Trying to get into pc gaming, but I don't have that powerful enough of a laptop or desktop. Can i get some suggestions on what I can do? Upgrade some components on my already existing pc or laptop, build one myself, or any suggestion for a cheap but powerful enough gaming laptop or pc?
PC Gaming
- Thread starter GeeksUtopia
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1. What's cheap? What's your budget?
2. What kind of components do you already have?
3. What's "powerful enough"? What are your expectations?
2. What kind of components do you already have?
3. What's "powerful enough"? What are your expectations?
What BloatedGuppy said. We need more information. What I can tell you is that it's pretty hard to upgrade a laptop, even less so for cheap. Unless you mean trade it in and get a new one. Which is still not optimal. Probably the cheapest solution is to upgrade your desktop. Probably. We need more info, though.BloatedGuppy said:
I can answer 1 and 3. My budget is anything 1000 and below. My expectations is that it could play planetside 2 with no problems.
It would be good to know what you've already got so I know if you need a monitor, a case, etc.
But assuming those things are already accounted for, and we're upgrading an existing PC...
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K @ 3.40GHz - $220
Mainboard: Kind of random, but this one seems like it'll do and be compatible with the CPU...
- $150
Video Card: GTX Geforce 660TI - $300
RAM: 8-16 Gigs of whatever the fuck - $100-$200
Those are your core, performance impacting items. That's something like...I dunno...$800 up there? $900? $1000 is a fairly generous budget, you could definitely go for a lower end video card and save $100 or more. If you have a smaller monitor that might be advisable, 660 would be overkill and then some. Accoutrements like a HD and system fans and what not don't amount of to a lot of money, just buy a nice standard one and you'll be fine. With a $1000 budget I don't think you want to be getting into SS drives, as nice as they are.
But assuming those things are already accounted for, and we're upgrading an existing PC...
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K @ 3.40GHz - $220
Mainboard: Kind of random, but this one seems like it'll do and be compatible with the CPU...
ASUS P8Z77-V Lk ATX LGA1155 Z77 DDR3 3PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 3PCI SATA3 SLI DVI HDMI DP USB3.0 Motherboard
Video Card: GTX Geforce 660TI - $300
RAM: 8-16 Gigs of whatever the fuck - $100-$200
Those are your core, performance impacting items. That's something like...I dunno...$800 up there? $900? $1000 is a fairly generous budget, you could definitely go for a lower end video card and save $100 or more. If you have a smaller monitor that might be advisable, 660 would be overkill and then some. Accoutrements like a HD and system fans and what not don't amount of to a lot of money, just buy a nice standard one and you'll be fine. With a $1000 budget I don't think you want to be getting into SS drives, as nice as they are.
Here's http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-a-pc-overclocking-do-it-yourself,3366.htmlGeeksUtopia said:
A $1000 gaming rig from Tom's Hardware, they tell you what parts to buy and how it goes together.
If you don't want to click the link, here's the parts list.
$1,000 Enthusiast System Components
Motherboard Gigabyte DA-970A-D3, Socket AM3+, AMD 970 Chipset $70
Processor AMD FX-8350 (Piledriver): 4 GHz Base Clock Rate, 4.3 GHz Maximum Turbo Core, 8 MB Shared L3 Cache $220
Heat Sink Xigmatek Loki SD963 92 mm CPU Cooler $25
Memory Mushkin Enhanced Blackline: DDR3-1600, 2 x 4 GB (8 GB) Dual-Channel Desktop Memory Kit $50
Graphics Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 GV-N670OC-2GD, 2 GB GDDR5 $350
SSD OCZ Agility 3: 60 GB, SATA 6Gb/s $65
Hard Drive Hitachi GST Deskstar 7K1000.C: 1 TB, 7200 RPM, 32 MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s $90
Optical LG GH24NS90 OEM: DVD Burner $19
Case HEC Blitz $50
Power Corsair CX600: 600 W, ATX12V, EPS12V, 80 PLUS-Certified $70
Total Cost $1,009
Ignore anyone telling you to get 16 gigs of RAM. No one needs that much.
8 is standard now. I generally think future proofing with RAM is never a bad move, especially since RAM tends to be extremely cheap.ResonanceSD said:
In my experience, laptops aren't gaming machines. Ever. If you want to play casual games on a laptop, or maybe some MMOs then a laptop might suffice. If you want high-end PC gaming like the Mass Effect games, Skyrim, The Witcher, Mechwarrior Online, Shogun 2, or even shooters like Call of Duty, you want a Desktop.GeeksUtopia said:
If you want more casual, less graphically intensive games like Walking Dead and Torchlight, a laptop should suffice. MMOs may play well on laptops, I know I used to play WoW and Guild Wars on a laptop, but I don't know how the current generation of MMO such as Star Wars or Guild Wars 2 perform on laptops.
Laptops are more expensive than Desktops, harder and more expensive to upgrade (some components on laptops are IMPOSSIBLE to upgrade) and they tend to go obsolete faster than Desktops.
For $1000 or less you can get a pretty screaming Desktop machine that will run any PC game you can throw at it, and won't need any major updates for at least 3 years, depending on what components you buy. I'm not including the price of a monitor in that $1000, assuming you have one. If you don't, you might need a slightly higher upfront investment, but monitor prices these days are very good.
The $1000 system posted above is actually a great starting place. I personally don't think Solid State Drives are really necessary for PC gaming though, so you can save some money there.
His budget is generous, and presumably this PC would be a framework for future upgrades. Unless you think the next thing to go would be the mobo, rendering his RAM useless on the next upgrade pass.ResonanceSD said:
Historically, every time I've thought "Ha! That's too much RAM! I'll never need that!" inside of a year I end up regretting it.
You're right though, as of today 8 is plenty.
Get 8 gigs and leave 2 slots open, it's not rocket surgery. The only time this strategy ever steered me wrong was when I got a pos motherboard that had 2 faulty RAM sockets.BloatedGuppy said:
Of course this is dependant on what system he already has, and I suppose what currency we're talking, though I'd put cash money on American Dollars.
You can't really upgrade anything on a labtop that would increase game performance other than RAM, and that's not really that big of a deal to begin with. If you have a desktop with a relatively decent CPU, the easiest thing would be to just buy a mid-range GPU (like the 650ti) and a new power supply (600w should do it). Altogether, that would cost about between $220-300. Check out Linus Tech Tips on youtube for everything you need to know about computer components, building systems, installing new GPUs, RAM, PSUs, etc. etc.
lol, no one can run planetside 2 at a decent framerate during heavy combat atm. And if you're budget is up to 1k--hell, you can build a beast for that price. If you want pre-built, check out iBuyPower. Best thing to do would be to build it yourself. It's really not that hard and it saves you a ton.GeeksUtopia said:
Here's a link to a pretty good iBuypower rig, just make sure to change the GPU from a gtx610 to something decent like a gtx 660ti (you want at least a 650ti or higher or its Radeon equivalent).
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Holiday_Paladin_E
Yep, first we'll need the currency for that money. $1000 USD will get you a reasonably good machine. Wouldn't call it top of the line by any stretch, but definitely better than average.
Secondly we will need to know what you have in your machine. I believe someone's already posted a link to get that sorted.
Once that's done we can decide what to upgrade to get your PC as optimal as possible.
Two people have already cited similar parts to what I cited for my friend when he was building his new rig, so I'll list them here, though I'll only put the items that are likely to need upgrading until you give us your current specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5 3570
I personally wouldn't bother with the 3570K. It just adds the capacity for overclocking, which you honestly won't need, and costs a bit more.
Motherboard: Really any Z77, I think I ended up suggesting my to my friend the ASRock Extreme6 Z77, though the Extreme9 Z77 is better it kinda broke past his budget, but really any Z77 motherboard will work, better ones just give you more options in what you can add into your PC most of the time, and give minor performance increases.
RAM: 8Gb of any DDR3 RAM, IMO preferably Corsair or GSkill, and I'd probably do it in 2 4Gb sicks instead of one 8Gb stick to take advantage of Dual Channel RAM, if the motherboard you end up getting has that.
Beyond that you might need a new Power Supply, which I'll agree with kiri on: OCZ ModXStream 700W
But yeah, holding off final judgement on parts to buy until I know what you have.
Secondly we will need to know what you have in your machine. I believe someone's already posted a link to get that sorted.
Once that's done we can decide what to upgrade to get your PC as optimal as possible.
Two people have already cited similar parts to what I cited for my friend when he was building his new rig, so I'll list them here, though I'll only put the items that are likely to need upgrading until you give us your current specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5 3570
I personally wouldn't bother with the 3570K. It just adds the capacity for overclocking, which you honestly won't need, and costs a bit more.
Motherboard: Really any Z77, I think I ended up suggesting my to my friend the ASRock Extreme6 Z77, though the Extreme9 Z77 is better it kinda broke past his budget, but really any Z77 motherboard will work, better ones just give you more options in what you can add into your PC most of the time, and give minor performance increases.
RAM: 8Gb of any DDR3 RAM, IMO preferably Corsair or GSkill, and I'd probably do it in 2 4Gb sicks instead of one 8Gb stick to take advantage of Dual Channel RAM, if the motherboard you end up getting has that.
Beyond that you might need a new Power Supply, which I'll agree with kiri on: OCZ ModXStream 700W
But yeah, holding off final judgement on parts to buy until I know what you have.
Ah, I see the lovely beast of getting people to buy way too much power is in the house.
You will not need 700W for a $1000 budget.
The end.
I'm running two 580's and a 2600K off an 850W.
Don't be ridiculous, it's a waste of cash.
You will not need 700W for a $1000 budget.
The end.
I'm running two 580's and a 2600K off an 850W.
Don't be ridiculous, it's a waste of cash.
With a $1000 budget, you can afford to future proof a little. Buying a 500W PSU now, and in 5 years time when you upgrade buying another PSU with higher capacity may end up costing more than just buying a 700W now, plus it makes that next upgrade easier.ResonanceSD said:
And why not put a bit of extra power into the machine?
All you'll need to run PS2 fine is a single 560Ti at most, probably even less, yet I see a 660 and 670 listed in this thread as well.
You also wouldn't need a 3570, you could easily get a much cheaper i5 and mobo and still run PS2 fine.
You could also make do on either 2 or 3Gb of RAM, yet 8Gb is a constant listing here.
Seeing as the difference between a 500W and 700W PSU is maybe $40, I don't think its going to break his budget that much.
In general saying you have a $1000 budget is saying you have $1000 to spend on a new computer, how good can you make it. If the OP comes and says that he wants it to be cheaper rather than more powerful, you'll probably see a change in tune of what people list. As is though, there isn't really much wrong with posting better parts than you'll need, and with the PSU especially I tend to be cautious. Stuff up and give them too little power and the PC will just randomly crash for no reason. Its what happened when I first started running my two 560Ti 2GBs and 2600K off a 500W PSU. Better to be safe than sorry IMO.
My own computer isn't even heavily customised, but has been able to run well anything I threw at it. This is only my own setup, not a recommedation - if you want to get the same performance you can likely do it for a lot less by customising. You could likely get it for less without too, considering my setup is about 18 months old.
Model: eMachines ET1862
Processor: Intel Core i3 550
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti (~£90)
RAM: 4 GB (~£20)
The base machine was £300, and I upgraded the memory and video card which led to it costing £410 ($660), though this is of course using the same sound system and monitor as before. I imagine it's even cheaper since. I've never had any problems with performance at all... Shogun 2 defaults to Ultra settings, and I can't think of any game (that is out that I want) that would need more power than that.
As you said you're trying to get into pc gaming, I would prioritise good but cheap over masses of power.
Model: eMachines ET1862
Processor: Intel Core i3 550
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti (~£90)
RAM: 4 GB (~£20)
The base machine was £300, and I upgraded the memory and video card which led to it costing £410 ($660), though this is of course using the same sound system and monitor as before. I imagine it's even cheaper since. I've never had any problems with performance at all... Shogun 2 defaults to Ultra settings, and I can't think of any game (that is out that I want) that would need more power than that.
As you said you're trying to get into pc gaming, I would prioritise good but cheap over masses of power.
Holy shit you just quoted my PC specs!BloatedGuppy said:
The above, plus a good 600W PSU, and a 2TB 7200RPM HDD will do you very nicely indeed.If you're in the UK you can throw in a small SSD as a system drive and buy a copy of windows and still be under that budget. Even if you go for a 3GB 660 ti, should very happily do anything on one monitor.
Ok finally got back online and what I have is an HP:
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 , CPU M350 , 2.27GHZ
Installed memory(RAM) 4.00 GB (3.80 GB usuable)
System Type: 64 - bit operating system
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 , CPU M350 , 2.27GHZ
Installed memory(RAM) 4.00 GB (3.80 GB usuable)
System Type: 64 - bit operating system