What Amount of Money ACTUALLY creates a fun gaming experience

[NuclearPenske7]

I would say a mid range computer capable of replicating console quality, as long as it's playable. Whether or not you have fun is what you take away from the games, not the hardware, as long as the hardware isn't limiting the experience that the game developers want you to have. I have a 9900K and Titan Xp, but I still find myself enjoying Stardew Valley alongside other AAA titles on my rig. Super Mario Party on the Switch is probably the most fun I've had lately, and that thing has the power of some random off-brand tablets. Building a PC beyond what's needed is more about being a hardware enthusiast and for tasks outside of gaming. But really, games are just a form of entertainment. If a movie sucks, watching it in 4K HDR won't help.

[Giganthrax]

No idea what you guys consider to be a fun gaming experience, but I'm running modern AAA games on ultra in 1080p 75+fps with a Ryzen 1600x and 1070. I personally don't see why anyone would need anything better than that for gaming. 

[Guest]

Having a high end gaming PC doesn’t make me unhappy. 

 

The ganes & people you play them with are what do the most. 

[LukeSavenije]

6 hours ago, ChewToy! said:

 Nice, was that cheaper or did you just do it in steps? They sell front panels or did buy it used? 

not cheaper than a mb500... i bought it in steps, the panel just 3 days ago. they sell them at cooler master spare parts for 15 bucks.

[Bananasplit_00]

7 hours ago, James the Broke Gamer said:

what type of stuff do you do with yer pc im curious

Play esports games(MTGA, Paladins, CS:GO...) and watch stuff

[UncleJarvis]

Paid $640 for a $750 valued pc build during 6th gen Intel. My newest games are indie at one year old and 2-3 years old for AAA-ish titles. I am happy with 1080p and "ultra" settings. I don't plan on buying anymore games till I put a dent on my Steam library

[vSaft_Hype]

I can send a picture if you want but I only run at max 200 frames on a low res game on a high res maybe 60 if I'm lucky my computer has a led strip in it but I don't use because it broke and the only led's I use is under my desk for light and I got those from Walmart 

[Semper]

$10 for a Nintendo 64 at a garage sale with two controllers, another $10 for Mario Kart 64, and an old CRT that's been stashed away since the days when the N64 was cutting edge, and i'm happy.

Or, my very old, but still functioning, Gameboy Color and a $5 pawn shop Red Version cartridge and I'm happy.

[mr moose]

I have a 3550 and RX570 and game on an old 1050 monitor.  I love games and I hate games depending on the game.  If the game is good and immersive (or just plane old fun) then the candyfloss eye trimmings aren't overly necessary.   They are beautiful in RPG and MMO's I'll grant,   but in action games the shit happens so fast I don't stop to admire the scenery.

[dgsddfgdfhgs]

wasted any money on products giving no performance? none

I accidentally picked all parts with red led theme at no further costs.

total ~usd1300 2yrs go

still playing at 1080p highest graphics, ~50fps just smooth

but the point is that the games arent as enjoyable and interesting as before

[tatte]

Fun? The amount of money that gets you a console, if you can stomach living with mainly a controller. My current PC setup total sits at almost 3500€, and it's still full of compromises. I refunded Witcher 3 after getting to the balcony, my 1070 just couldn't run it well enough in 4K (I have it on console too, so I wasn't hard pressed to push through an experience I didn't find adequate).

 

The real trick to having fun is never to experience the next level. After I upgraded to 4K TV and tried my PC with it, it was hard to go back to FHD. I picked up a cheap second hand Gear VR out of curiosity, and who would have guessed it, soon after I bought Oculus Rift. I don't even want to see 144Hz or better, I'd just end up needing to upgrade my screens, GPU and probably mouse (I suspect wireless mouse only gets you so far). Cthulhu damn it.

 

In reality of course any PC I can get my hands on that runs what I want to play, however terribly, will still be fun. Oh the hours I have managed to put into GW2 with a Phenom 945 (that's a CPU hungry modern MMORPG with DDR2 era hardware). I have a blast with games I have no nostalgia for on a 10€ original Xbox (that I also have no nostalgia for as a platform).

 

If I had nothing to start with, and had to pick the cheapest way to game with my current knowledge and experiences, I'd go with a laptop. My ThinkPad is frankly the most amazing package I have ever had. Peripherals come included, and with Intel you essentially have Windows (+ Xbox), macOS and Linux in a single machine. Just take your pick and don't worry about pushing the machine all day long, it'll be happy to skim the surface of the sun for as long as you need it to. Coming from budget AMDs the amount of slack an i7 picks up for games blew my mind.

[LogicalDrm]

If point is to get best possible gaming experience with least money possible, then you don't waste money on looks aspect. You go for performance. So no water cooling, no rgb, no fancy heatspreaders on RAM, no fancy $100 case when you get working one for half of that. The things which will cost most still are GPU, monitor, CPU and RAM. In that order. Mobo's don't differ that much if only objective is gaming performance. As you rarely need to OC for that anyway, only need 2 RAM slots and 1 PCIe x16 slot for GPU. Quick draft in PCPP comes up with $1500-1700 mark. Ready to game system. I think I can shave the price even lower with cheaper GPU and CPU.

[James the Broke Gamer]

11 hours ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

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Thank you for this very intelligent answer  If I could ask- what is your take on used pc parts and peripherals? thx

 

14 hours ago, tatte said:

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Thanks for the in-depth response, I am not a very big console fan, however, I do have an original, 360, and a ps3 and I do find that very fun. I am glad I can be on this forum because you obviously have a generous budget for gaming, and most of my friends and I don't  so it's nice to have different perspectives. 

also, you like 4k gaming i see, so do you recommend 4k @60hz or a lower resolution with 144hz I really need to upgrade from 1080p 24inch 60hz one lol

 

23 hours ago, fasauceome said:

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awesome! this is the kind of thing I like to hear- because not everyone has $4,000 to blow on the dream setup

[KaminKevCrew]

I game on a computer where just about everything but the graphics card is 6 years old. I have a core i7 3770K @4.2ghz, and 16GB of ram with a GTX 980ti that I bought used about a month ago. 

 

I like to play games on high/ultra, but I only play on older 1080p monitors. 

 

The thing that makes gaming really fun for me is gaming with friends for online games, and extremely good audio. That's why I play with a $1,000+ audio setup. At this point, my headphones and amp/DAC are literally worth more than my PC, I'm pretty sure...

[James the Broke Gamer]

5 minutes ago, KaminKevCrew said:

I game on a computer where just about everything but the graphics card is 6 years old. I have a core i7 3770K @4.2ghz, and 16GB of ram with a GTX 980ti that I bought used about a month ago. 

 

I like to play games on high/ultra, but I only play on older 1080p monitors. 

 

The thing that makes gaming really fun for me is gaming with friends for online games, and extremely good audio. That's why I play with a $1,000+ audio setup. At this point, my headphones and amp/DAC are literally worth more than my PC, I'm pretty sure...

cool, 3770k is a go, its fun how your PC- about 6 years ago- would have been the power house flagship pc, this is why I sell my pc every year and upgrade the parts without spending extra money, my dad spent a LOT on his pc 15 years ago, now it is just another windows xp computer that sits around

[KaminKevCrew]

1 minute ago, James the Broke Gamer said:

cool, 3770k is a go, its fun how your PC- about 6 years ago- would have been the power house flagship pc, this is why I sell my pc every year and upgrade the parts without spending extra money, my dad spent a LOT on his pc 15 years ago, now it is just another windows xp computer that sits around

For sure. I've owned this PC since new, but honestly, I just don't feel the need to upgrade. It still runs all of my games just fine, and does everything I ask it to just fine. 

 

I've been thinking about doing a threadripper build for a while, but this machine is still plenty capable, so I just don't feel the need to upgrade (especially since I don't game all that often anyway, and I never stream.)

 

Maybe once I get further into my uni's CAD programs I'll feel the need to upgrade, in which case I'll just turn this rig into my home server. We'll see.

 

[Sauron]

21 hours ago, James the Broke Gamer said:

will that make u BETTER at the game???

No.

21 hours ago, James the Broke Gamer said:

does a high resolution, fancy PC, rgb peripherals actually make you happier?

Yes, though I don't really care about RGB peripherals much. When I play a videogame I like to appreciate its visual aspect as well - it takes me a little out of the experience if the pixels are the size of a fridge due to the low resolution. That's not to say it's necessary in order to have fun or enjoy the game, but it helps.

21 hours ago, James the Broke Gamer said:

spend over 1200 dollars on a liquid cooled gaming rig

1200$ is really cheap for a custom liquid cooled rig if that's your budget you should be focusing on getting better performing parts before liquid cooling.

 

I don't really have a number for what my current desktop cost, at this point it's a bit of a Frankenstein's monster... only the motherboard and CPU are still the same as when I originally bought it. You can check out my specs on my profile. I'll probably upgrade the cpu soon, it's almost 8 years old and I'm finally starting to see it struggle for my workloads.

[James the Broke Gamer]

4 minutes ago, Sauron said:

1200$ is really cheap for a custom liquid cooled rig if that's your budget you should be focusing on getting better performing parts before liquid cooling.

 

lol I think I meant 12,000   

[LinusOnLine]

21 hours ago, LukeSavenije said:

i play on a 1080p tv...

 

with a 1070 ti...

 

and some good looks

 

I do as well. Have a 144hz monitor but I still prefer to use my 60 inch TV.

[James the Broke Gamer]

2 minutes ago, LinusOnLine said:

I do as well. Have a 144hz monitor but I still prefer to use my 60 inch TV.

heeeeeey man if you don't want ur monitor I will take it  

[Yoinkerman]

I've actually had a lot of fun gaming on my 4170 and GTX 650ti.  Does surprisingly well.

[aezakmi]

22 hours ago, NunoLava1998 said:

144hz/240hz does make you better in FPS games though, plus it's cool lol

that's what some spoiled little fucks said before matching me 6v1 for 5 rounds on counter strike 1.6 "we have better rigs so we'll win"

 

How wrong they were. won every single one of those rounds. ability is what matters, not $30000 PCs and $2000 800hz screens or whatever, of course I'm not the best at the game since I never played at a "pro" level but I can hardly see how a $2000 screen can make you better at X game, I used to go to an internet cafe with my friends and we used to play against other team there on LAN (8v8) or via internet with local groups or random players, that was fun as heck. boy how many time the owners had to come to the back and ask us to stay quiet

there were tournaments or "lan parties" too we used to attend usually after school. computers were toasters but able to run several games at decent FPS (I think none of us knew what a FPS was back then)

 

and to support OP I also used to have a shit computer but I was pretty good at games like again CS 1.6, unreal tournament (classic one) or Battlefield 2, practice makes perfection, having an expensive computer will not make you better at anything but bragging about it. I always had the cheapest peripherals and still managed to pwn these dam n00bs

[NunoLava1998]

1 minute ago, aezakmi said:

that's what some spoiled little fucks said before matching me 6v1 for 5 rounds on counter strike 1.6 "we have better rigs so we'll win"

 

How wrong they were. won every single one of those rounds. ability is what matters, not $30000 PCs and $2000 800hz screens or whatever, of course I'm not the best at the game since I never played at a "pro" level but I can hardly see how a $2000 screen can make you better at X game, I used to go to an internet cafe with my friends and we used to play against other team there on LAN (8v8) or via internet with local groups or random players, that was fun as heck. boy how many time the owners had to come to the back and ask us to stay quiet

there were tournaments or "lan parties" too we used to attend usually after school. computers were toasters but able to run several games at decent FPS (I think none of us knew what a FPS was back then)

 

and to support OP I also used to have a shit computer but I was pretty good at games like again CS 1.6, unreal tournament (classic one) or Battlefield 2, practice makes perfection, having an expensive computer will not make you better at anything but bragging about it. I always had the cheapest peripherals and still managed to pwn these dam n00bs

I'm not saying having better rigs will make you win.

In FPS games, 240hz is better than 60hz for example as you have 4x more frames, so you can spot and kill the enemy much more easily. Actually provides an advantage

Now, having better rigs won't make you better, at all.

[AngryBeaver]

What makes me happy is the projects. I have 19 month twins so I dont have the time to game I use to, but I still enjoying the builds.

 

An example of this is i have a 2080ti with the water block already installed just waiting for a home. I originally planned to toss it in my rig, but decided instead of draining for it I would just toss together a 9900k build.. now that had be side lined for a ryzen 3000 build In a few months.

 

I have done a little guestimating and I figure my new build is going to run me about $3400. My last build was in the 2600-2800 range. So do I need to purchase high end components and use a custom loop for them? No I dont. Hell my current machine still runs games on ultra at 1440p without issue, but I enjoy the builds and I like the fact it essentially upgrades every computer in my lab as I retire one machine and pass down mine.

 

In the end I think my oldest machine will be a 3770k(replaced the 2600k for pci-e support) at 4.5ghz with a 780ti.

 

So what is needed to be happy and have fun isnt always the only determining factor. Now if I didnt have the income to support it then things would be different, but luckily my career is very lucrative.

[LogicalDrm]

2 hours ago, James the Broke Gamer said:

Thank you for this very intelligent answer  If I could ask- what is your take on used pc parts and peripherals? thx

Depends on what. On what price etc. I wouldn't buy HDDs. Maybe not SSDs either. But I currently have case, PSU, GPU, 2xRAM plus 2nd monitor all bought used. I would be picky with mouse and kb if they wouldn't have warranty.