Advice on prebuilt moving from Xbox to PC

[HBradMOM]

Looking to buy for my son who wants to start PC gaming; has been an avid Xbox gamer To date. He is wanting to play WoW and others like Final Fantasy. He also may be interested in streaming to Twitch or similar. I’ve been pouring over threads in this forum for several days (I’ve learned so much - thank you!). I believe I have narrowed down to 4 options. Any advice on these is greatly appreciated.

https://www.newegg.com/skytech-st-shadow-0003-ne/p/N82E16883289038

https://www.newegg.com/acer-n50-600-ur1j-nitro-50/p/N82E16883101791

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-r...-512gb-ssd-star-black/6407993.p?skuId=6407993

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberp...b-hdd-500gb-ssd-black/6400454.p?skuId=6400454

 

[Oussebon]

What monitor will your son be gaming on? The resolution and refresh rate matter with regards to the spec choice

If you've yet to get a monitor, what sort of budget range are you looking at for it?

 

[HBradMOM]

Not sure on monitor yet - my research hasn’t gotten that far. Definitely want to make sure it matches up with the pc. I can be flexible on cost, but would say I was kind of assuming $200-$300.

 

[darkroast]

I personally would go with the ACER Gaming option. Although I prefer AMD processors, the Cyberpower gives you more bang for your buck than the other options do imo.

 

[Inspireless Llama]

As for the PC - I think you can get away with a Ryzen 5 3600. That CPU generally is cheaper, and as far as I'm aware you can stream perfectly fine with it. I saw a PC (which is sold out right now on bestbuy) with a 2060 Super and 100$ cheaper.

As for the monitors, you could look into the AOC monitors. Generally great monitors, and they're not as expensive (or cheap even) compared to monitors from other brands. I got a 24" 1080p @75hz monitor for 150€ a few years back. You can get a 1440p and / or a 144hz monitor for 200-250$ from them.

You'd be looking at a PC simular to this then:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/skytech-gaming-shadow-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-5-3600-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-2060-super-500gb-ssd-black/6409025.p?skuId=6409025

EDIT: But were you to look into Nvidia GPU's, I'd advice waiting till the next generation comes out and see what deals you can get on prebuilt PC's with a Geforce 3000 series instead of 2000.

 

[Oussebon]

@HBradMOM The PCs you posted here are mostly sporting 2060 Supers and in the ~$1200 price range, which is a couple hundred $ over the initial one you posted here.

I'd agree with @Inspireless Llama that you could spend closer to $1000 and still get an extremely capable system. Spending more on a system with an R7 3700x over an R5 3600 could be worthwhile for streaming, but you'd want to be sure the extra ~$150 they tend to cost would be 'worth it' i.e. that your son really would be into streaming and you'd be getting your money's worth. And the intention seems a bit vague for that to necessarily be the case.

As for the graphics card, an RTX 2060 Super is overkill for 1080p gaming, and you'd be looking at 1440p to really make use of it. You can get some 1440p 144hz monitors for the upper end of your ~$300 budget range you mentioned in fairness.

1080p was the mainstream gaming resolution, but these days is quite entry-level, with 1440p starting to become mainstream, so it's more forward-looking. The higher the resolution, the more pixels you get, and the sharper the image (more or less).

The Skytech PC @Inspireless Llama posted looks great though is out of stock.

As an alternative in the sub $1000 area, possibly:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpowerpc-gamer-master-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-5-3600-16gb-memory-amd-radeon-rx-5600-xt-1tb-hdd-500gb-ssd/6400451.p?skuId=6400451

For 1440p with an RX 5700 XT and also a Ryzen 7 CPU to help with streaming, $1150:

iBUYPOWER WA38X57XT Gaming Desktop PC - Ryzen 7 3800X- 16GB DDR4 2666 Memory - AMD Radeon RX5700XT 8GB - 480SSD - Wi-Fi - RGB - Windows 10 Home 64-Bit - Walmart.com

Free 2-day shipping. Buy iBUYPOWER WA38X57XT Gaming Desktop PC - Ryzen 7 3800X- 16GB DDR4 2666 Memory - AMD Radeon RX5700XT 8GB - 480SSD - Wi-Fi - RGB - Windows 10 Home 64-Bit at Walmart.com

www.walmart.com

 

[Oussebon]

As for 1440p 144hza monitors, ideally 27" or 32" optionally (24" is a little small for 1440p), and with Freesync.

Tbh just about anything on the menu would do:

Choose A Monitor

pcpartpicker.com

Viotek are quite well known for decent budget offerings e.g. GN27D, and there are a few others too. Or you could expand the budget a little on that and look at monitors in the ~$400-$450 range.