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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 7th, 2023

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  • That’s a great deal with all those accessories. You can price all the other stuff new. None of these things degrade really, so functionality will be identical to new.

    Only downside if you’re looking for one is the AM4 platform is done. Basically that’s a computer anyone would have recommended you buy 3 years ago new for what you’re budgeting, minus a few hundred for a mid range GPU. If the keyboard, mouse, and headphones are quality you’re getting a steal for someone in your position.


  • Right, huge price difference. Performance isn’t totally linear like this, but it’s still helpful to think of it in terms of pixels and fps. 4k is for times the pixels of 1080p, 120fps is twice the frames. So to go from smooth 1080p 60fps to smooth 4k 120fps you need 16 times more graphics power.

    Your screen resolution and fps goals (capped by your screen’s refresh rate) are something you want to nail down. I think the jump to OLED 120hz or higher screen is better than 4k partly because getting high fps out of 4k is much harder.

    A $1500 budget can go a long way. Don’t think about future proof, think about meeting your goals in games today, whatever you build will be fine for 8 years as long as your standards don’t change. Outside of pushing 4k and high fps, graphics demands have plateaued compared to 10+ years ago. Ray tracing was the last big wow, and AI processing in the pipeline has done wonders at improving performance. I don’t see the value of a motherboard that costs more than $200, and the best value CPU for gaming is the 7800x3d which is $400 when not on sale. You don’t need more than 32gb of RAM, decent kit is about $100. Cases are looks subjective, airflow objective, runs $30 to $150, up to crazy high for gamerz styles. Any PSU over $100 is a waste of money, even driving a 4080 super. For storage get a well rated NVME within your capacity goals, $100 gets you a good brand with decent space. That would leave $500 for a graphics card, buying new won’t get you top of the line, but you could get last generation’s best with that. If you live near a Microcenter and can wait for a good bundle, you can save a few hundred. Sorry for ballparking, writing from my phone. Use pcpartpicker and have fun with it.


  • You can build a fabulous PC for not much, but you can also end up feeling disappointed for a few times more. It’s about expectations and targets.

    What resolution gaming are you trying to do? Are you wanting insane frame rates or is 60fps enough? There’s a huge difference between 60fps 1080p and 120fps 4k. Since you mentioned PC VR, the target is really high as it’s usually rendering higher than 4k, and smooth, high FPS is critical. You may still want more than a 4080 can give you in some games.

    I just built a PC for my nephew, he got my old 2080 (used cost is $200-$300), and some mid-tier AM5 combo deal from Microcenter. He’s super happy with it because it does what he wanted it to do. I helped him keep his expectations within his budget, critically an entry level 1080p gaming monitor as he wanted to get high FPS on Valorant.