What is a logical amount to spend on a pc?

[PogDogs]

What do you guys think is a good amount to spend on a computer now adays for gaming?

[Skiiwee29]

Honestly, it really depends on what its use is for. For gaming, in a normal world, between $800-$1000 makes sense for a good 1080p system and scales up to $2000-$2500 for a good 4k gaming rig. 

[Spotty]

Really depends what you expect the PC to be capable of, however right now the price of gaming PCs is firmly dictated by the supply and cost of graphics cards.

[Levent]

Depends, if you need peripherals $1300 should get you started with a decent set. If not you can get a decent system for $1000-$900. That ofcourse would mean getting a GPU at reasonable price range.

[Arika]

depends how much income you have. it's a bad idea to get into a bad financial situation because of a gaming PC.

[WereCatf]

3 minutes ago, PogDogs said:

What do you guys think is a good amount to spend on a computer now adays for gaming?

Depends on what it'll be used for, where you live and how much you can afford to spend without it impacting your ability to pay bills, buy food and all other expenses involved in your life, while also leaving you with some extra in case of emergencies.

[Chris Pratt]

I would say $1000-1500 for your average does pretty much everything well enough gaming PC. Lower is budget territory, where you're making sacrifices to cut costs, and higher is enthusiast territory, where you want all the bling and all the FPS and don't mind paying for it.

 

That's obviously given not scalped prices. Everything out the window once you factor that in.

[AMD A10-9600P]

Short answer, it depends.

 

It depends on;

• How much you're prepared to spend
• How much you are able to spend
• Where you live
• What you want the PC to be able to do
• How soon you want the PC
• Whether you need a new display, mouse and keyboard or not
• Situations within the computing industry, like high demand for parts
• How long you want the PC to last for

 

For a reasonable rig (disregarding the price hikes at the moment), I'd recommend a Ryzen 5 or Core i5, 16GB RAM (two sticks at 3200 or 3600MHz), an RTX 2060 or 3060ti, 500GB SSD and 2TB HDD, or 1TB SSD. To go alongside those, I'd suggest a 1080p or 1440p 144Hz monitor, and whatever mouse or keyboard takes your fancy.

[Fatih19]

Depends on what you use it for. Professionals who uses it for work would spend a lot of money for their PCs, because the high upfront cost is relatively small compared to the money they make for doing their job faster.

It also depends on your situation. You shouldn't go into debt or mortgage your house just for a PC.

[NineEyeRon]

One months salary

[Haraikomono]

as less as possible,

built mine out of comonents i got off ebay for a combinend value of 280€  rx 580, i5-7400, asus pro gaming v5, 32gb ddr4, 256gb nvme ssd and 4tb seagate hdd, corsair 650w

[RoseLuck462]

Until the job is done 

[Kisai]

4 hours ago, PogDogs said:

What do you guys think is a good amount to spend on a computer now adays for gaming?

Never spend more than 50% of the budget on any one part unless you want it forever.

 

eg the CPU, RAM , MB, and GPU collectively should be about 80% of your budget, with the PSU, Chassis, and NVME M2 drive being in the other 20%.

 

Like you can easily spend $3000 right now, and not end up with a GPU at all. The CPU, MB and RAM all being around $600 each.

[NinJake]

It depends. If you've saved $10k over the last 10 years solely for the purpose of a new rig, then go at it, you earned it. If you just won 10k from a scratch off, it might be worth investing some of that money elsewhere.

 

As others stated, there's a ton of other variables that come into play as to if you're getting your money's worth/value for any given part at the time of purchase.

 

A 800 dollar pc might be reasonable to some, whereas a 4000 dollar pc might be reasonable to another. Just because something is reasonable to someone else does not mean it should be reasonable to you.

[Haraikomono]

27 minutes ago, NinJake said:

It depends. If you've saved $10k over the last 10 years solely for the purpose of a new rig, then go at it, you earned it. If you just won 10k from a scratch off, it might be worth investing some of that money elsewhere.

 

As others stated, there's a ton of other variables that come into play as to if you're getting your money's worth/value for any given part at the time of purchase.

 

A 800 dollar pc might be reasonable to some, whereas a 4000 dollar pc might be reasonable to another. Just because something is reasonable to someone else does not mean it should be reasonable to you.

wise words

[LogicalDrm]

Depends. Are you sure about it or not. If not, then its not worth spending as much. Also if you are sure about spending to PC, you can spend less on some parts since partial upgrading is cheaper than doing whole thing at once. Also depends on what you are planning to do with it. Not just "gaming, streaming, editing" type of things, but if gaming, do you game because of looks or because of content. And so on.

 

Before current situation I did make a list of parts as if I would have to do full new build. It was around €1500. Thats about double what I paid for my PC in 2008.

[Burnlan]

I think the answer to every "how much should I spend ?" question starts with "how much do you earn ?"  Like, even a 400$ PC can be too expensive if it means eating raw rice for a month. 

But on a more serious note, if the GPU market wasn't broken I'd say 800$ for a basic "I'm gaming at 1080p" setup, up to around 1400$ for a "1440p is the best resolution and I like pushing details in games". But hey, market is like the ice cream machine at McDonald right now so I who know what's a fair price anymore.

I'll also add that if you're on a budget right now, don't forget to factor in the screen and peripherals. A cheap computer can be upgraded simply by adding a GPU and some RAM, but a cheap screen will have to be replaced entirely. 

[WihGlah]

 

 

[tkitch]

More than 1 dollar, and less than Linus spent on the Mac Killer.

[rockyroller]

Because I'm on a disability income I have adopted a new way to afford a PC as I simple can not buy a pre built system or all the parts at once and then put it all together. What I do now is to spend a set amount per month. Which is if it helps, 200ukp.

That money can buy 1 part like a bit or ram this month, a cooler next month and if the part cost x2 or x3 then I leave that 200 in the bank until the next month and then buy the part I need.

 

It will take months to build a PC, but there is no price limit to the finished build and you can make it a PC which will run the software you need it to at max settings. Another bonus is while you spend months putting it together Graphic cards might actually find their way into shops? I'm going to use my current GFx card and SSDs as they are still up to running current games and the mobo features allow them to run even faster than the old mobo.

[Tym2000]

1000$

[Tonyx]

In a normal world, like until late 2020, around 1000$ gaming configuration with delle choosen componets was the bang for the buck sweetspot, until 2000 you get good improvements, above 2000 not so.

But with 600$ back then you could get the most FPS/$ with config like ryzen 3600 + GTX 1660 super.

Now with todays GPU prices is a whole different story

[Ar558a]

Thats a very person specific question. It really depends on what you use it for and how much you can afford. If you are a millionaire and want the maximum performance at any cost you could spend £4-5k. ($5-$6.5k) IF you are a normal person who wants a mix of surfing, excel, word and gaming at 1080p £1000 ($1300) would normally be a reasonable amount (that without the GPU market chaos).  I would suggest a good mid range PC would be a little above that at circa £1300 ($1700) which would get you a machine that should allow 1440p in most games, all the usual surf/excel stuff plus light video editing and transcoding.

[Mark Kaine]

On 4/13/2021 at 12:42 PM, Skiiwee29 said:

For gaming, in a normal world, between $800-$1000

This would be my answer in normal times,  but seeing as I just bought a "midrange" (technically "low end" as it was the weakest of the bunch back then) gpu for 700 bucks few months ago that doesn't hold quite true anymore, and the same card cost now 1200 or something alone...

 

So yeah, it depends on many factors,  but gpu prices mostly currently. 

 

 

[mwagen]

On 4/13/2021 at 7:01 AM, Fatih19 said:

You shouldn't go into debt or mortgage your house just for a PC.

Thought of this: