My wife and I have always built our own desktops, as component choice (speed/brand/specs) for the SSD and RAM matter a bit for performance. A few years ago, that stopped making any sense—CPU and GPU dominate performance, and most of the time you’re better off with MORE ram rather than FASTER ram at a given price point. Also, pre-builts are far more detailed with their specs than they used to be, and supply chain oddities have made parts more expensive for consumers than for bigger orgs.
Last year, my wife agonized a bit over building her rig anew, and went with https://www.ekfluidgaming.com/, primarily because they actually had GPUs available at only slight markups, but also because they’re one of few reputable builders who do watercooled CPU and GPU, which really does cut down on the noise (the fans are still noticeable in a quiet room, but it’s not the jet engine of modern multi-fan systems). After a shipping snafu (broken unit arrived), which they replaced without issue, but delayed things about 2 weeks, she’s been delighted with it.
For me, I’m finding myself on the couch or in my front room with cats and sunshine fairly often, and I’m likely not to replace my aging desktop with another full computer. I plan to get a beefier gaming laptop, and use a docking station for my office(s—I have two rooms in my house with monitors and good keyboards set up).
1) get ultra long display cables (ruipro), can get 144hz 4k support 100ft+ no problem, and just put your PC elsewhere. I personally just swap cables, to move my work setup between my sitting multimon workstation, to my standing treadmill desk, to my TV, to my couch PC setup.
2) If you are crazy like me, multiroom water cooling is an option as well.
Yeah, we’re old and (relatively) rich, and tend to live with our tech for a few years longer than we should, so we had the budget for it. I don’t know if I can recommend a specific model or configuration without more information about your uses (what type of game, what monitors are you driving, what kinds of analytics or modeling you’re doing, etc.) and, most importantly, your budgetary tradeoffs (what don’t you get to do if you overspend on a PC).
For her, we talked though our (my) biases toward intel and nvidia, and decided not to care about the CPU brand, but stay with nvidia GPU. Then picked almost purely based on price point for the best GPU which could tell ourselves it was OK to spend that much. The closest current model is their Vanquish 270, but honestly the 250 would be very nearly as good, for $400 less.
My wife and I have always built our own desktops, as component choice (speed/brand/specs) for the SSD and RAM matter a bit for performance. A few years ago, that stopped making any sense—CPU and GPU dominate performance, and most of the time you’re better off with MORE ram rather than FASTER ram at a given price point. Also, pre-builts are far more detailed with their specs than they used to be, and supply chain oddities have made parts more expensive for consumers than for bigger orgs.
Last year, my wife agonized a bit over building her rig anew, and went with https://www.ekfluidgaming.com/, primarily because they actually had GPUs available at only slight markups, but also because they’re one of few reputable builders who do watercooled CPU and GPU, which really does cut down on the noise (the fans are still noticeable in a quiet room, but it’s not the jet engine of modern multi-fan systems). After a shipping snafu (broken unit arrived), which they replaced without issue, but delayed things about 2 weeks, she’s been delighted with it.
For me, I’m finding myself on the couch or in my front room with cats and sunshine fairly often, and I’m likely not to replace my aging desktop with another full computer. I plan to get a beefier gaming laptop, and use a docking station for my office(s—I have two rooms in my house with monitors and good keyboards set up).
Btw, if you care a lot about noise, you can
1) get ultra long display cables (ruipro), can get 144hz 4k support 100ft+ no problem, and just put your PC elsewhere. I personally just swap cables, to move my work setup between my sitting multimon workstation, to my standing treadmill desk, to my TV, to my couch PC setup.
2) If you are crazy like me, multiroom water cooling is an option as well.
Cool stuff, if a bit pricey. Which model and how would you configure it?
Yeah, we’re old and (relatively) rich, and tend to live with our tech for a few years longer than we should, so we had the budget for it. I don’t know if I can recommend a specific model or configuration without more information about your uses (what type of game, what monitors are you driving, what kinds of analytics or modeling you’re doing, etc.) and, most importantly, your budgetary tradeoffs (what don’t you get to do if you overspend on a PC).
For her, we talked though our (my) biases toward intel and nvidia, and decided not to care about the CPU brand, but stay with nvidia GPU. Then picked almost purely based on price point for the best GPU which could tell ourselves it was OK to spend that much. The closest current model is their Vanquish 270, but honestly the 250 would be very nearly as good, for $400 less.