Must... Resist... Temptation

Posted by Alert Games on March 17, 2015, 12:22 p.m.

My friend just got his tax return and blew it all on building a high end PC… worth over 1500$. I helped him build it, but afterwards it really tempted me to look into PC building again and scanning newegg and microcenter pages for hours.

My current build has served me well despite its disadvantages. The motherboard could have been better, the case could have been better, and at that point I might as well do a full upgrade.

I was looking at this tower here, which I think looks pretty cool: corsair case

Then I could combine it with i7 4.0 ghz, gigabyte motherboard, and liquid cooling. Unfortunately, I would also probably want to upgrade my power supply from 550 to 750, and then also get an EVGA 980gtx graphics card low-profile.

And with all of this stuff, it would come close to 800$ (or more if I also get an SSD, which I feel is not worth it yet)… and I don't really want to spend that. I mean, its not quite 1500$, but it would probably be more compelling if I could sell my older rig or at least its parts, but I'm sure that people probably prefer to build their own after all.

How much money do you think is worth spending on a new computer for a casual gamer?

Comments

Moikle 9 years, 1 month ago

heh, I am trying to restrain myself from getting one of these.

(the one that is £2,000)

I mean I probably will get one eventually if I want to take my 3d modelling seriously and want to make a career out of it. But I can't just go out and buy it on a whim. I need a cintiq at least for university next year, and the ability to carry it around and work from anywhere, unlike a regular graphics tablet, would be incredibly useful when I have to travel for 3 hours every day.

Also, my room is not a very good work environment, but with one of these, I could just get up and go find one.

Jani_Nykanen 9 years, 1 month ago

Quote:
How much money do you think is worth spending on a new computer for a casual gamer?
I spent 573 euros (about $607) for a computer that is neither low or high end. I could consider $700, but $800 (750€, I think) it's a bit too much. Unless you life for graphics.

Alert Games 9 years, 1 month ago

I think what happens is that I know my computer could run smoother, but unfortunately my computer also doesn't have the best parts to upgrade on. I also bought a 2TB WD hard drive to expand storage and backup my computer in case the other one fails. BUT it is noisy in the case with a humming sound and I wonder if a new case would help, but that is a downward spiral..

Also, I think I might be getting into PC gaming more as I'm not as impressed with the new consoles, and the new graphics card would have an HDMI output to hookup to the TV as well.

…grumble…

LAR Games 9 years, 1 month ago

I just spent like 1000 bucks for my first build. Have I mentioned how excited I am?

Alert Games 9 years, 1 month ago

I just found out about Cities: Skylines and now I really want to build a new computer :(

Acid 9 years, 1 month ago

Price is based on your needs. There are legitimate needs for $2k+ builds… but most people could Max any game they want to play for the next 5 years on a $1k build and you could Max any game for the next 2 years at about $700.

If you don't care about maxing graphics, you could build a decent low-mid gaming/workstation for $500, but you'll have to penny pinch and wait for deals.

Cpsgames 9 years, 1 month ago

Quote:
Also, I think I might be getting into PC gaming more as I'm not as impressed with the new consoles,

But seriously, checking around /r/buildapc might give you a better idea on what a build for a casual gamer would look like and cost. Or perhaps /r/buildapcforme. Also Cities: Skylines looks pretty good, I just picked it up.

Alert Games 9 years, 1 month ago

@cp: Those links helped a little for pricing since I found pcpartpicker.com through it, which is a much better site than the last one I found a while ago. I might end up just upgrading some of the parts that I need to, to save some money and wait for the other parts. … And ye I'm gonna buy it as well and try it out

@Acid: Yeah I dont care about max graphics. My build ~5 years ago was about $700 and served me well so far but has a few limitations I'd like to improve.

LAR Games 9 years, 1 month ago

I actually got mine from there!

https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/tYgXsY/great-gaming-build

I just got a better graphics card and more ram. :P

Acid 9 years, 1 month ago

PCPatPricker is the homie