Should I buy myself a gaming PC

[GreenDonut]

Hello everyone

 

SOME CONTEXT 

I have a hard time with making decisions. I previously owned a PS3 (sold) > Xbox One (sold) > Nintendo Switch (sold). I was never able to buy myself a decent gaming PC and always relied on buying consoles because they were cheaper. 

I sold them every time when I felt like "I don't want to game anymore" and the felling to not play anymore always came up when it was summer time. I mostly played during Fall/Winter times and rarely at summer times since I get bad feelings and small depressions when playing video games at home during hot and awesome weather.

Nowadays I get bored more quicker then before when I play specific games but at the same time I get hungry for some gaming sessions when I see my friends play the latest games which I can't play cuz I don't have a gaming pc.

 

I am using a Macbook since 2015 and was able to play "LoL" , "Minecraft" , "Albion Online", "CSgo" and "WoW" -- the experience  was never that great tho even when I was able to play them smoothly.

Now I always get nostalgic feeling about games I want to play again after a long "I don't want to play videogames anymore" pause.

 

-- That is why I am kinda trying to decide to buy a gaming PC for good now. A machine that I completely want to use for gaming even when it is occasionally and maybe with 1 or 2 month pause after long gaming sessions. I know that I won't play multiple hours are daily like in the old days anymore.

** It is like a diet  .. I would rather eat 1 chocolate bar in a month or every 2 weeks instead of cutting it completely out.

 

GAMING PC I FOUND

Now for me a small build is important for when I want to take it with me for a 3 hours ride on the train to my hometown for same gaming party. I don't like the average sized pc cases which almost everyone has anyway.

Lucky me I found one on Ebay for 900€ .. it has the

- b450 motherboard

- Ryzen 3600 

- GTX 1660 Super

- 16 gb RAM

- small case

 

as I said I plan on using it only for gaming. I soon want to buy myself a new MacBook with the m1 pro for creative and productive stuff. I wished that there would be good eGPU solutions for the new MacBooks but there isn't.

 

I would play the above mentioned games rarely now 

 

graphic demanding games that need a GPU I want to play are :

 

- Battlefield 4 / 1 / 5 / hardline / 2042

- Warzone

- Warframe

- Genshin Impact

- Diablo 3 / 2 Remastered

- maybe DOOM

- GTA 

- maybe APEX

- Valorant

 

So should I invest in that somewhat future proof PC ? 

I could pic me a Lenovo Legion or MSI GE66 .. which look awesome and I could imagine using them for productivity and gaming.. but I don't want to own 2 laptops and I want to have a MACBOOK always

 

Hope you could follow me til here and give me a fine answer

[Dragonwinged]

So, before you do anything, I'd like to know what level of graphics you're looking for. If you're looking for 4k 60, you're looking in the wrong place. Those level of graphics need some serious pc hardware, and that doesn't come small or cheap. However, If you're looking for good performance for a low price, might I suggest this company.

 

https://store.minisforum.com/collections/all-product

 

The Ryzen Zen IGPU has shown itself to be quite capable. What I have noticed is that the largest Impact to performance is your game's resolution. If you can live with 900p or 720p, you could get games running on high settings with 60fps framerates pretty easily.

 

If you do find issues with running games with decent performance, there's a channel i suggest you check out.

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQkd05iAYed2-LOmhjzDG6g

 

This guy os dedicated to getting modern games running great on low end hardware, and at the last LTT Expo, he showed off Doom 2016 running on a $300 build.

 

There is another tip I have. If the manufacturer you go with installs an WD SN520 by default, have an SSD ready to replace it with, because the SN520 is a POS. It'll cause your PC to freeze randomly, forcing a Hard Reset and a system check to make sure your OS Files didn't get corrupted. I used the windows command prompt sfc /scannow several times specifically because of that drive. I have since switched to a Samsung 970 pro, and have had no issues with it so far.

[Dedayog]

Yes, get one.  Use it like any other tool, when you need it.  It won't hurt to sit for a month or three.

 

I mean, how else are you going to play the games you list, that you want to play?  It's not cool or trendy to deny yourself something you enjoy.

 

Come up with a total budget.  We have you list of games.  We can help with building or finding you one that fits.

[Bombastinator]

One I worry about is this talk of using a desktop in a mobile situation.  Assembled Desktops are considered furniture because they’re fragile when assebled.   Great as long as you don’t try to carry them around or using them in things that vibrate a lot.  Like vehicles such as trains.  The parts can be rugged individually.  Transportation of parts is different than an assembled machine though.  Assembled Desktops aren’t vibration resistant the way some laptops are. They CAN be, but they have to be made to be and such things are often extremely expensive.   This is sounding more like a laptop situation than a desktop one. 

[GreenDonut]

Thanks for the answers so far ..

 

I don't care much about the graphics. 1080p would be more then enough for me and the FPS should be at least 60 fps for games like Battlefield. 

 

I searched for some gameplay videos with the motherboard + CPU + GPU in the searchbar .. and it seems to perform well .. I don't really want 4k gaming as long as it runs my preferred games smoothly.

 

I will post the components of the ebay offer I found : 

 

DAN Case A4-SFX v4.1
AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO WIFI
2x8GB DDR4 3000MHz CL15 Crucial Micron E-Die (OC bis 3600 MHz CL16)
Gigabyte GTX 1660 SUPER™ GAMING OC 6G
Corsair SF750 Platinum
Crucial P1 m.2 500GB Boot Drive

 

I was looking and searching for to long and this was the only package I found in my area with decent parts it seems and small case. The small build is what I also care about a lot.

Just don't like the bigger cases.

 

building one myself is to expensive since the GPU prices are 3x of what they originally were. 

 

I also was thinking of buying a used APU pc or building one myself but I came to the decision to go for a CPU + GPU PC ..

 

 

 

 

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, GreenDonut said:

Thanks for the answers so far ..

 

I don't care much about the graphics. 1080p would be more then enough for me and the FPS should be at least 60 fps for games like Battlefield. 

 

I searched for some gameplay videos with the motherboard + CPU + GPU in the searchbar .. and it seems to perform well .. I don't really want 4k gaming as long as it runs my preferred games smoothly.

 

I will post the components of the ebay offer I found : 

 

DAN Case A4-SFX v4.1
AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO WIFI
2x8GB DDR4 3000MHz CL15 Crucial Micron E-Die (OC bis 3600 MHz CL16)
Gigabyte GTX 1660 SUPER™ GAMING OC 6G
Corsair SF750 Platinum
Crucial P1 m.2 500GB Boot Drive

 

I was looking and searching for to long and this was the only package I found in my area with decent parts it seems and small case. The small build is what I also care about a lot.

Just don't like the bigger cases.

 

building one myself is to expensive since the GPU prices are 3x of what they originally were. 

 

I also was thinking of buying a used APU pc or building one myself but I came to the decision to go for a CPU + GPU PC ..

 

 

 

 

The 1660S can be viable for some 1440p gaming just not all of it. It should push 1080p well above 60fps in many instances.  

[Majinhoju]

Go for it.

You could replace the 1660 down the road when RTX cards aren't so difficult to fine but it should work just find for your needs for now.

 

If you get bored easily there's huuuuuge library of pc games to play. You should have no shortage of games to play.

[GreenDonut]

So the 900€ for that PC is okay then right ? 

[Bombastinator]

25 minutes ago, GreenDonut said:

So the 900€ for that PC is okay then right ? 

I don’t see anything specifically wrong with it with your statements in consideration.  Not quite enough Video card for the rest of the machine, but that is accounted for.