Greetings friendly psychopaths!
This is maybe not the best fit for the comm but it is entirely due to rimworld, as that’s my benchmark. Please let me know if this should be elsewhere; I just figured this would be my best bet for a good and relevant answer.
I need a new computer. The laptop I’ve been playing on hard crashes and needs reboot constantly when gaming (worst with rimworld, where I freeze every 0.5-3 hrs, but oxygen not included and dysmantle both suffer as well and that’s like half of what I want to play rn). And for whatever reason the other computer I have it installed on won’t boot it anymore (I don’t have the new expansion, so that’s not it). It just crashes right before fully loading. Probably the mod loadout but nearly all of these ran on the laptop, so idk what the deal is. Anyway that tower is my Plex server so it was never meant to run games. I got it cuz it was rly rly cheap.
So, I’m not made of money or skill.. quite the opposite. I need this as cheap as possible. If I had any confidence in myself I’d replace the failed components in my 2016 gaming tower but that probably just needs to be gutted at this point (mobo failure) and idk how to build into the corpse, tbh. I guess I can learn but idk if I have the mental energy for that rn. So that’s why I’m here, asking!
Regardless if I buy a tower, repair and upgrade the one I have, or build into the corpse, I’d like to know the minimum hardware requirements to run this specific game decently. Doesn’t even have to be that top-of-line sort of good! Just not constantly crashing my entire computer would be great! Currently about 3-4 years in, at best, I end up with so many entries in my spreadsheet, and so many tps (even with all the performance mods), that my pawns need rim rails just to play at a halfway acceptable speed, and 1x and 3x are exactly the same speed. That’s without even fucking with raids and stuff; just basic base building is too much. Granted they are opulent bases, and I have numerous recreation and hospitality mods, but that’s hardly the point. I’ve never run more than 150 mods at a time afaik and I understand some people manage twice that without this problem. I’m also fastidious with mod order and grouping, in the hopes it’ll improve performance.
So I’m looking for numbers. I intend to go with 32gb ram and hdd/ssd doesn’t really matter cuz I can replace that whenever. I have a dramatically overly large (for what it was running) psu, 800w I believe, so I have wiggle room even if I reuse that. I also have an old water cooling system I can throw in for funsies. I assume those don’t obsolete.
Is there a minimum CPU? What about a good mid-range GPU (I understand this to be overall the more costly portion)? Anything else I’m missing?
It’s not a bleeding edge game, and I don’t tend to play bleeding edge games, so I don’t need it to do more than this. If it can run rimworld well, it’ll do anything else I need equally well (I’ll just have to accept I’m not getting a vr for it)
Invest into an amd AM5 socket motherboard as a future-proof "core", reuse psu, verify that the pump in the water cooler still works(afaik water coolers are actually worse then classic air on durability).
AM5 mobo should give you longevity as AMD keeps same cpu sockets for a lot longer then intel, though mind that am5 is the latest socket and the second hand market might not be as favorable as for AM4.
If you have or go into am4 you will be better now but with no future upgrade path (but if you really don't have the money it will work too).
Get any second hand cpu and gpu.
I believe even gpus like the good old gtx 1080 would probably still work for rimworld and ONI as both are simulation games, though to err on the side, 2070 should be just fine, 3070 would be even better and give you performance to spare.
If you want something fresher the new intel arc gpus might work for you.
I don't remember any older but decent cpus, but if you do a bit of searching ("best cheap AMx cpu gaming”) you will get plenty of reddit posts to approximate from.
Edit: also, I would very much lean into getting better cpu then gpu - that is what makes or breaks the setup (and simulation games), gpus can be switched like socks anyway.
About RAM, if you can squeeze out even a single stick ddr5 it should work really well, but double stick ddr4 32g+ sum will work too.
Thanks that’s very helpful!
I looked up parts on pc part picker that were compatible with a gigabyte b650m which meets the am5 standard and was the first cheap one I found (old pc was also gigabyte mobo, and I was happy with it overall). For the things I know I need to replace (cpu, gpu, mobo, ram, and a new cooling system just in case) in the sort of cheapest I could find category, came to $720 with a 3060 and 2x16 ddr5. I can swing that. My max budget was $1,200 or so, but I’d have been upset with myself the whole time for it. That’s a sizeable chuck of my money. Still, I do this stuff instead of going out and spending, so it’s worth investing in.
That’s ofc looking at new parts. Used would probably be better priced, but as a rough estimate sort of thing that’s workable.
Unless you're running a small form factor case, I might recommend stepping up to a full sized ATX mobo if you can squeeze it into the budget. As long as your CPU is supported it's hard to go wrong, but I generally prefer the extra headroom of full sized boards; mostly for situations where I might need to toss in an extra drive or something, plus they're usually a bit less cramped which makes them easier to work on. (Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Gigabyte. I haven't sworn them off, but I find their software to be kinda clunky and annoying. Plus, I have two different machines with Gigabyte bios' that seem to think "wake on LAN" means wake up randomly in the middle of the night, just because).
In general, RimWorld is pretty CPU bound (especially if you're running a moderate or heavy mod list (modders don't always write the most optimized code, myself included)), so a 3060 is probably overkill (assuming you don't play anything else that might need it). From a RimWorld performance standpoint you'd get much more bang for your buck by cheaping out on the GPU and putting the money towards your CPU (1.6 brought in a bunch of multi threading and performance improvements, but generally speaking, a higher CPU clock speed means the game takes less time to do the computational work per tick. For the). Alternatively, if we're talking as cheaply as possible, you might be able to get away with no GPU and using the CPU embedded graphics, it won't be driving any AAA titles on 4k displays at crazy high refresh rates, but for RimWorld and the other games you've mentioned it should be plenty. Plus, the GPU is technically something you could come back and add later.
Also, it might be worth keeping an eye on the buildapcsales subreddit (there's technically a Lemmy comm, but I don't think it's official affiliated and it looks pretty dead), especially if you're thinking new hardware. If you live near a Microcenter, they're known for doing CPU + mobo deals that stack with other promos. I've also had good luck with Best Buy's price match (they won't match Microcenter's bundle, but if it's a single item on sale it's usually fair game).
If it helps, this is probably the list I'd be working off of, if I were buying today: pcpartpicker. It totals up to $645, which keeps it under your budget, but gives headroom to find a cheap GPU on the second hand market or a monitor or two if needed. The 7900X should easily handle the game (and pretty much anything else you throw at it), at $300+ it's not cheap, but (as long as it's not thermal throttling) I'll do more for your TPS than a similarly priced GPU (7600X could probably be subbed in as a more affordable option (saves you $150). The boost ceiling is slightly lower, but still gets you most of the same performance at a much lower power draw and price tag).
Funny enough, it's not all that dissimilar from my current build, build primary as a video transcoding rig (also a CPU bound endeavor) to feed my Plex server (and handle late game RimWorld, but I will admit to having been too busy lately to put that to the test).