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First Gaming PC

MikeRavo

MikeRavo

MikeRavo

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29 Jul 2017
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28
Hey everyone

I've been a console gamer for all my life and now finally I have the pennies for a gaming PC too.

I'm wondering about hardware. I'm currently torn between a desktop and a laptop. Obviously laptops can only be upgraded to a certain point. So say I were to buy a laptop running an Intel quad core 7700 i7 processor, 16gb Ram and GTX 1060 graphics card. How future proof would this be?

Or am I better off just buying a desktop and upgrading every two or three years?

Thanks everyone.
 
Welcome to the forum.

If you don't need the mobility of a laptop then desktop is better. For the price of a good gaming laptop you could possibly find a desktop equal or better in performance that can be upgraded + cheap laptop for mobility. Although to be honest I haven't checked recently to see just how true that still is. If you like, say which laptop you'd be interested in and the price, and then we can put together a desktop spec to compare between the two.

Also, watch out for laptop CPUs and GPUs, the full name is very important. Many laptop i7's are nothing like desktop i7's, and a 1060M not the same as a desktop 1060. There are laptops with desktop chips and cards yes, although they will throttle speeds pretty constantly due to heat.
 
A desktop is a lot more versatile, you will get a lot more for your money and it's very easy to upgrade. Graphics cards, RAM, hard drives, processors; they can all be swapped out in a jiffy.
 
Thanks for your responses guys. I'm thinking a laptop because of the portability but I do like the idea of the raw power you get with desktop.

I've put together a desktop build online:

Intel core i7 6900k 8 core processor 3.3ghz
Gigabyte x99 ultra gaming sata 6gb/s motherboard
16gb corsair vengeance ddr4 2133mhz ram
Nvidia GeForce gtx 1060 graphics card
1tb sata hdd 6gb/s
Corsair 550w VS series power supply
Noctua nh-u14s ultra quiet performance cpu cooler.

How does that sound? Do I need to upgrade any components or can I afford to downgrade any of it etc etc?
 
What resolution screen are you looking to game on? Is your primary use gaming? Or will you be doing other stuff on your pc? If it is gaming only I would look to spend less on your cpu and motherboard and buy a better Gpu. With the money you saved buying a 7700k and motherboard rather than a 6900k you could pick up a gtx 1080 or better.
 
So a 6 core i7 6800k and a Gigabyte x99m gaming 5 motherboard are the cheapest options for the particular build but if I go for those two with an 11gb 1080 ti card it actually works put cheaper

Budget is about 1800 absolute maximum
 
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As others have said having more cores doesn't increase gaming performance. People want more cores for other applications outside of gaming and are willing to accept the decrease in gaming performance.

For gaming you would be best with a 7700k, 16 gb of ram and a GeForce 1080 of 1080 ti.

Also look at 1440p monitors. With those components 1080p would be too easy. You could downgrade components, save money and get excellent 1080p performance.
 
Excellent that's good to know!
Obviously nobody can predict the future but how many years do you think a rig like that would be good for before I have to start looking at upgrading?
 
Upgrading eh, around about 2 or 3 years if you want to keep with the flow i think, but you might find it pointless.

It has already been said a desktop pc is the way to go.

i7 7700k and a 1080 will suit your gaming purpose, 16 or 32 gb of ram, i'd get 32gb's some games hardware requirements state 16gb.
 
Thanks man!

So what about cooling? Is there any point in a super duper cooling system or is that better suited to multi tasking and seriously heavy duty kit?

Also, what is this RAID that I'm seeing a lot of?
 
RAID is when you link your hard drives together so that information is split across all of them. It was popular before super fast SSDs came out because you could load information from a number of hard drives at once.

These days it's not really important as you would like want an all SSD build and they are faster than a bunch of hard drives in RAID format

As has been mentioned above, consider a 1440p or 4k display. There's no point having a top of the range PC and running it on a lower end display.

It's not all about the horse power of the machine, it's everything else. Do you want VR? Are you going to get a mechanical keyboard and a top notch gaming mouse? What about a quality set of headphones?

Consider all those into your costs.

Water-cooling is cool and all, but do you just want a closed loop all in one cooler or do you want a custom built open loop. A custom built open loop needs maintenance. You have to clean it out and replace the coolant once a year really. Are you going to do that yourself?

A lot of people are suggesting a mainstream Intel i7 or AMD R7 and rightly so. You'd be better going down that route and getting a top graphics card, a 1440p or 4k display and an SSD or 2 than going for the Extreme line of processor.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/tita...7700k-4.8ghz-gtx-1070-8gb-fs-111-og.html#t=a1

Take this PC as an example. Granted it is a prebuilt and has a GTX 1070 but it's something to compare against when building your own.
 
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My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £1,714.07
(includes shipping: £13.20)



​
 
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That all looks pretty good. I'm guessing that will have some serious firepower?

I'd love VR but we already have VR on the ps4 so I doubt the wife would let me!
 
Do you already have a monitor? You'll also need to budget for a license of Windows.

Also, AMD are launching their Vega graphics cards today, so you might want to wait for reviews.
 
Whoa hang on everyone.

People are recommending 1080s and 1080Tis and the OP only has a 1080P monitor. If he won't be going 1440p 144Hz+ or 4K 60Hz+ then there is no need for a 1080 or 1080Ti. At 1080P 60Hz a 1060 or RX580 is more than enough.

Of course, if the OP wants to upgrade the monitor sometime soon, a top tier card makes sense.

I would avoid X99 for gaming PCs. That's really just not what it's for. You can do fine with Intel's mainstream platform. Something like an ASUS Z270-A and a 7700K would be more than enough.

Keep in mind that Ryzen is out now, and even though not a lot of stuff is optimized for it, it is still a phenomenal value for money and it multitasks like a champ. Still, for straight gaming, Intel is still the master.

Also keep in mind that it would be wise to wait until early September when Z370 and coffee lake i7 is out which will be 6 cores for the price of the current 4 core. Basically if you wait a month and a bit you get 2 more cores for free. Worth the wait IMO.
 
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