Have around $1000 for a poker station

Need your help
I am a tall - 6.6ft 120KG guy - so looking for recommendations for a good chair - guess I am looking at around the $300 mark. Is a chair so unique that you really need to sit in one first? Has anyone bought a chair that you wished you had not?

Then for the PC - will be pushing it a bit here. I want to have 2 x 24inch monitors. I want to be running 4-5 poker sites + netflix or twitch (watching not streaming) - is this a case of more cores are better? I do not play much in the way of games - but would like to play some eventually - was thinking of starting with a ryzen 5 chip with vega 11 graphics and add on a GPU later OR buy a cheap business machine for around $300 and chuck in a GTX 1050Ti/ GTX 1650 problem is they usually have small power units 180/200w often with i3 chips. Or should I forget the GPU for now a buy the best cpu I can afford?

i would like to buy it

amatola said:

Need your help
I am a tall - 6.6ft 120KG guy - so looking for recommendations for a good chair - guess I am looking at around the $300 mark. Is a chair so unique that you really need to sit in one first? Has anyone bought a chair that you wished you had not?

Then for the PC - will be pushing it a bit here. I want to have 2 x 24inch monitors. I want to be running 4-5 poker sites + netflix or twitch (watching not streaming) - is this a case of more cores are better? I do not play much in the way of games - but would like to play some eventually - was thinking of starting with a ryzen 5 chip with vega 11 graphics and add on a GPU later OR buy a cheap business machine for around $300 and chuck in a GTX 1050Ti/ GTX 1650 problem is they usually have small power units 180/200w often with i3 chips. Or should I forget the GPU for now a buy the best cpu I can afford?

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Being 2 meters tall and around 120-130kg during past 15-20 years i've switched about 6 PC chairs, some of them been designed for 200kg people, prices from 150 to 650$ Right now I'm sitting on handmade leather chair with 8 wheels, made by blacksmith. It's not shiny chrome, it's painted with bronze and looks like old chair, no pneumatics, no flipping, but it's designed to my weight and height and it works perfectly for about 3 years. My girlfriend been wild with me on this chair, i'm pretty sure that it can hold up to 500kg. Weight of the chair is around 70-80kg. Spent about $450 in total for leatherman and blacksmith services, I'm pretty sure that this chair will survive after nuclear strike, it's worth every penny and I believe that I've bought it for cheap, comparing to all the garbage that they're selling in the stores.

Maxmustdie said:

i would like to buy it

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So would I! - but after adding case, power unit, mem, hard drives and OS - totally blows the budget!

finaltable1 said:

Being 2 meters tall and around 120-130kg during past 15-20 years i've switched about 6 PC chairs, some of them been designed for 200kg people, prices from 150 to 650$ Right now I'm sitting on handmade leather chair with 8 wheels, made by blacksmith. It's not shiny chrome, it's painted with bronze and looks like old chair, no pneumatics, no flipping, but it's designed to my weight and height and it works perfectly for about 3 years. My girlfriend been wild with me on this chair, i'm pretty sure that it can hold up to 500kg. Weight of the chair is around 70-80kg. Spent about $450 in total for leatherman and blacksmith services, I'm pretty sure that this chair will survive after nuclear strike, it's worth every penny and I believe that I've bought it for cheap, comparing to all the garbage that they're selling in the stores.

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I am hoping I do not need a bespoke chair made! Did the other chairs break or did you just find them not comfortable? I do seem to be a bit of a chair breaker - and although I have never had a gaming chair - feel they might be even easier to break

amatola said:

I am hoping I do not need a bespoke chair made! Did the other chairs break or did you just find them not comfortable? I do seem to be a bit of a chair breaker - and although I have never had a gaming chair - feel they might be even easier to break

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Most of the chairs had problem with gas lift(pneumatic cylinder). All of them - both cheaper and expensive chairs are manufactured by large companies and they're not interested in making eternal products you know. I've been replacing wheels on my previous chairs many times, also chrome and nickel plating wasn't really good. During poker sessions I also draw 3d models/programming and such actions are not doing damage to the chair, but lifting dumbbells to stay in shape, keep blood running well and to reduce the pressure in palms after hard clicking for hours - it adds extra weight and does damage to chair, even if it was designed for 200kg persons. If you're planning serious poker sessions like I did in the past - then your chair and your monitors are the most important things. Your chair is responsible for the body, monitors are responsible for the head. If you're going deep in some tourneys or can't leave your cash tables because of juicy fishes then you will have to do something about your fitness, and in this case dumbbells will add 20-50kgs pressure to chairs structure, ofc if you're planning to workout during sessions.

So according to my experience - one day after throwing away another "heavy weight champion chair" from the store you will realize that you need a solid structure and it's either expensive static massage chair or custom made wheel chair. My chair is made of round and square pipes, wall thickness is 5-6mm, while average wall thickness in chairs from the store is 1,5-2mm. Price for the chair in the store is based on re-sellers, profits, taxes, salaries, delivery and so on. Price for the blacksmiths job is based on metal and his time. Metal is cheap but handmade and unique things are priceless.

Today you can get a nice curved ultra-wide monitor instead of two regular and easily fit 12-16 tables at one screen, so your eyes and neck will be comfortable. I've had your setup, my laptop has 2 graphic cards and I've connected two 24" monitors, used 1080p resolution, Played like this since 2010 till 2017. It's not good - you will have to spin your head with this setup. It's better to get ultra-wide monitor, with a bit higher resolution than 1080. I think that 1440 is good and ofc 4K is better. I'm not sure but i think that there are 32" ultra wide flat monitors for sale, curved are even better, but they're a bit more expensive. It might cost little more than 2 x 24" but for sure it will be more effective setup, cause your neck can rest and you'll be observing all tables with eyes only.

amatola said:

I am hoping I do not need a bespoke chair made! Did the other chairs break or did you just find them not comfortable? I do seem to be a bit of a chair breaker - and although I have never had a gaming chair - feel they might be even easier to break

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Oh and by the way - regarding your budget and setup... laptops like my old one - Lenovo Z575 have price close to nothing today... I've bought it maybe 10 years ago when it was new, but today they cost like maybe $100. Quad core, dual graphics and 16gb memory - it's still more than enough. With such setup i've been playing maybe 4-5 poker sites, up to 16 tables in total, watching youtube and drawing 3d models at the same time without glitches. 2 monitors+screen of the laptop. SO in your place I wouldn't go for high tech specs, with a single wide screen you won't even need dual graphic cards, you'll just need to extend the screen of the laptop to your monitor. You better buy heavy duty wheels and find a local blacksmith or welder and ask for the price for a good chair without the leather. and find a good ultra wide monitor.

P.S. Thank me later for the chair advice.

there are quite a few gamers who prefer to buy the new 32-inch or larger ultra-wide screens instead of buying two screens to put them side by side. for multitasking I recommend the rysen 5 3600, 6 core 12 thread and it is excellent for video games. for the graphics card if you plan to play video games in good conditions at 1080p it is better to buy a GTX 1660 super. if you don't have enough budget yet. I advise you to keep saving and buy the parts that will be most useful to you.

finaltable1 said:

Oh and by the way - regarding your budget and setup... laptops like my old one - Lenovo Z575 have price close to nothing today... I've bought it maybe 10 years ago when it was new, but today they cost like maybe $100. Quad core, dual graphics and 16gb memory - it's still more than enough. With such setup i've been playing maybe 4-5 poker sites, up to 16 tables in total, watching youtube and drawing 3d models at the same time without glitches. 2 monitors+screen of the laptop. SO in your place I wouldn't go for high tech specs, with a single wide screen you won't even need dual graphic cards, you'll just need to extend the screen of the laptop to your monitor. You better buy heavy duty wheels and find a local blacksmith or welder and ask for the price for a good chair without the leather. and find a good ultra wide monitor.

P.S. Thank me later for the chair advice.

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Very interesting about the monitor - I did take a look and could squeeze in a 32 curved QHD if I go with the secondhand system - it does make sense.

I had to further ideas for the chair - the more wacky one would be mounting a car chair on a swivel/ wheeled base.

But the idea I am warming to would be to have the 32-inch monitor mounted on a fully adjustable arm OR wheeled desk that could slide over a recliner/lazy boy type chair. So instead of moving the chair, I move the monitor. Do you see any issues with that?

As to the pc - agree that older but good quality is probably best for my budget - but will stick to a desktop ( will try to get mini/micro form factor) - just from a servicing/replacing parts angle.

BTW my wife detests lazyboy type chairs - so this could get interesting. Bit of a Martin vs Frasier Crane.

Maxmustdie said:

i would like to buy it

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A 1660super isn't necessary for your needs (ones expressed in this thread).

On one of my setups I run 2x 24in. monitors 1920x1080 off a 7yr old desktop with an i5 and no GPU (& with 8GB RAM). It is more than enough. (I'm sure it'd work with an i3).

I'm not as familiar with the AMD cpu's and have always used Intel cpu's.

I think for screen space, 2x 24in. is probably your cheapest bet. I'm sure you could grab a couple used ones for cheap (off of those guys who are going out & purchasing 32in. monitors, lol... oh yah.. I actually just purchased two 32in monitors this month... early Christmas presents I chose to go with BenQ (I have four 24in. DELL Ultrasharp, 1 23" Acer & 1 27" Acer.). THe 24's & 27" are all 1920x1080, the 32" curved BenQ EX3203R is 2560x1440 144Hz, 16:9 and the other is a 32" flat BenQ SW321C 3840x2160.

THe 'new' poker one is the BenQ EX3202R. Picked it up on a Black Friday sale.
The SW321C is for my partner - - she's into photography.

fwiw, I saw that Dell has their BlackFriday sale on til' tomorrow. They have a 24in. monitor on sale for ~$85 usd

For chairs... I've had a couple computer chairs that lasted me a long time (at bodyweight of 120kg+). My last one I had for 15yrs., using it daily (it played MANY hands of poker... literally 'millions'). My current one was a gift from my wife. She got me one of those DXRacer gaming chairs. tbh I thought I was going to send it back when I first opened it (It wasn't what I wanted... but she was sure it was). But what did I know... turns out I really like it!! It's the 'King series' which I think is rated at 400lbs. (maybe it was 350?). I'm sure it could easily 400 though. The cushions are a bit firm but they feel like they will last a long time. The casters are solid & work well (they are over-sized... I would guess 3" diameter?). I personally had my eye fixated on an Obsuforme chair - heavy duty one, medium-back. They are the bomb! (but not cheap... over $1,000 Cdn.,.. ~$800usd).

On a tight budget I think I would look around for an older rig
ie. 4th gen Intel.. 'Haswell', i5
H87 chip motherboard
No GPU
450-500W PSU
8GB Ram

... then 'later on' maybe add in a gtx 1060, or a gtx1650 depending upon what you are wanting to run off of it. Buying some of these older GPU's online can be surprisingly expensive but at the same time you can find a used one for a decent price.

gl gl

I'm going to tell you what you need, depending on how many tables you play, you'll need 2 monitors. The next thing you have to prioritize is the processor, that all the softwares consume the most is the processor. Accompanied by the processor, what poker software consumes the most is RAM, with 16gb should be enough but with 32gb it would be perfect. The graphics card is not that important, with 3gb you should be excellent. The mother doesn't need an excellent one, just one that has good synercy with your processor. The rest is at your choice. If I had to tell you quickly what to buy, I would tell you 2 hd monitors of any brand, any ryzen 7, ram t-force or hyperx. And any graph, nvidia or amd

Poker Orifice said:

A 1660super isn't necessary for your needs (ones expressed in this thread).

On one of my setups I run 2x 24in. monitors 1920x1080 off a 7yr old desktop with an i5 and no GPU (& with 8GB RAM). It is more than enough. (I'm sure it'd work with an i3).

I'm not as familiar with the AMD cpu's and have always used Intel cpu's.

I think for screen space, 2x 24in. is probably your cheapest bet. I'm sure you could grab a couple used ones for cheap (off of those guys who are going out & purchasing 32in. monitors, lol... oh yah.. I actually just purchased two 32in monitors this month... early Christmas presents I chose to go with BenQ (I have four 24in. DELL Ultrasharp, 1 23" Acer & 1 27" Acer.). THe 24's & 27" are all 1920x1080, the 32" curved BenQ EX3203R is 2560x1440 144Hz, 16:9 and the other is a 32" flat BenQ SW321C 3840x2160.

THe 'new' poker one is the BenQ EX3202R. Picked it up on a Black Friday sale.
The SW321C is for my partner - - she's into photography.

fwiw, I saw that Dell has their BlackFriday sale on til' tomorrow. They have a 24in. monitor on sale for ~$85 usd

For chairs... I've had a couple computer chairs that lasted me a long time (at bodyweight of 120kg+). My last one I had for 15yrs., using it daily (it played MANY hands of poker... literally 'millions'). My current one was a gift from my wife. She got me one of those DXRacer gaming chairs. tbh I thought I was going to send it back when I first opened it (It wasn't what I wanted... but she was sure it was). But what did I know... turns out I really like it!! It's the 'King series' which I think is rated at 400lbs. (maybe it was 350?). I'm sure it could easily 400 though. The cushions are a bit firm but they feel like they will last a long time. The casters are solid & work well (they are over-sized... I would guess 3" diameter?). I personally had my eye fixated on an Obsuforme chair - heavy duty one, medium-back. They are the bomb! (but not cheap... over $1,000 Cdn.,.. ~$800usd).

On a tight budget I think I would look around for an older rig
ie. 4th gen Intel.. 'Haswell', i5
H87 chip motherboard
No GPU
450-500W PSU
8GB Ram

... then 'later on' maybe add in a gtx 1060, or a gtx1650 depending upon what you are wanting to run off of it. Buying some of these older GPU's online can be surprisingly expensive but at the same time you can find a used one for a decent price.

gl gl

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Did look at the DxRacer - if I was going that route, and I might, probably has to be one of them - was looking at TheBoss and Tank series - Around £400 - £500 pounds so, err gulp. Kinda like the lazyboy idea above though. On the monitors, nice that you have them all as a comparison. If you had to choose a set up, 32 curved 2560 vs 2x24 1080? Think the 3840 really does break the budget .
And yes, looks like I will be buying a used PC box - min spec will be 4 core i5 with 8gb , ssd and Hd - but as fa1920 says will try push for 16gb. For my budget, I might squeeze an old GTX1050ti or GTX970 GPU in there as well - more than ample for what I do.

Have you ever thought about a standing desk? If it can adjust to a height that’s tall enough for you, it could take a lot of the burden off finding the perfect chair if you can adjust your desk to stand half the time or so

Katie Dozier said:

Have you ever thought about a standing desk? If it can adjust to a height that’s tall enough for you, it could take a lot of the burden off finding the perfect chair if you can adjust your desk to stand half the time or so

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Hi Katie - unfortunately, due to my sloth-like nature, the more horizontal I am the better! I did toy with the idea of an adjustable, sit and stand type desk - but being honest with myself, the standing part would be wasted.

amatola said:

And yes, looks like I will be buying a used PC box - min spec will be 4 core i5 with 8gb , ssd and Hd - but as fa1920 says will try push for 16gb. For my budget, I might squeeze an old GTX1050ti or GTX970 GPU in there as well - more than ample for what I do.

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8GB RAM is loads.
Just try to get a rig that you're able to expand upon in the future.... so if your Mobo has 4slots, and it's got 2x4GB so you can add on another 2x4GB later.
My wife's got a DELL that I've upgraded & came with 16GB RAM (photo rig using with Lightroom & Photoshop and can benefit with more RAM)... thinking it was 2x8GB but it wasn't.... it was 4x4GB... so I needed to swap out all of it. Would've been cheaper otherwise.