My son wants a desk top gaming computer and the prices range from $1k to almost $4k and other than the graphics card, they don't seem to be much different. So I guess that's my question, what's what?

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I was right.

Graphics Card and RAM.....BIG Hard Drive...

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Well then...........DO IT!!!

I understand the RAM and Hard Drive. What's the difference in graphics cards?


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I was right.

Most of what drags down a PC in gaming is video processing, graphics cards not only take some load off the CPU, they do high end vid processing in bad ass milti core GPUs with gobs of dedicated memory and they do it whole lot faster to max the screen image quality.  After all its all about image quality.  So it goes without saying that you need no more graphics processing then you have display.

Look for the newest GC models with latest Direct X, high clock speeds, high bit rates, high core count, a minimum 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and lots of cooling fans.  As they say, it ain't working if it ain't cooling.  Again be sure to match to your display.

In all but extreme gaming, a <$500 invesment in a high end GC for a spare PCI Express slot (or two) will do for most people, provided the PC is modern and capable on its own.  Best bang is to do a little home work, buy a new pro level PC, with the necessary open PCIe slots and expansion capabilities and your choise of CPU(s), then get your choice of GC.  Any spare cash is best spent on fast solid state internal drive(s) and more memory.

The law of diminishing ROI definitely applies to gaming PCs and graphics cards.  You can also be sure regardless of how much you spend, the system will soon be obsolete.

If the numbers are the same, what sets the solid state drive apart?

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I was right.

My son is an avid gamer- I went though all of this already over the past year.

Best deal we found on a good starter box that makes upgrading easy is Cyberpower PC- they have a bunch of models, and they are available online at bestbuy.com (they dont have them in store)

We got the best one for our budget at the time- they probably have better setups now.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/se...ries&ks=960&keys=keys

then one we got back in 5/16 was:


CyberPowerPC Gamer Ultra Desktop AMD FXSeries 16GB Memory 2TB Hard Drive BlackBlue
Model: GUA2200BST
SKU: 4592900
$699

Then we upgraded the graphics card to a ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC Edition for like $160. - dont think we ever upgraded the RAM- we put the money in the graphics card- we also upgraded the power supply so he had plenty of juice to run that card. It was pretty simple to install- the CyberpowerPC tower opens up easily and has lots of room.

He is very happy with this setup and let me tell you, he runs some intensive games and he's picky about his framerates!

The computer has held up well over the past year and a half or so.. no problems that I know of- oh and if you want to put the cherry on top, get this keyboard:

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/landing/k70-rgb


for hard drive- 1tb is fine, 2tb is going to probably more than enough.

for processor, the AMD FX series in our box works well- but if you go Intel, you will want at least an i5- and i7 is even better.

for graphics, personally i think its better to just buy a box with a good amount of hd space and a good processor and then upgrade to the best card you can get- the Zotecs work well. This is really where all the gaming power comes from, because its all about rendering the graphics in detail- the better the card, the more processing power is devoted to graphics (its a computer in itself pretty much) which means high framerates and running on high settings on new games (ultra setting, etc)

You do want to upgrade the power supply to something beefy that will still fit in the space- it never hurts to have extra power to spare if you decide to get an even better card down the road. Psupplys arent that expensive..

RAM helps, but you can try and get a bunch when buying the box, and the graphics cards come with their own dedicated RAM

Solid State drives are very quiet and run very fast = quick bootup times. However, they are expensive and generally not very much storage. For gaming- you want terabytes, not gigabytes.

Gaming boxes tend to be noisier due to all the fans- (our graphics card alone has 2 fans on it) so the quiet aspect of the SSD will likely be lost.


Edited: 09/01/2017 at 04:59 PM by paddleout

Thanks paddleout, I was trying to decide between the GeForce GTX 1050 or the 1060.

My son had picked out the 1070....figures. I'll do the 1060.

What did the keyboard cost? I like the macro ability.

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I was right.

I think it was like $100.

I think they also carry them at best buy- along with some other options in the gaming section. we got ours on amazon.

the 1050 or 1060- was that a cyberpowerpc option, or 2 diff kinds of graphics cards?

Ryzen 1700 16gb of ram Nvidia 1070 (if you dont want to upgrade within 2 years) OR I got some nice used stuff here and I can help you put together a computer via conversation from my home.


I have a lot of really decent items here that Im willing to give up

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scientia potentia est

I think they are different level of cards.



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I was right.

I don't game, but I'll give a +1 for the solid state drives. I put a 1TB one in my laptop and I'm really happy with it. Super fast boot times and programs launch much quicker. It's almost like opening an app on your phone fast. They supposedly are much less apt to crash, since there's no moving parts. You can also get a smallish solid state to boot off of and then a second, larger normal hard drive to store media or games on.

Toms Hardware forums have good gaming rigs you can build for varying price levels.

Keep in mind that some games are more CPU intensive than GPU and other games can't leverage more CPU cores as effectively as they can less but faster ones. For most games a faster I5 will blow away a slower but more powerful I7 for performance. Also a SSD is the only way to go for modern gaming.

2nd for Tom's Hardware. We assembled our own from components we selected from Tom's "build your own" list.

I'm not sure we really saved money, it was more of a father/son thing and understanding what is inside a computer for the boy.

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Capitalism is based on the ridiculous notion that you can enjoy limitless growth in a closed, finite system.

In biology, such behavior of cells is called "cancer".

It is definitely much cheaper that say a Dell with comparable components. Last computer I built would have been 3500 from Dell for similar components.... it was 2200 building it myself.

Best Buy has some refurbished machines for a seriously good price, buttt...what does refurbished even mean?

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I was right.

Generally, the unit is "repaired" as required, and then tested for (generally) 100% of its original production quality points. When it was purchased new, the "quality" checks where based on a "random sample" of XXX units, not 100% on each unit.

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Dora Hates You

I gather refurbs are for hardware issues, do they wipe and install new software too?

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I was right.