufficient but if you're in the land down under (or very hot climates year round), you should absolutely invest in water-cooling. Have someone help you with setting up water-cooling if you're new to it (you definitely don't want to spill water on your components ).

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Play around in pcpartpicker. Make a few builds that you think will perform well and create a link here for us to see. We can go from there.

 

[edit_au]

If you're in Australia I should be able to get someone to come up with a build fairly quickly so you can start comparing prices. Also - let us know the kind of games you're wanting to play and if you're interested in VR.

A rough budget would be a massive help on this mate. There's a really broad spectrum encompassed in "sufficient for a relative modern computer". If you'd prefer to PM it, no worries.

 

[Practicat]

A good place to start is aiming for 60+ FPS in modern games at high to max settings and 1080p, which can be done for under $700, then adjusting the components to meet your requirements. I'd recommend something from the new AMD Ryzen 3000 series. Across the lineup compared to Intel it has better price to performance ratio, including better multi-core performance, more threads for more workstation productivity, and much less power draw, which are some oft-cited advantages besides a lot of other things that I'm not knowledgeable about but turn up wherever you look. Intel does have overall higher single-core performance better for games, but the margin can be negligible at higher frame rates and is narrower at higher than 1080p, so it's not enough of incentive to me, but it's there for those who prefer it solely for games.

The Ryzen 5 3600 has excellent, maybe the best value for gaming rigs. It's frequently on sale for $170 to $175, but I don't know about region-specific pricing. The Ryzen 7 3700X is easily worth $100 more for tasks making full use of the extra cores and threads.

For the GPU, the newly released RX 5600XT seems to have the best price to performance ratio this gen. For 1440p I'd recommend the RX 5700 (which I'm using), unless the ray tracing features matter enough to you to warrant the additional cost of an RTX 2060 Super, or maybe RTX 2070 Super at 1440p and above. The RX 5700 can also be flashed to an RX 5700 XT (at the cost of much increased power draw), to unlock its true potential. If you're looking for a 1080p card, also consider the GTX 1660 Super. Those are all excellent choices, and I'm expecting more when the new GPUs and CPUs are announced later this year, so it could be worth waiting to see how much improvement is made.

RAM running at or which can be overclocked to 3000+MHz is essential, and choosing a MOBO that has enough features but not too many, I know pretty vague, but I don't know of any use case dependent on having a $400+ MOBO. These are my recommendations for now, hope that was helpful.

This is also my first post in a couple years.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Hello all,

This took a little longer than I had intended.

My budget for the PC is about Euro 1500. If possible I would like to spend less but if necessary a bit can be added for more advanced hardware if it means I can get more out of the new PC and it will postpone having to put in an upgrade for a couple of years.

Other than the PC itself I also need:
- A new monitor. I am using an old one because the nice big screen one I got with my PC in 2009 broke down.
- A new keyboard. One of the little support pieces of my current one broke off. Had to jam something else in between it and the computer furniture shelve to keep it stable.
- A new mouse. Currently using a cheap one. The one I got with the current PC stopped working ages ago.

Yeah I have a tendency to use something until it is absolutely unusable.


BigGuyCIA,

I will have a look at that website you have recommended to me but I do feel kind of overwhelmed. I don't even know what case I am going to start with, let alone what motherboard, processor, etc.

Hmm, having a benchmark title in mind I want to be able to perfectly run on the new PC is probably a good start. It does mean I need to think of what kind of current or upcoming game I really want to be able to play on it.
Also can not hurt to have a machine that is capable of VR should I decide to expand into that.


>Just be sure to pay attention to the settings used while benchmarking the hardware. E.g., a game that performs decently at 4k will obviously run better at lower screen resolutions (etc).

I'm sorry but what do you mean with this? It doesn't translate easily in my mind (English to Dutch)


I am definitely not going to dabble in overclocking as I have no experience with that and doing so with newly purchased hardware is asking for disaster. If I had old spare computers and I wanted to learn how to overclock a computer I might be more interested in experimenting to learn the basics.

I don't think water cooling would be needed as I live in the Netherlands though I am kind of curious if it would improve performance and silence .


Edit_au,

I am mentioning some of the details you asked me about in the head of this post, what kind of budget I have available or are ready to spend to get a decent computer.

What kind of games I want to run on this, now that is a tricky question. Truth is that I have not been following game releases and planned releases as closely as I used to do as a lot of releases are simply not my taste.
VR is perhaps interesting but I have not yet seen one title that really makes me think that I should get a very powerful PC in order play this game.
I am a Star Trek fan and the Star Trek Bridge Crew game is the last title I would want to spend money on, not to mention that it would mean that I would actually have to register for Uplay.


Practicat,

First of al Practicat welcome back.

Wow, you provide a lot of technical information and I am not sure if I can grasp it all in just one go. I will probably have to read through this carefully a couple of times again and perhaps even ask you what some of this means.

Perhaps I should indeed a little longer until those new GPUs and CPUs have been released so that we could talk about what advantages they offer over already released models.


Sorry that I am so unclear on what I want but I myself also still don't really know what I am looking for other than wanting to be set up for the next two or three years before I need to upgrade to keep up with the times.