Looking for a new computer

[Pilgram]

X4: Split Vendetta

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system.
OS: Windows 10 (64-bit), Windows 8.1 (64-bit), Windows 7 SP1 (64-bit)
Processor: Intel i5-4590 3.3GHz or AMD equivalent.
Memory: 8 GB RAM.
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 780/970 or AMD equivalent (Vulkan support required)
Storage: 15 GB available space.

Trying to keep the price around $1300.
While looking around I'm not sure how to tell if it has Vulkan support or if it has Storage: 15 GB available.
I guess I don't speak computer very well.
I am looking for one work for gaming and don't know what to look at lap top or desk top .

Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

[burger1]

X4: Split Vendetta

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system.
OS: Windows 10 (64-bit), Windows 8.1 (64-bit), Windows 7 SP1 (64-bit)
Processor: Intel i5-4590 3.3GHz or AMD equivalent.
Memory: 8 GB RAM.
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 780/970 or AMD equivalent (Vulkan support required)
Storage: 15 GB available space.

Trying to keep the price around $1300.
While looking around I'm not sure how to tell if it has Vulkan support or if it has Storage: 15 GB available.
I guess I don't speak computer very well.
I am looking for one work for gaming and don't know what to look at lap top or desk top .

Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

These are your current specs or what you want as a minimum? As a minimum it makes no sense. For $1300 usd you can buy a brand new pc. Does that price include monitor, etc...? Even modern low end stuff will beat most of this. Buying for x4 isn't the best idea. No idea how much the beta re-balances cpu/gpu load but x4 is very cpu heavy unlike the majority of games.

[Alan Phipps]

Those are the X4 game minimum requirement specs.

This is the X4 recommended requirement specs, and that was before all DLCs too:

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
Processor: Intel Core i7-6700 or AMD equivalent
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1070 or AMD equivalent (Vulkan support required)
Storage: 20 GB available space

I think the OP is more asking what all these mean and how to tell if you are getting them in any potential lower end hardware offer.

There are several such previous threads and this post struck me as a good summary at the time (2019).

[Pilgram]

What I am looking for is a computer that will play X4.
Mostly I don't have the comp. smarts to find what I would need.
Would either one of these work?

on Amazon
ROG Zephyrus G14 Alan Walker Special Edition Gaming Laptop, 14” 120Hz Pantone Validated WQHD Display, GeForce RTX 3050 Ti, AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS, 16GB DDR4, 1TB SSD, Wi-Fi 6, Windows 10, GA401QEC-K2064T

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-s ... Id=6486485

[CBJ]

It's a bit hard to compare with just a brief list of features, but the graphics hardware on the BestBuy model is considerably better than that on the Amazon model.

[Chips]

Biggest best question is always... Do you *need* it to be a laptop.

You get way more bang for your buck having a desktop for gaming (not to mention cost savings), and even having a cheaper decent laptop for any other "computer use" to have a laptop.
Also better for comfort unless you're using external keyboard/mouse/monitor, but then the point of laptop is lost. Your wrists/back/neck won't thank you if you game on the laptop alone with just external mouse input.

Additionally, PC's are upgradeable, whereas Laptops tend to be memory and *maybe* HDD replacement only affairs for most users (all depends if you are confident to do things). Lastly, the heat dissipation on a desktop is well managed and can keep components cooler, prolonging the life of them. Meanwhile, laptops suffer significantly from trying to remove the heat generated by "high end" systems and can fail quite quickly. As in life time of a few years tops. Desktops, you tend to upgrade components to keep up to date and can target specific parts to improve (e.g. graphics card, cpu, memory, disks etc).

Additionally, Laptop gfx cards != Desktop GFX cards (power requirements). However, while the below gives average fps comparison, its worth noting there's nothing "OH MY" about the results. It's well within acceptable playing, so not a big issue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb0xnBHYJpY

Should say, given the modern day cost of living/power... worth pointing out that the desktop is going to use more power than the laptop though. You can calculate that cost on hours per day of use gaming. It could be a few quid, it could be a hundred.

[Pilgram]

(Do you *need* it to be a laptop). Either will do I do like a desk top a little better simply for the rebuild and replacement part. But if i get either will most likely out last me.

(graphics hardware on the BestBuy model is considerably better than that on the Amazon model) and this is why I'm asking for help I would not have known that.

I can remember when computers all had tubes, and the first computer I had was a radio shack color computer @ 64K and real floppy disks.

Anyhow lap or desk both would work but price would be a breaking point.

[Gavrushka]

I can remember when computers all had tubes, and the first computer I had was a radio shack color computer @ 64K and real floppy disks.

Anyhow lap or desk both would work but price would be a breaking point.

You're in good company... - My first computer, back in the 70s, was a Sharp MZ80K with a tape deck, and I've fond memories of the genuine floppies working on the PC Help Desk for ICI. (And rumour has it that Alan Phipps was the very teacher who inspired Charles Babbage's revolutionary ideas.)

I think a comparably priced desktop will be far more powerful than the laptop, as shoehorning all that gubbins into a smaller area comes at a cost. - You've a more than decent budget to get the a system that'll run X4 well enough, but just make sure you post the system spec on here of your preferred choice before committing. - I like Intel, and I don't think it would be too difficult to find an 'I5-12500' based system with a reasonable graphics card which will suit.

Happy hunting!

[Alan Phipps]

Cheeky git! My first computer was a home-built Sinclair ZX80, I'll have you know.

[burger1]

Desktop should be better value for the dollar and you shouldn't have the heat issues of a laptop. The laptop might come in handy if you are away from home for an extended period of time. With the desktop you will need to buy a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Speakers? Can technically use a smaller tv as a monitor but might not work out as the best way. Pretty much need to decide between laptop and desktop.

[Pilgram]

Any Ideas for a desk top?
Like I said I'm computer impaired.

[burger1]

Building your own or buying a prebuilt?

[Pilgram]

Buy one .
Then if needed to upgrade later I can. If I started to build one it would cost more than to buy one and at this point I wouldn't know what to start with.
Just looking on newegg at gamming computers and I'm totally lost, graphics 5 or 6 all different names and different numbers and then try to throw in Vulkan Support.
Dead in the water and NOOOO paddle. LOL
And looking at some of the new games and the ones that are coming out for 2023 will be a large jump from my little HP to modern times.LOL

[Chips]

Honestly, I'm getting a bit lost - everything seems so ridiculously expensive in the last few years with regards to computer stuff. What on earth!

Trying to use CPU and GPU comparison charts, the laptop seems to have a great CPU and GFX (via BestBuy) and I'm only able to find stuff that's comparable in the same generation for similar price for desktop. Which is bonkers. As laptops, spec for spec to a desktop, usually cost twice as much.

For example - to build your own desktop pc, the Ryzen 9 5900x is better than than the mobile Ryzen 9 5980X
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/A ... 9683vs4087

So the parts: CPU (desktop outperforms laptop).
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/amd-ryzen- ... Id=6438942
$339

GFX (desktop outperforms laptop)
https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/A ... 9925vs4088

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-amd-ra ... Id=6447182
$487

Still requires motherboard, power supply, hard drive, memory, windows 11, cpu cooler (as it doesn't come with one).

Motherboard
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-b550-g ... Id=6424047
$159

Hard Drive (Modern m.2 ssd and double laptop's spec as this is 1Tb).
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-98 ... Id=6431939
$99

CPU Cooler
https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-U12S-P ... 181&sr=8-3
Noctua NH-u12S
At $47 this is great price and awesome cooler. I use this model

Memory (32Gb is double the laptop)
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/corsair-ve ... Id=6449223
$109

Windows 11 you can generally get an OEM license for about $40 or less - check down bottom of this article
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ge ... ,5717.html
$30

Power Supply Unit
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/corsair-rm ... Id=6529933
$99

Tower case? Not checked dimensions against the gfx card.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/corsair-40 ... Id=6424213
$99

I must admit at this point I've not checked if things like tower case can fit gfx card -- this is mainly idea and hopefully others may have better views than mine

This is reaching nearly $1468 - and we don't have a monitor nor keyboard
Monitors could be as little as $100 or as much as you want to spend - 2 cheap examples of 27" (laptop is what, 17?).

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/acer-ka272 ... Id=6461668
$109 (big discount apparently - may need adaptor for gfx card rear, not checked).

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/benq-gw278 ... Id=6038902
$159

Total about $1450

However, there are savings to be made without really compromising performance I think. E.g. Dial the CPU down a bit, to a Ryzen 5 5600x
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/A ... 4084vs4087

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/amd-ryzen- ... Id=6438943
$169

However, we're not done. That CPU comes with a cooler. So you can save $47 by not getting the Noctua, saving a total of about $220 bringing the total to around $1230-$1380 - which is comparable to the laptop.

But you'll gain bigger monitor, better posture from keyboard/mouse, better longevity, better performance (likely) and a larger electricity bill with the desktop.
Its your choice, you can always go into a few stores and try typing on some laptop keyboards to see how you'd fair... keeping in mind the specs and price of building own. It really depends upon how to use it. For work I use a laptop - but i plug in keyboard, mouse, and have separate monitors. Why a laptop then? It's their hardware, not mine.

What you'd lose on desktop you build yourself is... the support if something goes wrong. Now, contentious issue - what's the support worth. I (surprisingly) bought a dell laptop recently, it was heavily discounted, I'd done my research on my needs (not gaming, just for cpu, disk and others) and it was cheaper than most usual available types (asus, acer etc). On an update there's an issue it didn't recognise (forget now) the hdd or something weird. The end result was "afraid we'll have to restore to factory default" - great, thanks support, that's exactly what I can do without help. The actual answer was ownership of something had changed. It should have been fixable without basically "reformatting." So, support may not be all that without having to ship stuff back and so on and so forth. Depends if you know anyone computer savvy.


Should be said, if you really wanted a build your own and were worried, can always check youtube for "build your own pc" as there's a ton of videos how to. That'd let you see what it takes to put them together and install windows from an OEM source.

Caveat - if you're a whizz with computers and any extra advice beyond "components here" is like teaching you to suck eggs, then apologies

[Alan Phipps]

Just one extra factor is the warranty. If you have an issue within the warranty period with a prebuilt system then you can just free RMA it back and they sort it out at no charge.

I had a liquid cooler pump on my new bought system start grinding at about 7 months. I RMA'd it back to them and had it back in 10 days with a new (more expensive as it happens) cooler pump fitted and it has all been great since. They did all the disassembly and reassembly along with thermal paste reapplication, etc and it didn't cost me a penny. If you had built the system from parts, then you might have a warranty on the specific failed part, but system disassembly and reassembly would all be down to you.

I also think the pros do a much better job at tidying up the internals for a clean airflow than I would ever manage.

[jlehtone]

As implied, there are basically three options:
A. A "product". Has "brand" (e.g. HP, Dell, Fujitsu, ...). Off the shelf, but choice of components is very limited. Laptops are in this category too
B. You select components and pay the shop to assemble them. (Some shops have their own brands.)
C. You select components and assemble yourself

The C has the risk of sticking the tubes to wrong place all on you. The A has least upgradability.

[felter]

Recommending a pre-built is a pretty hard thing to do, basically I would say stay away from the likes of Best Buy and Amazon and find a more specialized computer seller, if you were in the UK I would say somewhere like Ebuyer. America is a weird place for this type of thing, while they have more choice of parts for retailers to build a decent computer, American companies seem to be more interested in ripping you off, rather than given their customers a great deal. So I would shop around, there has to be some place that gives a damn.

[burger1]

You can look at builds on https://www.reddit.com/r/buildmeapc/

Microcenter USA has a $150 build fee which seems quite high.

You might be able to build a 3060 with a i5-13600k with a 1tb 970 evo m.2 drive and 16 gb (2x8gb sticks for dual channel) ddr4 3600 cl16 ram on a B series mainboard. Parts aren't on sale though and can get more value for dollar parts from amd likely. Not sure about balancing a pc this way for other games. Other games are likely more gpu dependant than cpu.

If you currently have a pc could try geforce now. You play the games on their servers and stream it on your pc. They have a free tier which is 1 hour session limit but as many sessions per day as you want. Might need to use custom settings and plug the pc into the router via an ethernet cable to eliminate lag. Might also use 10gb/hour of internet data. Might be able to get it down to 1 or 0.5 gb per hour.

You can get a windows 10 pro licence for ~$16? Retailers resell cheaper China region keys. Win 10 pro can be upgraded to 11 but a win 11 licence costs more.

You can also look at prices on pcpartpicker. They have price history graphs also.

There's also https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/ which has US region sales stuff listed.

Need to be careful buying stuff.

[Pilgram]

Sorry if it looked like I was going to build a desktop, I want to buy a desktop.
Just want to get pointed to a computer that will do the job and not waste time and money getting something that won't work.
The requirements from above are minimum so it should be better than that.
I went to Newegg and looked at some and I have now way knowing how to tell what one has or would just be a waste of time and money.
And to be clear I am looking to buy, sell or trade anything.
I am just computer lingo impaired besides being old.

I just need some computers to look at and buy one that won't be a wasted $$.

How do you tell an old man in the dark?
It aint hard.

[Gavrushka]

I think what would be a great idea if someone computer-savvy and based in the U.S. were to provide a link to a system for around USD1300 that they would go for as a first choice to play X4.