This would be my first gaming PC, and I'm looking for advice on what kind of system would suit me. I'm located in Saskatchewan, Canada, and my budget is roughly $1,500 CAD, with room to go up to around $2,500 if the upgrade is worthwhile. I already have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, so the budget is only for the computer itself. I mainly play Overwatch, Minecraft, Marvel Rivals, and similar games. I'm not chasing extreme performance—I'd mainly like something smooth that won't lag frequently and will leave me some room for future upgrades.
2 Answers
One cost-effective approach is to buy a bundle with the processor, motherboard, and 32GB of DDR5 memory, then add a 1TB SSD and a dedicated graphics card. Something in the class of a current upper-midrange Radeon card would be more than enough for high-refresh-rate 1080p or 1440p gaming. That kind of build can land around $2,300–$2,400 CAD and would also leave an easy path to upgrade the processor later.
Since you already have the peripherals, putting around $1,500 CAD into the PC should be enough for very solid performance in those games. A system with a modern six- or eight-core processor, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and a midrange graphics card should handle them comfortably. Spending closer to $2,000–$2,500 can give you noticeably more graphics headroom and better longevity, but it isn’t necessary for your current game list.
I already have the monitor and other accessories, so I’d prefer to spend the budget entirely on the computer. I’m mostly looking for stable performance rather than the absolute highest settings.