Need help with a gaming PC

[kampori]

Hey guys,

If any of you have seen me around here, you'll know well that I'm a console gamer through-and-through. Therefore, I no absolutely NOTHING about PC/PC-gaming. I'm about to start University soon, and my laptop (Apple MacBook Pro) is a- not great for games, b- I want to use only for work. And seeing as I don't want to bring my Xbox/tv to my small university room, I don't mind investing in a gaming PC..... against all my distastes for the PC (no offense, but it'll take a while to get used to a keyboard etc)

Therefore, what I need from ye fellow escapists is-

can you recommend a good, top end gaming PC? Money isn't 'that' big of an issue, particularly as if I'm going as far as to get a PC, it may as well be one of the best you can get at the moment, so it lasts a while.

Any brands/names spring to mind? If so- why should I buy it?

I would really appreciate any help you can offer me in this field.
Thanks a million in advance,
kampori

 

[Wolfram23]

Well hopefully you're looking at a desktop. Tom's Hardware actually has some very good threads going on right now asking people to put together the ultimate $1000 and $2000 builds - these don't include monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers just the box and components. Let's say you want $2000 for the whole beast, IMO you should look at these two threads

(Intel based)
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/294020-31-bestconfigs-high-intel-gaming

(AMD based)
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/294021-31-bestconfigs-high-gaming

IMO, spend a few days researching. Look up GPU benchmarks, decide what you want - Nvidia, ATI, single card, two cards? Also keep in mind that this fall we should be seeing 3rd gen SSDs which will bring down price/GB and also AMD is brining out their 6xxx series cards.

If you want a solid machine you could do something similar to mine. I promise it performs like a champ.

CPU: i5 750
Motherboard: Asus P7P55D Pro
HDD: Two Seagate 7200.12 500GB in RAID 0 (alternatively, use a single HDD for storage and get an SSD which is really fast)
Power: Corsair 750TX (Corsair is a top brand, high efficiency and lots of amperage)
GPU: Two Sapphire 5850s in Crossfire

That's the gist of it. You'll need at least a mid size tower case, I'm using an Antec 902 which is pretty large but not too large (only need full size if you want internal water cooling). Cases are really a personal choice just make sure it's got plenty of fans (or options for fans). I've also added an AuzenTech Bravura sound card for 7.1 audio and just recently invested in a Sennheiser PC 350 headset which I can tell you, if you need a headset, this thing is the king. I mean, some might be equal but I can't imagine something being better. The sound quality and positioning is supreme (literally, stereo speakers but I can perfectly locate sounds anywhere in 3 dimensions including above and below).

Now, for the GPUs, at this point I think Nvidia has the upper hand. Their GTX 460s in SLI perform really really well, and they're cheaper than 5850s. 470s are also extremely good. But like I mentioned, AMD is about to release their new GPUs (their 5xxx series is a fair bit older than the NV fermi cards).

SSDs are a great upgrade, shaves a LOT of time off loading and installing but the problem is they're generally not that large, and if you want 160GB it'll cost $700 right now. It's hard to recommend one when you won't be able to put a lot of games on it.

I'd say if you want to spend around $2000, use something like what I listed but maybe only go with a single GPU like a GTX 470 and add on a nice big monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers/headset.

And do some research if you want to be happy with the results

EDIT: I should mention, building your own if you're tech savvy can be a lot of fun and it's quite rewarding to get that final PC put together and booted up. If you need to buy pre built... well... Don't go HP lol. I know it can take time to research and all that but honestly, building is the best way to go for value. And the site I linked, Tom's Hardware, is an absolutely brilliant resource with a really great forum community to help. The Sytems forum has tons and tons and tons of threads on builds people are putting together so you can just go through, find ones that look interesting etc.

 

[kampori]

Hey mate,
thanks a lot for all this great info. Really useful. Seems I've got some homework to do, then! I'll get started right away.

Ps, yes- a desktop, and no- I'm really not tech savvy.. maybe I can get a friend of mine to help (build it for me)

You're the best!

 

[Wolfram23]

Hey mate,
thanks a lot for all this great info. Really useful. Seems I've got some homework to do, then! I'll get started right away.

Ps, yes- a desktop, and no- I'm really not tech savvy.. maybe I can get a friend of mine to help (build it for me)

You're the best!

Glad to help. I'm on the Tom's Hardware forums all the time so I can help you a lot from there (although I don't check the Systems forum much, mostly the CPU, OC, and Graphics forums) but anyway, I'll be glad to help with any further questions or whatever.

 

[D3l7a3ch0]

DELL desktop package from Wal Mart i570-5378 $600 includes 22" flatscreen monitor
ATI HD 5770 graphics card $200 best buy
BFGTech 550W Power Supply $75 best buy (fits in Dell tower)

good to go. $1000.00 plays anything. available off the shelf.

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