New System for Borderlands 3, Doom Eternal and more

Hello fellow PC gamers and enthusiasts, hope you’ve all had a good start to the week :slight_smile:

I’m hoping for some advice on building a new PC gaming system, I tend to play a lot of RPG’s (MMO’s included) but also love a good FPS and even some RTS… anyway not to digress, I’ve preordered Borderlands 3 which is out at the end of this week and it never even crossed my mind to check that I meet the recommended specification until this morning, unfortunately on checking I’m somewhere between minimum and recommended… Ouch! I’ve also got Doom Eternal on preorder which also appears to be beyond what my current system is capable of running.

I’ve been putting off building a new system for some time now, my current rig is around 8-10 years old and although it’s held up well it’s definitely starting to show it’s age, especially in modern releases when trying to maintain 60FPS (I’m having to run a lot of games in low setting these days). The idea would be to build a new gaming system to replace my ageing one and hopefully give me another 5-8 years of gaming goodness.

I have a budget available of up to around £2500-3000 and would ideally like to include a monitor upgrade to replace my LG 34UM95-P, the monitor must be VESA compatible so I can mount it on the wall and ideally another 34” 3440x1440 Ultrawide that improves on the current one I own (unless it would be a pointless upgrade of course).

Finally, the computer will be positioned on a desk in all its glory (not hidden under it like systems of old), I really like the look of the Lian-Li Dynamic case so something like that which will show everything off once finished would be great. I do like RGB when it’s done tasteful but not the over-the-top RGB vomit that seems to be in vogue with a lot of current builds, so the inclusion of some nice RGB would be welcomed (I own a lot of Razer products so anything that ties in with Synapse 3 or works with these is a bonus). I love the vertical GPU mounting idea so if support for that was available I’d definitely go for that option. I already have a Windows 10 license and don’t require any additional peripherals or software. Oh, before I forget, the system is hardwired so I don’t require WiFi built into the motherboard but no harm if it is included as you never know what the future might bring.

Beyond gaming I do also dabble in 4K video editing (Adobe Premier), some photography and digital imaging work (Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop), I’m not huge on streaming but the capability to do so would be a bonus (I already own an Elgato Capture card) and then just the general type day-2-day stuff like browsing internet, YouTube, word processing, email etc etc you get the idea.

Sorry if the post seems a little all over the place but I think that just about covers everything, although if I have missed something or if you guys require any additional detail please feel free to ask!

3000 Euros (about the same in pounds now) buy you a high-end pre-built system with a i9-9900k, 2080ti, 32 GB, 1 TB SSD (something nice like a Samsung 970 Pro) + 4 TB HDD, etc. If you build it yourself, it’ll be cheaper. When buying a new machine, I’d always go for the best you can buy as otherwise you replace it after two or three years. That seems to be your mindset also, though plenty of people go for the second best (so not a 2080ti and a 9900k) and upgrade as needed. I prefer buying something that will be super fine for 5+ years without upgrading.

For the monitor, there is a vast number of choices, though you’ll have to decide if you want it primarily for gaming or photography as the requirements are a little opposite here. For gaming I think a nice G-Sync/FreeSync 144hz+ display with a fast panel is very desirable, especially since you want to play shooters. For photography where you want precise color calibration, you want an IPS display and possibly 4k. There are no 4k moniors with 144hz yet, and everything over 60hz is not really affordable. I would also advise against curved monitors (most ultra wide models) for image work, but mileage may vary. I’d look at something from Eizo for photography, and something from Asus for gaming (but most panels are the same anyway, so it doesn’t matter too much).

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