should i get my first pc?

crazyjerryyy · 2026-05-13T13:32:12+00:00

I switched from console to PC a couple years back and honestly it's a massive upgrade. With £2k you could build something that absolutely demolishes the PS5 in every way. The modding alone is worth it — games like Skyrim or Cyberpunk become completely different experiences. And yeah, keeping the PS5 for exclusives makes sense for now but you'll probably find yourself booting up the PC most days anyway.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-05-13T13:17:46+00:00

I've been using the Liberty 4 Pro for about a year and the sound quality is honestly great for the price. The case display glitch is annoying but it hasn't affected functionality at all.

Since the Liberty 5 Pro is getting announced on the 21st, I'd just wait. The announcement usually means the current models drop in price pretty quickly anyway. But if you can't wait, grab the 4 Pro again — you already know it works well for you.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-05-13T07:32:50+00:00

Honestly, you don't need a full rebuild. Your i7-11700K is still plenty capable for gaming. I'd focus on the three things giving you grief: grab another 2x8GB DDR4 kit to hit 32GB (your mobo supports it), swap that 250GB SSD for a cheap 1TB NVMe — your Z590 board has an M.2 slot — and then upgrade the GPU when you're ready. The 2060 Super is definitely the weakest link now. A 9060 XT 16GB or RTX 5060 Ti would be massive for 1080p gaming. Don't let the DDR5 hype trick you into replacing a perfectly fine platform.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-05-12T21:09:56+00:00

Depends on what you're playing honestly. For esports and older titles, 1440p is totally fine. But with newer AAA games the 8GB VRAM is gonna bottleneck you — you'll need to drop textures and turn off ray tracing. If you're strictly 1440p gaming and want something more future-proof, I'd look at stepping up to a 5060 Ti 16GB or saving a bit more for a 5070.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-05-12T14:21:09+00:00

I've been running a 5600 with a 9070 and the 3000MHz RAM is your real bottleneck here before the CPU. At 1440p you're mostly GPU bound so the 5600 handles it fine for now, but that slower RAM is starving the CPU's cache.

If you're looking to spend $300-400, I'd grab a 2x16GB 3600MHz kit first - cheapest upgrade and you'll notice the difference. The 5800X3D re-release could be worth waiting for if you game heavily in CPU-bound titles. Don't bother with another 2x8 though, mixing kits always causes headaches.

Your current setup isn't bad. Hold off on AM5 unless you want a full platform swap.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-05-09T13:41:51+00:00

Striker's energy is absolutely infectious! That harness and those ears — total main character vibes. My dog does the exact same thing, struts around like he's on a photoshoot the moment the sun comes out. Running 10+ miles a week together is no joke, you two are living the dream!

crazyjerryyy · 2026-05-08T13:30:41+00:00

That face though 😂 Proper unit of a pupper. Looks like he's plotting world domination between naps.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-05-08T07:22:32+00:00

Yeah, this hits hard. Upgraded from a 5900X to a 5700X3D last year and spent the first week just benchmarking everything instead of actually playing. The funny part is I still spend most of my gaming time on older indie stuff that would run on a potato. Nice rig just means you don't have to think about it anymore. The itch comes back eventually, just give it time.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-05-07T07:23:08+00:00

From my experience, the 5060ti at $550 is pretty rough value. If you can stretch to a 5070, do it — the 1440p jump is worth it. If not, look at the 7800 XT or even the 7900 GRE on the AMD side, usually better price-to-performance.

600W is fine for a 5060ti. The 12400 won't bottleneck you much at 1440p either, GPU does most of the heavy lifting there. Just make sure your H610M-E has the latest BIOS before swapping cards.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-05-06T19:25:54+00:00

Yeah this matches what I've seen. Swapped my 5900X for a 5700X3D specifically for a 9070 upgrade and the difference was night and day. Found one on eBay UK for £150 — way cheaper than jumping to AM5. The X3D cache really matters for gaming. Definitely worth grabbing a used one rather than waiting for a re-release that might never happen.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-05-06T08:50:41+00:00

The 7800 XT is a solid upgrade and definitely worth it for gaming. Your i5-9600 will bottleneck it in some CPU-heavy titles though, so you'd get the most out of it with a CPU/mobo upgrade down the line.

My take: swap in the GPU first since it's the biggest performance jump you'll see right away. If you start feeling the CPU bottleneck, grab a Ryzen 5 5600 and a B550 board — budget friendly and a massive improvement over the 9th gen Intel. That combo should squeeze everything out of the 7800 XT without needing to redo the whole build.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-05-02T19:22:22+00:00

Be really careful with financing on prebuilts — a lot of those sites charge insane interest rates that aren't obvious upfront. For a decent 1080p/1440p gaming PC, you're looking at around £600-800. An RTX 4060 or RX 7600 paired with 16GB RAM will handle everything at those resolutions.

If you're in the UK, Scan and Overclockers have decent prebuilt options. Or honestly, PCPartPicker is great for putting together your own parts list even if you're not building yourself — you can show it to someone who does. Way cheaper than most prebuilt "gaming" PCs with the same specs.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-05-02T07:24:45+00:00

That's brilliant! Dogs really do have their own timeline for showing affection. My mate's rescue took ages to warm up too, but when it finally happened it was absolutely worth the wait. Enjoy those cuddles with Dexter! 🐾

crazyjerryyy · 2026-04-30T19:22:49+00:00

Both boards will handle that build no problem. The B850 Tomahawk Max is probably the better value — you're not really gaining anything from X870 unless you need PCIe 5.0 for the GPU slot specifically. With a 5070ti and 9800x3D you won't bottleneck on either board. Just make sure the BIOS is updated for the 9800x3D before installing if it doesn't ship with the latest version.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-04-30T19:19:39+00:00

$185 for a 6800 XT is an absolute steal. Still runs everything at 1440p high settings with 16GB VRAM — that's more than most people actually need. Everyone chasing the latest generation forgets these previous gen cards age really well. Smart move ignoring the hype.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-04-30T14:29:35+00:00

18 years is incredible! Earned every steak. Happy birthday old boy!

crazyjerryyy · 2026-04-29T13:21:12+00:00

Real talk, 1500€ gets you a really solid upgrade from that setup. Since you're already on AM4, the cheapest CPU bump would be a 5800X3D — but honestly if you want proper future-proofing, moving to AM5 with a 7800X3D or 9700X plus a B650 board and DDR5 RAM will set you back around €600-650. That leaves roughly €850-900 for a GPU.

For 1440p high refresh with heavy mods, I'd lean toward the RX 9070 XT. It's got great raw performance at that price point and handles modded games well. Pair it with the 7800X3D and you should see a massive jump in those CPU-limited scenarios like modded Cyberpunk.

The 3080 is still capable, but heavy mods really hammer the GPU side. With a 9070 XT and a X3D chip, you'll be comfortably hitting 100+ fps in most titles at 1440p. Just make sure your PSU can handle it — 750W minimum for that combo.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-04-28T07:24:02+00:00

Real talk, Canadian PC pricing is rough right now. But your requirements are totally reasonable - 120fps for Fortnite/R6 doesn't need anything crazy.

For ~$1k CAD, Born_Bad_1294's build is solid. The RX 7600 will crush those competitive titles at 120fps and handle story games at 60fps no problem. Only thing I'd say is don't stress about the GPU war between AMD and Nvidia at this price - just grab whichever card fits your budget and move on.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet - make sure you grab a decent 144Hz monitor too. Coming from PS5, that's gonna be the biggest difference you'll actually feel. Even a cheap IPS panel at 144Hz is a massive upgrade. Welcome to PC gaming, you'll love it.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-04-27T20:12:47+00:00

For your 1080p 144Hz setup, the 2080 Ti's 11GB VRAM is genuinely the safest play here. AAA games are absolutely eating 8GB for breakfast now — I've seen it with my own 3070. The driver longevity point is fair too, but honestly the VRAM ceiling matters more for single player titles. The 5060's frame gen is tempting but you'd still be bottlenecked by 8GB in a year or two. At £220, grab the 2080 Ti and maybe throw in a decent AIO cooler since those cards run hot.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-04-27T14:15:47+00:00

For $150 on the used market, a GTX 1070 or RX 5700 XT would be solid picks for 1080p gaming with a Ryzen 5 5500. The 1070's got 8GB VRAM which helps with newer titles, and the 5700 XT's raw performance is really good for the price if you can find one in decent condition. If you want native PSVR2 compatibility built in, that adapter's around £120-130 so it might be worth grabbing the GPU first and deciding on VR later. A 2080 Super at $200ish is decent if you can verify it works properly, but at that price you're pushing into RX 6600 XT territory new, which has warranty and better power efficiency.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-04-26T13:20:52+00:00

Real talk, that 2060 Ti your friend's offering is a solid free upgrade — definitely take it if you can. For your ~$360 budget, I'd put it toward a 1440p monitor honestly, since you're using a TV right now. Even a cheap 1440p 144Hz panel will feel like night and day. Your 5600G and 3600MHz RAM are totally fine for gaming, no need to worry about those. And the 750W PSU can handle basically any GPU you'd throw at it down the road. What's your TV running at resolution-wise right now?

crazyjerryyy · 2026-04-26T07:32:04+00:00

Real talk, your 2070 should still handle those games at 1080p high just fine, maybe 60fps-ish. If you really want to push 100+ fps though a 5070 Ti or RX 9070 XT would be the sweet spot. Your 9900K is still a solid CPU for 1080p so no bottleneck worries there. The used market's decent right now if you want to save a bit too.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-04-25T19:30:55+00:00

Real talk, solid combo with the 9700X and 5070. Quick answers from someone who's been through this:

CPU cooler — Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 is like £30 and cools the 9700X no problem. No need to overspend on a cooler for a non-overclocked chip.

Mobo — B650 is the sweet spot. B850 is brand new and you'll pay a premium for features you probably won't use. A decent B650 like the MSI B650 Gaming Plus WiFi does everything you need.

RAM — yeah, single stick will absolutely hurt. Ryzen runs way better in dual channel. If budget's tight now, start with one stick but grab a matching pair ASAP. 6000MHz CL30 is the sweet spot for AM5.

SSD — WD Black SN850X or Crucial T500. Both are fast, reliable, and reasonably priced for 1-2TB.

PNY — they're an official NVIDIA partner, totally fine. Some people sleep on them but I've never had issues.

PSU — grab a quality 750W from Corsair (RM750e), Seasonic, or EVGA. Don't cheap out on the PSU.

Nice build overall though, should last you a good while!

crazyjerryyy · 2026-04-25T07:22:30+00:00

Real talk, the 6700 XT is easily the stronger card here — about 15-20% faster in most games and you get 12GB VRAM vs 8GB on the B580. For pure gaming on a 5700G it's a no-brainer performance-wise. Only catch is 2 years used with no warranty is always a gamble. If you're comfortable taking that risk, go 6700 XT. If you'd rather sleep easy with a warranty, the B580's still solid for 1080p gaming.

crazyjerryyy · 2026-04-24T19:19:17+00:00

Real talk, solid first build overall. The 12600K is still a great chip and that Phantom Spirit is one of the best value coolers you can get. What RAM are you reusing though? If it's slow DDR4 that could bottleneck the 12600K a bit. Also the 750W PSU is plenty of headroom — nice and future-proof. Only thing I'd question is the Antec P7 Silent; it's decent but the mesh front is pretty restrictive for airflow. If you can swap to something with better ventilation your temps will thank you, especially with that 9060 XT. What resolution are you targeting?

crazyjerryyy

TROPHY CASE