I’m on a $1,500 budget - Help me purchase my first gaming PC

[Mummelmann]

firebush03 said:

JEMC said:

Since you have a budget in mind, the biggest questions that will decides the parts of your build are:1) Will you use the PC for something else other than gaming? 2) What is the resolution/refresh rate of your monitor? Or is that also part of your build?

In any case, since you want a computer that can be used for a long time with the option to be upgraded, your only course of action right now is going with an AMD AM5 motherboard and CPU.

I’d be open to purchasing a monitor which fits whatever PC I purchase. Though it would be nice to run games on my TV, if that’s something you can do with a PC? (Link to TV.)

I would recommend getting a monitor with lower resolution. Running 4K above, or even at, 60 fps is tough. If you lower the resolution further, with that panel size and aspect ratio, the image will look pretty bad. On my 42" monitor, even 1080p video looks pretty bad most of the time due to pixel density and a fairly large panel (I also sit quite close). Games can look okay-ish in 1440p, but it's far from optimal. I'd recommend 1440p, or perhaps a 3440x1440 - even the latter option is much more forgiving on hardware specs. Even with a good 3440x1440 panel and a rig that can run games well on it, you'll be miles off the cost of a fully 4K-capable PC (even when the TV is already paid and owned). 

Building a proper 4K-capable gaming PC for 1500$ is a tough ask. 

I find myself having trouble running a lot of newer games in 4K myself, in spite of some pretty juicy specs (as in; a lot more than 1500$ of goods).