Gaming PC for beginner

[SweetPickles]

Hi, we are new to PC Gaming and I am looking for some help. My son is a beginner and is interested in PC gaming and I am looking at purchasing a gaming PC for him. I want something that won't break the bank, but I also don't want something that is only going to hold a few games and won't be a decent PC. I have been looking at on that Walmart is selling and have a few questions. I will attach link below. Is this price for just the monitor, or both the tower and monitor? When looking at the specs on this, is this too little in the terms of PC gaming? Tell me your opinions please. Thank you!! Here is the link....
https://www.walmart.com/ip/NVIDIA-H...0-SSD-RGB-i7-PC-Desktop-Gaming-DDR4/436132832

 

[Oussebon]

Specific questions about what a product does or doesn't include are worth asking the vendor, since they should know what they are or aren't selling (you'd hope, anyway).

But in general, if it doesn't specifically say it includes a monitor, it won't include a monitor. You can buy package deals that include the PC, the monitor, and the peripherals (keyboard plus mouse aka KB+M). But in general when you go to buy a PC, it will be just the 'tower'.

Buying the tower, monitor etc separately tends to give you a lot more choice anyway, and being able to shop around can often make up for any discounts in the bundle.

I'd say you're shopping in the right ballpark. Not wildly excessive, while also having a bit of headroom for future titles.

There are some better options on other stores for the same price though. e.g.

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

More powerful graphics card, SSD twice the size. Same price. Modern games can be very large so a larger SSD lets you keep more on there without needing to juggle games around.

If your son were likely to get into streaming, i.e. broadcasting their gameplay on a platform like Youtube or Twitch, something like:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ibuypower-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-7-3700x-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1660-1tb-hard-drive-240gb-solid-state-drive-white/6360957.p?skuId=6360957

More powerful CPU for the video encoding (streaming). Trade off is a graphics card a step down from the original spec but still more than capable for modern gaming at 1080p. And a bigger SSD.

Or there will be some cheaper options from around $800 that are still very decent, if you're targeting $1000 including a monitor.

 

[nofearek9]

i dont see in the listing neither monitor ,keyboard or mouse you will need those for sure + a good set of headset (for gaming)

something like that will last for gaming : https://pcpartpicker.com/list/cMPN7T just to have in mind a price .

 

[Inspireless Llama]

First of all I'd like you guys a few questions:
- have any experience in gaming at all. Did you play on consoles before or will this be the first experience in gaming?
- What kind of games are you expecting to play?
- What is your total budget? I understand that you don't want to break the bank, but a budget number would be pretty helpfull

I'm asking because firstly, I wouldn't advice going all in on a full gaming PC if you don't know yet if it actually will be used. It would be a shame to spent for example $2000 dollars on a PC that after 3 months only will be used for office work.

The kind of games you're expecting to play I'm asking because if it's not going to be graphic intense games, you can spend again $2000 on a PC but it won't be fully used and you can go cheaper. Games like Prison architect, Parkitect or LEGO games won't be as demanding for your PC compared to games like Red Dead Redemption 2 or The Witcher 3.

The budget would be really helpful, also to know what else you need to include into that budget (monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers / headset etc).

With those pheriphals I again wouldn't recommend going all in on it. Especially because if it turns out gaming is really you guys' thing you can always upgrade or replace them. Spending $500 on a monitor would be overkill, like @Oussebon said, arround $150-200 you get a perfectly fine monitor. Do you want to go better you can still do it and use the first one as a 2nd monitor. Same with mouse and keyboard. It would make no sense to me to spent like $250 on that when you don't know if in 3 months time all it's doing is office work.

 

[HBradMOM]

I hope it's OK if I tag along to this post because my question is similar to SweetPickles and it seems dumb to start another thread. I'm also looking for a gaming PC for my son. He currently is a fairly avid Xbox gamer. He plays Destiny and Monster Hunter World (and there are others, but those are the two that come to mind immediately). I do think he would like to stream to Twitch or something similar with a PC. I was hoping maybe advice on the one I was looking at may help me AND SweetPickles. I found this one (link below), but I have not heard of ibuypower (maybe because I'm out of my depth when it comes to gaming), but a little google research comes up sketchy. any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ibuypower-gaming-desktop-intel-core-i7-9700f-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1660-super-1tb-hdd-480gb-ssd-black/6400462.p?skuId=6400462

 

[Oussebon]

@HBradMOM Starting a new thread isn't dumb at all - it might actually stop advice being given to you or to @SweetPickles being confused for advice being given to the other person

ibuypower are a legit brand of system integrators (PC builders). They are a little looked down on by the enthusiast community. But the enthusiast community is probably more likely to self build than buy a pre-built system anyway. What companies like ibuypower are good at is providing ready-made systems that do what the other 99% of the PC gaming community will want them to.

As to whether they do that well / to a decent standard, Linus Tech Tips and Gamers Nexus have both reviewed ibuypower systems. Linus found various issues when looking under the hood, but the company apparently improved their processes in response to correct those. Gamers Nexus - who tend to have very exacting standards - said:
The assembly quality itself was good, parts selection was reasonable, and shipping was competent. It’s BIOS where issues emerged.
The physical build was fine, but there were some poor choices with the BIOS configuration which affected performance. However, you can change BIOS settings yourself without needing to open the PC up. And hopefully they've improved on that too by now...

That said, once you look under the hood of any tech product it's not going to be long before you find imperfections.

I'd suggest making a new topic for more detailed advice on the spec, especially as this is also specifically for streaming too

 

[HBradMOM]

@HBradMOM Starting a new thread isn't dumb at all - it might actually stop advice being given to you or to @SweetPickles being confused for advice being given to the other person

ibuypower are a legit brand of system integrators (PC builders). They are a little looked down on by the enthusiast community. But the enthusiast community is probably more likely to self build than buy a pre-built system anyway. What companies like ibuypower are good at is providing ready-made systems that do what the other 99% of the PC gaming community will want them to.

As to whether they do that well / to a decent standard, Linus Tech Tips and Gamers Nexus have both reviewed ibuypower systems. Linus found various issues when looking under the hood, but the company apparently improved their processes in response to correct those. Gamers Nexus - who tend to have very exacting standards - said:
The assembly quality itself was good, parts selection was reasonable, and shipping was competent. It’s BIOS where issues emerged.
The physical build was fine, but there were some poor choices with the BIOS configuration which affected performance. However, you can change BIOS settings yourself without needing to open the PC up. And hopefully they've improved on that too by now...

That said, once you look under the hood of any tech product it's not going to be long before you find imperfections.

I'd suggest making a new topic for more detailed advice on the spec, especially as this is also specifically for streaming too

thank you so much for the info and advice!

 

[BCNX2]

First of all I'd like you guys a few questions:
- have any experience in gaming at all. Did you play on consoles before or will this be the first experience in gaming?
- What kind of games are you expecting to play?
- What is your total budget? I understand that you don't want to break the bank, but a budget number would be pretty helpfull

I'm asking because firstly, I wouldn't advice going all in on a full gaming PC if you don't know yet if it actually will be used. It would be a shame to spent for example $2000 dollars on a PC that after 3 months only will be used for office work.

The kind of games you're expecting to play I'm asking because if it's not going to be graphic intense games, you can spend again $2000 on a PC but it won't be fully used and you can go cheaper. Games like Prison architect, Parkitect or LEGO games won't be as demanding for your PC compared to games like Red Dead Redemption 2 or The Witcher 3.

The budget would be really helpful, also to know what else you need to include into that budget (monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers / headset etc).

With those pheriphals I again wouldn't recommend going all in on it. Especially because if it turns out gaming is really you guys' thing you can always upgrade or replace them. Spending $500 on a monitor would be overkill, like @Oussebon said, arround $150-200 you get a perfectly fine monitor. Do you want to go better you can still do it and use the first one as a 2nd monitor. Same with mouse and keyboard. It would make no sense to me to spent like $250 on that when you don't know if in 3 months time all it's doing is office work.

I completely agree listen to this chap I kno people who have spent thousands on a “beastly” rig to have it sit collecting dust