Cost of building a gaming PC *spawn

[eastmen]

Hmm

Ryzen 5 3600 with mobo $130 https://www.microcenter.com/product...gabyte-b450m-ds3h-wifi,-cpu-motherboard-combo
16 gigs of ddr 4 3200 $51 https://www.microcenter.com/product...l-desktop-memory-kit-f4-3200c16d-16gvkb-black
nzxt h510 case $70 https://www.microcenter.com/product...pered-glass-atx-mid-tower-computer-case-black
thermaltake 600 watt $ 45 https://www.microcenter.com/product...600-watt-80-plus-atx-non-modular-power-supply
1TB nvme drive $50 https://www.microcenter.com/product...2-2280-3d-nand-qlc-internal-solid-state-drive

$350

Have $250 left over I guess

You can do a 3060 for $370 https://www.microcenter.com/product...ked-dual-fan-12gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

You can do a 6600xt for $289 https://www.microcenter.com/product...cked-dual-fan-8gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

3050 for $310 https://www.microcenter.com/product...cked-dual-fan-8gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

Puts you slightly over the build cost I said.

Great thing about the PC . If in two years you find you need more performance you can drop in 16 core cpu or a 12 core or a 8 core with large amounts of cache. If you want you can jump up to a faster gpu if you need too.

With that ps5 / xbox series your stuck with that hardware, best case scenario is they come out with mid gen upgrade . But then you are rebuying a lot of hardware in there. That 1TB ssd inside your ps5 and xbox series x ? It's gone your new system just has what it comes with. With this build you just put it as a secondary drive if you want and buy a larger drive.

Oh and this is just me using one website if you don't mind buying from multiple sites or waiting for black friday or buying used you can build a pc for a lot cheaper. obviously I think you might as well drop $800 on a system build but hey I don't know the money people have to throw around

 

[digitalwanderer]

Heh-heh-heh. I've been fighting the urge to take an hour and a half trip to pick up that deal on the CPU/mobo. If you don't have a couple of Microcenters within a couple of hours though you're pretty out of luck.

EDITED BITS: Most of those deals are unavailable online, in store only. And going to a Microcenter is freaking dangerous, they have way too many great deals!

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Hmm

Ryzen 5 3600 with mobo $130 https://www.microcenter.com/product...gabyte-b450m-ds3h-wifi,-cpu-motherboard-combo
16 gigs of ddr 4 3200 $51 https://www.microcenter.com/product...l-desktop-memory-kit-f4-3200c16d-16gvkb-black
nzxt h510 case $70 https://www.microcenter.com/product...pered-glass-atx-mid-tower-computer-case-black
thermaltake 600 watt $ 45 https://www.microcenter.com/product...600-watt-80-plus-atx-non-modular-power-supply
1TB nvme drive $50 https://www.microcenter.com/product...2-2280-3d-nand-qlc-internal-solid-state-drive

$350

Have $250 left over I guess

You can do a 3060 for $370 https://www.microcenter.com/product...ked-dual-fan-12gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

You can do a 6600xt for $289 https://www.microcenter.com/product...cked-dual-fan-8gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

3050 for $310 https://www.microcenter.com/product...cked-dual-fan-8gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

Puts you slightly over the build cost I said.

Great thing about the PC . If in two years you find you need more performance you can drop in 16 core cpu or a 12 core or a 8 core with large amounts of cache. If you want you can jump up to a faster gpu if you need too.

With that ps5 / xbox series your stuck with that hardware, best case scenario is they come out with mid gen upgrade . But then you are rebuying a lot of hardware in there. That 1TB ssd inside your ps5 and xbox series x ? It's gone your new system just has what it comes with. With this build you just put it as a secondary drive if you want and buy a larger drive.

Oh and this is just me using one website if you don't mind buying from multiple sites or waiting for black friday or buying used you can build a pc for a lot cheaper. obviously I think you might as well drop $800 on a system build but hey I don't know the money people have to throw around

So, pretty much only 2 things there I could get as everything else is in store only. An NVME of questionable quality and the PSU.

Regards,
SB

 

[Flappy Pannus]

Hmm

Ryzen 5 3600 with mobo $130 https://www.microcenter.com/product...gabyte-b450m-ds3h-wifi,-cpu-motherboard-combo
16 gigs of ddr 4 3200 $51 https://www.microcenter.com/product...l-desktop-memory-kit-f4-3200c16d-16gvkb-black
nzxt h510 case $70 https://www.microcenter.com/product...pered-glass-atx-mid-tower-computer-case-black
thermaltake 600 watt $ 45 https://www.microcenter.com/product...600-watt-80-plus-atx-non-modular-power-supply
1TB nvme drive $50 https://www.microcenter.com/product...2-2280-3d-nand-qlc-internal-solid-state-drive

$350

Have $250 left over I guess

You can do a 3060 for $370 https://www.microcenter.com/product...ked-dual-fan-12gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

You can do a 6600xt for $289 https://www.microcenter.com/product...cked-dual-fan-8gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

3050 for $310 https://www.microcenter.com/product...cked-dual-fan-8gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

That's a perfectly...acceptable system I guess, especially if you actually have a Microcenter near you. Most don't unfortunately.

Even so, that build is certainly not 'much faster than a PS5/SX', even if you disregard the 3050 (which you should).

I would say it may be roughly equivalent in many titles, would win but lose some - perhaps more of the latter. Than R5 3600 is already quite a bottleneck in many modern games (forget RT with Spiderman at constant 60fps for example). I have a PS5 and 3060, but my 12400f fares quite a bit better than the 3600. Still, the 3060 is...'competitive'. It can generally outpace the console version of a title when DLSS is employed, and does naturally fare better with titles that were only given upgrade patches that aren't fully PS5 native. I'd say it, and the 6600 to perhaps a lesser extent (simply because FSR 2 isn't as widely used as DLSS and the poorer RT) are 'in the ballpark'. To really start to get a more consistent advantage - never mind 'much faster' than a PS5/SX - you really need to start at the 3060ti/6700XT level.

With a relatively modern budget CPU, and by that I mean something like Zen3 and Alderlake (such as a i5-12400), and still sticking with DDR4 ram, shipping from an outlet like Newegg/Amazon where the majority have access to, you're looking more in the range of $850 for a 3060 system (a budget 12400/3060 build came out to just under $900 on Amazon), ~$1k for a 3060ti/6700xt. If you want something 'much faster', it's more like $1200+ - and that's still sticking with a 12400f and DDR4, so I'm just talking about a better GPU.

If you want you can jump up to a faster gpu if you need too.

Yes, I'm aware of how PC upgrades work. I'm simply addressing your '$600 for a much faster PC than the current consoles' currently - not what's potentially possible years from now.

So, pretty much only 2 things there I could get as everything else is in store only. An NVME of questionable quality and the PSU.

Yeah they often have some of the best deals, but they're often in-store only. With under 30 stores across the entire US, that's just not relevant for the majority.

Regarding that PSU, I can't speak to the specific model, but all I can say is I tried to cheap out with a Thermaltake for my recent budget build but had to return it, and it was an 80 Plus Gold, not even just 80 Plus. Loud as hell even with a meagre load.

You don't need Platinum or even Gold PSU's for budget builds of course, but really don't cheap out on the PSU, that's DIY building 101.

 

[Cyan]

Hmm

Ryzen 5 3600 with mobo $130 https://www.microcenter.com/product...gabyte-b450m-ds3h-wifi,-cpu-motherboard-combo
16 gigs of ddr 4 3200 $51 https://www.microcenter.com/product...l-desktop-memory-kit-f4-3200c16d-16gvkb-black
nzxt h510 case $70 https://www.microcenter.com/product...pered-glass-atx-mid-tower-computer-case-black
thermaltake 600 watt $ 45 https://www.microcenter.com/product...600-watt-80-plus-atx-non-modular-power-supply
1TB nvme drive $50 https://www.microcenter.com/product...2-2280-3d-nand-qlc-internal-solid-state-drive

$350

Have $250 left over I guess

You can do a 3060 for $370 https://www.microcenter.com/product...ked-dual-fan-12gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

You can do a 6600xt for $289 https://www.microcenter.com/product...cked-dual-fan-8gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

3050 for $310 https://www.microcenter.com/product...cked-dual-fan-8gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

Puts you slightly over the build cost I said.

Great thing about the PC . If in two years you find you need more performance you can drop in 16 core cpu or a 12 core or a 8 core with large amounts of cache. If you want you can jump up to a faster gpu if you need too.

With that ps5 / xbox series your stuck with that hardware, best case scenario is they come out with mid gen upgrade . But then you are rebuying a lot of hardware in there. That 1TB ssd inside your ps5 and xbox series x ? It's gone your new system just has what it comes with. With this build you just put it as a secondary drive if you want and buy a larger drive.

Oh and this is just me using one website if you don't mind buying from multiple sites or waiting for black friday or buying used you can build a pc for a lot cheaper. obviously I think you might as well drop $800 on a system build but hey I don't know the money people have to throw around

lucky you who lives in the USA

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Sega had timely ports of many of it's tentpole games throughout the years, though. Comix Zone only had a few months between it's Genesis release and it's PC port. Sonic CD has had 3 separate ports to PC. And many Saturn games got PC ports soon after their Saturn releases. Panzer Dragoon, Daytona CCE, House of the Dead, Virtua Fighter Remix... I'm sure I've forgotten some, but this trend continued through the Dreamcast and beyond. You can call these token ports if you want, but no other platform holder in that time was releasing quality PC ports like Sega was back then.

If my memory serves me correctly most if not all of those were handled by a 3rd party developer versus being done in house. For example, the initial Windows version of Panzer Dragoon was handled through NVidia as part of their agreement to bundle it with the NV1 (and the special rendering that it required). What I can't quite remember is whether NV contracted with another developer to handle the port of it if they did it internally. I'd lean towards them contracting with a 3rd party. That was fairly common back then for new 3D graphics card releases.

That was the major move that Capcom made when it committed to internal development of PC versions of their games back in the 2000's versus contracting a 3rd party who may or may not do a good port of their games. If their engine was architected as a scalable multi-platform engine then they wouldn't need to contract with another developer. Granted it still took time for them to get to a point where all or almost all of their IP was released simultaneously on PC (barring exclusivity agreements), but they were well ahead of the curve WRT console developers.

Regards,
SB

 

[davis.anthony]

You can't build a PC that compares to PS5 and Series-X for the same money with brand new parts, it's extremely difficult to do using second parts.

In the UK a 3060ti is still £400 all by itself and a CPU, motherboard and RAM combo will cost you £250 new and still won't match PS5's CPU performance.

Then add another £150-200 for an NVME, case and power supply.

But with games typically being slightly cheaper on PC the platform does work out the cheaper option over a period of say 2 years.

 

[eastmen]

So, pretty much only 2 things there I could get as everything else is in store only. An NVME of questionable quality and the PSU.

Regards,
SB

Didn't know I had to tailor it to your store prefrences. I just use microcenter cause that is where I shop. They are also located in paterson nj so less sales tax since its a crappy city and the state tries to get people to go spend money there.

So, pretty much only 2 things there I could get as everything else is in store only. An NVME of questionable quality and the PSU.

Regards,
SB

That's a perfectly...acceptable system I guess, especially if you actually have a Microcenter near you. Most don't unfortunately.

Even so, that build is certainly not 'much faster than a PS5/SX', even if you disregard the 3050 (which you should).

I would say it may be roughly equivalent in many titles, would win but lose some - perhaps more of the latter. Than R5 3600 is already quite a bottleneck in many modern games (forget RT with Spiderman at constant 60fps for example). I have a PS5 and 3060, but my 12400f fares quite a bit better than the 3600. Still, the 3060 is...'competitive'. It can generally outpace the console version of a title when DLSS is employed, and does naturally fare better with titles that were only given upgrade patches that aren't fully PS5 native. I'd say it, and the 6600 to perhaps a lesser extent (simply because FSR 2 isn't as widely used as DLSS and the poorer RT) are 'in the ballpark'. To really start to get a more consistent advantage - never mind 'much faster' than a PS5/SX - you really need to start at the 3060ti/6700XT level.

With a relatively modern budget CPU, and by that I mean something like Zen3 and Alderlake (such as a i5-12400), and still sticking with DDR4 ram, shipping from an outlet like Newegg/Amazon where the majority have access to, you're looking more in the range of $850 for a 3060 system (a budget 12400/3060 build came out to just under $900 on Amazon), ~$1k for a 3060ti/6700xt. If you want something 'much faster', it's more like $1200+ - and that's still sticking with a 12400f and DDR4, so I'm just talking about a better GPU.



Yes, I'm aware of how PC upgrades work. I'm simply addressing your '$600 for a much faster PC than the current consoles' currently - not what's potentially possible years from now.



Yeah they often have some of the best deals, but they're often in-store only. With under 30 stores across the entire US, that's just not relevant for the majority.

Regarding that PSU, I can't speak to the specific model, but all I can say is I tried to cheap out with a Thermaltake for my recent budget build but had to return it, and it was an 80 Plus Gold, not even just 80 Plus. Loud as hell even with a meagre load.

You don't need Platinum or even Gold PSU's for budget builds of course, but really don't cheap out on the PSU, that's DIY building 101.

1) I am sure you can find similar deals.
2) I'd have to sit and look at benchmarks. to see how much faster it is. I was more speaking of the $800 build being much faster, but I'd still take the $600 build over the consoles

3)Is spiderman a game designed for last gen systems which obviously has bad optimization for the pc really a good example ? I could put a 16 core cpu in the build and the poorly optimized game will still have issues for it. I'd assume the 3060ti would absolutely crush the ps5 and xbox series x in ray traced titles.

4)I disagree with your pricing. You can do a Ryzen 7 3700x (8 core cpu with a mobo for $220 at micro center https://www.microcenter.com/product...b550-plus-prime-ac-hes,-cpu-motherboard-combo

I mean if you don't mind waiting ou can grab a ryzen 7700 for $400 plus 32 gigs of ddr 5 ram for free. Just gotta wait for the sale again. They've done it 3 times since launch.


There are plenty of options in the pc world. Sometimes microcenter doesn't even have the best price. If you know what you want and don't mind waiting I suggest https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/

Heh-heh-heh. I've been fighting the urge to take an hour and a half trip to pick up that deal on the CPU/mobo. If you don't have a couple of Microcenters within a couple of hours though you're pretty out of luck.

EDITED BITS: Most of those deals are unavailable online, in store only. And going to a Microcenter is freaking dangerous, they have way too many great deals!

Personally I think this is better ttps://www.microcenter.com/product/5006115/amd-ryzen-7-3700x-with-wraith-prism-cooler,-asus-b550-plus-prime-ac-hes,-cpu-motherboard-combo its $100 more but you get a better mobo and you get 2 more physical cores.

 

[JPT]

I prefer to just buy a console, it saves me time, because I got less time than money to spend on activities.
Unless poring over specs and bargain hunting is your hobby, I assume more people are like me.

 

[davis.anthony]

Unless poring over specs and bargain hunting is your hobby, I assume more people are like me.

Bit of an odd comment to make, plenty of people who get in to PC gaming don't have "poring over specs and bargain hunting" as a hobby.

The average console gamer has probably wasted more time stock hunting a PS5 online than a newbie to PC gaming has spent looking at specs and GPU options.

 

[Nesh]

Hmm

Ryzen 5 3600 with mobo $130 https://www.microcenter.com/product...gabyte-b450m-ds3h-wifi,-cpu-motherboard-combo
16 gigs of ddr 4 3200 $51 https://www.microcenter.com/product...l-desktop-memory-kit-f4-3200c16d-16gvkb-black
nzxt h510 case $70 https://www.microcenter.com/product...pered-glass-atx-mid-tower-computer-case-black
thermaltake 600 watt $ 45 https://www.microcenter.com/product...600-watt-80-plus-atx-non-modular-power-supply
1TB nvme drive $50 https://www.microcenter.com/product...2-2280-3d-nand-qlc-internal-solid-state-drive

$350

Have $250 left over I guess

You can do a 3060 for $370 https://www.microcenter.com/product...ked-dual-fan-12gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

You can do a 6600xt for $289 https://www.microcenter.com/product...cked-dual-fan-8gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

3050 for $310 https://www.microcenter.com/product...cked-dual-fan-8gb-gddr6-pcie-40-graphics-card

Puts you slightly over the build cost I said.

Great thing about the PC . If in two years you find you need more performance you can drop in 16 core cpu or a 12 core or a 8 core with large amounts of cache. If you want you can jump up to a faster gpu if you need too.

With that ps5 / xbox series your stuck with that hardware, best case scenario is they come out with mid gen upgrade . But then you are rebuying a lot of hardware in there. That 1TB ssd inside your ps5 and xbox series x ? It's gone your new system just has what it comes with. With this build you just put it as a secondary drive if you want and buy a larger drive.

Oh and this is just me using one website if you don't mind buying from multiple sites or waiting for black friday or buying used you can build a pc for a lot cheaper. obviously I think you might as well drop $800 on a system build but hey I don't know the money people have to throw around

Is it easy to just go to whatever store and find something ready, affordable, performant and small enough without having to go through the whole process of searching and salvage parts at the best prices if available and then having to assemble yourself?

 

[fehu]

You can't build a PC that compares to PS5 and Series-X for the same money with brand new parts, it's extremely difficult to do using second parts.

What if I pay 500$ to a burglar to steal Henry Cavill's computer?

 

[mr magoo]

Since when building something yourself is such a traumatising experience? I thought everybody loves LEGO

 

[Nesh]

Since when building something yourself is such a traumatising experience? I thought everybody loves LEGO

Well apparently not everybody is a Lego enthusiast.

 

[mr magoo]

Well apparently not everybody is a Lego enthusiast.

Apparently.... I hope everybody loves Raymond thou? Or is it a lie as well?

 

[Nesh]

Apparently.... I hope everybody loves Raymond thou? Or is it a lie as well?

I hope ruthless reality doesnt hit him hard

 

[pjbliverpool]

Had soooo many debates about this over the last several decades and don't really relish another one, but since we have a thread dedicated to it now I would just like to point out that while building a PC from scratch is almost always more expensive than an equivalent console (for good reason), the long term cost of PC gaming can be very comparable if not cheaper than console gaming thanks to generally cheaper games, lack of subscription fees, upgradability etc... And there are other advantages to that long term ownership such as the ability to build a very large games library which gets better over time without developer intervention (i.e. scaling with new hardware).

In reality I doubt the number of people buying brand new gaming desktops (I'm specifically excluding laptops here because it's a different class of device) from scratch is that big compared to the number of existing PC gamers that simply maintain their systems via upgrades. So I've always found the inclination to compare the cost of a brand new PC (including Windows etc...) to a console to be a strange one. Valid still of course, but less important than the long term ownership costs.

 

[homerdog]

NVIDIA cards are hardly worth mentioning in a value argument. AMD is roughly a full performance bracket ahead at every price point. The 6700XT goes for the same price as the RTX3060, even though it is competing with RTX3070. Hell even the 6600XT is faster than the RTX3060.

 

[davis.anthony]

NVIDIA cards are hardly worth mentioning in a value argument. AMD is roughly a full performance bracket ahead at every price point. The 6700XT goes for the same price as the RTX3060, even though it is competing with RTX3070. Hell even the 6600XT is faster than the RTX3060.

Depends on where you are in the world and what your priority is.

In the UK the cheapest 3060ti is £440 while the cheapest 6700XT is £463.99

Both are close in terms of raster performance but the 3060ti flat out murders the 6700XT when ray tracing is on.

If ray tracing is your number one priority than at every price price point AMD loses to Nvidia and loses quite heavily.

The RTX3060 smacks the 6600XT around when ray tracing is enabled and can even beat the much more expensive 6700XT in heavier ray traced games.

 

[Nesh]

Had soooo many debates about this over the last several decades and don't really relish another one, but since we have a thread dedicated to it now I would just like to point out that while building a PC from scratch is almost always more expensive than an equivalent console (for good reason), the long term cost of PC gaming can be very comparable if not cheaper than console gaming thanks to generally cheaper games, lack of subscription fees, upgradability etc... And there are other advantages to that long term ownership such as the ability to build a very large games library which gets better over time without developer intervention (i.e. scaling with new hardware).

In reality I doubt the number of people buying brand new gaming desktops (I'm specifically excluding laptops here because it's a different class of device) from scratch is that big compared to the number of existing PC gamers that simply maintain their systems via upgrades. So I've always found the inclination to compare the cost of a brand new PC (including Windows etc...) to a console to be a strange one. Valid still of course, but less important than the long term ownership costs.

Its the same arguments we always had and they were always valid but so are the arguments of convenience and not having to pay a lot upfront to access new hardware. I put a question mark on cost savings from PC upgradeability though. That has its limits too. Motherboards become obsolete fast and thus incompatible with newer components. Wanting to upgrade a GPU alone can cost you more than a console.