Gaming PC's

So, I've been looking around for a gaming computer that doesn't destroy my wallet I'm thinking about buying a PS3..but honestly I suck at FPS' on anything besides a pc. Therefore, I've been looking online for some good computers and decided that Alienware is gay they charge waaaayyy to much and everyone else the computer is going to fail within 6 months. VisionMan looks like the best option, so i'm wondering what you guys would recommend I don't want complete crap so..lets say 500 to 900 dollars... Something that can run Cod 4 100% no problems. the laptop I have now can run it if I turn everything on the lowest settings. Besides textures for some reason I can keep them on Extra and it runs fine don't know whats up with that.

God bless!

Build one is the best option.

[kingloser]

yep i just built one for $900 including everythign but the monitor and u could probably skimp on a few of the places i didnt.

Building your own is easy. If you just can't get comfortable with the idea though I'll say what I've said before - www.cyberpowerpc.com is the BEST bang-for-buck in prebuilt/custom built PCs. I recommended them to my best friend and he has been happy with his, he recommended to his brother and he was happy with his and I know another guy who used them as well. They do good work and when I was building I actually added up costs of new materials vs. their complete PCs (if starting from scratch and not reusing parts) and they would sometimes come out cheaper for a fully built PC with identical parts.

brad

It is like they have some good things there Dig. and the prices are not bad.

Building your own is easy. If you just can't get comfortable with the idea though I'll say what I've said before - http://www.cyberpowerpc.com is the BEST bang-for-buck in prebuilt/custom built PCs. I recommended them to my best friend and he has been happy with his, he recommended to his brother and he was happy with his and I know another guy who used them as well. They do good work and when I was building I actually added up costs of new materials vs. their complete PCs (if starting from scratch and not reusing parts) and they would sometimes come out cheaper for a fully built PC with identical parts.

brad

Thanks, I'll check this out!! Can I build my own on here? My brother said he would go half and half with me on a PS3 so that's getting tempting

[(TKC)-o]T3[o]

To get started building your computer you have to make a couple of decisions. Answer these questions to start...

Do you want an Intel or AMD CPU (this will determine what kind of motherboard you get and what kind of GPU's you get)
Do you want Nvidia SLI or ATI's Crossfire setup for your GPU's. (if you are just going to get one card, do you want Nvidia or ATI)

Answer those 2 questions and then you can start looking at motherboards.

Yeah you are right about that T3, it would be for him the first step to do.

[DMPCo]

i would have to say build one also. i looked around at buying complete systems but it seemed like you were paying a ton extra for someone else to put it together. if your just doing gaming i would have to suggest go amd price/preformace amd will win evreytime in my book.(amd phenmon ii x4 955 be. so easy to overclock.) my orignial budget was 900 like yours and i built my pc for ~1050 w/out my monitors. shop newegg you can get some killer deals with bundling your items i saved ~375 when i bundled all of my items together. also go to tomshardware they benchmark everything so you can kind of get any idead of what you want

Most games (like cod4 and bfbc2) use the gpu more than the cpu (as opposed to source games). If you do other things like video-editing and other cpu intensive stuff, then you'll need a computer with more cpu power. I'm guessing that you want to buy a system rather than build one. Here are a couple of things to look out for:

1)AMD systems are almost always cheaper than intel systems, be sure to compare computers' processors. you can use this site for comparisons http://anandtech.com/bench/Product/142?vs=88

2) make sure you're getting a good gpu. Some computers on the market come with an integrated gpu and you certainly don't want that. If you do a google search of "will [put gpu name here] run [put game here]", you'll get some good results of peoples experience with that gpu and that game.

3) When buying a computer, always try to deal with your salesman. They want commission and you want a good computer. I got my local bestbuy to give me a free $150 printer with my purchase.

Building a computer is always going to be cheaper, but if you don't already have experience i personally wouldn't recommend it, because if something goes wrong and you don't know how to fix it, you'll have to pay someone else to do it for you. But if you buy a computer, then it should be covered under warranty.

This computer looks nice, although you may want to upgrade the GPU. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dell+-+Insp ... Id=9697521

EDIT: I would also recommend cyberpowerpc's if you don't want a stock computer, they build it for you. And i see where you're coming from with the alienware idea, they really are overpriced. but they look so DARN cool

I'd really recommend Cyberpower.

I know it's a tad pricey for the awesome stock stuff, however..


Build your own. AMD tends to be cheaper for about the relatively same performance. (Not benchmarks, but FPS.)

IF you know the top of the line, get what was the top of the line.

For example: Getting an NVidia gtx 400, would cost $$$$$!!! But if you get like a GTX 200, it would be considerably cheaper, and you would still be in good standing graphically.

Get your ram at 2 GB, 4 GB if your using a 64-bit system.

Get a fairly good psu. If your using just the gaming motherboard, single gpu, duo core, ram, HDD, then you should need about 600 to 700 psu. Make sure to get a very nice one. Luckily, I have a 550 watt-(dunno the measuring tool for these) - psu and it works very well. However, getting quad core, or SLI will net you a $$$$ increase , like it was on fire.

hoped this helped.

Building yourself is definitely the best way to go. If someone managed to get a pre-built for the same price as building one themselves, they weren't looking in the right place. My biggest question would be whether your $500-$900 budget includes needing to get a monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers/headphones and such things as that. If that's strictly your budget for the tower and associated components, let me know. Once you tell me, I'll toss you a build together and post it here, then some of the other member's that have had experience building their own systems can make suggestions. Also, do you have a preference between AMD/Intel and ATI/Nvidia? Personally I'm an AMD/ATI fan so that's what my build would include, but not everyone shares the same opinion. If your on a budget, then typically AMD/ATI would be the better way to go, but I think there are some Nvidia cards for comparable price that out-perform ATI. Enough rambling, let me know about what all you'll be needing to buy and if you have a preference of manufacturer and we'll go from there.

On a side note, for anyone looking for a way to figure out how big your PSU needs be, look here: http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html.

Haha, thanks for all the info guys!

I'm looking at AMD and nVidia that's what I have in my laptop and I'm really happy with them. Plus I noticed they are cheaper so that works well for me.
I would like to build the tower for probably $775 and than get a LCD monitor for about $114 from Cyberpower. I definitely can't build one myself but I have a friend who has tons of experience in it so I'd probably buy everything and get him to do it. I'd prefer just to buy it and start playing. I already have a logitech mouse that I like so not worrying about that and I would need to buy a headset but I'm not too worried about that either I can live without it. I'm really just worried about the tower mostly I can start off with crappy keyboards and speakers for now...though I did notice you can get some nice speakers for like 30 bucks extra...so I'd probably like to do that. basically if I can get everything for 900 exactly that would be nice. Is it worth putting a LCD readout on the tower?

I have to hop off so I'll get back to this, thanks for all the help guys!!! :D

[kingloser]

for the lcd readout its not really important. as long as u get a decent case or have a decent case already u should be fine. plus theres a bunch of free software and my motherboard came with some temperature software stuff. I already had a nice case so i didnt have to buy one. But if ur looking for amd/nvidia that will make it a tad harder. thats what i have i went with a 955 BE phenom and a gtx 260. but motherboards that support amd and nvidia a very few so that cuts ur options down. DO you have a current case ur just gonna swap out components with? or do u need a case too? what vid card would u be looking at? do u wanna sli? what operating system do u want? i could throw together a list for u if u give me an idea of what stuff u want.

Here's what I've got together so far, like I said before, we can peek and tweek as we go but just wanted to get a baseline setup going.

CPU: Phenom II X4 955 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103674
CPU Cooler: Zalman 9500A http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223
CPU Cooling Paste: Artic Cooling MX2 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186020
MOBO: ASUS M4N75TD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131637
RAM: G.Skill DDR3 1600 2x2Gb http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 260 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125241
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 500 Gb http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341017
Case: Cooler Master Centurion 5 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754