Buying a Gaming PC - Advice and tips

[Gideon Quinn]

Hey guys.

I'm currently planning to buy a new PC that will be able to handle the newest range of games. I'm not exactly a computer dunce, but i've been out of touch with PC gaming for so many years (I haven't bought a new machine since 2004) and have completely lost track of the best/current hardware specs for a modern gaming PC. I've spoke to a lot of people who suggested building one from scratch, but i think i'd rather play it safe for now and get a decent allround package, replacing and adding RAM and graphics card if really neccessary.

So, i ask my fine tech-minded friends of THIA, what are your reccomendations? Anything specific you can suggest i get, or even stay the hell away from? I'm all ears and would appreciate advice. I've heard quad-core is probably the best processor to go for even though few games at the moment actually require it, but i guess it's a better idea to get one now rather than needing to upgrade again in 2 years.

[WeskerIncarnate]

Hey guys.

I'm currently planning to buy a new PC that will be able to handle the newest range of games. I'm not exactly a computer dunce, but i've been out of touch with PC gaming for so many years (I haven't bought a new machine since 2004) and have completely lost track of the best/current hardware specs for a modern gaming PC. I've spoke to a lot of people who suggested building one from scratch, but i think i'd rather play it safe for now and get a decent allround package, replacing and adding RAM and graphics card if really neccessary.

So, i ask my fine tech-minded friends of THIA, what are your reccomendations? Anything specific you can suggest i get, or even stay the hell away from? I'm all ears and would appreciate advice. I've heard quad-core is probably the best processor to go for even though few games at the moment actually require it, but i guess it's a better idea to get one now rather than needing to upgrade again in 2 years.

The new Intel i7 processors are much better then Quad-Core and I would consider that an upgrade from it, however, it's of course more expensive.

If you want to use an i7 core, best to go with DDR3 RAM as well. You will achieve higher speeds this way, and the Quad-Core mobo does not fit too well with DDR3, which will affect performance and may make it go slower.

And you'll want lots of HDD space. I recommend at least 250 gigs, but you might want 500 or more to be safe.

As for graphics cards, if you REALLY want to be up to modern standards, try getting an Nvidia GTX 295. They cost up to 500 dollars or so, but that's the best one you can get as of now.

[Gideon Quinn]

Awesome, thanks a lot for the suggestions. I'll look into them.

[Member_of_STARS]

Lets start with the basics- whats your budget?

[Gideon Quinn]

700-800 (GBP) absolute tops. I'd rather spend around 500 but that's looking doubtful.

[WeskerIncarnate]

700-800 (GBP) absolute tops. I'd rather spend around 500 but that's looking doubtful.

Wait, 500 for a computer?

You want a laptop or desktop?

[Gideon Quinn]

Desktop, but bear in mind i am in England (500 pounds is about 820 dollars)

[Helegad]

If your budget is too tight to get an ultimate PC, then get yourself:

Core 2 Quad
GTX 200 series
4GB RAM
1TB HDD

Should see you for 3-4 years decently. Won't cost an absolute fortune, but it's not the cheapest components you can get either.

[kevstah2004]

USB 3.0, PCI Express 3.0 are coming late 2009 early 2010 so any motherboard you get now is gonna be outdated next year I'm sure there are new sata and fireware standards on the cards too for the 5-10 year cycle and with all these updates they'll probably be a new processor socket design as well along with new processors with updated architectures and new instruction sets.

[Member_of_STARS]

If your budget is too tight to get an ultimate PC, then get yourself:

Core 2 Quad
GTX 200 series
4GB RAM
1TB HDD

Should see you for 3-4 years decently. Won't cost an absolute fortune, but it's not the cheapest components you can get either.

Thats really an overkill.

You really dont have to get a "top of the line" kind of rig, as you wont be able to afford it (1) and it will unnecessary sap your electricity bill.

Dont need a quadcore, dont really need 4 Gigs of RAM either if youre running XP and for a GFX card a 8800 will do just fine.

A top dual core Intel processor, a decent mobo, 2-3 gigs of quick RAM, a quick Western Digital HDD and an 8800 series GPU will be more than enough, considering that Crysis will be a gaming benchmark for PC gaming for at least a couple of years (or until the next console generation). Games that require more juice than Crysis these days are usually just extremely poorly optimized console ports (GTA4 for example).

[Guest]

Why not buy Counter-Strike Source, its fun and make sure you have online for playing!

[Helegad]

Thats really an overkill.

You really dont have to get a "top of the line" kind of rig, as you wont be able to afford it (1) and it will unnecessary sap your electricity bill.

Dont need a quadcore, dont really need 4 Gigs of RAM either if youre running XP and for a GFX card a 8800 will do just fine.

A top dual core Intel processor, a decent mobo, 2-3 gigs of quick RAM, a quick Western Digital HDD and an 8800 series GPU will be more than enough, considering that Crysis will be a gaming benchmark for PC gaming for at least a couple of years (or until the next console generation). Games that require more juice than Crysis these days are usually just extremely poorly optimized console ports (GTA4 for example).

Still, you can't re-port games, so if you want to play GTAIV on high, then you'll just have to get a top of the line computer.

Sad really.

Prototype is an awesome example of how a PC game SHOULD be made. I'm a little bit over the minimum specs, but I can run it on high at a quite decent framerate.

[Member_of_STARS]

Still, you can't re-port games, so if you want to play GTAIV on high, then you'll just have to get a top of the line computer.

Sad really.

Prototype is an awesome example of how a PC game SHOULD be made. I'm a little bit over the minimum specs, but I can run it on high at a quite decent framerate.

Yeah, but having this community in mind, Im sure hes got a console for GTA4, so hes covered. Its not really a compromise. You dont need a Pentagon grade supercomputer, you can always flip the finger to bad ports and enjoy games that run well, along with the abundance of mods for them.

Or, you could sell your kidneys and get this-

Processor: Intel Core i7 965 Extreme 3.2GHz OC @4.6GHz (HT on) - Phase Change Cooled
Memory: 12GB DDR3 Corsair Dominator GT @2000MHz 7-8-7-20 - Air Cooled
Hard Drive: On Areca 1231ML w/2GB: [RAID 0: 384GB (6x64GB) Intel X25-E SSD]+[RAID 5: 1.25TB (6x250GB) OCZ Vertex SSD]
Video Card: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 OC @810c/1746s/2620m - Quad SLi 3.5GB - Chilled Liquid Cooled
Monitor: 2 x 30" NEC MultiSync 3090W-BK-SV 2560 x 1600 / Mitsubishi 65" LaserVue HDTV for NVIDIA 3D Vision
Sound Card: (ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe connected via HDMI to Denon A/V Reciever)+(Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion)
Speakers/Headphones: (Sennheiser HD 800 - Sennheiser PC 350) / (Creative GigaWorks S750 - Logitech Z-5500)
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Mouse: Logitech G5 / Razer Lachesis
Mouse Surface: Razer eXactMat
Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1
Motherboard: ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution - Chilled Liquid Cooled
Computer Case: Lian Li PC-A7110B

I cant really imagine being forced to get a rig just to circumvent the terrible job the devs may do with their games. So, mods FTW

[Gideon Quinn]

You really dont have to get a "top of the line" kind of rig, as you wont be able to afford it (1) and it will unnecessary sap your electricity bill.

Dont need a quadcore, dont really need 4 Gigs of RAM either if youre running XP and for a GFX card a 8800 will do just fine.

A top dual core Intel processor, a decent mobo, 2-3 gigs of quick RAM, a quick Western Digital HDD and an 8800 series GPU will be more than enough, considering that Crysis will be a gaming benchmark for PC gaming for at least a couple of years (or until the next console generation). Games that require more juice than Crysis these days are usually just extremely poorly optimized console ports (GTA4 for example).

Cool, thanks a lot. I've bought RAM for my current brick of a PC before, it was painless to install so it could be worth starting with 2-3gb like you said and then buying some more down the line if needed.

And XP is an absolute neccessity, there's no way i'm using Vista! Unless Windows 7 is available yet...

I've got more than just gaming to consider too, i'm going to be recording my album come October and plan to use the PC for that purpose too, so Hard drive capacity and ram are quite important. I currently have 2gb RAM and use Logic Platinum and it is incredibly resource sapping.

Anyway, thanks a lot for the advice everyone. I'm gonna have a whale of a time figuring this out...

[Member_of_STARS]

Remember to use fast and quality gaming RAM and get a mobo that supports it. Just to give you an example- RAM memory ammount really doesnt count all that much. A jump from 512MBs to 1G or from 1G to 2G-s can give you *marginal* results if they are slow.

If you want to start recording shit, then you might want to consider getting an alternative to one big HDD. HDD will be your biggest bottleneck, its a good investment, if you got the cash. A top of the line Intels dualcore CPU will do just fine, unless you stumble across a bargain quadcore.

There are quite a few good folks around here who will have a quick look at the stuff youre considering getting, so just keep asking. If you get to the point where you´ll need expert opinions you could always try here-

https://www.techpowerup.com

One of the best sites out there with some really helpful folks. If you go down there and post up a "help" thread, they´ll probably get you the best advice you could hope to get to spend those 500 quid in the best possible way.