Okay all you PC gamers, I need some help...

hayaineko

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Feb 28, 2011
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BreakfastMan said:
Retronana said:
BreakfastMan said:
...in the PC parts buying. I have been a nearly exclusive console gamer for the longest time, but all the delicious PC exclusives are just so darn tempting (dang you S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and The Witcher! Dang you CD Projekt!). I cannot take it anymore, so I have decided to build myself an awesome gaming PC. The unfortunate part is, I have no idea were to start. Can you all help me? Were is the best place to order parts, and which are the best, most powerful parts I can get for the money? What parts will I need? Any PC exclusives I should pick up once I have it? Any helpful sites on how to assemble PCs? Help, please?

I'll give you some tips :)
1. Four cores in a processor is ideal and the most you'll need for at least 5 years, anything more than four cores used purely for gaming is wasted cash.
2.If you want raw performance then GTX 580's and 6970's offer that...but in terms of price to performance ratio you'd want to look at £100 to £200 for graphics cards. If you have the extra then fair enough go all out but that's where the best value is found.
3. DO NOT BUY A CHEAP POWER SUPPLY, cannot stress this enough, if there's a PSU that supposedly outputs 650Watts and costs £25 likelihood is that it's shit. This is importent because if your power supply blows it CAN and most likely WILL take the rest of the system with it.
4. Be aware that if your going to spend £200 on a graphics card there's not much point getting a 1600X1080 resolution monitor, a cheaper card can easily match that res. Likewise if you go for a 2560X1600 res monitor you'll need a more powerful card to run games at max.

I'm sure there's more I could say but if you have any questions please ask :)
Okay I have a question... What is the importance of a computer case? Is it simply just for aesthetics, or does it have a deeper impact on performance? Could I get away with a cheap case and still have the thing run smooth as butter?
Room. Fans. Fan slots.

The case needs to reflect what you want in your computer as stuff won't fit. My case is this [http://i51.tinypic.com/6ns6sw.jpg](don't mind the dust, I was away for a month and hadn't used it). This was because I bought it without thinking about what PSU and GPU I wanted.

OT:
Don't know if you want a good, expensive PC, but here's one I am about to build, excluding monitor and keyboard. link [http://i56.tinypic.com/2j4d08z.png]
 

pokepuke

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Dec 28, 2010
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BreakfastMan said:
First piece of advice: don't listen to any of the above posts. Most of them suck. And if you're asking those kinds of questions, then no one should be answering them.

What you should do is go someplace like here: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/CyberPower_P67_Configurator/

If you want to save money, you can lower the memory to 4GB, pick the Intel cooling fan and heatsink (you don't want liquid anyway), and change the motherboard to one of the cheaper Gigabyte boards (I like Gigabyte).

Pick the appropriately priced video card; a good value is the Radeon 6870, or go for the GTX 570 if you have spare money. The 1.5TB hard drive is actually the best value, but also might be pointless if you never use the space. Pick whatever case you like. You can choose the better processor if you have throwaway money, it would only be good for enhanced future-proofing.

Don't change any other parts unless you need a blu-ray player or whatever.
 

Baneat

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Jul 18, 2008
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Hand people a budget, what you need, and they can squeeze the best price/performance

The 6950 does *very* well as a component, provided you get an unlockable one AND you unlock it

The intel 2500/2600K i5's pack a lot of performance for the price too. Most people put some form of aftermarket cooler on i-series CPU's and overclock it to really high speeds safely.

Zalman Z7/Z9 is a good cheap case, plenty of airflow

PSU? Corsair.
 

b1u3too

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Jul 14, 2009
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Canadian market wise, the best sites to order from are Memory Express and Tiger Direct. I think the states best site to start at is Newegg, but don't quote me.

These guys seem to have you down for parts ideas, but I just want you to know if you build a top-of-the-line yet price-point balanced PC, (Say a core i7 with an X58 MOBO), don't be surprised to run yourself $2000 CDN.

Be careful when picking a case-- you really don't need anything fancy, but if you want something that looks sweet for price point, look at Cooler Mastar cases, and branch out your parts from there.

Now, I'm not a huge gear head, but I've done quite a few builds by now. What this thread looks like so far is tricky to pinpoint... So I'll give you little procedural guide, if'n perhaps that's the way you think.

1. Pick your case. Take note of how much space you have for it and all that jazz, and the proportions of the inside. You'll need to make sure you've got enough room for all your parts.

2. Motherboard. I'm sure other gear-heads say what's good here, but this is the part you should start picking right after your case, because it will determine a lot of the compatability of your other parts.

3. Processor - This concerns your power for processing. Now, I may be a little biased, but last I checked, the Intel i7, Bloomfield 950 is super-overclockable, and the cheapest core i7 on the market right now. I'm not an AMD fangirl, so I can't really speak to the competition's product.

4. EVERYTHING ELSE. From here, just fiddle to see how much power you can cram in for your budget. For gaming, focus on your RAM and Video Card(s). You can probably bolster your budget a little if you find good deals on parts bundles for the above parts on said websites.

Saving on shipping is another way to weedle more bang for your buck.

And if'n you like what I have to say, I'll check back and keep helpin' you out mate. Support on these kinds of projects, especially the first time, is crucial. :D
 

Baneat

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Jul 18, 2008
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Ephraim J. Witchwood said:
BGH122 said:
BreakfastMan said:
Ephraim J. Witchwood said:
You really want to go all out? I mean, you really want to go all out? Because that's when you get into price ranges that un-informed people use when arguing against PC gaming.
Well, I want something will be able to play games that come out 5-6 years from now on medium settings at least, so, yeah I guess? I do not know all that much about PC gaming, but I want a really, really powerful computer, so I would think that requires one to go all out...
If you're looking to go seriously all out then enjoy your $5000 graphics card [http://www.i-store.com.au/product/?CategoryID=2&productid=10065].
Um, that's for serious graphical work, and really shouldn't even be on the radar for someone who wants a PC for games. Unless they're making games, then it could be an option. >_>
They're shit for games, these specialist cards are designed for special purposes
 

Carlston

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Apr 8, 2008
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Got to best buy, find a so so machine. Slap 200 dollar video card in it.

And then enjoy. It's basic as it gets. And since pc games are slanted to console specs it'll last a while.
 

Kevon Huggins

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Jan 27, 2011
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i buy my pc building stuff off amazon
and rely dont go all out , if you are base your pc to run a certain game say crysis or better yet bf3 thats how i build my pcs i use the recommened stuff for that
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/build_a_kickass_500_gaming_pc_play_crysis_40fps
 

Ima842

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Jan 8, 2011
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I suggest
<url=http://www.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingItem.aspx?ItemList=N82E16819115211>Intel core I7 3,06
<url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130611> nvidia gtx 460
<url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121470>intel mobo (when you smell it you'll know)
<url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104118> 6 gb ddr3 1600
And now you are future proof.
 

B-Cool

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Dec 18, 2010
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It's hard not to recommend an i5 2500k [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072&cm_re=i5_2500k-_-19-115-072-_-Product] though as they're currently the best value-for-money processors for gaming on the market, and are ridiculously easy to overclock.
 

Retronana

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Nov 27, 2010
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B-Cool said:
It's hard not to recommend an i5 2500k [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072&cm_re=i5_2500k-_-19-115-072-_-Product] though as they're currently the best value-for-money processors for gaming on the market, and are ridiculously easy to overclock.

This a million times over, i7's offer NOTHING over i5's in terms of gaming performance as hyper threading isn't and I doubt will ever be used in games. If you have the cash go i5 2500K (as mentioned above)
 

LeafofStone

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Nov 19, 2009
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ok, my best piece of advice to you is buy a copy of PC Power Play, if you dont live in Australia, bad luck cos thats where they sell it.

http://www.pcpowerplay.com.au/

This is a REALLY good magazine for getting into PC gaming, it has a dedicated section for Indie games that can turn out to heaps of fun, and every week does reviews on the latest parts and accessories for your pc.

Seriously give it a look in, even the website has some great stuff on it.
 

LeafofStone

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Nov 19, 2009
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And also games that you should try

1. Torchlight ( Diablo rip off)
2. Minecraft (You know what this is)
3. Team Fortress 2 (The console version was rubbish give it another go on PC )
4. League of Legends (FREE) (also DOTA rip off)
5. Hero's of Might and Magic
6. The Elder Scrolls (Dont care if you have in on XBOX or PS3 buy it again for the mods)
 

RhombusHatesYou

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Mar 21, 2010
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The Wide, Brown One.
Baneat said:
They're shit for games, these specialist cards are designed for special purposes
No workstation gear is optimal for gaming, the way they're designed to handle and process information is fundamentally different from what you'd want in a gaming rig so it's inefficient and requires you to throw a lot more raw computing power to get the same result as a gaming rig build on standard desktop architecture would give. For gaming purposes a workstation GPU is going to give you performance roughly equal to a mid-range desktop card of the same generation.
 

Baneat

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Jul 18, 2008
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RhombusHatesYou said:
Baneat said:
They're shit for games, these specialist cards are designed for special purposes
No workstation gear is optimal for gaming, the way they're designed to handle and process information is fundamentally different from what you'd want in a gaming rig so it's inefficient and requires you to throw a lot more raw computing power to get the same result as a gaming rig build on standard desktop architecture would give. For gaming purposes a workstation GPU is going to give you performance roughly equal to a mid-range desktop card of the same generation.
So are you agreeing with me or...?