New PC Talk...

[kamikazekeeg]

I never went through my previous upgrade I thought about a couple years back and with most of my PC being 6 years old, it's time for a fully new system.  Performance on games is functional, but getting a little rougher, honestly surprised I've done as well as I have on some games with a GTX 1060 still, like Helldivers 2 can play pretty decently.  New Egg has a nice handy PC builder setup now, and so just wanting some opinions on this build.

https://newegg.io/994a71f

I think the only thing I'm missing is that the initial build guide didn't give me any extra fans for the case that I can see, the cooler comes with a big one for up top, and then I'd just need like 4 more for the side and back.  Is Windows 11 a must yet for new systems or can I do just fine with Windows 10 for now? Cutting that out would save me 140 bucks and I can just grab that whenever if I need to upgrade.

I'm still probably fine with my 144hz 1080p monitor I bought a couple years ago, though I'll maybe see about a 1440p or perhaps 4k one here eventually and just make this one my secondary.  This is my general budget, like 1600 to 1800.  I was gonna try and be ready for Memorial Day to see about getting on some sales, but might not make it till next month, but figured I'd get some opinions on the build for now.

*EDIT* Ack, just realized I put this in Off Topic and not Hardware, if a mod could move it for me, that would be helpful.

[oldgamerz]

Glad you got a new computer

mine are good but are currently 9 and 10 years old, but still work good, both are old, but work for everything I need them to work for, I improvise in just about everything I do, but I don't ever prate video games, A pirate is someone who downloads the newest video games for free, good thing I am not one. But anyway I wish you the best of luck on your new computer and or systems.

[tripredacus]

Age of computer doesn't really matter since computing has been on the plateau for so long. You didn't post specs for your current system to compare to. Usually you only need to upgrade a video card these days and not the entire system. My gaming computer is probably the same age as yours or perhaps older (I'm using a CPU from 2017) and I haven't had any reason to upgrade or even consider building a new computer. I know a lot of people just upgrade or build a new computer because they think they have to.

The airflow design on the chassis looks fine as it is, where would you add more fans to? The images show 2 in and 3 out and using the liquid cooler on the video card solves the issue of those fans pushing air down into the power supply.

Windows 11 still represents itself as Windows v10, and I haven't run into anything that actually requires it. Video card drivers are what really sets the minimum OS version, where drivers have a minimum supported Windows build number in the INF.

[kamikazekeeg]

Sorry, meant to post sooner, but I changed the case to something else as I liked better that had a nice interior and it comes with fans, so that whole point I brought up with the fans doesn't matter now lol Forgot it would auto change the link I posted here.  Also removed Windows 11 ahead of time as it just saves money and if it came down to it, I can buy it at any time if necessary, but I figured it wasn't going to be a huge deal to get.

My current system is a...

ASUS ROG Strix Z370-E Gaming LGA 1151
Intel Core i5 8th Gen - Core i5-8600K Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.6 GHz
CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3000
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC GAMING
EVGA 600 BR 100-BR-0600-K1 600 W
And then have a 1tb SSD I've been using, but no specs on that because I bought it after my initial PC build.

I'm sure there's some room for improvement, but a graphics card wouldn't be all I'd need right? I know most games lean on the graphics card, but some can be CPU intensive too, and I'm trying to get my system to hit high/ultra settings on most of the games out now, particularly stuff like Helldivers 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and to be ready to run something like STALKER 2 coming up real well, while also doing like 120+ frames fairly consistently at 1080p.

[oldgamerz]

GAME COMPUTER: INTEL(R) PENTIUM(R)  G3250 @ 3.20Ghz year build 2014 the radio station is probably a 2016 built I am not posting that one because? that one is not my primary PC although that PC is 2 or maybe 3 times more powerful than my gaming machine is today

My current gaming system is a 2 core and 2 logic processor system with 1 socket and base speed of 3.20Ghz

8GB or Random Access Memory and I think 2 slots for DDR3? but not sure

My Current video card is a October 2009 Nvidia GeForce 210 with capture ability through a third party app

My Current gaming computer video card also comes with HDMI sound and HDMI video plug in tech

1920 x 1080 60hz (no shadowplay)

3 fans one in front one in center and another one on the power supply.

My current monitor is a flat screen "Amazon Basic" it is bigger then 1 foot metric wide and about 1 foot exactly tall in US metric.

speakers "Realtek High Definition Audio"


932 GB hard drive on both my PC's

[oldgamerz]

My current gaming PC has a rattling Power supply fan and a small generator hum, the older PC's I had were more silent but this one is old and works, it is damaged though 3 out of 8 USB ports do not work but I do got a USB extension that saved me from buying a new PC the motherboard video is shot to hell but the sound chip is fine I got a sound chip and not a internal sound card today, because the sound chip sounds much better then my sound cards do. The display is clear and the heat level is never too hot on both machines because I live underground and got a dehumidifier to keep it cool and dry. The Radio Station PC has 4 lion jacks with one plugged in, and 2 or 4 fans and a motherboard temp gauge on the inside digital.

[tripredacus]

My current system is a...

ASUS ROG Strix Z370-E Gaming LGA 1151
Intel Core i5 8th Gen - Core i5-8600K Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.6 GHz
CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3000
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC GAMING
EVGA 600 BR 100-BR-0600-K1 600 W
And then have a 1tb SSD I've been using, but no specs on that because I bought it after my initial PC build.

I'm sure there's some room for improvement, but a graphics card wouldn't be all I'd need right?

Some things I can mention.
1. i5 CPUs are fine but for modern gaming it seems i7 is the minimum. There is obviously some crossover between ages, such as perhaps a newer i5 is better than an old i7 but as I've mentioned earlier, we are at CPU plateau so a 10 year old i7 (or equivalent) is going to be the same for gaming as a modern one. So an i7 or a quad core with Hyperthreading and at least 2.8 GHz is the minimum.

2. RAM is cheap, so if you board can support more you should get more. However, you are likely not going to actually need more than 16 GB. The only situation I've run into where you'd want more than 16 GB is running modded Minecraft. On my system I would allocated 12 GB to Java. But in general, PC games aren't going to be using enough, but as stated the prices may be low enough that it doesn't matter.

3. As far as I'm aware, there are no video cards with over 8 GB VRAM that run on BIOS. Many/most 8 GB cards are either BIOS (very few), UEFI, auto-detect (not reliable) or switchable (very few). And worse is that those types of capabilities are not often advertised with any degree of certainty. Second thing to be aware of and this is important is that you need to know how your OS is installed if you want to do an upgrade. If you are currently running on BIOS or CSM enabled, and your disk is MBR, if you were to buy a video card with more than 8 GB VRAM, the card is UEFI and you may not get any video at POST or boot. If your system is on UEFI and using GPT disk, then you are safe to get one of these modern cards.

I want to mention that the video card I am using, the Sapphire Radeon RX 580 is 8 GB and is one of the few cards that has a physical switch. I am running on BIOS on a board 2 generations older than yours. So this card is the best card I can ever use in this configuration. That being said, I haven't run into any games that do not work on this card. The most demanding game I have run on it was COD Warzone. Now if I run into a situation where I need to get a card with more VRAM, I'm going to have to do some work to get compliant with that. There is a way to do it without reinstalling the OS, but I'd rather not do it.

[kamikazekeeg]

My current system is a...

ASUS ROG Strix Z370-E Gaming LGA 1151
Intel Core i5 8th Gen - Core i5-8600K Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.6 GHz
CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3000
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC GAMING
EVGA 600 BR 100-BR-0600-K1 600 W
And then have a 1tb SSD I've been using, but no specs on that because I bought it after my initial PC build.

I'm sure there's some room for improvement, but a graphics card wouldn't be all I'd need right?

Some things I can mention.
1. i5 CPUs are fine but for modern gaming it seems i7 is the minimum. There is obviously some crossover between ages, such as perhaps a newer i5 is better than an old i7 but as I've mentioned earlier, we are at CPU plateau so a 10 year old i7 (or equivalent) is going to be the same for gaming as a modern one. So an i7 or a quad core with Hyperthreading and at least 2.8 GHz is the minimum.

2. RAM is cheap, so if you board can support more you should get more. However, you are likely not going to actually need more than 16 GB. The only situation I've run into where you'd want more than 16 GB is running modded Minecraft. On my system I would allocated 12 GB to Java. But in general, PC games aren't going to be using enough, but as stated the prices may be low enough that it doesn't matter.

3. As far as I'm aware, there are no video cards with over 8 GB VRAM that run on BIOS. Many/most 8 GB cards are either BIOS (very few), UEFI, auto-detect (not reliable) or switchable (very few). And worse is that those types of capabilities are not often advertised with any degree of certainty. Second thing to be aware of and this is important is that you need to know how your OS is installed if you want to do an upgrade. If you are currently running on BIOS or CSM enabled, and your disk is MBR, if you were to buy a video card with more than 8 GB VRAM, the card is UEFI and you may not get any video at POST or boot. If your system is on UEFI and using GPT disk, then you are safe to get one of these modern cards.

I want to mention that the video card I am using, the Sapphire Radeon RX 580 is 8 GB and is one of the few cards that has a physical switch. I am running on BIOS on a board 2 generations older than yours. So this card is the best card I can ever use in this configuration. That being said, I haven't run into any games that do not work on this card. The most demanding game I have run on it was COD Warzone. Now if I run into a situation where I need to get a card with more VRAM, I'm going to have to do some work to get compliant with that. There is a way to do it without reinstalling the OS, but I'd rather not do it.

Am I getting that much of an upgrade with just some new parts? I tried to sorta browse what I think an upgraded build for me could be on Youtube and it didn't seem like I would be getting a huge leap on more graphic heavy games that are out now.  An improvement for sure, better than what I got now, but I'm trying to do a big leap in quality while also setting myself up for the next couple years along with likely getting a 1440p monitor.  I'm cool with the price of the upgrade, I have the money for it, though I am waiting till Memorial Day to see if I can take advantage of some sales.

I just want to make sure the build I have is going to get me what I want and that I have all the main parts I need and there was nothing weird to the choices.  From what I looked up, while it doesn't seem like New Egg specifically goes out of its way to check for compatibility with its pc builder, it tries to make sure the only parts that can be chosen should work with the parts picked, the only possible things that may not count being like GPU's and how they fit into a case.

[oldgamerz]

This is a long amazon link but this is my current gaming monitor it's big and clear and works and even can sound great too with HDMI sound, it is versitle and I could even play a console on it if I wanted to I probally could even hook a cable box to it also I but this is not a smart tv



https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Basics-75hz-Panel-Monitor/dp/B08WJ3GYC9/ref=sr_1_1_ffob_sspa?crid=AL1ADG1JE922&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.A-X3GESwiWdUuk2y6Q74FcYO-gcmrW6LHBq-V6-vLGANbKSPcUPvm9YC9CRYGOzlhxR6zHKYoqIdZ9f3XZCXK3Nn4EAHIcm9YBcDy_ycpUBehGd43aVXk2VXlORCbrynX2qoNbVzTWFa-D3SUMYrccMBEIJpaBNH3N6Dv75ohCyz9FE5xvAvwe2KUbZFCz8U2sCKfhPQYyH3Hdb6fdKqHjhKs8dsgO-OraecNvxYFfU.8OxgMMBBMzw3f8u3nbVee8vpnTgrh6ANqen4odI-Tug&dib_tag=se&keywords=monitor&qid=1715848287&sprefix=monitor%2Caps%2C3691&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

[tripredacus]

This is a long amazon link but this is my current gaming monitor it's big and clear and works and even can sound great too with HDMI sound, it is versitle and I could even play a console on it if I wanted to I probally could even hook a cable box to it also I but this is not a smart tv

https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Basics-75hz-Panel-Monitor/dp/B08WJ3GYC9/ref=sr_1_1_ffob_sspa?crid=AL1ADG1JE922&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.A-X3GESwiWdUuk2y6Q74FcYO-gcmrW6LHBq-V6-vLGANbKSPcUPvm9YC9CRYGOzlhxR6zHKYoqIdZ9f3XZCXK3Nn4EAHIcm9YBcDy_ycpUBehGd43aVXk2VXlORCbrynX2qoNbVzTWFa-D3SUMYrccMBEIJpaBNH3N6Dv75ohCyz9FE5xvAvwe2KUbZFCz8U2sCKfhPQYyH3Hdb6fdKqHjhKs8dsgO-OraecNvxYFfU.8OxgMMBBMzw3f8u3nbVee8vpnTgrh6ANqen4odI-Tug&dib_tag=se&keywords=monitor&qid=1715848287&sprefix=monitor%2Caps%2C3691&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

You don't need to post the full URL. Short URL is the same (just have /dp/ASIN)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WJ3GYC9/

[tripredacus]

Am I getting that much of an upgrade with just some new parts? I tried to sorta browse what I think an upgraded build for me could be on Youtube and it didn't seem like I would be getting a huge leap on more graphic heavy games that are out now. An improvement for sure, better than what I got now, but I'm trying to do a big leap in quality while also setting myself up for the next couple years

There isn't a way to know without being able to try both. The price on your picker deal is pretty good considering what is included.

Personally I notice when playing games that max settings usually isn't worthwhile. First because there are many games where I can't tell the difference between Med/High/Ultra. Second is that unless the game is a walking simulator or some other type thing where you get to look around at the environment alot, the extra things that appear may not be noticable if you are focusing on the action. Since you're talking about Helldivers 2 the MP game, it is similar to me when I was playing BO4, where I didn't need or want the graphics to be on max because competition (and hence, speed/performance) takes priority over how the game looks. Even BITD the best Q3 player I personally knew ran the game on low settings to get the highest framerate. I know multiplayer games are more in the general public so you may not be a competitive player that cares about that, idk.

[kamikazekeeg]

Am I getting that much of an upgrade with just some new parts? I tried to sorta browse what I think an upgraded build for me could be on Youtube and it didn't seem like I would be getting a huge leap on more graphic heavy games that are out now. An improvement for sure, better than what I got now, but I'm trying to do a big leap in quality while also setting myself up for the next couple years

There isn't a way to know without being able to try both. The price on your picker deal is pretty good considering what is included.

Personally I notice when playing games that max settings usually isn't worthwhile. First because there are many games where I can't tell the difference between Med/High/Ultra. Second is that unless the game is a walking simulator or some other type thing where you get to look around at the environment alot, the extra things that appear may not be noticable if you are focusing on the action. Since you're talking about Helldivers 2 the MP game, it is similar to me when I was playing BO4, where I didn't need or want the graphics to be on max because competition (and hence, speed/performance) takes priority over how the game looks. Even BITD the best Q3 player I personally knew ran the game on low settings to get the highest framerate. I know multiplayer games are more in the general public so you may not be a competitive player that cares about that, idk.

Yeah I'm not someone who is a "competitive" player in the multiplayer games I play, I almost never play anything ranked lol  I just want it to look real good while also having real good performance.  I know I watch EvilToaster for Apex and he's got his system so completely fine tuned to levels that are unbelievable to get the best looking visuals while also getting like maxed 200+fps action lol

I do play a lot of multiplayer games, but I would say what I tend to play most on my PC are larger open world experiences, survival games, things where I want great visuals and great performance.  Cyberpunk 2077 was one that still doesn't run well for me, that game I understand is taxing no matter the system, but still...I play DayZ every so often, I just got done playing Grounded again which runs well but even on lower settings has some performance issues, I'm interested in open world games like Star Wars: Outlaws coming up and STALKER 2 is gonna be super environment heavy and I want that to run it really well.  Also if the next Battlefield game coming out next year isn't a dumpster fire like Battlefield 2042, getting a game like that running great is something I want to push for, as Battlefield V was actually a push for me to get a new system back in 2018...which wasn't a great game, but it did look nice at least lol

If the system I'm grabbing looks good, then I'm definitely gonna pick it up soon, but I do appreciate trying to help me save me money with wanting to discuss just some upgrades, I'm sure other people can use that information to try and get some light upgrades just by double checking to see what their current setup can handle with some new hardware added.

[oldgamerz]

You don't need the most expensive PC money can buy unless you can get one on sale, but even then We or at least I would like to know what kind of video games do you plan on playing with one, so we could distinguish would you would need to play those game with. I am a retro gamer so I don't need the best of the best to play games with.

[wuddy6]

You don't need the most expensive PC money can buy unless you can get one on sale, but even then We or at least I would like to know what kind of video games do you plan on playing with one, so we could distinguish would you would need to play those game with. I am a retro gamer so I don't need the best of the best to play games with.

Do you think there's a big difference in PC specs needed between emulating older games versus playing modern titles at lower graphical settings?

[tripredacus]

Do you think there's a big difference in PC specs needed between emulating older games versus playing modern titles at lower graphical settings?

This should be obvious, but it may depend on what you mean by older games. You can run emulators on pre-Pentium CPUs, so that should answer your spec question.

I ran NES and Genesis emulators on the Compaq Elite 440CX I had in college, it was a 386 running Windows NT 3.51. My Windows 98 computer (Shiva) has a Pentium 4 and runs console emulators as well as an old version of MAME. Now certainly neither of those computers could run Retroarch or other modern emulators and certainly can't run modern games at any graphical setting.