Question I'm planning on building a new pc, I have only ever had one premade tower pc, so I'm unsure on how to go about setting a budget and picking parts.

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When I got my first PC, I was without steady income so it was ultimately going to end up being a PC, because I'm very impatient and wasn't going to take time to save money, that was a cheap pre-build that really despite the grandiose claims from the shop that sold it to me can no longer play all the games I would like to play unless I lower the settings to an incredibly low level or, in several cases not be able to run some games even on the lowest settings, at even a measly 30 fps. This was the specific computer, http://computermegaplaza.com/index.php?id_product=220&controller=product . It was bought for me by my parents, from the UK store, Argos. I was very grateful as it was right after my Lenovo Laptop died, which ran games even slower. So I thought for a while, that I would be able to last a few years using this PC to play the modern releases maybe with slightly lower graphics but that was okay, I was optimistic despite the fact it really didn't even run the games that well that were out at the time that I got it, which was my fault as I picked it out. It was cheap and I was just incredibly happy that my parents were generous enough to buy me a PC.

I'm not sure if this is just a completely awful PC with bad parts, or it just isn't very well future proofed. But I would like to at least make a start on getting a new build soon so I can actually play games that are coming out now. Now I have some relatively good income of my own to put towards purchasing a PC where I don't feel like its better to play Witcher 3 on my Nintendo Switch just so I don't experience lag.

I am unsure of how much I will need to shell out to build a PC that will be future-proofed without feeling like I will immediately have to upgrade it, just to play the next big game that comes out.
If you suggest a possible budget, or even a specific build. I'm not looking for the highest end PC, but just something that will run a majority of games at fairly high graphics, at 60fps. It will also be nice to be able to upgrade it in the future.

Any advice will be appreciated, and it would be nice to know your thoughts on the PC I currently use which has been unchanged since I was graciously bought it by my parents. I can imagine people with a more keen eye for computers will have a few thoughts on my seemingly poor choice, but it was a matter of pricing and my impatience at 15-16 years old.
 
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As weak as that PC is it should probably still run Witcher 3 on managed settings alright. 1080p medium-high maybe, without looking it up.

It will struggle badly with some modern games but Witcher 3 probably shouldn't be one of them (not that Witcher 3 is very modern any more - it's 5 years old!)

As for a target budget, that depends on a lot of things, but around £800 seems reasonable for a solid 1080p and "futureproof"-without-throwing-money-up-the-wall gaming PC.

As for upgrading, any PC with regular components can be upgraded. You could probably upgrade that one. But as with any PC, there will eventually come a time where the upgrades will need to be substantial. i.e. you need a new GPU, fine. But you also need a new CPU for modern games. So you need a new motherboard. And you need new RAM (because you have DDR3 and we're on DDR4, and then DDR5 in a couple of years probably). Maybe you need a new PSU to power it all. And if you don't have an SSD you'll probably want one of those too.

Point being that will eventually be true of any new PC you buy - the trick is to get something that hits the sweet spot for performance vs price, and with a decent enough CPU that will support a couple of GPU upgrades without being a bottleneck - without overspending on the CPU either.
 
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Is there any websites where I can get an idea of what parts will work best with others, or is it more of a manual research task? Thanks for your advice by the way, the current computer runs okay until I get to the cities in Witcher 3, then it becomes incredibly laggy. It also struggles to play other more modern games.
 
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Do you reckon if I referenced this, I will be able to work out what parts to buy when it comes to building my own pc to play the games I want to play? Or are the computers specifically combined to run the games that they are said to be able to run at a certain quality, because these all seem much higher than the £800 budget @Oussebon suggested.
 
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Do you reckon if I referenced this, I will be able to work out what parts to buy when it comes to building my own pc to play the games I want to play? Or are the computers specifically combined to run the games that they are said to be able to run at a certain quality, because these all seem much higher than the £800 budget @Oussebon suggested.
No you could absolutely run quidence from them and build your own for cheaper using the same or similar parts you can just reference the systems and build your own
 

Inspireless Llama

Community Contributor
Is there any websites where I can get an idea of what parts will work best with others, or is it more of a manual research task? Thanks for your advice by the way, the current computer runs okay until I get to the cities in Witcher 3, then it becomes incredibly laggy. It also struggles to play other more modern games.

www.pcpartpicker.com will automatically check for incompabilities. Very occasionally it can come up with false positives or that they're unable to check for compability but usually that's not an issue and otherwise we're here to advice on it :)
 
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www.pcpartpicker.com will automatically check for incompabilities. Very occasionally it can come up with false positives or that they're unable to check for compability but usually that's not an issue and otherwise we're here to advice on it
Thank you, I'm gonna try and see what parts are commonly used to run the games I might be interested in running. And try and build a system that is compatible. If I ever find anything I'm unsure about I will refer back here.
 
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I've started looking at possible CPU's, I was unsure if this is the best place to start but I went for it comparing popular ones on the website @BCNX2 suggested but of course this is just Gladiators PC selection so if you feel that I would be better with another choice of CPU's feel free to suggest.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/28qhP6/intel-core-i5-9600k-37ghz-6-core-processor-bx80684i59600k
Which is an Intel Core i5, this was suggested in their slightly higher range PC.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...600x-38-thz-6-core-processor-100-100000022box
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, which the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 was suggested for their lowest range.

Both these CPU's are a similar price around £200 on Amazon at the moment due to sales, What do you assume would be a better choice. The AMD comes with a cooler. They seem to have similar specs, but as previously mentioned I am not all too familiar with the intricacies of computer parts.
If you could advise me on my choices, that would be great.
 
If you see a website like that suggesting a build for a given game, ignore it.

Their interest is not in educating you about hardware and performance but in selling you a computer. Obviously - they're a shop not a school.

And it's rare to see shops recommend optimised value for those suggestions.

GladiatorPC seems to be no exception. Literally the first game title I looked up on their site - Total War Three Kingdoms suggests an i5 9400F + RTX 2060 Super Strix for Standard, and an i5 9600k + RTX 2060 for High. Why would anyone suggest a weaker graphics card for higher settings (or a stronger GPU for lower settings, depending how you look at it...). Also the Asus Strix-branded GPUs are so ludicrously expensive that they're rarely worth buying. Why buy an RTX 2060 Super version that costs so much it's only another £60-70 for an RTX 2070 Super.

This kind of stuff does my nut.

If you want to build a PC to a specific game, look up the game. There are a lot of sites including PC Gamer that benchmark games and tell you how X performs.
And there are a lot of sites that review hardware on popular modern games

Picking a game at random, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare:

Or to stick with Total War Three Kingdoms:
Gamersnexus i5 10600k review (video)
Hardewareinfo Belgium CPU review
Hexus RX 5600 XT graphics card review
Anandtech RX 5600 XT review
OC3D game performance review

So for Modern Warfare, we can take a few things away:
Anything over a last generation GTX 1060 - e.g. a GTX 1660 from this generation or even an RX 580 on AMD's side - is grand, even for ultra.
A lesser GPU is fine if you're not aiming for ultra.
You don't need a crazy CPU to run it smoothly. A modern 4-core CPU is fine (though looking at other games you may still aim for a 6-core)

For Total War Three Kingdoms:
Any modern CPU (at least above 4 cores and 4 threads) will do fine (over 60fps minimums is fine)
You don't need an RTX 2060 Super for "standard" settings (sorry, Gladiator PC)
Something like an RX 5600 XT or RTX 2060 would push the settings up much higher at 1080p.
A 1660 is fine if you don't want to go all the way.
 
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I've started looking at possible CPU's, I was unsure if this is the best place to start but I went for it comparing popular ones on the website @BCNX2 suggested but of course this is just Gladiators PC selection so if you feel that I would be better with another choice of CPU's feel free to suggest.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/28qhP6/intel-core-i5-9600k-37ghz-6-core-processor-bx80684i59600k
Which is an Intel Core i5, this was suggested in their slightly higher range PC.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...600x-38-thz-6-core-processor-100-100000022box
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, which the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 was suggested for their lowest range.

Both these CPU's are a similar price around £200 on Amazon at the moment due to sales, What do you assume would be a better choice. The AMD comes with a cooler. They seem to have similar specs, but as previously mentioned I am not all too familiar with the intricacies of computer parts.
If you could advise me on my choices, that would be great.

What's the total budget? What games/settings are you aiming for?

Are you playing 1080p 60hz, or are you also buying a new monitor. What is the budget for that?

You can't take parts in complete isolation when building a system, you need to make sure it's balanced.

Buying a 9600k on an H310 mobo is pointless (arguably buying a 9600k is pointless full stop right now, but that's a different conversation).
 
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If you see a website like that suggesting a build for a given game, ignore it.

Their interest is not in educating you about hardware and performance but in selling you a computer. Obviously - they're a shop not a school.

And it's rare to see shops recommend optimised value for those suggestions.

GladiatorPC seems to be no exception. Literally the first game title I looked up on their site - Total War Three Kingdoms suggests an i5 9400F + RTX 2060 Super Strix for Standard, and an i5 9600k + RTX 2060 for High. Why would anyone suggest a weaker graphics card for higher settings (or a stronger GPU for lower settings, depending how you look at it...). Also the Asus Strix-branded GPUs are so ludicrously expensive that they're rarely worth buying. Why buy an RTX 2060 Super version that costs so much it's only another £60-70 for an RTX 2070 Super.

This kind of stuff does my nut.

If you want to build a PC to a specific game, look up the game. There are a lot of sites including PC Gamer that benchmark games and tell you how X performance.
And there are a lot of sites that review hardware on popular modern games

Picking a game at random, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare:

Or to stick with Total War Three Kingdoms:
Gamersnexus i5 10600k review (video)
Hardewareinfo Belgium CPU review
Hexus RX 5600 XT graphics card review
Anandtech RX 5600 XT review

OC3D game performance review

So for Modern Warfare, we can take a few things away:
Anything over a last generation GTX 1060 - e.g. a GTX 1660 from this generation or even an RX 580 on AMD's side - is grand, even for ultra.
A lesser GPU is fine if you're not aiming for ultra.
You don't need a crazy CPU to run it smoothly. A modern 4-core CPU is fine (though looking at other games you may still aim for a 6-core)

For Total War Three Kingdoms:
Any modern CPU (at least above 4 cores and 4 threads) will do fine (over 60fps minimums is fine)
You don't need an RTX 2060 Super for "standard" settings (sorry, Gladiator PC)
Something like an RX 5600 XT or RTX 2060 would push the settings up much higher at 1080p.
A 1660 is fine if you don't want to go all the way.
I have used gladiator pc for many years now and if you check the recommended specs on games they match the website suggestions they dont sell you stuff you dont need and have the option to downgrade if you wish the reason i suggested this site was because it doesn't just give you one option but 3 different ones so you get an idea and a rough product to do some research what they have recommended to me in the past has lived up to expectations again the site wasnt supplied for him to buy a prebuilt its a simple guide to run off so he can enjoy his first build no point going on pcpartspicker unless u know what you need
 
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What's the total budget? What games/settings are you aiming for?

Are you playing 1080p 60hz, or are you also buying a new monitor. What is the budget for that?

You can't take parts in complete isolation when building a system, you need to make sure it's balanced.
I do currently have a monitor, but I was planning on purchasing a second once I complete the PC, it is 1080p and 60hz, so I was planning on sticking at that resolution.

I was planning on playing games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Modern Warfare (This was actually the game which I went to play which finally got me to give in and start looking at getting a more powerful PC), it will also be nice to be able to play games such as GTA5 which whilst I realize this isn't that modern of a game. I do enjoy playing it a lot and it will nice for it to run smoothly at a higher resolution than I already do.

I would like to play modern games like the ones I just listed at at least Normal level settings.

Thanks once again for the support.
 
they dont sell you stuff you dont need
If you read my post, they are absolutely trying to sell you stuff you don't need! Compare what they tell you you need versus what actual testing says you need.

It doesn't matter whether that's because they want the money, or whether because they blindly followed the system requirements (which you should never, ever do).

Actually I suspect the "they want your money" motivation here because their suggestion does not match the recommended specs:
Which say RTX 2060 for 1080p Ultra.. not RTX 2080 ti

because it doesn't just give you one option but 3 different ones so you get an idea and a rough product to do some research
It's a bad starting point - see my post. There are much, much better starting points.

what they have recommended to me in the past has lived up to expectations
Even broken clocks are right twice a day.

its a simple guide to run off so he can enjoy his first build no point going on pcpartspicker unless u know what you need
There are way, way better simple guides. As above. Which was the whole point of my post. Guides which are fairly accurate instead of just being flat out wrong.
 
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If you read my post, they are absolutely trying to sell you stuff you don't need! Compare what they tell you you need versus what actual testing says you need.

It doesn't matter whether that's because they want the money, or whether because they blindly followed the system requirements (which you should never, ever do).

Actually I suspect the "they want your money" motivation here because their suggestion does not match the recommended specs:
Which say RTX 2060 for 1080p Ultra.. not RTX 2080 ti

It's a bad starting point - see my post. There are much, much better starting points.

Even broken clocks are right twice a day.

There are way, way better simple guides. As above. Which was the whole point of my post. Guides which are fairly accurate instead of just being flat out wrong.
I get you dont like these sites but ive just proved my own point for example look at flight sim 2020 specs they match what is offered you have the option to go with a better spec which is the last one of the group doesnt mean you have to take it, i was offering help not here to have a debate as i said its worked for me in the past and many others who do the same as its a base guide as to what works my gladiator pc was built for the spec i needed and i simply made it the way i wanted it not what the posted you have a choice simple now lets help the gentleman rarther then u getting upset bout peoples opinions and suggestions just because it dnt work for you doesnt mean it dont for others
 
I get you dont like these sites but ive just proved my own point for example look at flight sim 2020 specs they match what is offered you have the option to go with a better spec which is the last one of the group doesnt mean you have to take it, i was offering help not here to have a debate as i said its worked for me in the past and many others who do the same as its a base guide as to what works my gladiator pc was built for the spec i needed and i simply made it the way i wanted it not what the posted you have a choice simple now lets help the gentleman rarther then u getting upset bout peoples opinions and suggestions just because it dnt work for you doesnt mean it dont for others
You really didn't prove any point :/ Also, please don't post bad advice.

It's a liberal democracy, you build your PCs and spend your money how you like, but telling other people to use Gladiator PC or any other store PC recommendations for given games is almost never in their best interests. It's not a starting point; it's like dumping someone in the middle of a forest and calling it a lift home.

Moving on.

I do currently have a monitor, but I was planning on purchasing a second once I complete the PC, it is 1080p and 60hz, so I was planning on sticking at that resolution.

I was planning on playing games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Modern Warfare (This was actually the game which I went to play which finally got me to give in and start looking at getting a more powerful PC), it will also be nice to be able to play games such as GTA5 which whilst I realize this isn't that modern of a game. I do enjoy playing it a lot and it will nice for it to run smoothly at a higher resolution than I already do.

It helps to have a rough budget in mind. You could build a system with an R3 3300x CPU, an A320 motherboard, and an RX 570 (not to be confused with the RX 5700). But for a wider range of games especially over the next year or two it might make more sense to get an R5 3600 (non-x, the 3600x is not worth the £40), a B450 motherboard, a GTX 1660 Super etc could be a better buy. And also, a 500gb or even 1TB SSD to store Windows + games instead of only a 250gb SSD. A PSU that is better quality, more efficient instead of a really budget model. A case with decent airflow or maybe aesthetic features you like.

There are lots of different ways to play it (cheaper, more expensive, just different), plenty of other choices open to you, but maybe as a rough starting point:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£155.58 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty B450 GAMING K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard (£89.57 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£76.73 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£105.94 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB OC Video Card (£219.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case (£46.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic CORE GM 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£70.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£99.97 @ Laptops Direct)
Total: £865.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-28 17:22 BST+0100


If by "normal" settings you mean medium-high, this will generally do more than that by quite a bit in the games you mentioned. But if you are building a new PC I guess you want to enjoy the output and not need to think about upgrading immediately - albeit without ludicrously wasting cash. Also for COD:MW and your new monitor, I'm thinking you may want to aim for a 1080p 144hz monitor, especially now that these are relatively affordable (options ~£180-£200, with quite a few cheaper).

Component availability and pricing (especially PSUs) is a bit all over the place right now thanks to you-know-what. Quite a few of the bits I posted are out of stock on Amazon, but can usually be had from other stores for a few quid more.
 
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You really didn't prove any point :/ Also, please don't post bad advice.

It's a liberal democracy, you build your PCs and spend your money how you like, but telling other people to use Gladiator PC or any other store PC recommendations for given games is almost never in their best interests. It's not a starting point; it's like dumping someone in the middle of a forest and calling it a lift home.

Moving on.



It helps to have a rough budget in mind. You could build a system with an R3 3300x CPU, an A320 motherboard, and an RX 570 (not to be confused with the RX 5700). But for a wider range of games especially over the next year or two it might make more sense to get an R5 3600 (non-x, the 3600x is not worth the £40), a B450 motherboard, a GTX 1660 Super etc could be a better buy. And also, a 500gb or even 1TB SSD to store Windows + games instead of only a 250gb SSD. A PSU that is better quality, more efficient instead of a really budget model. A case with decent airflow or maybe aesthetic features you like.

There are lots of different ways to play it, plenty of different choices open to you, but maybe as a rough starting point:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£155.58 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty B450 GAMING K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard (£89.57 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£76.73 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£105.94 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB OC Video Card (£219.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case (£46.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic CORE GM 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£70.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£99.97 @ Laptops Direct)
Total: £865.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-28 17:22 BST+0100


If by "normal" settings you mean medium-high, this will generally do more than that by quite a bit in the games you mentioned. But if you are building a new PC I guess you want to enjoy the output and not need to think about upgrading immediately - albeit without ludicrously wasting cash. Also for COD:MW and your new monitor, I'm thinking you may want to aim for a 1080p 144hz monitor, especially now that these are relatively affordable (options ~£180-£200, with quite a few cheaper).

Component availability and pricing (especially PSUs) is a bit all over the place right now thanks to you-know-what. Quite a few of the bits I posted are out of stock on Amazon, but can usually be had from other stores for a few quid more.
Thank you for this advice, I'll have a look at that part picker list. I would like to be able to last a while before needing an upgrade. I'll keep in mind your suggestion for the monitor. About the SSD, I'm aware that it is faster to read from an SSD. However I currently use only a 1TB HDD and I like to switch between games quite often so I like to have quite a few games installed as my internet isn't that fast, which is a problem with the space I have currently. would you reccomend a HDD as well as the SSD in order to cover the amount of space needed or is there a different solution which you might suggest?
 
However I currently use only a 1TB HDD and I like to switch between games quite often so I like to have quite a few games installed as my internet isn't that fast, which is a problem with the space I have currently. would you reccomend a HDD as well as the SSD in order to cover the amount of space needed or is there a different solution which you might suggest?

I'm in a similar situation - slow internet, so I use a large hard drive to store games I don't want to redownload, and shuffle them to/from SSD as and when I play them. So yes, I think that's a valid strategy.

Games can be quite large, so if you're going for an HDD for that purpose, don't underestimate the size. Since if you buy a 2TB HDD, then another, it's more faff juggling games between drives than if you'd just bought a single 4TB HDD. Some HDDs are more expensive than others - you probably don't want an expensive one for this task. e.g. a WD Black wouldn't be worth the massive price premium over, say, their Blue (HDD) series.
 
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I'm in a similar situation - slow internet, so I use a large hard drive to store games I don't want to redownload, and shuffle them to/from SSD as and when I play them. So yes, I think that's a valid strategy.

Games can be quite large, so if you're going for an HDD for that purpose, don't underestimate the size. Since if you buy a 2TB HDD, then another, it's more faff juggling games between drives than if you'd just bought a single 4TB HDD. Some HDDs are more expensive than others - you probably don't want an expensive one for this task. e.g. a WD Black wouldn't be worth the massive price premium over, say, their Blue (HDD) series.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/bskwrH/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd20ezrz Would this one suffice? I reckon alongside the 1TB SSD, this will definitely cover the amount of space I need to have the games I would want to store, maybe even a little overkill but I don't know what my situation will be once I have a computer that can handle games my current one can't and how much space they will take up, so I reckon 2TB will be ideal.
 
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never heard so much rubbish in my life bad advice? Again something that doesnt work for you doesnt mean it doesnt work for others i and many other people find this website extremely useful considering the 4.5 out of 5 on trust pilot and are one of the biggest computer retails in the uk says alot, again guidelines not pushing for him to buy its a rough idea of what systems are suited to that computer get off your high horse
 
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They're bad guidelines. Proven above. End of.

Lots of reputable (otherwise-reputable?) companies do it. That doesn't make it good practice for informing consumers - only good sales technique.
Haha nothing has been proven at all the only thing proven is u dont know anything read the trusted reviews case closed
 

Inspireless Llama

Community Contributor
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/bskwrH/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd20ezrz Would this one suffice? I reckon alongside the 1TB SSD, this will definitely cover the amount of space I need to have the games I would want to store, maybe even a little overkill but I don't know what my situation will be once I have a computer that can handle games my current one can't and how much space they will take up, so I reckon 2TB will be ideal.

I think it would suffice then. I do think (copied from Oussebon :p ) that it's better to go larger at the start so you don't end up with a bunch of smaller drives, like me.
I have 2x 500gb SSD, 1x 1tb SSD and a 1tb HDD. I actually have a disconnected HDD because I don't have power connectors left.

It's better to go for a 1tb SSD straight, and a 2tb, you'll have the same amount of storage as I do, but with 1 (or even 2) power connectors less. Draws less power (is lower costs) too.

@The other 2. Can you please do these kind of argues in private? I don't think it's helping the OP at all and all it's doing is clogging up the topic with (for the OP) probably useless posts.
 

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