get the best CPU you can, PSU, RAM and GPU are easy parts to upgrade. If you are dead set on not touching your PC than look up the performance you want and get those parts but you can easily install more RAM and a better GPU so you are often better off getting the cheapest potion possible in that category. Even a PSU swap is relatively easy.
they always skimp on cooling and tend to have a ton of proprietary components. Not a big deal for someone whoâs not going to ever really open up the PCâs guts, but itâs something to consider.
Personally I have no issue with intel especially on budget systems at this point in time. With the high end intel woes pretty much everything from AMD has inflated in price lately except for older AM4 chips (although 7000 series was always overpriced IMO)
If you replace the 5700X3D with any modern Ryzen chip, performance in WoW isnât changing much except price jumps $200+.
Which is why I generally lean towards Intel on budget builds.
As far as big brand OEMs, the one thing I do like about them is externally they tend to look pretty sleek. The HP Omen towers look nice on the outside, even if the inside is an office PC.
As far as PSUs go, thanks for the info. I havenât really been following them of late. Still rocking my Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 850W from 2017 lmao.
Itâs too bad you donât have an MC nearby; last year got my wife a killer deal.
12900K
MSI Z690 Pro Wifi
32GB G. Skill DDR5 6000
$399
Whole system cheaper than a 7800X3D
this is damn enticing
https://www.microcenter.com/product/5006834/amd-ryzen-5-7600x3d,-asus-tuf-gaming-b650-plus-wifi,-gskill-flare-x5-series-32gb-ddr5-6000-kit,-computer-build-bundle
we have an HP Omen 12900k/RTX 3090 in the office used for rendering. They stuck a Asetek AIO in there so the cooling has been ok.
now i kind of want to get that 7600x3d system. gotta phone my cousin in socal lmao
Business grade Dell is much better than Consumer grade Dell.
My last experience with HP customer support was when I had an omen that was thermal tripping and shutting down, they wouldnât replace the cooler without also replacing the CPU, and didnât have that in stock so I ended up returning it and buying an MSI (this was 2021, so the pre-built was about the same price as just the 3080 it had at the time)
my business grade dell work laptop quacks at me. the fan has some failure in it and when it ramps up to a certain RPM it will stall and quack.
iâd ask for a replacement but i donât really want to have to deal with the lottery of getting a worse unit back
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Iâve had no issue with either one. Now saying itâs great but it is what it is.
Had an Omen PC in the office that Iâm fairly certain the GPU was not properly supported and damaged the PCIe bus. Basically the PC turns on and fans spin but no visual to the monitors via the GPU or mobo. PC is under warranty so off it goes to HP (I donât have time to play around with the PC). HP comes back saying the PCIe plastic locking clip was broken which is why the mobo was not working and we (our engineer) broke it. They charged our company a $100 to replace the mobo.
I have a seasonic focus plus in my gaming PC as well. Very well built, conservative OCP setting but as long as you avoid the hard spiking flagship GPUs itâs a heck of unit that will last 10+ years.
MC is great, I would pick up open box CPUs for almost half of what they would go on Amazon for. Their pre-builts have good prices as well, as you stated.
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Theyâre re-opening the Santa Clara store supposedly by the end of the year, which will be kind of nice. Itâs still more than a few hours away, but it might be a fun little trip when itâs upgrade time. And with being able to order and pickup in store, it should be a little easier to get parts reliably.
The Focus Plus Gold 850 handled my 3080 10G well enough even with a +10% power limit increase, so thatâs around 340w?
And Iâve scaled down significantly since then, am now on a 4070 Super which sips power in comparison.
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thatâs pretty good, you figure stock units are ballpark 320w gaming with spikes just under 400w and you had an increase on it. I used to have three MC just over an hour away but Iâve moved further north so I havenât gone to one in about two years.
I have never stepped foot in one physically. I have friends and relatives buy them for me 
although i have seen the inside of them quite often, watching Greg Salazar videos
Also Lillybug, this is Salhezra/Salhezar btw if i forgot to mention it. Iâm back for the obligatory 1-3 month expansion playthrough and bought a discounted race change for my worgen DK and changed the name while I was at it.
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hey Sal! How have you been? Back from FF XIV?
been good, you?
iâve been actually not doing a lot of gaming. Dawntrail lasted me a whole 2 weeks before i kinda let it simmer (still active sub because of housingâŠiâm still feeling foolish about this) and came back to play tww.
TWW feels okay but I burned out on M+ really quickly.
Otherwise, itâs been fishing whenever i have the time. got a couple kayaks and an embarrassing (or perhaps irresponsible) number of fishing rods/reels/tackle
I ended up getting a year sub for WoW by accident, thought I was getting 3 months and wasnât paying attention. Played TWW a bit when not playing Diablo IV but mostly prepping the house for Halloween and then all the lovely fall yard work prior to winter.
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Iâm not trying to steer you away from upgrading your computer if you actually want more performance, but upgrading simply because your existing computer âdoesnât support Windows 11â is a horrible reason.
Bypassing the Windows 11 requirments is a huge nothingburger, and it works fantastic on older hardware. Windows 11 works with most older drivers going back to drivers made for 64-bit Windows Vista, so there are no issues there.
The only real requirments are that the latest version of Windows 11 requires SSE4.2/4a support, but that only cuts-off computers from before 2009-2010 or so, such as Core2Quad CPUs. ANY CPU with the newer Core-i5/Core-i7 type branding will still work fine.
All of my older computers are running Windows 11, there is no downside at this point.
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didnât really think about this, but mostly because i am an enabler. UPGRADEEEEEE!!!