Need to suggestions on how to build an affordable 4k gaming PC

Apathy

Apathy

New member
I was talking to my cousin the other day and he really got me all hyped up about getting into PC gaming. I've been curious about the PC gaming community for about 5 years but I'm starting to get more invested in the idea especially since seeing EA's live stream of the new Battlefield 1 game coming out this fall. Anybody have any suggestions or recommendations on specific specs? Talking with my cousin he advised me that he built a $4,000 PC for just about $1,200 because of black Friday deals.

So my plan is to get all of the information provided now and save up so come Black Friday, I'll purchase my 4k gaming PC.

 
Your cousin is exaggerating a bit, but first thing's first. How PC savy are you? Every played with a KB&M? Have you ever built a PC before? Building a PC is pretty easy with a moderate technical experience, and it's loads cheaper than buying a pre-made. Also, do you already have a 4k display? I'm asking because there's no chance you'll be able to get under $1200 if you're buying a display.

Also, I'll weigh in with this. I have a gaming PC, and Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U, so I'm not really a "fanboy" of any system. From my own experience, I wouldn't go 4K yet because the GPU hardware is still not there unless you're ready to lay down $2,500 or more. We're still a generation away from being able to run 4K ultra at 60FPS+ with a reasonable single GPU solution.

You can get to 4K, but the cost/benefit ratio is still high right now because frankly, it's a lot of pixels. If you're wanting to get into PC gaming, but don't wanna go full broke, you can still build a nice 1440P setup that will crush anything consoles have (or will have) for years. Hell, you can build a machine (including monitor) for around $800 that will still smoke a PS4 or Xbox.

My current setup was built in 2011, with a few upgrades since then. It's an i5-2500K (OC'd to 4.2 GHz), 16GB RAM, EVGA 970, a 256GB Boot SSD, and 2 other traditional hard drives hooked up to my 1080P Dell IPS display, while also mirroring to my 55" tv. I can play shooters on the monitor, while also playing 3rd person stuff on the TV. Right now, I can play BF4 on ultra around 100 FPS, DOOM around 80-90 FPS, and the Witcher 3 (most demanding game out right now) at a steady 60FPS on high/ultra.

IMO, shooting for 1440P with a nice 144hz Gsync monitor is more preferable, especially for FPS games. Higher framerate trumps the extra resolution for shooters. My current rig still smokes consoles, so to upgrade for BF1, I'm just buying a 1070 and Acer Predator 27" as soon as I can find a 1070 in stock somewhere.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I put together a build, including a monitor, using my suggestions:

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/wrQTWX

Basically, if I was building a brand new system from scratch today, this is what I'd do. The GPU is inflated by almost $250 because they're simply sold out everywhere. You can find that monitor for under $500 refurbed from Acer (which is what I'm doing). Also, you can pick up windows for cheap here.You can easily shave a few hundred bucks off this price just by keeping an eye out on deals. So, if you're buying everything, I think the $1500- or so range is quite doable.

Ultimately, you gotta decide if you want 4K, or the budget.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Welcome to the PC gaming world! I have a PC I built in 2013, an XB1 and a Wii, and I almost always leans towards PC when gaming. The XB1 is pretty much for exclusive titles, sports games or games where I know the PC port was garbage (aka Arkham Knight).

I started this thread three years ago, buying everything I listed except I changed the motherboard.

http://www.huskerboard.com/index.php?/topic/66266-my-new-projected-pc/

I spent about $950, but I haven't had a chance to upgrade it since - it needs a new video card as it can only really handle The Witcher 3 on Medium/High settings.

All that said, I think Saunders45 pretty much nailed it. I would avoid the 4k now unless you really want to spend the money for it. Lean towards getting an SSD and a 970 GPU. I skimmed on the GPU and only did 8 GB of ram when I made mine to save some money, and though it couldn't do everything on ultra, it was still capable of running most games on 60 fps/high settings in 2013.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Enhance89 said:
Welcome to the PC gaming world! I have a PC I built in 2013, an XB1 and a Wii, and I almost always leans towards PC when gaming. The XB1 is pretty much for exclusive titles, sports games or games where I know the PC port was garbage (aka Arkham Knight).

I started this thread three years ago, buying everything I listed except I changed the motherboard.

http://www.huskerboard.com/index.php?/topic/66266-my-new-projected-pc/

I spent about $950, but I haven't had a chance to upgrade it since - it needs a new video card as it can only really handle The Witcher 3 on Medium/High settings.

All that said, I think Saunders45 pretty much nailed it. I would avoid the 4k now unless you really want to spend the money for it. Lean towards getting an SSD and a 970 GPU. I skimmed on the GPU and only did 8 GB of ram when I made mine to save some money, and though it couldn't do everything on ultra, it was still capable of running most games on 60 fps/high settings in 2013.
Click to expand...
Pretty much this. SSD is a must (seriously, I would never use a PC without one) and a 970 can be had for close to $225, giving you really good 1080P performance. RAM is super cheap right now, so the difference between 8 or 16GB is like $20.

Give us you budget and what you want/need, and we'll help ya out.

 
saunders to your point of the gpu power not being there yet, i'd disagree at least to an extent.

I run a 5K 27" iMac and occasionally dual boot. Granted I'm not nearly into gaming as much as I used to be, and am not too worried about getting max everything on the newest and most taxing games, but pushing an absolutely absurd amount of pixels this thing hasn't really faltered with anything I've thrown at it thus far. I also haven't seen any kind of drop-off in my film work, which taxes similar parts of the computer.

4Ghz Intel i7

24 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4096 MB

 
Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
saunders to your point of the gpu power not being there yet, i'd disagree at least to an extent.

I run a 5K 27" iMac and occasionally dual boot. Granted I'm not nearly into gaming as much as I used to be, and am not too worried about getting max everything on the newest and most taxing games, but pushing an absolutely absurd amount of pixels this thing hasn't really faltered with anything I've thrown at it thus far. I also haven't seen any kind of drop-off in my film work, which taxes similar parts of the computer.

4Ghz Intel i7

24 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4096 MB
Click to expand...
I think what he was saying is the power isn't there based on the cost you'd have to pay.

OP didn't give us a budget range, but you can't really build a decent 4k system without a fair chunk of change. At least not in the $800-$1000 range, which is where I think most gamers would be satisfied paying if they built it themselves.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
nerds.jpg


 
saunders45 said:
You can get to 4K, but the cost/benefit ratio is still high right now because frankly, it's a lot of pixels. If you're wanting to get into PC gaming, but don't wanna go full broke, you can still build a nice 1440P setup that will crush anything consoles have (or will have) for years. Hell, you can build a machine (including monitor) for around $800 that will still smoke a PS4 or Xbox.
Click to expand...
This. Plus with a looming HDR battle for 4K resolution, it's best to focus on a 1440p setup and wait on 4K for a couple of years.

Now, you can *still* get a 4K monitor for media streaming if you're so inclined, as most of the cards that can do 1440p very well can do 4K video (just need to make sure it has a HDMI 2.0a or later port) but I wouldn't plan on 4K gaming.

Also, make sure to wait until next month before putting money down on a graphics card--the RX 480 from AMD is dropping, and is getting such stellar press, AMD is going to lift embargo on it a week early, so we should have reviews any time now. It fits the profile of an excellent 1440p card that is more than VR capable (if you decide to do VR), benchmarks are blowing past most of the upper tier cards (though take this with a salt lick, as gaming benchmarks are what matter in the end) and the 8GB variant will reportedly run $249--great if you're on a budget.

And hell, even if you're not into this card, it's mere presence is going to force other $300+ cards to drop price for both AMD and NVidia. Hence the wait for the RX 480 release.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
saunders to your point of the gpu power not being there yet, i'd disagree at least to an extent.

I run a 5K 27" iMac and occasionally dual boot. Granted I'm not nearly into gaming as much as I used to be, and am not too worried about getting max everything on the newest and most taxing games, but pushing an absolutely absurd amount of pixels this thing hasn't really faltered with anything I've thrown at it thus far. I also haven't seen any kind of drop-off in my film work, which taxes similar parts of the computer.

4Ghz Intel i7

24 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4096 MB
Click to expand...
You can run production stuff that's not rendering in real time (as do I with our Mac Pro edit bay setup at the office), but that's quite different. Premiere and AE are still 90% CPU/RAM bound and don't tax the GPU like modern games. You can't play high quality games at 4K resolution and expect to stay above 60FPS with high settings, especially on a Mac. That system wouldn't run BF4 at 4K above low/med settings, and on something like the Witcher would probably be in the teens/twenties. Apple's refusal to put decent GPU's in their systems is aggravating.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
saunders45 said:
How PC savy are you? Not very much haha

Every played with a KB&M? Have no idea what this is

Have you ever built a PC before? No but I have friends that might be able to help
Click to expand...
I really want to game in 4k and I think my price range would be anywhere from $1,500-$2,000.

I've been reading that the GTX1080 graphics card is one of the best on the market so I would go that route. Also been reading that the Asus monitors are really good.

I don't know much about PC's but I'm willing to learn.

 
Back
Top