Hello, I’m sure this has been asked many times, and I’ve been searching the forums for answers, but it’s 2023, and I’m not sure how outdated some of the information is, nor have I found anything totally relatable. I’m a little older, just getting out of 15 years working in the film industry and looking to learn game development. I’m looking for the best solution to dip my toes into the water, without spending too much. I’m willing to build a PC that will facilitate my learning, but I’m trying to avoid breaking my bank, with the thought, that maybe this isn’t for me in the long run.
I have a MacBook Pro that I got for video editing, but it just is not compatible for me to even try playing on here. I’ve been looking at PCs and the specs I need to build one, but honestly, I’m overwhelmed.
Any suggestions and advice on how I can start learning are GREATLY appreciated!
Obviousley epic has a minimum spec for unreal, but i wouldnt recommend it i would definatley aim as high as you could possibly afford .
A mid tier gaming machine would be a good start if budget is tight. But the better you can afford the better the experience.
If you going to buy or build then at least have
Amd ryzen 5 3600x/5600x/7600x or better (ryzen 7 or 9 series is better but the price goes up) , i forget the intel equivalents but you should be able to do a quick search for that on ole googley.
Memory minimum 16gb speed 3600 if you can but 3200 wont hurt too much. 32gb would be better or 64gb better again. Budgets is the answer to that
Graphics card would be at least an amd 5600x or geforce rtx 2060, but again thats mid entry level stuff. You may be able to get an rtx3070 or a 5700x or one of the newer variants but this is where money gets silly the higher you go.
A minimum 1tb ssd drive ( brand named be best intel/western digital/samsung evo) for boot drive
For storing your projects and assets i would go with a seperate drive , another ssd 1tb would be nice (when i say ssd m.2 would be better but sata ok for the 2nd drive)
You can certainly buy a mechanical drive as your project drive, but what i would say is this, have somewhere to backup your project and assets and do it regularly. So maybe buying a couple of mechanical sata 1tb or 2tb drives and either raid mirror or use a backup program or manually copy the data regularly across. U can also use svn or github for back up but thats beyond what u asking for, but i must stress, crashes happen data gets corrupted dont skip backups
As for the rest a decent monitor as big as you can get screen size , dont have to be 4k but its nicer right? Maybe at least 144hz , but mightbbe best to get a couple of HD 144HZ monitors for extra screen space, its invaluable a second moniotr if you can afford it
The rest is pretty straight forward case keyboard mouse etc. Just double check your cpu and gpu power requirements when it comes to the power supply. Make sure its a reputable brand at least 80 gold , and has enoigh wattage for your needs generally a 750w is more than sufficient but if you get a 4090 rtx card you gonna need more .
Thanks so much for all of the information and advice in bit size pieces! Definitely will take it into consideration and try to budget the best possible. I really appreciate it!! Super excited to get started!
You are welcome, u may find a prebuilt or a configurable machine so you dont have to build it yourself. But that said wheres the fun in that?
Oh the things I’m about to learn… 
