So I am in the market for a new computer...

[Hungry Ego]

So I am in the market for a new computer. Nothing super expensive or fancy, but a good mid-range "current" machine. I am open to desktops AND laptops at this point. Let's say around the $1200-1500 USD price range.

What should I get? Inspire me

Note: I live in Canada, so it would need to be available in the frigid north.

 

[MrDawn]

How about Alienware? I think it may suit your needs. They also sell in Canada.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/gaming/a...VEtvACh2HJQzmEAAYASAAEgI0SvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[Merciless]

So I am in the market for a new computer. Nothing super expensive or fancy, but a good mid-range "current" machine. I am open to desktops AND laptops at this point. Let's say around the $1200-1500 USD price range.

What should I get? Inspire me

Note: I live in Canada, so it would need to be available in the frigid north.

What will you be using it for?

 

[Jazzy]

So I am in the market for a new computer. Nothing super expensive or fancy, but a good mid-range "current" machine. I am open to desktops AND laptops at this point. Let's say around the $1200-1500 USD price range.

What should I get? Inspire me

Note: I live in Canada, so it would need to be available in the frigid north.

Amazon has some sweet deals going on now. Do you have an Amazon Prime account?

 

[simonweb]

What should I get?

Oh, that's really hard to answer without knowing what you intend to do with the computer.

If you don't mind spending a little extra and if you're looking for something more mobile than a desktop PC, I would really recommend either a Microsoft Surface or Huawei MateBook laptop.

 

[Laifot]

I always aim to get an upgradeable setup, so i recommend a desktop build if that can work for you.

I recommend an AMD build since they won 2 generations of processors already and i think they will win a few more since Intel can't match even in mass producing so their prizes will take a huge jump after the 11th gen release, also the APUs built by them are awfully bad.

mid range it'll be:

b550 motherboard (will have full compatibility with ryzen 5000 gen cpus up to r9 5900x) of a good manufacturer like ASUS TUF, GIGABYTE or even ROG on the F side (mid range MB, 150$)

Ryzen 5 5600x
NVME m.2 Corsair 4th gen
16 GB of RAM up to 3200 MHZ DDR4

The best GPU for this build is a RTX 3070 ti (not even released yet!) but you can match it with a GTX 1660 ti (less than that will produce a bottleneck).

Also try getting a noctua fan for the best cooling system around.. Deep Cool is a cheaper alternative though.

Get a computer case with the capability of setting 3 frontal fans and 2 on the top.

 

[Hungry Ego]

Good questions!

So I like mid-range gaming simulators mostly (think Sim City/Flight Simulator, etc). The graphics don't need to be top notch, however I do want them to be "good". Not decent...Good.

I was thinking desktop for the exact reason of it being upgradeable piece-by-piece down the road vs doing a full upgrade in a laptop. And let's face it, with technology and Smart TVs coming out these days, you can literally leave this tower ANYWHERE and access it from ANYPLACE in the home.

So on a scale of 1-10, I am looking at a 7-8 right now in terms of "best on the market"...how much should I be prepared to drop on this thing? Ball park.

Any component or spec. suggestions are GREATLY appreciated .

 

[Laifot]

Good questions!

So I like mid-range gaming simulators mostly (think Sim City/Flight Simulator, etc). The graphics don't need to be top notch, however I do want them to be "good". Not decent...Good.

I was thinking desktop for the exact reason of it being upgradeable piece-by-piece down the road vs doing a full upgrade in a laptop. And let's face it, with technology and Smart TVs coming out these days, you can literally leave this tower ANYWHERE and access it from ANYPLACE in the home.

So on a scale of 1-10, I am looking at a 7-8 right now in terms of "best on the market"...how much should I be prepared to drop on this thing? Ball park.

Any component or spec. suggestions are GREATLY appreciated .

You can set your mind into getting a decent 1080p specs like mentioned above.

Ryzen 5 3600 + GTX 1660 ti + 3200Mhz 16 GB RAM + SSD or NVME m.2 + nice cooling system should do the job for the upcoming years, or maybe if you can't get 16 series try 1070ti or even 1060, it's almost the same and it will depend on your market.

 

[simonweb]

I was thinking desktop for the exact reason of it being upgradeable piece-by-piece down the road vs doing a full upgrade in a laptop.

Fair enough, if you plan on doing some heavy gaming (flight simulator is a system killer haha) then you definitely should go with a desktop PC. @Laifot has posted some good specs. But if it's possible, you should consider waiting for that upgrade, because right now it's pretty hard to find components due to covid-19 and those annoying bitcoin miners.

 

[Demon_skeith]

for $1500 you should be able to net your self something that is an i7, 1 TB SSD, 8-16 RAM easily, depending how much you're willing to go for a graphics card.

 

[Page]

For the price, that's a very good starting point and you can pick up a good PC for that 16GB ram is a good starting point and overtime when you have saved up for more you then can add 32gb.

https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/ Very helpful to see what you can get if you need to know what parts to get and the cost. I use the site all the time to see what parts and how much they are and the best place to get the parts.

I do Flight sims myself and so the PC that I have does that But my PC cost more than 1500. Since I do flight sims myself, I'm the guy for you if you need to know what's good and what parts to get If you going with Intel then the i5-10400 is a good CPU for gaming, that's six cores and the extra money for a better GPU as that's just as very important since most games now are DX12 that needs far more Vram then anything else.

 

[Laifot]

For the price, that's a very good starting point and you can pick up a good PC for that 16GB ram is a good starting point and overtime when you have saved up for more you then can add 32gb.

https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/ Very helpful to see what you can get if you need to know what parts to get and the cost. I use the site all the time to see what parts and how much they are and the best place to get the parts.

I do Flight sims myself and so the PC that I have does that But my PC cost more than 1500. Since I do flight sims myself, I'm the guy for you if you need to know what's good and what parts to get If you going with Intel then the i5-10400 is a good CPU for gaming, that's six cores and the extra money for a better GPU as that's just as very important since most games now are DX12 that needs far more Vram then anything else.

That's a nice start, but a lot of systems built there produce bottlenecks and most of them just post them for the looks (lots of cool looking components, RGB which are not neccesarily a good team)

 

[Page]

Not always, Yes saw it many times that people have a powerful GPU and the CPU is getting back pain. That being said, CPU is what I look at for bottlenecking more then the GPU, Does not hurt if your GPU is little bottlenecking like 8% or more as long as it's not more then 10%

Right now my GPU is 6% to 8% bottlenecking as the CPU is a little powerful. But dealt with it by turning up the screen resolution and also up with the settings and getting over 250 FPS in CSGO at 144hx 1440p 27inch screen

 

[Laifot]

Not always, Yes saw it many times that people have a powerful GPU and the CPU is getting back pain. That being said, CPU is what I look at for bottlenecking more then the GPU, Does not hurt if your GPU is little bottlenecking like 8% or more as long as it's not more then 10%

Right now my GPU is 6% to 8% bottlenecking as the CPU is a little powerful. But dealt with it by turning up the screen resolution and also up with the settings and getting over 250 FPS in CSGO at 144hx 1440p 27inch screen

It's more obvious when you play demanding games like Metro, The CPU it's working at its half capability and GPU is using 100%, you can check it easily with monitors like MSI afterburner.

To the setup i posted after, it should work fine up to a RTX 2070 super.