Buying a gaming PC

[londelen]

So I've started thinking about getting into PC gaming, but I then realized that I know nothing on how to build one, and I don't really have the time to learn, with classes and all, so that option was out. So I thought I might ask any of you who bought a gaming PC what yours is, so that I might a trustworthy opinion before I buy anything.

 

[Horticulture]

Self-building a PC is actually pretty easy once you have the parts in hand, it can easily be done for the first time in an afternoon, even accounting for minor complications and software installation. If you're interested in saving some money by going that route, check the PC Enthusiast Group [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.105715] for information and advice.

If you're set on buying a prebuilt, CyberPower [http://www.cyberpowerpc.com] makes pretty affordable gaming systems with lots of options, which can be both good and bad (you have to know what you want, but you aren't stuck with a PC that's almost-but-not-quite perfect for your needs). For gaming, the video card is the most vital component, so pay close attention to the video cards installed in the PCs you consider.

 

[tom_rebane]

Well its a broad area, I myself hand built my pc keeps costs way down. As for buying a prebuilt one Amd pc's have a lower cost, Intel if benchmarking site are trustworthy will give you a bit more performance but you truely are paying for it.

As for spec's:
Dual core (3ghz or faster) or Quadcore (2.6ghz or faster)
Ram 2gb (xp) or 4+gb (vista/win 7)
Graphics card 8 series onwards from nvidia or 5000 series from ATI
Hard drive: 250-500gb hard drive is advised
Case: generally must be fullsize/ gaming case, these include key features like ATX / E-ATX and have fans to keep the hardware cool.
Sound Card: Onboard sound is satisfactory but investing in asus/creative sound card and surround sound speakers is worth it.

So when it comes down to it, its getting best bang for your buck, and getting a friend who's good with hardware so can check wether its a worth while purchase.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Building a computer is about as difficult as snapping legos together. So I suggest building your won and saving yourself money and not having to uninstall bloatware.

 

[DragonChi]

CPU: Intel 3.2Ghz quad-core i7 extreme edition
MoBo: Asus Rampage II extreme
Ram: patriot 2GB DDR3 1333mhz viper series (soon will be 6GB DDR3 2000mhz Viper II series)
Gfx Card: GeForce 9800GTX+ (soon will be the Geforce GTX 480)
CPU cooler: Coolermaster V8
PSU: Corsair HX1000 watt
Case: Thermaltake Kandalf Armor+ VH6000SWA
Sound Card: PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series
Hard Drives: 2 Seagate 500GB, 1 Seagate 1TB
OS: Windows 7 64-bit

 

[AlanShore]

I'd second the idea of learning to build your own. The amount of money you can save I'd say is worth the extra effort, you gain more of an appreciation of the different technologies available and personally I find it really fun building them.

It's not that difficult to put one together as long as you can follow instructions, but if you've got a friend who's built one before it can make the process a lot simpler and faster.

 

[Volafortis]

Honestly, building is still they way to go, even if you know nothing of how to build one. I didn't know anything either, and I easily built my first one within a day of owning all parts. While i is most easily done if you have a friend who has done it before, and if you don't know anyone IRL who has dealt with PC building, use he internet as your friend. Look up PC building guides, talk on forums for advice.

My personal advice on building:
Buy in this order:
Case
Power Supply Unit
Motherboard
Processor
Graphics Chipset
Hard Drive
Disc Drive
RAM

As far as specs go, here are my recommendations (Mind you, I've only done NVIDIA/Intel builds, so I've got no AMD/ATI experience)

Case - You'll want to make certain that your case has a decent airflow, more fans/larger fans = better. You'll also want to make sure it is large enough for your needs, supporting an ATX or E-ATX motherboard.

PSU - Most modern PC builds will require a 750-1000W PSU, and you'll want to pay attention to reliability with your PSU, as they are the most likely component to fail (in my experience). Keep track of your PSU requirements on your GPU, CPU, fans, sound card, etc...

Motherboard - This requires the most thought put into compatibility. You'll need to pay attention to how much RAM it supports, what kind of RAM it supports, what kind of processor it supports, # of PCI slots, etc...
The motherboard is easily the main thing you'll want someone who is knowledgeable to help with

Processor - You NEED a multi-core processor for modern gaming, preferably a quad Core, and you'll want at least 3.1 GHz for dual core, 2.6 for quad core.

Graphics - Nvidia 200 series recommended, don't know much on ATI.

Hard Drive - Recommend over 500 GB.

Disc Drive - A fast DVD drive. Blu-ray isn't required for PC gaming, at least not yet.

RAM - DDR2 or DDR3, whatever your motherboard supports, but if you currently don't have a motherboard selected, I recommend DDR2 for now, because DDR3 is still somewhat unstable, although in the future there may be a greater push for DDR3, but there currently is no real reason for it, because it costs about 3 times as much as DDR2. 8GB recommended.

Also, if you have/want a fancy sound setup, you'll want a sound card, but onboard sound generally works well enough, unless you insist on hearing every footstep in full 3D audio. Mainly helps in online FPS games. Will add to PSU requirements.

Networking card - Do not get, do not need, unless your Ethernet port is broken, or you really feel the need for internal wireless networking capabilities.

Also, you'll want a DVI/HDMI compatible monitor, VGA simply doesn't cut it.

Keyboard and mouse are up to you.

 

[Daveman]

It's really easy to put it together, the only even moderately tricky bit is making sure it's all compatible.

 

[AlanShore]

PSU - Most modern PC builds will require a 750-1000W PSU, and you'll want to pay attention to reliability with your PSU, as they are the most likely component to fail (in my experience). Keep track of your PSU requirements on your GPU, CPU, fans, sound card, etc...

I agree with the rest of your post, but I think that figure is a little high. A 285 GTX requires a minimum of 550W so unless you're going to SLI or be running lots of hard drives, I'd say 600-650W is nearer the mark, just my opinion. I'd definately pay a lot of attention to the quality of the supply though.

 

[Laughing Man]

Building them is easy, making them look good if you plan on having a window and getting all the cables tidy and routed is the really hard part. It took me three or four attempts to get my PC looking just right but gotta say I am happy with it now.

Someone else posted some spec parts as well as the order to buy them in, I don't agree with some of the points made so I'll stick down a few of my own thoughts.

Case - If you want something to stick bits in,c lose it up and leave it then pretty much any case with a few fan ports in it will do the job. If you want something that looks good and makes it easy to build you'll want a case with a removable motherboard tray, plenty of HD expansion bays (not to stick loads of drives in but to hide wires in. A case that has tested air flow standards. Most decent manufactures will have smoke tests as well as thermal tests posted on their websites.

PSU - 750W - 1000W is major overkill, a decent 600W PSU will more than happily deal with any standard high end setup. I run a Core I5, OC'd 750 with a 260GTX, 3 fans, 3 HDs on a 520W Corsair PSU. Don't go for High wattage go for solid wattage and solid amperage on the 12V rails. A 600W £100 PSU will do a much better job than a 1000W £50 PSU.

Processor - Quad core for future proofing, Dual core will be fine just now and as for speed, doesn't matter any thing from the Core 2 Duo line running at at least 2.4Ghz and above will more than cope with pretty much any game out there today.

Graphics - 260GTX or above for Nvidia 5700 or above for ATI

HD - more storage the better Samsung F3, this is a specific recommendation. The 1Tb drives are fast, huge and cheap I dunno if their is anything that comes close.

RAM - DDR2 667Mhz or above DDR3 1600Mhz or above and both RAM types are perfectly stable as each other and in terms of price 4 gig of cheap DDR3 will run about £30 more than 4gig of entry level DDR3. 4gig of RAM is more than enough anything else is overkill and a waste of cash.

Motherboard - Socket 775 if you go for Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad, Socket 1156 for Core I5, Socket 1366 for Core I7. PCI socket numbers, doesn't matter. If it has on board sound and 1 x PCI-E x 16 you will probably never need another PCI socket.

Really simple, buy a decent branded motherboard Gigabyte and Asus do good boards, you have two routes to go.

Cheap - ie you want a motherboard that will link all your components together. So buy the board that is the cheapest that will do the job, ensure it has 1 x PCI-E x16 slot, can run 4 gig of RAM, is the correct socket for your CPU, has on board Ethernet connection and has at least 4 USB slots.

Expensive - You plan to OC, in which case the more expensive boards generally have the functions and options to let you do this. They will more than likely come with enough PCI-E x16 slots to allow sli or crossfire, will have multiple usb, ethernet and fire wire ports and in most cases will allow upwards of 16gig of Ram

 

[AlanShore]

4gig of RAM is more than enough anything else is overkill and a waste of cash.

This. Most people don't realise that in Windows a program only has access to a 31 bit address space (2 gig), so unless you're planning on playing several games simultaneously or running loads of programs at the same time, you won't see any benefit at all.

 

[mikecoulter]

Get a Mac and wait for Steam to be released in April?

Haha.

My friends have taken great joy in buying peoples 'last year' gaming rigs off eBay. They tend to sell them pretty cheap, and are still amazing custom machines. If you're not too clued up on making one yourself, that's what I'd suggest. Plus then, it's easy to upgrade the parts you don't really like and sell the old ones.

 

[londelen]

Thanks for all the advice. Since the overwhelming advice seems to be to just learn to make my own, I guess I'll make some time for learning this summer. In the meantime, I think I'll try searching Ebay like Mikecoulter suggusted. I didn't even think of that, thanks!

 

[Volafortis]

PSU - Most modern PC builds will require a 750-1000W PSU, and you'll want to pay attention to reliability with your PSU, as they are the most likely component to fail (in my experience). Keep track of your PSU requirements on your GPU, CPU, fans, sound card, etc...

I agree with the rest of your post, but I think that figure is a little high. A 285 GTX requires a minimum of 550W so unless you're going to SLI or be running lots of hard drives, I'd say 600-650W is nearer the mark, just my opinion. I'd definately pay a lot of attention to the quality of the supply though.

Well, I'm thinking for longevity and for future upgrading. I've currently got a 750W, and once I upgrade my card to the 480 in April, I'll only have about 30W above my hardware requirements.

 

[Ninjastoned]

Meh... Expensive to say the least.

 

[Laughing Man]

This. Most people don't realise that in Windows a program only has access to a 31 bit address space (2 gig), so unless you're planning on playing several games simultaneously or running loads of programs at the same time, you won't see any benefit at all.

I made some assumptions and should have clarified.

I assumed that if he was building a new rig he would more than likely be installing Windows 7, in which case the OP needs to get the 64bit version to get the full benefit of the 4gig.

 

[AlanShore]

This. Most people don't realise that in Windows a program only has access to a 31 bit address space (2 gig), so unless you're planning on playing several games simultaneously or running loads of programs at the same time, you won't see any benefit at all.

I made some assumptions and should have clarified.

I assumed that if he was building a new rig he would more than likely be installing Windows 7, in which case the OP needs to get the 64bit version to get the full benefit of the 4gig.

Yeah, 64 bit Windows is definitely the way to go. What I was meaning is that I often see people recommending stupid amounts of RAM, like 16gig, when it's completely unnecessary unless you're running loads of apps at the same time as each app can only address 2gig regardless of your OS.

 

[omega 616]

Go to the aliens, http://www.alienware.com/microsite/m11x/m11x.aspx?tab=desktops

There a bit pricey but just look at them! I wouldn't say no to one.

 

[AlphaOmega]

Go to the aliens, http://www.alienware.com/microsite/m11x/m11x.aspx?tab=desktops

There a bit pricey but just look at them! I wouldn't say no to one.

Go there if you hate money, nothing wrong with alienware just overpriced.