Gaming Rig or whatever...

[tyranius]

Hello there

I created a topic a while ago asking some questions about the XBOX-360 because I planned to buy one but that's over now. I got a little more cash and I can get a Gaming Computer (or you can call it rig if you want to)

The thing is: I don't know much about hardware and I want to get a computer that plays today games AND games in 2 years or so.

I'm not really building it on a budget but if you want to know I'd say I can spare around 2500 - 3000 Dollars.

So... Onto the questions:


MOTHERBOARD:

Well, I want to know a good motherboard to get. It has gotta have at least two x16 PCI-Express slots, support DDR3 memory and GDDR5 video board. I don't really know if I'm going for GDDR5 and DDR3 but that's just thinking about the future, because they're gonna become more common.

PS: Gotta support at least 8GB of RAM and SATA-II

CPU:

Simple, it has to be Quad Core with a nice clock speed and a cache faster than 2mb (I don't even know what cache is so if I'm wrong just correct me). Oh and preferrably, a CPU that comes with a fan.


RAM:

I'd like to get Dual Channel but I don't think I'll really need it, because I want to get 4GB of RAW RAM. Oh, I want the memories to be of 2GB of one or 4GB preferrably so if I need to upgrade in the future I'll just put one more instead of replacing.
Now one thing to ask about... DDR2 or DDR3. Wich should I get?


HARD DRIVE:

One with a speed of 7200rpm is fine but I could do ok with more. 500GB is enough for me. It has to be SATA-II though.


VIDEO CARD:

PCI-Express of course.
A question... should I get a GDDR3 or a GDDR5? Also I would prefer nVIDIA so a GeForce with GT suffix would be best.


SOUND:

It can onboard sound

That's basically it. What I want to know is what kind of parts should I get. Show me some builds accordingly to what I asked for up there. Answer my questions please and don't flame me if I got anything wrong because I know nothing about hardware.

Bye...

 

[moog]

You sure are asking for a beastly PC! How much are you planning to spend, if I may ask?

Also, you posted this in the wrong place pal.

 

[Fayte]

I'm not really building it on a budget but if you want to know I'd say I can spare around 2500 - 3000 Dollars.

 

[Spoo]

I prefer ATI for video and graphics cards.  Even though I'm stuck with a crappy nvdia right now.

 

[Whiskey Dick]

With that kind of coin just pick the most expensive shit you can find and buy it.  You already know all the specs/parts you want (they're the highest available).

 

[Tohsaka]

Get an Intel Quad Core. Probably an NVidia SLI Array would do.

Make sure you're getting 1066MHz ram.

 

[Despain]

the amount of money you people throw away on g-g-g--ggaming is absolutely fucking disgusting

 

[Grathea]

...says the guy who spends how much again on Magic cards?

Anyways, it seems like you know what you want, just from your original post. I'd take Whiskey Dick's advice and get what you think you'll need - if you know enough to give that list of specs, you're probably capable of making a reasonable decision.

 

[Despain]

...says the guy who spends how much again on Magic cards.

A little less than $150 within the last five years.

really that certainly can compare to $3000 on a computer specifically for gammmin'

 

[Fayte]

A little less than $150 within the last five years.

pfffffffffffffffffffffff

 

[___]

IMO it's more cost effective to spend ~1200 (sans monitor, speakers and peripherals) about once every 2 years than to blow 3k in one year. 3k is going to buy you a machine that will scream for about 6 months, then it's going to look slow compared to the next hardware generation and you're not going to be satisfied with it for the amount you spent. Unless you can really afford to just throw away a couple grand every 6 months to a year consider something that is a generation or two behind and costs 1/4th the price. When you buy cutting edge you are paying an exponential price markup compared to performance gain. Better to spend that extra couple grand on a nice, big, fat HDTV and a mid-range surround system to plug your slightly more modest gaming rig into, then upgrade the thing in 2 years when it starts really falling behind the pack.

 

[tyranius]

Thanks for your comments.

Phage, I think that 3000 on a gaming pc is ok. It's worth to spend every cent you have on a gaming computer IMO. Gaming is my life ya know, without games I have nothing else to do at home besides... eat.

Mr. N, I get your point but I want to play today games and tomorrow's right now. I want to play everything on high settings.

So... thanks again and bye

 

[Despain]

Phage, I think that 3000 on a gaming pc is ok. It's worth to spend every cent you have on a gaming computer IMO. Gaming is my life ya know, without games I have nothing else to do at home besides... eat.

then that's just really fucking sad

 

[moog]

i spent 300 on my pc, it came with speakers, headphones, a keyboard/mouse and the hard drive. It has 1 Gb ram and 160gb hd. thnn i put 50 more down to install another gig of ram

So roughly 350 bucks was put into my pc. that's much chepaer than your options and it runs great and can play alot of good games. I suggest you go for something like that

 

[Venetia]

Ok faggots quit thumbing your nose at someone who spends a lot of nice PCs. I typically will blow around 2k-2.5k on one, every three-four years or so. If you buy all top-of-the-line right when a new generation of things comes out, then your goliath PC will carry you EASILY through the next few years and still be decent. I bought mine for about 2k two years ago and it still is able to knock the newest games out of the ballpark.

I don't have time right now to jog through all your hardware wants, but I wanted to mention that it's not bad to blow a wad on a top-of-the-line PC. Different people obsess over different things. I LOVE LOVE LOVE PC games, much more than console ones 90% of the time, and I don't even bat an eye at focusing so much money on them.

Yeah, sure, the mony could be spent more wisely I guess, but if it wasn't that it'd probably be drugs or something equally as frivolous so atleast I get some USE out of this for lots and lots and lots of things.

Of course most of the kids here are penniless college chump's so maybe your questions are better diverted to pro computer-building sites like Tom's Hardware or summin

 

[___]

I have no problem blowing cash on a gaming PC, but I also know there are effective and ineffective ways to spend money. When you look at video cards, each generation is going to see a practical performance gain of 10-30% (benchmarks will go higher). Comparing the prices, though, you are paying 2 1/2 - 3x as much for the high performance cards from generation to generation. The math just doesn't work; any card you buy today isn't going to play a game that comes out in 2-3 years on high settings because there is more to performance than processing speed.

Most of what will slow down or disable the high quality settings on a new game are features of the renderer - for instance between the GeForce 6 / 8 series and the X800/X1600 series you saw new features like hardware support for true high dynamic range lighting. An older 6800 or X800 would simply not be able to render that on new games that used it, no matter how much extra you paid for them. Same thing goes for Direct X 10 support; paying $500 for a screaming overclocked 6800 with 512mb ram three years ago would not have let you play Crysis with DX10 features enabled.

The same sort of reasoning applies to every other component in a PC except the storage and media drives, which have stayed pretty consistent through the past several years. Spending a bunch of money in one burst is a false economy. Look at the hardware that meets and slightly exceeds the performance and features you want in games today and ones that you plan to get within the next year, don't just buy the "best" of everything unless you can afford to do that again in a year (in which case, go for it and I wish I were you!). Spend the big money on items you will be able to keep for 4-6 years, like a really good quality monitor/HDTV, a great set of speakers, a good quality set of peripherals, maybe a nice case if you're into external aesthetics. These things will have as much or more impact on your experience as the quality of your hardware. Especially when it comes to monitor, a mediocre monitor is going to get in the way of visual quality much more than a slightly slower video card, and a huge, good quality monitor will likewise give you a lot better experience than a video card that's going to take your framerates from 60 to 90.

Anyway, good luck with your picks and remember don't skimp on brand name components, you always end up regretting it!

 

[Anski]

The thing is: I don't know much about hardware and I want to get a computer that plays today games AND games in 2 years or so.

I'm not really building it on a budget but if you want to know I'd say I can spare around 2500 - 3000 Dollars.

So... Onto the questions:


MOTHERBOARD:

Well, I want to know a good motherboard to get. It has gotta have at least two x16 PCI-Express slots, support DDR3 memory and GDDR5 video board. I don't really know if I'm going for GDDR5 and DDR3 but that's just thinking about the future, because they're gonna become more common.

PS: Gotta support at least 8GB of RAM and SATA-II

If you're looking for a computer this beastly, I don't think that it is going to stand high powered when SATA-II and the new gen rolls around because the main point is the Processor Speed. Your motherboard wouldn't be made to handle something more than 4 cores, and when 8 Core processors roll in, and trust me, they WILL roll in, you're gonna need a new motherboard all together, so I wouldn't be shooting way too higher than to normally spend. Get a motherboard that can handle a quadcore and 8 GB's, but don't expect it to last forever because of the ability to handle DDR3 (Not necessary over DDR2, because the cores can't make use of a negligible difference. DDR2 =practically= DDR3. By the time the future comes around it isn't going to matter that much because you're still going to be buying a new motherboard to handle new cores and by then you might as well buy DDR3 or beyond.)

CPU:

Simple, it has to be Quad Core with a nice clock speed and a cache faster than 2mb (I don't even know what cache is so if I'm wrong just correct me). Oh and preferrably, a CPU that comes with a fan.

Buying a quadcore, and keeping in mind that you are looking to the future, is buying something more advanced than you need. There is hardly ANYTHING that can take use of all of these cores, boy. Unless you are running hundreds upon hundreds of programs at max speed, nothing here will cut it. You will have massive idlecores and by the time that anything that would take use of it appears, we will be using 8 Core and be on Windows 7 moving to Windows 8. Trust me bro, this isn't a good decision. You will get the same performance out of a dual core, plus you will have $700 more to spend.

RAM:
I'd like to get Dual Channel but I don't think I'll really need it, because I want to get 4GB of RAW RAM. Oh, I want the memories to be of 2GB of one or 4GB preferrably so if I need to upgrade in the future I'll just put one more instead of replacing.
Now one thing to ask about... DDR2 or DDR3. Wich should I get?

Again with the motherboard thing. By the time the future DOES come in, your motherboard cores will be obsolete. Also; taken from RMRK, and this next quote WAS directed to me.

DDR3 is new technology and as it is now, is still outperformed by DDR2. PC2-8500 DDR2 ram will outperform PC3-8500 DDR3 ram. The DDR2 initial standard timings are 5-5-5-15. As DDR2 has been around for ages the standard has not only been reached, but passed, you can get DDR2 even faster than this. DDR3's initial standard is 7-7-7-15, and this has not even been reached. The timings on your memory you linked are a whopping 7-7-7-21. Quit being HERF DERF DDR3 IS A HIGHER NUMBER THAN DDR2, BETTAR LOL?. Buy DDR2. the DDR3 extra performance you think you'll be getting does not exist yet.

HARD DRIVE:

One with a speed of 7200rpm is fine but I could do ok with more. 500GB is enough for me. It has to be SATA-II though.

If you DO find some magic motherboard that supports all this tech that you don't have access to you yet, feel free to waste money for the same thing that is readily available. You shouldn't pick computer parts because they are BRAND NEW, you should pick them on how they work, compatibility and reliability.

VIDEO CARD:

PCI-Express of course.
A question... should I get a GDDR3 or a GDDR5? Also I would prefer nVIDIA so a GeForce with GT suffix would be best.

NVIDIA 8800 GT would be perfect, I run Crysis at near max without AA with it.

SOUND:

It can onboard sound

That's basically it. What I want to know is what kind of parts should I get. Show me some builds accordingly to what I asked for up there. Answer my questions please and don't flame me if I got anything wrong because I know nothing about hardware.

Bye...

Closing note; Don't pick things because they are new, because in 4 years, your computer is going to be considered obsolete whether you bulk it up now or not.

 

[Venetia]

I have no problem blowing cash on a gaming PC, but I also know there are effective and ineffective ways to spend money. [...]

oh no i agree with you n, when i got mine i researched and made frugal decisions everywhere and built it myself. i was commenting at the other faggots who were only heckling the guy because he wanted to blow some dough :/

 

[tyranius]

Phage, I think that 3000 on a gaming pc is ok. It's worth to spend every cent you have on a gaming computer IMO. Gaming is my life ya know, without games I have nothing else to do at home besides... eat.

then that's just really fucking sad

not sad at all. I'm pretty annoyed at people who say "gah, you stay all day at home in your pc so you don't have a life and your life is sad"
The truth is I feel happy to play 10 hours a day and I feel no need to go out unless my friends ask me to hang out with them, sometimes I go sometimes I don't.

i spent 300 on my pc, it came with speakers, headphones, a keyboard/mouse and the hard drive. It has 1 Gb ram and 160gb hd. thnn i put 50 more down to install another gig of ram

So roughly 350 bucks was put into my pc. that's much chepaer than your options and it runs great and can play alot of good games. I suggest you go for something like that

I currently have 1gb of ram and a 120gb hard drive but that's not enough. I don't think you can run many recent games with your machine, Crysis for example. Your pc could run it but BARELY.

Ok faggots quit thumbing your nose at someone who spends a lot of nice PCs. I typically will blow around 2k-2.5k on one, every three-four years or so. If you buy all top-of-the-line right when a new generation of things comes out, then your goliath PC will carry you EASILY through the next few years and still be decent. I bought mine for about 2k two years ago and it still is able to knock the newest games out of the ballpark.

I don't have time right now to jog through all your hardware wants, but I wanted to mention that it's not bad to blow a wad on a top-of-the-line PC. Different people obsess over different things. I LOVE LOVE LOVE PC games, much more than console ones 90% of the time, and I don't even bat an eye at focusing so much money on them.

Yeah, sure, the mony could be spent more wisely I guess, but if it wasn't that it'd probably be drugs or something equally as frivolous so atleast I get some USE out of this for lots and lots and lots of things.

Of course most of the kids here are penniless college chump's so maybe your questions are better diverted to pro computer-building sites like Tom's Hardware or summin

Thanks for the support!! ^^

Most of what will slow down or disable the high quality settings on a new game are features of the renderer - for instance between the GeForce 6 / 8 series and the X800/X1600 series you saw new features like hardware support for true high dynamic range lighting. An older 6800 or X800 would simply not be able to render that on new games that used it, no matter how much extra you paid for them. Same thing goes for Direct X 10 support; paying $500 for a screaming overclocked 6800 with 512mb ram three years ago would not have let you play Crysis with DX10 features enabled.

I agree with you on the video card thinking. But the PS3 video card is 512 GDDR3 and the graphics are really good. So I guess GDDR3 for me is fine and can sustain for 1-2 years.

If you're looking for a computer this beastly, I don't think that it is going to stand high powered when SATA-II and the new gen rolls around because the main point is the Processor Speed. Your motherboard wouldn't be made to handle something more than 4 cores, and when 8 Core processors roll in, and trust me, they WILL roll in, you're gonna need a new motherboard all together, so I wouldn't be shooting way too higher than to normally spend. Get a motherboard that can handle a quadcore and 8 GB's, but don't expect it to last forever because of the ability to handle DDR3 (Not necessary over DDR2, because the cores can't make use of a negligible difference. DDR2 =practically= DDR3. By the time the future comes around it isn't going to matter that much because you're still going to be buying a new motherboard to handle new cores and by then you might as well buy DDR3 or beyond.)


Buying a quadcore, and keeping in mind that you are looking to the future, is buying something more advanced than you need. There is hardly ANYTHING that can take use of all of these cores, boy. Unless you are running hundreds upon hundreds of programs at max speed, nothing here will cut it. You will have massive idlecores and by the time that anything that would take use of it appears, we will be using 8 Core and be on Windows 7 moving to Windows 8. Trust me bro, this isn't a good decision. You will get the same performance out of a dual core, plus you will have $700 more to spend.

RAM:
I'd like to get Dual Channel but I don't think I'll really need it, because I want to get 4GB of RAW RAM. Oh, I want the memories to be of 2GB of one or 4GB preferrably so if I need to upgrade in the future I'll just put one more instead of replacing.
Now one thing to ask about... DDR2 or DDR3. Wich should I get?

Again with the motherboard thing. By the time the future DOES come in, your motherboard cores will be obsolete. Also; taken from RMRK, and this next quote WAS directed to me.

DDR3 is new technology and as it is now, is still outperformed by DDR2. PC2-8500 DDR2 ram will outperform PC3-8500 DDR3 ram. The DDR2 initial standard timings are 5-5-5-15. As DDR2 has been around for ages the standard has not only been reached, but passed, you can get DDR2 even faster than this. DDR3's initial standard is 7-7-7-15, and this has not even been reached. The timings on your memory you linked are a whopping 7-7-7-21. Quit being HERF DERF DDR3 IS A HIGHER NUMBER THAN DDR2, BETTAR LOL?. Buy DDR2. the DDR3 extra performance you think you'll be getting does not exist yet.

HARD DRIVE:

One with a speed of 7200rpm is fine but I could do ok with more. 500GB is enough for me. It has to be SATA-II though.

If you DO find some magic motherboard that supports all this tech that you don't have access to you yet, feel free to waste money for the same thing that is readily available. You shouldn't pick computer parts because they are BRAND NEW, you should pick them on how they work, compatibility and reliability.

VIDEO CARD:

PCI-Express of course.
A question... should I get a GDDR3 or a GDDR5? Also I would prefer nVIDIA so a GeForce with GT suffix would be best.

NVIDIA 8800 GT would be perfect, I run Crysis at near max without AA with it.

SOUND:

It can onboard sound

That's basically it. What I want to know is what kind of parts should I get. Show me some builds accordingly to what I asked for up there. Answer my questions please and don't flame me if I got anything wrong because I know nothing about hardware.

Bye...

Closing note; Don't pick things because they are new, because in 4 years, your computer is going to be considered obsolete whether you bulk it up now or not.

You're right I will get a dual core processor and DDR2 memory.
is this 8800GT GDDR3?

 

[Juno]

I just built a computer from parts I purchased through www.newegg.com.  Here's some info I found that might help out:

Are you going with Intel or AMD?  I've been a long-time fan of AMD personally, but the new technology that Intel has been coming out with for their multi-cores looks good as well.  Part of my preference for AMD has been the performance/price ratio, but since money really isn't an object for you (my PC cost an easy $350), you could definitely go either way.

IF YOU GO WITH AMD:  AMD's flagship processor right now (for the consumer sector) is the "Phenom" chip, (it comes in triple and quad-core) and you'll need that if you want to use 1066 DDR RAM.  You can use 1066 DDR RAM with a lesser CPU, but the system will lower the speed down to 800.  The Phenom chip comes with an L3 cache AS WELL AS an L2 cache, but be aware that the L3 cache actually has a slightly higher latency (meaning it's slower) than the L2 cache.  (L_ cache is basically a memory module directly on the chip that allows for faster access than your RAM).  If the chip finds the information it needs in the cache, it will use it, otherwise it looks to the RAM.  The benefit of the L3 cache is that it's larger, but because of this it's slightly slower than L2.

Practically speaking, a chip with only an L2 cache might be imperceptibly faster on mundane tasks, or when using less RAM-intensive programs.  Playing a game though, a lot of that processing is going to go to the RAM anyway, so you'll want good RAM.  Watch out for "performance RAM".  Just make sure that whatever you get has low CAS latency, and the voltage is compatible with your motherboard.  If you choose the correct slot-type, the voltage should not be a problem.  A good site to use is www.crucial.com, just for cross-referencing the type of RAM you want.  I agree with the above statement that you should get DDR2 instead of DDR3.  DDR3 just isn't there yet, not to mention the merit-less price hike.

I recommend getting your CPU retail, so that it comes with a heatsink and fan.  You know it will be compatible that way, and you know it will keep it cool.  It's not great if you want to overclock, but in my opinion, overclocking is a foolish way to get your computer faster.  If you want a faster chip, buy a faster chip.  Don't clock it beyond the recommended settings.

Your operating system will have a big impact, as well.  If you choose 32-bit Windows XP, you should know that it will only recognize up to 3GB of RAM.  You could go with a 64-bit platform (XP or Vista), the trouble with doing this is the lack of driver support for 64-bit systems.  If you go with any form of Vista, the RAM cap is much higher, but there's so much garbage going on at the base level of the operating system, that it will feel slower no matter how much RAM you dump into it.  At this point I don't know if it's architecturally possible for the 32-bit version of Windows XP to ever get a service pack that will raise the RAM ceiling, but in my personal opinion, for a gaming system, XP is better than Vista.  I would also personally recommend staying away from 64-bit, simply because the driver support is hit-or-miss, and the number of programs that are actually written so that they can use the platform architecture are FEW AND FAR BETWEEN.

For your graphics card, you're just going to have to do your homework.  New technology and chipsets are coming out all the time.  You'll want to read reviews.  Do a search for "The ultimate guide to graphics cards".  It has some good information there.  Make sure you understand what the acronyms mean.  For instance, there's no point in having SLI support unless you have two graphics cards running side-by-side.  If you do want that, you'll need to make sure that your motherboard has at least 2 PCI-E x16 slots.  I would also recommend that you choose a motherboard with a similar chipset as your GPU.  As an example, if you get a motherboard with an Nvidia chipset and pair it with an Nvidia graphics card, there are power-saving features.

For your hard drive, SATA 3.0Gb/s is good, 7200 RPM is fine.  You could go up to 10k or 15k RPM if you wanted, but I don't know that it would make that much of a difference.

One of the more overlooked aspects of a computer's speed is the front side bus (FSB).  Make sure your motherboard has a high FSB.  It's one of the limiting factors for a computer, if your FSB can't handle the throughput of your graphics card or processor, you'll notice performance issues.

I think that's about all I have for now.  Oh, and get a good power supply.  Not just one with high wattage, but high quality, and with good fans.  Good luck.