Advice for a guy who knows nothing
Posted by lennykrevits@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 8 comments
I want to spend like 1k max on a PC for gaming. I mostly just want the games to run well. Graphics aren't important, I'd prefer if they didn't look like dogshit though. Are there any good pre built PCs for that range you can recommend? Or should I go about building my own for a potentially cheaper product? Thanks
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NewestAccount2023@reddit
If you do build then test the motherboard CPU and ram outside the case first, do not mount everything. If the CPU doesn't have an iGPU then you also plug in the GPU while testing.
People often have issues on new builds and have to spend days figuring out what's bad, and there's a hundred ways for working parts to stop working after you mount everything. Examples I've seen are dropping a screw under the motherboard which shorts it out, plugging front panel into wrong pins shorting something out, closing the side panel over the power button cable slicing it in half (cheapest problem to have)
When you test the 4 main components first in isolation then you know for sure the parts were good before mounting. Its called a "bench test", you just set the bare motherboard directly on top of the motherboard box and plug everything in from there, use a screw driver to short the power pins to turn it on (the point is you don't plug anything else in at all I cluding front panel buttons, those can have their own issues too which again the point is to completely isolate the main components and the buttons are not main components)
FewEstablishment4099@reddit
Adding to this post;
Building yourself can be daunting at first, especially if you've never held a screwdriver in your life. But it's always the cheaper option, and if you know how to plug an electric appliance into the wall socket, or connect your phone to the wifi, PC building can't be too challenging.
Paul's Hardware on YT has some pretty good build guides, and he's covered the software side of things as well (many guides don't).
Just remember that residual power is a thing as there many capacitors involved, so draining the system before handling it, is key. And preparing the case (particularly when it comes to verifying the correct motherboard mount positions), can save your system from electrical gremlins.
Adian_Loving@reddit
Build your own. It's not that hard and it's a good skill to learn and Facebook marketplace Is your friend or eBay get like a used 3080 or 6700 XT pair that with like the new AMD CPUs. If you want to save money on ram, go for last gen ddr4 prices aren't completely horrendous but if you want a future proof, get ddr5 with am5 platform ryzen 5 32 GB of RAM and you'll have a killer PC for hopefully only 900 bucks. If you buy most of your parts you used just don't buy the motherboard or ram used. Not usually a good thing too do but if you want I can get you a build list on PC part picker for the parts you should buy new and then I'll send you link either in this chat or private dm for where to get the GPU cuz you really want to buy those used if you want to save a buck. They're way too overpriced due to AI right now.
Adian_Loving@reddit
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/tzQK3R this and it leaves you like $350 to buy a used GPU if you're able to spare like an extra $200 and I would just get the next generation for CPU and RAM but if not last gen works just as fine and hopefully prices fix themselves by the time you go to upgrade. But yeah just pair that with like a 6700 XT and you can game at 2K 60 and above FPS on high settings for most games https://ebay.us/m/LlYDi3 And there is like a 6700 XT for like 280 bucks
StompsDaWombat@reddit
If you know "nothing" then building it yourself probably isn't the best idea unless you're willing to put in the work (i.e. watch a bunch of YouTube videos and read a lot of tech articles) to learn about components, which ones you might want and why you'd want them over potentially cheaper alternatives, then do some research into brand reputations/reliability, and then take all that knowledge to hunt down optimal deals to get the best bang for your buck. In the end, it's debatable how much, if any, money you'd save, but you'd go into owning a PC with a lot of really useful knowledge and, by picking the components yourself, you can be sure you're getting better quality vs. whatever a company gets a discount on when assembling their prebuilts.
Otherwise, you basically want something like this. I don't know if those discount codes still work, and it's still slightly over $1000, but those are good specs for the price, especially in the current market where RAM, storage, and, to a lesser extent, GPUs are at grossly inflated prices. Alternately, you can join r/buildapcsales and just watch for postings, as deals on both components and prebuilts (along with monitors, peripherals, and other tangentially PC-related crap) get posted there all the time.
Smarmy82@reddit
Start googling, YouTube for learning how to build. PC parts picker is useful as well.
9okm@reddit
Microcenter, powerspec, whatever fits your budget.