I'm going to be purchasing a new desktop computer for poker, poker tracking software, misc poker software (solvers etc.), home office use. I would like something that can run light games.

One thing to note is I'm not interested in building my own desktop or purchasing a gaming computer as I prefer the more subdued business look as I will be using it for work.

My budget is around $1,000 for the computer but will go less if I can get good performance for that price. I'm currently looking at 2 options.

Option 1:

Acer Aspire TC-885-UA92 Desktop (~$550)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...KIKX0DER&psc=1

Option 2:

Dell XPS Desktop with specs: (~$1,000)


-9th Gen Intel® Core™ i5 9400 (6-Core, 9MB Cache, up to 4.1GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology)
-Windows 10 Home
-NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 1030 2GB GDDR5
-460 Watt Power Supply
-16GB DDR4 at 2400MHz; up to 32GB (Additional memory sold separately)
-512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
-Killer™ Wi-Fi 6 AX1650, 2 x 2, Bluetooth 5.0

Questions:

1. How much storage would I need for a poker database and affiliated storage for poker software? My storage needs outside of poker are very low as I got away with 128gb laptop for the past 6 years or so.

2. What graphics card would be most cost effective and have the ability to perform? I know PokerStars has a new graphics engine that my laptop can't handle. On the XPS I have options for Nvidia 1030, 1650, 1060 etc. that would be in the general price range. But I think that some graphics card require.a larger battery supply etc.

Let me know what you think would be best for my situation.

k so the 1030 is just not worth it in the context of a modern computer
rather useless card for the i5 9400, shouldn't even be there
gt 1030 is what you buy to rejuvenate a 2nd gen i5 machine and get some games going

depends how light the games are but stuff like League of Legends will run on the integrated graphics on the modern i5 swimmingly

I recommend you start with something like this
https://cukusa.com/cuk-stratos-mini-...-computer.html

not the subdued look you're looking for but you can prob turn the lights off and the value is fantastic compared to the big brand names like Dell/HP/Acer

tweak what you want, prob go for a large ssd, the gtx 1650 super is solid for "light" games, search the card's name on youtube for game footagee and that will tell you if you need to step up a tier

Appreciate the suggestion and not the desktop and I'll look into it. I looked up the YouTube footage and you're right the integrated graphics looked decent too so that would prob work fine for poker. decisions decisions

thinking of going the custom build pc route, how does this look?

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/N9shHB

looks good, but don't pay 100$+ for a W10 key, can get those OEM for 10$, activate it via script for free or just don't activate it, you still get content and security updates and everything else, by this point Microsoft gave up trying to prevent people from running bootleg copies of W10

check the memory compatibility on the mobo's QVL list, you'l find it on their product page in support, if you're not sure, go with Corsair Vengeance, I've never seen a board not take these and they're just as cheap

you might want to consider a tower cooler for the 3700x, ~50$ more but it's going to run cooler/quieter. you don't really need the cooling power unless you constantly stress the cpu but it's nice to have and they really are quieter than the stock blower. check clearance with the case before you buy, some will be too tall to fit.

get fans for the case if they're not included, not the cheapest, those will be loud and last you a year or 2. Arctic is a budget brand that makes good quality fans. Grab yourself an Arctic MX-2 silver paste while you're at it and replace the pre-applied paste on the cpu.

if you plan to run solvers a lot or any other cpu multi-threaded intensive applications, you could switch the cpu to a https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Ryzen-390...tronics&sr=1-1

once you add everything up, the performance/$ is going to be better at the end of the day, because you still have to buy all the other components and you don't spend more anywhere else. this is if you have use for a 24 thread cpu, it's not going to matter in games, in fact it will be worse in most games, but it will matter when running solvers. R9 will def need a beefy tower or water cooler.

I have a local shop that will assemble this so I'll remove the Windows license from the build as they can get it cheaper. I'll also validate with them if everything fits and to get a similar part if needed.

Appreciate the information and I added 2 fans, not sure if that's the correct amount. R9 seems like a big upgrade dollar wise and I'm already over my budget. I also made a change to the storage, here's the updated build:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dG2rFG

coolbeans
ye 2 x 140mm front fans should be good, cases usually come with the rear fan included
enjoy your new comp

appreciate the help

is there a reason you went with 2 ssds? or the upgraded motherboard?

that motherboard has wifi, but if you're set on the adapter you could prob find one without thats slightly cheaper. im a fan of ethernet but my comps onboard wifi works if needed. 40mbps (vs 240 lan), nothing amazing but hardly ever will be a bottleneck id think.

b450 wifi boards are middle price of those 2. taking away the wifi card, windows cd, ssd for hdd (personal choice, but 500gb is a lot already and for storage, hdd should be ok?) and motherboard, thats already almost $300 less. free shipping on some CM 120mm fans also, which is the standard size.

at almost $1500 its getting up there. i paid only a bit more for mine, over a year ago now, with a 9700k and 2070 in it, windows included, etc. only real diff is 16gb ram which is still more than i use ever. also, especially a backup ssd and other things can always be added later to lower upfront costs.

to reiterate, if you're going with an aftermarket cpu fan, 100% buy or GUARANTEE the builder puts new thermal paste on it. last cpu i bought they did not preapply paste (didnt know that was a thing?) but its necessary to change if ever applied and fan is removed. tbh im not sure id trust pre applied paste anyway because it would harden differently than under the pressure of the fan. one of the absolute cheapest and most important parts of pc building/tinkering.

big benefit of not going prebuilt + upgrade options are saving the massively inflated prices for things (ie +$150 for going from 8 to 32 gb ram or something) but at $1500 you could probably find something similar without the extra cost or hassle. plug and play. if you are paying to have it built, its honestly extremely easy to do yourself. easier than ikea furniture id say, but cable management needs to be somewhat thought out.

the SSD's is just a personal preference.

the motherboards were upgraded (in theory) because of the USB-C port that the case has. My understanding is that the motherboard has to support USB-C in order for the USB-C port to work on the case. b450's don't support it.

In regards to the wifi, I don't know the relationship between the motherboard and the adapter. As you can see from my build I already have a Wifi adapter and figured I may need the motherboard to support Wifi to work? I'm not sure if I need the motherboard to support wifi as well, so just played it safe and selected one that did.

thanks for the note in regards to the thermal paste and will make sure they apply it...didn't know where that came into play. Yea I actually was going to buy a prebuilt and it didn't have the exact spec I needed so sent me searching.

I've also slightly updated my build again for mostly aesthetic reasons as I'm going for all black, here's the update:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vrddRk

a wifi motherboard will have integrated onboard wifi, a card adds/takes over the functionality itself, so you dont need both. card might be better speed, but again, idk how much is needed after a certain point.

its your comp so if everything has a purpose, thats perfectly fine. i guess a usb-c would be nice but if i ever feel the need to plug my phone in (i dont) the usb adapter works fine.

thermal paste might have the most important job of the comp, as without it the heatsink fan wont have a good contact with the cpu and itll get overheated almost immediately. props to ionutd for bringing it up

are you planning on just having the fans blow air away from the components? it doesnt look like the case has any extra vents to put them in to get the air out

some prebuilts actually come out to a slightly lesser price if you put a few things in yourself, but kinda defeats the purpose to have to open it up first thing to get what you want

i believe you'll have to have a usb with windows loaded to install also. not hard, but with no optical drive you obv cant load it from a disc

Do you have a hard requirement for 2 physical drives? If I were the one building I'd rather have a single 2TB NVME drive.
Mainstream (non-QLC) $279
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Rocke...4266647&sr=8-8
PCIE 4.0 option for really high peak throughput $399:
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Inter...4266647&sr=8-4
Value Option (QLC, slower writes when full/close to full)$199:
https://www.amazon.com/Inland-Profes...4267596&sr=8-1

that TUF board is really nice and a better choice imo since it will allow you to upgrade up to a R9 3950x down the road should you so desire, which is a way faster / power hungry cpu and top of the line for the AM4 platform

I'd also go for a single larger NVME drive
because of the complicated way they're designed, larger drivers are faster and last longer than smaller ones
here's a buying guide https://www.reddit.com/user/NewMaxx/...ing_guide_wip/
would go for one the drivers in the confirmed solid consumer nvme list
prices fluctuate a lot and you might find one or 2 of those to be significantly cheaper than the rest but they tend to use the same components, differences are warranty and software.
Samsung, Crucial, Corsair, Adata, Kingston, WD, Seagate, Intel are big brand names and safe buys, come with their own software to manage the drive as well as some other useful features

I actually have some revised builds that I'll post and noted the Wifi issue. I'm actually leaning towards downgrading the motherboard and putting in a Wifi card. I feel that route may be better due to ability to upgrade the card to Wifi 6 if it comes to that.

I'm not too concerned about the USB-C now as I don't think it's worth paying the premium at this time.

thanks for the suggestion and now leaning towards one drive

When storing sims from solvers how much storage do I need? I'm not familiar with how much space a simulation would take up. Also, am I able to save these sims in the cloud such as google cloud and pull them down when needed?

To put in context, I have used a MacBook with 128gb storage for the last 5 years so I'm a light user. It seems like 2TB would be way too much (unless sims take up this much). Trying to see if I can get away with 1TB, let me know what you think of the below.

Here are my revised builds:

Lower End - will this run post-flop solvers decently?

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/nH8sGc

Higher End

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RXmJrV

if you're using gto+ and basic save files (flops are solved, turns and rivers are mapped out but need calculating on the go), the files are really small.
one srp @100x deep is about 500mb for all unique 1755 flops solved.
similar full solves (flops,turns and rivers done) are 9-10gb and these also take quite a bit to load up, having a fast nvme ssd helps here

if you're trying to save money, I'd go with R7 and 32gb and pick a cheaper gpu

thanks for the advice and it seems that 1TB is good for my use case. I'm thinking that I won't keep all my sims. I'll study a spot and either delete it or offload to cloud storage.

I also took your advice on the corsair vengeance. I think the below build may a good blend of what I'm trying to achieve. I'm getting there or may have arrived at my build.

what would be a step down from the 1660 super? RX 570 or 1050 ti? that would be one of the things I can do to shave down the price as you mentioned

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2sGRWb

don't worry too much about it, just pick a price range you're comfortable with and go with it

I listed 2TB drives before since you were buying 1.5TB of drives as it sat, at 1TB space needed there are tons of good options.
The Crucial P1 has pretty lackluster performance for the price. If you're ok with QLC tradeoffs, I'd suggest Intel 660p/665p 1TB. Otherwise there are TLC based NVME drives that are less than $150/1TB, I'd personally spend the extra $20-30 to have more consistent performance. The Samsung and WD Black drives are sort of the gold standard for mainstream performance and can be had for under $200.

Any of these drives should be more than adequate for the uses you've described.
P1 Review:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/13512...-ssd-review/10
Intel 660P for $118
https://www.newegg.com/intel-660p-se...quicklink=true
XPG for $135
https://www.amazon.com/XPG-GAMMIX-NA...4404415&sr=8-6
Silicon Power for $130
https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power...4404415&sr=8-7

High end of normal:
WD for $150
https://www.amazon.com/Black-SN750-N...13&s=pc&sr=1-2
Samsung for $180
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-970-E...11&s=pc&sr=1-9

thanks for the advice guys and I used one of the faster NVME's mentioned. think this has the possibility for being the final draft:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8ZGggJ

nice