Gaming PC Recommendations

[Xingba]

Me and my girlfriend have been looking at gaming PCs and ideal builds – but have ended up with analysis paralysis so would appreciate some advice! When we started researching we thought we had a good idea of what we wanted, but may have been through too many sites and builds now..!

We’ve been playing on console, gaming laptops and hand-me-downs for a long time and now would like to upgrade to our first proper gaming PC.

After the usual googling, we’re not entirely sure what aspects of the below are unrealistic based on our budget – but definitely open to recommendations to make the most out of our purchase!


Our priorities

• Broadly speaking, graphics over framerate. We are not big competitive FPS players. The ideal would be that we can stay above 60 frames per second on max graphical settings for 4k monitor for our favourite games
• Upgradeability: Would like to be able to upgrade components easily in the next 2-3 years
• Having the option to overclock would be preferred – have had issues in the past in how PC dedicates memory
• Ideally a medium-sized tower – RGB and lighting inside the PC not a priorityFeatures we’re not focused on: We wouldn’t be streaming and aren’t looking to upgrade to VR any time soon – bluray disc etc not a priority either
  
• All ports USB-3 if possible
• Possible to connect to at least two monitors
• 2 separate SSDs with 1 TB each

Budget:

• Around £1,200 for PC only – open to discuss depending on the ideal PC build. No need to include monitor, peripherals etc.

General Questions/Considerations

• Cooling: water cooling required to keep the PC at a comfortable level? If so, are there any risks of damage through leaking? Also, would water cooling require a lot of maintenance (refilling/exchanging liquid etc)? Likely would be running for extended periods of time
• Heat: Would be good to know how much space would be needed around the PC to keep the air circulating
• Noise: We wouldn’t have a separate room for our PC, so ideally not a machine that’s too loud

Games we’d like to run:

-Red Dead Redemption 2
-Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
-Total War: Three Kingdoms (large unit sizes!)
-Anno 1800
-Sims 4 (likely with a lot of mods running)
-Mount and Blade: Bannerlord (again, likely a lot of mods)
-FINAL FANTASY XIV Online

Much appreciate the help.

Cheers!

 

[Carl81]

Me and my girlfriend have been looking at gaming PCs and ideal builds – but have ended up with analysis paralysis so would appreciate some advice! When we started researching we thought we had a good idea of what we wanted, but may have been through too many sites and builds now..!

We’ve been playing on console, gaming laptops and hand-me-downs for a long time and now would like to upgrade to our first proper gaming PC.

After the usual googling, we’re not entirely sure what aspects of the below are unrealistic based on our budget – but definitely open to recommendations to make the most out of our purchase!


Our priorities

• Broadly speaking, graphics over framerate. We are not big competitive FPS players. The ideal would be that we can stay above 60 frames per second on max graphical settings for 4k monitor for our favourite games
• Upgradeability: Would like to be able to upgrade components easily in the next 2-3 years
• Having the option to overclock would be preferred – have had issues in the past in how PC dedicates memory
• Ideally a medium-sized tower – RGB and lighting inside the PC not a priorityFeatures we’re not focused on: We wouldn’t be streaming and aren’t looking to upgrade to VR any time soon – bluray disc etc not a priority either
  
• All ports USB-3 if possible
• Possible to connect to at least two monitors
• 2 separate SSDs with 1 TB each

Budget:

• Around £1,200 for PC only – open to discuss depending on the ideal PC build. No need to include monitor, peripherals etc.
• We’ve seen this pre-built PC at Currys, which we can get discount to £1,295. Seems like a good benchmark for what we’re after, but looking around we’re under the impression we can definitely get more for our budget at this price range:
  https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/compu...0-super-2-tb-hdd-256-gb-ssd-10196471-pdt.html

General Questions/Considerations

• Cooling: water cooling required to keep the PC at a comfortable level? If so, are there any risks of damage through leaking? Also, would water cooling require a lot of maintenance (refilling/exchanging liquid etc)? Likely would be running for extended periods of time
• Heat: Would be good to know how much space would be needed around the PC to keep the air circulating
• Noise: We wouldn’t have a separate room for our PC, so ideally not a machine that’s too loud

Games we’d like to run:

-Red Dead Redemption 2
-Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
-Total War: Three Kingdoms (large unit sizes!)
-Anno 1800
-Sims 4 (likely with a lot of mods running)
-Mount and Blade: Bannerlord (again, likely a lot of mods)
-FINAL FANTASY XIV Online

Much appreciate the help.

Cheers!

Delete the link and info about that other shop with the pc off the forum as you might get a slap on the wrist.

there are much cheaper ryzen options on the way soon. I would wait

 

[Xingba]

Delete the link and info about that other shop with the pc off the forum as you might get a slap on the wrist.

there are much cheaper ryzen options on the way soon. I would wait

Hi - thanks for the heads up. Have removed the link and info to other shop.

More Ryzen options on the way sounds intriguing. Thanks for the tip.
We'll try to hold on for a bit longer but very much set our minds on getting our gaming PC soon - will keep an eye out for Ryzen news.

 

[Joxeon]

Broadly speaking, graphics over framerate. We are not big competitive FPS players. The ideal would be that we can stay above 60 frames per second on max graphical settings for 4k monitor for our favourite games

You would currently need to spend atleast £800-1000 on a Gpu just to get that.

 

[lsg1r]

Delete the link and info about that other shop with the pc off the forum as you might get a slap on the wrist.

You might want to remove said link from your quote, not that the majority of us on here would buy from there anyway but still

 

[Carl81]

Hi - thanks for the heads up. Have removed the link and info to other shop.

More Ryzen options on the way sounds intriguing. Thanks for the tip.
We'll try to hold on for a bit longer but very much set our minds on getting our gaming PC soon - will keep an eye out for Ryzen news.

yeah mate new ryzen motherboards on june 15th and new chips (refresh) coming too ..so current chips might plummet in ££££££

 

[Freddie1980]

£1200 PC for 4k gaming is doable if you turn settings down, something along the lines of a 3700x paired with a 5700XT would give you just that (entry level 4K gaming)

 

[lee32uk]

I would aim for 1440p as that will be a lot easier to run at 60fps at max settings with a mid range gpu like the 5700XT.

 

[Xingba]

Thanks for the replies - all!
Sounds like 4k is a major factor here if we want to keep settings high. Definitely open to consider 1440p. Sounds like we were aiming too high for our budget, but if we figure out an amazing combination definitely open to increasing.
5700XT also seems strong - will take a look.

You would currently need to spend atleast £800-1000 on a Gpu just to get that.

Great to bear in mind - thanks. Good to start to understand what would be realistic in terms of budget!

£1200 PC for 4k gaming is doable if you turn settings down, something along the lines of a 3700x paired with a 5700XT would give you just that (entry level 4K gaming)

Hmm, maybe taking expectations back from 4k to 1440p is more realistic then - thanks! Will tak a look at 3700x paired with 5700xt.

I would aim for 1440p as that will be a lot easier to run at 60fps at max settings with a mid range gpu like the 5700XT.

Interesting will take a look!

Any points to bear in mind when combining 5700XT and 3700x perhaps?
Good to have a base to start to work - thanks for the tips so far!

 

[Joxeon]

Thanks for the replies - all!
Sounds like 4k is a major factor here if we want to keep settings high. Definitely open to consider 1440p. Sounds like we were aiming too high for our budget, but if we figure out an amazing combination definitely open to increasing.
5700XT also seems strong - will take a look.

I think 1440p is the current sweet spot but 4k may become more affordable when the new GPUs launch later on this year and should offer current the top end £1000 performance for around £5-600.

 

[Xingba]

I think 1440p is the current sweet spot but 4k may become more affordable when the new GPUs launch later on this year and should offer current the top end £1000 performance for around £5-600.

Cheers- yeah, veering more towards 1440p I reckon. We have a 4k monitor so wanted to make the most of it, but an increase from playing any game on laptop low settings at 30fps and 1080 max will be a big difference for us to be honest!
What would be a good news site to follow related to upcoming hardware for this year? Holding off until mid June to see what comes sounds sensible, but want to keep on top of announcements to figure out when would be the best time to get our PC.

 

[eeek]

Cheers- yeah, veering more towards 1440p I reckon. We have a 4k monitor so wanted to make the most of it, but an increase from playing any game on laptop low settings at 30fps and 1080 max will be a big difference for us to be honest!
What would be a good news site to follow related to upcoming hardware for this year? Holding off until mid June to see what comes sounds sensible, but want to keep on top of announcements to figure out when would be the best time to get our PC.

The announcements left this year are:-

B550 launch - with new Ryzen XT CPUs, June 16th
NVidia GPU launch August for release September / October
AMD GPU launch Autumn to go with next gen consoles supposedly.

The Ryzen 4000 launch seems to be being pushed into 2021 given the XT releases.

So if you don't mind a tiny bit of work and losing potentially £100 or so when the new video cards appear, my advice would be to wait until June and purchase a machine with a 3700X and 5700XT and then replace the 5700XT in November / December when all the new cards are out.

 

[lee32uk]

Cheers- yeah, veering more towards 1440p I reckon. We have a 4k monitor so wanted to make the most of it, but an increase from playing any game on laptop low settings at 30fps and 1080 max will be a big difference for us to be honest!
What would be a good news site to follow related to upcoming hardware for this year? Holding off until mid June to see what comes sounds sensible, but want to keep on top of announcements to figure out when would be the best time to get our PC.

Kitguru and Techpowerup are two good tech sites to look at.