wanting to get into pc gaming need help

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bigb423

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First things first, i'm not tech savvy so keep that in mind. I'd like to get to where i can play pc games, up till now it's been all console for me. I've seen the alienware alpha, but i also know it can probably become outdated pretty fast. That being said, what's the best route to take? 

I was looking on ebay and found this (http://www.ebay.com/itm/391016976744?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT ) that i could buy and it's good to go as far as i know for gaming, but i would like it to be able to handle games on max settings and not stutter or anything along those lines. If this was bought, what upgrades would need to be made? I know i would want a bigger hdd for sure one way or another. 

Also probably a stupid question but remember, my knowledge with computers is basically i know how to use one and that's it haha. Can pcs have hdmi slots? My current screen is a tv so i didn't know how that would work if it would produce good graphics or not.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 
Looks to be a nice beginner package, but you will have to buy a graphics card. There are plenty of eBay listings for those. Thanks for the idea, I was going to build my own, but looking at the listings, it may be better for me to buy premade and add parts to it.

 
The A4-7300 is an entry level processor.  It's not a bad processor and it appears that it can be overclocked -- although if you're just getting into PCs and buying a prebuilt system, I doubt you'll be immediately overclocking.

The graphics are processor based and will not be acceptable for many games on anything other than "low" settings.  You can see some benchmarks at the bottom of the page here.  You will need to purchase a separate video card for acceptable performance.  Without a budget, it's difficult to recommend anything.

Most modern video cards have an HDMI out these days, I believe.

Judging from the system you're asking about, you will not be able to play games on "max settings" without going well over your budget.  For many games, maximum settings require expensive high end video cards (or even multiples thereof) and high end processors.  But keep in mind that much of it depends on what resolutions you want to play at and that you don't need "maximum" settings to look better than consoles in many cases.  Also, there's often a diminishing rate of return when amping up the graphics: Medium might look 200x better than Low but Ultra only looks slightly better than High. I would shoot for a system that lets you play games at High settings rather than one that allows you to crank everything up to full -- unless you're a real enthusiast, the cost isn't going to be worth the results.

 
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The A4-7300 is an entry level processor. It's not a bad processor and it appears that it can be overclocked -- although if you're just getting into PCs and buying a prebuilt system, I doubt you'll be immediately overclocking.

The graphics are processor based and will not be acceptable for many games on anything other than "low" settings. You can see some benchmarks at the bottom of the page here. You will need to purchase a separate video card for acceptable performance. Without a budget, it's difficult to recommend anything.

Most modern video cards have an HDMI out these days, I believe.

Judging from the system you're asking about, you will not be able to play games on "max settings" without going well over your budget. For many games, maximum settings require expensive high end video cards (or even multiples thereof) and high end processors. But keep in mind that much of it depends on what resolutions you want to play at and that you don't need "maximum" settings to look better than consoles in many cases. Also, there's often a diminishing rate of return when amping up the graphics: Medium might look 200x better than Low but Ultra only looks slightly better than High. I would shoot for a system that lets you play games at High settings rather than one that allows you to crank everything up to full -- unless you're a real enthusiast, the cost isn't going to be worth the results.
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ok that being said, lets say i don't have a budget, if i got the setup from the link what would i need to change and about how much would it cost?

 
Not to put too fine a point on it, but if I didn't have a budget then I wouldn't be buying that computer to upgrade into a top end gaming machine.

The processor is more suited for laptops with integrated graphics.  You could upgrade it to another AMD A-series processor but then you're paying a premium for integrated graphics you're not planning on using.  To use a different series of processor, you're going to have to replace the motherboard.

The video provided is unsuitable for gaming.  You'll have to buy a separate graphics card (likely two) which, for high end gaming, will be $300+ each.  To run the card, you'll almost certainly need to upgrade the power supply.

The hard drive is small (250GB) so you're probably looking at replacing that as well. 

But, like I said, most people don't get a system to try and turn up everything to eleven.  In theory, you could get a decent "home computer" running an i3 processor and add in a last year's model video card and maybe upgrade the power supply or something similar.  Without knowing what sort of money we're working with, it's impossible to say.  I can say that the system you linked in the OP is a bad purchase for what you want.

 
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