Gaming PCs

DrJordo · 06-21-2010, 02:20 PM

I bought Burnout Paradise during a sale on Steam recently. It's a fun game, when it works. It crashes often. So I've been thinking about getting a more powerful PC. I have some questions, though.

When should I buy? Is there a time of year when they are any cheaper? I was thinking of spending around $700-$800, will that get me something that can run most games with a decent frame rate? I don't care about graphics quality.

Rainbow Dash · 06-21-2010, 02:22 PM

if you're going to get a new PC for gaming you p much are going for better graphics quality soooo

DrJordo · 06-21-2010, 02:50 PM

what i mean is that I don't care if I can't really run things at the very highest settings, just as long as I can get a decent framerate on the lowest or better.

Prince Toad · 06-21-2010, 04:24 PM

I can't give any specific recommendations, but I think my laptop was about $1100 two years ago and it runs most games fine on low settings. (Empire: Total War gave me some trouble, but Napoleon runs fine since they improved the engine. I run things like Dragon Age and BioShock fairly well, with the occasional hitch.) I imagine that a laptop which sold for $1100 two years ago is no more than $700-800 now, so I think your price range at least is reasonable. I imagine buying a desktop instead of a laptop would also improve the cost efficiency, but I'm not sure.

***Ace Mercury*** · 06-21-2010, 05:30 PM

Desktops are still better price than laptops. Get something that's at least two CPU cores, 4GB of RAM, and a fancy sounding video card. That should be enough to limp along.

Things that are not necessary: sound card (the motherboard's sound is fine)
Things that are nice to have: a good power supply (Antec or Enermax)

Of course, computers always get better for cheaper, so you'll always find a better deal once you buy one.

***Cosmonautical*** · 06-22-2010, 12:28 AM

For under around 800-900 USD, I could build you a kickass system, but not from here. Presuming you've already got a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and speakers.

What not to cheap out on: PSU, Mobo... And well, that's probably all you need be especially concerned about. The CPU market hasn't made any drastic improvements in the past few years, so you don't have to buy big. That said, I just got a quad core Phenom II for cheap, and you can get mother boards now that automatically overclock and test out your system, if you're a speed nut. Get a 3.4 four core Phenom II, and you're set for CPU needs.

But if you get an AMD CPU, do NOT try to go the way of Nvidia graphics cards, as that combination is receiving very few options in the way of motherboards. If you're worried about budget, get the strongest sub-$200 ATI card and you should be set to run pretty much any game. Anything more expensive than that is aimed at the hobbiests, who are just trying to get frames in excess of what is noticable. Games releasing right now are made to show off their stuff, but you only should need extra power if you want to game in higher-than-HD resolutions, really. Keeping that in mind, btw, if you've still got an old 4:3 LCD that only does 1280 x 1024, you don't really need to chuck it. 1080p, the best HD res, only has a 56-pixel taller vertical definition. You can squeeze some more FPS out of a lower end card by keeping the resolution down, horizontally, and still experience some fantastic definition at 1280x1024.

Then again, depending on what kind of crashes you're experiencing, we might be able to troubleshoot that to actually work fine.

***Ace Mercury*** · 06-22-2010, 07:31 AM

Yeah, crashes are rarely because the computer isn't powerful enough. Unless you just have an unstable OS or stupidly coded application, it's usually a hardware problem.

Maybe you should update all of your hardware drivers, and then check to see if anything is overheating.

06-21-2010, 02:20 PM	#1
DrJordo Member Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: _____ Gender: Posts: 985 Thanks: 3 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts	Gaming PCs I bought Burnout Paradise during a sale on Steam recently. It's a fun game, when it works. It crashes often. So I've been thinking about getting a more powerful PC. I have some questions, though. When should I buy? Is there a time of year when they are any cheaper? I was thinking of spending around $700-$800, will that get me something that can run most games with a decent frame rate? I don't care about graphics quality.

06-21-2010, 02:22 PM	#2
Rainbow Dash been dreamin', i've been waitin' Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: a bomb-ass cloud house bachelorette pad Gender: Posts: 24,396 Thanks: 173 Thanked 1,179 Times in 716 Posts	if you're going to get a new PC for gaming you p much are going for better graphics quality soooo

06-21-2010, 02:50 PM	#3
DrJordo Member Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: _____ Gender: Posts: 985 Thanks: 3 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts	what i mean is that I don't care if I can't really run things at the very highest settings, just as long as I can get a decent framerate on the lowest or better.

06-21-2010, 04:24 PM	#4
Prince Toad Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Rookery Gender: Posts: 11,720 Thanks: 50 Thanked 65 Times in 56 Posts	I can't give any specific recommendations, but I think my laptop was about $1100 two years ago and it runs most games fine on low settings. (Empire: Total War gave me some trouble, but Napoleon runs fine since they improved the engine. I run things like Dragon Age and BioShock fairly well, with the occasional hitch.) I imagine that a laptop which sold for $1100 two years ago is no more than $700-800 now, so I think your price range at least is reasonable. I imagine buying a desktop instead of a laptop would also improve the cost efficiency, but I'm not sure.

06-21-2010, 05:30 PM	#5
*Ace Mercury* Marshmallow Knight ☆ Supermod Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Southern Ontario Gender: Posts: 23,274 Thanks: 568 Thanked 3,297 Times in 1,582 Posts Blog Entries: 1	Desktops are still better price than laptops. Get something that's at least two CPU cores, 4GB of RAM, and a fancy sounding video card. That should be enough to limp along. Things that are not necessary: sound card (the motherboard's sound is fine) Things that are nice to have: a good power supply (Antec or Enermax) Of course, computers always get better for cheaper, so you'll always find a better deal once you buy one.

06-22-2010, 12:28 AM	#6
*Cosmonautical* Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: I rub my tilde all over your asterisk Gender: Posts: 28,100 Thanks: 2,151 Thanked 5,338 Times in 2,433 Posts	For under around 800-900 USD, I could build you a kickass system, but not from here. Presuming you've already got a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and speakers. What not to cheap out on: PSU, Mobo... And well, that's probably all you need be especially concerned about. The CPU market hasn't made any drastic improvements in the past few years, so you don't have to buy big. That said, I just got a quad core Phenom II for cheap, and you can get mother boards now that automatically overclock and test out your system, if you're a speed nut. Get a 3.4 four core Phenom II, and you're set for CPU needs. But if you get an AMD CPU, do NOT try to go the way of Nvidia graphics cards, as that combination is receiving very few options in the way of motherboards. If you're worried about budget, get the strongest sub-$200 ATI card and you should be set to run pretty much any game. Anything more expensive than that is aimed at the hobbiests, who are just trying to get frames in excess of what is noticable. Games releasing right now are made to show off their stuff, but you only should need extra power if you want to game in higher-than-HD resolutions, really. Keeping that in mind, btw, if you've still got an old 4:3 LCD that only does 1280 x 1024, you don't really need to chuck it. 1080p, the best HD res, only has a 56-pixel taller vertical definition. You can squeeze some more FPS out of a lower end card by keeping the resolution down, horizontally, and still experience some fantastic definition at 1280x1024. Then again, depending on what kind of crashes you're experiencing, we might be able to troubleshoot that to actually work fine.

06-22-2010, 07:31 AM	#7
*Ace Mercury* Marshmallow Knight ☆ Supermod Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Southern Ontario Gender: Posts: 23,274 Thanks: 568 Thanked 3,297 Times in 1,582 Posts Blog Entries: 1	Yeah, crashes are rarely because the computer isn't powerful enough. Unless you just have an unstable OS or stupidly coded application, it's usually a hardware problem. Maybe you should update all of your hardware drivers, and then check to see if anything is overheating.