Would you buy all of your RAM at once? If you could only afford 8 GB, you could always add another 8 GB later. Personally, I’d put my money towards the CPU and GPU, since those are way harder to upgrade. It’s all up to personal preference, though.
This is my desktop. I’ve asked for a 250 GB SSD for Christmas to install alongside the HDD. I think I may also upgrade my RAM eventually.
Desktop
OS: Linux Mint 19.2
CPU: i7-7700
GPU: GTX 1050 Ti
RAM: 8 GB DDR4-2400
HDD: 1 TB, 7200 RPM
My laptop is an Asus K55VM from 2012. It’s old, worn out, and obsolete, but I think it’s still got a few good years left in it.
Laptop
OS: Windows 10 + Linux Mint 19.2
CPU: i7-3610QM
GPU: GT 630M + Intel HD Graphics 4000
RAM: 8 GB DDR3-1600
HDD: 750 GB, 5400 RPM
Also, prices for my future toaster parts are always changing, which is very annoying. At the beginning, it was 322$ CAD. Recently, it jumped to freakin’ 407$, then 422$ and now 468$!
As for my CPU/GPU, Toaster 2.0 fixes the problem, but it costs 300$ CAD more!
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EDIT: As you see, @rannoch, removing 8 GB of RAM wouldn’t make much difference compared to the motherboard. It was 39.99$CAD when I finished the build, but the price changed recently, making it even more expensive. When I got a new PC around 2014, it had 8 GB DDR3. Most games could, sometimes, crash randomly or just lag. When I got 8 GB more, it stopped crashing and became even more powerful. RAM is cheaper and can change performance radically.
Now that I think of it, it kind of depends on the games you want to play. With an RX 560, you wouldn’t be able to play the latest games on the highest graphics settings at 60 FPS. However, as long as it’s fairly recent, and it’s not in a laptop (which are usually built for portability over performance and tend to overheat), you might be able to play most games at lower settings. The same thing goes for the CPU. Just don’t expect too much for $350.
There are plenty of buyer’s guides online. Maybe those could help you.
By the way, some online stores have a price alert feature. If the price drops below a certain level, they’ll send you an email. I don’t think Amazon has price alert, but Newegg does.
If you want your gaming computer to be a toaster - and by that, I mean actually function as a toaster - get a laptop. That way, when you’re playing Mass Effect on the lowest graphics settings without an FPS limiter, you can put it on a piece of bread, and it’ll toast it for you. You can also cook pancakes on it. It’ll become more effective over time because the batter will get stuck in the vents. Just make sure you don’t put it on your lap.
By “toaster”, I meant a cheap PC. The reason why I used such a word was because I literally wanted to build a case in shape of a toaster.
Also, I don’t intend to get a laptop because it’s really difficult to upgrade. Not that it’s impossible, but it’s just difficult. A desktop gives me more freedom for building and upgrading.
PC Partpicker does exactly just that. It can actually give a price alert, but I don’t want to wait for too long because of the price increasing issue.
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Most of my games are either “old” or more or less recent. Black Ops 3 is one of the most recent games I own, but the last time I played, many people were complaining about its performance. I had to lower the resolution and settings, which made it more comfortable with some graphical glitches (e.g. someone’s head disappears lol).
The main reason I want to go for my ‘toaster’ is because my current PC motherboard is literally outdated, making it impossible to have DDR4 RAM and newer CPU. [REDACTED].
I’m just hesitating on the price and worrying on the taxes (especially the provincial one).
EDIT: I also want to play some newer games later such as HL: Alyx and future Valve’s games.
For most of those games, your original toaster seems like it could handle them at low graphics settings. I’m not sure about Half-Life: Alyx, though. I don’t use VR, so I don’t know much about it, but it sounds like it’s very graphically demanding. If you want to use VR, I think your best bet would be to try to cut back on some other stuff and hope you can find a Ryzen 5 1600 and RX 580 on sale before their prices get too high. Some antivirus software has free versions, but it depends on which software you prefer to use.
Maybe talk to your parents a little bit more. If they know how expensive VR is, maybe you could come up with some kind of compromise.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’m vaguely reminded of a toaster oven when I see a cube-shaped case.
HL: Alyx would be for later. Maybe next summer. It’s simply that I want to handle some games better such as XCOM 2 and Space Engineers, which is a dangerously laggy game.
Unless you are doing streaming or heavy multitasking (or something that benefits from many cores like compiling code or video editing), I don’t think you get that much from going to a higher CPU price range.
The steam store page says the minimum GPU is: GTX 1060 / RX 580 - 6GB VRAM
Well, it would be just for now, while I can’t have a job because of school (well, I could, but it would distract me from school).
he says after saying he might fail two courses
shhh!
I just want better performance for XCOM 2 at 1080p as well as some other games. As for Space Engineers, I think the main issue is the CPU. Right after installing it long ago, I went on low settings and had 60 FPS for like 2 hours. Then, it started to lag. I left and came back, and it was still lagging. My CPU is an Intel i3-4330 by the way.
But the VR can wait, it’s just to prepare myself and also to improve my performance over many games.
EDIT: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The Ryzen 3 CPU’s price increased to 148$!! AHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
IIRC, in Portal, you can actually see that Ratmann, the only survivor of GLadOS’ genocide, actually used PC’s power to cook food.
oops double post
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I’m expecting a PC that can have decent FPS (60+ on at least Medium 1080p) on Space Engineers, ARK: Survival Evolved (so that I can laugh at my friend lagging with her true toaster, lol) and Black Mesa (HL1 remake with Source Engine as well as improved graphics).
So far my PC build with RX 580 (Too late!) gives me hope, but it’s “coming at a heavy price” as Bradford (XCOM 2 character) would say.
I might include XCOM 2 in the list as well.
EDIT: I noticed the Ryzen 3’s price got lowered again (to 80$). Is it worth it?
EDIT 2: Should I choose a better CPU or a better GPU?
Your Toaster 2.0 build seems like it could probably handle that. Honestly, it’s a pretty decent gaming setup considering it’s less than $1,000. You’d just have to figure out how you’d pay for it.
If you bought a Ryzen 3 1200, you’d have to play some of your games on the lowest settings just to get them to run smoothly. If you’d rather not have to put up with that, you may want to spend more on a good CPU.
I think you should read this article while you think about it.
AAA means that it is a product with the highest budget. For example games from major studies are AAA games. Similarly movies can be ranked by how much their budgets are.
Often only two categories are used AAA and indie.
