PC Gamers, i need help...

[Din Of Win]

Hey guys and gals,

Over the past few years i've gotten more and more into the world of PC gaming. It started with City Of Heroes in 05, and hasn't let up since.

However, these days, my stuff isn't up to par to run my games

I have an old (like, '04) Dell Desktop that just played CoH, Starcraft 1 and Warcraft 3. Last year i bought a decent HP Laptop though and put a lot of stuff on it. It's served me well... runs Oblivion okay, but Dragon Age is all low setting'd and crappy looking... and now the turning point is Starcraft 2 which is running abysmally. Computers are not really my forte at ALL so i'm not sure what the best course of action is...

I just want to build up/buy up a decent rig to play these games on (seriously i didn't know until last week that Dragon Age had blood in it until i saw my friend playing it on 360).

Do i buy a rig? What's the cost of an oooookay PC?
Would it be cheaper to upgrade my existing Desktop?
Are there a ways of making my Laptop run better/faster/stronger?



I don't need some crazy 'late-90's-looking-hacker-computer'. I just want to be able to play what i have, and other games decently.

Thanks, yall!

 

[CrispyDelicious]

I don't need some crazy 'late-90's-looking-hacker-computer'.

But those are the best kind! Mine has blue Led's It adds to the creepy-single-guy-slaying-dragons-with-a-sexy-female-avatar feeling.

 

[Din Of Win]

Hahaha, fair enough... and actually, Crispy... you may be one of the only ones to get what i was thinking about when i typed that 'quote' up:

Invalid Link Removed


*was also thinking of the girl from the anime, 'X'... but that's way to hard to image search on google :scowl:

 

[MIJ-VI]

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&s...+Windows+for+gaming.&meta=&btnG=Google+Search

 

[Din Of Win]

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&s...+Windows+for+gaming.&meta=&btnG=Google+Search

Oh coooool.

Thanks

 

[MIJ-VI]

Supplying details re the hardware and OS version that you are using would help others to help you get the best performance out of the gear you have. And until you've learned how to do so, money spent on newer gear would be largely wasted.

As I understand it, hard core gamers assemble their own machines out of the fastest components they can afford.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&s...o+build+a+gaming+PC.&meta=&btnG=Google+Search

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/index.php

 

[Din Of Win]

As I understand it, hard core gamers assemble their own machines out of the fastest components they can afford.

Yeah, that's the thing. I'm decidedly NOT hard-core when it comes to games. I don't need super top o' the line malarkey. I really just want Starcraft 2 to run well, haha. I'll def take a look at the links!

...and there goes my morning production at work

 

[MIJ-VI]

Yeah, that's the thing. I'm decidedly NOT hard-core when it comes to games. I don't need super top o' the line malarkey. I really just want Starcraft 2 to run well, haha. I'll def take a look at the links!

...and there goes my morning production at work

That's super liquid-cooled top o' the line malarkey.

 

[Flipsnake]

It's not very expensive to upgrade a desktop. Your case should already be able to accept standard PC parts. If so, you should only be buying:
-A new graphics card (this may be all you need)
-A new processor
-More RAM
2004 seems like a long time ago, so it may be due for a motherboard change as well.
Take a look at the Recommended System Requirements of the games that you want to purchase. Then just look those parts up.
In all seriousness, if you can assemble a 10-piece jigsaw puzzle, you can assemble a PC together. They make it so easy these days.

Oh, and if you PM me your email address, I can send you this neat picture that shows the price ranges of different PC builds.

 

[Thunderscreech]

keep the case and DVD-ROM Drive (or -RAM, +RW, whatever) and get new stuff to fill the case with. you can get a sick rig for less than a new one, and it will have cost you more to buy something of those specs pre-assembled.

Dual-Boot with Ubuntu or something for the lulz, and because you can.

 

[MIJ-VI]

Any PC upgrade spiral would definitely include a good quality (and preferably quiet) power supply.

 

[DigMe]

You can definitely build for cheaper than buying a system. Upgrading is even cheaper still. However, for those who aren't comfortable building their own I always recommend www.cyberpowerpc.com. Their system prices come VERY close to build-it-yourself prices (if you were building from scratch) and they do good work that I have inspected first-hand.

bc

 

[zachoff]

I've yet to spend more than $1k building a computer and I can pretty much play anything on mine w/o hiccups. AMD PhenomII x3, decent mobo, 8G 1066 (or better) memory, 1G video card, and 7200 rpm HDD will do it!

 

[Simo98]

Alienware.


A friend of a friend just bought one on their laptops the other day, he spent just over $3,700 on it.

 

[zachoff]

Western Digital Caviar Blue 640GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #:N82E16822136218
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$69.99

MSI Radeon HD 5770 R5770 Hawk Video Card
Item #:N82E16814127490
Return Policy: VGA Standard Return Policy
$179.99

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Computer Case
Item #:N82E16811119068
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$54.99

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
Item #:N82E16819103808
Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy
$159.99

GIGABYTE GA-880GA-UD3H ATX AMD Motherboard
Item #:N82E16813128444
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
-$5.00 Instant
$109.99
$104.99

SAMSUNG 24x DVD Burner - Bulk SATA Model SH-S243N/BEBS LightScribe Support
Item #:N82E16827151216
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$24.99

Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply
Item #:N82E16817371015
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
-$20.00 Instant
$15.00 Mail-in Rebate
$99.99
$79.99
Grand Total: $674.93

Throw in an OS on top of that and you're looking at ~$850. Good stuff, yo!

--edit--

Whoops, forgot memory:

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL
Item #: N82E16820231311
Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy

-$10.00 Instant
$199.99
$189.99

So, maybe a little over $1k for all of that w/ an OS.