PC Gaming

[Mr. Pickles]

I want to get a desktop PC for gaming. My kid hogs the console and I’m not into what he’s playing. I would like to get something in my office that I can play RTS stuff on, and maybe some shooters like hell let loose. I just don’t know where to begin.

Any advice or suggestions are appreciated. I’ve looked at a couple of guides but I thought I’d try to get some recs on here. I’m not trying to build anything myself. I have neither the skill nor patience.

[Abyss1]

I want to get a desktop PC for gaming. My kid hogs the console and I’m not into what he’s playing. I would like to get something in my office that I can play RTS stuff on, and maybe some shooters like hell let loose. I just don’t know where to begin.

Any advice or suggestions are appreciated. I’ve looked at a couple of guides but I thought I’d try to get some recs on here. I’m not trying to build anything myself. I have neither the skill nor patience.

unfortunately pre-built gaming PC's are a bit of a scam.    Might be better of buying another console...unless you want to buy someone else's used PC.   Gamers Nexus said the markup on these prebuilts over building yourself is out of control and it's just way too expensive when people just want the GPU's




 

[rukes]

Depends where you are. In Australia, when I looked into it, there's places that pre-build for not much more than the price of the parts. Do a bit of Reddit research and you will find the websites to keep an eye on for a good deal. That's what I did. It was a lot at first, all the CPU and GPUs and model numbers and junk.

[rocklobster]

Before you go building ask yourself what kind of games you plan on playing. RTS games (from my knowledge) are fairly CPU intensive and moderate on the GPU. Then watch a couple of benchmark videos on YT outlining the kind of performance you can get at different hardware combinations at different resolutions. That will determine what combination of parts you'll need to shop for and the expected budget.

The most common resolution is 1080p on a 24" screen was the norm for many years, though 1440p on 27" and up is taking over. Larger screens with more pixel and faster refresh rates will need more powerful hardware, which will scale budgets upwards to bear that in mind when shopping.

On a mid-range setup you can get just under 120fps which isn't too bad.


It's really easy to get lost in the rabbit hole of PC hardware so be strict with your budget - it's easy to fall into the trap of "future proofing" your rig and spend way more than you expected. Gaming can be as cheap or as expensive as you'd like, it's a matter of keeping expectations and budget in check. Realistically you can run most PC hardware into the ground if you're not chasing the newest AAA games every release, so a mid-high setup could last you for many years before you ever need to upgrade.

I'm a casual gamer who enjoys the research and build experience more than actual gaming - I've found when I turn off the benchmark numbers I have a better time actually playing the game than obsessing over how well my PC is performing. I don't mind buying last years PC hardware like GPUs since I'm not playing the biggest games on the highest resolutions. Just make sure the GPU has a decent amount of VRAM (video RAM), more than 12GB, since modern games tend to be poorly optimized and the gaming engines powering the games are very resource intensive.

Feel free to post up things that have caught you eye and we'll have a look at them before you pull the trigger.

[TD]

Huge rabbit hole to fall into, like rocklobster said. Totally depends on:

• Where you are
• how much you want to spend
• What size screen you plan on using / running for "gaming"

Like others have said RTS (from my knowledge) is CPU intensive more than GPU intensive. Depending on what you're really planning / hoping to do, you probably don't need to break the bank. Building it yourself is much easier these days than it seems, and there are a million and one youtube videos on how to do it. Harder to permanently fuck up ikea furniture during building than it is to ruin a DIY pc build

[Mr. Pickles]

I guess I’ll end up building one haha. Thanks guys. It’s a lot of work just to play age of empires 3.

[rocklobster]

I guess I’ll end up building one haha. Thanks guys. It’s a lot of work just to play age of empires 3.

Yeah AoE 3 is old so any 2nd hand system with a decent graphics card will give you a lot of life. Here is AoE 4 for reference on hardware that is 2 generations old.





If you look at the 10:19 mark you'd want to be at the good / great level.

Building a PC can be a lot of fun and frustrating especially when it doesn't boot up, troubleshooting can be a nightmare especially for novice builders. A used gaming laptop from the last 2 years will be the fastest way to start playing - all the peripherals are right there in the laptop (keyboard, touchpad, screen) so you could just add on a 27" screen (for old eyes) a mouse and you're off to the races. You will be limited in terms of upgrade path for laptops, but if you're playing older games a gaming laptop will give you plenty of runway.

Or if you want to pick up a pre-built desktop from Best Buy that works too, set your budget and let us know which ones you're looking at. The best part of a desktop is the upgradeability if you want to give your PC a few extra years and you can get away with older hardware. For reference I do very light gaming, couple of indie titles and older AAA games, running on hardware that is 5 years old.

Happy to give our 2 cents and add to the madness if you'd like.

[Mr. Pickles]

Thanks for the input, gonna shop around this weekend.

[cant kickflip but can tre]

Been thinking of getting back into gaming for a while. My roommate even got me a case but I haven't pulled the trigger on any components. Anyways, I saw Valve announced some new hardware including a gaming PC (2:10)
No price announcement yet but I feel like this is a good entry into a gaming PC

[Natas_Fauxas]

where you at? how much you wanna spend? do you have a micro center near you? ill help you out with deals and whatnot if you like.

[rocklobster]

Been thinking of getting back into gaming for a while. My roommate even got me a case but I haven't pulled the trigger on any components. Anyways, I saw Valve announced some new hardware including a gaming PC (2:10)
No price announcement yet but I feel like this is a good entry into a gaming PC

I like the plug and play aspect of it but I feel it'll be overpriced relative to performance. I'm a fan of DIY-ing a PC build, though I'm sure it's not everyone's bag, but it can be a fun and relatively easy way to get back into PC gaming. And you wouldn't need an oversized PC case with water-cooling and crazy RGB lights, you'd be amazed at how much performance you can squeeze out of a shoebox (or smaller) sized PC.

PC part prices like RAM and storage have gone up recently (thanks AI) but even a slightly dated setup from last generations parts will give incredible price to performance. And you can even setup the frontend UI to emulate Steam.

[Natas_Fauxas]

How bout these ram prices? Was just about to get some new gear and holy shit. 32 gigs of good ram is like $400. I wanted a 64 gig kit lmao no way im buying that. Then i see what Crucial did and bam its gonna get even worse.

[Abyss1]

How bout these ram prices? Was just about to get some new gear and holy shit. 32 gigs of good ram is like $400. I wanted a 64 gig kit lmao no way im buying that. Then i see what Crucial did and bam its gonna get even worse.

I built a PC in early 2024 and accidently bought a lot of RAM and SSD, when I realized I couldn't return the RAM or SSD I figured I was stuck with them until my next build and didn't think I could resell them...now the RAM i got has 2x in price and the SSD's are expecting to increase in price too.  So pretty stoked I can resell and recoup.   I might keep the SSD's

[Natas_Fauxas]

Expand Quote

How bout these ram prices? Was just about to get some new gear and holy shit. 32 gigs of good ram is like $400. I wanted a 64 gig kit lmao no way im buying that. Then i see what Crucial did and bam its gonna get even worse.

[close]

now the RAM i got has 2x in price

Lol try triple and close to quadruple in price. a 32 gig kit of ddr5 was like 75-80 bucks now its in the mid 300's I need some rn and my customers are bitching that the price is too high. Im losing so much business between ram and gpu prices. I guess its good for weeding out the cheapskates, but budget minded folks are getting priced out quick for new hardware.

[Theme For A Jackal]

Anybody ever try to hook up their PC to a CRT for emulators? Been doing some research and think I'm gonna give it a shot

[linty]

Anybody ever try to hook up their PC to a CRT for emulators? Been doing some research and think I'm gonna give it a shot

Tried with crt emudriver and an old gpu a few years ago, didn't work out. Thinking of buying a Retrotink at some point for upscaling, seems to be able to do downscaling with a bit of tinkering: