I am looking for some assistance with a new gaming pc purchase from those who are more knowledgeable than me on the subject. I have been doing some research, but there are endless combinations of pre builds and processor vs processor or rtx vs rx you searches to make.

A little info:

I only ever intend to play Diablo 2 Resurrected and World of Warcraft with this computer. It is very unlikely that I venture into much other than that unless something wild happens in gaming within the next 10 years. I am trying to ensure that I can run 8 instances of D2R without any hiccups, however.

Currently, I have a Evoo Gaming laptop which I bought on the fly just before the launch of D2R, because it was a really good deal at the time for the hardware it was equipped with. It was something like $300 less than all equivalent laptop options at the time. This laptop served me well for the most part, but couldn’t always handle high graphics settings, would have terrible load times, would have game crashes and couldn’t handle many applications open at the same time as D2R. All this, despite being a later end 10000ish i5 processor and gtx 1650 or 1660 (I forget and am on mobile writing this)

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That aside, I am interested in a prebuilt tower pc now, and I want to spend a little more this time than I had before. I’ve never played with dual monitor and maximum graphic settings with as much multi-tasking open in the background as I’d like. And it is time that I experience something more this level.

So, I see lots of options out here with high end i5 processors and RTX 3060 to RTX 4060 and 4080 pc builds, most with 16gb ram some with 32gb ram, and 1TB NVMe for the price range that I’m looking to spend in.

I am trying to budget around $800-$1000 for the actual pc, plus another $300 or so for dual monitor and perhaps a dual desk speaker, headset, keyboard and mouse bundle.

I have found many brand options, and I was hoping for opinions or kind of any known common knowledge, good or bad, from the community surrounding these brands and / or suppliers. In addition to that, if anyone has any wisdom or advice to offer in a more general sense, that does deal directly with any of the brands listed, that would be wonderful as well. I want the most bang for my buck, just like anyone else. Lasting high-end performance and top speed for these 25 year old games that shouldn’t ever require any more from the hardware in years to come anyway.

Brands:
iBUYPOWER
MTG Khuno Gaming
Skytech Gaming
Allied Gaming
CLX

Any others suggested are great too! Thanks in advance for any helpful responses! Forum gold tips to anyone who can really hold my hand through this and lead me to a strong decision that will make me happy.

This post was edited by Academics on Jun 10 2024 11:04pm

In addition.. I am researching but I am an ignorant novice in this world..

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but it appears that such things are true:

RTX 3070 > RTX 4060 even better than 4060Ti apparently
RTX 3080 = RTX 4070 more or less, minor differences dependent on intended use.

So it seems like the right 30 series beats out a lot of the 40 series? But for a potentially better price inside of a prebuilt.

Unfortunately, lots and lots of the pre builds on every website I try are either 3060 or 4060 and this seems to be a shit point in both the 30 and 40 series. It seems that 3070 and 4070 are both significantly better than their xx60 counterpart. But you can’t really find them in prebuilds, at least for anything near my budget ranges, as it seems.

Can someone enlighten me as to what the best option would be for my intended use, as far as speed and performance are concerned?

I would also like to know this as far as processors are concerned. I hear that i5 13400 can outperform some i7 middle generation and maybe even early generation i9? I would love to be schooled regarding my intended use with this as well.

This post was edited by Academics on Jun 10 2024 11:39pm

I think your main problem if you are trying to run 8 copies of Diablo woud be RAM (Each Consumes around 6-8GB of RAM) but you can probably lower that with certain mods (I currently Run 7 Extra Copies) at 1.4-1.6GB of Usage ONLY.

With a budget of 1000$ I think you can get everything but the Video Card (which is normally the most expensive thing)

I know you said "Pre-Built" but to be honest with you, most "Pre-Built" Computers come with components that nobody would normally use when building their PC ( I always recommend buying known Brands ) to avoid any issues in the future.

If you live in the US (And depending on your location) I would recommend stopping by Microcenter, they have the best Gaming Components and they can try and build your PC the same day, they also recommend parts based on your need or your Budget as well.

This post was edited by DePoRtEd on Jun 11 2024 01:12am

If you want the best bang for your buck, you’ll have to avoid prebuilts unless you find a used one or something that’s on sale. If you have a Microcenter near you, they usually have the best deals you’ll find.

For D2R I’ve seen people suggest you need 8GB of RAM per instance you want to run(a bit overkill but some say the loading screens spike RAM usage), so you’ll probably need 64GB. Sadly I’m not too familiar with D2R so I’m not sure on the CPU load but I imagine a decent CPU in the ~$200 range can handle that many instances

I personally prefer AMD CPUs instead of Intel these days. Newer Intel CPUs run super hot and have a bunch of issues atleast anecdotally. A motherboard + 32gb ram + Ryzen 7 7700x bundle was $408 after tax at my Microcenter, which saves ~$200 on those components alone.

If you’re just doing D2R I think a 4060 or equivalent should be fine, but a 4070 will tackle basically any game on 1080p if you want to spend a bit more. The Nvidia 5000 series is going to be announced later this year which may see price decreases for other cards if you want to hold out on that. I believe AMD is dropping new CPUs relatively soon as well which could see some price drops too.



This post was edited by MrSK on Jun 11 2024 01:07am

Understood on these points. My only issue with building my own is I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing with that. I fear that I will buy a bunch of stuff and have no idea how to put it together, some items not even compatible with each other, don’t fit the tower box, don’t know how to properly use thermal paste or install components, etc etc.

How do I mitigate huge wastes of money and installation nightmares when building my own?

I am willing to build my own, but I will need help. I have a rough understanding of some things, but it seems like it will be more expensive than just a motherboard, Ram sticks, gpu and processor. Like most prebuilts have 6+ fans all throughout them. If I want similar cooling power without the messy constant maintenance of liquid cooling, fans alone will equal $200-$300 more just for fans. Other things that I don’t see people considering when they suggest someone builds a pc is wireless network adapters / cards, sound cards, etc. These 2-3 things alone are another $200-300. That’s like $500 for completely miscellaneous side items.

I’m not sure how a prebuilt can be anywhere near cheaper for equal components. I am working off of pcpartpicker and it would literally be 200% the cost of every prebuilt I’ve seen yet.

This post was edited by Academics on Jun 11 2024 09:59am

Building a PC is akin to building a puzzle. Most parts have their own slots so it's pretty hard to break something unless you use way too much force. I believe Microcenter charges ~$149 to build it(https://www.microcenter.com/product/398177/micro-center-custom-pc-building-service---tier-1) if you don't want to spend a couple hours learning it. Microcenter will give you a 90 day labor warranty as well in case anything goes wrong. They'll also confirm all parts are compatible, but if you build everything on this website it checks compatibility: https://pcpartpicker.com/

I am willing to do the learning. I don’t need this pc tomorrow or anything like that. However..

I have a rough understanding of some things, but it seems like it will be more expensive than just a motherboard, Ram sticks, gpu and processor. Like most prebuilts have 6+ fans all throughout them. If I want similar cooling power without the messy constant maintenance of liquid cooling, fans alone will equal $200-$300 more just for fans. Other things that I don’t see people considering when they suggest someone builds a pc is wireless network adapters / cards, sound cards, etc. These 2-3 things alone are another $200-300. That’s like $500 for completely miscellaneous side items.

I’m not sure how a prebuilt can be anywhere near cheaper for equal components. I am working off of pcpartpicker and it would literally be 200% the cost of every prebuilt I’ve seen yet for equivalent i5, gpu, 32gb ram, etc.

Anyone willing to help me with this in closer detail? I wouldn’t mind paying someone to sit with me for 30 minutes or so in voice chat where I can share my screen on pcpartpicker to see what all I definitely need and what is best for my budget, etc.

This post was edited by Academics on Jun 11 2024 10:08am

Gotcha! Yeah I can see where that gets confusing. So for a setup in the ~$1000 range you definitely do not need to buy a ton of extra fans. For reference here's my setup: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/hFRkMV

I only needed the peerless assassin for my CPU, and the built in case fans & 4070 fans take care of the rest. That's why I kind of like the 4000 series as they're more power and heat efficient. The motherboard I have also has built in Wifi so you don't need to buy an adapter for it. Network/sound cards are unneeded since it's built into the motherboard as well. The only issue is if you're an audiophile you may want a separate sound card but that's something you can splurge on later if you really want it.

You will need to buy peripherals like monitors, keyboards, mice etc but you'll have to do that with pre-built PCs as well unless it's a bundle

Also Pcpartpicker is usually used as a reference - they don't show the cheapest prices for the components, but they will tell you if there's compatibility issues with what you're building. Sometimes they do show some pretty good deals though. For example my build says it's ~$1400 but it didn't take into account the $200 savings I got from Microcenter from this bundle: https://www.microcenter.com/product/5006710/amd-ryzen-7-7700x,-gigabyte-b650-gaming-x-ax-v2,-gskill-flare-x5-series-32gb-ddr5-6000-kit,-computer-build-bundle

This post was edited by MrSK on Jun 11 2024 10:44am

This really clears up a lot of confusion as far as the sound / network cards being built in. I definitely didn’t realize this was the case. It is also nice to know about the fans being unnecessary if I have the right gpu and the assassin.

I will be looking into your build for sure, and I greatly appreciate all the help thus far. I will likely return with some more minor questions, but it is narrowing down. I can see $1300-$1400 for this for sure, but I hope that can be with peripherals, including dual monitor (HOPEfully) hehe

Yep! Built in case fans will do most of the heavy work as long as you keep them clean and unobstructed (as in your tower isn't in a box with no ventilation).

No worries! Just quote me if you have any questions and i'll respond when I have free time. $1400 is a good price to shoot for and there may be a good budget AMD graphics card that may suit your needs better that's cheaper, I just haven't kept up with them as I was set on a 4070 for my needs :P. You'll probably need to get more RAM than me though for 8 instances from what i've read but you can also upgrade that at a later time if needed