Gaming PC’s TME

IMO building your own PC used to be the way to go to save money and get bang for buck. It's been a while since I've looked, but some years ago premade PCs became just fine and often even cheaper than DIY.

It's sorta like building your own partscaster. Years ago, overseas guitars used to be crap so parts guitars used to be awesome for the price. But now pre-made guitars are economical and mostly great, and so partscasters is just its own hobby. Hobbyists will tell you it's still how you save money, get bang for buck, etc., but most people just want to buy a guitar and there's plenty of fine ones available for great prices.

Just research some topics, "what graphics-card/cpu/memory do I need for X," and look for machines that check those boxes.

Yeah I’m def in favor of buying a premade, not that I’m entirely opposed to building one, but I’m not really looking for a project either. lol
 
Potentially stupid question, but when using the pcpartpicker list, does it also include all the interconnects to connect the parts or do I need to look into the wires/connectors required to get it built?
 
Potentially stupid question, but when using the pcpartpicker list, does it also include all the interconnects to connect the parts or do I need to look into the wires/connectors required to get it built?
It's going to come with all the interconnects.

CPU, memory, and storage get plugged right into the motherboard.
CPU Cooler's got two fan wires coming out, plugs into the MB's two fan headers.
Video card plugs into the MB.
Power supply mounts to the case, and it has cables coming out that go into the MB & video card.
The case comes with fans & USB ports and their wiring, plugs into the MB.
 
It's going to come with all the interconnects.

CPU, memory, and storage get plugged right into the motherboard.
CPU Cooler's got two fan wires coming out, plugs into the MB's two fan headers.
Video card plugs into the MB.
Power supply mounts to the case, and it has cables coming out that go into the MB & video card.
The case comes with fans & USB ports and their wiring, plugs into the MB.

And the case has all the mounts and hardware to screw in all the parts?
 
And the case has all the mounts and hardware to screw in all the parts?
Yes, they usually do. And... checked, an Amazon review says the case comes with plenty of screws.

Did this real quick, this is mostly it:
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Best phrase for PC Building I've heard is Legos for adults. It really is pretty mapped out anymore. I went a prebuilt PC after toying with building one
 
The problem with many pre-builts is that some of them use absolutely shit tier mobo, RAM, PSU, cooler etc. This will vary heavily by company. So even though the spec list looks good, the actual specs might be worse than what you get building your own.

This of course cycles back to "be a geek and know your hardware" which then goes to "why not just build it yourself?"
 
The problem with many pre-builts is that some of them use absolutely shit tier mobo, RAM, PSU, cooler etc. This will vary heavily by company. So even though the spec list looks good, the actual specs might be worse than what you get building your own.
The partscaster analogy fits perfectly here.
This of course cycles back to "be a geek and know your hardware" which then goes to "why not just build it yourself?"
Or it cycles back to, "they're mostly fine and I'm not a geek so I won't care anyway, why not just buy prebuilt?"

Like this thing I found in 20 seconds by googling "Radeon RX 6700 XT computer":
Perfectly fine and comparable.

The pcpartpicker website is cool though, takes all the guesswork and painful learning out of building a PC!
 
The partscaster analogy fits perfectly here.

Or it cycles back to, "they're mostly fine and I'm not a geek so I won't care anyway, why not just buy prebuilt?"

Like this thing I found in 20 seconds by googling "Radeon RX 6700 XT computer":
Perfectly fine and comparable.

The pcpartpicker website is cool though, takes all the guesswork and painful learning out of building a PC!
At the same time looking at the detailed specs there's a 80 Plus Bronze rated mystery PSU which is not great but probably alright for the price. RAM is mystery specs, fans are mystery specs and could be fine or they are noisy and start going off right after warranty.

This is what I was talking about. It might work just fine, it might be a ticking time bomb on the components they cheaped out on.
 
At the same time looking at the detailed specs there's a 80 Plus Bronze rated mystery PSU which is not great but probably alright for the price. RAM is mystery specs, fans are mystery specs and could be fine or they are noisy and start going off right after warranty.

This is what I was talking about. It might work just fine, it might be a ticking time bomb on the components they cheaped out on.
If you're not a geek, it's fine and no one's going to notice.
 
My son has now gotten old enough to start asking for more expensive shit. He wants a gaming rig now. So I took it upon myself to show him the value of working and saving. So his ass has been pushing a mower around every week to earn an “allowance”. :ROFLMAO: I think he’s probably going to end up with around $700 saved by the christmas break, which is when he is hoping to get it all decked out. (I told him if he bought the machine, I’d get him the monitor and a gaming chair etc)

I’m not opposed to kicking in a few extra dollars to help him get something capable. (Obviously not telling him that though lol)

That said, I have no idea what sorta machine he can get for that coin, or honestly what we should be looking for. (Do people still say, “Can it run Crysis?”) :rofl

Him and his goober friends are still playing Minecraft and Roblux, so I’d imagine almost anything can play those games. But, it would be cool to have something a little future proofed, especially if he gets into first person shooters and stuff like that.

I was thinking a new M2 Mac Mini with 16gb of RAM should run everything he is into now and is in his budget, but I don’t know if people use MACs for gaming, or if that would confuse him from a Windows machine. But having a compact unit like that would be cool.

Are there any specific brands or lines of machines to look at?

In all honesty if you want "new" double that 700 and you will be able to cobble together a lower end gaming PC. I have seen some decent rigs for 7-800 used on craigslist in the recent past. A good gaming PC is going to run you 2k if you build it yourself. Lots of folks advertise PC's that have no right being labeled as a "Gaming PC" so beware of that. I am still rocking a 7th Gen i7 Dell XPS 8920 tower that I bought 6 years ago. Upgraded the ram and added a couple SSD's to it since but I paid 900 bucks for it. If I added a gaming card to it I could probably do some decent gaming with it but I use it mostly for video and audio stuff.
 
Update. He’s still mowing. He’s still saving, but I don’t even know what for now. (Hopefully a car lol) But we gave him his mothers old POS laptop over the holidays to hook up to the gaming monitor/desk/chair setup we gave him, and since it can play Minecraft, he hasn’t said a word about buying/needing anything else. :rofl

These kids play the most low rent bullshit games. :ROFLMAO: I NEED A GAMING COMPUTER. (Saves for 6 months) NO WHaT IREaLLY nEEdZ IS A MiNcrAFT and ROblOx viewer ThAt AnY POS DeViCe CoULD PlAy.

Kids.
 
Update. He’s still mowing. He’s still saving, but I don’t even know what for now. (Hopefully a car lol) But we gave him his mothers old POS laptop over the holidays to hook up to the gaming monitor/desk/chair setup we gave him, and since it can play Minecraft, he hasn’t said a word about buying/needing anything else. :rofl

These kids play the most low rent bullshit games. :ROFLMAO: I NEED A GAMING COMPUTER. (Saves for 6 months) NO WHaT IREaLLY nEEdZ IS A MiNcrAFT and ROblOx viewer ThAt AnY POS DeViCe CoULD PlAy.

Kids.
I've been playing Minecraft against my will for about 5 years now. Somehow my kid never tires of it.
 
I've been playing Minecraft against my will for about 5 years now. Somehow my kid never tires of it.

Yeah it’s crazy. It was the first game he really got in to and it just never stopped. I’ll play occasionally with them, but they are soft and like creative mode.

When he first started playing I went in deep trying to figure it out so I could help him along, but I had to pull the plug on the game when I caught myself @ 2am grinding dark oak planks to finish a fence for my chicken pen. :ROFLMAO:
 
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