How to get into PC gaming?

[Kabutos]

4GB with Windows 7 and Firefox 4.0/.1 is a REALLY bad combination if you do a LOT of websurfing. On average I will peak at 200-250 web pages open over any 24-hour period, and as such Firefox will chew up to 2GB (maybe even 2.5GB) of that 4GB, plus there's 7 who wants 512MB-1GB depending how much crap you've got it loading, and on top of THAT there's the Plugin-Container.exe to run all your Flash Files and Java in the webpages, a decent amount of YT surfing (even with 1 window and <30 tabs) will cause Flash to chew up to around 1.5 gig in order to store all those .swf files in the active RAM after loading them into the cache on the hard drive.

This is coming from someone running 7Ent on a i7 2600 with 4GB DDR3 soon to upgrade to 8GB with a second 4GB chip (fuck you Gigabyte, not everyone has "easy" access to single-sided 4GB RAM chips if they want to populate a board advertised as "16GB" but you crimp that with saying "only 2 paired double-sided chips ever, you want all 4 slots you gotta use single-sided 4GB chips"!), and has Firefox chew up a constant 1.5 gig of RAM when loading all my frequent forums (including Escapist) ~BEFORE~ I watch any web videos ~OR~ open a window for my list of webcomics I read.

This is from a similar discussion about RAM from a couple of days ago.

I'm running Minecraft, Fallout NV, The Witcher 2, Steam, Firefox, and the Zune player right underneath 4GB.

EDIT: Firefox had around 14 tabs at the time I took that. Also I doubt 250 webpages at once is a common scenario for most people. Surely you can close some before starting up a game.

although this may seem like a stupid question, but remember I've been out of the PC gaming circle for awhile so idk, but do any games use blu-rays or is that just for movies still?

Just for movies.

 

[Nick Lepperd]

So I've been wanting to have a nice PC gaming rig set up for awhile now, but everywhere I look I see people saying things like "I would but I can't be bothered to configure my computer right/unload $3K or more just to play the games I can play on my XBox" I'm mostly just curious as to how difficult it actually is to set up a gaming rig, and if anyone has any tips on how to do so cheaply (relatively) and easily without screwing up dozens of times first.

Well my friend there are a lot of youtube videos regarding this subject. I myself actually specialize in putting together computers. In all honesty you could actually purchase everything you need for right around $1500.00 if you do not have a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and/or headset.

I read further down this thread and saw you were actually looking for a gaming laptop. Well this is a rather hard implication considering you wont be able to purchase a gaming laptop without spending an arm and a leg. You will also not get as much bang for your buck as you would if you spent the money on a custom built computer.

Also, purchasing a laptop limits your options for upgrading performance. You could always purchase a LAN BOX case if your concern is with mobility.

If you want further assistance either with building this gaming monster, let me know.

 

[Kabutos]

The word
"Futureproof" comes to mind.
Just saying.

The great thign about PCs is the ability to upgrade and be ready for the next pitch.
But then again that means nothing at all now does it...

'Futureproofing' is impossible. You can't just buy all the top of the line components now and expect it to be 'futureproofed'.

Whatever you buy today is going to become obsolete in a few years; replaced by something more powerful and likely cheaper.

It makes more sense to save money and buy what you need rather than go all-out and waste your money in the effort that your PC will be 'futureproofed'.

Then again you bought an Alienware so I guess saving money isn't your thing.

 

[the_tramp]

I spent £700 on a brand new rig ready made from PC World and it runs most games on max settings. Yes, I'm lazy for not making it myself but considering that my net input was nil and that £700 is far less than $3,000 then probably spending 1/2-2/3 of that price and making it yourself it's still a bit more than a console but you get all of the other advantages of PC (Easier to use Internet, etc). To some extent you save money when buying games as PC games tend to come out £10 cheaper as well as Steam doing good deals constantly whereas xbox games tend to never go below £10 unless you buy from 3rd party sellers off of Amazon.

 

[Zipa]

although this may seem like a stupid question, but remember I've been out of the PC gaming circle for awhile so idk, but do any games use blu-rays or is that just for movies still?

PC games don't use them yet though you can get Blu ray drives for PC, I have two of them in my rig, you might as well get them if you want to watch movies on your PC. Plus they will read any CD or DVD disk.

 

[Creator002]

I'm currently setting up a computer for gaming and it doesn't seem like it will cost much over $1000 AUS.
I have the case ($105) a power supply (free, from family) and a DVD drive (free from family, again) already. All I need now is a motherboard, processor and RAM (looks like about $500 - $600 altogether from swap meets), a video and sound card and 2 moniters (one which I may get for free).

 

[ElNeroDiablo]

Kabutos, as I said - A. Lot. Of. Websurfing. At last Ctrl-F9 (TabMixPlus) to save my current FF loadout I had 194 tabs over 4 windows, 36 of the bastards coming from Escapist alone. I frequant a ~LOT~ of fucking forums.

Creator002 - Australia Computer Online [http://www.computeronline.com.au] (Sydney) and PCCaseGear [http://www.pccasegear.com.au] (Melbourne) have decent prices and parts choices, though PCCG will sell certain parts a fair shot under the price of ACO ($219 + S&H for an i5 2500K @ PCCG V. $245 + S&H @ ACO), but that's most likely due to PCCG getting more stock of few items than medium stock of many items at ACO.

Say, an i5 2500K <$219> [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=187_346_1184&products_id=16531] + ASRock Z68 Pro3 (ATX, not the Pro3M which is Micro-ATX) <$139> [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_711_1183&products_id=17350] + Corsair 8GB Dual Channel kit (2x 4GB DDR3 1600MHz) <$105> [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_538_913&products_id=15938] will get you the main parts for $463+S&H, leaving you space to toss in (say) a 1TB Hitachi Deskstar @ $59 [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=210_344&products_id=14647] and keep in a under-$500 budget (for CPU/Mobo/RAM) or under-$600 if you toss in the hard drive.

 

[Kabutos]

Kabutos, as I said - A. Lot. Of. Websurfing. At last Ctrl-F9 (TabMixPlus) to save my current FF loadout I had 194 tabs over 4 windows, 36 of the bastards coming from Escapist alone. I frequant a ~LOT~ of fucking forums.

Ok yeah but not everyone uses 200 tabs at once, just like how not everyone needs more than 4GB.

Also your build is missing a GPU.

 

[Creator002]

Creator002 - Australia Computer Online [http://www.computeronline.com.au] (Sydney) and PCCaseGear [http://www.pccasegear.com.au] (Melbourne) have decent prices and parts choices, though PCCG will sell certain parts a fair shot under the price of ACO ($219 + S&H for an i5 2500K @ PCCG V. $245 + S&H @ ACO), but that's most likely due to PCCG getting more stock of few items than medium stock of many items at ACO.

Thanks for the info, mate. I'm in Melbourne, so I'll be sure to check out PCCG.

 

[ElNeroDiablo]

i7 2600 is a Intel HD Graphics 2000. Using that right now. the 2500K/2600K has the HD 3000 in conjunction to being unlocked for overclocking. That's enough to play most decent games, but Creator also mentioned looking at a separate video card and I focused on getting the minimal to have a working system, even if something like a GTX 460 could outpace a Intel HD 3000, that's something that can be added later.
Also, another reason I suggested the Z68 was the fact it can make use of the HD2000/3000 without limiting the RAM size, chips or slots (another reason for ATX over uATX).

 

[Kabutos]

i7 2600 is a Intel HD Graphics 2000. Using that right now. the 2500K/2600K has the HD 3000 in conjunction to being unlocked for overclocking. That's enough to play most decent games, but Creator also mentioned looking at a separate video card and I focused on getting the minimal to have a working system, even if something like a GTX 460 could outpace a Intel HD 3000, that's something that can be added later.

...

Are you actually suggesting using an IGP for gaming?

Oh wow.

 

[ElNeroDiablo]

You want to get a system that you put together and works for under $500 or do you want a system that you put together and works and has fancy graphics for $700-800? Most decent video cards (even previous gen cards) cost $200 or more on the average unless you're willing to go for previous-previous generation cards which'll clock in at $150-250 whilst Current Gen cards can hit the $300-400 barrier EASY. If you're looking at getting parts to build a system on a budget here in Aus, IGP tends to be the best step until you can shell out the dosh to get a stand-alone GPU for your system (if you don't have one floating around).

 

[Auxiliary]

1. Decide how much money you want to spend on your pc gaming rig.
2. Find a good pc forum with best-buy-guides. If you are Dutch: http://tweakers.net/
3. See what parts they suggest to buy.
4. Head over to the PC webstores in your country.
5. Select all the parts from the best-buy-guide you decided on.
6. Decide if you want to let them build it or if you wish to do it yourself.
7. Get the parts or the entire pc shipped to you.
8. Start your computer.
9. Profit!

I recently did this myself and got a great gaming pc for roughly 1200 (including screen, stereo, keyboard and other gaming peripherals), but you can have very good gaming systems for far less than that. If you are spending more than 1100 you are sacrificing huge amounts of money for minor improvements.

 

[Kabutos]

You want to get a system that you put together and works for under $500 or do you want a system that you put together and works and has fancy graphics for $700-800? Most decent video cards (even previous gen cards) cost $200 or more on the average unless you're willing to go for previous-previous generation cards which'll clock in at $150-250 whilst Current Gen cards can hit the $300-400 barrier EASY. If you're looking at getting parts to build a system on a budget here in Aus, IGP tends to be the best step until you can shell out the dosh to get a stand-alone GPU for your system (if you don't have one floating around).

If you want to build a gaming PC on a budget then why would you go for an i5 2500k and IGP instead of something sensible like X4 955 and an HD 5770.

EDIT:

Oh would you look at that.

The parts he needs that are actually capable of playing games.

And under $500. Huh.

 

[TerribleAssassin]

Look around at parts, talk to a friend who's into it to help you, and watch video's. There's really nothing to it...

 

[Nenad]

Don't forget to buy yourself a comfy chair ^^

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

EDIT:

Oh would you look at that.

Hey, the pccasegear.com shopping cart page!

Needs case and PSU.

If you want to build a gaming PC on a budget then why would you go for an i5 2500k and IGP instead of something sensible like X4 955 and an HD 5770.

True. What you lose in CPU power you gain buy not having to use shitty intel graphics, not to mention the 5770 is a solid card $ Vs Power wise.

 

[razer17]

So I've been wanting to have a nice PC gaming rig set up for awhile now, but everywhere I look I see people saying things like "I would but I can't be bothered to configure my computer right/unload $3K or more just to play the games I can play on my XBox" I'm mostly just curious as to how difficult it actually is to set up a gaming rig, and if anyone has any tips on how to do so cheaply (relatively) and easily without screwing up dozens of times first.

I helped my mate build a new gaming PC about 2 weeks ago. It was really easy to set up. It can take a little bit of time, but is generally pretty easy. His PC cost him about £450, which is like $700-800ish. It runs Crysis max, and Witcher 2 at near to max settings on 1080p, or max settings at a lower res.

So it's probably worth it if you play a lot of games. Firstly, games are cheaper on the PC, so eventually if you buy enough games you can make your money back. A high power PC is good for other stuff too, which makes it more useful than a console.