Spec me £1000-£1200 build for strategy games.

Slackjaw190

Slackjaw190

Slackjaw190

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Joined
9 May 2005
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859
Location
Devon
Hi all,

A friend has come to me look for advice on what PC to get to play strategy games like the Total War series. Unfortunately I haven't been keeping abreast of the latest PC developments hence my call for help but it will be down to me to build.

He'll be playing on a 1920*1080 27 inch monitor and want's the tower and keyboard, Windows is not required. Budget is flexible (he was looking at a £1700 gaming laptop which I talked him out of) but having a quick look £1000-£1200 should suffice but want something that will last 3+ years.

Please can I have red and blue/green option and something reasonably quiet.

Thanks,

Slack
 
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,034.59 (includes shipping: £15.90)
​

Having a look at other builds etc. this is what I've come up with for the red team, any good?

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,213.48 (includes shipping: £14.70)​
​

Blue green attempt, NVIDIA card seem rather expensive compared to AMD.
 
Last edited:
Hi

If he is open to 1st gen Ryzen then the R7 1700/X is an 8 core cpu. More cores might come in handy for strategy games.

Had to swap out the keyboard to a cheaper Corsair to stay under £1200.


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,183.31 (includes shipping: £14.70)
​
 
From having a brief look, it doesn't seem that 8 core Ryzen offers much (if any) performance gains over 6 core Ryzen in Total War-esque games.



My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,067.89 (includes shipping: £14.10)
​

  • Chosen motherboard is slightly better than Gigabyte, and has on-board WiFi.
  • Very good PSU - 750w is overkill for your system, but price is low and it's a quality PSU
  • Great GPU for the price, comes with 3 free games
  • Case is currently reduced in price and has favorable reviews. It's an airflow case, instead of a silenced case, but often properly setup airflow cases can run quieter than silenced cases.
  • Big SSD for all games/apps.
  • Keyboard with cherry MX brown mechanical keys - often seen as the best all-rounder key type.
  • 2TB HDD instead of 1TB



But to be honest, if your friend is just playing RTS games at ~60fps @ 1080p, a slightly less capable system would still be more than adequate:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £895.93 (includes shipping: £14.10)
​
 
Last edited:
lee32uk said:
@Slackjaw190

No ram in your 2nd spec
Click to expand...

It crossed my mind as I was drifting off last night - thanks

lee32uk said:
@southernorth

Reason I mentioned an 8 core was that this article lists Total War 2 in it as being cpu intensive, when doing large battles.

https://techguided.com/most-cpu-intensive-games/
Click to expand...

What happens if we went for a 2700x instead or 2700 and O/C to 2700x. Might blow the budget but easy to spend someone else's money and he did say he was flexible with the budget

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £308.69 (includes shipping: £8.70)
​

A few more questions...

I'm assuming by all the Ryzen builds, Intel aren't worth it these days?
Is a Freesync monitor worth it
The keyboard and case were place holders, i'll get him choose what he wants

I did think some of these build were overkill for his needs but he wants it to last a few years.

Thanks for the help all
 
slapped together Intel +vega 64 - get them to upgrade to 1440p screen or ultra wide 1080p. must better for RTS
also intel holds lead over ryzen at 1080p

video below is 1440p - so shows going higher res, it helps Ryzen match Intel... but at 1080p... no chance and thats the latest TW game. older ones and current RTS bar ASHES... will favour less cores and faster core speed


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,192.38 (includes shipping: £12.60)
​
 
orbitalwalsh said:
slapped together Intel +vega 64 - get them to upgrade to 1440p screen or ultra wide 1080p. must better for RTS
also intel holds lead over ryzen at 1080p

video below is 1440p - so shows going higher res, it helps Ryzen match Intel... but at 1080p... no chance and thats the latest TW game. older ones and current RTS bar ASHES... will favour less cores and faster core speed


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,192.38 (includes shipping: £12.60)
​
Click to expand...

I've dangled the 1440p carrot in front of him and he seems keen. Can you recommend a monitor to go for, I've had a quick look myself and can't fond what I think is ideal - 27" 2560x1440, IPS, Freesync, 75HZ (I'm guessing 144HZ is wasted on strategy games?)
 
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Slackjaw190 said:
I've dangled the 1440p carrot in front of him and he seems keen. Can you recommend a monitor to go for, I've had a quick look myself and can't fond what I think is ideal - 27" 2560x1440, IPS, Freesync, 75HZ (I'm guessing 144HZ is wasted on strategy games?)
Click to expand...

depends on RTS Games and some can run high FPS . XCOM looks good when action kicks off but cut scenes killed fps down to 30 when first launched … I can not wait fffor Command & Conquer remake!"!!!!!!!!!

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £412.58 (includes shipping: £12.60)
​

i'd do the 32" … been playing FrostPunk recently, and everything is shoved so close together nice big screen and pixels help

also ditch the RGB if need be :D
 
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