Buying Gaming Computer

[olds]

It's for the grandson and I don't want to build it.
Let's assume FPS and MMO, so probably middle of the road: IE i7, 16 GB RAM, 1080 or equivalent AMD.
$ +-1500

Where would you buy it?

 

[IronWing]

Puget Systems because I love my grandkids.

 

[olds]

Puget Systems because I love my grandkids.

You must love them a lot.

 

[Newbian]

Most certainly walmart.... 😛

On second thought I don't want to end up in the basement.

Sites like newegg and amazon probably will be a great choice over a specific brand as they tend to have good deals even for prebuilt systems unless you want to pay a lot more for a ton of rgb and minor custom branding on the cases really if you want it already built like that.

Just make sure the kid also has a good monitor, probably 1440p of good quality or at least a good 1080p 144hz monitor, as going for a decent build and using a low end monitor these days will make it kinda pointless in most cases.

Also congrats on getting your grandkid addicted.

 

[brianmanahan]

i build my own, but get most of the stuff from microcenter

they also sell premade gaming computers and have a store down by cincy and another near columbus

for purely online buy-and-ship stuff, i got a killer deal on a gaming PC from dell back in '04. that's the last time i bought a premade.

 

[ondma]

i build my own, but get most of the stuff from microcenter

they also sell premade gaming computers and have a store down by cincy and another near columbus

for purely online buy-and-ship stuff, i got a killer deal on a gaming PC from dell back in '04. that's the last time i bought a premade.

I find Dell gaming prebuilts to be very expensive now. If one watches closely, you can get a good deal on a prebuilt house brand Powerspec from Microcenter. I got an 8700k system with a 500gb ssd and 16gb of pretty good ram for 899.00 a few months ago. Already had a 1060 6gb video card to put in, and game at 1080p, so I was ready to go. Right now the Microcenter near me has an 8700K system with a 1070 Ti for 999.00. They dont have a lot of extra features, but performance for the price is very good.

Otherwise, iBuyPower and CyberPower are the most affordable places to order. Might also try Digital Storm.

 

[BoomerD]

Costco
B&H Photo
Adorama
Newegg

 

[UsandThem]

Don't forget about Dell Outlet.

When they have a great coupon, a lot of the prices on pre-built PCs can't be beat. Plus, they come with the same warranty as buying one from their main site. I'd recommend setting an alert on Slickdeals, and jumping when they have a sale (plus don't forget to use cash back sites like Ebates to make the deal even better).

 

[olds]

Don't forget about Dell Outlet.

When they have a great coupon, a lot of the prices on pre-built PCs can't be beat. Plus, they come with the same warranty as buying one from their main site. I'd recommend setting an alert on Slickdeals, and jumping when they have a sale (plus don't forget to use cash back sites like Ebates to make the deal even better).

RossMAN, is that you?

 

[UsandThem]

RossMAN, is that you?

?

Otherwise, I hope not because my wife would be super PISSED! Heck, I would also be super pissed! 😛

 

[Staples]

Any brand. Go Intel for games. AMD still lags quite a bit in single threaded performance and it really shows in games.

Look for something like i5 (i7 is not really much better if any for games) 8400 or better, NVIDIA 1060 or RX 580, 590. And you know the rest.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I just built a Ryzen R7 2700 (currently OCed to 4.0Ghz, stress-testing now), 16GB GSKill RGB DDR4-3600 RAM, 2x 1TB 660p Intel PCI-E 3.0 x4 NVMe SSDs, Asus ROG STRIX B450-F Gaming ATX mobo, and a CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240mm AIO WC kit, keeps it at 71C here (63-65F ambient), even at 4.0Ghz and 1.325V. Rosewill Stryker M case. (Tight fit, actually not too happy about it, could only get a few mobo screws in, mobo wouldn't seat square, primarily because of the exhaust chassis fan, top-mounted 240mm WC, and the fact that the Asus ROG STRIX B450-F Gaming ATX mobo, has an "integrated" I/O shield, and a plastic shroud / cover on it. Though the logo lights up!)

PM me if you would like something like that custom-built.At 4Ghz, it's a screamer. But the Intel 9700K / 9900K clock even higher, although de-lidding is basically a requirement with Intel's high-end now, to keep temps in check. And an Intel build will cost twice as much.

Edit: I got these parts on a pretty decent sale, but I could build one just like it for $1100, and then add a $400 RTX 2060 card.

 

[ondma]

I just built a Ryzen R7 2700 (currently OCed to 4.0Ghz, stress-testing now), 16GB GSKill RGB DDR4-3600 RAM, 2x 1TB 660p Intel PCI-E 3.0 x4 NVMe SSDs, Asus ROG STRIX B450-F Gaming ATX mobo, and a CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240mm AIO WC kit, keeps it at 71C here (63-65F ambient), even at 4.0Ghz and 1.325V. Rosewill Stryker M case. (Tight fit, actually not too happy about it, could only get a few mobo screws in, mobo wouldn't seat square, primarily because of the exhaust chassis fan, top-mounted 240mm WC, and the fact that the Asus ROG STRIX B450-F Gaming ATX mobo, has an "integrated" I/O shield, and a plastic shroud / cover on it. Though the logo lights up!)

PM me if you would like something like that custom-built.At 4Ghz, it's a screamer. But the Intel 9700K / 9900K clock even higher, although de-lidding is basically a requirement with Intel's high-end now, to keep temps in check. And an Intel build will cost twice as much.

Edit: I got these parts on a pretty decent sale, but I could build one just like it for $1100, and then add a $400 RTX 2060 card.

9700 k has solder. Delidding is definitely not required. My 8700k with a low end hyper Evo runs fine in gaming at MCE 4.7 ghz all core without delidding. Will even pass Prime 95 with temps in the 80s, but in gaming with a 1060, power never exceeds TDP and temps are below 70.