Need Recommendations for a PC That Can Handle Game Development, Testing, and Gaming

Gaming
1

Hi everyone,

I’m getting ready to build a new desktop and would love some advice from people who use the same PC for both development and gaming.

Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time working on a game-related website, and my current computer is having trouble keeping up. My typical workflow includes VS Code, Docker or a local server, several Chrome and Firefox tabs for testing, Figma, image editing tools, and sometimes a virtual machine. I also enjoy playing games after work, so I’d like a system that performs well in both situations.

I’m trying to build something that stays fast for the next few years, but I don’t want to overspend on hardware that won’t make a noticeable difference.

A few things I’m unsure about:

  • Would you put more of the budget into the processor or the graphics card?
  • Is 32 GB of RAM enough for development and multitasking, or is it worth going straight to 64 GB?
  • For everyday development work, is there any real benefit to choosing a PCIe Gen 5 SSD over a quality Gen 4 drive?
  • What CPU cooler would you recommend for a machine that’s often running for long hours?

If you’ve built a PC for a similar mix of web development, testing, and gaming, I’d really appreciate hearing your specs and whether you’d change anything if you were building again.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

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@user12534 Hello and welcome to the Newegg Gamer Community!

For the use cases you are talking about, it sounds like you’re going to be taxing your processor more heavily than anything else - it sounds like more of your budget should go to processor over graphics card. Choose a midrange graphics card that will run the games you want - how high-end you need to go on GPU will depend on the games you want to play (obviously Silksong and Minecraft have a different set of requirements than Cyberpunk and Wukong.)

The moment you mention virtual machines, 64GB is the immediate recommendation (or more, ideally, which would simply open up more possibilities for you.) There is zero benefit to a Gen5 SSD outside of bandwidth-constrained scenarios like real-time scrubbing through video content while editing.

And for a CPU cooler, go liquid - especially if you’re going to be taxing your processor heavily for hours on end, keeping it cool will undoubtedly prolong its lifespan. Even if your liquid cooler failed after 5 years, you’d probably rather replace a $100-150 liquid cooler than your $500+ CPU that burned itself to a crisp over time.

Our Newegg store, ArsenalPC, has a broad selection of systems fitting this description. Please feel free to browse and let me know if you have any further questions!

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