I'm starting my gaming setup from scratch and have about $1,200 NZD to spend on the PC itself, roughly $700 USD. I'm in New Zealand and want to play Valorant, Fortnite, Minecraft, Rainbow Six Siege, and other games at 1080p. I already have a desk and mouse, but otherwise need advice on the full build. I'd prefer an all-white system with a Ryzen CPU rather than Intel. I mainly stick with the same games instead of buying every new release.
2 Answers
The main challenge will be finding respectable parts within $1,200 NZD, especially if you want a white-themed build. Memory and graphics card prices can take up a large portion of the budget, so consider white case components and fans while using less expensive black or neutral-colored internal parts if necessary. That will leave more money for performance.
Since you mostly play a consistent group of competitive and sandbox games, you don’t necessarily need to prioritize the newest hardware. A Ryzen-based system paired with a reasonably priced graphics card should handle 1080p well, especially for Valorant, Fortnite, and Minecraft. Just make sure the parts are balanced rather than spending too much on the CPU and leaving too little for the GPU.
I generally stick with the games I already enjoy, so I’m not too worried about running every new release at high settings.
The current market makes this especially difficult—some components, including DDR5 memory, cost far more than expected for the performance they provide.