Buying a new gaming PC

galenblade

So, long story short, my PC of 6 years (!) croaked on the first of the year. Virus slipped through somehow and it was just too much. It's been on a slow decline for years, so it was time to upgrade anyways.

My problem is that I know nothing about PCs. To me it's an Internet adapter and game box. I have no idea about what the best current components (Video card, processor, etc) are best to look for. I'm trying to get something that's reasonably inexpensive (around 1k tops), but will last me for a few years.

I've been looking on NewEgg for some ideas, and have found a few comps that look decent, but I'm unsure if they're too much, too little, etc.

So if you can give me some advice on what to look for, where to look, or even a specific deal, that would help me immensely.

(And since it's inevitably going to be asked - No, I'm not comfortable building my own PC. I'm not technically-minded at all, so I prefer to buy pre-made so I'm reasonably assured that everything is in working order.)

Dunadan019

what do you want out of the PC (what games do you want to play) and what parts can you use from your old one (monitor keyboard etc)

there is a sticky at the top of Moe's

for computer building but they sometimes have recommendations for complete units too.

galenblade

I'm really just looking for a CPU. My monitor, keyboard, etc are still serviceable. I suppose I play more WoW than anything else, but that was beginning to chug. I'm looking for something that will be able to play most of the games that will be coming out over the next 5 years or so, plus some of the higher-end stuff I missed (Sins of a Solar Empire, Dawn of War, etc)

I did check the sticky at Moe's, but didn't comprehend most of it. Got too technical at times so I didn't know what was being talked about.

JustinSane07

Those are both good choices. That Acer is top notch. Over a TB of storage. 8gb of Memory. A GeForce 9800. 2.5ghz quad core. You can't go wrong with it if you're not wililng to build one yourself.

It'll probably run the top notch games smoothly for the next 2-2.5 years and then slowly start to trail off. But I could see you getting 6 years out of it.

OremLK

Even if you're not comfortable building your own, when it comes to gaming PCs, it's very worthwhile to learn how. And trust me: It's not difficult. Did you build Lego sets as a child? For the most part, building a PC is not more complex than that.

The hardest part is picking the right parts, so that they're compatible and everything runs right. And there are plenty of people here who can help you with that (I'm one of them.)

The reason I suggest this is simply because it will save you a lot of money. If you're just buying a $300 home PC to browse the internet and edit documents on, that's one thing. Buy a Dell. If you're looking for a $1,000 gaming rig, you're going to be spending around 25-50% more for the same machine.

If you're cool with throwing away that much money for what will likely be a slower, less reliable machine, then the second system you listed (the Acer) would probably be okay. If not, I can put together a list of parts for the exact same specifications as that computer, for cheaper.

shadydentist

I built my first PC last september. The guys in the Technology forum are really helpful, I'd give it a try. Really, it can save you a lot of money, and you gain some pretty useful skills out of it.

OremLK

Yep, what shadydentist said. There's a whole sticky there with plenty of discussion on the subject.

Regarding that Acer, looking at it more closely, it's really not a terrible deal. I could still shave maybe $150 off the purchase price for the same parts, building it myself.

The bigger issue is that it has some puzzling build choices.

• The processor is adding about $50 to the price for very tiny gains in performance (over the lowest-end Core 2 Quad)
• 8gb is way more memory than you will ever need. 4gb is more than enough for gaming; so that's almost $50 that didn't need to be added to the purchase price.
• 2x640gb hard drives is an unusual choice, when there are much faster terabyte drives for around $100. I'm not sure if they're in RAID, but if they are, it still should be comparable in performance, except then you have to deal with the reliability loss that comes with having two drives in RAID.
• The 9800GT is just about the cheapest reasonable gaming card you can buy--you could sink all of that extra cost I've been talking about into a better card and get MUCH greater performance benefits in gaming. For the $100+ savings I mentioned, you could get an Radeon HD4870 1gb, which is powerful enough to run Crysis at max settings, 1280x1024. A single 9800GT would choke.

galenblade

While I understand the "build your own" sentiment, I'd really prefer not to this time around. As I'm currently PC-less, I'd rather go with speed and reliability, despite the added cost. I can afford the financial hit more than I can afford to not be able to work (and game) at home.

OremLK

This build makes a lot more sense to me than the Acer. I don't know about the brand, but it does have some decent user reviews, for whatever that's worth.

galenblade

OremLK wrote: »

Yep, what shadydentist said. There's a whole sticky there with plenty of discussion on the subject.

Regarding that Acer, looking at it more closely, it's really not a terrible deal. I could still shave maybe $150 off the purchase price for the same parts, building it myself.

The bigger issue is that it has some puzzling build choices.

• The processor is adding about $50 to the price for very tiny gains in performance (over the lowest-end Core 2 Quad)
• 8gb is way more memory than you will ever need. 4gb is more than enough for gaming; so that's almost $50 that didn't need to be added to the purchase price.
• 2x640gb hard drives is an unusual choice, when there are much faster terabyte drives for around $100. I'm not sure if they're in RAID, but if they are, it still should be comparable in performance, except then you have to deal with the reliability loss that comes with having two drives in RAID.
• The 9800GT is just about the cheapest reasonable gaming card you can buy--you could sink all of that extra cost I've been talking about into a better card and get MUCH greater performance benefits in gaming. For the $100+ savings I mentioned, you could get an Radeon HD4870 1gb, which is powerful enough to run Crysis at max settings, 1280x1024. A single 9800GT would choke.

OK, to the bulleted list:

First off, the price is actually $200 lower (About 1k total) than listed, so that might count for some of the price shaving you mentioned.

What is reliability loss with RAID drives?

Also, is it possible that I could swap in a better video card at some point down the road?

galenblade

OremLK wrote: »

This build makes a lot more sense to me than the Acer. I don't know about the brand, but it does have some decent user reviews, for whatever that's worth.

To me, that looks more or less identical to the Acer. (slightly faster processor, smaller HDD, less known brand) What makes it a better option?

OremLK

Yeah, I knew it was $1,000 I could build a machine with the same specs for about $850, and then the bullet points on top of that (different choice of parts would offer better gaming performance, in other words).

If they have two hard drives, they might have them connected together in a RAID array. What this means is that the system treats them as one hard drive, and they run faster--transferring files, opening applications, etc. The problem is that if one fails, the array is broken and all of your data is lost. Two drives = higher chance of one of the two failing.

They might not be in RAID though. Regardless, it would make more sense to me to use one high-performance 1tb drive.

And sure, you could swap the video card later. But you're essentially paying $150 or so for it now, so there's that... and also, who knows what power supply they're using in there? It's probably just enough to run these parts. If you add another video card later, you'll probably have to buy a new power supply as well--this is why it's good to build your own, because then you know what's in your computer, and what you'll have to do if you ever want to upgrade it.

Edit: The second system puts more money toward the video card (the 9800GTX is a fair bit faster than the 9800GT). The video card is the most important part when it comes to 3D gaming performance.

galenblade

Ah, I see. Thanks much for explaining it to me.

It then makes sense that I'd sac HDD space (and a less reliable HDD setup) for a better processor and video card, all things being equal. (I actually thought the vid cards were the same.) The only thing that vexes me is the brand name, as I've never heard of Velocity Micro. I'll have to do some research on it.

Once I have some time and a bit of money to play around with, I'll probably learn to build my own for certes. It's just a question of needing an immediate (or so) solution.

Thanks man, let me know if there's anything else that I should know.

OremLK

No problem! Again, I don't know about the brand, but this company has good prices and allows a shitload of customization:

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Intel_Core_2_Quad_SLI_Custom_Build_Configurator/detail

They allow you enough to screw yourself over, in fact. Here's what I put together (for $925) which should be a really solid gaming PC, assuming they're competent enough to build and ship it without breaking anything, which I'll bet they are:

• Raidmax Sagitta II Mid-Tower case (the case is your preference, though, we won't be using its power supply)
• No light upgrade
• Default case fans
• 650 watt Corsair power supply (very important: most of the power supplies on their list are garbage and could cause reliability/stability problems, but this power supply is quite good. Whatever you do, don't use the power supply that comes with any of their cases)
• Intel Quad-Core Q6600 @ 2.4GHz
• Intel certified heat sink + fan
• MSI G31M-F motherboard
• 4gb Corsair or major brand DDR2 800 memory
• ATI Radeon HD4850 video card
• 1tb (1x1tb) HDD
• No other data hard drive
• No USB portable drive
• LG 20x black DVD burner
• No other optical drive
• Onboard sound
• No speakers
• Onboard network card
• No modem

This is still pretty expensive for what you're getting, but it's not terrible and is better (and cheaper) than that Acer system for gaming... plus you have a really good power supply in there, which is a big part of reliability.

EDIT: Ah, I just noticed they don't include Windows by default. So you'd be adding another $90-100 to that price. Still, better gaming performance for about the same price, and again, you'll know what parts are going into it (and they look to be from good brands, except for some of the power supplies).