Dharkstare
MSH29Also welcome to PC gaming. Nothing is ever good enough for pc gamers.
Buy from a reputable company, make sure stuff isn’t soldered onto the motherboard for some dumb reason, and chances are it’s okay
hybrid havoc@Dharkstare You've probably already seen these, but Gamers Nexus has been doing a series of reviews of pre-builts. There's a playlist put together of them, and the titles of the videos kinda tip you off to their impressions. Some of them are not terrible.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsuVSmND84QuM2HKzG7ipbIbE_R5EnCLM
Pre-Built Gaming PC Reviews
SamiMy general advice would be to try to find a company that lets you select the individual parts like G. Skill 16GB (2x8) 3600Mhz vs a generic +16GB RAM upgrade (just an example and not a hard rule). Stuff like Origin PC and iBuyPower or whatever is local to you.
That way you avoid stuff like Dell and other big OEMs. You’ll probably pay a bit more but that way you know exactly what you’re getting in terms of quality. It’s easier to look up reviews on individual parts than a whole prebuilt and they will likely be priced by quality.
That being said, if you know anyone who’s put together their own PC or is the “computer person” maybe ask them for help with choosing those components.
A PC needs 7 main components: CPU, motherboard, GPU, RAM, storage, a power supply and a case.
Your choice of CPU and GPU can come from any youtube channel like Hardware Unboxed. Your motherboard, RAM and storage doesn’t matter much tbh. Your case should have good airflow (anything with mesh really) and your power supply should be rated gold ideally from a reputable brand with enough headroom for your components (750W will cover most mid-high end stuff, 550W is likely fine for most).
If you can make those few decisions then you’re most of the way there barring the company techs messing up but if it performs as expected in games and temps are OK when you get it then you should be good to go.
CubitOomI second this.
About 6 years ago I had to make 20 upper mid teir pcs for a client’s art department. I normally build my own but 20 seemed like a lot to do at once so I outsourced it to a company called Xidax.
I could pick the parts that met my spec and perhaps because it was a larger order I was able to get some parts they didn’t have on their website after calling and asking. But most importantly it wasn’t too much more expensive than a big box store pre-built but with quality parts, not just economy parts you might normally find in a lot of prebiilts. (PSUs and drives are important not to skimp on, especially in enterprise environments.)
I would building your own is better. Both from a cost and learning perspective. It’s a lot easier then it seems, I know it’s intimidating. But if your uncomfortable building your own. Go with a company you can pick name brand quality parts from that will last.
Also, I would avoid water cooling unless your workload demands it. Water cooling is honestly not worth it.
Psythik
Orbital
LanthanaeI was always told that if you’re building your very first machine, buy the core components from the same firm.
That way if something is screwy, it’s the firms job to help you fix it. Otherwise you’re not sure if it’s the ram, cpu or motherboard.
After you gain confidence and will have spare parts to self diagnose for future builds.
There is something really satisfying about doing your own build. Back in the day, used to be a side gig for something I enjoyed doing. Happy days.
You could just pick the parts (I’d suggest researching at least a little bit) and have someone check what you picked before committing, easy. Post them here too and people can give some better suggestions if necessary, with a reason why.
The building part is (usually, unless you go for an oddball case) easy, picking the parts is indeed tricky without a second pair of eyes if you’re new to this.
DonebrachSorry for the forthcoming wall of text but here’s my advice:
I’d suggest you build your own PC. If you take the 5 hours to educate yourself on what the various components are you will save yourself trouble down the line and enable yourself to upgrade your pc as needed / want because you will not be locked in with crappy hardware.
The actual physical process of building a PC is about as difficult as putting together a basic Lego set or 7-part-end table from Target. The initial complication of choosing the parts really does make it seem more complicated than it is.
**Issues with pre-built PCs are: **
Crappy motherboards, which limit upgrades down the line wimpy power supplies, which limit upgrades down the line Crappy Hard drives, which run the risk of data loss down the line Shitty cases that limit upgrades Crappy components overall.
I don’t want to suggest specific components you should look for because I don’t know what you want to do with it and am not 100% up to snuff on the latest / greatest hardware. I can however give you the following general advice:
**1. **Choose your processor (CPU): AMD or INTEL. **2. **Choose your GPU: AMD or NVIDIA (ignore the various manufacturers, that can be figured out later)
**(these choices are really not that difficult, just get what is in your budget and what can do what you need it to do) ** **3. **Find a case you want, this is really as simple as aesthetics, hardware compatibility and cooling potential (i e space and lots of fans are good) . Does it come with fans? great!
This is where pre-built PCs will really cut corners, they might load in a RTX-4080 but they’ll rig it to a SLamboTEG 2892834 PrEpp motherboard that has trash hardware and trash potential.
Once you have your Motherboard, Case and CPU locked down, decide on the amount of RAM you want to incorporate. The type of compatible RAM will be dictated by the motherboard, just refere to its documentation for what you need to get.
Choose your storage devices. One for the OS and one for everything else. Don’t bother with magnetic storage at this point–Solid state is the way to go. You can get SATA SSD drives (which look like small external HDs) or M.2 drives (which look like little RAM sticks). either option is good, fast and will make for a snappy compy. (M.2 connects directly to the Motherboard, most modern gaming MoBos have multiple M.2 slots.)
Choose a power supply that will run everything you have selected (specifically the GPU and CPU). I think latest greatest Intel / Nvidia combo wants a 800watt or even 1000watt PSU but i could be wrong, just get what your components need + some extra. There are lots of nice high end modular PSUs that are not very expensive and will allow you to upgrade in the future.
Get a heatsink for your CPU. As mentioned earlier in the case choice section, the case you choose might have built in fans, if so GREAT! if not, get compatible fans for the case, regardless you will need a heatsink for your CPU- this is simple as getting one that is compatible with your motherboard and CPU.
Buy a Windows license (I’d suggest 10 pro but I assume the only thing available now is 11, get the pro regardless because you’re gonna become a power user and don’t want to limit yourself to lame-ass windows home edition right??)
Get the peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse). You’ll need these to use your new computer.
I might’ve missed something in this rant list but seriously: building your own PC is really not that hard and totally worth it for a long-term.
I bought my PC as a prebuilt nearly 10 years ago but luckily it was from a supplier (Microcenter) that had made a machine that was more or less upgradable. I have put both a lot of new components in and also begrudged the limitations that it currently has so really. Just take some hours and build your PC from the ground up.
Zoot_.
Patrick@Dharkstare I bought this https://www.ibuypower.de/Gamer-PC/Revolt-3-AMD-5800X-RTX3080 with a 3080 and some i7 when that was current. It’s served me really well so far.
The problem with a lot of reviewers is that they don’t personally need help choosing components and beat on prebuilts for their price. So take these reviews with a grain of salt.
