Thread: Building a gaming PC

Originally Posted by dabeechman

Just took a look over at Dell and the cheapest i7 desktop they have with similar specs to my 1.5 year old i7 is still 1000 with a weaker gpu, slower ram, and less opticals (plus I like my 920 more than the 930).

Glad you aren't anti-build, but it's much less complicated/scary than you make it out.

I encourage people to build their own PC's, saves a ton of money, you learn something, and you have the added value of futureproofing your rig.

HP Pavilion Elite HPE-180t W7U-64 i7 920 2.66GHz 2-500GB SATA 9GB DDR3 1333 DVDRW(LS) 1.8GB NIC WLAN 5-in-1 Rmkt PC

$817 1
All you need is a gaming card. And the machine comes with Windows 7 Ultimate (somehow I doubt any of your rigs have legal compliant s/w) and 1 year warranty. Add another $100 and you get an additional 2 year warranty. Theres a reason I got out of building PCs for my clients and utilizing systems from manufacturers like HP or Dell. Warranty coverage, superior QA/QC on component compatibility, pricing, and overall convenience. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy building systems, but homebrew is rarely the answer for most gamers, especially nowadays. You would upgrade your hardware to try and push 30-40 fps, so you wouldnt get fragged all the time. Now who really cares if I get 150 or 180 fps, its not like im gonna notice a difference.

Originally Posted by Creeping Death

Now who really cares if I get 150 or 180 fps, its not like im gonna notice a difference.

What are you playing, solitaire? There's no shortage of games in which even the absolute best systems would struggle to produce 30 FPS with settings maxed out. For instance,my mid-level system struggles to crank out a consistent 30 FPS in Metro 2033 on medium settings at 1680 x 1050 - and that game is a year old

So since I started this thread I guess I should let you know what i went with. I went with
ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 motherboard.
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz,
RAM -KingstonHyperX8GB DDR3-1866MHz,
KINGWIN Lazer LZ-1000 1000W Modular 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC W/ 3-Way LED Switch and Universal Modular Connector Power Supply,
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive and
EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1563-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Went well over budget but thank you all for the help and pointing me in the right directions.

Also I saw this thread had went for a turn for the worst the last page or so, I will say that my computer which I assembled by myself, is working perfectly. I took apart my old computer piece by piece and reassembled it till I felt confident that wouldnt jack up my new CPU. I wouldn't say I'm hardware savvy but I understand a ton more now then two weeks ago. Some things I didn't understand but the internet is great for learning stuff. Thanks again.
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Originally Posted by Creeping Death

Why go through all of the effort if..

A. The user is not technically savvy.
B. The user is only going to play Farmville or extreme Texas Holdem or games like that

I wouldn't say I'm not tech savvy... I just don't know hardware... B bothers me, I'm a full on gamer, this computer is being built for diablo and the star wars mmo that is coming out in september. I have huge catalog of games for my xbox, so this" its only gonna be used for flash games" is stupid. But im glad you had me pegged for dumbass.
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Originally Posted by twzking

I wouldn't say I'm not tech savvy... I just don't know hardware... B bothers me, I'm a full on gamer, this computer is being built for diablo and the star wars mmo that is coming out in september. I have huge catalog of games for my xbox, so this" its only gonna be used for flash games" is stupid. But im glad you had me pegged for dumbass.
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A. I don't know what games you play. You never mentioned what you played or what you wanted to play down the road.

B. More people play flash based games these days than FPS and RTS games.

C. I never had you pegged as a dumbass. I had you pegged as inexperienced. Most gamers looking to upgrade their hardware only hear "Build your own PC, its way awesomerrr!!", which is not always the best option.

D. The computer I posted earlier in the thread would have been faster, cheaper,you would have a legal Windows license, AND you could have upgraded the video card as well.

But hey, you picked up a new hobby, which it seems like is what you wanted all along.