Summary
- I built a capable gaming PC but rarely push it to its limits.
- Most of my work is browser-based, so I have no real use for the powerful hardware beyond gaming.
- While I can play any modern game, I still spend most of my time playing less demanding titles.
I didn’t have a decent gaming PC for much of my childhood. Yet I spent a solid six hours a day playing games that my rig could barely run. Now that I have a machine that can handle anything, I rarely push it to its limits. Surprisingly, I’m completely fine with that.
I Don’t Dabble in Resource-Intensive Tasks and Projects
While my old PC was still an okay machine with an RX 6600 XT, I just wanted to move on from the AM4 platform and the Frankenstein of parts that I slowly bought over several years and put in the machine.
That’s why I decided to start from scratch this year, without a hard limit on my budget, but at the same time, trying to get the best value for my money on each individual part. An AliExpress CPU, eBay RAM and NVMe, and a used GPU later, I had built a pretty capable gaming PC for under $1,400.
I won’t bore you with the specs of my machine, save for the core components that power it: an RX 6800 XT graphics card, Ryzen 7 7700 CPU, and 32GB of 6000MHz CL36 DDR5 RAM.
CPU Model
Ryzen 7 7700
CPU Speed
3.8 GHz
The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is an 8-core, 16-thread unlocked AM5 desktop processor that offers excellent performance and efficiency for its price. Highlights include its strong power efficiency, overclocking potential, and ability to pair with high-end GPUs without bottlenecking.
I know it’s not some RTX 50-Series high-end rig, but it’s still a very capable all-around PC that can handle most tasks with ease. Still, I’m sure that it’s powerful enough to handle many demanding workloads, such as video editing, 3D rendering, animations, and perhaps even a light local LLM model.
Credit: Justin Duino / How-To Geek
However, the simple truth is that I’m just not interested in that kind of stuff at the moment. The only kind of project I’m vaguely interested in is running local LLMs, but I’m already pretty happy with the base version of ChatGPT.
Also, you can tell from the fact that you’re reading this that I’m a writer, and writers have little use for powerful hardware. In fact, I even worked off a laptop with a 7th-Gen i5 and 4GB of RAM at one point and was mostly fine with its performance, though it struggled with multiple tabs open.
Most of my work is browser-based, and while it’s nice to know that my 32GB of RAM and 8-core CPU could probably handle 50+ Chrome tabs with ease, I rarely have more than six or seven open. Even then, it’s usually just because I forget to close them after research.
I Rarely Play Demanding Games
The real reason I wanted a good PC was to play games. I waved 1080p goodbye, and even with frame generation and upscaling, I still need a relatively powerful graphics card to run games at 1440p and 4K.
However, in the ten months I’ve had this PC, I’ve only actually played through two demanding games—God of War Ragnarök and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. Even then, I mostly blazed through the main story to be done with it, hardly stopping to enjoy all the graphical fidelity that the latest games offer.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to play through some renowned titles from the past few years, like Horizon Forbidden West, Ghost of Tsushima, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Doom: The Dark Ages, Alan Wake 2, and Red Dead Redemption 2 for the second time, but I just don’t feel like doing it at the moment.
Credit: Ismar Hrnjicevic / How-To Geek
Heck, I never even finished Starfield, despite promising myself I’d sink my teeth into it once I got a better PC, because my old one didn’t meet my performance expectations. I’ve probably spent more hours playing Balatro on my phone than I did playing AAA titles this year.
The vast majority of my gaming time is actually spent in online games like Battlefield V and Marvel Rivals, as well as indie titles like Hades II. Considering that my old $400 PC was more than capable of handling these at 1080p, I haven’t really gained much in terms of graphical fidelity, aside from the step up from a 24-inch 1080p 144Hz monitor to a 27-inch 1440p 240Hz unit.
Why I’m Totally Fine With It
While I would’ve undoubtedly gotten more enjoyment out of this amazing PC if I’d had something of this calibre a decade ago, the real satisfaction comes from knowing that I now own a powerful machine that can run whatever I want.
I haven’t checked the system requirements for any games released this year, since I know my PC will probably handle them at a decent frame rate. I also built it with a future GPU upgrade in mind, so it should remain a capable system for many years to come.
Credit: Lucas Gouveia / How-To Geek | Dusan Petkovic / Shutterstock
Plus, it’s pretty nice to have a powerful PC to work on. While tasks like doing online research, typing in a word processor, and loading images aren’t going to push my system to its limits, it does everything instantaneously. This makes it feel fantastic to use, even compared to my previous PC or my fairly capable laptop.
Perhaps what matters most is that I spent my own money on the PC and built it exactly how I wanted. I loved every minute of researching the parts, finding the best deals, and carefully assembling this beautiful machine. Even though it’s been sitting on my desk for a while now, I still love looking at it and appreciating the work I put into it.
Credit: Ismar Hrnjicevic / How-To Geek
Even though I don’t have a great excuse to own a $1,400 PC and would be more than fine with a $500 one, I’m still glad I saved up and got it anyway. I can play any game I want, so if something ever catches my attention, I can just pick it up and play it right away.
And if I ever decide to pursue my old ambition of becoming a YouTuber and need to edit videos or start experimenting with random projects, I’ll already have a decent PC ready for it.
