are you recommending a new gpu? as per the advice, I'm going to use my old gpu for now

awesome thanks again, good link. I'll have to get a crash course on building again to refresh my memory

also seeing that value on the keyboard makes me want to atleast upgrade it and maybe mouse too, ill check out that thread he referenced

ionutd would you say he picked out a good keyboard/mouse?

the mouse shape is very subjective to the size of your palm and the style of your grip
sensors on gaming mice are pretty much all extremely good today unless you go super budget noname stuff, with no difference between mid and high range.
and the lighter it is, the comfier it is to use. lately we're seeing 70g or less. realistically anything below 80g feels light. I would not pick anything heavier.
cables on some models are so light and flexible these days, to the point where wired mice feel wireless
feet must be ptfe so they glide easy and a bit thicker so they last
for shapes and sizes you can look here, tho idk how updated the site is https://www.rocketjumpninja.com/mouse-search
if not sure, symmetrical designs have a better chance of fitting your hand
oh and I'd recommend optical switches, that completely fixes double clicking issues, usually found in Omron 10M-50M switches, which a lot of brand name gaming mice have. there's a hotswap option as well with Asus ROG mice, tho I think their shapes are meh.

keyboard wise, again, depends what you like, if you want smth to last you forever, you go either optical or mechanical w/ hotswap (lets you swap individual switches w/o tools and also fix various problems quick and ez diy). just makes it so you no longer have a disposable product.
otherwise, so many different switches and options out there, just need tot think about which type you prefer, minute variations between options of the same type will drive you crazy, don't even bother... lookup linear vs tactile vs clicky switches on youtube, see which you like and I'll find you a good deal

mby wait a bit till proper BF starts, there are always great deals on peripherals on BF, more so than on components
a lot of ppl just shop for peripherals at this time

length is 7in
width is 4in (from mid palm not including thumb)
current grip is pretty much palm but I tend to have some space between palm and mouse on my zowie EC. not sure why I grip that way perhaps because palms get sweaty sometimes


Rank ▾ Name Weight (g) Size Length (cm) Grip Width (cm) Review
49 Cooler Master MM720 50g (0.67:1) S 10.5 7.1
Link
80 Roccat Kone Aimo 130g (1.56:1) XL 12.6 6.6
Link
81 Roccat Kone EMP 117g (1.38:1) XL 12.8 6.6
Link

keyboard wise, mechanical w/ hotswap sounds good. I'm leaning towards tactile but still not 100% sure. I might head to a bestbuy to sample some.

ye if you have a nearby place to go where they're displayed side by side to try out, that's infinitely better

and like I said, try and get a mouse with optical switches. I have some 70-80 mice in my collection and mby 30 of those have double clicking issues. this doesn't happen with optical

there are some great super cheap options if you don't mind a wire. e.g. Razer Viper Mini was <20$ for BF where I live and it's fantastic.

same thing with keyboards, the type of keyboards you will find in a bestbuy or a microcenter, almost certainly not going to be mech hotswaps, because that's more of an enthusiast feature, but there are optical keyboards available from big name brands. I'd much rather get one of those instead. Razer has some, Corsair, Roccat, whichever you like and is on sale.

dont mind the wire at all so a good cheap option works

and for keyboard, I'd like to try a tactile mechanical one but would consider an optical one depending on price as well

optical boards are only linear, but they're the smoothest linears out there
Razer has a clicky version, but I'd ignore that, it's loud and annoying af

mind you, tactility on a mechanical keyboard is very faint
it's like a linear with a slight bump somewhere along the way

and you're very limited if you want a full sized board (with a numpad)
most enthusiast stuff is TKL (no numpad) and smaller

other options include hall effect (magnetic) but these boards are expensive and frequently out of stock
thing is everyone's using the same 30+ year old Cherry design with little to no innovation all this time. the newest iterations are hall effects and optical and both are superior from basically every objective point of view; no accidental activations, last longer, smoother because no points of contact, more resilient to dust and water

Is it cool if I piggyback here, rather than creating a new thread for the same advice?

I think I might finally get a new gaming PC. I built mine 7 years ago and it was a budget gaming build at the time, so obviously it’s pretty out of date. Still runs well, actually. Can play stuff like Fortnite, Overwatch, Rocket League, etc. just fine on low-medium settings. Haven’t tried anything REALLY intensive and obviously I'm not getting high FPS (60 FPS comfortably, which works). Only big problem I had was I got to a part in one of the latest Wolfenstein games where there were so many enemies on the screen where it became unplayable. But overall, it’s still running strong.

That said, I think it’s time.

My needs are modest. I don’t plan on spending a ton, just something that will last me a few years and will play whatever, even if it’s not at ultra graphics settings. I built my current PC for maybe $600 and that’s as much as a ****ing GPU costs now, so I’m leaning toward a pre-built machine.

Seems like this might be a pretty good bang for the buck:

https://www.newegg.com/abs-ali570/p/N82E16883360205

I think it might be $100 less for Black Friday - can’t tell based on the ad scan I’ve seen.

I have additional hard drives and an optical drive I can take out of my current PC, so I’m not overly concerned with the storage it comes with. Also don't care about the keyboard and mouse - I have ones I like.

I also saw something about a Dell Alienware Aurora 12 for about $1200, but I can’t seem to find it.

Thoughts?

ye but you're prob still paying the same money for gpus in pre-builts
excluding the gpu, the system you linked is ~500$ , still getting taxed 800$ for that 3060 that msrp'ed for 3-350$

what do you have now? cpus stay relevant for much longer than gpus, if what you have now is still competent, you might want to look for a used card

I'll look up my current specs later - I'm not on that PC right now. It's an AMD FX-something or other.

Oh yeah, I definitely get that I'm still paying the same for a GPU in a pre-built machine, it's just that it's easier to grab one this way. So if it's about $800-$900 for the 3060 (did a 10-second search) and the rest of the parts are about $500, seems like the linked PC is a decent deal. Plus, I might need a new Windows license.

Price aside, that build seems pretty solid, no?

Thanks for the input. I'll look up my PC's specs later today. Been a long time since I've kept up on what specs/parts are good.

my ssd has mysteriously vanished, can't find it anywhere. is that 500gb samsung for $60 still the best deal for me?

vanished lol. get this https://www.newegg.com/samsung-250gb...82E16820147788
you'll add the other one as your 2nd when you find it. the mobo supports 2x m.2 drives

if it's an FX, you're due for an upgrade, those are pretty ****, not worth it pairing them with a decent gpu
wait a bit for proper BF / Cyber Monday to get a better deal if it's a pre-built you're after

ty ion, i'm traveling now so will circle back at bf and buy for reals

also that was 2x monitors not one

Yup, it's an AMD FX-6300. Told you I built it a long time ago. It's been a trusty horse, though. No problems with it except obsolescence.

Intel chips of the same period have aged a lot better, tho still not fully up to the job anymore when tasked with modern AAA games.

given the situation with gpu prices atm and in the foreseeable future, if it were me, I'd rather get a gaming laptop instead
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E1683423...quicklink=true
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16834233483

ah ok makes sense xD
200 a pop seems reasonable

Interesting. Looks pretty similar to the desktop I linked with less expandability (fewer ports and HD bays), but with the benefit of portability.

I do have a "gaming" laptop that's a couple years old (using it right now - the left arrow keycap broke off and I ordered a new one, but it doesn't fit...brand new keyboard direct from Dell is only like $40, so I might just do that). I never really use it for AAA action titles, though it does work - I used to play Apex Legends on it a little bit. Just don't have a convenient monitor to hook it up to. It's an i5-7300HQ, 8 GB RAM (could obviously increase that), with a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, so not nearly the powerhouse that I could get now.

ye the 1050 TI is nowhere near an RTX 3060+
cpu still fine, storage and ports you can expand, but gpus are the first to become obsolete as new, more demanding games pop up
this is one of the main selling points of a desktop in the context of gaming, the ability to upgrade the gpu as needed; simple swap, nothing else needs to go, eventually the psu might need changing but that's it and you can likely stay on the same cpu for 2 or 3 gpu upgrades

beware of pre-builts using proprietary parts, like HP or Dell , Lenovo, Alienware; for a lot of reasons, these are disposable products; no upgrades, no ability to re-use the parts in another system, something breaks and you pay up your nose for a replacement. the ones done by boutique companies with off the shelves parts are ok, but then again pay attention to their mark up

if you were to compare a desktop to a laptop with "identical" specs, the laptop is going to turn out 10-15% slower. cpu/gpu are clocked down in laptops because there's not the same room to cool them as well

think that's enough info to make an informed decision, if not in a hurry, wait and see what BF / Cyber Monday bring, save 1-200$.

I appreciate the advice. I've built all but one of the desktop PC's I've owned, but haven't done it in years, so I'm just not up on which parts to go for nowadays (within reason).

I'm still leaning toward pre-built this time, but not from a Dell, HP, etc., mainly because I just don't have the time and energy right now to source every part and build it. Seems like there are some decent prices right now (or next week), even with inflated GPU prices.

yeah i have a xiaomi travel laptop, it's super light, super durable (beaten the crap out of it and it's still good but it really irks me that I can't even upgrade nor even swap out the RAM as it's embedded into the motherboard - something that i never even considered would be a thing when i bought it assuming I'd upgrade the RAM in a year or two

ye sadly a lot of ultrabooks do that, partly cause of the size constraints, mostly cause greed
no worries, Apple won't even let you swap the ssd for anything that's not their own supplier, which cost 3x as much

My Dell laptop is pretty upgrade-friendly. I added an SSD and it looks like the RAM is upgradeable (don't need to). I do like that it only has one screw on the bottom panel. Too bad it's really hard to get replacement keycaps, so I'll likely need to just replace the entire keyboard if I want to use the left arrow.

I did buy a Dell desktop a long time ago and while it was certainly upgradeable, it was not nearly as flexible as a DIY or an enthusiast brand. The big thing I remember is that there were barely any drive bays. It does seem, from my brief research, that things have changed a little with an increased focus on "gamers," but if I go pre-built, I'll still probably stay away from the Dells and HPs of the world.

pc is pretty much setup just have to xfer gpu and plug in some cables. thanks again for all the help

how are the deals looking for the peripherals? ill keep taking your word for it and go with the opticals, unless good deals on mech

nice, gj

https://www.newegg.com/evga-z15-rgb-...quicklink=true
https://www.newegg.com/cooler-master...quicklink=true