Gaming PC again

[Danceofmasks]

I've been meaning to upgrade my computer as well. I do play games (I'm here, aren't I?) but not that much. I don't care for cutting edge graphics. I'm fine with playing games on normal setting. I don't even play that much to begin with--mostly some RPGs. Is it really necessary to have 2GB gfx card to play games nowadays?

The bottom line is, right this minute, since AAA game titles want to be able to run on consoles over half a decade old, PCs can be quite rubbish and still run them reasonably well.

However, if we're talking price to performance ratio, and someone is on a budget, a significant percentage of that ought to go towards the GPU.
'cos that's where you're getting the bang for your buck.

Edit:
And no, the size of VRAM isn't all that important .. it's much more about how fast the chip is.

 

[pokepuke]

Wait for the Bulldozer processors if you want AMD. They might be pretty kickass and aren't too far away, so buying now is almost a waste. Same for Intel and Sandy Bridge.

I'd also go for a Radeon 6850 over a GTX460, if that is the price point you're aiming for. And with this setup all you need is a 450 watt power supply.

 

[McSpuddles]

For what it's worth I'm looking at getting a similarly specced machine at the moment. I'm planning to go with a 40Gb SSD drive for the OS and a 1Tb drive for the rest (wondering if I can set up some kind of symbolic linking magic to switch over games between the SSD and the regular drive when I need to but I guess I'll give that a go when it comes up). Good luck with your build.

 

[brainslurper]

I have a 1GB Nivida on my mac that was about 3000 bucks, but it also has 2TB HD and 16GB of ram. anyway, the 1GB graphics card handles every game I have ever tried on the highest possible settings at around 30fps. also, you should consider getting more ram if you want to do anything other then games. like 8GB. I have 16 because I usually run photoshop, flash, dreamweaver, final cut, and occasionally sketchup all at once.

 

[brainslurper]

I've been meaning to upgrade my computer as well. I do play games (I'm here, aren't I?) but not that much. I don't care for cutting edge graphics. I'm fine with playing games on normal setting. I don't even play that much to begin with--mostly some RPGs. Is it really necessary to have 2GB gfx card to play games nowadays?

The bottom line is, right this minute, since AAA game titles want to be able to run on consoles over half a decade old, PCs can be quite rubbish and still run them reasonably well.

However, if we're talking price to performance ratio, and someone is on a budget, a significant percentage of that ought to go towards the GPU.
'cos that's where you're getting the bang for your buck.

Edit:
And no, the size of VRAM isn't all that important .. it's much more about how fast the chip is.

consoles run 250-500MB graphics cards. so yes, any game that will run on a console will run on a 1GB pc.

 

[pokepuke]

(wondering if I can set up some kind of symbolic linking magic to switch over games between the SSD and the regular drive when I need to but I guess I'll give that a go when it comes up).

That is exactly what I did for my setup. I don't like crowding my main HD, in fear of slowing the OS, so I put Steam and all the games on a secondary. Vista/7 has a command-line tool built in, but for XP you can get something called Junction to make the links. Then just read the help file and make the link from one folder to another, and later on use the delete function.

I don't really think SSDs are worth the price for the small size, but that's another matter.

 

[Reyalsfeihc]

PSU: 900W Evo Labs 80+ ATX Power Supply (is 900W a bit excessive?)

Can you recommend any good .... Hard Drives?

900W is a bit overkill. The CoolerMaster GX 750W PSU [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_220&products_id=13525] will do a fine job running at 85% efficiency (it saves a fair amount of power). Hell, even a CoolerMaster GX 650W PSU [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_220&products_id=13526] will do the job, though you may have to upgrade later if you plan to SLI or Crossfire two powerful GPUs. As for a hard drive, Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital are all great brands. 1TB to start off is good, but if you need 2TB then go for it.

650 Watts won't be enough power to sustain the Geforce 460 and the Quad Core processor with all the additional hardware. I'd definitely get a 750 watt power supply, not much more expensive, but you honestly don't need a 900 Watt power supply unless you wanted to crossfire ATI cards or run Nvidia SLI with a slightly better performance bump.

 

[MercurySteam]

PSU: 900W Evo Labs 80+ ATX Power Supply (is 900W a bit excessive?)

Can you recommend any good .... Hard Drives?

900W is a bit overkill. The CoolerMaster GX 750W PSU [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_220&products_id=13525] will do a fine job running at 85% efficiency (it saves a fair amount of power). Hell, even a CoolerMaster GX 650W PSU [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_220&products_id=13526] will do the job, though you may have to upgrade later if you plan to SLI or Crossfire two powerful GPUs. As for a hard drive, Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital are all great brands. 1TB to start off is good, but if you need 2TB then go for it.

650 Watts won't be enough power to sustain the Geforce 460 and the Quad Core processor with all the additional hardware. I'd definitely get a 750 watt power supply, not much more expensive, but you honestly don't need a 900 Watt power supply unless you wanted to crossfire ATI cards or run Nvidia SLI with a slightly better performance bump.

Here, we're gonna have to agree to disagree. 650W for a Quad CPU + GTX 460 + X2 DDR3 Memory + 1TB HDD + MSI 870 mainboard will run fine. Hell, some people run quad cores with GTX 460s on 500W PSU's.

How about we just say that 650W is the minimum.

 

[Reyalsfeihc]

PSU: 900W Evo Labs 80+ ATX Power Supply (is 900W a bit excessive?)

Can you recommend any good .... Hard Drives?

900W is a bit overkill. The CoolerMaster GX 750W PSU [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_220&products_id=13525] will do a fine job running at 85% efficiency (it saves a fair amount of power). Hell, even a CoolerMaster GX 650W PSU [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_220&products_id=13526] will do the job, though you may have to upgrade later if you plan to SLI or Crossfire two powerful GPUs. As for a hard drive, Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital are all great brands. 1TB to start off is good, but if you need 2TB then go for it.

650 Watts won't be enough power to sustain the Geforce 460 and the Quad Core processor with all the additional hardware. I'd definitely get a 750 watt power supply, not much more expensive, but you honestly don't need a 900 Watt power supply unless you wanted to crossfire ATI cards or run Nvidia SLI with a slightly better performance bump.

Here, we're gonna have to agree to disagree. 650W for a Quad CPU + GTX 460 + X2 DDR3 Memory + 1TB HDD + MSI 870 mainboard will run fine. Hell, some people run quad cores with GTX 460s on 500W PSU's.

How about we just say that 650W is the minimum.

Sounds like a plan. Didn't mean to make it sound like I was attacking you or anything, but when I went to upgrade my processor a week ago 650 Watts wasn't enough so my processor experienced a lot of throttling and worked slower than my previous dual core. Also, I'm running a GTS 250 OC which I think uses more power then the 460 due to becoming more energy efficient with the 400 series.

Anyway, I would use the extra money you save on the PSU and HDD to get 4 gigs DDR3 instead of only 2, since it will help you out in the long run.

 

[omicron1]

Here, have some Tom's Hardware guides:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-recommendation-upgrade,2803.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-cpu-overclocking-phenom-ii-x4,2826.html

Those should help with choosing processor+GPU etc.

 

[MercurySteam]

PSU: 900W Evo Labs 80+ ATX Power Supply (is 900W a bit excessive?)

Can you recommend any good .... Hard Drives?

900W is a bit overkill. The CoolerMaster GX 750W PSU [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_220&products_id=13525] will do a fine job running at 85% efficiency (it saves a fair amount of power). Hell, even a CoolerMaster GX 650W PSU [http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_220&products_id=13526] will do the job, though you may have to upgrade later if you plan to SLI or Crossfire two powerful GPUs. As for a hard drive, Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital are all great brands. 1TB to start off is good, but if you need 2TB then go for it.

650 Watts won't be enough power to sustain the Geforce 460 and the Quad Core processor with all the additional hardware. I'd definitely get a 750 watt power supply, not much more expensive, but you honestly don't need a 900 Watt power supply unless you wanted to crossfire ATI cards or run Nvidia SLI with a slightly better performance bump.

Here, we're gonna have to agree to disagree. 650W for a Quad CPU + GTX 460 + X2 DDR3 Memory + 1TB HDD + MSI 870 mainboard will run fine. Hell, some people run quad cores with GTX 460s on 500W PSU's.

How about we just say that 650W is the minimum.

Sounds like a plan. Didn't mean to make it sound like I was attacking you or anything, but when I went to upgrade my processor a week ago 650 Watts wasn't enough so my processor experienced a lot of throttling and worked slower than my previous dual core. Also, I'm running a GTS 250 OC which I think uses more power then the 460 due to becoming more energy efficient with the 400 series.

Anyway, I would use the extra money you save on the PSU and HDD to get 4 gigs DDR3 instead of only 2, since it will help you out in the long run.

I can't really understand how you processor would slow down so much on a 650W PSU. My friend is running an AMD Phenom II X6 1055T on a PSU around 650W with no issues from what I've seen whilst he was playing CoD: Black Ops. Different people have different views from their own experiences. But in my opinion, a 750W PSU will be futureproof until it burns out or until you do a massive overhaul in four or five years time.

 

[Joshimodo]

People in glass houses and all that. Where are these games which specify a GPU with more than 2Gb RAM? Where are these GPUs with more than 2Gb RAM?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asus-ares-radeon-hd-5870-crossfire-4gb,2685-2.html

 

[number2301]

People in glass houses and all that. Where are these games which specify a GPU with more than 2Gb RAM? Where are these GPUs with more than 2Gb RAM?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asus-ares-radeon-hd-5870-crossfire-4gb,2685-2.html

Well what do you know there actually is one. Still doesn't change the fact that the poster I was addressing blatantly mixed up RAM and VRAM and started shouting at other people to get their facts straight.