What gaming PC can I get for a budget of around $1,100?
Posted by Successful_Airline10@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 30 comments
Budget: $1,100
Use case: To play games like Red dead redemption 2, skyrim, age of empires 2, fallout 4, chivalry 2, and emulate older consoles like ps3 and backwards. I'd like to play at 60 FPS. I don't need more than that.
Location: I am in the southern USA.
I will get a monitor or a TV to play on. I don't need much lol.
I was thinking of getting a prebuilt because I don't want to put too much effort into research. I have never built a PC before. I am not a competitive gamer and just want to play games casually.
Is any of that realistic on a budget of around $1,100? Is it ok to buy refurbished PCs from Acer? Can I easily build one if I have no experience? I want something that will last.
Accomplished-Buy5147@reddit
A refurbished pc from Acer is not a bad idea at all, honestly prebuilts save you more money and time and you can play whatever you want, $1100 is a great budget to work with for what you want.
Successful_Airline10@reddit (OP)
What do you think about this one? I know it is a bit over but the $1100 is rough estimate of how much I wanna pay.
Accomplished-Buy5147@reddit
These have the same 2 year warranty and have the 16GB VRAM that the Acer one doesn’t. Though you might have to settle for 1 less terabyte I’m just recommending those because a better graphics card is much more important than storage.
Successful_Airline10@reddit (OP)
What is VRAM? Is that part of the grpahics gard? Storage isn't too important. I don't think I will be playing games that don't require too much storage space.
Is an HP desktop good? I have had bad experiences with their laptops. If you have any other prebuilts you think are worth considering let me know. I am probably not going to build one since it doesn't make much financial sense.
Accomplished-Buy5147@reddit
VRAM is the graphics card video random access memory and it’s important if you want to play games at higher resolution or do video editing. I’m not sure if HP desktops are good but from what I see you take no risk as you have a 30 day return policy and a 2 year warranty for it. The specifications of the desktop are more important than the actual brand and if there is a warranty then that is the best way to go. I might give some other options but for the price these are very good value in my opinion. I have bought an Acer refurbished desktop just for it to not turn on and it didn’t work so you will take that risk either way. You can still return for a full refund either way. In this budget this is the best I can find but maybe looking at your local facebook marketplace could work but that is much more risky than this.
Successful_Airline10@reddit (OP)
option 1 and option 2 are different in option 1 has DDR5-6000 and option 2 has DDR5-4800. Option 1 has an i5 core and option 2 has an i7 core.
Accomplished-Buy5147@reddit
Overall all three are great options but it depends on what you want
Choose the $970 Ryzen Build if you want the most FPS per dollar. Choose the $1,100 i7 Build if you plan to do any creative work (YouTube, editing) in addition to gaming. Choose the $1,100 i5 Build only if you strictly want NVIDIA features and the fastest possible RAM for competitive gaming. I think of these three the Ryzen 8700F / 9060 XT system at $970 is the absolute best value for casual gaming and it saves you more money. That is my suggestion
Successful_Airline10@reddit (OP)
I may make a youtube channel and do some video editing to post accounting content to promote myself. Think of like recording and editing an excel tutorial. Low level stuff in my mind at least. Would the i7 build be necessary for that? Could I run DaVinci resolve on the Ryzen build or the i5 build alright?
Accomplished-Buy5147@reddit
All three will run it well but if your looking for more multitasking value then the i7 build is the best, this is really mostly between the i7 build or the ryzen build since the i5 build is actually the worst value of the three. If you plan on doing those things the i7 build is probably your best choice for sure since RAM speeds and latency don’t have as much impact as a cpu and gpu in actual performance.
Successful_Airline10@reddit (OP)
I know it's a dumb question but what do you mean multitasking value? I have never had a PC or a laptop that capable of much before so I am not familiar with it. Do you mean listening to a twitch or youtube stream in the background?
I see what you mean on the i5 build being the weakest of the 3.
Accomplished-Buy5147@reddit
The 5060 ti 16GB lets you run background tasks like streaming or content creation much easier and supports newer software that use Ai. Nvidia is much better for video editing or 3D rendering as well which gives the i7 build more value in my opinion. The memory speed is also faster on the 5060 ti which gives it more bandwidth. I will also add that the i5 build has a worse cpu than the i7 and is more expensive compared to what the other two options offer. So overall the multi tasking on the 5060 ti 16GB is better especially if you plan on streaming but in the end it’s best to make a decision based off what you want most since in this situation all these pcs are quite similar.
Successful_Airline10@reddit (OP)
I am thinking of the Ryzen AMD build. I don't want to stream or anything. I just want some background noise if I am playing a game. I don't need to use AI or 3d rendering. If I decide to make youtube videos it will just be recording my screen on OBS and cutting out bloopers essentially. If the Ryzen AMD build can do that kind of basic video editing then I think I am fine. I did some research and I think it can run DaVinci resolve or other video editing software alright.
The Ryzen AMD build will otherwise fulfill all of my gaming needs.
Accomplished-Buy5147@reddit
Yes I think thats the wisest choice especially considering that you save more money and can play anything you want with it.
Successful_Airline10@reddit (OP)
I should have purchased the Ryzen build yesterday but it was sold out this morning. I wanted to think on it overnight just to make sure. I decided to go with option 2 which is the i7 build. It is what it is. It will be $1.2k after taxes but I still think it is a good option especially with the kinda games I want to play.
Accomplished-Buy5147@reddit
True, the game you wanted to play actually runs better with the 5060 ti 16GB so I think you made a good choice 👍
Successful_Airline10@reddit (OP)
I should have purchased the Ryzen build yesterday but it was sold out this morning. I wanted to think on it overnight just to make sure. I decided to go with option 2 which is the i7 build. It is what it is. It will be $1.2k after taxes but I still think it is a good option especially with the kinda games I want to play.
How do you increase the CPUs processing speed since it says it is like 2.3 but a max of 5.7?
It will come any day now. What are some good ways of testing to see if it is working properly?
Also sorry for the large amount of messages.
Successful_Airline10@reddit (OP)
I went through eBay to see the certified refurbished PCs. Which do you think is the best out of these 3 options? They are pretty similar and includes the one you offered. The second option seems the best since it is an i7 and not an i5? Please let me know which you think is best because I am looking to pull the trigger on this weekend.
option one
option two
option three
Accomplished-Buy5147@reddit
This one is also good, even better
https://ebay.us/m/D6hQ1o
Accomplished-Buy5147@reddit
If it has 16GB of vram I would say yes but I can’t say I recommend it, it’s a great pc and it can give you everything you need but $1200 is a bit steep for that. Something like this https://ebay.us/m/6Hlau5
WizardMoose@reddit
Do you have a microcenter within driving distance? If so, you got options for a custom built. If not, then you're probably in the budget for a prebuilt from Amazon, Newegg or Bestbuy.
Also, do you need a monitor/keyboard/mouse/headset? That's going to eat into your budget as well.
Successful_Airline10@reddit (OP)
Unfortunately I don't have one within driving distance. I just need the PC.
PokerLawyer75@reddit
They'll ship to you as well.
WizardMoose@reddit
Depends on the kind of deal. They won't always ship it.
PokerLawyer75@reddit
Only if it's marked d"instore only" like some of their SSD prices. The combos on mbs/cpus/ram cna be ordered along with most things.
Successful_Airline10@reddit (OP)
Do you mean on parts or prebuilts? They don't ship any of their prebuilts unfortunately. What do you think of this refurbished Acer PC?
my5cworth@reddit
You'll be fine with an older AMD "AM4" setup, using a 5600X cpu and a 9060XT gfx card and some ram. It's not fancy, but it works.
Your other option is to look at the used market, there might be a few really good deals out there from people who are upgrading their rigs to the latest and greatest, leaving you with higher-end components from 2-3years ago.
Successful_Airline10@reddit (OP)
So there are setups that I can reasonably get where I can play games that were made before 2020? For the RAM does it matter if the RAM is DDR4 or DDR5? Do you have any recommendations on where to get good prebuilts that could suit my needs?
PokerLawyer75@reddit
So let's analyze some of your needs/requests.
1) Emulation prior to the PS3...not a problem. The Cell architecture is notoriously tough to emulate, so I wouldn't set my aims on the PS3 or later.
2) You have a budget, but you're saying "I want something that will last" - sometimes those aims will conflict. It also will definitely conflict if your needs change/grow. Most desktops you find under $1000 in a Best Buy aren't going to have the necessary support for adding a graphics card. A good example is the HP OmniDesk, which looks great, and has half decent specs. But the PSU is a 180 watt, and doesn't have the pins to add a graphics card with a separate power adapter. Instead, you'll be limited to low profile cards with power consumption of 75 watts or less. This will limit you to a 3000 series Geforce RTX or similar AMD video cards.
Successful_Airline10@reddit (OP)
You are right in that a desktop for $1000 may not last. As long as it can really play games made before 2020 I think I can be content. Like playing Wii games and super smash bros brawl mods. Does the RAM being DDR4 or DDR5 matter? Like RDR 2 recommends 12 gigs. Will 16 gigs of RAM be enough or should I splurge for 32 gigs?
Where do you recommend I get a pre built since that seems like what I can get for my budget? I was thinking of maybe getting some refurbished Acer PC off of eBay? What do you think of this one?
tar4heels2fan@reddit
I had no expierence and built one. No regrets. I spent about 1100 not including the monitor.. chair.. keyboard etc etc..
You can build one with a days worth of research on Reddit .. thats what I did.
Only issue for you will be the price of RAM.