Gaming PC's...

[DavidBoren]

Good looking out with the advice on the cables. Thank you.

This machine is better than what I use for modeling at work... she is going to have to get really creative with her excuses if she isn't whooping freaking @$$ on her Fortnites.

[Siress]

I think you went above and beyond, my dude! That's an amazing gift, and one she will surely get a lot of enjoyment out of over the coming years. I hope the next system is one that you two build together from the ground up. PM and I can help spec out a system if you want help. I envy you right now. haha. My son isn't even 18mo yet and I'm chomping at the bit to get him into gaming...

I typed a lot of stuff below only to realize I probably went overboard... I'm passionate about PC hardware and gaming, you see... so this is something I could talk about for days despite having no good reason to do so. haha Maybe something down there is helpful. That's my hope. If it sounds critical, please know I'm being critical of the technology and/or some common advice people give that I disagree with. I think they lose sight of the meat and potatoes and focus instead on bleeding edge factors that tech journalists are focused on because it's the new hotness. I hope any and all criticism of the hardware is constructive in nature, as that is my intent. And I hope I don't miss the mark with budgetary needs. That's a tricky one to navigate. Seeing as this is one of my passions, for personal and professional applications, I dump more than most could justify into it. I do a lot of computer aided engineering - and so I'm looking at something like Threadripper and thinking 'it's so cheap (for what it is) how can I afford not to buy it', haha. It's like a mechanic dropping stacks on quality tools... they'll pay out for that use case.

Anyway, regarding the displays, I think you might be overvaluing refresh rate and g-sync. I know gamers everywhere are frothing angrily as I type these words, but she's going to appreciate 144Hz and g-sync maybe up to 5% of the time while gaming, but she'll be subjected to the lack of resolution, contrast, color accuracy, and backlight bleed 100% of the time guaranteed. With retina displays on phones going on what, 10 years? A 1080p on a 27"+ display leaves the viewer wanting. 1440p is fantastic in comparison, while going all the way to 4k has diminishing returns to say the least, and will perform like crap with that GTX 1660 in most games - from what I've read anyway. My personal recommendation is to ignore the mass of gamers and think about it: Would you rather she enjoy seeing beautiful images at ≥60Hz, or that she always sees relatively blurry images that can be relatively blurry twice as fast? Keep in mind, also, that the frequency we're talking about we only perceive as partial/blurry images anyway. No one's reading typical sized text at 60-144Hz that they couldn't read at 30Hz. I have an old 1080p 27" 1ms TN panel mounted next to my still-kind-of-old 1440p 27" 1ms IPS G-sync uber gaming display from ~'16 I think, and I don't even like to browse the web on the old 1080p panel any more. A lot of that honestly has to do with the display technology (IPS over TN) rather than the resolution, but text at 1440p is so much more crisp than at 1080p. My recommendation is to look for middle of the pack feature set where competition is greatest. This drives prices down for consumers and increases the value per dollar. Currently, it seems that one of the best budget IPS gaming displays at B&H is the Dell P2720DC at $383. And here's a bargain option with many of the same features, currently listed for $300: ASUS MZ27AQ. Here's a refined search at B&H that you can further refine or alter for your needs. I've included the most important metrics that I recommend. That's my $.02, anyway. Feel free to ignore my ravings. If I've gone too high on the price point, I recommend going down to a 24" display first. That'll shave ~$100 while simultaneously increasing pixel density - which at a fixed viewing distance results in an improved image quality. Getting all of this with >80Hz refresh is going to cost 2x as much, and it'll be pushing the limits of the GTX 1660's capabilities from what I've read.Then, later, add a 27" display and keep the 24" as a second.

Speaking of maturation points, HDDs are on the opposite end of that spectrum - reaching for the grave. High-capacity SSDs are on the rise that might finally make HDDs almost entirely antiquated for the consumer PC market. I won't be surprised if we see 4TB SATA SSDs for <$200 in a year. They're making real technological gains in this area right now. Granted, we'll probably see 12TB HDDs for that price, but few people, few gamers even, need more than 4TB. I honestly don't know of any PC enthusiasts that I know have bought a HDD for a PC in probably 10 years. Granted, we still put them in our servers - but even then there's an SSD caching drive or two.

Try to make do with whatever peripherals she has for now and build your savings back up. She should definitely pick them out when the time comes. Those will be useful for far longer than the PC components as well. I'm on my 3rd (I think) mouse and keyboard in ~25 years. I couldn't even tell you how many CPU/Motherboard combinations I've had over that time. At least 10. Upgrading every 1-3 years depending on the technological improvements and market factors offers the best bang for the buck. I'm typing this on a Corsair K70 that came out around 2013, and I expect to get another 5+ years out of this particular one since there isn't much to improve on until there's a paradigm shift. Mechanical keyboards seem to be universally loud, so I added neoprene bottoming pads to help cut back on the noise. This ruins them for many people, but I like the feel of the keystroke and precision of the actuation point more than the auditory feedback. You may want to consider how loud and obnoxious a mechanical keyboard will be depending on when and where she's going to spend most of her time on it. That noise could be a good thing, giving you an audible indicator that she's using it. Or, it could be a bad thing, distracting you from the book you're trying to read 2 rooms over. Also consider how many personalized options there are with peripherals. Don't be surprised if she wants to change them around in a few months because she's starting to realize what she likes and doesn't like. That's a good thing, annoying as it may be to fork out more cash and deal with selling used gear - it means shes developing. And that is, after all, the primary objective.

And for the love of all that is thinking sand, follow PunknCat's advice. Once the software is setup, create a system restore point, backup a system image on an internal drive (or a dedicated partition on the boot drive), and copy another backup image to an external device (USB drive, NAS, cloud, whatever) and store it somewhere safe. The internal image will be ~10x faster to restore from when you inevitably need to do so. If something catastrophic happens, you'll at least have the external device. Are you reading this, Carter?! 😝 It's the 3-2-1 backup rule: 3 copies, 2 formats, 1 offsite. The process can be arduous, but some googling and youtube will get you on your way. Windows 10 is a lot easier to deal with in this regard than any of the previously versions. Just don't try to mix it with Linux. If she want's to play with Linux, dedicate another drive just for linux partitions. Ah...I hit the linux comments. This is how I know I've gone too far...

Alright. Again, way to go, dude. You've made my day just because I get to imagine the awesomeness unfolding when she gets this thing. I hope she savors every moment learning and playing with the new system.

edit: lol. I chipped away at this response little by little while working and just noticed you already bought the display. Oh well.

[DavidBoren]

It's all good. Thank you very much for the insight.

I am sure she will want a bigger monitor eventually... so the little 24" TN display can be a side monitor for schoolwork. Kid isn't even going to be a teenager yet, rocking two monitors on her own computer. Lol.

I will make sure the bigger monitor is more dedicated to picture quality over refresh rate. Or maybe her knowledge will surpass mine by then, and she will have her own recommendations on which monitor SHE wants. Who knows?

Children, they are our usurpers...

PS. No child of mine will ever touch Linux. Lol. I actually don't know much of the difference other than it is a completely separate operating system. Nor do I care if my kids want to learn it. I am more than willing to dive down that rabbit hole with her. A dedicated drive makes sense for such a foreign operating system, though.

[tjd10684]

i7-8700
RTX2070
970 Evo 500GB SSD and a 2TB HDD
32GB RAM

Built it early last year for streaming, 3D modeling, and gaming. Recently upgraded from 16GB of RAM and it's been fantastic. Got the 2070 for super cheap and it's been a monster.

Next big thing I need is a good monitor. I've been using a 8 year old 32" HDTV and while 1080P has been great, I want to check out what the latest and greatest is now that I have a machine that can run it.

I am in the same boat as you
I7 8700k (using 5 ghz oc profile)
RTX2080
970 evo 500 ssd (couple other drives for storage games drive Crucial MX500)
32 gb 3200mhz ram xmp

I like to design in comfort so I sit pretty far away from my "monitor" I use a 55" 4k TCL tv as my primary and 46" 720p Samsung from 2004 as my secondary. The screen tearing is real but to combat that I have found 2 routes. 1. Faster monitor, I would not be willing to take much of a size hit so I would end up looking at BFGD units or 2. lower frame rate. So since I have the power to I tend to run all my games at max to get the frame rate DOWN Like I don't run 1440 I go full 4k and turn on everything. It makes games look fantastic but just not fast on frame times. That seams to never be an issue for me though since I don't tend to play any kind of competitive online games. I tend to more single player story driven games and simulators. Examples of games I'm looking forward to Kerbal space program 2, cities skylines 2 (hopefully one day) Cyberpunk 2077.

[DavidBoren]

I am way more into things like Elder Scrolls:Morrowind:Oblivion:Skyrim... Fallout4, by extension of Bethesda. Witcher3. Freaking love all of those games. My fossils are probably showing, huh?

I like CoD and other first-person shooters, it's fun to take advantage of technology and link up with your boys. They are good to pick up, waste a match or two, and forget about.

If I set down the controller too long in a Bethesda game or Witcher... might as well roll a new character... where am I? What quest is this? Why do I have 89 of "X" in my inventory? Who wants them? Why was I clearly collecting "X"? Who is this dude trying to kill me? You mad, bro? Did I deserve that?

[tjd10684]

Back in the day I used to be really into JRPG's and some time last year I got the nostalgia bug and decided to pick up trails of cold steel since it looked like something I would have been interested in back then. It was cool but by the end I could not remember why the heck I was doing anything I resorted to just following a guide. It was still a neat game but when you can only play an hour or 2 every couple days its hard to keep that story thread fresh in your mind.

[cellophane]

I bought a Zowie (BenQ) monitor this spring when I started working from home and love it. Adjustable stand, VESA mounting, and loads of features. Huge upgrade from the 10+ year old 22" Dell monitor's I was using as my primary screens. The VESA mount & adjustable stand are a big thing for me. I'm tall and like my monitor up high, and at some point I'm going to get a decent monitor arm and put them all on that.

https://zowie.benq.com/en-us/product...l/xl2731.html#!