Right now I have a 2012 Macbook pro, and am getting kinda tired of it. I think I want to move over to PC but I have a few questions.

1. I'm not a big gamer, Id play vanilla minecraft, Skyrim, and ESO. I'v never played any actual games on my computer so I don't know how good of specs any of that would require.

2. Should I even build a PC? Money isn't a big concern for me right now, so I'm looking a lot more at performance and longevity.

3. How hard is it? I'm pretty computer illiterate and have trouble even adding mods to my Minecraft.

4. Are there certain things I need to look out for? Compatibility issues between parts, brands that should be avoided, dumb mistakes while building?

5. Any good websites to get started? Or a good prebuilt brand?  

Talking from a friend and stories ive heard, u could get a great Alienware laptop that would be able to run all of that and bigger games super well if u wanna try out ark or something down the line. Its like a portable pc and it lasts ages according to my friend whos been using it.

In Australia theyre 2000 but imo theyre worth it and it means you can properly play anything on the go.  

What's your budget?  

I built a PC a few years ago, and while it did improve my gaming experience, it really didn't matter when I started to play video games less. Ended up selling it and buying a MacBook Pro. If you're not interested in gaming a lot, I wouldn't make the investment.

To answer your third question, it really isn't too hard to build a PC once you have the parts.  

Posted by MrSimons

Right now I have a 2012 Macbook pro, and am getting kinda tired of it. I think I want to move over to PC but I have a few questions.

1. I'm not a big gamer, Id play vanilla minecraft, Skyrim, and ESO. I'v never played any actual games on my computer so I don't know how good of specs any of that would require.

2. Should I even build a PC? Money isn't a big concern for me right now, so I'm looking a lot more at performance and longevity.

3. How hard is it? I'm pretty computer illiterate and have trouble even adding mods to my Minecraft.

4. Are there certain things I need to look out for? Compatibility issues between parts, brands that should be avoided, dumb mistakes while building?

5. Any good websites to get started? Or a good prebuilt brand?

1. You can always get a previous generation of hardware like the GTX 900 series that will run all those games really well. The 960 It just depends on whether or not you think you'll be getting into the high end games. GTX 960 would run GTA:V, Overwatch and BF1 well so it definitely would run Skyrim, ESO and Minecraft.

2. When it comes to money, I'd say in the long run it's just better in general to build your own PC if you can. Most of the PCs that are prebuilt these days allocate money where it really isn't required such as the case or ram. I got a prebuilt for $1,500 a few years back when I was new to PC hardware and mine didn't even come with an SSD.. In short, it's better off picking the parts so you get the most out of your PC.

3. PCs are different to Macs, but it won't take long for you to get use to it all. Also, you're using Forge for Minecraft mods right? Once you set that up it's as simple as dragging the mods into the mod folder

4. When it comes to parts, there's a few things to keep in mind. Avoid i3 at all costs (get at least an i5) for your CPU, make sure your motherboard supports the newer DDR4 rather than DDR3 and when it comes to brands I suppose it's all preference.

5. PC Partpicker is a really good website to check which parts and gives you a general idea of what the price will be. You can go to the recommended websites to buy the items but you can also buy them from a PC store. I highly recommend you building your own PC, but if you don't feel confident enough or have no one to help you build it you can always get a prebuilt but you'll have to look around to make sure you're not getting ripped off.

You're always welcome to set out what you want to buy and I'm sure people on the forum, including myself, will help you out! I've seen a few other threads relating to people buying new PCs and the community here is always willing to give a helping hand to make sure you're getting the best of the best!  

y not man build smth nice. need ur budget tho  

Posted by Crono

y not man build smth nice. need ur budget tho

50 SEK is budget  

Posted by Guri

50 SEK is budget

that's more sex than I've ever had in my life.

I'd like to build a pc too but this stuff is too intimidating do I overclock?? Wat is a gpu chipset? How many rams do I need????? What can a $1500 build do that an $800 dollar one can't??????  

When my first gaming PC was built - I just went to my local PC shop. I just provided them with the specs I wanted and they did everything from there.

But anyway, I think that it's best if you built it yourself. You might have to learn a few things a long the way, but it would be worth it since you'll have good knowledge of what to do in the future if something were to happen.

If you're really considering building/want more in depth answers, I suggest checking out Tomshardware.

I'm glad you mentioned the games you play because those are the games I play. My PC is not high end:
-i54690k
-Gtx 970
(obviously these aren't the only parts in the case)

Cost was around 700 pounds during the time I built it. For those games you mentioned: in vanilla minecraft FPS is 100+; Skyrim maintains 60 fps with mods on ultra graphics; ESO no lag at all at max graphics. These games are on my SSD.

I chose not to build it myself because i'm lazy. But you might not be, so it's up to you.

Add me on steam if you want. xenice.pvp  

Are you just doing t for those specific games, or are you wishing to get into production of any sort?  

Let fp4/crono know what ur budget is and they'll do the rest  

Posted by fp4

What's your budget?

$3000 at the most, I don't have a good idea of the price range though when it comes to PCs. I don't expect to ever need a really powerful machine so if I could get by fine spending less but sacrifice a bit of performance I'd rather go that way.

Posted by Snow7

1. You can always get a previous generation of hardware like the GTX 900 series that will run all those games really well. The 960 It just depends on whether or not you think you'll be getting into the high end games. GTX 960 would run GTA:V, Overwatch and BF1 well so it definitely would run Skyrim, ESO and Minecraft.

2. When it comes to money, I'd say in the long run it's just better in general to build your own PC if you can. Most of the PCs that are prebuilt these days allocate money where it really isn't required such as the case or ram. I got a prebuilt for $1,500 a few years back when I was new to PC hardware and mine didn't even come with an SSD.. In short, it's better off picking the parts so you get the most out of your PC.

3. PCs are different to Macs, but it won't take long for you to get use to it all. Also, you're using Forge for Minecraft mods right? Once you set that up it's as simple as dragging the mods into the mod folder

4. When it comes to parts, there's a few things to keep in mind. Avoid i3 at all costs (get at least an i5) for your CPU, make sure your motherboard supports the newer DDR4 rather than DDR3 and when it comes to brands I suppose it's all preference.

5. PC Partpicker is a really good website to check which parts and gives you a general idea of what the price will be. You can go to the recommended websites to buy the items but you can also buy them from a PC store. I highly recommend you building your own PC, but if you don't feel confident enough or have no one to help you build it you can always get a prebuilt but you'll have to look around to make sure you're not getting ripped off.

You're always welcome to set out what you want to buy and I'm sure people on the forum, including myself, will help you out! I've seen a few other threads relating to people buying new PCs and the community here is always willing to give a helping hand to make sure you're getting the best of the best!

Thanks . That site you linked looks awesome, don't understand a lot of it but it helps.

Posted by Dos

Are you just doing t for those specific games, or are you wishing to get into production of any sort?

I might try out some other games, not being limited by being on a Mac. Production?  

Posted by MrSimons

Thanks . That site you linked looks awesome, don't understand a lot of it but it helps.

When I used that site I used it mainly as a reference, at first I didn't really understand all the bits and pieces you needed so I used other sites that were selling PC parts that showed pictures of the parts then just used them on PCPartPicker. Makes life a bit more easier

Posted by MrSimons

I might try out some other games, not being limited by being on a Mac. Production?

I think the production part was asking whether you'd be using Photoshop or editing videos  

Posted by MrSimons

$3000 at the most

let em rip fp4  

You don't need to spend $3k but $1k will get you a really nice machine. The only weird part about my suggested build below is that I went with a 1 TB SSD instead of a combination (smaller SSD and HDD).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($204.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($73.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX300 1.1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($269.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 480 4GB RS Video Card ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($45.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($19.49 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($102.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1007.38
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-25 10:22 EST-0500

You'll want to spend another $500 on a monitor or two and a mouse and keyboard.

I would suggest watch this guy's videos on building: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xke5Kn51vqI