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buying a really good computer

Started by kittens, May 14, 2021, 06:38:57 PM

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kittens

hello friends. i do not want to get into the hows and whys of it but i have got my hands on exactly £2120 which i want to use as much as possible of to get a really really excellent PC.

what i want this pc for is very very fast and efficient video editing with premiere pro, and also the ability to play all the best games in super high settings. and it has to support PC VR too.

unfortunately i know absolutely nothing and my friend who was going to help me is 'busy'. i google search 'best gaming/video editing pc' and i look at all these computers' specifications and i know not what they mean. if you help me out i'll let you come round and watch me play on it.

i am too lazy and stupid to build a pc myself even though i am aware it will save me a huge amount of money.

please help this poor foolish man.

Ferris

2 grand on doge coin? That's good going.


Shoulders?-Stomach!

Buy a shit second hand car with the resale value of a shart and have no money left for petrol and sit in the car crying going 'oh no, no no why did I do this'

That is actually what people out there are doing right now instead of being The King and buying a fuck off PC that is future proofed for 3 months tops.

kittens

Dear Sirs,

I demand to be taken seriously!

Yours,

Kitten

Zetetic

Not really the right year for it. Might as well hang on until 2025.

kittens

did the computer harvest fail this year

woe is me and my £2120

kittens

heh heh i'll probably be waiting until the YEAR of 2120 until i get a straight answer from this merry band of jokers!!

earl_sleek

Weirdly I came into almost exactly the same amount of month this week. I thought about getting kick ass pc too but graphics cards are just too overpriced & hard to get atm.

kittens

off to bed now. I'll be checking this thread the moment i wake up. it'll be like Christmas morning, opening all my presents of links to wonderful computers for me to buy for £2120. 1 more sleep!

Ferris


Cuellar

You could do worse than going on https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ and looking at their pre-made builds e.g. https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/guide/9DscCJ/excellent-intel-gamingstreaming-build

Of course the problem then becomes finding a graphics card these days.

Replies From View

as long as it can play dangerous dave in the haunted mansion you'll be laughing

kittens

i look at these pcs and the specifications mean nothing to me. surely it has happened in the past that someone wanted a good computer but didn't know all of the computer stuff. what do they do? just go to Curry's and get fleeced? i have had this money in my bank for a good 4 days or so and not yet bought a great computer. this is a very trying time for me.

seepage

I'd say look at companies that assemble PCs from standard components e.g. '3XS Systems' from Scan, or PC Specialist, and look for a model that includes the CPU (processor) and graphics card in the pre-made build that Cuellar posted - an Intel i5-11600K CPU, an RTX 3070 graphics card and at least 16GB of memory, or 'phone them up to get a quote. Trouble is, they might qive you a delivery date but keep you waiting due to the current graphics card shortage. 

Non Stop Dancer

Make a thread on the PC Specialist forum, they're very helpful there.

Chedney Honks

386 will do the job but if you've got the dough after knocking off your pa, push the boat out for a 486.

586 is diminishing returns.

Gurke and Hare

Quote from: Cuellar on May 14, 2021, 09:58:43 PM
You could do worse than going on https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ and looking at their pre-made builds e.g. https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/guide/9DscCJ/excellent-intel-gamingstreaming-build

Of course the problem then becomes finding a graphics card these days.

Is that a graphics card that normally costs £1200, or one that's gone up to £1200 because of the current shortage?

seepage

That one is at the top end for RTX 3070s, but the RRP is £840 (RTX 3070 RRP starts about £450 I think).

peanutbutter

Considering how much of a pain it is building a PC for the first time and the trouble sourcing GPUs right now, might just be best to get a prebuilt with a RTX 3070. You can get some absolutely stuffed ones where they're obviously using the demand as a chance to get rid of some excess stock of something or another (cases. motherboards and PSUs most likely?), but if it works sure it works.

I guess I'm happy I bothered to build my own just because I've gotten to learn things but I doubt I've saved that much money in the process. Long term you'll probably save, especially if you go with a Ryzen motherboard.
I am tempted to sell my current GPU (RX580 Sapphire Pulse) and just scout sites like mad to find an RTX3060 instead for slightly more than I'd get, but can't be arsed tbh.

mobias

Sadly this is the worst time in human history to buy a high end gaming PC. Prices are through the roof at the moment with all the crypto mining and the general semiconductor shortage. That being said it is slightly easier if you're buying a pre-built PC as opposed to sourcing parts individually.

Right now AMD hold the upper hand when it comes to CPU's and if you're wanting to use your PC for VR Nvidia hold the upper hand for GPU's. Bang for buck the new AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and 5 5800X are your best bet. Both have pretty much exactly the same performance when it comes to gaming but if you're wanting to do editing work I'd for the 5800X as its 8 cores as opposed to the 6 cores of the 5600X. The 5600X is cheaper though. I've got a 5600X and its incredibly fast for gaming. Its pretty much the best single core performance CPU currently on the market (without going into silly money) and its really well priced, which is why its been difficult to get hold of. I got one ok just a couple of months ago though so they are around.

For a GPU in a £2000 price range rig I think you're realistically looking at an RTX3060ti or an RTX3070. I doubt you'll get an RTX3080 for that price but you might get lucky. The 3060ti is cheaper than the 3070 and only marginally slower, only something like 5% slower so its negligible. I would not go below an 3060ti or a 3070 if you want to use your PC for VR. Having as much VRAM as possible is crucial for good VR performance. Its why people are spending shit tones on the RTX3090, its got a lot of VRAM.

16GB of main system RAM is fine generally but I recently upgraded to 32GB and my PC is definitely happier now. People are increasingly saying 32GB should really become the norm, rather than 16GB. RAM isn't cheap at the moment though so you can always get a rig with 16GB and upgrade later.

As to where to get one from. PC Specialist are good, as are Overclockers. Overclockers can be a tad on the expensive side but they don't cheap out on quality. Have a look at some of these. https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pc-systems/gaming-pc/nvidia-geforce-pc

I bought my last gaming PC from PC Specialist and they come highly recommended by a lot of people. https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

I would definitely stay away from AMD GPU's if you want to enjoy VR. Nvidia undoubtedly have the better tech there.

And just to add to all that. If you need to factor into things the price of a monitor you won't really be able to game in 4K with an RTX 3070 or 3060ti, both are aimed at 1440p resolution. The good news is you can get a nice 28inch 1440p monitor for less than 300 quid.

El Unicornio, mang

If you're open to the idea of a high end laptop gaming PC, you could do worse than this (if you have an extra 70 to add to your budget)

https://www.maraz.co.uk/products/alienware-area-51m-17-3-inch-fhd-anti-glare-ips-tobii-eye-tracker-gaming-2019-laptop-black-intel-core-i9-9900k-16-gb-ram-512-gb-ssd-1tb-hdd-nvidia-geforce-rtx-oc-2080-8-gb-gddr6-windows-10-home

It's the same as mine just with a 2070 rather than a 2080. Has really cool light up rainbow keys and everything. You can get cheaper in desktop form but I couldn't live without the portability.

The R4 version has 3080 GPU and option of up to 360fps screen for 400 quid more. Might upgrade to it at some point, gaming is fine with the 2080 but could do with the bit extra juice to speed up video/3d ray traced graphics rendering

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops/alienware-m17-r4-gaming-laptop/spd/alienware-m17-r4-laptop/n00awm17r404?view=configurations

Gurke and Hare

I can't speak authoritatively about the level of value in the specs (though the ones around 2k here look more or less as people here have recommended) but I had good customer service from CCL - I ordered too much RAM and the return was smooth, I got the money back quickly and the order tracking is good.

kittens

thank you for all the help, men. i wish i understood or was willing to learn any of this stuff. i just need to be told BUY THIS ONE but things seem to not be that simple. it's an old story, all the money in the world but all he ever truly needed was a really really excellent computer.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Read the posts that use the phrases 'big time', 'epochal' and 'end war' and take their advice the most. Cheers.

Ferris

Quote from: kittens on May 17, 2021, 09:42:08 PM
thank you for all the help, men. i wish i understood or was willing to learn any of this stuff. i just need to be told BUY THIS ONE but things seem to not be that simple. it's an old story, all the money in the world but all he ever truly needed was a really really excellent computer.

Why do you even need an excellent computer if you have VR? Surely you have ascended from all that mumbo jumbo 2D bullshit.

mobias

Quote from: kittens on May 17, 2021, 09:42:08 PM
i just need to be told BUY THIS ONE

Buy this one https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk-gaming-oxygen-gaming-pc-amd-ryzen-5-5600x-geforce-rtx-3060ti-fs-1bz-og.html

And this lovely 32 inch Samsung gaming monitor. Its great quality for the price and will got to 4K for movie and photo editing. Though with an RTX3060ti you'll be wanting to game at 1440p. https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/pc-monitors/pc-monitors/samsung-u32j590-4k-ultra-hd-32-led-monitor-black-10181381-pdt.html

If I had 2 grand to spend on a gaming PC right now that combo is what I'd go for.



El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on May 17, 2021, 10:35:17 PM
Why do you even need an excellent computer if you have VR? Surely you have ascended from all that mumbo jumbo 2D bullshit.

He'll need it for the primo graphics VR stuff like Half Life Alyx and Lone Echo though

kittens

Quote from: mobias on May 17, 2021, 10:49:38 PM
Buy this one https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk-gaming-oxygen-gaming-pc-amd-ryzen-5-5600x-geforce-rtx-3060ti-fs-1bz-og.html

And this lovely 32 inch Samsung gaming monitor. Its great quality for the price and will got to 4K for movie and photo editing. Though with an RTX3060ti you'll be wanting to game at 1440p. https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/pc-monitors/pc-monitors/samsung-u32j590-4k-ultra-hd-32-led-monitor-black-10181381-pdt.html

If I had 2 grand to spend on a gaming PC right now that combo is what I'd go for.

i already have a couple monitors, can we whack that monitor money into the pc pile and get an even bigger beast. please sir

mobias

I'd still go for that Overclockers PC linked to above but ring them up and say you want a Ryzen 5800X processor in it instead of the 5600X. The 5800X is 8 core and will be slightly better for movie editing and games streaming, should you want to do that. You could also ask them to put in a larger SSD whilst you're at it. That should bring things up to the £2K mark.

Looking around there's not a whole lot more around the £2K price range that will be significantly better than that PC. The thing to remember with gaming PC's is its easy to needlessly spend money on hardware that will give you very, very marginal performance improvements.