Need Advice: Gaming PC On A $600 Budget

[chazus]

What is lacking here? What is just a bunch of fluff that makes this look cool? What is it that a PC has that this iMac doesn't have?

Price. Simply put. That and Mac doesn't support games nearly as well, all things the same.

That thing you linked is a $2500 system, which is just a $1000 system + $1300 monitor. Most people would be happy with a fantastic $300 monitor, or hell, $150. They're get the same performance out of the system, monitor aside.

[xero5141]

So my PC died over the weekend unexpectedly, and my computer repair tech's advice is to get a new machine entirely. The problem is, my budget is extremely limited; I can't really afford anything more than $600, and buying on credit is not an option.

I play a lot of WoW, some Civil 6, the Evil Within 2, StarCraft 2, Dishonoured 2. My old machine had 2 terabytes and 8 gigs of RAM and a Radeon 7700 graphics card and an i5 processor. I need something at least equivalent; I do not give a shit about maxing out the graphics, I usually play with the graphics on medium at most. I just need functionality on a budget. I also don't mind used/refurbished, as long as it works.

With all that in mind, can anyone make any recommendations on where I can find a machine that suits my needs and my budget?

the guy telling you to replace the machine entirely is an idiot unless you submerged it in water or something.

[Eurytos]

In general, it's about getting exactly what you want. I don't mean like a 1TB hard drive or a 2 TB hard drive. I mean *exactly* what you want. But, the major factor with that machine is space.

When you're dealing with an AIO (all-in-one) like an iMac you're battling heat dispersion and thermal throttling. With a standard 6, 8, 10 whatever liter PC case, you have tons of space for airflow, which allows for better cooler and overclocking. High clock speeds means better performance. You could also just water cool everything a overclock your gpu/cpu to ludicrous speeds.

That iMac also does not allow for SLI, again, this is a space issue. With a full sized mobo/case you could stick in another gpu or tons of harddrives or whatever you want. That iMac would without a doubt play WoW well, but not at its native resolution. But you're totally gimping yourself by buying into that hardware ecosystem if performance is your game. If you went with a PC instead and smacked a GTX 1080ti/OC'd i9 in there instead, you could go all out and get a 1440p ultrawide 144hz monitor to go with it and play WoW like you've never experienced before.

If you have a limitied budget, Macs make no sense for gaming. If you have infinite money, Macs make no sense for gaming. That's just how it is right now.

Cool, thanks. I’m genuinely curious about this as I am as much of an Apple fanboy as I am a blizzard fanboy. To my wallets detriment. But I’m under no illusions, I basically understood it to be about space and customization.

Thanks again. I’ll keep all this in mind when buying my next rig.

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Price. Simply put. That and Mac doesn't support games nearly as well, all things the same.

That thing you linked is a $2500 system, which is just a $1000 system + $1300 monitor. Most people would be happy with a fantastic $300 monitor, or hell, $150. They're get the same performance out of the system, monitor aside.

I see, thanks.