What are some of the best Store bought gaming computers there under $2500?

[Solissix]

4 hours ago, Gameplayer said:

RTX 4090 - Top monster in the world graphics card, has 24 gigs of VRAM, price ranges from 1650-2500

Meh, yeah it's a nice card; but I feel it's way over priced for what you are getting. Like 27X said above; it's not going to be too far in the future before 24 VRAM just isn't going to be enough to run ultra 4-8k etc in modern games.. There's some debate on reddit about Nvidia purposely gimping the vram on their gaming cards to keep their artificial price ceiling on the enterprise cards higher. 

 

I usually only upgrade once my own hardware is 4+ generations old to get those bargain bin deals on slightly older new hardware.  

 

4 hours ago, Gameplayer said:

You buy this pre-build you are buying a 700 dollar GPU that was last generation, but 100 dollars more got you a RADEON RX 7900 XT 20GB

That RADEON RX 7900 XT 20GB, is twice the VRAM of the 3080 (3080 has only 10!)...Which is AMAZING. and its also way faster than 3080 by a country mile.

True, but it won't be doing any country miles if katrina.balanchuk can't assemble it into a working unit; which seems to be the crux of the problem. Some people just can't build their own machines; whether it's lack of time, skill, or something else. It can be even more intimidating knowing that a mistake could turn that fancy new card into a fancy new paper weight relatively easily. In situations like this; it can be hard to put a price on paying more for piece of mind on sub optimal hardware vs. less for better hardware but having to do a trial be fire to get it working. 

[katrina.balanchuk]

I really appreciate the effort you all put into educating me.

But building my own computer is so far outside of my comfort zone..it is unlikely to happen.

 

The computers I listed have 4 times the abilily needed to play even a modded FO4.

So when you tell me they are no good it is rteally pushing me away form buying a new one.

 

Right now for example today using the trick of not being on the 'net when playing, i had perfectly smooth play with 210 mods installed.

only 2 CTDs in 9 hours of play

 

Using the combination of Vivid Fallout all-in-one and NAC X legac edition weather I am also really happy with the graphics.

 

So perhaps the only ugrade i might do is  a graphics card (if I can fit an upgraded on intomy not so large case) and hopefully be able to double my RAM.

 

That will likely keep me set for years unless I decide to just buy a computer.

 

I get it if I build my own parts will be about 1400 for the computer I might pay 2400 for in a store...

Edited May 10, 2023 by katrina.balanchuk

[t.ara]

Before shopping I´d care for a fine display, instead of a basic computer-stuff...If you want to use a "4K" screen, you also need a powerful graka with suiting computer-components.

 

As a long time I used 1600 pix in vertical, I bought an 38" monitor from LG, 3840x1600 pix, max 144Hz with some few new technical options, means this is "nearly" 4K, that is powered by a gf 3090, sometimes I also use a gf 3070. The 3070 is more in action and it becomes louder if same stuff is running on it. If you want silence, I can only recommend to use a 3090, I got a MSI-version with 24GB-memory in the past. Three ventilators as a cooling system only start to move in extreme settings of ENB-use, with RDR2 and GTAV you have always a silent system.

-Motherboard: chipset 299, asus or gigabyte/gamerboard or a workstation-board (400-700 bucks, depending on what you need or/and like)

-I9 from the little older series (10980 and a smaller one so far I have in mind) -costs: about $600-$1200

-Ram (64GB, not the fastest one-no need to use a fastest RAM at all)-I got corsair-ram

-Keyboard: a smooth and lovely keyboard is an old APPLE PRO Keyboard (G4), which is since years my best keyboard of all times

-Mouse xtrfy/wireless and with cable-the best mouse I ever have used

-2 Trackballs from Kensington (you have to learn to use those), one wireless, the other one with cable

-SSD-collection in different sizes from crucifier and samsung, up to 4TB

-Front-slot-system for changing ssds

-optional cooler drive with temperature-measurement-system and fan-speed-regulation for those boards, which do not do this job in an optimal way...you get the temperature directly from four different places visible at the front of your computer...specially fine if you have a case with very few place only...

-alu-double-computer-case for two computers prepared in a worse case if one suddenly is failing

-1100 or 1000 W power supply made by BE QUIET

(i would always buy the same stuff again)

 

Can be ordered by an online PC shop, for sure. I´d never buy a ready made computer because it is an individual working-horse and everybody has own preferences and wishes...

[t.ara]

..YOu can let the CPU becoming prepared by the online-shop if you are afraid that you mess the built-in up-but there´s nothing to fail doing this alone...the built of the computerparts all together with a new case is FUN....you will need also a COOLER for the CPU-I also used always BE QUIET coolers for the CPUs. They made very flexiable stuff and you can ask for the built-in-height-sizes for the cooler, as soon you have choosen the CASE-and if you have the case, you need to measure that-it´s possible to choose a LAYING form-in that case the heights doesn´t matter anymore...More ideal is a standing version of the CPU-cooler because it can move the airflow up on top of the case, which is the regular flow of warm air...the best airflow is from the bottom to the top of the case and it allows to drastically increase the speed of fans, compared with a vertical-airflow, which is mostly the common way. THe whole mashine will stay more quiet and the power-supply is NOT pushing it´s warm air into the case if you choose it wisely. The chimney principle is also better working during hot summertime. Watercooling is IMO not necessary for a personal computer if you have PLACE inside of the case. The case should be MIDI or a maxi-version to allow SPACE for the airflow.

A case with dust-filters is also recommended to protect the parts of the inner computer from DUST-the filters, you can simply clean by using a hoovercraft from time to time and that´s it. After some time you can also clean the computer from inside with a hoovercraft and a suiting brush.

 

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by t.ara

[t.ara]

One last tip: if one is interested in apple keyboards DO NOT BUY a G5 one !...

APPLE´s G5 keyboards ALWAYS die after some years and buying such stuff used means you will not get lucky with that. You have a big chance that some keys in some years are dying.

The older one can be bought for about $40-100 used, in a natural yellowish decolored version, mostly.

Lot of gamers prefer the gaming-keyboards-I tested a lot-but I have to say that all of those are too LOUD and only spend a "nice" look-but comfort I could not feel.

Attention if using apple-keys!-the key-layout of a apple-keyboard differes from other stuff. You need a driver for WIN 7, WIN 10 is recognizing the apple stuff as well and you can use it at once.

[Gameplayer]

6 hours ago, katrina.balanchuk said:

I really appreciate the effort you put into educating me.

But building my own computer is so far outside of my comfort zone..it is unlikely to happen.

 

The computers I listed have 4 times the abilily needed to play even a modded FO4.

So when you tell me they are no good it is rteally pushing me away form buying a new one.

 

Right now for example today using the trick of not being on the 'net when playing, i had perfectly smooth play with 210 mods installed.

only 2 CTDs in 9 hours of play

 

Using the combination of Vivid Fallout all-in-one and NAC X legac edition weather I am also really happy with the graphics.

 

So perhaps the only ugrade i might do is  a graphics card (if I can fit an upgraded on intomy not so large case) and hopefully be able to double my RAM.

 

That will likely keep me set for years unless I decide to just buy a computer.

 

I get it if I build my own parts will be about 1400 for the computer I might pay 2400 for in a store...

 

All of it correct,

 

Just understand you are not the only one that will read what I have written down and that what I leave written will be critiqued and questioned and may be used by others that are too afraid to post questions.

 

I think the PC you listed will be fine and I think I illustrated a possible GPU upgrade path.

 

I had no idea at the beginning of you personally wee uncomfortable with performing any upgrades or build yourself.  Also wanted to demonstrate some knowledge as well as provide some points about where exactly the PC gaming sphere is going.

 

Hope it has been informative and some of it may prove useful later.

[Guest]

What are you using for a monitor? My setup came without one which stunk, but I bought one.  It should be included in your search/purchase options.  

Edited May 10, 2023 by Sir Bron

[katrina.balanchuk]

34 minutes ago, Sir Bron said:

What are you using for a monitor? My setup came without one which stunk, but I bought one.  It should be included in your search/purchase options.  

i have  a nice Monitor.

It is 4k and cost over 300 dollars even at Walmart.

Probbaly overkill for my computers graphics abilities.

 

Just yesterday I reinstalled NAC-X and reinstalled Vivi-fallout-all-in-one

 

I had them both installed brefore but never togther.

 

I have been doing trial and error for months of what good apperance for my limited card especially and weather that is good but also allows me to turn off all radstorms (except in glowing sea, also the radiation mechnic of the game is soooo flawed if 200 yrs are supposed to have passed)

 

Here are some screenshots I took for a playthrough when I play as a guy-hero.

For that I always use power armor with a brutal looking paintjob to emphsize his agency. (when I play as a younger version of myself I instead populate my settelments with more men, when I play as a guy-hero with more women, which I think makes sense to all of us on this website)

 

In a game its easy to modify things , so my power armor is already a T45C even though its still early in the game (not even been to Diamond city yet on that playthrough)

 

here are screenshots:

 

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by katrina.balanchuk

[katrina.balanchuk]

I wish to update everyone who so graciously stepped up and helped.

 

My nephew agreed to build a computer for me.

He has done it before a few times, I told him what my goals and budget were and so we ordered  an  i9 chip , a RTX 4070 GPU, a liquid cooling assembly, fans, a new bigger/better motherboard, 64G of RAM, a new bigger power unit, a new case to fit it all inside

 

We will reuse my 1T SSD and my 4 TB HDD drive.

So I do not have to reinstall everyting that i have working so well now.

 

Just thought the people who answered here with such detail and care deserved an update.

 

?

[Reginald_001]

4 hours ago, katrina.balanchuk said:

I wish to update everyone who so graciously stepped up and helped.

 

My nephew agreed to build a computer for me.

He has done it before a few times, I told him what my goals and budget were and so we ordered  an  i9 chip , a RTX 4070 GPU, a liquid cooling assembly, fans, a new bigger/better motherboard, 64G of RAM, a new bigger power unit, a new case to fit it all inside

 

We will reuse my 1T SSD and my 4 TB HDD drive.

So I do not have to reinstall everyting that i have working so well now.

 

Just thought the people who answered here with such detail and care deserved an update.

 

?

I know I'm royally late to the show. But NZXT is the place to be for good 'custom' prebuilts. You can use sliders to configure your own perfect system and stay within price range. If anything you can configure a build just to get a good price comparison.

 

The cool thing about NZXT is that it actually shows you what performance will be in games, before building it, because they constantly benchmark their hardware.

 

https://nzxt.com/build/pc

 

Edited May 31, 2023 by Reginald_001

[katrina.balanchuk]

13 hours ago, Reginald_001 said:

I know I'm royally late to the show. But NZXT is the place to be for good 'custom' prebuilts. You can use sliders to configure your own perfect system and stay within price range. If anything you can configure a build just to get a good price comparison.

 

The cool thing about NZXT is that it actually shows you what performance will be in games, before building it, because they constantly benchmark their hardware.

 

https://nzxt.com/build/pc

 

I saw your shack mod.

Can you link me ot the download?

[Reginald_001]

24 minutes ago, katrina.balanchuk said:

I saw your shack mod.

Can you link me ot the download?

See my signature for Ivy's Discord. There you will find all my mods for download, in the pins of all the respective mods.

[katrina.balanchuk]

I clicked this link on your discord but it said the mod could not be found:

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/37623

Edited May 31, 2023 by katrina.balanchuk