Previously built a desktop in 2008-2009, then bought a laptop in 2011 and have been using it for school/work.
Its 2015-2016 now, and laptop still going, but can't keep up/fan overheating.
Are desktops still relevant now? More powerful than laptops still right.
What price point/budget am I looking at for an above average gaming pc? Last time 22" monitor like 300-400 bucks
now dunno how much. 24" was like atas liao.
ATI Radeon still around? My old desktop was a 4870HD
now i dunno wat. Nvidia or AMD? I think you can see my old specs on the side.
TLDR: New gaming com since 2008, what should I get and whats the norm now?
Yes desktops are still more powerful than laptops, and pretty relevant for high-end gaming, rendering, VM purposes.
Nowadays you can get 22" IPS monitor for as low as $169.
An above average PC with OS + monitor will land you around $1300.
ATI has been bought by AMD almost a decade ago lol, and its Radeon GPU line is still alive...
Ultimately it'll depend on what you gonna do on your new PC in order for us to tailor something ideal for you.
Nevertheless, the norm now is a system with true strong quad core since most uses cannot take advantage of ever more cores; motherboard nowadays also comes with colour scheme, gaming oriented features; 8GB RAM since most games also won't tap more than that; SSD for OS, games and programs while HDD relegated for secondary media storage like your songs, photos, video, etc... PSUs now are also much more energy-efficient with various 80 Plus certifications. Chassis also comes with bottom mounted PSUs, cable management holes, USB 3.0 ports mounted near the top, 2.5" mount behind motherboard panel for SSDs, etc...
We are also now in the transition period to DDR4 memory tech. So you gonna consider carefully which tech to go for since their respective CPU platform as price difference can be as high as $150 while having almost no performance difference.
For Intel CPU platform, performance improvement over the past 4 years has been dwindling gen over gen, while AMD hasn't been able to keep up core for core since 2011 with the failure of their Bulldozer core. We are still waiting for their upcoming brand new Zen core, which promises up to 40% IPC upgrade over their current Excavator core, that can finally catch up on par with Intel's Haswell to Skylake core if everything were to hold true.
For less than $1400, you can get something awesome:
DDR3 platform
CPU+MB: Intel Core i5-4460 + ASRock H81M-HDS R2.0 @ $335 (PC Themes)
RAM:
Kingston ValueRAM DDR3L-1600 CL11 8GB @ $45+3^
GPU: PowerColor R9-290 4GB TurboDuo OC @ $389 (Bizgram Asia)
SSD:
Transcend SSD370S 256GB @ $109+3`
HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB @ $77 (PC Themes)
PSU:
FSP Aurum S 600W [80 Plus Gold] @ $99+3"
CASE:
Corsair Carbide 100R @ $66+8'
OS:
Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 64-bit Product Key [OEM] @ $30 (Reddit)
Upgrade for free to Windows 10 via free Windows 8.1 update.
DSP+SPK: Dell S2316H 23" 1080p 60Hz W-LED [AH-IPS] @ $209 (PC Themes)
Total: $1376
DDR4 platform
CPU+MB: Intel Core i5-6500 + Gigabyte GA-B150M-D3H @ $453 (PC Themes)
RAM:
Kingston ValueRAM DDR4-2133 CL15 8GB @ $57+3^
Buy others from
Lazada Singapore. Haggle for discounts!
All Lazada prices inclusive of delivery charge
Lazada
Web prices after Shopback.sg 2% electronics rebate
*Price after Lazada
App DBS/POSB FriYAY 12% off max $25 discount
^Price after Lazada
App AAPROMO $15 off min $60 promo code
`Price after Lazada
App MCDLAZ $20 off min $100 promo code
"Price after Lazada
App DBSEOY20 $20 off min $100 promo code
'Price after Lazada
App CHOPE1575 $15 off min $75 promo code
Does it come with a proper physical disc?
