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Are gaming PC's worth it?


Cloakedwand72

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I consider a PC much more than just a gaming platform. For me it's a also a work tool. Furthermore, I don't own and never have owned a console. I just don't see the appeal or justification for the usually expensive purchase of a dedicated game thing.

As for the questions of games taking advantage of modern hardware, games have always been a significant driving force in hardware development.

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Depends on how much you're willing to spend and if you can actually afford the time to play.

A decent measure of how much it's worth is entertainment hours per dollar. For games this might not be a lot (though that depends... some people have played KSP for thousands of hours...). But if you added up all of your in game time and divided by the cost of the gaming PC you might find out whether or not it's worth it.

If we gave your PC a lifespan of 5 years before replacement, then it's just a matter of how many hours you play in a year. For a 2000 USD gaming setup anything over 2000 hours gets you less than a dollar per hour of entertainment, taking up 4.6% of your time in that 5 year period. For a cheaper rig the cutoff would be lower, of course.

Do you play games that often?

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depends on what you mean by 'gaming pc'. you can put a lot of money into fancy cases, water cooling, and rgb. or you can do without and end up with a pc you can actually afford. either one will play games just fine. 

ultimately what determines gaming performance is your video card. spend anywhere in the $200-$300 range in the current generation of cards and you will have enough performance for most games. you can spend more but you start running into diminishing returns. 

Edited by Nuke
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16 hours ago, Cloakedwand72 said:

Are gaming PC's worth getting into?

Well, like I tried to tell you a few months ago: do you actually have games of software that need more power? Then buy something new and more powerful. If you're just bored and hope that something new will fill the void in your life - just don't.

16 hours ago, Cloakedwand72 said:

Also are they're games that take advantage of the hardware modern PC's have?

Well of course. But are you playing games because you're interested in the content and mechanics of those specific games or do you want to play them because they need a stronger setup than you currently have?

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On 11/30/2019 at 7:58 PM, Bill Phil said:

Depends on how much you're willing to spend and if you can actually afford the time to play.

A decent measure of how much it's worth is entertainment hours per dollar. For games this might not be a lot (though that depends... some people have played KSP for thousands of hours...). But if you added up all of your in game time and divided by the cost of the gaming PC you might find out whether or not it's worth it.

If we gave your PC a lifespan of 5 years before replacement, then it's just a matter of how many hours you play in a year. For a 2000 USD gaming setup anything over 2000 hours gets you less than a dollar per hour of entertainment, taking up 4.6% of your time in that 5 year period. For a cheaper rig the cutoff would be lower, of course.

Do you play games that often?

Yes I do play games sometimes. And am willing to spend between 800/1000$ but that’s it.

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17 hours ago, Cloakedwand72 said:

Yes I do play games sometimes. And am willing to spend between 800/1000$ but that’s it.

thats a pretty decent budget for a near top of the line machine. but id put it into cpu power instead of blinkenlights. some tips to save money:

cases, drives, monitors and peripherals can all be reused. sometimes case fans (if they are of a high quality). 

stock coolers are fine for most builds.

dont get ripped off on psus, thats where they usually get you. so far corsair is the only brand that hasn't screwed me. 

try to get free shipping even if you have to order your parts from 10 different companies. search for coupon codes, free shipping is pretty common among them.

if you are building one now, go ryzen, they are currently cheaper and better than intel and are more honest about their tdp numbers.

you do not need fancy ram, stick to the standard (not oc) clock rates. 

rgb, overclocking and water cooling are all money pits, avoid.

having lots of rgb will increase the wiring nightmare tenfold. 

Edited by Nuke
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On 12/2/2019 at 3:19 PM, Nuke said:

thats a pretty decent budget for a near top of the line machine. but id put it into cpu power instead of blinkenlights. some tips to save money:

cases, drives, monitors and peripherals can all be reused. sometimes case fans (if they are of a high quality). 

stock coolers are fine for most builds.

dont get ripped off on psus, thats where they usually get you. so far corsair is the only brand that hasn't screwed me. 

try to get free shipping even if you have to order your parts from 10 different companies. search for coupon codes, free shipping is pretty common among them.

if you are building one now, go ryzen, they are currently cheaper and better than intel and are more honest about their tdp numbers.

you do not need fancy ram, stick to the standard (not oc) clock rates. 

rgb, overclocking and water cooling are all money pits, avoid.

having lots of rgb will increase the wiring nightmare tenfold. 

That's what I'm planning on doing is focusing on my specs rather than the blinking lights. Also thanks for the good advice! Also is their any heating/temp problems with the Ryzen CPU's from what I read on the forums? Also do they work well with current gen Nvidia GPU's? Also I'm planning on going with a Ryzen 5 3600 current gen a long with a RTX 2060 or a GTX 1660 super or a RX 5700 series card I'm playing off the 900$ build list specs videos. Also do you know any good ordinarily mid tower or normal tower PC with out all the RGB stuff? That would fit normal sized parts & that would still be easy to work with & that has good air flow? Also what Motherboard & PSU would you recommend that can be bought on Amazon or Newegg?

Edited by Cloakedwand72
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7 hours ago, Cloakedwand72 said:

Also is their any heating/temp problems with the Ryzen CPU's from what I read on the forums?

For some reason the 3600 is much hotter than the actually stronger 3700X. Both the 3600X and the 3800X are quite hot and use up too much energy compared to the 3600 and 3700X respectively.

7 hours ago, Cloakedwand72 said:

Also do they work well with current gen Nvidia GPU's?

Yes.

7 hours ago, Cloakedwand72 said:

 a long with a RTX 2060 or a GTX 1660 super or a RX 5700 series card

I wouldn't go with a plain 2060. Either the 2060 Super or the 1660 Super. The RX 5700 is also nice.

7 hours ago, Cloakedwand72 said:

Also do you know any good ordinarily mid tower or normal tower PC with out all the RGB stuff?

I like the ones from Fractal Design. They have some nice cheap and clean ones for about 40€ and some really good looking ones with a lot of options regarding airflow for about 80-90€.

7 hours ago, Cloakedwand72 said:

Motherboard

MSI Tomahawk MAX (ATX) or MSI Mortar MAX (μATX) are good midrange solutions.

7 hours ago, Cloakedwand72 said:

PSU

At least a Seasonic Focus or a bequiet Pure Power. 450W should be enough, more than 550W is most likely too much.

 

Oh and for the RAM you might want to look for Crucial Ballistix Sport with 3200MHz CL16. Cheaper but with less overclocking potential are G.Skill Aegis 3000 MHz CL16. And you should always buy them in a kit of two modules.

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7 hours ago, Cloakedwand72 said:

That's what I'm planning on doing is focusing on my specs rather than the blinking lights. Also thanks for the good advice! Also is their any heating/temp problems with the Ryzen CPU's from what I read on the forums? Also do they work well with current gen Nvidia GPU's? Also I'm planning on going with a Ryzen 5 3600 current gen a long with a RTX 2060 or a GTX 1660 super or a RX 5700 series card I'm playing off the 900$ build list specs videos. Also do you know any good ordinarily mid tower or normal tower PC with out all the RGB stuff? That would fit normal sized parts & that would still be easy to work with & that has good air flow? Also what Motherboard & PSU would you recommend that can be bought on Amazon or Newegg?

 

as far as heating is concerned pay careful attention to tdp numbers. when buying an aftermarket cooling solution, make sure it can perform at or above those specs. stock coolers are usually engineered to match the tdp requirements for a non-overclocked cpu and are fine for the most part. the 3600 is only a 65w tdp so i wouldn't worry to much about overheating.

you should be able to use whatever brand gpu you want. the 1660 is likely a better budget option. ray tracing, if thats what you are after, probably isnt stellar on the 2060 (im running a rtx2070 super and i can barely run the rtx quake 2 demo at 1080 with reasonable framerates). the 1660 is pretty much the same chip without the ray tracing stuff enabled, and would save you money. real time ray tracing is too new for viable budget options to exist at this time. 

for cases look for a mid tower with at least 3 good 120mm+ fan slots and dont spend over $100 on the case, and i would aim even lower on a budget build (say around $50). i went and browsed cases in this price range and frankly i dont know what modern case designers are thinking half the time. case standards are in dire need of a re-think. but look for a case that has the fan mounts and make sure they're not obstructed by drive cages and the like. newegg usually has good photos and id suggest studying them. 

power supply, 500w is probably enough for a 3600 and a 1660. im running a significantly more power hungry rtx2070 super and 8086k on a 600w sfx supply. consult a psu calculator if you are unsure. buy a good brand with a good rating. people go by the 80+ ratings but thats more an efficiency rating and is no guarantee of the supply's longevity. but higher efficiency does mean lest waste heat the supply has to get rid of. 

for mobo i think the micro-atx form factor is the most bang for your buck. mini-itxes are nice, but you end up paying a little more on average for compactness, and there are fewer upgrade options down the line. full atx is also slightly more expensive, and no point unless you need a lot of add in cards or a dual video card setup (none of which are budget friendly). micro atx is usually good middle ground, you get some upgradability like 4 ram slots and 2 or 3 card slots. pay special attention to memory speed, pcie gen, and make sure it supports your cpu. make sure it has all the connectivity you need (if you want m.2 or enough usb ports, usbc, etc). i really like m.2 drives as it cuts down on the cabling and they are fast in nvme mode. and really shop around look at specs and photos and so on. gen your memory directly from the qvl for that board for best results.  

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