Need advice on gaming and occasional work PC

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13 Sep 2018
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Hello guys!

I am moving to uni soon again to start a PhD and for that reason, I wanted to get a new PC for gaming that can also be used to do some work!
It should run games like Overwatch, Destiny 2, No Man's Sky... without a problem, and as a scientist it should also occasionally run software for molecular modelling and structure analysis, which are somewhat resource intensive. (MestreNova, Avogadro, Chemdraw/Chem3D etc. if that is of any help).

I am looking at something in the price-range below 900GBP - which should include a monitor and the operating system if somehow possible (I am a bit flexible on that, but I'd rather not spend too much money at once...)

Now I have never built a PC myself so unless it is actually doable for someone who, besides swapping out a defective graphics card once has never done anything like that, I am looking for one that comes assembled for me.

Equip-wise I don't know what works well together nor do I have any concept of what is actually decent, but was thinking something along the lines of:

CPU: I was thinking Intel I5 (maybe 7400) or similar/Equal/Better Product from AMD

Graphics Card: at max a GTX 1060 6GB (which is currently on offer I have seen, hence doable) - do I actually need that much graphics power though? I will probably not use VR anytime soon so anything beyond is probably wasted on me?

Memory: 8GB Ram should be sufficient for all I am doing I think?!

Drive: Hybrid Drive 1 TB

Monitor: I have no Idea what is good... 24" or below though - oh and i need the relevant cables too

+ windows 10 home and all other necessities, like power supply, motherboard, fan that fits the case and all necessary cablework - aesthetics are not that important really but if below budget, happily take a window + lighting :)
oh and separate headphone and microphone plugs (somehow some prebuilt PCs only have a combination one, and that irritates me)


Please be so kind as to help me out and send me suggestions, maybe even build-yourself Ideas - definitely open to that suggestion if building is actually doable for a layman, including installing windows.

Thank you so much for any help, it is greatly appreciated!
 
For Avogadro - codes to make use of threads (ryzen)
  • Fast: Supports multi-threaded rendering and computation.
Others seems will run on anything , with little ram , but this means that core speed is often key which plays into Intel's hands with better core speed and IPC
Only problem is the last gen i5 along with i7 and i3 have shot up in price !!!

Your work/study software should be stored/installed onto SSD along with OS, games would be nice but rather half core work on there

Safe to say, spec system for games and it'll handle your Medical programs just fine :)
 
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