I know very little about building PCs and would like to get the best value possible. I'm based in the UK and want a gaming system that can handle the highest settings, ideally targeting around 4K at 120 FPS. My budget could range from roughly £1,000 to £4,000, although I'd prefer to spend less unless paying significantly more would provide much better longevity. Is it worth investing in an expensive system intended to last many years, or is it more sensible to buy a midrange PC now and upgrade later? I mainly play games such as Icarus and Wardogs.
3 Answers
If longevity matters, consider a current AMD platform with a good upgrade path. That could let you replace the processor later without rebuilding the entire PC, potentially saving the cost of a motherboard and memory. However, the graphics card will still be the main factor for 4K performance, so it’s usually more cost-effective to plan for a future GPU upgrade instead of overspending on the whole system today.
For your target of 4K gaming around 120 FPS, £1,000 is unlikely to be enough, especially in demanding games. Around £1,700 is a more realistic sweet spot in the UK for a powerful system, though you still may need to adjust settings or use upscaling depending on the game. Spending £4,000 won’t guarantee ten years of maximum settings.
There isn’t really a PC that stays at the highest settings for ten years. A top-end system may remain usable for a long time, but newer games will eventually require lower settings, upscaling, or hardware upgrades. It’s better to choose a sensible budget and buy the best-performing parts within it rather than paying a huge premium for vague future-proofing.
Would a system around £1,700 actually handle maximum settings in everything? The games I play are generally titles like Icarus and Wardogs.