Poll: Would this be good for gaming?

[Gasaraki]

RAM's fine, processor ain't too shabby, but the graphics card isn't great. You can get a 1GB GTX 260 for only a little bit more.

How big is the gtx 260? I'm starting to think that I'll need to completely assemble a computer from scratch in order to have a case that won't melt and want to be sure that the card'll fit.

That is something worth considering. It's not hard to put a PC together. All the bits only go in one way, and it's colour coded. Just make sure to double-check everything before you buy, and read the instructions. Peasy.

If you want the dimensions, google them.

I tried, for some reason everyone's saying different stuff. Some people are saying 11.5 inches, some 10. And some people are saying 3mm of "clearance"
I am confuzzled -_-

EDIT: never mind, found em

 

[dsmops2003]

You dont want a normal HD. Get Solid State. Also thats a mini case...too small. You would have to get all low profile cards and such.

I hate to double post but if someone is buying a pc on the budget of a nvidia 250 do you really think it would be a sensible decision to upgrade to the money eater of pc gaming the ssd before upgrading any other component.

I dont see how adding one of these [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227510] as your primary HD after the fact is a deal breaker.

Smaller SSDs may be a decent price but my installed games alone are nearly 10 times that size and I dont consider installing windows to an SSD to knock a few seconds off boot time to be worth $95

Quite. You could get a fast terabyte hard drive for that much.

The fastest 1TB drive is 7200RPM. Which is slow...

Fast enough. [footnote]It's not just spin speed. In terms of raw read/write speeds the 7,200rpm 1tb HD I have actually has quite a kick. [http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2009/10/06/samsung-spinpoint-f3-1tb-review/10]
[/footnote] Judging by your listed occupation you should know not to over-specify for the sake of it. The increased capacity and negligible (to the average user) speed difference still make HDDs the more cost-effective option. The fastest SSDs like the ones you often see videos of are the higher end ones which number into the hundreds or thousands of pounds for their performance, but even the largest, as far as I know, doesn't exceed 500GB.

The point is that, for most people SSDs still don't offer enough of a boost to justify their inferior cost/gigabyte ratio.

You dont want a normal HD. Get Solid State. Also thats a mini case...too small. You would have to get all low profile cards and such.

I hate to double post but if someone is buying a pc on the budget of a nvidia 250 do you really think it would be a sensible decision to upgrade to the money eater of pc gaming the ssd before upgrading any other component.

I dont see how adding one of these [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227510] as your primary HD after the fact is a deal breaker.

Smaller SSDs may be a decent price but my installed games alone are nearly 10 times that size and I dont consider installing windows to an SSD to knock a few seconds off boot time to be worth $95

Quite. You could get a fast terabyte hard drive for that much.

The fastest 1TB drive is 7200RPM. Which is slow...

Fast enough. [footnote]It's not just spin speed. In terms of raw read/write speeds the 7,200rpm 1tb HD I have actually has quite a kick. [http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2009/10/06/samsung-spinpoint-f3-1tb-review/10]
[/footnote] Judging by your listed occupation you should know not to over-specify for the sake of it. The increased capacity and negligible (to the average user) speed difference still make HDDs the more cost-effective option. The fastest SSDs like the ones you often see videos of are the higher end ones which number into the hundreds or thousands of pounds for their performance, but even the largest, as far as I know, doesn't exceed 500GB.

The point is that, for most people SSDs still don't offer enough of a boost to justify their inferior cost/gigabyte ratio.

I was saying that the 7200 compared to a ssd is slow. Also the drive I suggested earlier was only 89$ and was not meant to replace the HDD that came with the system but augment it. The OP never questioned whether the hd he slelected was large enough but merely would it offer the performance to run a game like crysis etc.

 

[Gasaraki]

RAM's fine, processor ain't too shabby, but the graphics card isn't great. You can get a 1GB GTX 260 for only a little bit more.

How big is the gtx 260? I'm starting to think that I'll need to completely assemble a computer from scratch in order to have a case that won't melt and want to be sure that the card'll fit.

I'd tell you, but I don't feel like taking my computer apart at the moment.

However, I'm perfectly sure that Nvidia have the dimensions on their website.

Yeah i found them. What does "Dual slot" width mean though?

 

[dsmops2003]

Right, so I've found something that doesn't have a tower the size of a tissue box.

This one [http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/acer-acer-aspire-amd-athlon-ii-x4-620-2-6ghz-computer-am3300-e1222-am3300-e1222/10137164.aspx?path=9d200f0c3c7d477058e5e9188233486een02]

Thoughts?

I dont know much about amd processors but it seems a little better and the DDR3 ram will certainly help out in ram intesive programs and the case, while not exactly a coolermaster looks big enough and cool enough for a low-mid end graphics card.

Can't I add some more fans or heatsinks though?

You're still missing the form factor of you're case that you picked is too small to accommodate a large fan/heatsink like suggested above. Also this is a case built by a manufacturer and was not intended to be modified they way you want. You will find out that adding things to this case will be hard or impossible.

Well what would be a good size for a case?

Any ATX Mid Tower case would be fine.

Just out of curiosity, i just noticed that the processor for the second PC that i chose is a quad core (thought it was a dual core), do they tend to heat up a lot?

It depends on the wattage of the cpu that will dictate the amount of power used and therefor the amount of heat produced by the cpu.

 

[weker]

it would run crysis not to its full extent

 

[dsmops2003]

RAM's fine, processor ain't too shabby, but the graphics card isn't great. You can get a 1GB GTX 260 for only a little bit more.

How big is the gtx 260? I'm starting to think that I'll need to completely assemble a computer from scratch in order to have a case that won't melt and want to be sure that the card'll fit.

I'd tell you, but I don't feel like taking my computer apart at the moment.

However, I'm perfectly sure that Nvidia have the dimensions on their website.

Yeah i found them. What does "Dual slot" width mean though?

It means it uses up 2 openings on the back of your tower which blocks one of the slots on your motherboard.

 

[Callate]

BEWARE:

The power supply that comes with that PC model is only 300 Watts. Most of the 260 line recommend at least a 500W power supply. Depending on the model, they may also require extra hard drive power dongles which the factory-standard power supply is unlikely to provide.

 

[yoyo13rom]

It's times like this I feel ashamed of how poor my country is(and me on the same hand)...
Heh,guess you boys should take your fancy toys and go play now, right?
For me it seems a pretty decent set up. + at the price your paying, it's a bargin, imo.

 

[Gasaraki]

BEWARE:

The power supply that comes with that PC model is only 300 Watts. Most of the 260 line recommend at least a 500W power supply. Depending on the model, they may also require extra hard drive power dongles which the factory-standard power supply is unlikely to provide.

Yeah I've decided to just build a PC, since that case seems pretty shit and power supply seem pretty crap

 

[Skooterz]

Dude, if you're after a gaming PC of any kind I heavily recommend building your own computer. Its both cheaper, and you'll get a better computer in the long run anyway. Most of the stock computers have garbage hardware, at least in my experience.

 

[Callate]

BEWARE:

The power supply that comes with that PC model is only 300 Watts. Most of the 260 line recommend at least a 500W power supply. Depending on the model, they may also require extra hard drive power dongles which the factory-standard power supply is unlikely to provide.

Yeah I've decided to just build a PC, since that case seems pretty shit and power supply seem pretty crap

Good for you. First one? PC Gamer puts out a pretty decent "builder's bible" every year.

 

[Gasaraki]

Dude, if you're after a gaming PC of any kind I heavily recommend building your own computer. Its both cheaper, and you'll get a better computer in the long run anyway. Most of the stock computers have garbage hardware, at least in my experience.

Yeah I've decided to just build a PC, since that case seems pretty shit and power supply seem pretty crap

 

[dsmops2003]

It's times like this I feel ashamed of how poor my country is(and me on the same hand)...
Heh,guess you boys should take your fancy toys and go play now, right?
For me it seems a pretty decent set up. + at the price your paying, it's a bargin, imo.

Its not thats its a bad pc or a bad deal. You are right in the fact that it is good for the price. It just isnt going to suit the OP's needs.

 

[Skooterz]

Dude, if you're after a gaming PC of any kind I heavily recommend building your own computer. Its both cheaper, and you'll get a better computer in the long run anyway. Most of the stock computers have garbage hardware, at least in my experience.

Yeah I've decided to just build a PC, since that case seems pretty shit and power supply seem pretty crap

Yes, I know, I should have read through the whole thread before posting. Jeez.

 

[yoyo13rom]

It's times like this I feel ashamed of how poor my country is(and me on the same hand)...
Heh,guess you boys should take your fancy toys and go play now, right?
For me it seems a pretty decent set up. + at the price your paying, it's a bargin, imo.

Its not thats its a bad pc or a bad deal. You are right in the fact that it is good for the price. It just isnt going to suit the OP's needs.

Yeah, you may be right, it could use a better CPU, but in rest I think it will run Crysis just fine on high settings.(I repeat, just my personal, not-so-experienced opinion; I don't mean to prove anyone wrong here)

Edit: Boy, I may have pissed off someone at school and can't remember who, judging from how defensive my post is.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

A homebrew machine gets the best value for money all the time, I've built many machines since 1996...
The problem is when something gets funky; no one factory to approach for your warranty.
Also, you have to do your own troubleshooting, which can get F***ed!

My own box stopped working a while back, and I decided to swap out the GPU and mobo, which fixed it.
But if that had failed I could've kept on swapping and upgrading components, which costs $$$!

Reminds me of a new box a few years back; it wouldn't run, with all newly bought parts.
Turns out the mobo was DOA, and I mailed it back to the shop, who lied about never receiving it and I was out 200 bucks; yay!

Getting a PC custom built for you by a store is probably the easiest; problems? No headache, just drop it off at that store and demand they fix it under warranty! It's about 100 bucks for the building, but you do get three years of blisfull warranty (Dutch law).

 

[Pyotr Romanov]

Supreme Commander 2

Sorry, I'm quite the hater for that game, but please please don't buy that if you haven't already. It took everything cool and unique out of SupCom and threw it right out the window. Just buy the original if you want a great rts.
[sub]I tried to keep that as nice and civilized as possible. I just really start raging out whenever I see a "2" after Supreme Commander.[/sub]

Aside from that, glad to see you're building your own PC, I assure you, it will be way faster than a pre-made PC in the same price-class. And besides that, the moment you first turn it on really feels amazing.

 

[Gasaraki]

Supreme Commander 2

Sorry, I'm quite the hater for that game, but please please don't buy that if you haven't already. It took everything cool and unique out of SupCom and threw it right out the window. Just buy the original if you want a great rts.
[sub]I tried to keep that as nice and civilized as possible. I just really start raging out whenever I see a "2" after Supreme Commander.[/sub]

Aside from that, glad to see you're building your own PC, I assure you, it will be way faster than a pre-made PC in the same price-class. And besides that, the moment you first turn it on really feels amazing.

Yeah i know, i much preferred SupCom 1 but my friends won't stop pestering me about getting sc2 -_-

 

[Pyotr Romanov]

Supreme Commander 2

Sorry, I'm quite the hater for that game, but please please don't buy that if you haven't already. It took everything cool and unique out of SupCom and threw it right out the window. Just buy the original if you want a great rts.
[sub]I tried to keep that as nice and civilized as possible. I just really start raging out whenever I see a "2" after Supreme Commander.[/sub]

Aside from that, glad to see you're building your own PC, I assure you, it will be way faster than a pre-made PC in the same price-class. And besides that, the moment you first turn it on really feels amazing.

Yeah i know, i much preferred SupCom 1 but my friends won't stop pestering me about getting sc2 -_-

You poor guy... I shall mourn for you.
Seriously, pestering your friend into getting a piece of crap a game that's not quite as good as it's predecessor... That's just evil.

 

[Gasaraki]

Supreme Commander 2

Sorry, I'm quite the hater for that game, but please please don't buy that if you haven't already. It took everything cool and unique out of SupCom and threw it right out the window. Just buy the original if you want a great rts.
[sub]I tried to keep that as nice and civilized as possible. I just really start raging out whenever I see a "2" after Supreme Commander.[/sub]

Aside from that, glad to see you're building your own PC, I assure you, it will be way faster than a pre-made PC in the same price-class. And besides that, the moment you first turn it on really feels amazing.

Yeah i know, i much preferred SupCom 1 but my friends won't stop pestering me about getting sc2 -_-

You poor guy... I shall mourn for you.
Seriously, pestering your friend into getting a piece of crap a game that's not quite as good as it's predecessor... That's just evil.

Well they're a bit new to RTSes (The only other one that they've played is *shudder* halo wars) so i'm hoping in time they'll start getting into better ones...