Computers & Electronics

Looking for advice on buying a gaming PC

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  • May 18th, 2022 9:34 am
Sr. Member
Apr 10, 2005
649 posts
147 upvotes
Montreal

Looking for advice on buying a gaming PC

Lifelong gamer here, but for the last decade or so I’ve switched over to Mac and PlayStation for my gaming needs, and I’m not sure what I’ll need to have a decent PC since the boys are getting pissed at me that we can only play Mac compatible games.
I don’t care about having the absolute best resolution/framerate, I’d simply like to run at decent settings and not have my system be useless in the next couple of years. I also know I don’t have the time/energy to build something myself, and don’t care about anything remotely RGB. Just a computer that will let me game like the filthy casual that I am. Any company better than others? i5, i7? 3060? 3070? Open to desktop or laptop, but I would imagine that for a given price point desktops give you more value?
Anyone want to give me an education on what to be looking for and at what price point to pull the trigger?
12 replies
Member
Dec 25, 2010
382 posts
430 upvotes
Canada, Quebec, Mont…
Very fast answer... Hope that help you.

I guest going desktop will give you more performance for your bucks unless you really have a need for laptop (or there is a crazy deal going on that fit your needs).

I have personally built my own. Of course if you care about details, you will want to do some searches and what you care (performance, noise, etc.). But then you talk about time/energy (is it more fear, not wanting to do it or what, you know the reasons). Do you have budget constraints (or not much).

So either you go that route where you pick your pieces --- and I guest coming here, you like to have deals --- OR you ask for help (here or better place) or even pay a little something for help.

I guest your local PC shop would help you pick pieces, etc. (maybe you won't have the very best deal on everything, but that is a service if you find a good place, and that might worth something to you). When younger when I was going that route, they would print you the part list, so you don't necessary need to buy from them all the pieces (but in that case, if you ask to build it, they might charge a small fee?).

Another idea is to check Fivver to see if some people would do it for you at a good price (time is money and I guest it won't cost you much). When doing my own, even if I am not like someone who do this daily, I thought personally to offer that kind of service (a service to pick parts + find decent deals depending on the time frame the person has and then a service to assemble the computer -- but how much someone-is/you-are willing to pay for this? -- I had in mind somewhere between 50-100$ for each phase, but honestly when I do it for myself I might spend way more time than what this worth, but an idea was I was gonna help the person to save in the process).

Let's say you want to do it yourself but with some help...

I would check Logical Increments: https://www.logicalincrements.com/
They give a lot of different configuration with current parts and price and tell you what to expect for that price. You can then decide to tweak it yourself with some inspiration! Use https://pcpartpicker.com/ to do your different builds (and it has a nice price database).

If you are looking for deals:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/bapcsalescanada/
- RFD!
- If you know the part you are looking for approximately, you might look on Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, etc. I have found CPUs from people buying them for a project or winning them, etc. at discount price that way for example (and they were new, but even used can do the job).
- https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianHardwareSwap/

(You might pick a lower GPU with what you can get at good price right now and wait, as price should continue to go down next year)

Of course sometime you might be ready to pick an alternate piece to save (let's say you buy over a 1-2 months period, or if your time span is way shorter like 1 week) depending on the current specials.

Finally, if you do your own list, then you can just present it in https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/ and ask them all the questions and even ask them like if you can optimize for price, ask if they see any compatibility issues, etc. -- there will be some enthusiasts that will answer you deeply and who check this on a daily basis. (If I was offering the service to build it like I do, unless 100% sure with experience, I will do that before pulling the trigger, at beginning at least). You give them your PC Part Picker lists and they might create a tailored one after.

Now... aside from time to pick pieces, if the reason you don't want to build yourself is hassle/fear you mess up... it is really not that hard to put it together if you buy the pieces separately. There are very good video on YouTube (I can find the one I liked back then if you go that route). Expect it to take you a couple hours to assemble thought (you will check videos, make sure you do well, etc.). Someone experimented can probably do it in 30-60 mins, if not less when everything goes right (I would be curious how fast someone who do this daily can do it).

BTW, how old are your boys? If old enough, they might even want to build it!?

P.S., I'm in Greater Montreal too!
Deal Fanatic
Nov 15, 2020
8453 posts
6938 upvotes
msb45 wrote: Lifelong gamer here, but for the last decade or so I’ve switched over to Mac and PlayStation for my gaming needs, and I’m not sure what I’ll need to have a decent PC since the boys are getting pissed at me that we can only play Mac compatible games.
I don’t care about having the absolute best resolution/framerate, I’d simply like to run at decent settings and not have my system be useless in the next couple of years. I also know I don’t have the time/energy to build something myself, and don’t care about anything remotely RGB. Just a computer that will let me game like the filthy casual that I am. Any company better than others? i5, i7? 3060? 3070? Open to desktop or laptop, but I would imagine that for a given price point desktops give you more value?
Anyone want to give me an education on what to be looking for and at what price point to pull the trigger?
you cant figure out your gaming needs unless you factor in the resolution of your monitor. If you got a shitty monitor that does only under 1k then any card from 6 years ago would run games at almost max eye-candy.

At 4k resolutions, if your monitor supports, now you need a very top end video card and a power supply that goes along with that, and a fast cpu that can feed the video card.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Nov 9, 2005
4438 posts
1927 upvotes
Vulcan, AB
Get a 1080p screen, 144hz refresh. Any graphics card from a RTX 3060 or RX 6600 will handle that brilliantly. i5 12th gen (not previous generations) or Ryzen 5 5600 will serve you well CPU wise. 16GB of memory, 3200 speed or up. M.2 SSD for fast storage.

Away you go.
Deal Fanatic
May 18, 2009
7863 posts
2841 upvotes
Richmond Hill
just buy a prebulid from brands like ABS and cyberpower PC
Sr. Member
Apr 10, 2005
649 posts
147 upvotes
Montreal
Russell wrote: Get a 1080p screen, 144hz refresh. Any graphics card from a RTX 3060 or RX 6600 will handle that brilliantly. i5 12th gen (not previous generations) or Ryzen 5 5600 will serve you well CPU wise. 16GB of memory, 3200 speed or up. M.2 SSD for fast storage.

Away you go.
evilYoda wrote: you cant figure out your gaming needs unless you factor in the resolution of your monitor. If you got a shitty monitor that does only under 1k then any card from 6 years ago would run games at almost max eye-candy.

At 4k resolutions, if your monitor supports, now you need a very top end video card and a power supply that goes along with that, and a fast cpu that can feed the video card.
Does it matter if I get a 4K monitor but lower the resolution for gaming? Ultimately I'm hoping to use a single monitor for gaming PC/everything else Mac and I can't go back to 1080p for my day to day.
Sr. Member
Apr 10, 2005
649 posts
147 upvotes
Montreal
mickoz wrote: Very fast answer... Hope that help you.

I guest going desktop will give you more performance for your bucks unless you really have a need for laptop (or there is a crazy deal going on that fit your needs).

I have personally built my own. Of course if you care about details, you will want to do some searches and what you care (performance, noise, etc.). But then you talk about time/energy (is it more fear, not wanting to do it or what, you know the reasons). Do you have budget constraints (or not much).

So either you go that route where you pick your pieces --- and I guest coming here, you like to have deals --- OR you ask for help (here or better place) or even pay a little something for help.

I guest your local PC shop would help you pick pieces, etc. (maybe you won't have the very best deal on everything, but that is a service if you find a good place, and that might worth something to you). When younger when I was going that route, they would print you the part list, so you don't necessary need to buy from them all the pieces (but in that case, if you ask to build it, they might charge a small fee?).

Another idea is to check Fivver to see if some people would do it for you at a good price (time is money and I guest it won't cost you much). When doing my own, even if I am not like someone who do this daily, I thought personally to offer that kind of service (a service to pick parts + find decent deals depending on the time frame the person has and then a service to assemble the computer -- but how much someone-is/you-are willing to pay for this? -- I had in mind somewhere between 50-100$ for each phase, but honestly when I do it for myself I might spend way more time than what this worth, but an idea was I was gonna help the person to save in the process).

Let's say you want to do it yourself but with some help...

I would check Logical Increments: https://www.logicalincrements.com/
They give a lot of different configuration with current parts and price and tell you what to expect for that price. You can then decide to tweak it yourself with some inspiration! Use https://pcpartpicker.com/ to do your different builds (and it has a nice price database).

If you are looking for deals:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/bapcsalescanada/
- RFD!
- If you know the part you are looking for approximately, you might look on Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, etc. I have found CPUs from people buying them for a project or winning them, etc. at discount price that way for example (and they were new, but even used can do the job).
- https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianHardwareSwap/

(You might pick a lower GPU with what you can get at good price right now and wait, as price should continue to go down next year)

Of course sometime you might be ready to pick an alternate piece to save (let's say you buy over a 1-2 months period, or if your time span is way shorter like 1 week) depending on the current specials.

Finally, if you do your own list, then you can just present it in https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/ and ask them all the questions and even ask them like if you can optimize for price, ask if they see any compatibility issues, etc. -- there will be some enthusiasts that will answer you deeply and who check this on a daily basis. (If I was offering the service to build it like I do, unless 100% sure with experience, I will do that before pulling the trigger, at beginning at least). You give them your PC Part Picker lists and they might create a tailored one after.

Now... aside from time to pick pieces, if the reason you don't want to build yourself is hassle/fear you mess up... it is really not that hard to put it together if you buy the pieces separately. There are very good video on YouTube (I can find the one I liked back then if you go that route). Expect it to take you a couple hours to assemble thought (you will check videos, make sure you do well, etc.). Someone experimented can probably do it in 30-60 mins, if not less when everything goes right (I would be curious how fast someone who do this daily can do it).

BTW, how old are your boys? If old enough, they might even want to build it!?

P.S., I'm in Greater Montreal too!
Thanks!
My "boys" are a bunch of late 30s dads who I play with once a week lol.
The reason for not building it myself is more that I've never done it before, and have a 1 year old who takes up most of my time, so I worry that between the hours of reading up on it / picking out components / building it, it will consume all of my free time.
Deal Fanatic
Nov 15, 2020
8453 posts
6938 upvotes
msb45 wrote: Does it matter if I get a 4K monitor but lower the resolution for gaming? Ultimately I'm hoping to use a single monitor for gaming PC/everything else Mac and I can't go back to 1080p for my day to day.
if the monitor is real dumb it'll show black areas around the lower resolution image, but recent monitors shouldnt have this issue. But if it does, the video card should be able to get you full screen if such a scenario.
Deal Fanatic
May 31, 2006
6364 posts
776 upvotes
Toronto
msb45 wrote: Does it matter if I get a 4K monitor but lower the resolution for gaming? Ultimately I'm hoping to use a single monitor for gaming PC/everything else Mac and I can't go back to 1080p for my day to day.
If you don't want 1080p and 4K is a bit overkill, I would go with 1440p 144-165hz. You get high refresh and good resolution for gaming and it's good for day to day work stuff as well.
Deal Expert
Aug 2, 2004
38392 posts
12016 upvotes
East Gwillimbury
msb45 wrote: Anyone want to give me an education on what to be looking for and at what price point to pull the trigger?
What games are you playing and what’s your budget?

You don’t want to break the bank. Better to invest cash in the 1 year old than a computer

The graphics card is the more important than the CPU etc
Sr. Member
Apr 10, 2005
649 posts
147 upvotes
Montreal
Gee wrote: What games are you playing and what’s your budget?

You don’t want to break the bank. Better to invest cash in the 1 year old than a computer

The graphics card is the more important than the CPU etc
Lately some older games like divinity original sin 2 and borderlands 2. Nothing too graphics intensive. I can see wanting to play Starfield eventually once it’s out.
Don’t worry, the one year old gets everything she needs and then some, this doesn’t come out of any money that’s needed for something else. Was thinking a budget in the 1500 range, though could be a bit higher if it’s worth it. More that this isn’t going to be my main computer, so I don’t feel like spending a ton on something that will probably only be used a few hours a week.
Deal Expert
Aug 2, 2004
38392 posts
12016 upvotes
East Gwillimbury
msb45 wrote: Lately some older games like divinity original sin 2 and borderlands 2. Nothing too graphics intensive. I can see wanting to play Starfield eventually once it’s out.
If money is no object

Z690
Intel i7 12700k
32 Gig DDR5
1 Terabyte NVMe Gen 4
850 Watt Power Supply
3080Ti

The above will blow your budget. Your needs are modest. I suggest

Z590
Intel i5 11600k
16 Gig DDR4
1 Terabyte NVMe
650 Watt Power Supply
3070Ti

If you want cheaper, then go with AMD

B550
Ryzen 5600X
16 Gig DDR4
1 Terabyte NVMe
650 Watt Power Supply
3070Ti



If you are thinking of future proofing, take that notion right out of your head. There is no such thing as future proofing. If we all had a crystal ball, maybe. But we don’t. Buy what you need for today and hope it suits your needs for the foreseeable future.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Nov 9, 2005
4438 posts
1927 upvotes
Vulcan, AB
msb45 wrote: Does it matter if I get a 4K monitor but lower the resolution for gaming? Ultimately I'm hoping to use a single monitor for gaming PC/everything else Mac and I can't go back to 1080p for my day to day.
Running a lower resolution can reduce visual quality. If you're running a 4k screen and render games at 1080p, the quality loss will be less than a 1440p screen running 1080p because 4k is exactly 4x the pixels as 1080p.

Much lower video card needed to render at 1080p. With the cost of those buggers so high these days, that's a good thing.

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