New To Gaming (Total War & FM)

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Hi,

I'm new to gaming pcs and need some advice on suitable set-ups. I enjoy playing Total War games as well as Football Manager but haven't had graphics powerful enough to play these properly on my laptop before. I would say being able to play these games is the minimum necessary for me but I would like the possibility of upgrading the pc. I have never played some more advanced pc games so in the event that they interest me I would like to be able to modify the pc for their requirements.

Any advice someone may have would be greatly appreciated!
 
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Firstly, sorry for the late response, I've just been at work.

I don't wish to spend over £1000 probably, but my budget under that is flexible. If you told me an £800 build would last twice as long as a £500 one etc then I'd be willing to spend more.

I have a gaming monitor (probably not the best but it is meant for gaming). Regards keyboards and the mouse I don't have gaming versions, just ordinary ones.

Thanks
 
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What resolution is your monitor?

How does this look;
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £952.08 (includes shipping: £13.20)



Black friday is coming up and you may be able to shave off some of the cost with some good deals on a graphics card, ram and ssd but maybe £30/40 all in.

It would cost you more but you could upgrade to the Ryzen 5600x which has just come out but its about £80 more.

An alternative build would be Intel;
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £863.04 (includes shipping: £13.20)​



I would recommend AMD as a better platform but Intel does save you some money and its still going to handle FM etc completely fine.
 
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Is there really any reason to go for a 3600xt over a plain 3600 or a 3600x? The £50 or so would pretty much get you to 2060 price which means you can use DLSS. The cooler doesn't seem worthwhile either since they're unlikely to be overclocking.
 
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Is there really any reason to go for a 3600xt over a plain 3600 or a 3600x? The £50 or so would pretty much get you to 2060 price which means you can use DLSS. The cooler doesn't seem worthwhile either since they're unlikely to be overclocking.
I don't think you can use DLSS with FM or total war although the more money you can spend on the GPU the better as even with an RTX 3080 total war can still dip below 60fps on 1440p ultra.
 
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I don't think you can use DLSS with FM or total war although the more money you can spend on the GPU the better as even with an RTX 3080 total war can still dip below 60fps on 1440p ultra.
Yeah no DLSS in those specific games but being able to use it introduces quite a bit more future proofing imo, especially since strategy games benefit quite a bit from higher res and a bigger screen imo.
 
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Is there really any reason to go for a 3600xt over a plain 3600 or a 3600x? The £50 or so would pretty much get you to 2060 price which means you can use DLSS. The cooler doesn't seem worthwhile either since they're unlikely to be overclocking.
There is a £10 difference between the 3600 and 3600xt? unless I am looking at the wrong thing.
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £457.68 (includes shipping: £8.70)

The cooler is not necessairly needed but its going to be a lot better than the stock and a lot quieter.

EDIT: Competitors are selling the 3600 for £180, ok. Yeah in that case then grab one of those, but we can't link or recommend them on this forum....
 
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There is a £10 difference between the 3600 and 3600xt? unless I am looking at the wrong thing.
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £457.68 (includes shipping: £8.70)

The cooler is not necessairly needed but its going to be a lot better than the stock and a lot quieter.
I guess overclockers just have it massively overpriced then, I got my 3600x for about 185 last December. I personally can't hear my stock cooler when wearing headphones even if there's no sound coming through them, but maybe my tinnitus is part of that.
 
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I guess overclockers just have it massively overpriced then, I got my 3600x for about 185 last December. I personally can't hear my stock cooler when wearing headphones even if there's no sound coming through them, but maybe my tinnitus is part of that.
Yep, just edited my post. Yeah the 3600 is available elsewhere and you are right in that the savings would be better towards a 2060.
 
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Okay so apologies if this is the incorrect information but my monitor is 1920 x 1080. Says 144Hz on it as well.

Do you have any idea how long each of these builds would last me? Or how much they cost to upgrade every few years? Completely new to this and have barely got a clue!

Thanks once again.
 
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Assuming 3600 & 2060, at 1080p you should be fine to play stuff like TW for at least a few years, probably 5+ as long as you're ok to turn down some settings at some point. If you get into more triple A stuff you might wanna upgrade the GPU in a few years, but you could manage for longer. For some context Control's recommended spec is a 1060, which is over 4 years old at this point, but its minimum is a 780 which was high end 7 years ago.

This is all just guesses, but I think fairly educated ones.
 
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Okay so apologies if this is the incorrect information but my monitor is 1920 x 1080. Says 144Hz on it as well.

Do you have any idea how long each of these builds would last me? Or how much they cost to upgrade every few years? Completely new to this and have barely got a clue!

Thanks once again.
1080p 144hz is definitely good, the next upgrade would be a 1440 144hz really but that requires a bit more graphics power.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £788.09 (includes shipping: £13.20)​


Add a Ryzen 3600 from elsewhere, if you dont mind buying from different places.

If you do that, no reason that wont last you a good 3/4 years or so, FM and Total War will run great.​
 
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My most recent one above is at the moment the best value I can find. Yes, waiting for black friday is a good idea. You may pick up a 1tb SSD for £80 or a 2060 for 280 etc, if you could save £50-100 all in you would be doing well. Don't expect hundreds.
 
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