For Christmas this season, us kids of the family will be getting one present, a super gosu gaming PC. I was just wondering if anyone could recommend a super gosu gaming PC, that would well suite our gaming needs, (like running half-life 2 on the highest settings) We have two computers. Ones old but reliable, the other is a Frankenstein made of good modern pieces, but has many problems like crashing. Or you can just tell others what type of comp you have, or are going to get soon (for SC2 of course)
Don't buy too early because AMD and Intel are both coming out with new quad-core technology that is supposed to me a lot more efficient. AMD is supposed to have their Quad core processor by November I believe and the architecture of it is supposed to be faster than intel's Core series. Intel is coming out with a new more efficient quad core early next year as well.
My computer is an HP Pavilion of some sort. Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400gs(256GB). I have a 20'' widescreen monitor, but the video card is not good enough to play newer games on the highest settings at full resolution. From my experience, screen resolution affects framerate much more than fancy effects. If you're really going all-out, go for one of the aforementioned quad-core processors, 2GB+ RAM, with a GeForce 8600 or 8800. The highest-end 8800, however, costs about as much as an entire lower-end computer, so unless you plan to get an absolutely massive monitor, you might want to opt for something a tier or two below that.
It really depends on how much you want to spend. My one recommendation is that you don't buy a brand name computer, ever. You'll save alot of money by buying it in parts and putting it together, something that really isn't all that hard and if you do need help, I'm sure you can find someone. The only problem with buying parts is that you need to be careful to buy compatable parts. Most of this will become obvious when looking up the parts but you do need to be careful. Something like, making sure you have a powerful enough PSU for your CPU and video card(s) is something that you can easily forget to do. Again, you don't need that much knowledge of hardware to do this but if you need help it shouldn't be hard to find. The reason you should do all this work is simply because you will save a great deal of money and you won't waste anything getting stuff you don't need or want. If you get an AMD CPU I would definitely wait until their newest CPU's come out, even if you don't want to get one of those, since they will be very expensive, they will drive down the price of their existing CPU's. You should also do research to see if nVidia or Radeon( I probably mispelled Radeon but I don't really care ) are coming out with new cards any time soon. If they are you will want to buy the computer after then so you will be able to go up a few cards in quality without breaking your budget. My only other recommendation is to get 2 gigs of the fastest DDR2 ram you can afford. P.S. I wouldn't get Vista just yet if I were you, but if you do get Vista get XP as well.
I would not recommend building your own computer unless you have a lot of knowledge and skill relating to hardware. I mean, I know my way around a computer, hardware-wise, but I wasn't willing to go through the hassle associated with matching all the parts. You have to go though a lot of fine print to be sure you're getting what you're looking for. From the games I've been looking at and playing, most have been optimized for nVidia cards.
I think it would be better to get an IOU for Christmas and get the computer itself in February or so when Vista SP1 and DX10.1 are out as well as both Intel and AMD's new processors are out.
im currently using an AMD, but im waiting for the quad core, since release is on November one, ill just wait.....
Currently I have Vista premium, a 3ghz dual core cpu, 2 gigs of ddr2 667 ram, 256mb 8600gt, 640 gigs of hard drive running on a 20" monitor. My question is do I have to upgrade anything to play sc2 maxed out, I'm pretty sure my cpu and ram is good enough, but I'm sceptical about my graphics card. Is it good enough or should I get a 512mb 8600gts or higher? Will getting more memory in a gpu be better than getting a faster card, say a 8800gts? And money becomes an issue when getting a high end card, I'm just wondering what is the best card that balances affordablilty and quality? Also is getting a quad core worth it? I mean not many programs can support quad core effectively as of now.
techlology: You'll probably need a better card if you want to play SC2 at max, but this is just a wild guess from me. We'll know closer to release. As for quad-core CPUs... yeah, the performance boost won't be noticeable on everything due to the lack of optimization. I suppose it depends on how often you intend to upgrade. If it is frequent, don't bother, just pick one up when people start programming for them. If it is not, then programs that make good use of the cores might start popping up within its lifetime.
ZOMG I better get a job but does any1 know when the nxt generation comes out, and vista gets outdated??
Whatever you buy it's never a good idea to buy those stock computers from the stores. You don't get your money's worth and it's never up to par with the current market. Dell has the best options for customization, obviously, and they're the simplest way to go. I would never suggest an AMD processor, period. They have heat issues and don't perform to their expectations. I've also never seen an intel chipset fail, but I've seen it in AMDs quite often. As far as video cards go, the market is a lot closer, but certainly Nvidia has the edge in quality and performance. However, ATI is ridiculously less expensive than Nvidia so its really a question of whether you're willing to pay a whole lot more for maybe not so much improvement in performance. I currently have an ATI card, but that's mostly because only ATI made one to fit my laptop . But I agree with Neon on this one, unless you're extremely knowledgeable with the components involved in computers, it will be more cost effective to simply buy the base structure and upgrade it. I would suggest a refurbished computer from one of the brand-name sellers if you're looking to at least not start from scratch. Good luck!
What AMD chips are you using? Last I checked they run cooler than Intel chips While AMD doesn't make processors as high end as Intel you probably don't NEED a quad core anyway (though there is the option for that now too from AMD) and if you are shopping in the low to mid end market AMD chips are more cost effective since Intel places their focus on the high end stuff. ATi and Nvidia are both very good but I would recommend ATi since they are cheaper than Nvidia and paying the extra hundred bucks on an Nvidia card usually doesn't grant enough of a performance boost to justify the cost. If you want to buy a boxed system though don't do it through a retail store. Instead go to the PC manufacturer's (Dell HP etc) website since most of them have an option to customize the computer so you can get have a better sound card put in and remove any extra stuff you are never going to use
AMD chips do run cooler than Intel's chips. That's the problem. They're failing at lower temperatures, which just tells you that there's something wrong with their manufacture methods. I've seen it happen all too often. I would never recommend an AMD processor on a new computer. Not worth the savings.
Which chips are doing it? The old ones or the newer ones because remember when the Pentium first came out with MMX and then again with the 4 Intel had major heat problems. I have used both AMD and Intel chips and never had a problem. The reason is I make sure I get a good fan.
Well you have to realize that I work with about 90% laptops as opposed to very few desktops, so a lot of times increased cooling options aren't an option. And that's besides the point. I would hope that a quality processor would be able to withstand temperatures of 250+ without frying the motherboard, but that's not always the case. And it's not a simple matter of narrowing it down to type and model of the processor, I've seen it happen in different generations of processor, although it does seem that they've taken precautions to keep it from happening. But seriously, when you see a computer that is $200-300 cheaper than its counterpart, and simply because it has an AMD processor rather than an Intel one, I would apply the rule "get what you pay for." It's certainly true. Even if you don't have a problem with it, there's a gigantic difference in performance and capabilities between two "equivalent" chips from Intel and Athlon. BIG DIFFERENCE. It's nearly always worth it to spend that extra $200. This isn't the case with video cards though.
