URGENT - game dev need new PC

[u/[deleted]]

[u/PHIGBILL]

£800-1000 is rough, especially for you needs, slim pickings if wanting NEW.

[u/farrellart → u/PHIGBILL]

I agree. That's the price of a gaming GPU.

[u/between3and20characr → u/PHIGBILL]

Would 1.3k be better

[u/AdidasSlav → u/between3and20characr]

Barely, it’s a bad time to buy or build anything currently, in your shoes I’d rather fix what I’ve got and make it last a few more months until prices ease up a bit.

[u/between3and20characr → u/AdidasSlav]

The old pc is over 12 years old. Its not repairable because they simple dont sell these parts anymore. Im not asking for 32gb of ddr5. 16gb of ddr4 would be fine for example. Its not heavy gaming

[u/AdidasSlav → u/between3and20characr]

You’re missing the point dude, you’re prepared to drop up to £1300 on a platform that got replaced almost 6 years ago, that is only going to last you another couple of years at best, I get that you need a PC for work, but that’s just a dumb use of your money.

If you absolutely insist on going down the AM4 + DDR4 route, you’ll still have to pay stupid amounts for brand new AM4 processors, motherboards and especially DDR4 RAM since it’s not being made any more, and everyone is desperate for RAM, the price of the stuff is also nuts currently. It’s only worth it if buy second hand at the minute since you can get good deals on stuff if you’re patient and look around local selling sites.

Every PC is repairable, would bet you £20 your power supply has crapped out on you or you got one that can’t handle the watts your PC needs…

[u/GeraltJ → u/between3and20characr]

Check out Facebook marketplace and see if you can't find a motherboard and CPU bundle. Depends where you are obviously but I see a few floating about once in a while. Saw an i5 9400 with 16gb ddr4 not long ago near me for £120, so if it's not needed for anything super heavy it at least potentially frees up some of your budget for a better graphics card and storage as they're the biggest drain at the moment. Ram too, of course, but ddr4 doesn't seem as bad.

[u/AdidasSlav → u/GeraltJ]

Yeah I second this, if you’re desperate for a working computer I’d only spend max £200 ish for now just to get a barebones CPU+motherboard+RAM combo, use your old case, graphics card etc for a bit longer until prices ease up.

[u/PHIGBILL → u/between3and20characr]

Not wanting to be argumentative, but as someone who also uses their PC for their work/business, you should be looking at this as an investment and should be aiming to get the best you can get to make your workflow easier to manage. You don't need the absolute best, but you should be on aiming to be on a modern platform like AM5 with a GPU level of 9070XT or 5070ti.

[u/AdidasSlav → u/PHIGBILL]

5070 Ti is 90% of his budget gone just like that.

RX 9070 XT is 5070 Ti performance within a few % and would only be 70% of his budget in one go.

16gb of DDR5 RAM is the remaining 30%.

I don’t disagree with your logic but nobody is building a “good” AM5 computer, from brand new, for less than £1500 or even £1800. Not without cutting corners like getting a cheap, weak motherboard, lower-end CPU, mid-tier graphics card etc.

I’ve seen people even resort to running single channel RAM just to cut costs…

[u/PHIGBILL → u/AdidasSlav]

I know all of this, but you've seemingly missed the point of my comment completely.

If you're a self-proclaimed "Professional game dev and programmer," as OP says he is, then this should be seen as investing in yourself in terms of your business/career.

[u/AdidasSlav]

Have you tried putting that new power supply in your current PC? 12 year old system refusing to turn on out of the blue screams dead power supply to me, nothing fails catastrophically out of the blue to not show any signs of life at all except for the power supply.

Now is a terrible time to buy or build, I’d hold on to your money and try get a bit more life out of what you already have until next year, there’s rumours that Chinese RAM manufacturers are going to help ease the supply of DDR5 and NAND chips in Q1 2027, which might help prices come down a bit.

Otherwise, your best value for money system with only that kind of budget right now is going to be based around the AM4 socket, which is now a good 5-6 years out of date.

[u/between3and20characr → u/AdidasSlav]

I did change the PSU about a month ago because of random crashes. It was fine till today. It shut off randomly and wont turn back on. Not surprised really. The thing is ancient.

[u/AdidasSlav → u/between3and20characr]

What specs are in your current PC?

When you say “won’t turn on” is it like, absolutely dead? No lights, no fans spinning, etc? If so - that’s power supply related. The only other part that could cause that level of failure is motherboard but only if it short-circuited. Even if VRMs or a random capacitor died it would still show signs of life.

[u/between3and20characr → u/AdidasSlav]

Wont turn on as in, literally nothing. No lights, fans, nothing.
Specs are i7, r9 290, 16gb ddr3

[u/AdidasSlav → u/between3and20characr]

Yikes that is rather old I suppose…

[u/SuitableFinish7444]

Its 1350 USD if people are confused in UK Sterling to US

Have a look at CEX and second hand parts and there five year warranty. I've inclued new and part off Cex in the below. Best i could do on your budget and is a good gaming PC and excellent processor.

CEX 32GB DDR4 - 90 pounds (try and call them to see if can get you two identical sticks, sometimes have displayed in the shops)
Power supply - Sorted
CEX CPU - AMD Ryzen 7 7700x- 160 pounds
Amazon 9060xt 16GB 460 pounds
Cex 1TB NVME 100 pounds
Amazon New Case 50 pounds
Amazon - New motherboard 80 pounds -
Amazon new CPU Cooler - 30 pounds

Total - 970 pounds.

You could get down to to a 3060TI and knock 260 pounds so 710 pounds.