Buying First Gaming PC

[Megan Englebrecht]

I'm looking for the best gaming pc $1500 and under. Yes, I've seen stuff about building my own but there is absolutely no way I could do it and also through even trying to build my own online starts becoming way more expensive than the sale prices of premade ones with the same specs. There is also nowhere local to build it for me. So I am set on this. How do I choose? Is there a site like rtings.com does for tv's? Looking for a pc to use my 55" 4K as the monitor. Are iBuyPower or CyberPowerPC's decent company/computer? I'm finding the best prices for these brands so I can either get a more expensive name brand one (MSI/Asus) with lesser specs or one of the former above listed brands with better specs. I'm definitely wanting GTX 1080 and i7. I am split on getting a laptop that isn't caught up with how the desktop are because that's all I've ever known for gaming and writing. I really want to use my 4K tv screen for the moniter but am concerned it will stretch the image and make it blurry? Can you change the size a game is on the tv screen through the laptop? That's my only concern. Otherwise I know the desktop is the absolute best option. Any and all advice is more than welcome and extremely appreciated!

 

[giantpandaman2]

ibuypower is pretty well known. I don't know about their longevity. Most people here don't buy prebuilt gaming pc's. For $1500 you're not going to get a 1080 with a prebuilt. I'd say $1800 for a 1080 with an i7. A 4K screen is fine with modern PC's.

What sort of games are you playing? The biggest negative about using a 4k TV for gaming would be the input lag. Some TV's have high input lag.

I wouldn't suggest a laptop. Running a 4k screen for gaming off a laptop is going to be very loud and very hot. Not to mention very expensive.

 

[Megan Englebrecht]

I have seen quite a few great reviews and quite a few not so great about iBuyPower so that concerns me. Really? I was looking into this one specifically, http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ibuypow...-hard-drive-black-red/5600310.p?skuId=5600310

Well I haven't played any games in about 10 years so I'm actually going to just try a wide majority and see what I like.. for sure mainly adventure and mystery types. Definitely won't need a ton of power with the games I know I like but I want it to be better prepared for future games because I won't be able to upgrade for quite some time. Yeah, the input lag on mine is like 19 something and I've watched videos and people are pretty good with it so I'm not too concerned with that. 🙂

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I won't be going the laptop route it just concerns me I won't like the stretched image on a big screen.. I've only ever played on a 15".

 

[giantpandaman2]

I'd go direct through their website. Looks like they use off the shelf hardware. The good news is everything should be easily fixable/replaceable, just like a home built. You could also try Maingear.

1080 is probably overkill for adventure games, even at 4k. You never know, though. The next frontier in adventure games is probably going to be VR...which a 1080 would work well with.

If you're just getting back into gaming...I suggest you go Steam or Good Old Games and get stuff when they have their huge sales. Unfortunately, the winter sales have both ended. You could build a huge library for just a couple hundred dollars when they're on.

 

[Torn Mind]

Avoid using the "standard PSU" with the CyberPowerPC systems you buy.

You may want to consider this HP Omen desktop: http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/desktops/hp-omen-870-desktop-pc-y8q37av-1

 

[Blue_Max]

...or you could cut the cost by 700-1000 by getting a cheap i5 off-lease tower and adding a GTX 1050TI to it.

oops... just noticed you're set on the whole 1080 biz.

Surely there's a local computer parts shop that can also assemble you something for a little extra? 🙂