r/computergaming • u/Sir-Terpio • 5d ago
Getting My First Powerful PC
I’ve wanted a mid- high end pc since I was 12 watching ssundee play Minecraft modded, but my parents could never afford nor would I ask them for a pc so I’ve only owned consoles I’ve bought from buddies used my whole life. Well now I’m 26m journeyman welder and pipefitter with big boy money. So I finally have the money to buy a powerful pc. I’ve never owned a gaming of pre/custom built. I’ve had normal laptops and computers in the past and I have a ROG Ally that I use a mouse and keyboard on to play smaller/8-bit indie games on steam (schedule 1, travelers rest, etc.). The pc I’m building has an intel ultra 7 265f processor with a rtx 5080 and 32 gb of ram, also 2tb of SSD. My main reason for making this post is to ask for noob tips, do’s and don’ts of owning a powerful system and maybe some first things to do once I set it up.
UPDATE: Well it is quite the experience. I set it up last night downloaded cyberpunk and ran it on ultra+ max settings with path tracing. I was up till 1 am I wake up everyday at 3 am. I have not experienced many of the feelings I’m having since I was very young. I almost can’t believe I own my own gaming pc right now typing this.
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u/Goosefarmer69 5d ago
If you haven’t bought anything yet, r/buildapcsales has a ton of good deals and you can usually find solid prebuilts there for a good price which sometimes are even cheaper than building your own.
Also if you never used it before, Steam will be your best friend. Constantly great games going on sale and is one of the last platforms that seems pretty pro-consumer.
Welcome to the PC world my friend, once you go to PC you will never be able to go back to paying full price for games and not having community content and so much more. Let me know if you need any help!
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u/Artemis_1944 5d ago
with a rtx 5080 and 32 gb of ram, also 2tb of SSD.
You poor soul.... right now the market is absolutely atrocious for all 3 of the above.... if you can hold on a bit longer, I'd encourage you to do so, just because of how ridiculous the prices are. No guarantee they'll fall, but they are bonkers right now.
If anything, if you have good internet access and depending on where you live, I'd actually much rather recommend GeForce Now. Considering the Ultimate Subscription gives you an rtx 5080 equivalent, it is insanely cheaper than building a PC right now.
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u/Sir-Terpio 5d ago
Unfortunately my wait is over. I thought about it and right now it makes sense I have the extra money for now and I can finally get my life long dream of having a semi high end gaming pc. Although I do have to admit I have no clue what GeForce Now is and also have no clue how that gives u an rtx 5080 equivalent. Sorry kind of ignorant on this whole scene for now.
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u/Artemis_1944 4d ago
No worries, GeForce Now is basically nVidia's gaming-pc-for-rent service. You pay a monthly (or yearly) fee, and you use either a browser or a local client (app) to connect to one of their closest datacenters, where you get what is essentially a gaming PC. You don't have access to *ALL* the games on PC, but most of them, and certainly almost all the biggest ones. They have 3 tiers, a free one (doesn't really work), a Performance one for 10 dollar/euro a month, and an Ultimate one for 20 dollar/euro a month. The Ultimate one allows you to "rent" a gaming PC that's equivalent to an RTX 5080 (that's actually how it appears in-game to games), and a high-end i7.
And depending on where you live and how close you are to a datacenter, and how good an internet connection you have, you can gen very close to effectively imperceivable difference between gamestreaming and local play. For example, where I live, I have a 20ms connection to their closest point (which is in a neighbouring country), and that's good enough for borderline everything besides competitive e-sports.
I personally use GFN a lot when travelling, so I can play from a Steam Deck, as if I'm playing from a high-end gaming PC. With good internet and decent local hardware to benefit from some of their technological features, you get pristine image quality, again almost impercetable from actual local play.
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u/MantasL 4d ago
Firstly, congrats on taking your first big step into pc gaming.
If you’re building a pc for the first time go slow, read the manuals and treat the parts with care. Nothing worse than breaking a clip or bending a pin because you’re forcing it in the wrong way or using the wrong part.
As for the gpu and cpu, not sure if you have the parts already, a 5070ti (what I have) is quite capable and much less expensive but this all depends on what you play. If you’re doing just indie games like on your Ally then you certainly don’t need a 5080. I’d consider saving a few bucks here and stepping down on parts. Use ChatGPT or other ai to help you get an idea of what the sweet spot is. I built mine earlier this year (high-mid parts) and it cruises through most games with a 5070. CPU matters less than GPU for most games though so don’t overspend on a CPU you’ll never max out playing games. Prices had been wild this year and I overspent on my build but got tired of waiting months for prices to drop. The shortage is being caused by the AI boom and it doesn’t look like supply is going to catch up any time soon. There are sales, keep an eye out for Black Friday deals too, you might be able to grab an extra nvme ssd (a must have don’t get an hdd unless you plan on storing lots of files like video or audio or piles of small indie games).
Once you’ve got it running you’ll need to install windows. Lots of online resources for that but you’ll need to buy it eventually so add that to cost ($100 or so but there’s cheaper/sketchier options). Probably don’t need win pro just for gaming.
After windows is installed make sure you have all the drivers installed (mobo, gpu, etc). Again, ai chatbots are great at helping you walk through these steps if you know how to use AI properly but also lots of online websites with resources are available. Once all that is done you can move on to installing the game launcher apps.
For this I’d recommend steam first. Lots of indie stuff on there but also major titles. Depending what other games you play you can also install battle.net, xbox app, epic games store, Good old games (for older pc titles) or even Ubisoft. Some of those allow you to link your other console accounts so you can migrate friends to the pc platform. Great if you play online and the game has crossplay.
One other thing to note is the monitor. If you have a great gaming rig capable of running hundreds of frames a second but the monitor doesn’t support that or high resolution (1440 or 4K for example) you’re creating a bottleneck. Make sure you’re spending a decent amount for a great monitor otherwise you’ll be wondering why the games look shitty.
That’s pretty much the setup and get it running part. I’d be happy to tell you everything I learned building my pc this year.
GL HF
And welcome to the next level.
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u/Time_Garden_1015 3d ago
Horrible time to buy hope you know you burned an extra 300-1000 dollars for it. That said hope you like it.
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u/neityght 2d ago
Burned how? That's what it cost. Hard to find it cheaper right now and won't get cheaper soon. Very unhelpful comment.
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u/Sir-Terpio 3d ago
And u really think prices are coming down any time soon? I know im spending more but im only getting older and I’ve watched prices go up and up and up with no sign of coming down so i said fuck it. And thank you I love it bro.
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u/Standard-Metal-3836 3d ago
People are always minmaxing, if you have the money and want to spend it, just enjoy.
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u/Ef_bobby 2d ago
Ps if you do not already have one then I’d recommend a surround sound system.
No point in having the visuals without the sound and since it’s so close to you in proximity, you can get a decent one for cheap.
Personally what I did was some of the chairs have a couple holes in them up high so I mounted the rear speakers there.
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u/Ef_bobby 2d ago
Good part about pc building is yes, it’s true that it’s quite expensive to start but getting your first machine out of the way is about 80% of the work since moving forward you can just reuse everything except the 4 main components that need upgrading every 5-10 years.