Looking to buy PC for gaming

zodiac308

zodiac308

CAGiversary!
Hello y'all! I'm interested in buying a new PC to play some of the new MMOs coming out this year. My current one is blah, so I won't bother with it. Any suggestions? I'm not looking for Alienware or something super like that. Just something decent. Just need a something to start with, then I'll make the neccesary upgrades if needed. I heard Dell XPS are decent? Thanks in advance.
 
Could get a gaming laptop but there's not much there you can upgrade. Dell XPS and lower end Alienware desktops are probably going to be somewhat similar minus the design aspects and the XPS PCs maybe less customizable. HP's upper line use to be good but I've heard they've taken a hit quality wise lately, but can't be sure of that honestly.

Also, I've never used them personally, but I know a guy who buys a new PC from iBuypower like every 2 years and seems to love them. I personally can't vouch for them but I do know from on occasion seeing what he gets that they are easily customizable & upgradable if that's something you're interested in. Seem to come with a couple nice upgrades over standard manufactuers, like his rig was liquid cooled (have no idea if he paid extra for it though). You could get a fairly basic from them or another custom PC company then add the upgrades of your choice. I've also heard goo things about Digital Storm but they are more pricey than Alienware.

There's also the option to of course build one, or even if you don't want to mess with it but know someone else with the know-how you could probably get the parts & have them build it for you.
 
Thanks for the replies y'all, and I will look into them ASAP. As for having one built, I heard nowadays that that line has gone grey? That it almost pretty much turns out the same. But I am looking to upgrade it soon after buying one, so I will look into the ones you mentioned. Thanks!
 
[quote name='zodiac308']Thanks for the replies y'all, and I will look into them ASAP. As for having one built, I heard nowadays that that line has gone grey? That it almost pretty much turns out the same. But I am looking to upgrade it soon after buying one, so I will look into the ones you mentioned. Thanks![/QUOTE]


The issue of upgrading it is the kicker for me. For PCs I learned from working at Circuit City when it was around that even many of the upper echelon versions of Dells, HPs, etc. are not totally upgrade friendly. There's always something that typically limits you be it a PSU, a smaller case, etc. The positive about having one built is you can future proof it to your ideals.
 
I visited the ibuypower site, and newegg. A friend of mine who knows waaaay more than I do looked it up as well and did some upgrading in the options and the price was really good. Better than what I expected. So major thanks for that referral.
 
[quote name='zodiac308']Thanks for the replies y'all, and I will look into them ASAP. As for having one built, I heard nowadays that that line has gone grey? That it almost pretty much turns out the same. But I am looking to upgrade it soon after buying one, so I will look into the ones you mentioned. Thanks![/QUOTE]

If you're going to upgrade so soon anyways, there's really no reason not to build yourself. Otherwise you are going to double pay for parts, and have to learn about the inside stuff anyways. It's incredibly simple in this day and age, and something you really should learn if you're someone on CAG.
 
Yeah I usually try to learn as much as possible when friends explain computers to me. Friend built his and it's good enough to play anything for five years without upgrades so far. So I shall look into it some more. I'm a driver who doesn't know anything bout his car lol
 
Get a 3rd Gen i7 laptop with a SSD (I have a samsung series 5 ultrabook), its the best gaming machine i've ever used, especially for the price... plus its portable!
 
I suggest the build your own route. You know whats in it. Another issue with prebuilt is that you really have no idea whats in it. And with Alienware, your paying for that name. I personally built mine. I went with an i7-3820, ASRock X79(I believe its that one), 16gb RAM, SSD for Win7, 2TB hdd, 1000w PSU and two EVGA GTX 560 Tis. Mine ran me about 1750, but you don't need spend that much. For a grand you can build one that would cost at least 2500 prebuilt. Mine was also built to run damn near anything on the highest settings

I priced and spec'd an i3 set up with one GTX 560 Ti, ssd, hdd, 8gb ram for about 800. For 600, knock off the ssd and go to a GTX 650. All builds including mine also include a blu ray burner (for 55 bucks on NewEgg, might as well). about 60-70 more each can swap out the i3 for an i5-2500k
 
Another site along the lines of ibuypower is cyberpowerpc.com. I've ordered 3 from them now and their prices are really good, especially when they have big sales going on.
 
What's your budget here? I've seen some pretty nice rigs on IBuyPower and CyberPowerPC, but there's a deal of customer service complaints out there for both of them. Plus, the price on shipping can be painful.
 
Anywhere between $700-$1k. I'm not looking for something I want to run the settings high. Just something for MMOs really. Also I want to play amnesia.
 
You should invest in a i5 Series 3rd Gen CPU, don't waste your money on an i7 2nd Gen or even i7 3rd Gen, most games are fine with an i5 and since you are talking about just MMO's.

But you need a great video card, don't get anything under an ATI 7770, hell if you have budget go for a 7950, or an Nvidia 660 Ti (both are around $200). I would go with nothing less. That's the most important part of thinking of building a PC for gaming, the CPU and Video card. For MMO's you probably just need 8GB RAM but RAM IS cheap so you might as well go with 16 GB.

SSD drive is the way to go for your main OS. If you have any bigger hard drives you can use already keep them and use them for your game storage. Once a game starts, not really necessary to be on an SSD.

Power supplies for those video cards need to be 550 Watts or better. usually a 600 Watt PSU will run $30-50 depending on the vendor.

Good luck, it's a great little project to build a PC. It's a lot of fun and even cooler when you have a friend to help you.
 
Thanks for the help y'all! and yes, I'm looking to just buy the computer itself. Gonna use my tv for monitor.
 
[quote name='zodiac308']Gonna use my tv for monitor.[/QUOTE]


NOOOOOO!

Unless you have a kick ass 240hz tv, this is a bad idea.
 
Do a build man. Way cheaper. I built mine for under $500... granted I'm only running a 19" 720p I only needed a small card but opted for a Sapphire HD 7750 GPU. I love it. I can OC it as well as my CPU and it runs Guild Wars 2 and any other game I've thrown at it with NO problem. I should be fine for ESO when it comes out.
 
[quote name='j-cart']NOOOOOO!

Unless you have a kick ass 240hz tv, this is a bad idea.[/QUOTE]

Actually it's not if you know what you're getting into. For gaming/entertainment = quite good, for everyday computer use = not as much. Why do you think Steam released Big Picture mode? Why is it that they want to market something like the Steambox? It's not so you can play it all on a 24 inch monitor...

Requiring 240hz TV is also a strange notion. You are far more likely to experience some input lag because of the extra processing (in the form of motion interpolation) it entails for the TV. In fact you'd want to closer to 60hz as possible or running on a mode or input with native resolution and no internal processing from the TV. The majority of monitors are definately not 240hz.

Using a HDTV with a PC has it's downsides and you have to know what the TV & PC is capable of up front, but I don't understand you're reasoning here to be against it or require a top dollar TV...
 
That's true - building PC is much more cheaper than buying it. But there is one problem - you have to know how to do it :p And for it's annoying that all of the new games are made for the newest PC. I wish to play Crysis 3 (when it's released of course), but my PC is too weak.
 
[quote name='BringIt2ThePit']Do a build man. Way cheaper. I built mine for under $500... granted I'm only running a 19" 720p I only needed a small card but opted for a Sapphire HD 7750 GPU. I love it. I can OC it as well as my CPU and it runs Guild Wars 2 and any other game I've thrown at it with NO problem. I should be fine for ESO when it comes out.[/QUOTE]

What was the most expensive part?
 
I've got a friend who built his. He says the only downside is no warranty. But warranties expire anyway. So build or buy one already made?
 
[quote name='Duo_Maxwell']Actually it's not if you know what you're getting into. For gaming/entertainment = quite good, for everyday computer use = not as much. Why do you think Steam released Big Picture mode? Why is it that they want to market something like the Steambox? It's not so you can play it all on a 24 inch monitor...

Requiring 240hz TV is also a strange notion. You are far more likely to experience some input lag because of the extra processing (in the form of motion interpolation) it entails for the TV. In fact you'd want to closer to 60hz as possible or running on a mode or input with native resolution and no internal processing from the TV. The majority of monitors are definately not 240hz.

Using a HDTV with a PC has it's downsides and you have to know what the TV & PC is capable of up front, but I don't understand you're reasoning here to be against it or require a top dollar TV...[/QUOTE]


I'm from a gamer's perspective that plays fighting games, so input lag is a bitch on tvs :p


[quote name='realme']That's true - building PC is much more cheaper than buying it. But there is one problem - you have to know how to do it :p And for it's annoying that all of the new games are made for the newest PC. I wish to play Crysis 3 (when it's released of course), but my PC is too weak.[/QUOTE]


If you know how to build with legos, you know how to build a PC. The only downside is that PC parts are not cheap.


[quote name='zodiac308']I've got a friend who built his. He says the only downside is no warranty. But warranties expire anyway. So build or buy one already made?[/QUOTE]


Each PC part comes with a pretty decent warranty. EVGA gives out some of the best warranties, practically a no questions asked for 3 years.
 
I'm in the process of assembling a new gaming rig. It is an expensive proposition. But I've been into this since for quite some time. One of my more favorite hobbies that I don't get to indulge in very often, due to the cost.

If you just want a PC to run fairly typical mid-range games and serve as a general-purpose PC, you can actually assemble such a box for a very reasonable price. Between Newegg and Fry's Electronics, you should be able to find enough decent parts on sale to assemble a capable rig for between $300 - $500 USD. That's without the operating system and monitor, though. I've walked into Fry's more than once and walked out with everything I needed for a new rig for around that price.

If you want to build a true "gaming" rig, that is a much more costly enterprise. A general purpose PC doesn't require nearly as much power, and playing games a few years old on dated hardware is fine. But playing the latest cutting-edge games requires the latest cutting-edge technology. And that's going to cost a fair amount. Buying a pre-built rig like that is going to run you around $3000 USD. Assembling it yourself will cost almost half as much, but don't expect to be coming out of the experience with less than $1000 worth of damage.

I'm lucky. I have an inside track on some serious hardware discounts. I'm going to be able to get a few cutting-edge pieces for a greatly reduced price.
 
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