Newsie PC. Can I get a TGA assist?

[Lenny Solidus]

Watchya TGA, it is about that perpendicular time to buy my first entirely new pc since 2017 and if I may be so bold would like to ask for any assistance you fine chaps can offer, I'm not the most clued up on the what or where from. Windows 10 or Windows 11, 10 preferable.

I'm looking for something around the same specs as this lil' thing but with a better case -
https://www.ebuyer.com/1414329-alphasyn ... s-as-d6402
I already have a 1tb ssd all good to go. Good airflow is a must as I have put up with a shroud in my current build that has really hampered exhaust options and caused a few headaches. Budget 1-1.2k mark but If I can somehow squeeze it under in any form that would be perfect. Love y'all.

[Sly Boots]

For my last few desktops I've used PC Specialist, find their prices to be quite reasonable and been happy with the sales and post-sales support I've received from them.

Have a look at their site and see what they charge for your ideal setup.

I will say that graphics card prices being what they are currently, a decent card right now will eat up at least half and possibly more of your budget, but prices are hopefully set to drop a bit as this year goes on.

There's also quite a lot of useful advice in this thread, that I definitely benefited from (bought mine last May):

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1105

[Snowy]

I am completely out of the loop with what is what component-wise these days, I am hiding from gfx card prices as long as I can! I will be interested to see what you get though, new PC day is almost as good as new car day

[Drarok]

I already have a 1tb ssd all good to go.

Objection!

These days, you'll want to at least boot up from an M.2 drive. They're bonkers fast compared with SATA SSDs. Testing different games hasn't shown huge differences, but I haven't looked at the data since before the PS5 came out — game engines were claiming they could assume modern SSDs and get improved performance, dunno if it materialised.

Anyway, my point is, buy an M.2 NVMe drive to boot up from, but don't buy a tiny one you'll get annoyed with later.

[Snowy]

Technothickie I may be but I agree with this. My current rig has two M2 drives, one of which I use for boot the other for game installations. There are regularly deals to pick them up fairly cheaply at both 1 and 2Tb sizes.

[Pew-Pew]

I already have a 1tb ssd all good to go.

Objection!

These days, you'll want to at least boot up from an M.2 drive. They're bonkers fast compared with SATA SSDs. Testing different games hasn't shown huge differences, but I haven't looked at the data since before the PS5 came out — game engines were claiming they could assume modern SSDs and get improved performance, dunno if it materialised.

Anyway, my point is, buy an M.2 NVMe drive to boot up from, but don't buy a tiny one you'll get annoyed with later.

The faster loading tech (it's called direct storage) hasn't really materialised on PC yet as far as I know, but devs might start using it in the near future. Personally I've gone full SSD in my PC, with two M.2 NVMe drives (1 TB each) and then a couple of SATA SSDs, including a big 2 TB one. There isn't much difference in load times etc., just having the game on an SSD instead of a HDD makes the biggest difference.

[Drarok]

I've gone full M.2 in mine, I got a motherboard with support for two of 'em, so bought an extra 1TB when the time was right. I'll probably need to buy some regular SSD storage in the near future though, unless I want the hassle of reinstalling Windows to replace the smaller drive, or taking out a perfectly-good 1TB and replacing that (with a giant expensive one) just so I don't have the Windows hassle. Bah.

Edit: actually, even if I did replace the bigger one, I'd have no way to copy the data to a new one, so then I'd have to reinstall 1TB of games!

I'm gonna go look up SATA SSDs now, new job starts Monday so I'm gonna treat myself when I get paid.

[Pew-Pew]

You can get a decent enough 2 TB one for £150. Obviously way more expensive than a HDD but I was trying to remove as many sources of noise as I could!

[Drarok]

Yeah, I've got one of those self-contained liquid coolers, with 2x 120mm fans on it. Even blasting a game full-tilt it's really quiet.

Which is ironic, 'cause I'm rather deaf!

[Snowy]

Yeah, I've got one of those self-contained liquid coolers, with 2x 120mm fans on it. Even blasting a game full-tilt it's really quiet.

Which is ironic, 'cause I'm rather deaf!

Maybe it is really noisy, you just don't know it...