Guidance please

[Saucey7D1am0ndz]

Hello,
Ive been a console player for most of my time and I want to make the switch to pc gaming.. what's a good set up for someone switching and will using a 4k tv not work well with pc gaming? I know that's a broad question but I'm absolutely clueless to what would be worth getting. Any help is appreciated.

 

[Darckjames]

Watch this video, it can help you on what kind of screen you will need if you want to switch on PC or to hear the experience of someone who went from console to pc. That's all I can do for you, I hope it will help you.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htJvA3HudKk

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Hi, The 4k TV will work O.K I think. It will 'only' be 60 FPS but that's been enough for most people until very recently.

A bit more information would be useful first

- How much money do you have to spend?

- Are you interested in building your own PC or do you want to buy a pre-built machine?

- Are there any particular games you want to play, esports, or just everything and anything?

 

[Saucey7D1am0ndz]

Hi, The 4k TV will work O.K I think. It will 'only' be 60 FPS but that's been enough for most people until very recently.

A bit more information would be useful first

- How much money do you have to spend?

- Are you interested in building your own PC or do you want to buy a pre-built machine?

- Are there any particular games you want to play, esports, or just everything and anything?
[/QUOTE

1. Money not sure. I'll pay whatever works honestly.

2. Pre built I'm not tech savvy like that sadly.

3. I like all types of games sports, shooters, rpgs etc

I just don't even know where to begin to look or what's a good overall setup with 4k gaming for sure. 60fps or higher a lol

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

O.K It would be really handy if you could give a maximum budget, because you really could spend anything from 500 up to 10,000+.

A couple of things also useful to know still, what is the model of your TV? I assumed an older model but it would be good to know exactly. And I assumed you are from the U.S?

You don't need to be tech savvy to build a PC at all. If you are capable of following instructions to put together a lego set you'll manage fine. But you do need to be willing to spend a bit of time doing watching some Youtube turorials, and potentially troubleshooting you can learn a lot as you go. Time is the key.

Even if you are buying a prebuilt its worth doing some research into parts, PC's do have problems sometimes and if you can do a bit of troubleshooting for yourself you will save a lot of headaches, time, and potentially money.

PCG has a guide for the best pre-built systems not long ago to give you some ideas to start with.

The best gaming PC in 2021

Make one of the best gaming PCs the center of your universe.

www.pcgamer.com

Its worth reading the guides for CPU and GPU so you can get a general feel for what you should be looking for too. These are the core parts for your system and you need to know a little at least about them to make a decision

The best graphics cards in 2021

The best graphics cards are slowly coming back in stock.

www.pcgamer.com

The best CPU for gaming in 2021

Fire up your rig with the best CPU for gaming. More cores, more clocks, more of everything that matters.

www.pcgamer.com

Other basic tips, 16GB of RAM is enough, 32 GB is more than enough and anything more than that is a waste of money.

Your TV is quite likely only capable of 60hz, therefore 60FPS maximum depending on the model. However 4k is still very demanding on the graphics card. If you wanted to play most new AAA games at maximum settings I would suggest an Nvidia 3070 or AMD 6800 minimum for that purpose. HOWEVER, remember you don't have to play at maximum image quality settings, playing at high or medium is perfectly fine and achievable on cheaper cards too if you dont want to spend that much.

I prefer to have at least around 1TB of SSD storage as games load noticeably faster from them.

Ok, well I hope that wasnt too exhausting. If you have other specific questions let us know! There may be other here who have more specific knowledge of what pre-built companies are better than others, I'm afraid I only know a bit about parts in general.

 

[Saucey7D1am0ndz]

O.K It would be really handy if you could give a maximum budget, because you really could spend anything from 500 up to 10,000+.

A couple of things also useful to know still, what is the model of your TV? I assumed an older model but it would be good to know exactly. And I assumed you are from the U.S?

You don't need to be tech savvy to build a PC at all. If you are capable of following instructions to put together a lego set you'll manage fine. But you do need to be willing to spend a bit of time doing watching some Youtube turorials, and potentially troubleshooting you can learn a lot as you go. Time is the key.

Even if you are buying a prebuilt its worth doing some research into parts, PC's do have problems sometimes and if you can do a bit of troubleshooting for yourself you will save a lot of headaches, time, and potentially money.

PCG has a guide for the best pre-built systems not long ago to give you some ideas to start with.

The best gaming PC in 2021

Make one of the best gaming PCs the center of your universe.

www.pcgamer.com

Its worth reading the guides for CPU and GPU so you can get a general feel for what you should be looking for too. These are the core parts for your system and you need to know a little at least about them to make a decision

The best graphics cards in 2021

The best graphics cards are slowly coming back in stock.

www.pcgamer.com

The best CPU for gaming in 2021

Fire up your rig with the best CPU for gaming. More cores, more clocks, more of everything that matters.

www.pcgamer.com

Other basic tips, 16GB of RAM is enough, 32 GB is more than enough and anything more than that is a waste of money.

Your TV is quite likely only capable of 60hz, therefore 60FPS maximum depending on the model. However 4k is still very demanding on the graphics card. If you wanted to play most new AAA games at maximum settings I would suggest an Nvidia 3070 or AMD 6800 minimum for that purpose. HOWEVER, remember you don't have to play at maximum image quality settings, playing at high or medium is perfectly fine and achievable on cheaper cards too if you dont want to spend that much.

I prefer to have at least around 1TB of SSD storage as games load noticeably faster from them.

Ok, well I hope that wasnt too exhausting. If you have other specific questions let us know! There may be other here who have more specific knowledge of what pre-built companies are better than others, I'm afraid I only know a bit about parts in general.

Money wise I was thinking $3,000 max to like $1,000lowest

And yes I'm from the U.S. and my tv is TCL series 6 55inch.

And okay I'll watch them videos and if it's not hard I could build it. Just would wanna watch some videos to help the learning curve so I'm good either way.

And yeah I actually heard that a lower card with higher frame rate is just as good as 4k gaming. So I guess that just me not knowing pcs well.

I appreciate the insight it's very helpful. I just am the type of person that if someone says this will be a good set up trust me then I'll believe. Lol or like me tell someone what I'm seeking and they say okay this should do well for you then I'll be okay with that too.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

OK, I'm just a little uncomfortable recommending pre builts as I said because aside from having a good idea how good the parts are. I have no idea on how good warranty and build quality for the different manufacturers is.

Nice TV btw its up to 120hz with VRR, HDR, etc so its got all the new toys. Thats what I get for assuming.

If you decided you wanted to build it yourself we can try and come up with a parts list to suit that you can then buy and put together.

One slight problem with that is the shortages of graphics cards at the moment means pricings all over the place. That may be one reason to get a prebuilt at this time, Alienware etc seem to be still getting new cards that are hard to find for a custom build.

 

[Saucey7D1am0ndz]

OK, I'm just a little uncomfortable recommending pre builts as I said because aside from having a good idea how good the parts are. I have no idea on how good warranty and build quality for the different manufacturers is.

Nice TV btw its up to 120hz with VRR, HDR, etc so its got all the new toys. Thats what I get for assuming.

If you decided you wanted to build it yourself we can try and come up with a parts list to suit that you can then buy and put together.

One slight problem with that is the shortages of graphics cards at the moment means pricings all over the place. That may be one reason to get a prebuilt at this time, Alienware etc seem to be still getting new cards that are hard to find for a custom build.

Oh so you think it would be an issue to find them now? So your saying maybe I should check into pre built lol

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Oh so you think it would be an issue to find them now? So your saying maybe I should check into pre built lol

Yea through gritted teeth a bit Obviously theres nothing wrong with pre-builts per say, its just you usually get more for your money by building yourself.

For example:

Shop: Dell Site Map of All Products, Solutions & Services | Dell USA

Shop all categories on Dell.com. Explore the site map to find deals and learn about laptops, PCaaS, cloud solutions and more.

www.dell.com

These are good specs that would suit your purpose quite well. 2339.99 USD I'd upgarde the graphics to an RTX 3080 for 4k, but the stock card here will work but not be quite as fast. That would make it 2639.99

However you could build this:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor ($519.98 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Loop 240 Liquid CPU Cooler ($94.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory ($138.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8100 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($229.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB XC3 BLACK GAMING Video Card ($779.99 @ Adorama)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($130.26 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($108.78 @ Other World Computing)
Case Fan: Noctua P14s redux-1200 PWM 64.92 CFM 140 mm Fan ($14.95 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua P14s redux-1200 PWM 64.92 CFM 140 mm Fan ($14.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $2282.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-01-25 02:04 EST-0500

This has an RTX 3080, double the storage, double the amount of faster RAM. The PSU is lower wattage but it's very good quality and you dont need 1000w, it just sounds impressive. Similar specs on the Alienware would be almost 3000. However that RTX 3080 might go out of stock very soon, the situation is very strange at the moment.

Of course also to build this you would need to spend some time watching beginner build videos on Youtube, putting it together and potentially troubleshooting it if it needed it. With the Alienware you could take it out of the box and plug it in.

Its easy for me to recommend building as I just like playing with the technology, if you dont have the time or inclination to do so just spend the money on the Alienware. Unless someone else can suggest a better value pre-built. I know there are companies like Cyberpower PC who are cheaper than Alienware but I've heard vague internet grumblings about their quality.

 

[Saucey7D1am0ndz]

Well I do appreciate that insight and advice for sure but if you don't mind me asking. Say I wanted to go cheaper price like 500-1000$ and wanted higher fps instead because I have read might be better going that route instead of 4k low fps. What parts would u recommended?

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Ok, so would you want to buy a lower resolution monitor to use with the machine instead? I think you should be able to set your TV to run at 1080 with the PC but I'm honestly unsure how that would affect the TV's VRR(Variable Refresh Rate)

EDIT: Hold the phone..

Sorry to confuse things even more, but is your TV this years model or an older one?

 

[Saucey7D1am0ndz]

Ok, so would you want to buy a lower resolution monitor to use with the machine instead? I think you should be able to set your TV to run at 1080 with the PC but I'm honestly unsure how that would affect the TV's VRR(Variable Refresh Rate)

EDIT: Hold the phone..

Sorry to confuse things even more, but is your TV this years model or an older one?

Tv to use for now until I build the pc and but monitor soon enough lol. And it's a couple years old.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

This is going to be a disapointment to you but as far as a 1000 USD build goes, I just tried to put something together and its difficult right now. When I said availability was bad earlier its affected everything down the stack, a lot of cards are going for double the price they should be and I can't recommend anything at the moment, sorry to say. I'm not going to recommend you pay 300 usd for a card that should have a list price of 150 USD, the performance will be not be up to snuff for the money you pay.

The base model Alienware around that price is very meh, the Radeon 5300 can barely be considered a gaming GPU, 8GB of RAM is not enough anymore and they dont even have an SSD for a boot drive. Playing around in the configurator:

Shop: Dell Site Map of All Products, Solutions & Services | Dell USA

Shop all categories on Dell.com. Explore the site map to find deals and learn about laptops, PCaaS, cloud solutions and more.

www.dell.com

Chnaging the cheapest base model up. Add in a GTX 1660 Super, 16GB of RAM and a Dual hard drive setup with 256GB NVME/1TB HDD comes to 1289.99. Which would game pretty well at 1080p. If you were willing to spend a bit more, adding a more expensive GPU to this setup would work well. The CPU in that system is strong enough for any current graphics card.

About the TV : I looked at the specs and this years model is 120HZ with VRR but the older one is 60Hz. I should have checked more carefully.

So I believe you should be able to set it to display at 1080p for games, but you won't be able to use a high refresh rate with that TV. If you wanted to game at 120hz + you would need to buy a screen capable of that.

 

[Saucey7D1am0ndz]

Well once again I appreciate your insight. I've asked other forums too and have got 0 responses. So I appreciate the help. I guess it's a matter of what I want from it. I still feel undecided about what I should get. I do want amazing graphics though.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

The great thing about a custom system is that usually you can put something together that will at least play any game on the market for 500-600 and then upgrade it over time into something more top end if you wanted to. At the moment that's unfortunately not the case

 

[Saucey7D1am0ndz]

That's a bummer for right now. I wonder why that is..and that's very true and the main reason I wanna switch from a console.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

That's a bummer for right now. I wonder why that is..and that's very true and the main reason I wanna switch from a console.

It boils down to high demand and low supply. For lots of different reasons

Bitcoin went parabolic again at the same time new cards came out. People are buying a lot of them to mine Ethereum and other alt coins to make a quick buck. At the same time Coronavirus affected manufacturing in Asia earlier in the year causing a lack of components, and I guess delivery times have suffered due to Corona restrictions as well. I suppose a lot of people are at home more and want to buy more cards for gaming then normal too. Christmas just went.... Probably more.