Buy or Build

[Banshee7]

Hey guys,

With the the installation of fiber optic in the next several months, I have been considering building or buying a PC, primarily for this game with the possibility of a few others. I have absolutely nothing at the moment. So, what’s the word on the street?  Do you prefer building or buying prebuilt? I have no experience in building computers, so that goes into consideration.

Thanks for your replies!

Josh

[atlau]

Building will definitely save you money. And it's not terribly difficult. Lots of YouTube videos out there as well.

Can use sites such as pcpartpicker to come up with a list of compatible components.

But if time is money as well so honestly depends on what you enjoy doing...  ot everyone liked tinkering and shopping for parts

[Denniss]

For prebuilt you should get a shop that has a configurator for most parts so you may choose better parts than found in the standard system.
Prebuilt without choice of components often has 1-2 good parts to advertize with but also other parts of mediocre or low quality. Many builders reduce cost either with lower quality powersupply, RAM (speeedgrade), storage (quality) and/or CPU-cooling.

[Bizman]

Denniss nailed it.

Let a reputable shop build it from parts you have chosen. They'll also test it so if there's a faulty part you don't have to try to convince anyone that you haven't broken it. You should also get a warranty for the building job as well as for the individual parts.

[DaddyAce]

I enjoy building my own, but I have a puter engineer son, and I use his website for help and starting recommendations.   You may find it helpful:  logicalincrements.com

[atlau]

Honestly the trickiest part of building is making sure all the cables are plugged into the right motherboard connectors and then routing them cleanely: )

Fyi i had a i5 6600 and when I upgraded to a 2080 graphics card (got a good deal) i found myself cpu limited (at least in vr) and when I later got a deal on a 9900k it really smoothed out the fps lows

Logical increments provides a good recommendation for ensuring you have a well balance computer based on your budget. You can also keep an eye out for deals at the reddit  buildapcsales forum.

[Nwbie]

I'm thinking to maybe get back in the game also.. looking at Digital Storm also

Which build is recommended for AH minimum..

plus what monitors are suggested - would be looking at 27 inch minimum, always wanted a better screen

Budget I am assuming 1500 to 2k is realistic

NwBie

[Bizman]

For AH, the "Very Good" in the logicalincrements.com listing. If you wish you can swap the CPU to an Intel i5 with a suitable motherboard for a little extra but there may not be any difference. Just saying in case you're rather an Intel guy.

That should easily run a 1440p @100 Hz or even faster monitor. The physical size doesn't matter, it's the resolution and speed that draw the juices out of the video card.

[Denniss]

Hmm, that site has some strange components in the List.
No good SATA, just the slow BX500. Should be MX500 starting with Entry.  i660p in 512GB is no alternative as too expensive in this small size + limited by slow QLC-NAND
the small powersupplies in this list are mediocre or based on outdated tech - is there no decent quality (with DC-DC-converter) available having a fair price? In Germany the baseline is a Bequiet System Power 9 in 400W (or the better Pure Power 11), featuring the up-to-date DC-DC-converter tech for rather cheap 40€. In this pricerange Corsair offers the questionable VS-Series and Seagate probably nothing.
on motherboards it's somewhat strange to see very limited MSI boards (B450 Tomahawk Max is one of their Topsellers in Germany) + the strange claim that Max is better than Non-Max (just larger Bios Rom with re-enabled graphics Bios - guaranteed support for Zen2 CPU without Bios flash)
the Mushkin 3200 memory must be a bad joke with these awful timings, Gskill Aegis is not much better with its Hynix chips. Crucial has far better memory with its Ballistix Sport LT 3200 CL16 series, The AT series may also have the good chips from LT series if part number contains the AES string

[Spikes]

Hmm, that site has some strange components in the List.
No good SATA, just the slow BX500. Should be MX500 starting with Entry.  i660p in 512GB is no alternative as too expensive in this small size + limited by slow QLC-NAND
the small powersupplies in this list are mediocre or based on outdated tech - is there no decent quality (with DC-DC-converter) available having a fair price? In Germany the baseline is a Bequiet System Power 9 in 400W (or the better Pure Power 11), featuring the up-to-date DC-DC-converter tech for rather cheap 40€. In this pricerange Corsair offers the questionable VS-Series and Seagate probably nothing.
on motherboards it's somewhat strange to see very limited MSI boards (B450 Tomahawk Max is one of their Topsellers in Germany) + the strange claim that Max is better than Non-Max (just larger Bios Rom with re-enabled graphics Bios - guaranteed support for Zen2 CPU without Bios flash)
the Mushkin 3200 memory must be a bad joke with these awful timings, Gskill Aegis is not much better with its Hynix chips. Crucial has far better memory with its Ballistix Sport LT 3200 CL16 series, The AT series may also have the good chips from LT series if part number contains the AES string

As much as I am a "bang for your buck" guy, someone wanting a computer to run Aces High isn't going to care about a difference of 20 MB/s read times on their SSD or the synchronous timings of RAM. What they will care about is SSD = good, HDD = bad.

[atlau]

I'm thinking to maybe get back in the game also.. looking at Digital Storm also

Which build is recommended for AH minimum..

plus what monitors are suggested - would be looking at 27 inch minimum, always wanted a better screen

Budget I am assuming 1500 to 2k is realistic

NwBie

For AH VR is a gamechanger...

[DaddyAce]

For AH VR is a gamechanger...

Agreed, +1 here!   

[Gman]

For AH VR is a gamechanger...

AH has the best VR implementation of any flight/driving/cockpit sim IMO, especially the scope of the view system controls.

[Nwbie]

seeing the VR comments

My assumption is that you are saying don't worry too much about the monitor,  doesn't matter if going to VR,

Correct?

Also,
If went Digital Storm, which build is recommended, doesn't need to be a big resource build, this game is practically the only one I would have time for

Thanks

NwBie

[DaddyAce]

seeing the VR comments

My assumption is that you are saying don't worry too much about the monitor,  doesn't matter if going to VR,

Correct?
.....

Regarding VR, correct, then your target needs become whatever your chosen VR headset needs to run smoothly at your desired graphic settings.