I'm finally ready to buy my first desktop PC after relying on a MacBook Pro that's starting to deteriorate. I'll be working from home doing virtual therapy sessions, writing client notes, scheduling, emails, paperwork, and other administrative tasks. I'll also be handling sensitive client information and work documents, so reliable storage and backups are important.
For gaming, I mainly want to play less demanding titles such as Left 4 Dead, older Resident Evil games, Phasmophobia, Dead by Daylight, and lighter RPGs. I plan to keep newer and more demanding games on my PS5, so I don't need an extreme gaming build.
My total budget is about $1,600–$1,700 CAD, including a monitor, and I'm starting from scratch without any existing PC parts or peripherals. I'm inexperienced with building computers, so I'd appreciate recommendations for suitable components or a complete setup.
2 Answers
For those games and typical remote-office work, you don’t need to spend the entire budget on maximum performance. A balanced midrange desktop with 32 GB of RAM, a 1 TB or 2 TB NVMe SSD, and a modern dedicated graphics card should handle everything comfortably while leaving room for a decent monitor and peripherals. Since you’re starting from nothing, make sure the budget also accounts for Windows, a keyboard, mouse, and possibly a webcam or headset for virtual sessions.
Because you’ll be storing confidential client information, prioritize reliability and security rather than just gaming performance. Use full-drive encryption, strong account security, automatic updates, and a separate backup drive or reputable backup service. A midrange build should be more than enough for the listed games, and the extra money would be better spent on a quality monitor, backup storage, and a reliable power supply. The budget originally sounded large for the games you mentioned, but including the monitor makes it much more reasonable.
The budget does include the monitor. I’m moving from a MacBook Pro to a desktop and will need the complete setup, so storage and backups are definitely useful things to plan for.
I’ll mainly be doing virtual therapy sessions, client notes, scheduling, emails, paperwork, and other administrative tasks. I agree that I probably won’t need a high-end gaming system.