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So someone is wanting to buy me my first gaming pc but the only thing is it has to from either bestbuy or amazon and the budget is $800 if it went over $200 I could cove it if there was that much of a difference in hardware and spec. I do want to be able to upgrade this pc later down the road like adding ram memory and maybe upgrading the graphics card. Id mainly be playing WOW and games similar which I know are demanding. Do anyone have any recommendations or tips. I would like the ability to run close to 4k @ 60fps if thats even possible for the money. If not it coming close or maybe just needing to upgrade the G card to achieve that would be ok. Please help dont want to waste the $800 on a dud thank you for reading and commenting in advance.
 

OsaX Nymloth

Community Contributor
4K@60 fps at this budget seems impossible - even some beasty rigs can't do that with certain games. I looked around PCPartPicker and modified one of the builds I've seen there. It's Ryzen based, which should be quite fine CPU wise for foreseeable future and GPU you can upgrade as the first thing whenever you can.


Alternatively I would consider a board with newer chip so you can upgrade to new Zen generation when it arrives, but these are bit more pricey and then I wouldn't recommend anything from MSI. It's a rough idea of what you may expect at this budget and it should be doing fine in FullhD gaming. If you're planning on 4K gaming, then you would need to upgrade it as money allows.

I am sure others will post something useful as well.
 
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Thank you for your input. I know its tough also having to pick something from best buy. I've looked at all of them around the 1000 mark but really don't know what the difference is between them and which one would be best for upgrading
 
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Sorry for posting multiple places I see now how this works. Never wrote on a thread before. I wanted to know which one I should get now. Later down the road I can replace it. I just want a good picture I'm not streaming either.
 
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You don't want to have to replace anything in the near future. While the great thing about gaming PCs is that you can upgrade them, if you buy a PC that you already want to upgrade, it's a waste of money. Better to save up for something that will meet your needs outright.

If you're upgrading the GPU in a couple of years, that's normal. If you're going to buy a gaming PC that has a $200-400 GPU inside it now, and then you replace that in 6 months, well, that's $200-400 wasted.

For ~$1000 prebuilt/custom build, something with a Ryzen R5 3600, 16gb RAM, 500gb SDD+, an GTX 1660 would probably be the kind of spec you'd be looking at.
e.g. https://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Spring-Break-Sale-AMD-Ryzen-5

Edit: If you want 4k gaming off the bat, save up a bit more money for something with an RTX 2080 Super in it (depending on the games you play and your expectations about settings). It#'s always possible even more powerful GPUs will have come out by the time you've saved a bit more - new GPUs are expected this year - giving you even more capability for 4k gaming for the same price.
 
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I guess I need to watch some videos on hardware and what each part does and its purpose. When people say they are having issues with bottlenecking what does that mean just curious. I might take your advice and wait and get the rtx2080 super it brings that build to $1400. when getting a better graphics card are there other components that need upgraded for it to handle it? I guess being a console gamer Ive never really had to worry what was on the inside.lol
 
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Bottlenecking is a term that gets thrown around wildly excessively. It's not always a helpful word.

It's probably most important to think about having a 'balanced' system.

What bottlenecking means is where one component limits other components' performance.

For instance, if you had an RTX 2080 ti, a 1440p 144hz monitor, and a dual core pentium CPU, the CPU would be a bottleneck. If you had an i9 9900k CPU, an RTX 2080 ti, and a 1080p 60hz monitor, the monitor would be a bottleneck - because you'd have a system capable of 1440p high refresh / 4k gaming but only running it on a cheap monitor, preventing the system from delivering its potential.

In very broad brush terms, the CPU does some of the maths for the game and feeds instructions to the GPU for it to do the rest of the maths. If the CPU is too weak, the GPU will be sitting partially idle while the CPU struggles to get through its workload quickly enough. That's a 'CPU bottleneck' and is usually what people mean when talking about a bottleneck.

Obviously hardware doesn't have unlimited performance, so there will actually always be a 'bottleneck'. That's normal. In gaming you want that to be the GPU (usually called being GPU-bound).

You want a GPU powerful enough to deliver smooth gaming performance at the settings you want, but no more. if it's too weak, you don't get a good gaming experience. if it's too powerful, you wasted a load of cash on performance you're not utilising.

Similarly, you want a CPU that is powerful enough to do its share of work for running your games, feed the GPU, and ideally support a future GPU upgrade or two without being a major bottleneck.

But it's not just about the CPU and GPU 'bottlenecks' - you need a system that is balanced overall. If you buy a cheap or badly designed case, you'll have poor airflow that will not cool the components effectively (which impacts performance and lifespan). Not many people would seriously suggest you buy the cheapest PSU you can find to power your GTX 2080 ti either. You don't need a $400 motherboard. But you want to make sure the mobo you do buy has the features you want, and is of acceptable quality (since it delivers power to the processor, among other things).

So in real terms - you want a CPU like a Ryzen 5 3600 or R7 3700x, or Intel equivalents, 16gb 3000MHz-3600MHz RAM, a half decent mobo, case, and power supply, and some storage to put games on. And for 4k gaming, an RTX 2080 Super or RTX 2080 ti.
 
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Sir thank you for your explanations. I really do appreciate it. I'm understanding slowly. These are the couple rigs I narrowed it down too. If you have any more input and reasons to go with one over the other it would be greatly appreciated.
  1. CybertronPC - Gaming Desktop - AMD Ryzen 7 2700 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 - 1TB HDD + 120GB SSD - Black $999.99
  2. CLX - Gaming Desktop - AMD Ryzen 5 2600 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 - 1TB HDD + 120GB SSD - Black/Red $979.00
  3. CLX - CLX SET Gaming Desktop - AMD Ryzen 5 3400G - 16GB Memory - AMD Radeon RX 580 - 960GB Solid State Drive - Black/RGB $899.00
  4. iBUYPOWER - Gaming Desktop - AMD Ryzen 5-Series - 3600 - 8GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER - 480GB SSD - Black $899.00
  5. iBUYPOWER - Gaming Desktop - AMD Ryzen 7 3700X - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 - 1TB Hard Drive + 240GB Solid State Drive - White $999.00
 
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Inspireless Llama

Community Contributor
I'm not sure if @Oussebon would agree with me here, but I think I'd advice against option 3 at least. I personally think that it's not as good as any of the other options while it's just as expensive as option 4. The only thing it has (maybe?) better is a bigger SSD but to me that would not be worth it. That's actually one of the few things you could upgrade (adding HDD's / SSD's) when needed.

The thing that supprises me here but that's not really an advice is that the "lower rated" CPU's have a "better" videocard. Guess that's the balancing Oussebon was talking about.

Saying that, option 4 has (imo) too little RAM and it only has a 480gb SSD. I'm not sure what kind and how many games you intend to play but that might fill up quicly (again you can add storage though but it can be a hassle).

That leaves option 1, 2, and 5. Option 1 and 5 look like pretty much the same PC but option 5 seems to have better specs (newer processor, slightly more storage for the same price).
Option 2 has a slower processor and a raytracing videocard. I personally haven't seen much games with raytracing yet and from what I understood the 2060 might be just too slow to perform well on that.

PCgamer wrote an article about the RTX2060 vs the 1660ti where the 1660ti should be performing slightly better than the 1660 in these builds.

My bottom line would be that the choices are either 2 or 5. 2 has a faster videocard, where 5 has a better CPU and slightly more SSD storage. Unfortunately I have a hard time telling which one is better for it's price. :p

To sum it up:

Option 1: Same as Option 5 but with older specs
Option 2: Slower processor but faster videocard than option 5.
Option 3: In my opinion not worth for the price.
Option 4: Amount of storage and RAM too little for my liking
Option 5: Faster processor than option 2 but a slower videocard.
 
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The RAM is mostly 2400Mhz according to the spec listings (if those are even accurate). Which is what you'd expect off a prebuild trying to cram headline features like CPUs and GPUs into a given price point

I'd avoid #3.

#1 is like a worse version of 5.

I'd also avoid #2.

To hit that price point I assume they used an A320 motherboard( ? though can't confirm), which would mean no 3000 or 4000 series upgrade options. It's not specified, but it's something system builders often do.

Moreover, you're playing WoW where CPU core performance and uncommonly RAM frequency are relatively important.

And a 1660 is plenty for 1080p gaming. When the day inevitably comes that you replace your GPU - whether it be a 1660 or a 2060 - a better base platform (better CPU, slightly faster RAM will serve you better. Not to mention that your game of choice can be CPU-limited.

#4 has a 3rd gen Ryzen CPU but only 1 stick of RAM which somewhat undermines its only real advantage - price - since you'll want to add another stick before long anyway.

My vote goes strongly to #5.

It has the better CPU, 16gb RAM (unlike #4), and the RAM is at least 2666MHz which is a step above 2400MHz and will benefit WoW in particular. And a 1660 is more than fine for 1080p gaming.
 

Zoid

Community Contributor
@Inspireless Llama sums things up pretty well. I agree with @Oussebon that of the five computers you list, option 5 with the R7 3700X and the GTX 1660 is the one I would buy. The 1660 isn't too far off the 2060, is great for 1080p, and will leave you with a better processor that should be able to see you into a GPU upgrade in a couple of years if you decide you want to jump to higher resolutions.
 
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Thank You everyone for your responses. Last question. Should I just wait until I have $ saved. Remember Im a console gamer and with ps5 coming out Ill likely be playing that most of my time. This will basically be my wow rig. I take it none of you would ever buy any of these computers.
 
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Zoid

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Thank You everyone for your responses. Last question. Should I just wait until I have $ saved. Remember Im a console gamer and with ps5 coming out Ill likely be playing that most of my time. This will basically be my wow rig. I take it none of you would ever buy any of these computers.
If you don't have the money for an expensive computer now, then I'd recommend waiting rather than buying it on credit. That's my personal stance on finances but you do you.

I enjoy building computers as a hobby, so I wouldn't personally buy any of the computers you listed. But that's just me - if building custom computers is not a thing you're into then it's perfectly 100% fine to get a prebuilt machine. None of the computers you listed were "bad." It's all just a question of value, and people with different interests and priorities will see value differently.

I'll just say, if you're really just buying this PC for WoW, then you definitely don't need to spend $1,000. If you'll be playing your PS5 most of the time and just jumping on the PC for some WoW here and there, I would advocate buying a less expensive machine.
 
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If you don't have the money for an expensive computer now, then I'd recommend waiting rather than buying it on credit. That's my personal stance on finances but you do you.

I enjoy building computers as a hobby, so I wouldn't personally buy any of the computers you listed. But that's just me - if building custom computers is not a thing you're into then it's perfectly 100% fine to get a prebuilt machine. None of the computers you listed were "bad." It's all just a question of value, and people with different interests and priorities will see value differently.

I'll just say, if you're really just buying this PC for WoW, then you definitely don't need to spend $1,000. If you'll be playing your PS5 most of the time and just jumping on the PC for some WoW here and there, I would advocate buying a less expensive machine.
 
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While you can certainly run WoW on a less expensive machine, I wouldn't buy less than an R5 3600, 8gb, ideally 16gb, RAM, and GTX 1060 / 1650 / 1660 level GPU. And a mininimum 240gb SSD to install it on.

Consider this:

The only standout issue with the configuration in terms of performance is 1 x 8gb RAM only but you can just add another stick (which fingers crossed will play nice) and it's still cheaper than the options above, being $830.
 
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Damn I keep going back in forth now my family is telling me that If I found somthing for $1200 that would be ok. Wonder what I would need to achieve 1440p .
iBUYPOWER - Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i7-9700F - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER - 1TB HDD + 480GB Solid State Drive - Black$1200

Package - iBUYPOWER - Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i7-8700 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA RTX 2070 8GB - 1TB SSD - Black/Gray and Dell - 27" LED QHD G-SYNC Monitor - Black
this one is on sale for $1050 Its originally $2099
 
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Zoid

Community Contributor
I agree,
That's actually a package deal, but you can but the PC without buying the monitor. The reduction on the PC is huge, while the monitor price is so-so.

The PC only is here:

You can't really knock that for $600

Although it seems now to be listed as sold out?
I agree, that's an awesome deal for $600 if @Rcher4lifE517 can still find it in stock.
 

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