Laptop suitability & megabase compatible rig configuration

[eradicator]

@OP: Here's some questions:
1) Did you play the demo yet to verify that you like factorio?
1b) Do you want the option to build a megafactory (also known as: do you plan to play more or less than 500~1000 hours :p?)
2) Can you (or a friend) assemble a desktop system or do you need a pre-built one?
3) How expensive is electricity where you live?

Why i ask about electricity? Because where i live it's pretty expensive (~23eurocent/kwh) and a desktop consuming several hundret watts over extended periods of time can be a significant hidden cost factor. Ofc this depends heavily on how much you will play games on the system (modern systems consume less power when not being used).

Would it be cheaper and better to go for a desktop instead of a laptop? I already have an unused Asus monitor which is quite good. Regarding other games, I presume these systems would be able to handle cross platform games that have been released on consoles and PC eg Assassins Creed, as well as PC only games like Factorio, Civilisation VI, etc?

If i put the same filters i used above for laptops into the search for desktops i get pretty similar results, which fits my theory that desktops are only cheaper if you assemble them yourself. If you assemble the system yourself you can get more performance for the same budget, though i'm not sure if you can get a much lower entry budget. I.e. you might still have to spend 700+ but get a faster system than you'd get with a 700 laptop. As a rule of thumb any graphics-card that is released around the same time as a game (up to a year before-ish?) will be able to run the game at a decent framerate/quality. If you buy a medium-budget card it'll probably run games for the next 5 years, even if you have to reduce some details on the newest games the older the card gets. For most first person games like assasins creed the graphics card is also the main limiting factor, and on a desktop it can be easily upgrade if after a few years you want more power. The CPU is more difficult to upgrade, as often old mainboards won't support new CPUs, so if you're on a budget but plan to use the system for a long time you should still aim for a good CPU, because it will most likely be the one thing you don't upgrade (HDD/SDD/RAM/GPU are all trivial to upgrade).

@Ultra-budget:
Hm, they say the processor is slower than an i3 (and comparing pure GHZ numbers is not really useful for comparing performance), which means it is surely still fine for "normal" games, but factorio has an unusually high CPU demand, so that thing might not be able to run mega-factories (small/medium/large ones will be fine).
[Disclaimer: I don't know much about AMD so i have to go by what that page says.]

Also personally i find 8GB of ram in this day and age to be pretty edgy. Sure, if you only play games on the thing, and close your browser before you start a demanding game (i.e. the newest Assasins Creed) then it'll be enough. But personally i wouldn't want to go below 16G because i don't like closing all the various apps i have in background all the time, and modern Windowses also utilize "empty" RAM to cache disk access, so it's not wasted while not gaming. But ofc this can be upgraded later.
[Disclaimer: My system has 32G and i use many RAM intensive programs so i have a heavily biased opinion on this. It would be useful to hear from somebody who actually uses an 8G system as their main system.]

It does nicely highlight one great benefit of desktops though: You can buy the basic system without a dedicated GPU now (for factorio built-in gpu should be enough), and if you later decide you do want faster graphics you can just add one (if you want to play the newest Assasins Creed or something).

[je11693]

@OP: Here's some questions:
1) Did you play the demo yet to verify that you like factorio?
1b) Do you want the option to build a megafactory (also known as: do you plan to play more or less than 500~1000 hours :p?)
2) Can you (or a friend) assemble a desktop system or do you need a pre-built one?
3) How expensive is electricity where you live?

Why i ask about electricity? Because where i live it's pretty expensive (~23eurocent/kwh) and a desktop consuming several hundret watts over extended periods of time can be a significant hidden cost factor. Ofc this depends heavily on how much you will play games on the system (modern systems consume less power when not being used).

Would it be cheaper and better to go for a desktop instead of a laptop? I already have an unused Asus monitor which is quite good. Regarding other games, I presume these systems would be able to handle cross platform games that have been released on consoles and PC eg Assassins Creed, as well as PC only games like Factorio, Civilisation VI, etc?

If i put the same filters i used above for laptops into the search for desktops i get pretty similar results, which fits my theory that desktops are only cheaper if you assemble them yourself. If you assemble the system yourself you can get more performance for the same budget, though i'm not sure if you can get a much lower entry budget. I.e. you might still have to spend 700+ but get a faster system than you'd get with a 700 laptop. As a rule of thumb any graphics-card that is released around the same time as a game (up to a year before-ish?) will be able to run the game at a decent framerate/quality. If you buy a medium-budget card it'll probably run games for the next 5 years, even if you have to reduce some details on the newest games the older the card gets. For most first person games like assasins creed the graphics card is also the main limiting factor, and on a desktop it can be easily upgrade if after a few years you want more power. The CPU is more difficult to upgrade, as often old mainboards won't support new CPUs, so if you're on a budget but plan to use the system for a long time you should still aim for a good CPU, because it will most likely be the one thing you don't upgrade (HDD/SDD/RAM/GPU are all trivial to upgrade).

@Ultra-budget:
Hm, they say the processor is slower than an i3 (and comparing pure GHZ numbers is not really useful for comparing performance), which means it is surely still fine for "normal" games, but factorio has an unusually high CPU demand, so that thing might not be able to run mega-factories (small/medium/large ones will be fine).
[Disclaimer: I don't know much about AMD so i have to go by what that page says.]

Also personally i find 8GB of ram in this day and age to be pretty edgy. Sure, if you only play games on the thing, and close your browser before you start a demanding game (i.e. the newest Assasins Creed) then it'll be enough. But personally i wouldn't want to go below 16G because i don't like closing all the various apps i have in background all the time, and modern Windowses also utilize "empty" RAM to cache disk access, so it's not wasted while not gaming. But ofc this can be upgraded later.
[Disclaimer: My system has 32G and i use many RAM intensive programs so i have a heavily biased opinion on this. It would be useful to hear from somebody who actually uses an 8G system as their main system.]

It does nicely highlight one great benefit of desktops though: You can buy the basic system without a dedicated GPU now (for factorio built-in gpu should be enough), and if you later decide you do want faster graphics you can just add one (if you want to play the newest Assasins Creed or something).

I did download the demo and played for a few hours and only got a two or three of the levels completed. I found it quite complex to know what to do, but I can see why it is so addicitve - by the end I was beginning to understand how to integrate furnaces with burners and moving belts/arms. Overall I think it is a game that would be very engrossing, although I would still like to have the option to play other games as well (I assumed games like Assassin's Creed/Hitman/any game also available on console would have lower requirements than a PC-only game, but sounds like that is not the case..)

I think having the option to build a mega-factory is appealing, although it's very dependent on how much extra that would add to the cost. In an ideal world I would like the option given how engrossing the game appears to be.

I don't know how to assemble a desktop, although I'm definitely willing to do it and use a step-by-step tutorial video - I've seen a few on Youtube and other sites which seems to walk you through everything. Provided the video was suitable, I would do it (I also think it'd be interesting to learn and accomplish a build myself).

What do you consider a medium budget card? If I build it myself I'll need to buy one (I guess?) so would be interesting to know. I would like whatever I get to last multiple years, ideally without having to continually update/upgrade it.

If it helps, the games I'm interested in playing (currently) are Factorio, Civilisation VI, Assassin's Creed, Hitman, Command and Conquer, any strategy game.

[eradicator]

(I assumed games like Assassin's Creed/Hitman/any game also available on console would have lower requirements than a PC-only game, but sounds like that is not the case..)

Console games, regardless of if they're also available for other platforms, are heavily optimized for the console they run on. This is possible because all consoles of one type (i.e. Playstation 4) have exactly the same hardware. Whereas the PC version has to run on thousands of different hardware combinations. Also consoles are built with strong graphics and less emphasis on CPU power, because that is what most triple AAA titles want (because nice graphics sell more games...). So by including factorio (cpu) and assasins creed (gpu) in your list of "want to play games" you're diverging from the "average" games requirements, and suddenly need to cover both high cpu demand AND high gpu demand situations.

TL;DR:
Console = Constant graphics power, games optimized for exact hardware
PC = Constant battle of Triple-AAA games to look better than the last one, along with constantly new graphics cards that are faster than before, further firing the battle of who-looks-best games.

Assembling a PC isn't really difficult if you are careful, have pacience and a steady hand. It's definetly useful knowledge, though i wouldn't rely on "one video". I built my first one from a lengthy step-by-step guide in a PC magazine (yea, like, when printed magazines were still a thing :P).

I can't really recommend you an exact card. The limits between "low/mid/high range" aren't really fixed, it's more of a cost thing. Below 100€ is low-ish, up to 500€-ish is apparently (i just googled) still "mid" range, and high-end is after that. Nvidia is just now realeasing it's newest generations of cards. Which is nice because new generations usually result in price drops for the last generation. So if you wait another 1-2 month you'll probably get a much better deal than right now. For exact card recommendations you better go to reddit or something, i'm not up-to-date enough (it all changes too fast). Read lots of benchmarking articles, and ultimately decide yourself. Spending days over the decision of which card might be the best one for you is also part of (the fun of) building your own system ;p. As assasins creed is rather popular you can probably find benchmark articles that directly measure performance of cards in it.

As you can play factorio with an integrated card just fine you're probably best off if you build a system without graphics card first, and then you can test yourself which games work fast enough for you with that, and which ones don't. Especially strategy games from a few years back will probably run just fine if you tune down the graphic settings, and it gives you time to think about a dedicated gpu :).

Also if you're going to get advice on reddit you should name exactly which games you want to play, not just the name of the series. The first Assasins creed is over 10 years old after all ;). And don't forget to link the thead here.

[je11693]

(I assumed games like Assassin's Creed/Hitman/any game also available on console would have lower requirements than a PC-only game, but sounds like that is not the case..)

Console games, regardless of if they're also available for other platforms, are heavily optimized for the console they run on. This is possible because all consoles of one type (i.e. Playstation 4) have exactly the same hardware. Whereas the PC version has to run on thousands of different hardware combinations. Also consoles are built with strong graphics and less emphasis on CPU power, because that is what most triple AAA titles want (because nice graphics sell more games...). So by including factorio (cpu) and assasins creed (gpu) in your list of "want to play games" you're diverging from the "average" games requirements, and suddenly need to cover both high cpu demand AND high gpu demand situations.

TL;DR:
Console = Constant graphics power, games optimized for exact hardware
PC = Constant battle of Triple-AAA games to look better than the last one, along with constantly new graphics cards that are faster than before, further firing the battle of who-looks-best games.

Assembling a PC isn't really difficult if you are careful, have pacience and a steady hand. It's definetly useful knowledge, though i wouldn't rely on "one video". I built my first one from a lengthy step-by-step guide in a PC magazine (yea, like, when printed magazines were still a thing ).

I can't really recommend you an exact card. The limits between "low/mid/high range" aren't really fixed, it's more of a cost thing. Below 100€ is low-ish, up to 500€-ish is apparently (i just googled) still "mid" range, and high-end is after that. Nvidia is just now realeasing it's newest generations of cards. Which is nice because new generations usually result in price drops for the last generation. So if you wait another 1-2 month you'll probably get a much better deal than right now. For exact card recommendations you better go to reddit or something, i'm not up-to-date enough (it all changes too fast). Read lots of benchmarking articles, and ultimately decide yourself. Spending days over the decision of which card might be the best one for you is also part of (the fun of) building your own system ;p. As assasins creed is rather popular you can probably find benchmark articles that directly measure performance of cards in it.

As you can play factorio with an integrated card just fine you're probably best off if you build a system without graphics card first, and then you can test yourself which games work fast enough for you with that, and which ones don't. Especially strategy games from a few years back will probably run just fine if you tune down the graphic settings, and it gives you time to think about a dedicated gpu .

Also if you're going to get advice on reddit you should name exactly which games you want to play, not just the name of the series. The first Assasins creed is over 10 years old after all . And don't forget to link the thead here.

I thought a graphics card would be a requirement to be able to play Civ/Assassin's Creed etc. (Why does it have to be so complicated!) Thank you for all your advice btw, really appreciated.

[Jap2.0]

(I assumed games like Assassin's Creed/Hitman/any game also available on console would have lower requirements than a PC-only game, but sounds like that is not the case..)

Console games, regardless of if they're also available for other platforms, are heavily optimized for the console they run on. This is possible because all consoles of one type (i.e. Playstation 4) have exactly the same hardware. Whereas the PC version has to run on thousands of different hardware combinations. Also consoles are built with strong graphics and less emphasis on CPU power, because that is what most triple AAA titles want (because nice graphics sell more games...). So by including factorio (cpu) and assasins creed (gpu) in your list of "want to play games" you're diverging from the "average" games requirements, and suddenly need to cover both high cpu demand AND high gpu demand situations.

TL;DR:
Console = Constant graphics power, games optimized for exact hardware
PC = Constant battle of Triple-AAA games to look better than the last one, along with constantly new graphics cards that are faster than before, further firing the battle of who-looks-best games.

Assembling a PC isn't really difficult if you are careful, have pacience and a steady hand. It's definetly useful knowledge, though i wouldn't rely on "one video". I built my first one from a lengthy step-by-step guide in a PC magazine (yea, like, when printed magazines were still a thing ).

I can't really recommend you an exact card. The limits between "low/mid/high range" aren't really fixed, it's more of a cost thing. Below 100€ is low-ish, up to 500€-ish is apparently (i just googled) still "mid" range, and high-end is after that. Nvidia is just now realeasing it's newest generations of cards. Which is nice because new generations usually result in price drops for the last generation. So if you wait another 1-2 month you'll probably get a much better deal than right now. For exact card recommendations you better go to reddit or something, i'm not up-to-date enough (it all changes too fast). Read lots of benchmarking articles, and ultimately decide yourself. Spending days over the decision of which card might be the best one for you is also part of (the fun of) building your own system ;p. As assasins creed is rather popular you can probably find benchmark articles that directly measure performance of cards in it.

As you can play factorio with an integrated card just fine you're probably best off if you build a system without graphics card first, and then you can test yourself which games work fast enough for you with that, and which ones don't. Especially strategy games from a few years back will probably run just fine if you tune down the graphic settings, and it gives you time to think about a dedicated gpu .

Also if you're going to get advice on reddit you should name exactly which games you want to play, not just the name of the series. The first Assasins creed is over 10 years old after all . And don't forget to link the thead here.

I thought a graphics card would be a requirement to be able to play Civ/Assassin's Creed etc. (Why does it have to be so complicated!) Thank you for all your advice btw, really appreciated.

Most large games, especially those from the last few years, will not run at all well on integrated graphics, so you will probably want a dedicated graphics card if you want to play other games. Factorio should run on integrated graphics, but only at a low quality.

[eradicator]

[...]

I thought a graphics card would be a requirement to be able to play Civ/Assassin's Creed etc. (Why does it have to be so complicated!) Thank you for all your advice btw, really appreciated.

Most large games, especially those from the last few years, will not run at all well on integrated graphics, so you will probably want a dedicated graphics card if you want to play other games. Factorio should run on integrated graphics, but only at a low quality.

For recent AAA-games a dedicated card is required, yes. But for not-so-recent games, maybe from like 4-5 years ago, a current gen integrated card might still work if you reduce the graphics settings to a minimum. (And there are probably a lot of non AAA-games (i.e. indie games like factorio :p) that will run fine too, and are available for cheap on steam sales. Might as well explore games you haven't heared about when you're getting a PC anyway :P.)

Though my point was rather - as you're only naming Series not individual titles - that you can play factorio and some older strategy games with the integrated GPU while pondering over which dedicated one to buy. As all the series you mention have been going on for decades i don't know if you want to only play the newest games in each series or are interested in the older ones too. For example C&C hasn't even had a release in 9(!) years, so you can probably play the whole series just fine one an integrated card. And most of the best strategy games (TA, SupCom, Anno Series, Age of Empires series, [endless list]...) are decades old, as the genre as a whole has had a rapid decline in popularity since the early 2000nds.

Note that this is only suppoesd to be a delay strategy to gain you more time to think about the GPU. I wasn't suggesting that you ultimately don't buy a GPU at all. But i know that building a PC from scratch for the first time is a huge endeavor, so i suggested a possibility to "split the task in two". Ofc you might prefer not splitting the task to "get it over with", that depends entirely on you ;).

[je11693]

[...]

I thought a graphics card would be a requirement to be able to play Civ/Assassin's Creed etc. (Why does it have to be so complicated!) Thank you for all your advice btw, really appreciated.

Most large games, especially those from the last few years, will not run at all well on integrated graphics, so you will probably want a dedicated graphics card if you want to play other games. Factorio should run on integrated graphics, but only at a low quality.

For recent AAA-games a dedicated card is required, yes. But for not-so-recent games, maybe from like 4-5 years ago, a current gen integrated card might still work if you reduce the graphics settings to a minimum. (And there are probably a lot of non AAA-games (i.e. indie games like factorio :p) that will run fine too, and are available for cheap on steam sales. Might as well explore games you haven't heared about when you're getting a PC anyway .)

Though my point was rather - as you're only naming Series not individual titles - that you can play factorio and some older strategy games with the integrated GPU while pondering over which dedicated one to buy. As all the series you mention have been going on for decades i don't know if you want to only play the newest games in each series or are interested in the older ones too. For example C&C hasn't even had a release in 9(!) years, so you can probably play the whole series just fine one an integrated card. And most of the best strategy games (TA, SupCom, Anno Series, Age of Empires series, [endless list]...) are decades old, as the genre as a whole has had a rapid decline in popularity since the early 2000nds.

Note that this is only suppoesd to be a delay strategy to gain you more time to think about the GPU. I wasn't suggesting that you ultimately don't buy a GPU at all. But i know that building a PC from scratch for the first time is a huge endeavor, so i suggested a possibility to "split the task in two". Ofc you might prefer not splitting the task to "get it over with", that depends entirely on you .

For games like AC/Hitman, I would probably want to play all of the titles in the series including the most recent. For a game like Civilization, I would probably want to start with the most recent title (Civ VI).

[eradicator]

Well, you can't play them all at once :). So as long as you play the older ones first it's still a possible strategy. But as said, it's just a possibility. There's no benefits or drawbacks for buying the GPU together with everything else.

You can also easily google requirements for games. I just googled "civilization 6 requirements" which tells me that at least a "Nvidia 450" is recommended. Wikipedia says that's a 2010 card, which is pretty suprising given that the game is from 2016 :D. Shows you just how long these cards last nowadays.

[je11693]

Hi guys, a few weeks ago I posted a thread on laptop suitability. I think I am going to build my own PC instead of getting a laptop. What are the equipment requirements in order to be able to build a mega base.

[Koub]

Depends the size of the megabase . If you want to exceed the very limitations of Factorio itself, you'd better be rich

Current priority for Factorio is :
- Fastest few cores CPU you can find
- The quickest ram you can find
- 4+ GB GPU for HD textures, no need to take the very best available.

However, this is for current version. Things may change for coming version(s).

[eradicator]

- Fastest few cores CPU you can find

The keyword is "single thread performance". There's no drawback to having more cores. Modern multicores are happy to disable a few of the cores to boost the others.

- The quickest ram you can find

Reddit thread. I think the consensus is "high ram bandwidth", but no proper data about ram latency is available?

@Koub: Should this not be better merged into the old thread to be better searchable? (possibly rename)

@je11693: Nice you decided you like the game enough to build a system for it :). Same things from the old thread still stand: Precise details about what you want (i.e. 500SPM megafactory vs 5000SPM megafactory), budget, available parts etcpp.

[je11693]

- Fastest few cores CPU you can find

The keyword is "single thread performance". There's no drawback to having more cores. Modern multicores are happy to disable a few of the cores to boost the others.

- The quickest ram you can find

Reddit thread. I think the consensus is "high ram bandwidth", but no proper data about ram latency is available?

@Koub: Should this not be better merged into the old thread to be better searchable? (possibly rename)

@je11693: Nice you decided you like the game enough to build a system for it . Same things from the old thread still stand: Precise details about what you want (i.e. 500SPM megafactory vs 5000SPM megafactory), budget, available parts etcpp.

It's an intriguing game!

What do you mean by SPM?

[eradicator]

What do you mean by SPM?

"Science per Minute" is the usual measurement for the size of megafactories. I.e. the capacity of the factory to continuously produce x of each color of science pack (which for space science requires one rocket per 2000 packs). RPM (rockets per minute) is also sometimes used.
You can search YT for various sizes. I haven't yet seen anyone who runs more than 2000SPM at 60UPS (Updates per second) - i.e. the normal game speed. Also factorioes beyond 2KSPM are usually optimized for UPS on a design-level. If you build rather chaotic it might slow down way before that.

[je11693]

<r><QUOTE author="eradicator" post_id="381523" time="1538769029" user_id="24632"><s>

</s>
<QUOTE author="je11693" post_id="381520" time="1538768501" user_id="58151"><s>

</s>
What do you mean by SPM?
<e>

</e></QUOTE>

"Science per Minute" is the usual measurement for the size of megafactories. I.e. the capacity of the factory to continuously produce x of each color of science pack (which for space science requires one rocket per 2000 packs). RPM (rockets per minute) is also sometimes used.<br/>
You can search YT for various sizes. I haven't yet seen anyone who runs more than 2000SPM at 60UPS (Updates per second) - i.e. the normal game speed. Also factorioes beyond 2KSPM are usually optimized for UPS on a design-level. If you build rather chaotic it might slow down way before that.
<e>

</e></QUOTE>

Ok, very useful info, thank you.<br/>
<br/>
In terms of hardware, what about either of these:<br/>
<br/>
1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD48G3000= £65.99<br/>
1 x Gigabyte B450M-DS3H AMD B450 (Socket AM4) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard= £69.95<br/>
1 x Kolink Aviator M Micro-ATX Gaming Case - Black= £32.99<br/>
1 x TeamGroup 120GB L5 Lite SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 3D NAND Solid State Drive= £22.99<br/>
1 x **B Grade** Seagate BarraCuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM (ST1000DM010)= £29.99<br/>
1 x AMD Ryzen 3 Quad Core 1200 3.40GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £70.99<br/>
1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 570 Red Dragon 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £188.99<br/>
1 x Cougar VTX 450W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply - Black= £41.99

Or

1 x Bitfenix Formula Series 450W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply= £59.99
1 x Bitfenix Nova Midi Tower Case - Black= £26.99
1 x BitFenix Spectre PWM 120mm Fan - Black= £5.99
1 x AMD Bundle - AMD Ryzen 5 2600, Gigabyte X370-Gaming 3, Team Group RAM *FREE 240GB SSD* *ONLINE ONLY* = £437.96
Memory Capacity:Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD416G30
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 1050Ti StormX 4096MB PCI-Express GDDR5 Graphics Card= £149.99

The RAM in the bundle is only 8GB. This is the link: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/amd-bund ... .html#t=a1

[Jap2.0]

- Fastest few cores CPU you can find

The keyword is "single thread performance". There's no drawback to having more cores. Modern multicores are happy to disable a few of the cores to boost the others.

- The quickest ram you can find

Reddit thread. I think the consensus is "high ram bandwidth", but no proper data about ram latency is available?

@Koub: Should this not be better merged into the old thread to be better searchable? (possibly rename)

@je11693: Nice you decided you like the game enough to build a system for it . Same things from the old thread still stand: Precise details about what you want (i.e. 500SPM megafactory vs 5000SPM megafactory), budget, available parts etcpp.

I'm pretty sure latency was at least as important, if not more so (c.f. 1 2 3 4). Also, Koub recommended a 4 GB GPU, which would be good, especially if you're planning on using a lot of mods, but if you're focusing on UPS 3 GB is the recommended for high resolution sprites and I've even gotten it to work with 2 GB.

[Koub]

Except if you're an AMD enthusiast, Intel is currently superior for games. I'd rather have an i5-8400 (fewer cores, better single thread performance) than a Ryzen 5 2600, or even a Ryzen 7 2700.
However, it depends on the other uses you have for your future computer. The only heavy (CPU-wise) thing I do with mine is playing. Therefore, there is no interest in having the zillion core last gen AMD architecture.
Moreover, I don't know if this has been addressed with firmware updates, but Ryzen had a serious flaw when it came out, a poor cache latency if my memory serves me right. There's a topic somewhere in Technical help with more details if you whish.
[Edit] : viewtopic.php?f=5&t=42165

If you use your computer for other things than playing (Video encoding, 3D modelling, photoshopping, ...), then the AMD would indeed probably be a wisest choice.

And I agree that merging both topics would be better.
[Koub] Merging both topics + renaming the resulting topic.

[je11693]

- Fastest few cores CPU you can find

The keyword is "single thread performance". There's no drawback to having more cores. Modern multicores are happy to disable a few of the cores to boost the others.

- The quickest ram you can find

Reddit thread. I think the consensus is "high ram bandwidth", but no proper data about ram latency is available?

@Koub: Should this not be better merged into the old thread to be better searchable? (possibly rename)

@je11693: Nice you decided you like the game enough to build a system for it . Same things from the old thread still stand: Precise details about what you want (i.e. 500SPM megafactory vs 5000SPM megafactory), budget, available parts etcpp.

I'm pretty sure latency was at least as important, if not more so (c.f. 1 2 3 4). Also, Koub recommended a 4 GB GPU, which would be good, especially if you're planning on using a lot of mods, but if you're focusing on UPS 3 GB is the recommended for high resolution sprites and I've even gotten it to work with 2 GB.

Is that what "4096" means in the 1050Ti card?

[Koub]

Is that what "4096" means in the 1050Ti card?

Yes
4096 MB is 4 GB

[je11693]

Except if you're an AMD enthusiast, Intel is currently superior for games. I'd rather have an i5-8400 (fewer cores, better single thread performance) than a Ryzen 5 2600, or even a Ryzen 7 2700.
However, it depends on the other uses you have for your future computer. The only heavy (CPU-wise) thing I do with mine is playing. Therefore, there is no interest in having the zillion core last gen AMD architecture.
Moreover, I don't know if this has been addressed with firmware updates, but Ryzen had a serious flaw when it came out, a poor cache latency if my memory serves me right. There's a topic somewhere in Technical help with more details if you whish.
[Edit] : viewtopic.php?f=5&t=42165

If you use your computer for other things than playing (Video encoding, 3D modelling, photoshopping, ...), then the AMD would indeed probably be a wisest choice.

And I agree that merging both topics would be better.
[Koub] Merging both topics + renaming the resulting topic.

I won't be using it for any Photoshopping, video editing, etc. Just games and some internet use I think. Factorio is my the game in most interested in, and would like the option to play others if possible, mainly multiplayer just when with friends.

Eradicator, my budget is maybe £500-600, I've already got a monitor but no keyboard/mouse. Would also need an operating system I presume, although seeing Windows 10 costs >£100 makes me wonder if I could use any free operating systems (Linux?) for Factorio? (and other games?). As above, would also like to be able to run a mega base on the PC I build eventually, although right now I'm not sure what an exact number of SPM or UPS would be.. (I guess the higher the better..)

[eradicator]

Would also need an operating system I presume, although seeing Windows 10 costs >£100 makes me wonder if I could use any free operating systems (Linux?) for Factorio? (and other games?).

Factorio runs fine on Linux i hear. Other games you mentioned - especially large AAA titles - are quite likely Windows only (even though there is software like WINE out there to attempt to make them run on Linux anyway, with varying degree of success and performance loss). A friend who is quite knowledgable regarding Linux just dual-boots into Windows to play games because everything else is too much of a hazzle. You could try to get a free Windows 10 upgrade on an old license if you have one (i.e. the one on your laptop) though i think that legally invalidates the license for use with the original OS.

Regarding precise component selection i'll leave that to someone else to answer as i am - as mentioned - not up-to-date enough. AMD used to be the "best bang for the buck" solution due to cheaper CPUs and mainboards, but i don't even know if that is still true, much less exact model names :). Be aware that cheap cases tend to be less soundproof btw, though i guess on a small budget you don't really have a choice.