I need a gaming PC... help?

[Keela]

So, with the recent release of The Witcher 2, I have decided that I am finally going to get around to finding a gaming PC. Unfortunately, I am very far from being a computers expert. In fact, I have virtually no idea what to look for other than RAM and a decent graphics card. I've been looking at other forums and product reviews, but all of these strange numbers and mysterious terminology confuse my tiny, n00bish mind.

So, fellow geeks, what PC's do you use? Which brands do you trust? Do you have a setup that you would recommend?

I'm not positive on whether I'll be able to use my TV as an output (I believe it is 720p), or if I'll end up using my monitor. I'm not really trying to max all the settings or anything, I care most about the frame rate, as long as my PC can handle civilized settings at around 40-50fps I think I'll be happy. I also don't want to have to spend another $300 updating my PC in a year or two, if that can be avoided.

Any info you can give me would be greatly appreciated, but try to dumb down some of the tech-talk as, like I said, I'm no computer whiz.

 

[k7avenger]

Are you building your own computer or buying one already built?

 

[BreakfastMan]

Are you building your own computer or buying one already built?

This. This is probably the most important question. I am not that big of a computer whiz either, but I do know that we need to know whether you want to go pre-built (more expensive, but less hassle), or custom-built (less expensive, but more hassle) before we can get more specific.

 

[Exodan13]

I am currently playing The Witcher 2 on my PC on ultra high detail. Here are my specs (just to give you some idea of what you're looking for):

Intel i7 3.07Ghz
Nvidia Geforce GTX 470 graphics card
6GB RAM
2 x 1TB Hard Drives
OS: Windows 7 64bit

This spec should also future proof you to some degree should you want to play any future PC titles.

I bought my PC from Novatech, pre-built to these specs. Probably your best bet is to look up the recommended system requirements for the game and try and get something similar or slightly higher. I know that Dell do custom setups and they build the PC for you, you just choose what you want.

Also The Witcher 2 does currently has problems with framerate so once you have installed it you need to turn off the ubersampling option in the graphics settings in the game and this should vastly improve the performance.

 

[number2301]

As general advice -

CPU - Buying at the moment you want a second generation Core i5 or i7. So you're looking at anything from a 2300 to a 2600k. An i7 will nicely future proof your rig, but i5 is more than fine at the moment.

GPU - The current generation cards are Geforce 5XX series (i.e. 560), and AMD 6XXX series (i.e. 6850). Take your pick at your price point.

RAM - 4Gb is pretty much fine, and this should be matched to your motherboard (probably DDR3 1600MHz).

Motherboard - Match this to your CPU, not the biggest decision you'll make.

Monitor vs TV - Monitor. I've never seen a TV work properly with a PC, I don't know why, they just don't seem to.

 

[Sn1P3r M98]

Monitor vs TV - Monitor. I've never seen a TV work properly with a PC, I don't know why, they just don't seem to.

My TV was insanely finicky with my computer, I just decided to go with a nice monitor instead.

 

[number2301]

Also OP, in terms of monitors, there are three types of panel, IPS is best, VA is good, TN not so much. Only problem being IPS is slow, this might be an issue for you or it might not. Personally I'm waiting til fast IPS panels are about for a reasonable price.

Monitor vs TV - Monitor. I've never seen a TV work properly with a PC, I don't know why, they just don't seem to.

My TV was insanely finicky with my computer, I just decided to go with a nice monitor instead.

I just find that it doesn't have the same definition. It looks like you're not running at native resolution when according to the TV and the computer you are. I think Lifehacker had some tips to make it work better but I'd rather just go for a monitor.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

I currently have a "decent" computer,but not enough to run the Witcher 2 at a high settings:

Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06,3gb RAM and GTX 260 @ 896DDR 3.

I'm planning to get this for a upgrade to run games on ultra and which will last me performance wise at least a few years:

Motherboard: ASRock P67 Extreme 4 REV B3

Processor: Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz box

Placa Video: MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti Hawk 1GB DDR5 256-bit

RAM: Memorie Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1866MHz CL9 Dual channel kit

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-237-OK
This is the PC i was thinking of getting.
i3 processor overclocked to 4.2ghz
Gtx 460 1gb ddr5
8gb kingston hyperx ddr3
its about £700 and it seems pretty good, but i'm not really the best at this kind of thing xD

 

[Gweneth Knaff]

I'd like to boost my ASUS laptop, which runs crazy well.

 

[devotedsniper]

I run all my games on maximum @ 1680*1050 and i hardly have the latest equipment (specs below) point is don't fall for the whole you need the latest in order to run games at there best.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3GHz (theres no need for an i series unless you want to spend more, the core 2 quads still do a brilliant job with plenty of horsepower left over to play with, even at stock speeds)
Motherboard: Gigabyte G31M-ES2L (like £30 does the job brilliantly)
RAM: OCZ 2GB * 2 667MHz DDR2 (plenty of room to play with on Windows 7, the speed of the ram may be abit on the slow side but it's never hindered performance)
GPU: KFA2 NVIDIA GTX 460 768MB (the 1GB version is slightly more powerful but even at stock speed this can run The Witcher 2 on high, i haven't tried ultra)

So long as you have something similar to that your laughing for a good while, the only reason this rig is being scrapped next year is because i want a fresh build, and even then this rig is being turned into a server.

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-237-OK
This is the PC i was thinking of getting.
i3 processor overclocked to 4.2ghz
Gtx 460 1gb ddr5
8gb kingston hyperx ddr3
its about £700 and it seems pretty good, but i'm not really the best at this kind of thing xD

Buy this instead: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pc/range/revolution.html

Buy an extra stick of RAM if you want.

Thats awesome. Thank you greatly, you just saved me £160 =D

 

[Keela]

Are you building your own computer or buying one already built?

I'd prefer to just buy one and be done with it, but if building it's going to be that much cheaper I'm sure I can get some help from some of my friends who've done this sort of thing before.

Again, I suck with computers, so I don't even know which parts go where or do what or how high-tech I should go without spending every penny available to me.

I'd prefer to keep this within the $500's, if I can.

 

[Keela]

As general advice -

CPU - Buying at the moment you want a second generation Core i5 or i7. So you're looking at anything from a 2300 to a 2600k. An i7 will nicely future proof your rig, but i5 is more than fine at the moment.

GPU - The current generation cards are Geforce 5XX series (i.e. 560), and AMD 6XXX series (i.e. 6850). Take your pick at your price point.

RAM - 4Gb is pretty much fine, and this should be matched to your motherboard (probably DDR3 1600MHz).

Motherboard - Match this to your CPU, not the biggest decision you'll make.

Monitor vs TV - Monitor. I've never seen a TV work properly with a PC, I don't know why, they just don't seem to.

Well, thanks to you for helping me make that little decision. Anyways, I can likely find a refurbished monitor that will work for me, I've looked into that subject once or twice before.

 

[Keela]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-237-OK
This is the PC i was thinking of getting.
i3 processor overclocked to 4.2ghz
Gtx 460 1gb ddr5
8gb kingston hyperx ddr3
its about £700 and it seems pretty good, but i'm not really the best at this kind of thing xD

Buy this instead: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pc/range/revolution.html

Buy an extra stick of RAM if you want.

I think that link is broken... at least it won't work for me. Could you fill me in on what was on that link?

 

[Wicky_42]

As general advice -

CPU - Buying at the moment you want a second generation Core i5 or i7. So you're looking at anything from a 2300 to a 2600k. An i7 will nicely future proof your rig, but i5 is more than fine at the moment.

GPU - The current generation cards are Geforce 5XX series (i.e. 560), and AMD 6XXX series (i.e. 6850). Take your pick at your price point.

RAM - 4Gb is pretty much fine, and this should be matched to your motherboard (probably DDR3 1600MHz).

Motherboard - Match this to your CPU, not the biggest decision you'll make.

Monitor vs TV - Monitor. I've never seen a TV work properly with a PC, I don't know why, they just don't seem to.

Well, thanks to you for helping me make that little decision. Anyways, I can likely find a refurbished monitor that will work for me, I've looked into that subject once or twice before.

Just on the TV vs Monitor thing, I've hooked several laptops up to a big HDTV and had them work fine over the HDMI port, and a friend of mine has his PC hooked up to a 42 inch TV all the time - it can work. However, The resolution of TVs is, I think, significantly lower than your normal PC monitor - after all, "high definition" 1080p is a resolution of 1920x1080, and I get (slightly) better than that on my 24inch monitor, so all the extra size of "HD" TVs doesn't give you better picture definition than a large monitor.

That said, if you have a big TV nothing's stopping you from using it like you would a console - you just might struggle using it in a work capacity.

Tech-wise:
An Intel i3 is probably fine (as in, an i5 or i5k [for overclocking] is better, especially for a gaming rig, but an i3 is still better than most of the market) - make sure it's "socket 1155" and that the motherboard has the "B3 fix" if you want to have current generation tech, and not last years' stuff.

Socket 1155 motherboards should support USB 3 (the next generation USB with faster speeds) and SATA 6GB/s (for faster hard-drives). Compare motherboards for numbers of the various ports, and maybe (if you're interested in overclocking) look for some comparisons and reviews to see how well the board supports overclocking.

Graphics cards: Radeon HD 6950 is the low end of the current ATI gen (ATI HD 69xx series) that can be updated simply to be as fast as the next version up - the HD 6970. Current gen is expensive, though, and the HD 68xx series is still great. Not sure of the current Nvidia stuff, but a simple google of "radeon hd 69xx vs nvidia" will give you speed test comparisons for various games and allow you to make your own informed decision.

Minimum 4Gb of ram, I wouldn't say that more will make much of an improvement but it doesn't hurt.

For gaming, I'd put more money into the graphics card than the processor, that's where the most load seems to lie in general. More graphics card memory is good too - The Radeon HD 6950 I got was a version with 2Gb of memory (pretty uncommon on the market, and pretty much unheard of in its price range ), and performs MUCH better than the standard 1Gb version!

 

[MrTub]

I would go with a monitor and not a tv.

i5 2500(K)
1155 socket mobo
4-8gb ram(2/4 stick)
6950/560(570)
80+ Certified bronze psu


1gb vs 2gb video ram doesn't make any difference at all if you are using 1920x1080 resolution.

 

[Giest4life]

GPU - The current generation cards are Geforce 5XX series (i.e. 560)

You have no idea how you have hurt my custom built baby. She has Tri-SLI GTX 480's; she wants an apology.

OT: If you build it yourself, it should cost you around USD 1.5k, if you buy it, you are may be looking at 2K. As for the specifications, I see them aplenty in this thread.

EDIT: WOHOO! My thousandth post!