These folks, i believe, are recommending self built. Buy components, assemble the build.

Aw, interesting! Thanks, theelusiveeightrop! That's kind of cool that folks still do that! I never went to the trouble of building a PC myself, but I monkeyed around with enough hardware to realize that it would be pretty straightforward to do, especially with all the books and magazines back then that explained how to do it.

But I somehow thought that the big computer retailers figured out a way to industrialize the assembly so that they could do it more cheaply. ;)

For what it's worth, coming from an old-timer, I think building the PC from scratch could be worthwhile. I think the components nowadays work together even more harmoniously than in my day (the late 1980's, early 1990's) and it doesn't take much beyond a screwdriver to take apart and put together the innards of a personal computer. I'm not very mechanically inclined, but I found it to be pretty easy. Plus, knowing how everything was put together helps one be able to upgrade the machine and also to troubleshoot problems. Plus, the components are pretty cheap.
Here are a couple of articles that talk about assembling your own gaming PC:

https://www.simple.com/blog/how-to-b...aming-computer

http://www.pcgamer.com/best-gaming-pc/

An article about the assembly process:

https://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Computer

you can go online and order any rig you want specific down to the case.they are cheap, just get another one if you need an upgrade later.anyone who asks to get a rig that will surf the internet, check emails and do some gaming doesn't want to or need to build a rig from scratch. They want to click and go.

The thing is a lot of these pre built computers especially for anything with gaming use cheaper parts in key areas like power supply and RAM to keep the price down

I named my tiny dog TLO. I met TLO once and told him that. He laughed.

Uh yea.. build it by hand, takes really the most minimum level of skill.

I’ve been building PC’s for more than 20 years and it’s never been easier to find guidelines as to which components to use for specific uses.

Amazon usually has great Black Friday sales on computer parts.

Also, always overbuild so that the computer is future proof.

ibuypower bb930


That’s the company and model number I bought..works great and it’s easy to upgrade as you go along..I would say build it if you can..you get more for your money..only reason I bought is because I needed it right now and didn’t have time to wait on parts

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ibuypow...?skuId=5727100

Ram and gpus are expensive right now due to bitcoin mining and other factors,however there is a lot of choices in gpu cpu configurations.The eighth gen coffee lake processors from Intel just dropped and the new i5 is a nice option it has 6 cores for a reasonable price.Get at least 16 gb of ram for gaming etc. AmD ryzen cpu and amd video cards have entry level price appeal.


I would build the rig yourself there is a lot of resources on the internet

https://pcpartpicker.com/

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/LHY...-bx80684i58400

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I have purchased from cyberpower in the past and they delivered with no hassle if you want to go prebuilt. https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/category/gaming-pcs/

The guy doesn't want to build his own. Can someone point to an off-the-shelf machine that might be good for him near the price point he seems to be interested in?

hey, I told him to ignore the build your own advice. I told him to shop at Best Buy where I've got mine for years. I worked at Dell for awhile. Best Buy had better deals than my employee discount.

TLO is a cool dude. I've met him a couple times as well.

What kind of games do you play, mac? Any issues running them with this system?

Cities Skylines the most..at the highest settings

American Truck Simulator at very high setting

Car Mechanic Simulator at highest setting

Call of Duty at very high

Grand Theft Auto at very high

A few other games I can’t think of..oh a couple Call of Duty and games like that..I have never had any problems..they all run very smooth and with a good monitor it looks way better than my old laptop

I would suggest getting another SSD to put games on for faster loading..not required but very nice..I got a 500 Gig Samsung SSD to put games on and I really enjoy it..much nicer than the Hard Drive

I will be upgrading the graphics card when prices come back to earth..soon hopefully..not because I need to or have to..just would like a 1080 instead of the 1060..the 1060 does everything I could ask of it

I can’t complain and I am very happy with it..the tempered glass side to see everything is cool..comes with LED lights that change colors so that’s cool at night..I would definitely suggest it if you are able to afford it..it’s a good size case so if you do ever want to do anything to it upgrade wise it will be easy to do as I have done some