expect to spend if your build a gaming rig today ?

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reno
The artist formerly known as Renovation
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expect to spend if your build a gaming rig today ?

Post by reno »

if you were to build a gaming rig today. what would you expect to spend for a base desktop unit less monitor's . what would you say it be for a top end performer gamer desktop unit less monitor's. had this asked to me today . we did say had no clue and not interested .
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FlyingPenguin
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Re: expect to spend if your build a gaming rig today ?

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Well I can tell you by using a parts list based on my recently built gaming PC, looking up today's prices.

Here's the parts, this is very similar to what I have in my own system except the case and fans (I like plain cases and no RGB myself).

I basically priced out this same system for a friend of Los' a couple of months ago and just working off that list from the email I sent him, updated with today's prices. Some prices actually dropped since then, although a couple went up. And this is what I would price out for you if I was going to build you a system (less my labor).

Also I'm going to price out Zotac video cards instead of the EVGA RTX 3080 I own, because the Zotacs are actually in stock (today anyway). That price is from Zotac's own online store.

- Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit System Builder OEM, $147.99
- Corsair iCUE H100i RGB Pro XT, 240mm Radiator all-in-on liquid CPU cooler, $89.99
- Corsair ML120 PRO 120mm Premium Magnetic Levitation RGB LED PWM Fans 3 pack, $95.99
- Seagate 4TB IronWolf NAS SATA Hard Drive 6Gb/s 256MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive, $84.99
- WD_BLACK 1TB SN850 NVMe M.2 SSD, $154.88
- AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-core, 16-Thread CPU, $349.95
- EVGA SuperNOVA 850 Ga 850 watt modular Power Supply, $128.00
- ASUS TUF Gaming X570-PRO (WiFi 6) Motherboard, $219.99
- Lian Li Lancool II Mesh air-flow case, $135.00
- Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 X 16GB) DDR4 3600 (PC4-28800) RAM, $147.99

TOTAL (less video card): $1554.77

Video Card Options:
- Zotac RTX 3080 AMP HOLO LHR, add $1299.99
- Zotac RTX 3070 AMP HOLO LHR, add $929.99
- Zotac RTX 3060 AMP White Edition, add $569.99

The 3080 and 3060 are in stock as I write this. The 3070 is not. The 3060 has been in stock consistently for the past 2 months.

Obviously the big expense is the video card. The Zotac 3080, even from their own store is still ridiculously overpriced, considering I bought the EVGA version of that card for $800 a year ago. The 3060 is not unreasonably priced (by today's standards) and seems to be staying in stock. Nuby just got one for his new rig and he's pretty happy gaming with it at 3440x1440, but the most demanding game he's playing is GTA Online.

From my experience the 3060 is a great card for 1080p gaming. 1440p is pushing it, but playable as long as you don't mind dialing some things down a bit. All three cards listed above are the AMP superclocked versions, with faster boost clocks than the stock founders edition cards.

You can save some money by getting a less pricey CPU. The 5800X is an awesome CPU, but honestly, the Ryzen 5 5600X with 6 cores/12 threads is more than enough for gaming, and $115 less than the 5800X.

You could also get a cheaper Asus TUF Gaming B550-PLUS motherboard and save $70, without noticing much if any performance difference, but losing some features. I just happen to be very familiar with the higher end X570 mobo because I've used it in several builds now, and I know it's rock solid. The biggest difference with the B550 is that you sacrifice some SATA and USB ports, and only get PCIe 3.0 speed support for your onboard M.2 SSD through the chipset, instead of PCIe 4.0 (PCIe 4.0 is still supported on the GPU slot).
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