Gaming PC specs... what should I get?

Question

Gaming PC specs... what should I get?

Answer 1

yes you could just

ok gaming now is mainly about the graphics card so max out on that and then fill in with the rest

nvid 8800 gtx OC (overclocked at factory) is top of the line, dotn get 2x sli cards, false economy



get an Intel duel core processor but dont worry about high speed ones, the duel core does the crunching. amd dcs are way below intel on power nowdays. quad core have been tested to show no great gain unless running several games at once atm but bear in mind no dx10 gmaes like crysis out to test



max your ram, its cheap, 4gb+ FTW =)

dont worry about expensive ram, you wont be overclocking



I wouldnt worry about HD speed but if you got the cash get a raptor



get a seperate sound card, expect 120quid for a decent one, this will take away the sound processing from the cpu and help game speed



get a decent cpu cooler, i have an arctic 7 pro, kicks ***, 21 deg 24/5 under load on a DC cpu lol



nice spacey case, dont get a miniscule one with no air flow



dont get a floppy, you wont use it and the cable blocks airflow



buy a decent rounded cable for the dvd/cd drive



ALWAYS buy a good psu, NEVER skimp, underrated supplies cause instability in windows and programs

go for a decent 1k psu (1000w)



dont worry about an expensive motherboard and dont get one with built in junk, chipset doesnt mean crap =)



vista! crysis will be dx10 (see below about xp wielding goobers who dont know anything)



for individual recommendations on makers/models, your best bet is read reviews or gear from people who ave bought them on sites, ebuyer and overclockers.co.uk allow people to review them and dont edit stuff to make them look good afaik



if you arnt building yourself, buy a barebones set without the graphics card and add that yourself, as long as you seat it correctly youll be fine with this as a minimum self build effort...its the processors that people burn up

enjoy



ps beware bad advice, people tell you stuff on here when they have snapshot knowledge at best, non dx10 os's and cards are hardly good advice =/

Answer 2

If you want to be able to turn new games to ultra-high settings, you will definately need to spend more than E1200.



Get a Intel dual-core series (not Pentium Ds), you'd be okay with the 6300 or 6400 dualcores.



Ram - go with a least 4GB, 8GB would be better.



Video Card- (this will be spendy) go with like a GeForce 8800 ultra w/ 768Mb or higher. You really can't cheap out on this, I'd expect to put 40% of the total cost of the system into the graphics card - it should have a lot of memory and a GOOD chipset.

Answer 3

For any price, at the moment it would be difficult to guarantee a computer would run Crysis, early DX10 benchmarks are not promising. Computers running 8800GTX ultras in sli are averaging 50 fps in lost planet which does not bode well for the future.



You can however build an excellent gaming system for that price.



For the mobo, go for one of the newer P35 boards, everyone recommends the Asus boards but if you don't mind the lack of in built WiFi, Gigabyte make some excellent boards that can be overclocked well for a good £40 less, check out the:



Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R for around £80



For the processor everyone seems to be recommending quad cores which for current games have no advantage over dual cores. The Q6600 is good but will soon be superseded by newer quad cores with 1333fsb. The E6750 is about £40 cheaper, faster in games and can be overclocked like crazy. So..



Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 for around £120



Ram is a non issue, the speed difference you will see between cheap ddr2 and stupidly expensive ddr3 is so small that it's not worth going mad. Corsair sell some excellent 2GB kits which will allow decent overclocks. Go for:



Cosair Twin2X2048-6400C4 for around £70



It's nice to have good disk performance, for you I would recommend a raid0 setup, get a couple of 250gb or 500gb drives. I use:



2 x 500 Gb Samsung HD501LJ in raid0 for around £120



For the power supply get one from a decent manufacturer and look at getting at least 500w, more if you want sli. Ebuyer has an amazing offer on an Antec smartpower, £35 for a 500w mudular psu from a top manufacturer!



For the case, depending upon what you like, you are looking at spending between £40 and £150 quid. Aplus are causing a fuss by making great cases cheap. Budget £80



Now the big one graphics!!! so far we have spent around £500 and have the basics of a really nice gaming PC, you could go all out and buy an 8800GTX Ultra but believe me, you would be throwing your money away as so far, signs are not good that they will offer decent performance in DX10 games, as I said earlier, sli rigs are getting average 50fps in the most up to date DX10 game benchmark! If I were you I would get either an 8800gts 320 at around £180 or even a x1950xt at around £120. Both offer great performance in current games and with the money left over you can buy a supreme Crysis running card when they become available or... you can buy a nice big flashy lcd. Go with the 8800GTS and save the rest of the cash for a real proven DX10 card. Trust me, you will be so pleased you didn't buy a £400 card by then.



All the best and happy gaming!





Forgot to mention the OS, get Vista, unlike what someone above said, lol. It supports DX10 unlike XP, it's the only way forward, add £70.



TOTAL = £755!!!!! = £245 to spend in the future on a card that can definatly run Crysis.

Answer 4

Use a motherboard with the new p35 chipset like the Asus P5k deluxe/wifi edition. Use the Q6600 cpu but be sure you get the newer SLACR with the DO stepping and not the SL9UM. If youre installing Vista put the 64bit in. Its more stable and over 10% faster. Use 2 Western Digital 75GB Raptors in a Raid0 array and use a big SATA 3.0 as a storage drive. Load it up it 4 gigs of Crucial Ballistics Ram as it has the micron d9 chips. Dont waste money on $700 video cards right now because even the 8800 768MB Ultra is incapable of doing what DirectX10 can do. Nvidia says its because of the immature drivers but a lot of people think its the hardware. Settle on an EGVA 8800GTS 640MB superclock (under $400) until the newer cards come out and Directx10 matures cuz most directX10 out now is just restructured DX9. Get the 520 or 620watt Corsair PSU and a high performance fan/heatsink. Clock that 2.4 Quad to about 3 and fasten your seatbelt.

Answer 5

Well I have a lot of experience with AMD systems so thats what I'll pointing out to you.



For a good computer you want:

- An AMD dual core processor 2.8Ghz or up though I reccomend 3.0 ($200-250 depending on socket)

- For Crysis (good taste by the way) I reccomend a DX10 card either the 8800 GTS (or X) or the 2900XT (For more power but lower stability) ($300-$400) This is probably the most important thing, dont go cheap on this.

- At least 2 GBs of RAM (The standard is moving away from 1 GB nowadays plus Vista seems to love 2 Gigs of RAM) ($100-$150 depending on type)

- A fast hard drive (10,000 RPM) 15,000 RPM if you have the budget for it. (About $200 for a RaptorX hard drive 150 GB)

- A motherboard to fit it all in. It really depends on your specs but when looking at a motherboard keep in mind the type of ram supported DDR2 800 is probably a good minimum plus 680a or 680i nvidia drivers are good gaming drivers. Also try to get one with a minimum of 2 PCI express slots for the possiblity of SLI or Crossfire.



I'd buy this stuff from Newegg. Not only is it cheaper than buying it at a store, but they are very reliable. I've bought at least $3000 in computer equipment from them.



PS. Good taste in Vista. While it may run a tad slower you will be able to utilize DX10 which is the future of gaming. Thats why you shouldnt get anything less than an Geforce 8800 or ATI 2900XT. Good luck with your PC :)

Answer 6

Intel Q6600 @ £170

Asus Striker Extreme @ £175

2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800) @ £68

2x250 Gb Western Digital WD2500KS @ £85 (All together)

768Mb ScanFX 8800GTX PCI-E (x16), Mem 1800MHz, GPU 575MHz @ £320

Any DVD RW @ < £20





Vista Home Premium OEM @ £67



TOTAL = £905



This will play Crysis on high without any difficulties





*EDIT*



For case I recommend Antec P180 @ £85



and 600W Zalman ZM600-HP Heatpipe Cooled Modular PSU @ £77



TOTAL with case and PSU is £1067, but if your absoloutly limited to £1000 then maybe get an 8800GTS rather than a GTX. It will still perform very well in gaming.

Answer 7

personally i build my own, my advice would be to find out what the spec's of the game is that you want to play and go a little higher.

Answer 8

first thing , if its for gaming , DO NOT GET VISTA

1. vista sucks

2. it slows the computer down too much

3. its a waste



so the specs

duo core

2gb ram

512mb geoforce graphic card

a sound card if you care that much about sound sfx >.>..

a 200+gb if its a desktop , or 160gb if its a notebook (harddrive)

dvd drive ... doesn't matter the ones out there aren't that bad anyway

and thats about everything

+motherboard (doesn't matter really) + OS if you want vista AND AREO your choose but you shouldn't do that if you're going for a gaming comp , cuz not all games are compactiable with vista





i think thats just under £1000 and for the guy who suggested sata 3 or 4 and the 700+ mb vid card.... and quad core , its not even out or is he going to get it with only £1000 >.>....



and you know cisc works alot better than s-ata 3 or 4 >.<

Answer 9

680i mobo

e6600 or q6600

min 2gb pc8500 (check for lowest possible latency 5-5-5-9)

2 x 8800 gts or higher

upgraded cpu cooling

good gaming case (antec 900)

proper psu (ocz has nice cheap big W quad rail)





http://profiles.yahoo.com/bamatstar_30

Answer 10

wow,you could get a crackin gaming system with all your required specs for under £1000,theres never been a better time too get top spec p.c,s at rock bottom prices....for example

1)The mesh Elite Express Quad(http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTVIEWPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=221594)is a power packed system with the new quad core processor and wait for it "4gb ddr2 667mhz memory",this on its own are amazing specs but look at the rest

it has the 256MB nVIDIA Geforce 8600GT graphics,this is direct x 10 compatible so it will play crysis as this is a dx 10 game,and as the operating system on this p.c is windows vista home premium you will be fine for running direct x 10 games correctly

other good features on this p.c are a 22" Widescreen TFT LCD Display w/speakers and a LightScribe Super Format 18x DVD Writer,the monitor is a class model and with a lightscribe dvd writer this enables printed cd,s and dvd,s

the Sounblaster X-FI Xtreme Gamer sound card will give your games the sound and audio they deserve and the T6100 - 5.1 Speakers + Subwoofer will deliver the sound to all areas of your room

as for storage the 500GB Hard Drive with 16MB buffer will make sure you never run out of storage space,and with plenty of space for upgrades in the massive black and silver case you can allways add a second hard drive at a later date

before i finish lets take a closer look at the processor,this beast of a c.p.u has 2.40ghz clock speed with a 8MB L2 Cache,and a fsb of 1066mhz.the Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 Processor isnt the fastest of the quad family but its a solid performer and will blast through any game,quad is the way to go and this technology will future proof you for at least the next five years

finally with 2 years on-site warranty this is a excellent support package,and all for just £999.00 inc VAT

(£850.21 ex VAT)

also consider the mesh Elite Storm PRO(http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTVIEWPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=219925),with just a core 2 duo processor but also with a 320MB nVIDIA 8800GTS Graphics card this is a brilliant gaming p.c,again with vista home premium but just 2gb of ram ,however this is plenty(4gb is really overkill),well heres its full specs................

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6750 Processor

(2.66GHz ,4MB L2 Cache, 1333MHz)

Hybrid TV Tuner - Digital & Analogue

Mainboard-nForce 650i SLI

2GB DDR2 Memory

500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive

320MB nVIDIA 8800GTS Graphics

22" Widescreen LCD Display (DVI, MM, 5ms)

LightScribe Super Format 18x DVD Writer

Creative's SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer

Creative T6100 5.1 Speakers + Subwoofer

6 USB, 2x Firewire, GB LAN

Multi-format Memory Card Reader

Logitech Cordless KB & Optical Mouse

2 Years On-site Warranty (Home Service)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

both these p.c,s are brilliant machines with unique components,and both will play games with frame rates in the 100,s and using direct x 10 technology and pixel and shader model 4.0 the effects will be amazing

for future proof technology go for the Elite Express Quad,this will keep you going for years,however for a good all round gaming p.c the Elite Storm PRO is hard to beat,as the intel core 2 duo is a tried and tested gaming processor however the quad core cpu hasent been around for long,and the geforce 8600gt has nothing on the 8800gts card,although the 8600gt is a good card it lacks the punch of the powerful 8800gts

hope this helps

good luck mate!

Answer 11

Crysis is going to be one bad motherf**ker!



Both from the visual & gameplay standpoint - and from how brutal it will be on a machines video card.



I play Far Cry (which they bundled with a couple of different video cards for a while - due to the way it showed off what the card could do.



You can build a fairly inexpensive system that will handle the game, but you are going to be spending the most money on your video card - you don't need the highest end cards, but make sure it meets (or preferably exceeds) the minimum requirements for any games you might be playing on it.



Check ATI or Nvidia, they both make awesome cards.



You might want to look into a motherboard with the ability to run multiple cards - that way you can slap one it for now, but add a second if you can't turn up the level of detail to your liking without it lagging out.

Answer 12

I would consider something with a large memory capacity since you are going for a gaming platform. Find a system that can handle the maximum RAM for the money. You can add the RAM later. Get your foot in the door with the basic system to begin the gaming and then upgrade the RAM.



Otherwise I would check out the online stores like Dell, Gateway and others and custom build it.



Good luck

Answer 13

Hi!



I have serious doubts about the amount. I'd go for Intel Quad Core ( lots of processing power :) ), at least 2GB of RAM (also DDR3 if possible and DualChannel).

For graphics, try an ultra fancy 768MB VRAM DDR2 or DDR3 on PCIExpress, with PixelShading 3.0 (4.0 if possible)!

You might also want some fast SATA2/SATA3 HDD (they are really fast).



Good luck!

Answer 14

u could build the pc u r talking about for £600, u need to be looking at a graphics card £150+

Answer 15

If you build it yourself, it shouldn't be too hard: Fastest Intel Core 2 Duo processor you can afford (E6850 is at a real price/performance sweet spot), at least 2GB of RAM, nVidia 8800 series video card, a *quality* power supply of at least 500w.



And quad-core processors don't help game performance, so you can save your money there.