I am just looking for a little advice pertaining to getting back into the pc gaming side of things. I tried to do the PS3/Xbox 360 thing for while and frankly, I just became bored with it. I really missed RTS and Strategy games in particular and with Supreme Commander coming soon as well as Starcraft II eventually I think now is a good time to build. I currently do not have a PC or any other parts and I use a Macbook Pro as my primary computer hooked up to a Dell 2408fpw display. So, I will need to have a machine that can run games (SupCom II) at 1900/1200. I am willing to spend a couple of extra bucks to get something with most value but I am trying to keep this as cheap as possible, preferably around $500. I am only looking for middle of road adequate performance for enjoying games on the PC. I have heard that I should look into i3 chips. Is this a good place to start.
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Getting Back to PC Gaming
- Thread starter jpdbaugh
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LostInRehab
Limp Gawd
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I'd vote wating until supcom 2 came out and seeing if it benefits from quad cores like the first one did before getting an i3.
defaultluser
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You're not going to build an entire computer for $500 that can push games at 1920x1200. $500 will barely get you in the door with an integrated graphics Core i3 build (trust me, I do builds for people in General Hardware all the time).
For a video card, you will need at least a 5770, which costs $155-170. So a budget of $650-700 would be more reasonable.
Here is a $700 build I did for a guy just yesterday:
Also, you should consider a Phenom II build as an alternative, if any of the games you play scale well beyond two cores. The Core i3 offers better dual-core performance, but can't match the 3 or 4-core performance of the Phenom II. And since they both have great multitasking (the large caches and the 4 threads), you can't go wrong with either chip for general use. The only downside of the Phenom II is that it is a power hog.
For a video card, you will need at least a 5770, which costs $155-170. So a budget of $650-700 would be more reasonable.
Here is a $700 build I did for a guy just yesterday:
Also, you should consider a Phenom II build as an alternative, if any of the games you play scale well beyond two cores. The Core i3 offers better dual-core performance, but can't match the 3 or 4-core performance of the Phenom II. And since they both have great multitasking (the large caches and the 4 threads), you can't go wrong with either chip for general use. The only downside of the Phenom II is that it is a power hog.
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PrincessFrosty
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Isn't supcom going to be console as well? Probably no where near as demanding as the first one.
I'd shoot for a decent quad anyway to future proof the machine, quads are starting to be used a bit for gaming and not having one is a big bottleneck. The 5770 is a good choice but you should check the 5850 prices and see if you can stretch to one, if you want 1920x1200 gaming.
Read up on overclocking, it's a great way to enhance price to performance when budget limited, I always shoot for the new CPUs and aim for the slowest one and overclock it to the fastest one or more. I did that with my Q9450 (£200 CPU clocked past speeds of the £900 variant) and will do the same with an i7 build at some point in the future, shoot for the 920 and overclock past the best speed CPU.
I'd shoot for a decent quad anyway to future proof the machine, quads are starting to be used a bit for gaming and not having one is a big bottleneck. The 5770 is a good choice but you should check the 5850 prices and see if you can stretch to one, if you want 1920x1200 gaming.
Read up on overclocking, it's a great way to enhance price to performance when budget limited, I always shoot for the new CPUs and aim for the slowest one and overclock it to the fastest one or more. I did that with my Q9450 (£200 CPU clocked past speeds of the £900 variant) and will do the same with an i7 build at some point in the future, shoot for the 920 and overclock past the best speed CPU.
D
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I don't know, I've been doing a lot less gaming lately, (back into music composition and sound design more again,) so I sold my 5850 and popped a 5770 in my i7 system. I'm playing Mass Effect 2, Dirt 2, Dragon Age, FEAR 2 (again,) and a bunch of old favorites on it when I have a spare minute at 1920x1200 just fine. I'm someone that runs VSync, and can't stand choppy frame rates too. I did have to drop AO to low on Dirt 2 to be fair. On the other hand I don't run a lot of AA, so that's probably why it's working out so well for me. Anyway, it's a solid card and costs nearly nothing. The 5850 is great, and can run plenty of AA on top of max in-game settings, but the 5770 has really impressed me. (for a card of its price especially) It obviously isn't going to amaze anyone in Crysis, but everything else I've tossed at it (out of pure curiosity) has run quite well.
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i have to agree with Default. 500 dollars is not enough to build anything now if you can get 700 then you can get a decent rig for that. if you can get your hands on a case, mouse, keyboard you can save on that.
The problem with consoles and pc's s that pc's def cost alot more to build compared to consoles wich are always outdated and cheap. Head over to the general hardware and see what someone could get you into. skip the video card for now build the rest of the rig then get the video card.
The problem with consoles and pc's s that pc's def cost alot more to build compared to consoles wich are always outdated and cheap. Head over to the general hardware and see what someone could get you into. skip the video card for now build the rest of the rig then get the video card.
its not going to cost a lot more to build than console..
if you buy nearly the same hardware and play on same setting, its pretty much the same...
most console games run @ low resolution and low framerate..
which is unacceptable to me, and also the reason why I hate playing console.....
defaultluser
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Yeah, you could build a 720p gaming system for around $350 or 400 - base it on an AMD dual-core, 2GB ram and a 4670 or 9600GSO or (insert deal of the week here).
But 1920x1200 is another beast entirely. And this $700 build has longevity in-mind, whereas the $350 build above would be outdated in a year.
i agree completely all my friends got me into consoles along while back and ive never really been happy with them. its like MW2 on consoles it looks like crap, its all washed out, it looks blurry in a way but on pc its like bam, clear graphics, nice colors n such. this is why Im not on consoles anymore
350 - 400 dollars for a complete pc is going to be pretty sloppy expecially at 1920x1200 no offense a bit more cash and you got a good rig to play at 1920x1200
piscian18
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While I'm more of an Nvidia Man myself I recommend this guys suggestions as well. The Comparable Nvidia card is the GTS250 an excellent card for 1900x1200 but dont spend more than 100$ on it. I'm actually going to skip this generation of Ati and i3 i5 i7. For purely gaming an E8400 or Phenom 9600 has really set the base bar of what you need. Per steam stats most gamers are running a C2D and an 8800GT. However DDR2 is dead. Don't bother. Cheapie Am3 board, mid range phenom, and a HD 4890 would be my recommendation. I have a bad feeling this entire 2009 generation of CPU's and GPU's will be dust in the wind by the end of 2010.
I urge you not to spend more than 160$ on either your GPU or CPU. It's gonna feel like such a burn in a years time.
My rig in my Sig plays every game out max settings around 100 fps. I spent around 700$ total but it's 90% used parts and being in the right place at the right time.
Steam hardware survey
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey
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It looks like I will be waiting a little longer and saving up some more cash. I dont want to half ass my machine and I don't want to get a new monitor. Also, I want to put Ubuntu on the machine because I am most comfortable with Linux as I use it all day at work and I make use of the unix underpinning of Mac OS X a lot. I just generally prefer using the the command for a lot of tasks, however there aren't a whole lot of games for Mac OS X or Ubuntu so Windows is kind of a must...
Plague_Injected
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Supreme Commander was also on the 360, and that version suffered from crappy graphics and poor frame rates. It didn't review nearly as well as the PC version. Hopefully that means the sequel will follow the same precident, at least as far as the PC version goes.
Try MaximumPCs articles on building PCs. They should provide some ideas for you to run with. Also read the comments from reader to the article. Sometimes they have better ideas than the editor who wrote it.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/how_build_awesome_pc_647
This ones from last April, again maybe you'll get some ideas from it. I'd definitely would look at faster components but if you want to keep it on the cheap...this supposedly will play Crysis.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/build_a_500_pc_play_crysis_40fps
What hardware should I buy article Feb 2010
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2010/02/03/what-hardware-should-i-buy-february-2010/1
Also welcome back to PC gaming. I never quit buying consoles but do know I don't have any where near as much fun on them as I do with my PC. My 360 is used to stream Netflix and my PS3 play Blue Rays. I buy the top games play them for a bit, get bored as hell and go back to my PC for my gaming fix.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/how_build_awesome_pc_647
This ones from last April, again maybe you'll get some ideas from it. I'd definitely would look at faster components but if you want to keep it on the cheap...this supposedly will play Crysis.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/build_a_500_pc_play_crysis_40fps
What hardware should I buy article Feb 2010
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2010/02/03/what-hardware-should-i-buy-february-2010/1
Also welcome back to PC gaming. I never quit buying consoles but do know I don't have any where near as much fun on them as I do with my PC. My 360 is used to stream Netflix and my PS3 play Blue Rays. I buy the top games play them for a bit, get bored as hell and go back to my PC for my gaming fix.
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Well, there is nothing wrong with building a $400-500 PC now, and then just upgrading it when the time comes. For example, if you buy a good case, big enough PSU, you can reuse those. Also HDD and optical drives can be reused. Even the sound card can be either omitted up front and use on board sound (which generally isn't bad), or can be reused on a newer system.
Really the only things you should "HAVE" to upgrade is processor, motherboard, video card and ram.
For example, i am currently running a core2duo extreme (whatever) dual core at 2.93Ghz, 4GB ram, and dual 8800GTX's. My upgrade path right now, would be an i7, 6GB of ram, and an ATI 5700 series of some sort.
But, there is no compelling reason for me to upgrade at the current time, as my machine can handle anything at my current monitors native resolution. So i am content to wait to see how the new nVidea series cards look, and potentially see if either intel or AMD comes out with a better processor that the i7 and Phenom.
Generally speaking, i have found that unless you are willing to spend big bucks up front, a more gradual approach would better serve you. I tend to build new gaming machines from the ground up and keep my older systems for standby duty or playing older games on.
But i will reuse cases, PSU's, optical drives and the like. I have working PC's dating back to the TRS-80 days...
If you short yourself a bit on the