Long-lasting Gaming PC advice

Hello,

Looking at replacing the gaming PC I last got from PC Specialist which has lasted me over 6 years which was great. I'm very much out of the loop on good/bad brands/components etc by now so will appreciate a bit of advice / build suggestion for a starting basis.

I'll mainly be looking to play MMOs like WoW and FFXIV regularly with nice graphics and smoothly and all that. It would also be great to get something that will handle current and up and coming games well generally. I'd especially like something ready for Elden Ring which I know doesn't have any specs yet but I imagine will be not too dissimilar from the level needed for Sekiro etc.

I definitely would want Windows on an SSD with a decent amount of space left over for games (so 250GB minimum I guess) and I could especially do with some guidance here as I'm not sure about all the benefits of the various acronyms like M.2, NVME etc as far as my purposes go.

As for budget it would be ideal if I could keep it within £1000 (just the tower, no need for monitor/peripherals) but would consider going a couple of hundred or so above that if that's what it takes to get something that will last me a good 5+ years (by last I mean continue to run most games relatively smoothly even if I have to make plenty of sacrifices on the graphics later in its life cycle).

Hope this all makes sense and many thanks in advance for any help.
 
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Apologies I forgot to mention I'm also curious about how well-regarded the prebuilt options on the site are because for example the Pulsar Elite looks like a brilliant price point for me.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
At your budget, I would steer well clear of intel, AMD will give a lot more performance.

There's this next day PC which is a good deal:


You don't mention what monitor you're pairing it with? What resolution and refresh rate, or what make and model if you're unsure?
 
Thanks for the suggestion, the advice about AMD is exactly the kind of thing I needed for a starting point. The monitor is 1080p 60Hz, ASUS VS248HR, which has always felt like enough for me. I should probably also say that I'm not that much of an FPS person and don't necessarily need a solid undeviating 60 at all times on ultra - as long as something doesn't dip low enough to be really visibly quite choppy I don't tend to notice/mind.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Thanks for the suggestion, the advice about AMD is exactly the kind of thing I needed for a starting point. The monitor is 1080p 60Hz, ASUS VS248HR, which has always felt like enough for me. I should probably also say that I'm not that much of an FPS person and don't necessarily need a solid undeviating 60 at all times on ultra - as long as something doesn't dip low enough to be really visibly quite choppy I don't tend to notice/mind.
The GPU in that build would be overpowered for the first while but may be worthwhile investment to last that little bit longer.

AMD are a superb option atm, they've completely bridged the gab with Intel and actually now outdo them in a lot of scenario's. That Ryzen 3600 is the ultimate chip for gaming for price vs performance and beats all of Intels i5 offerings and even some of their i7's.

I mean it's a solid build all round and I'd say very worth the money. It would also suit upgrades well down the line, rather than having to buy a whole new system, you'd be able to upgrade necessary components which would keep future costs down.
 
Hi everyone. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get around to getting that new PC at the time, but with Windows 7 obselescence looming it feels like a good time at the end of the year.

I realize that it's only been a couple of months but I don't really know how quickly value moves in the PC market so I'd just like to check with you Spydertracks or anyone else, whether that Zen Core is still the best option for my needs as detailed in the above posts, or whether by now there are any other better value builds out there, either prebuilt or custom.

Many thanks in advance once again!
 
Actually starting to talk myself into stretching as far as the AMD Fusion PC in the Black Friday sale and upgrading my monitor a little later since that one was well recommended from a friend. Any thoughts from more informed people on whether that one is a good deal would also be much appreciated.
 
Apologies for spamming this thread a little, just one more question I am wondering about if I'm going to think about getting the Fusion Black Friday deal before Monday. On the wireless/wired networking option on the prebuild I see it says "WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD". Does this mean there will be an ethernet port as well? That might be a stupid question but I want to be sure because I'm quite far from the router.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Apologies for spamming this thread a little, just one more question I am wondering about if I'm going to think about getting the Fusion Black Friday deal before Monday. On the wireless/wired networking option on the prebuild I see it says "WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD". Does this mean there will be an ethernet port as well? That might be a stupid question but I want to be sure because I'm quite far from the router.
Yes, ethernet is a part of every motherboard as standard.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Many thanks mate! Good to know.
Sorry, just saw your previous comment! The AMD Black Friday PC is a really good deal and would suit a 1440p 144Hz screen perfectly for some time to come. The processor is really powerful, overpowered for just gaming, really good at multithreaded workloads like streaming or video encoding so it would suit a general purpose build really well. It would still be excellent for gaming and you’re getting the CPU upgrade from a 3600 to the 3700x essentially for free, so well worth it!
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
As an alternative to the Black Friday deal:

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)

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Get 3 Months of XBOX Game Pass for PC w/ select AMD Ryzen CPUs
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B450-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!

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Get CoD: Modern Warfare with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £1,244.00 including VAT and Delivery --- £1219 with the £25 off Black Friday code

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/WTZFYR525x/



R5 over R7. But games won't really care and that'll probably be the case for a while.
B450 mobo, but you'll be able to manage without PCIe 4.0 for a long while too
Budget SSD rather than 970 Evo Plus, but game loading times won't really care (maybe a second or two)
3200 MHz RAM since you can customise and it's only £4 more
Stock AMD cooler is fine. Or you could add a Cooler Master Lite 240 thingy and it's still sub £1300
£25 discount because you can use the code on a custom spec but not the BF special offer systems which are already discounted
If you want one of the free games, up the CPU to the 3600x - but only if you want the game anyway, performance wise it's not worth it.
Up the wifi card to the AX200 for more features for a few quid

Freeing up £200-£300 for a monitor.

As for monitors to go with an RTX 2070, I've got a little list:
Options across the price range from £200-£600, with many in the £350-450 area.
 
Excellent advice, thanks massively to you both for the timely help, that's more than enough for me to think about and decide by the end of the sale. Much appreciated!
 
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