Looking to buy my first PC for gaming!

[love]

Hello, I'm a total newbie when it comes to PCs and their specs, so I'm looking for advice on what to purchase for my first PC! I've been talking to some friends and they've recommended I go for 64 or 32 RAM, and have also recommended NVIDEA graphics cards as being good for gaming! My main videogame interests are pretty varied, from Marvel Rivals to Baldur's Gate 3 to Disney Dreamlight Valley, so I want a PC that can handle those kinds of games (as well as modding which I'm excited to dabble with!)

Basically, I know nothing and would love for help and suggestions in the most basic terms as if you're trying to teach a toddler! I've only ever had a laptop and the most I've done is play League of Legends and Sims 3. I have a little mouse, but I'll also need a Keyboard and Monitor. I started a new job so I thought I could get an idea of what I should be going for as well as ideas of pricing in advance so that I can start saving!

I think the one aspect that I fully understand is RAM, because previously on my laptop I had to switch to using OperaGX browser since Chrome was using up so much RAM along with Discord and was causing a lot of issues for me. My major question is, if I'm only planning to play videogames, call on discord, and potentially stream some things, will I need more than 32 RAM? 64 RAM sounds nice, but I know the price can be something of a jump and I'm not sure if I'll even be doing anything so heavy duty that I would need that much, but I'm also not very educated and I know that it's harder to upgrade your RAM, so for somebody like me I may end up being stuck with whatever RAM I start with.

Currently my laptop as 8 RAM and my friend's PC has 16 RAM and she says she doesn't run into issues, so I'm feeling good about 32 RAM.

I would like to know the process of getting a PC, what I'll need, what things I should look out for: basically anything you veterans feel is necessary to share with and educate a first time buyer on! (& thank you in advance!)

 

[sck451]

You're focusing on RAM a lot! You probably don't need to. I'd say 95% of new gaming systems today use 32GB of RAM; there's no point in having more and little saving in having less.

However, RAM is only one part of a bigger picture. Basically there are two questions that govern everything.

1. What monitor will you be using? (We need to know resolution and refresh rate, or make and model number.) If you need to buy one, what is your budget?
2. What is your budget for the PC?

If you can come up with some kind of answer for those, I (or someone else on the forum) will be happy to suggest a whole system for you.

 

[love]

You're focusing on RAM a lot! You probably don't need to. I'd say 95% of new gaming systems today use 32GB of RAM; there's no point in having more and little saving in having less.

However, RAM is only one part of a bigger picture. Basically there are two questions that govern everything.

1. What monitor will you be using? (We need to know resolution and refresh rate, or make and model number.) If you need to buy one, what is your budget?
2. What is your budget for the PC?

If you can come up with some kind of answer for those, I (or someone else on the forum) will be happy to suggest a whole system for you.

Currently, no budget! I'm just looking for pricings so I can get an idea, but I don't want to go above and beyond what I need, but I'm willing to save for what I do need!

 

[SpyderTracks]

Currently, no budget! I'm just looking for pricings so I can get an idea, but I don't want to go above and beyond what I need, but I'm willing to save for what I do need!

So if we say £5000 just for the tower, then around another £500 for keyboard and mouse and 2k for a monitor?

 

[sck451]

Currently, no budget! I'm just looking for pricings so I can get an idea, but I don't want to go above and beyond what I need, but I'm willing to save for what I do need!

A ballpark, then. £600? £1000? £2500? £5000? All are possible.

If you'd like some suggestions, a basic idea of budget is needed. As is some idea of the monitor. Although I see this is in "all in one PCs" -- is that what you're looking for? I don't think any of us on this forum would recommend it: it's all the downsides of a laptop with basically none of the upsides.

 

[love]

So if we say £5000 just for the tower, then around another £500 for keyboard and mouse and 2k for a monitor?

I'd just feel that that pricing was unnecessary for what I would need! To play things like Dreamlight Valley, Marvel Rivals, Baldur's Gate 3, and be able to stream on Discord, it shouldn't require a £5000 tower (unless I'm mistaken!)

 

[love]

A ballpark, then. £600? £1000? £2500? £5000? All are possible.

If you'd like some suggestions, a basic idea of budget is needed. As is some idea of the monitor. Although I see this is in "all in one PCs" -- is that what you're looking for? I don't think any of us on this forum would recommend it: it's all the downsides of a laptop with basically none of the upsides.

I may be in the wrong forum then! I've never actually heard of an all in one PC before so I thought it might just be a PC that can do everything! But now it does make sense that it could be a laptop...

 

[TonyCarter]

I'd just feel that that pricing was unnecessary for what I would need! To play things like Dreamlight Valley, Marvel Rivals, Baldur's Gate 3, and be able to stream on Discord, it shouldn't require a £5000 tower (unless I'm mistaken!)

No, but if you've only got £600 max, then we'd tell you that you wouldn't even get a1080p build for that amount.

Very roughly, and using current gen components:

• 1080p = £1200+
• 1440p = £1600+
• 4K = £2200+

But if you've only got a 60hz monitor, or planning to spend £60 on it, then spending £3k+ on a 4K build is pointless. Of course, for all we know you might have a seperate £2k budget just for your nice 4K OLED / super-wide gaming monitor.

Hence the question about budget, so we can see what the best combination of PC and monitor we can devise for that amount. There's no point us coming up with an all-singing, all-dancing £5k beast when you start asking us to trim it down because that's too much.

Also, an extra £100 - especially at the low-end - can mean the difference between a PC that can handle a new GPU upgrade in 3 years time vs a PC that is 'throwaway'.

 

[TonyCarter]

I may be in the wrong forum then! I've never actually heard of an all in one PC before so I thought it might just be a PC that can do everything! But now it does make sense that it could be a laptop...

All In One is the term for a PC with a built-in screen...like an Apple iMac.

Basically laptop-spec CPU/GPU with a larger flat-panel screen.

Worse than both a desktop PC and a laptop because you lose the portability of the laptop, lose the performance of the desktop, and lose the upgradability of the desktop.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I'd just feel that that pricing was unnecessary for what I would need! To play things like Dreamlight Valley, Marvel Rivals, Baldur's Gate 3, and be able to stream on Discord, it shouldn't require a £5000 tower (unless I'm mistaken!)

You are mistaken yes. This still doesn’t tell us your max budget?

 

[sck451]

The point really, @love, is that you're asking us to put a build together for you as a favour -- we're all volunteers. It takes time, and it's frustrating to do it and then the response comes "oh, what if it was an extra £500" or "oh, actually I can only afford £800" and you have to scrap it and do it again. We're keen to help (we're only here because we enjoy it) but it's just not really possible unless you're willing to give some sense of what kind of price you're driving at and what the monitor would be.

 

[love]

The point really, @love, is that you're asking us to put a build together for you as a favour -- we're all volunteers. It takes time, and it's frustrating to do it and then the response comes "oh, what if it was an extra £500" or "oh, actually I can only afford £800" and you have to scrap it and do it again. We're keen to help (we're only here because we enjoy it) but it's just not really possible unless you're willing to give some sense of what kind of price you're driving at and what the monitor would be.

I see what you're saying! I think I would say around $1500 as a soft budget: anything under that would be fantastic, but I'm willing to go slightly over if necessary for what I'm looking for! I don't have any money set aside right now, I'm just going to start saving in order to purchase the PC, but I feel 1500 would be a happy 'maximum' for me! But still something that can deliver me everything that I want, so for example if there's a 1400 build that isn't spectacular but a 1650 build that gives me exactly what I want (without going above and beyond unnecessarily) I'd rather just save the extra 150 to get the right thing.

 

[love]

All In One is the term for a PC with a built-in screen...like an Apple iMac.

Basically laptop-spec CPU/GPU with a larger flat-panel screen.

Worse than both a desktop PC and a laptop because you lose the portability of the laptop, lose the performance of the desktop, and lose the upgradability of the desktop.

Oh noo, is there a better forum that I should post this in? I may have messed up! I also don't currently have a monitor or know much about them, only that I've been recommended to get a 165hz screen for what I'm wanting from a PC!

 

[SpyderTracks]

I see what you're saying! I think I would say around $1500 as a soft budget: anything under that would be fantastic, but I'm willing to go slightly over if necessary for what I'm looking for! I don't have any money set aside right now, I'm just going to start saving in order to purchase the PC, but I feel 1500 would be a happy 'maximum' for me! But still something that can deliver me everything that I want, so for example if there's a 1400 build that isn't spectacular but a 1650 build that gives me exactly what I want (without going above and beyond unnecessarily) I'd rather just save the extra 150 to get the right thing.

When you say $ where are you based? PCS only operate in Europe so we can’t advise if you’re outside the sales region

PC, but I feel 1500 would be a happy 'maximum' for me!

1500 would get you an entry level build at 1080p which is extremely poor by todays standards. I would avoid 1080p at all costs, it’s certainly not something you’d settle for if you had more available budget. But then you're saying 1650 would be ok, so it still hasn't answered what your MAXIMUM budget is? This is a fixed ceiling you have available for the purchase, it's not something that moves.