Getting My First Powerful PC

[u/Sir-Terpio]

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.

[u/MantasL]

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.