So I've been thinkin'..

[Super_Nintendo_Chalmers]

Recently I've been spending quite a bit more time at the internet cafe with some of my friends, and I've got to say, I love it.
I mean, I love my xbox, but PC gaming is just something that seems so new to me, something I've wanted to try for quite a long time.
Unfortunately I have a mac, which can only play a few games, most of which I already have for consoles.
So my question is, how much would it cost for me to get a pretty competent gaming computer built?

 

[Armored Prayer]

I have no idea but I bet its a lot.

I'm suffering something similar. I want to try PC gaming badly, but I afford a proper gaming computer.

 

[Flying-Emu]

$600 is a good guess.

You can get an ATI Radeon HD 4650, probably the best bang-for-your-buck card available right now, for about... $40?

Really, a lot of money goes into the case, monitor, and sound system, provided you don't have those already available.

 

[comadorcrack]

i've got a pretty decent rig that only cost just under £400 ... tho I did build it my self

 

[Zacharine]

I buil my PC over the christmas hols. Not including OS and monitor, 490?. This includes 4Gb of DDR3 memory, a 500Gb hard drive, a Radeon 4700 HD-series GPU and a AMD phenom II-family quad-core processor.

Ie. more than enough to play any game out there at 1280 resolution without a hitch.

Bying components from sales and/or using rebates and dowsizing a few components, this would have been under 400?. Which makes it roughly 500? when it includes a basic 19" LCD monitor.

 

[Sleekgiant]

Questions
-Do you want a laptop
-Do you want to spend a lot or a little
-What games do you want to play
-Why do you have a Mac(just kidding)
Give some more details instead of I want a gaming computer, that way people can help recommend what to buy(like graphics card and other junk). Also if you want a laptop you need to spring for a mouse and keyboard. Just give us some more details

 

[Johnnyallstar]

Laptop, about $1000, desktop, 700 bones about.

 

[Jark212]

I threw $1600 into my rig I'm using right now...

 

[Berethond]

Mine cost 700$ two years ago, and it still holds up great.
I need a new hard drive, though.

 

[The Undoer]

I play on a £500 pound PC, which can play anything but nothing that magnificently.

 

[Jiggabyte]

I bought mine around the £350 mark from a site that builds them for you. It's nothing spectacular, but it works pretty well indeed and I don't think there's any game it can't really play that's currently on the market. If you want something higher-end (where things like "DDR3" and "quad-core" start to be mentioned), probably £600-ish. I haven't checked myself, but that's what I've been told by people who build their own.

 

[quiet_samurai]

You can get a pretty decent one for around 700-800 US dollars. I actually ended up spending around 1400 when I built mine, but for the time it was a screaming machine.... and that was nearly 4 years ago. I'm about due for an upgrade.

 

[Macgyvercas]

The one I'm planning on buying will set me back around $2200 USD.

I could buy all the components and build it myself for much cheaper, but I'm too scard to do that.

 

[Irridium]

I built my rig about 2 years ago for about $400 USD

My rid is as follows:

Video card: ATI Radeon HD 3850
CPU: 2 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E7200 @ 2.53GHz (which makes my CPU speed about 4.554 GHz)
RAM: 2.0 GB
Hard Drive: 300 GB, although there's 60 GB left
DirectX version: 10

This doesn't include my monitor, sound system, and Operating system's price, since I had those before I built my PS.

Since I built it 2 years ago the price has most surely gone down, which its probably now around $150, maybe less.

Just keep in mind that you don't need a top-of-the-line computer to enjoy games on. Mine's 2 years old, which is about 50 years old in computer years, and it can still play most games these days with a decent frames per second on at least medium settings.

Hope that helps

 

[UberMore]

You can get a pretty decent computer with good RAM and what not for about £400, and then just find yourself an old 8600GT 512MB and install that (you shouldn't need a new power supply) and you'll be set with decent gaming graphics for at least another 12 months.

 

[Super_Nintendo_Chalmers]

If someone could supply me with an Australian site that could build me a pretty good system then that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

I got a pimpin' gaming laptop for seven hundred bucks. It was on super-sale (think the store was closing) so don't ask me for sources...

 

[Desaari]

Some of the cheapest PCs you can buy will run most games these days, probably because developers want to be able to port their games to consoles for the extra cash (NB I'm not trying to start shit, it's just good business sense).
Essentially they can cost as little as a console for a mid-range PC if you already have the basics, I.E. monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers/headphones and you assemble it yourself (which I wouldn't recommend if you don't know what you're doing).
It'll cost quite a bit more if you buy it pre-assembled, and if you don't already have a monitor (although you can connect it to a television set if you don't have that cash available), and expensive keyboards/mice/speakers really aren't essential.

 

[x0ny]

Computers are pretty cheap now, you can get a machine which will play this years and the next for around 500GBP, no monitor included, though 22inch widescreen monitors are around 100 to 120 GBP, good brands too, I saw a Samsung monitor for 114GBP.