PC Gaming rigs

[FPAlpha]

So my current PC was upper middle class back about 3-4 years when i bought it and could handle even intense games back then without problems, however i do only have an HD monitor so this may also be an important factor.

I mainly play strategy games with the occasional action game so my demands aren't sky high but at what point do you decide it's time for a serious upgrade?`

I'm thinking of at least upgrading my monitor to 4K (this beast is working for 10+ years now) and possible getting a PS5 this Christmas for some current gen gaming but i'm not sure.

How do you all decide it's time to blow 1500+ on a new system?

 

[Turd Ferguson]

My HP Pavilion desktop was pretty "meh" when I bought it back in 2012. Fast forward eight years later, it was slow as hell and sounded like a jet engine. I'd been thinking about splurging for a gaming desktop for a while, having been a console player for 35 years (my only experience in PC gaming was The Oregon Trail in high school, and the occasional King's Quest game on a Tandy computer). I went on Amazon and Best Buy's sites, read some user reviews and decided on something. Until I found something else I wanted. Then something else. So, I ended up buying nothing. I'd planned on sticking with either HP or Dell and couldn't find anything I liked.

But, one day I was on Best Buy's site and stumbled on an iBUYPOWER gaming PC for $999. It had pretty decent specs. An Intel Core i7-9700F, 16GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super with a 1TB HDD and 480GB SSD. I bit the bullet and also splurged on a 27" curved Samsung QLED monitor. I've had it for about 3 months now, and I absolutely love it. It's fast as fuck and the keyboard and tower have nice lighting effects. I still haven't decided the first game I want to try for it yet, though. I may pick up Forza Horizon 4 for Xbox and try it on here

 

[SPCTRE]

How do you all decide it's time to blow 1500+ on a new system?

I don't

Four figures was never a budget that I was willing to spend on a gaming PC, then again I do have pretty easy access to spare hardware via my job, so when the fancy strikes me I usually can get pretty beefy stuff for free and just add a lower mid-range graphics card.

I just upgraded my ancient, ancient Core 2 Quad Q6600 to an i7-6700 which is still powerful enough for my needs (I'm not a PC-first gaming person though), so now I'm just going to pop a GTX 1660 in there and I'll be fine for current 1080p stuff. Not yet interested in 4K PC stuff, that's what my consoles are for.

 

[DonIago]

I decided it was time to blow $$$$ on a new system around the time I got back from a con to discover my Windows SSD had died (I do regular backups, and oddly I had an old Windows 10 partition on my secondary drive, which was quite fortuitous as it let me get at least some level of functionality up and running). I might have just gone for a new SSD, but my graphics card seemed to be growing temperamental as well.

Really, the timing couldn't have been better. I was going out of town to visit my parents for about a week and a half. While there a bonus check from work posted, so I was able to arrange for the new computer to be at my home at around the same time I returned. Restoring from backups took forever but I was up and running Sunday night after receiving the computer on Friday afternoon.

Considering two days later I was told to work from home for the same reason many other people are currently WFH, the timing really, really, really couldn't have worked out any better.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Have you thought about getting a 4k TV instead of a pc monitor, i am using a 43 in 4k TV and i won't ever be going back to a monitors, it's fantastic, and way better bang for buck than todays pc monitors, hell you can get a 4k HDR TV for a fraction of what it would cost for a similar pc monitor to offer the same features, you should cheak them out before you drop cash on a monitor.

 

[FPAlpha]

Have you thought about getting a 4k TV instead of a pc monitor, i am using a 43 in 4k TV and i won't ever be going back to a monitors, it's fantastic, and way better bang for buck than todays pc monitors, hell you can get a 4k HDR TV for a fraction of what it would cost for a similar pc monitor to offer the same features, you should cheak them out before you drop cash on a monitor.

It would be too big i think.. i'm about 50cm away from the screen on my desk.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I mean you don't need a big 43in tv, you could get say a 28in or 32in 4k HDR Tv to use as your monitor, basically todays TVs do what pc monitors charge way more for and usually offer more features like HDR, which is not even a standard for PC monitors yet.

 

[Jax]

4K Gaming requires a ridiculous rig to achieve good frame rates. 1440P (2K) is a good compromise in my opinion and even better, cheaper.