I am behind the time in tech but need an upgrade as my pc is almost 11 years old. What is the best a person can get?
I am curious about both
I understand it will be a big difference, I just want to know what I should zero in on.
i mean you can go to any site and just choose anything at $1900 and you will get a good gaming PC because your budget is so high. Is it the right gaming PC or the best for you is another story.
First you will need to answer some questions yourself
Theyāre good questions. I play anything thatās good which isnāt helpful but also, obviously, MMORPGs which are CPU hogs.
Also I am a work from home game designer so that is a big factor here. I would like something that can handle that for a long time. In development games are massive resource hogs as they are not optimized for play on anything yet.
OK great
MMORPGs typically are needy for IPC and cache as opposed to being true CPU multicore hogs but thatās irrelevant since you are doing game design which clearly is a resource hog.
thatās a fairly affordable performance level
to get the best out of a 4k monitor you really need size (like 32") which means desk space. Even 1440p you want a 27" monitor. People often build for budget but you really need to build for your monitor and your performance desire otherwise you may not have enough performance for your needs or too much performance and the monitor canāt properly display what you spent all your money on to its fullest potential. Sites like displayninja and rtings are excellent resources for monitor info and the different types of monitor panels out there.
I played BG3 in early access and most MMORPGs. Basically if you can play WoW, you can play any current MMO out there with ease aside from upstream issues (like server latency). BG3 is hardly demanding and with Obsidian and Bethesda recently releasing hardware info on their upcoming rpgs you have an idea of hardware needed.
not too hard with your current demands
perfect, always good to have a plan of upgrade regardless of time line
got it
So typically when dealing with pre-built units I offer the following advice
Plan A) get the best CPU you can afford within your budget (including upgrades) and the cheapest GPU and RAM. Those two items (GPU and RAM) are the two easiest things to self upgrade and are often the two most overpriced items when it comes to pre builts. Then go to amazon and/or newegg and buy a good GPU and RAM kit.
Plan B) if you have no desire to do any upgrades and just want the PC to work, get the best GPU you can afford, a CPU to keep up with it, and enough ram so it wonāt prevent performance issues. At the end of the day the GPU still does all the heavy lifting for gaming and even āentryā level CPUs like the intel i3 series are fast enough to handle modern games for 60 FPS. In addition the higher resolution you go, the more demanding it becomes for the GPU resulting in GPU bottlenecks where the CPU becomes less and less of a factor.
That said for you since 1) you clearly need a powerful CPU for design and have a ten year ownership window, something like the AMD 78003DX makes sense for you. Typically I shy away from that CPU not because itās bad, its excellent in performance and the current top dog gaming CPU, but itās over priced and you need flagship GPUs to see itās full potential. With a ten year window the price takes a back seat to that CPUs performance. Itās total overkill for 1080p 60hz and most GPUs out today but down the road it will serve you better than most other offerings. For 1080p 60hz, really any modern day mid tier GPU will do. You can āsettleā for something like the AMD RX 6800 or 6800XT (although replacements for them are coming late summer). Nvidia will soon launch the RTX 4060ti 16GB version or look into their current RTX 4070. Any of the mentioned GPUs will run the games you mentioned maxed out with ease. Once you get a new monitor they should be able to hold up with some graphic settings turned down as you get a new GPU for the new monitor. The 78003DX will still be able to handle that new GPU.
Most games today are still fine with 16GB of system RAM but since you are using the PC for game design and have large ownership window I would definitely get 32GB of DDR5 ram be it from Amazon/new egg or directly from the pre-built store.
You can also check out sites like logical increments for build ideas (they offer many tiers including a WoW build). Techspot / Hardware Unboxed (same reviewer) has excellent GPU and CPU reviews. Techpowerup also has excellent reviews and performance charts across many PC parts. Toms Hardware has excellent CPU and GPU performance hierarchy charts as well.
Nzxt has some fine prebuilds at various price points for sale. So do NewEgg, iBuyPower, Corsair, Dell, HP, etc. Out of all of those, Nzxt and Dell have the best warranties available, but make sure you double-check on all that.
You should probably aim for a computer with an Nvidia 4070 (or higher) graphics card, a 13th generation Intel processor, and 32gb of RAM. You can also get a computer with an AMD graphics card and/or processor, but Iām not very familiar with whatās good on their side.
To answer your question about which prebuild is the best, that depends on the parts inside of course. Hereās an example of a prebuild with the very best GPU & CPU: Alienware Aurora R15 Gaming Desktop With Intel 13th Gen | Dell USA
Thatās obviously very expensive, though, and you can probably find a prebuild with those parts for cheaper.
Good luck!
Yeah Iāve always been wary of Alienware. Iām sure theyāre good PCs but they always seem particularly pricy and also not very upgrade friendly.
I canāt blame you! Iām looking at one for myself, so thatās why I had the link already on hand. Theyāre overpriced, though, but I dig the way they look, and the warranty is quite nice.
Hereās another desktop with the same GPU & CPU: OMEN 45L Gaming Desktop GT22-1455xt, Windows 11 Home, IntelĀ® Coreā¢ i9, 16GB RAM, NVIDIAĀ® GeForce RTXā¢ 4090 (hp.com)
That one comes with only 16gb of ram, but thatās easy and cheap enough to upgrade.
No wonder people are moving to console gaming.
Seriouslyā¦ are āaverageā gamers going to spend over $2000 on a gaming PC?
I just did a few searches for pre-built gaming desktops and could not find anything remotely worth the asking price. And I was mostly looking for desktops in the $1000 to $1500 range. Everything was mostly 3+ year old tech with graphics cards still using 8 gigs and power supplies around 500 watts.
Guess Iāll wait until the Xmas holidays when there are a few worthy deals, especially on Amazon. They almost always have 1 really solid pre built computer on sale for the holidays.
Thereās some custom builder PC company out there, like ibuypower and others. Has to do a bit of research tho. Just look up pc builder company. you can budget the accessories also
so there was an excellent article on this about a week ago on the logical increments blog (I believe) but basically both Nvidia and AMD (and Intel) are simply moving away from the previous āentry - mid - high endā classes of GPUs to the the āhigh end - ultra high endā system. They are placing various features into their GPUs to increase prices (and revenue!) while basically thumbing their nose at the entry and mid tier buyer stating that if you want a less expensive GPU you can buy the previous generation cards.
What prebuilt is the best bang for the buck here? Gaming PCs | Custom Gaming Desktops | CyberPowerPC
(Or is CyberPower not recommended?)
I admit Iām out of my depth with PC builds, it seems. I know computers but mostly the using them aspect.
When I got my last computer solid state drives werenāt even a thing, what is this sorcery? (I mean, they were, but not like now)
for pre builtsā¦ max it out. if youāre not comfortable changing out computer parts then make sure itāll last a while
Well as noted above I am comfy with upgrades so upgradeable is important. I am at the point where my current PC canāt handle any more upgrades as the motherboard is quite old and outdated.
It lasted me a good ten years though.
ah i apologizeā¦ i did not read your post thoroughly
cyberpowerpc is goodā¦ i think most of the pre builts use brand name parts you choose yourself so just need to find good deals
Customize Early 4th of July RTX 4070 Ti Gaming PC (cyberpowerpc.com)
Here is one Iām eyeballing. It seems to do what I need. A bit out of my budget but my employer is contributing some money since this will also be a work machine and, in fact, needing it for work is why it will need some extra strength.
One thing giving me pause is the SSD. Is that one any good? Can I upgrade to 5th gen later?
Samsung 980 pro is a very good SSD with fast performance. That series, Samsung switched from MCL to TLC. In a demanding professional setting you can make it an issue but for gaming and basic office use it is more than capable. In theory the the TLC will impact the life span (comes with a very good 5 year warranty) but in reality you will be far closer to your previous ten year ownership before you have to worry about plus there will be larger and faster SSD out in the market by then including gen 5 SSD (and beyond) which you can upgrade to although I do not believe the Asus z790-p supports Gen 5 M.2 slots while the regular Z790 does (you may want to look into that to confirm).
It doesnāt appear to no. Of the listed motherboards on Cyberpower for this build the one that comes in under $100 as an upgrade, which seems to have Gen 5 M.2 support, is the ASRock Z790 Steel Legend. I am willing to make this upgrade if thatās a good motherboard to further future proof the computer.
I mean you are going with the 13900k and both mobos have the same chipset so there really is no upgrade path difference. If you were going to OC the CPU we can start looking into the VRM but I there is no need with that CPU and for little real world gain. Basically it comes down to which mobo has the expansion slots you need*, which BIOS do you prefer to work with (if you like to tinker with the PC), and if you are an audiophile which chip do you prefer. My guess for your needs, either mobo works and with Gen 5 support you can make an argument for the Asrock over the Asus. Would you see a real world difference in a Gen 5 SSD with either mobo? Most likely you would not unless using a benchmark tool and in specific scenarios.
My personal thought and you can take it or leave it
I owned a Asus Z-p mobo several years back along with other Asus mobos. I found the Z-p OK but overpriced, it did not OC well at all. I found the BIOS to be OK, on par with MSI but not as good as Gigabyte.
Itās been a while since I had an Asrock mobo, Iāve only owned two of them but I did have one for my Intel 2500k that OC that chip well and I recall having no problems with their BIOS menus although its been so long since i used it.
I probably would go with the Asrock.
*if you plan to do anything more than a basic build (one SSD and one slot for the GPU) check the mobo manuals as many OEMs will change the speeds and throughput of slots based on which slots are filled. For example even though a mobo can have two x4 slots, one may only work at x1 if the other is filled or certain SATA connectors may be turned off if a certain M2 slot is filled so always read the manual if you do plan on anything more than a basic build.
Youāve been most helpful, thank you. I bought that machine but with ASRock.
Iām not one to go with strange builds or overclocking. I game but Iām not an esports person or anything. My main goal is having a solid foundation that I can replace parts on over time.