No I don’t mean putting a PC in a flashy case that makes it look like a B2 bomber (I presume those exist...). I mean more like “what can I get away with buying under the pretext of ‘its for running Excel on and checking my emails dear. No I’m not planning to ignore you while I play a 40 hour session of Civilisation- that’s not what this is for”.
To be more precise - I want to treat myself to a new Desktop (big tower is fine) and I want it to be able to do desktop style things like Excel and basic photo editing. That’s my priority. I don’t see myself sitting down to play high end games for long periods of time.
But at the same time if I’m going to spend £400+ I figure why not spend a little bit more that gives me the option. Or rather that doesn’t completely close off my options to upgrade it to something more mid level setting gaming friendly down the line.
So I figure I need a latest gen intel i3 processor and 8gb of RAM (which I know is easy to upgrade) and I’d make do with integrated graphics to begin with but what am I looking for in a motherboard and power supply to enable me to put a 1050 or better graphics card in down the line? And would it make more sense to go for a cheaper Intel processor that can be swapped out for an i5 (I understand that the motherboard determines whether this is possible)?
On hard drives I’ve been leaning towards an SSD just because I’d like the system to load up quickly. How much does Windows 10 take up these days? Could I maybe save the £50 on an extra conventional drive and make do with just a 256 gb SSD?
Price wise I can lean higher into the £800 range but obviously the higher we go the less stealthy it’ll be.
@Meowpheel that’s the thing. If it’s reasonable for gaming as it stands off the shelf it’s probably labelled ‘for gaming’ - which isn’t very stealthy. My wife would definitely question it.
If it’s not labelled ‘for gaming’ I worry I might box myself out. Like I’ll probably unwittingly choose a motherboard that won’t take a better processor should I need one or a case that won’t physically fit a graphics card or a power supply that’s appropriate.
Gaming on PC isn’t something I’m likely to get much time to do in the next year or two but the bulk of whatever PC I buy will probably last 5 years plus so I’m looking to keep my options open should the opportunity to upgrade present itself.
@StuTwo
If you want a simple gaming pc now with the option to upgrade later don't get an i3. Go with something like the AMD Ryzen 5 2400G. Similar price, better integrated gpu, quad core. Also I'd factor your options for a variable refresh rate display into your costs. Nvidia may seem like an attractive option and their gpu are more power efficient but gsync monitors are considerably more expensive than freesync displays.
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"Don't stir the pot" is a nice way of saying "they're too dumb to reason with"
Honestly, if you can, go with a PC that has the CPU you want now. It's far easier to just swap graphics and ram at a later point than it is dealing with a new CPU and whether or not you have a MB that's compatible.
If you want to go stealth making it look like you're getting a PC just for work, then you can always grab an HP and customize it from their store to your exact specs. You can add a 3GB 1060 to this PC and still remain in your budget: https://store.hp.com/us/en/ConfigureView?catalogId=10051&...
@skywake I’ll look into it, thanks. The objective isn’t to ever have something that’s ultra high end. Just something that will acceptably run most things for a few years.
@CaffeniatedGamer that had been my assumption (that it’s tricky to guarantee mother board compatibility). I’ll keep investigating to see if I can find something that hits the spot. There does seem to be a sharp divide between PCs designed and marketed as ‘gaming PCs’ and general use PCs.
@StuTwo If you are trying to fool your wife(I pity the relationship where you need to do that) but look at gaming PCs specs, then look at PCs not labelled for gaming and compare. You can get a general purpuse PC that still has enough kick to play most games on the market for that price without much difficulty. I suggest you look into ASUS. 5 years ago I bought a PC with 16gb of ram and a 1TB HDD for less than that. The graphics card is dated now, but the point is, you at that price you can easily get it done.
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@Dezzy To piggyback what @subpopz wrote. What if there is something that you are potentially missing out on? What if it goes the exact opposite way of what you said? What if you find someone who enjoys video games as much as you do? Would that not amplify the fun?
I am married and my wife out of the blue asked me to set up a second TV in our living room so we could play Splatoon 2 together.
LOL you just need to find the right person. If I did not have my wife and children to enjoy some video games every now and then, my life would be much worse. Now in hindsight, sitting in front of a TV playing video games all by myself seems boring in comparison.
Although some of the links feature prices in dollars, you can at least get some idea and then search for the necessary components to see what it'll cost you in pounds. Prices should be roughly the same.
And what you might want to be looking for is not a "general" purpose PC, but a multi-purpose or All-In-One PC. There's a difference. A general purpose PC is the one you'll find in your local library or in a school building, and a multi-purpose/All-In-One PC is the one that on the one hand doesn't specifically excel at doing one certain thing, but is actually pretty decent at doing several different things, so it will be just as good for the average PC usage, as well as for gaming and/or photo & video editing, depending on how you configure and/or upgrade it.
So, obviously look for one that has enough options to still be able to upgrade it later on, for any future needs. And some other good advice was already given to you: go for the right CPU straight away, all the other stuff is secondary and more easily upgrade-able.
IMO, it's an unhealthy relationship where one is telling the other they're "not allowed" to do things like play games and things as trivial as hobbies need to be hidden and lied about.
You say that and yet I still struggle to find a woman who's supportive of my trivial hobby of installing hidden fart machines in elevators.
@Dezzy I completely agree. Marriage is vastly over-rated, you either have unhealthy relationships like this, or you have expensive, family destroying divorces. Healthy relationships are rare.
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@ThanosReXXX thanks for the links. I’ve actually now seen a couple of ‘off the shelf’ PCs that I think generally fit the bill of what I want in the £600 range so I’m feeling positive.
As to people questioning the health of my relationship:
a. My tongue is in my cheek with this topic. The issues of wanting something that could work for decent (but not high end) gaming performance is true. My wife would let me buy a £1000 behemoth if I really wanted to but I don’t want to do that myself (I have to justify the long term cost/benefits to myself!) and I don’t want a ridiculous translucent box with flashing neon lights.
b. I have other interests than gaming (it’s not my number 1 hobby) and whilst gaming is something I don’t have in common with my wife we do share plenty of other things in common. We wouldn’t be married otherwise!
@StuTwo You're welcome. Oh, and do yourself a favor: definitely skip that i3. The i5 is a bit more future proof (and still pretty competent), especially seeing as the heavier gaming systems of today, which will be the mid-rangers of tomorrow, are already running on i7, and the truly high-end, dedicated gaming rigs are already going far beyond that with i9's, so before you know it, that i3 is going to be obsolete, if it isn't already...
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
@ThanosReXXX Hey, I want to chime in and say thanks for all those links. It reminded me that my PC is getting old and it was not very top of the line when I got it. But as I am mostly a console gamer, with medium to light PC gaming, (although If you look at my Steam, Humble, GOG library, the casual person might say otherwise), having a medium build PC with some wise future proofing is more than enough for my PC gaming needs. Although I do willingly handicap myself a little on the PC gaming front, due to personal preference, I might want to tap into your knowledge and get an opinion or two at some point in the future.
I am not totally ignorant with PC's but I have found if I stop keeping up with things, stuff changes fast.
Take it easy
@ThanosReXXX Not sure if you minded, do you think you have some ideas for what kind I should look for at gaming laptops? I kind of got the 1050Ti version last year and kinda regret it... :[
(I know that PC in general is cheaper, but I just want to give a look at how bad it is for Laptops since I tend to move back home and such a lot and it's on planes. It's annoying to pack up PCs, I think).
@Hikingguy You're welcome, and no problem. Just send me a message and I'll see what info I can come up with. Having said that, there are actually far more knowledgeable people in this (and other PC-related) thread(s), that have a much more modern PC than me (I'm kinda like you, and as far as gaming goes, I can play last gen games, so Xbox 360/PS3 titles, on my PC with little to no problems, but nothing current gen, or at least nothing triple A) and a more recent view on things.
Me, I'm basically just a search engine wiz. Something I learned to fine tune during my sales & marketing career...
However, it does also help that my core business in sales is IT-related, so I do know more than enough about it, except not from the perspective of a consumer, since my work is only business to business, obviously.
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