Personal Computer Budget ?

[Sheck]

Well , where do I start . I'm kind of in the mix saving up for a ps4 at the moment. But , that goal should be achieved in No time. My question is how do you guys keep a stable PC budget when buying your first gaming PC. I want to spend at least $1000 on one just starting up. But do parts and accessories add to my budget ? Im going to school for computer engineering at the moment so I have no problem building. Someone suggested me buying a pre built one but I want to build it on my own. I don't know . You guys can leave your tips and tricks below lol.. Another , question is how much do you guys spends updating software and what's is a good time duration of it ?

[PeeKnuckle]

If you're building your own and have no peripherals like monitor, mouse, keyboard etc, it will add to your budget. You can get basic mouse and keys until you're ready to spend more, though.

As far as PC budget goes, I just earmarked a certain amount each month to put toward my build, and I put it all together once I had everything I needed.

Software updating is mostly quick and painless. Hardware updating is a completely different animal, however. If you've built your new PC with good parts, you won't really need to worry about updating them for awhile. A rule I keep for myself in that regard is, hold off until you need to. I don't need every game maxed out to enjoy playing it. But, if I'm no longer able to play because my hardware is outdated ... that's when I upgrade that component.

Hope that helps.

[Sheck]

7 hours ago, PeeKnuckle said:

If you're building your own and have no peripherals like monitor, mouse, keyboard etc, it will add to your budget. You can get basic mouse and keys until you're ready to spend more, though.

As far as PC budget goes, I just earmarked a certain amount each month to put toward my build, and I put it all together once I had everything I needed.

Software updating is mostly quick and painless. Hardware updating is a completely different animal, however. If you've built your new PC with good parts, you won't really need to worry about updating them for awhile. A rule I keep for myself in that regard is, hold off until you need to. I don't need every game maxed out to enjoy playing it. But, if I'm no longer able to play because my hardware is outdated ... that's when I upgrade that component.

Hope that helps.

Definitely, cleared some air. From what I hear PC players update every other month so. Kind of a walk in the park when I'm completely done with this investment.

[Dateranoth]

My advice is to spend good money on the CPU, motherboard, and RAM. You don't need the super high end stuff, but with a little research you can buy parts that can easily last you 5 - 10 years. 

Then you would only have to update your video card as needed and really only if you want to depending what you start with. 

 

The issue that PC gaming creates is one of desire.  For example:

 

You spend good money and buy the best of the best today. When you play games you max everything out and it's beautiful.  As time goes on you have to start reducing those settings to play the newer games. You could play for years slowly reducing settings ( often still better than what consoles look like ). The hard part is you always WANT to max everything out. 

 

So, a PC can be built to last a long time, but you have to have realistic expectations. 

My biggest piece of advice is to stick to 1080P. The same PC will be able to play at that resolution for a long time. It's easy to change game settings, but scaling resolution down is basically impossible in this day of LCDs unless you want a really bad looking picture. 

[Sheck]

20 hours ago, Dateranoth said:

My advice is to spend good money on the CPU, motherboard, and RAM. You don't need the super high end stuff, but with a little research you can buy parts that can easily last you 5 - 10 years. 

Then you would only have to update your video card as needed and really only if you want to depending what you start with. 

 

The issue that PC gaming creates is one of desire.  For example:

 

You spend good money and buy the best of the best today. When you play games you max everything out and it's beautiful.  As time goes on you have to start reducing those settings to play the newer games. You could play for years slowly reducing settings ( often still better than what consoles look like ). The hard part is you always WANT to max everything out. 

 

So, a PC can be built to last a long time, but you have to have realistic expectations. 

My biggest piece of advice is to stick to 1080P. The same PC will be able to play at that resolution for a long time. It's easy to change game settings, but scaling resolution down is basically impossible in this day of LCDs unless you want a really bad looking picture. 

Thanks I was thinking of streaming me building it .. When that time comes you could Skype me through what needs to be done. 

Any good motherboards you recommend?

[Dateranoth]

Yeah that would be cool. It's hard to give good advice without a solid budget. If it's $1000 I can look into what I would pick when I get back in town. However, there is a large range of options in this area.

I personally have the MSI Gaming 7 X99. With an Intel i7-5820K.

I highly recommend it, but it's 500 - 600 just for the mobile and CPU.

[PeeKnuckle]

I have a 3rd Gen Intel i7 3.40 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.90 GHz and it's suited me just fine.