Misconceptions about PC gaming.

[ReepNeep]

2. A gaming PC isn't upgraded every year- unless you're realy desperate to stay on the cutting edge. A new GPU every 3-4 years, and/or cpu every 4-5 is fine, and even then you don't have to, you'll still be in the game. (pun intended)

Do you play Pac Man or what?

A solid mid-range rig can last two years before it's video needs to be replaced. Everything else can last three years or potentially even more.

My X1950 Pro runs everything but Crysis pretty well (which is fine with me because Crytek games are crap) and it first came out in October of 06'. My CPU is an old A64 X2 in socket 939 which should be fine for another year at least. Those are from back in 2005.

If you do some research you don't have to upgrade for long periods of time and avoid spending more than 800$US on the rig as a whole. His 3-4 year figure is pretty dubious, but on the whole he is correct.

That 6600 GT will run Bioshock very poorly. My 6800 had trouble maintaining playable framerates (as in 25+) at any settings that didn't look like ass. Claiming that ancient cards like the 6600GT and 9700Pro can still run games today is every bit as disingenuous as saying you have to upgrade every six months.

 

[Danny Ocean]

^^TY.

Anyway, just took a pic of my PC and labelled the different bits so people can see what they look like.
It's a bit squashed up since my case size is a proprietry dell case, but the layout is the same (as a regular ATX case) except for the hard drives, which are normall mounted horizontally.

Spoiler: IMAGE

The reason you can't see the fans is that they are still spinning- I took this when the PC was on.

If you do some research you don't have to upgrade for long periods of time and avoid spending more than 800$US on the rig as a whole. His 3-4 year figure is pretty dubious, but on the whole he is correct.

In my short life I've only had to upgrade once, and that was after 4 years of the same, so it's just my experience. Lemme change it.

 

[WlknCntrdiction]

What monitor would be good? Which one do you have HBrutusH?

EDIT: I PM'ed you guys (HbrutusH and Reep Neep)
Many thanks in advance of the advice I'm about to receive

 

[Danny Ocean]

Mine's just the regular 20" dell screen (may or may not be 'ultrasharp', although I think it is). Although that doesn't make it a bad choice.

How big a moniter would you want?

Edit: what message?

 

[ReepNeep]

If you do some research you don't have to upgrade for long periods of time and avoid spending more than 800$US on the rig as a whole. His 3-4 year figure is pretty dubious, but on the whole he is correct.

In my short life I've only had to upgrade once, and that was after 4 years of the same, so it's just my experience. Lemme change it.

Well thats just my experience as well. If you really splurged and bought a good 500$US card at launch it might really last you that four years. The 8800GTX is definitely going to have that kind of lifespan. I personally buy a 150ish card every one or two years. I spend a lot less and get good performance the whole time.

It also depends on what level of performance you're willing to put up with. I start looking for a new card when I get a game that makes me start turning off major features like shadows or us a rez lower than 1024x768.

 

[TheKbob]

PC gaming just has a lot of uncertainties because it is such an open market. I'm trying out SLI for the very first time tomorrow when my bigger PSU and 2nd 8800GT comes rolling in from Newegg and I'm def worried about setting everything up. I have updated my BIOS, prepped proper drivers, installed benchmarking games and software, and read disasters on forums of issues I could possibly run into. Most likely, it will break down be A-Ok with no issues, but PC gaming also makes you smarter about PCs and their abilities... the PC is not going any where and will only become more and more applied to our society, so the more you learn, the better!

Good luck in your PC interests. Remember, Forums focused on PCs are usually the best way to find answers!

 

[laikenf]

All this is why I just buy a console to play video games. (I'm talking about all of the above comments of course)

 

[WlknCntrdiction]

All this is why I just buy a console to play video games. (I'm talking about all of the above comments of course)

All you need is perserverance, a pair of hands, some money lying about and the ability to tell your head from your ass, I'm hoping you have some if not all those qualities present, or there might be several problems ahead for ya.

 

[Alex_P]

All this is why I just buy a console to play video games. (I'm talking about all of the above comments of course)

But you have to learn all the fancy hardware terms in order to be able to defend your box in console flamewars, anyway.

-- Alex

 

[TheKbob]

All this is why I just buy a console to play video games. (I'm talking about all of the above comments of course)

But you have to learn all the fancy hardware terms in order to be able to defend your box in console flamewars, anyway.

-- Alex

XD

That's great. I'm en electrical engineering student, so that's why the hobby interests me more.

 

[LewsTherin]

The PC gaming master race agrees with your statements.

 

[Alex_P]

Misconception: "PC" means "Windows."

If it fits on top of a desk or in a brief case, can easily run a variety of applications, is mostly used by one person at a time, logged in directly, and is something a regular person could reasonably afford to own, then it's a "personal computer."

-- Alex

 

[Goenitz]

PC for life.

 

[TheThanatos]

A little thought on the whole price thing with PC's. First I'd like to point out I'm reasonably unbiased I own a PS3, X box 360, I plan to get a Wii, and I also have a £2000 pound self built P.C. I prefer my P.C over the other's, but hey thats a whole different discussion.
This is all about the price of the game's. Now I'm in the U.K and buy from play.com, but the same is true in an actual shop except you can stick at least another fiver on top of everything. And if it's not true in your home land then feel free to ignore it.
A new PC game usually cost's about £25, a new PS3 or X box game £40. Thats a £15 difference. How many games a year do you buy? At least 10? thats £150 now, over 3 year's thats £450, if your thinking on exclusive terms, that's a nice little upgrade, or a few extra quid on the initial build. Just a little thought.

 

[Jumplion]

All this is why I just buy a console to play video games. (I'm talking about all of the above comments of course)

But you have to learn all the fancy hardware terms in order to be able to defend your box in console flamewars, anyway.

-- Alex

Ah, but the "PC-tards" have to learn those terms anyway along with the terms of the other consoles so you can defend your "Magic Box".

I have a question to all the PC gamers on here, this is an honest to goodness question (one that is most likely stupid and idiotic) When you build your ultimate gaming Pc, does it still run like a business PC should? Or because you pumped so much power into your graphics processor that the internet isn't the best it could be?

This is a real question, seriously it is. If after you pumped up your PC for gaming and it can't do the original purposes that it was ment to do then you've just bought yourself a pimped out PS3 (in reference to the price)

Only later will I realize how stupid this question is.

 

[randomuser83]

PC gaming is simply the best because you can have what ever you want. Emulators, videos, controllers, even windows mode. I dont know about the future but pc gaming is the best.

 

[WlknCntrdiction]

All this is why I just buy a console to play video games. (I'm talking about all of the above comments of course)

But you have to learn all the fancy hardware terms in order to be able to defend your box in console flamewars, anyway.

-- Alex

I have a question to all the PC gamers on here, this is an honest to goodness question (one that is most likely stupid and idiotic) When you build your ultimate gaming Pc, does it still run like a business PC should? Or because you pumped so much power into your graphics processor that the internet isn't the best it could be?

I'm not one of those people you're addressing but if I'm not mistaken just because you build a PC specifically for gaming doesn't mean it magically stops being able to open Word or something like that I would imagine, that would just be stupid. I would think that just all the processor power etc would be transferred to doing the task you want it to do, albeit faster than most other computers if it's specifically a gaming rig.

 

[klarax]

AA (anti-aliasing) would do noting for ps3 games on a ps3. Nothing worth while at least...

PS2 games run at a low resolution. Playing that game on a PS3 means that the resolution has to be stretched. Alot! So its all down to stretching of a low resolution to a higher one...

All resulting in the PS2 games looking terrible.

Also monitors are much better at stretching. HDTV's suck at stretching... Depends how good the scaling chip is inside of the HDTV.

Doesn't help mind that ps2 gmaes have less polygons to make up a character etc...

 

[TheGhostOfSin]

Stuff

And how much is a console? Going by game.co.uk, a 360 is 260 pounds and a PS3 is 300 pounds. It's in the same price range.

Nope, I got me a cheap 360 by workin at game station when they came out and giving myself a discount and I always buy second hand games.
also, guy who said I was hostile, I re-read my post and it looks like that but im too lazy to edit