I' m thinking of buying a new computer to play games on since I now have to play all PC games at my friends place, but I don' t know much about PC,s so I wonder if you could give me some advice. Questions:

1. How powerfull should a PC be? You know, Processor, RAM, graphics-card etc. I' d like to play Half-life 2, Doom 3 and other visually stunning titles with the highest graphic settings (or at least close enough to feel that I' m taking advantage of the games graphics). I mean, playing Doom 3 with the lowest settings kind of gives you the feeling that you are missing out on something.

2. Which Processor is best? AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium?

3. I' m willing to spend up to 1500$ for a new computer (screen and OS NOT included). Is that enough to get a good one? If not, I' ll use that money to build a good library of games for the next-gen consoles.

4. How long can I expect a computer, of that price, to be able to play future titles? If it will only last for three months, I might as well buy a more expensive one.

5. Since I don' t know shit about PCs, is there anything else I should know about them?

you need to spend a lot of money on a pc to get it top notch. If i had the money id go with a AMD 64 CPU, around 3700+ Atleast 1024gb RAM, atleast 80gb SATA2 disks in a striped raid. Id get two ATI X850 (or newer) Crossfire Enabled Cards and run them in a dual setup on a motherboard that supports two PCI Express cards.

If you buy this computer, you will play games for around a year, at the maximum settings after that it starts to go downward, at 2 years, settings will go to medium, maybe low if its a highend game. 3 years everything is on low, 4 years its unplayable.

PC' s are too expensive, thats why im going for next gen consoles, i can get 3 consoles for less than the price of a good PC.

Ok, thanks for the info. How much does your suggestion cost?

1. How powerfull should a PC be? You know, Processor, RAM, graphics-card etc. I' d like to play Half-life 2, Doom 3 and other visually stunning titles with the highest graphic settings (or at least close enough to feel that I' m taking advantage of the games graphics). I mean, playing Doom 3 with the lowest settings kind of gives you the feeling that you are missing out on something.

I' m no PC gamer but ideally I' d go for one with the highest amount of everything that falls within my price range. I guess 512 MB of ram would be a good STARTING point for some stuff, but the more ram you have the better. You' d of course want a speedy CPU to run with that hefty Ram... PC Graphics cards I' m not up to date on but I' ve always heard great things about the ATI Graphics cards.

2. Which Processor is best? AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium?

Years ago Intel was considered superior to AMD' s chips, but I have NO idea what the case is now. You' ll have to research that and/or wait for someone with a lot more knowledge on the subject to ' skool' you ;)

3. I' m willing to spend up to 1500$ for a new computer (screen and OS NOT included). Is that enough to get a good one? If not, I' ll use that money to build a good library of games for the next-gen consoles.

Oh yeah, from the stuff I' ve seen in ads, $1500 sounds pretty good for a new computer sans monitor.

4. How long can I expect a computer, of that price, to be able to play future titles? If it will only last for three months, I might as well buy a more expensive one.

That' s why you start off with a solid machine and just upgrade certain parts that future games require ;) - One of the headaches of PC gaming.

5. Since I don' t know shit about PCs, is there anything else I should know about them?

Yes. Sometimes they suck and you wanna throw them over a bridge.

Ok, thanks. Things are looking kinda good then .
I' ll make sure to nail it to the floor, that way I can' t throw it from the window or a bridge .
Too bad I can still kick the thing... maybe I' ll put it in a safe cage with kevlar around it!

ake my word for this :

for 1500$ without monitor you will have an extremly powerful pc:

according to prices in europe (which probably are higher than in the states )

ram: 2 Go === around $180

CPU: AMD is surely better in gaming than intel but only by little so with that price you can aford an AMD64 (3700+)

graphic card: (7800 GTX) around 450$, you can make it on SLI and that requires an additional (7800 GTX) they should be the same each so that' s 900$

motherboard === i don' t knpow the reference but this is no big deal just go for ASUS or MSI ( motherboards are at least year ago supporting all what PCs needs today pci express , SLI support etc...)

powersupply a good one for 50$, thisis mandatory specialy if you running a high end graphic

SATA 160 GB ==== 80$

2 optical drive , say dvd burner and a regular dvd drive === 100$


all this will cost you around 1550$ +- 100$

Ginjirou, unless you are very rich and don' t care about where you spend your money , do not go buy a pc as powerful as this one , believe me will all these specs it won' t match the power of xbox360 or PS3 and they will cost you a lot cheaper than this .... a dual sli (two graphic cards and in this case 2 7800 gtx) you will gain only around 50% over a single graphic card and sometimes you won' t get none and sometimes funny enough you will have 5% less (case in half life 2)

if you want to play current games and games that will be out for next year with very high setting (then a 800$ pc can make it without doubt without monitor)

in addition, the whole structure of pc' s will change soon, dual CPU' s it' s already out(but don' t know the price) and multi CPU later on so it will get as powerful as next gen consoles... if you buy this pc , in one year and half it will show its weaknesses

and do not forget one most important thing, PC' s are headaches, instability problems , patches , update drivers , hardware issues sometimes, incompatibility issues , windows crashing sometimes...

if i were you and if i' m not richi rich , then i' ll go and buy an xbox360 and wait for ps3 and revo

You could easily spend 1000$ on the display adapters alone, i dont know. You could get a good PC for 1500$ but my guess is it will last you for about a year, maybe two, before you begin having to shell out serious money for it again.

http://www.alienware.com/Product_Pages/desktop_all_default.aspx

Check out the the Aurora 7500, thats an excellent setup, not sure you get the Screen and stuff, but anyway, if you live in the US, go for something like that! dont take the 5500 as thats way two shitty!

Abasoufiane

Its always been like this with computers, if you wait with buying, something more powerful will be out, if you think like that, you dont ever get to buy one, id buy as powerful a pc as possible, and bask in its glory in its 2-3 lifespan!

Hmm, well I would go with just a 360 for now if I didn' t need the PC for other things as well. That' s pretty much the only reason I' m buying a PC instead of just investing in consoles, the PC can do so many other things. And since I like games I might as well invest in a computer that play games well. But since you say that the whole structure will change soon and that a 800$ PC is enough I might have to think about the options...

Hey, those alien creatures are scary! You think I' d let one of those in my house? Will they play my games or play with me before they eat me?

you got it ginjirou just think about the option and don' t throw your money like that it is a very bad period to buy a very powerful pc..

vx chemical you did n' t get my point, of course pc are always improving and if you keep waiting for something more powerful then you will never buy a pc , but he' s investing so much money that might be obsolete for gaming in less than two years just because of the whole structure which will change

look at PCI express vs AGP

there are people who bought expensive pc' s (my case) in late 2004 with agp technology then teh whole structure changes of the motherboard (pci express) now i can' t upgrade to 7800 or a more powerful cpu just because my motherboard does not support that, if i try to change the motehrboard than i should change the whole pc to fit into it... see ??

however people who bought there pc' s in 2002 with very powerful gra^hics at taht time , had a lifespan of 3 years and they can upgrade only the graphic card to add another year and half ...

consider the 800$ , that' s my best advice , it can play awesome games , and doo all the other stuff thata regular pc does

Well, just for reference, the computer I' m using right now can play any game at pretty much highest setting, doom 3 runs very well at second highest. I have an AMD athlon 64 3200, Nvidia Geforce 6800oc, 1gig corsair value ram, 200gig sata drive, and a Gigabyte GAK8vt800 mobo. When i bought it all about a year and a half ago it cost around 800 or so. The comp that i' m currently building which will be able to play everything at highest settings has/will soon have, 2gig corsair xms ram, Nvidia Geforce 7800gtx, AMD athlon X2 4400, and an Asus A8N-SLI Premium mobo

id go for a cheaper pc, and buy a console for gaming!

Hey ginjirou,

PC gaming' s an expensive hobby indeed, but these days console gaming is catching up! They' ve realised that powerful hardware comes at a price, but instead of paying the price up front for the hardware, you give it back later on other things.

I' ve kept my PC going for about 2.5 years with minimal upgrades (a gfx card upgrade to 6800gt) and I reckon you could do the same for about $1500. Pre-built machines for gamers are becoming cheaper these days from the likes of alienware and dell, but they often cut prices using cheap components. But building your own can come with its own hassles.

My current setup (2.8G intel, 6800gt overclocked, 1G Ram) can run the new Need For Speed on full, with just as much quality and smoothness as the 360 version, and could be built for around $800 these days. Half-life 2 and doom3 engine games run flawlessly as well. Im expecting another 1/2 year out of my setup before I have to turn down graphical features.

But... I would go for AMD 64 for a cpu, intel are more expensive and give less performance atm... and 2G Ram.

Id say that yu might be disappointed with the nvidia 7800gtx' s image quality tho, ati' s x1800xt is often regarded as the better choice. If you want something to rival the xbox360s potential, then you should aim at an ati x1800xt ' pe' or higher.

The ultimate gaming rig atm would be AMD fx-57, Crossfire 2x x1800xt pe, Crucial/Corsair/OCZ 2G Ram, Audigy 2 ZS (some say its still better than the X-fi!). This would rival the 360 for the next few years at least, but would cost over $2500 at the current rate! ($500 for PS3 doesnt sound so bad now eh?)

In the end it just depends what games you like and how you like to play them. Currently for no hassle super gameplay, the new consoles will rule, but I find there' s something different enjoyed in PC games thats worth the extra cash. Still next-gen is gonna be expensive for PCs as well as consoles. Hope this helps.

I have one more advice for you - go for a branded PC like Dell or other -they tend to be optimised (cooling and stuff) and well thought through -compatibility is very important in PC' s (less problems will pop up but still a lot comparing to consoles).

If I were you I' d get a console and Apple iMac G5 for work and web browsing(not for games) - those computers just rock with fantastic 20" displays , artistic designs and no noise from fan while equiped with WI FI cards , internet camera ,5.1 sound cards and 250 GB SATA HDD and at least 512 RAM.That and you get the No1 Operating System - MacOS (Safe and STABLE as FreeBSD or RedHat plus way prettier than WIN XP) .

1699,- display included.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/7200803/wo/wu53nFDZPx1r3EvMEES1joy26GM/0.SLID?mco=6AEDE590&nclm=iMac

Check some reviews.