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NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 06 Dec 2024 16:24:12 +0000
From: Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: Computer Build
Date: Fri, 06 Dec 2024 11:24:12 -0500
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On Fri, 6 Dec 2024 11:21:47 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

>On 05/12/2024 20:47, Justisaur wrote:
>> On 12/4/2024 1:37 AM, JAB wrote:
>>> On 02/12/2024 21:23, Justisaur wrote:
>>>> My son expressed an interest in upgrading his computer, he's waffling 
>>>> though, as I told him he needs to pay for it himself.  He has the 
>>>> money, but doesn't want to use it.  I would pay local taxes to help out.
>>>>
>>>> My goal was to keep costs down, but make it at least as good as what 
>>>> I have now. The one he has now is a handmedown from his grands, 
>>>> unfortunately the case is a propriatary dell with a propriatary 
>>>> motherboard, a normal ATX doesn't fit in it, so I can't use it.  I 
>>>> may be able to use the PSU, but need to tear it apart to do so.  I'm 
>>>> only planning on a 500W PSU as it seems power requirements have gone 
>>>> down considerably.
>>>
>>> My not so helpfully advice is don't overthink it too much as the 
>>> reality is unless you do something disastrous it's going to do the job 
>>> for you. My last upgrade, instead of doing my customary spending ages 
>>> trying to decide exactly what to get I went down the I don't need a 
>>> 'god like' PC so let's just spend a little bit of time online looking 
>>> for recommended budget gaming set-ups. Did I get the best value for 
>>> money, almost definitely not but I also didn't waste hours upon hours 
>>> of 'research' just to say feck it I'll go with that which I looked at 
>>> two weeks ago.
>>>
>>> The other problem I found is that what would seem a good place for 
>>> advice (real people online) turns out to be really problematic in that 
>>> it ranges from at worst bad advice and at best this is the system I 
>>> would want regardless of whether that would met your needs. Oh you 
>>> want a new PC for general day-to-day stuff as some light gaming. Well 
>>> clearly what you want is system built around a 4090!
>> 
>> The adive I've gotten here has been far above anything I've found 
>> elsewhere over the years :)  Hopefully I've given some too.
>> 
>> I already ordered it, I probably made some mistakes (as Ross pointed 
>> out) but it's still hundreds of dollars less than a branded gaming 
>> computer of probably similar performance (or more like much higher 
>> performance for the budget than one.)
>>
>
>
>All I really know about gaming PC's is that you are almost always going 
>to overpay for what you actually get unless you really value a flash 
>case and some 'cool' stickers!

And the thing about it is that it's all rather unnecessary. Even most
laptops today are capable of playing most games. Maybe not at the
highest resolutions and with all the features toggled to "ultra" but
even so you'll still end up with a good looking game. (Honestly, in
most cases I have a hard time noticing any difference between "medium"
and "ultra" setting anyway). 

There are two reasons to overpay for a computer. 

    1) You enjoy it. It's a perfectly valid reason to buy something
powerful because you really like that part of it. If you ever
benchmark your computers*, you may be in this group. ;-)

    2) You're trying to future-proof your investment. Myself, I tend
to go a long time between refreshes (although there are occassional
small upgrades in between, it can be over a decade between replacing
motherboard/cpu/ram). But even then, you don't need to buy the bestest
and fastest (especially with regards to GPUs) since those are likely
to get swapped out in the interim.

It really depends on how you intend to use your PC and how long before
you want a new one. If you're thinking that maybe in three to five
years you'll be upgrading, maybe scale down your expectations. Current
PCs are so disgustingly powerful already that most games don't take
advantage of their full abilities. 

Do you really need that bleeding edge GPU? I don't think I know any
game which demands 16GB yet, much less 32GB, so maybe less RAM? How
many cores do you REALLY need? A super-fast spinning-iron HDD is
neat... but when you're mainly getting it for its capacity to store
data, is it worth the premium? If you're never going to upgrade, do
you really need such a PSU with so much overhead?

I'm not saying DON'T get these things. Depending on your wants and
usage scenario, any or all of them might be worth it to you. I LIKE
having an HDD so fast (15K RPM SCSI/SAS drive) it literally needs a
cooling fan to keep it running. It doesn't do anything for me
performance-wise, but I think stuff like that is neat. Maybe you do
too. But for most people, it's not worth the expense.

The only thing I'd argue for is -as mentioned in other posts- trying
to avoid proprietary parts... or at least computers that don't work
without them, because a) you can't upgrade them and b) if something
breaks, finding replacement parts will be impossible or expensive.
It's often cheaper to just toss the machine and buy new (which is, of
course, what THEY want). 

Meanwhile, don't forget the 'little things' that are often overlooked
while concentrating on the big-ticket components. How many USB ports
does it have (you'll always want more). How easy is it to swap
components? One of my biggest complaints with my current PC is
something I completely overlooked: the placement of the power-button
(it's in the middle of the top panel; inconvenient to reach, but easy
to press accidentally when I put something on top of the PC). 

TL;DR: before buying your PC, think about how you are going to use it,
what and where you're going to be using it with (e.g., external
components), and how long you realistically expect it to last before
replacing it.










* and keep a spreadsheet with the results. Not saying I know anyone
like that. ;-)