Can anybody recommend to me a top-notch gaming PC?

So, I had some extra money to work with and I bought Bioshock, F.E.A.R., Dragon Age: Origins, and Mass Effect for my PC, which is a Windows 7 eMachine. But I’ve been playing Bioshock, and I have to have everything on the lowest settings or it freezes and I’m forced to end the program. It’s already super choppy and borderline unplayable with these settings. So, I know my other games won’t work so well. And ever since my laptop that I played RE5 on broke, my Win7 computer is all I have left for PC gaming. Any suggestions? I’d appreciate it!

It’s possible your power supply won’t be able to handle a beefy graphics card. Post the model of your eMachine or the specifications if you have them.

Chewey is right, but it begs the question: Is your eMachine a minitower case one? If yes, you can have a newer video card, but you may need to replace the PSU as well. If not, well, you’re better off with a new computer.

Crap, I forgot all about this thread! Sorry guys :O

At any rate, don’t laugh but this computer was only $300USD from Walmart. I mean, it does a good job, is a good computer, and runs a lot of other programs well, it just doesn’t handle gaming like I’d prefer (well, post-2006 games; anything released before roughly then runs like clockwork).

Now, hopefully this is everything I should need to list about the machine:

System———————————————————————————
Manufacturer: eMachines
Model: EL1333G
Rating: [3.3] Windows Experience Index
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) Processor LE-1640 2.70 GHz
Installed memory (RAM): 2.00 GB (1.75 GB usable)
System type: 64-bit Operating System
Pen and Touch: No Pen or Touch Input is available for this Display

eMachines support———————————————————————–
Website: Online Support

Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings——————————————
Computer name: CenterCore
Full computer name: CenterCore
Computer description:
Workgroup: WORKGROUP

Windows activation———————————————————————-
Windows is activated
Product ID: 00359-OEM-8992687-00006

if youre uncertain about your specs, get labalys’ EVEREST, it tells you every single spec of your pc.

Crap, I forgot all about this thread! Sorry guys :O

At any rate, don’t laugh but this computer was only $300USD from Walmart. I mean, it does a good job, is a good computer, and runs a lot of other programs well, it just doesn’t handle gaming like I’d prefer (well, post-2006 games; anything released before roughly then runs like clockwork).

Now, hopefully this is everything I should need to list about the machine:

System———————————————————————————
Manufacturer: eMachines
Model: EL1333G
Rating: [3.3] Windows Experience Index
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) Processor LE-1640 2.70 GHz
Installed memory (RAM): 2.00 GB (1.75 GB usable)
System type: 64-bit Operating System
Pen and Touch: No Pen or Touch Input is available for this Display

eMachines support———————————————————————–
Website: Online Support

Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings——————————————
Computer name: CenterCore
Full computer name: CenterCore
Computer description:
Workgroup: WORKGROUP

Windows activation———————————————————————-
Windows is activated
Product ID: 00359-OEM-8992687-00006
Your computer only has a 220W power supply, which isn’t going to handle any gaming graphics cards, I’m afraid (and from what I’ve read, the case is too small for a lot of gaming GPUs to fit inside anyway). Your CPU is a pretty old single core too, which would be a pretty big bottleneck 🙁

Damn, well that’s too bad 🙁 And here I was thinking this comp was gonna be a gaming powerhouse! Shows what I know :O I’m able to play Bioshock well enough as is, but for roughly the first ten minutes after I begin, every time I even so much as tap the directional buttons the character moves that direction for like fifteen seconds and won’t stop, all because things are still loading and I guess I’m sending mixed messages to the game. I guess I’ll just have to find something with a little more kick to it, so that I can express my infinite love of PC gaming without any drawbacks. But anyway, thanks Chewey for the info! And thanks ROK. . .I mean WILL, and RAMChYLD!

———- Post added at 05:25 PM ———- Previous post was at 05:22 PM ———-

And with that, this now becomes the ‘Can anybody recommend me a top-notch gaming PC, and how much it would roughly cost?’ thread. Don’t worry about shocking me with a hefty price; I’m good at saving money so that when the time arises to purchase something fun, I’m not terribly limited in what I can choose from.

LOLZ THANX NEG!!!

If you give me a budget, I’ll be able to throw something together on newegg. You’ll need to spend at least $600 to get you a capable CPU and a good GPU, but if you want a good CPU and GPU you’ll need to spend closer to $800.

It’s possible I’ll be able to save you $50 or so if you salvage your hard drive from your current computer, but I don’t know how good it is. I’ll look into it for you.

EDIT: Uh, nevermind what I said. For $600 you’ll be able to get AMD’s best quad core, which is pretty good. For around $800 you’ll be able to get Intel’s best quad core (which is a fair bit better) and a better graphics card.

Hey, I really appreciate that! I’m gonna have to check those out and get ’em when I have the money! I honestly thought Bioshock would work like a charm on this thing solely because the PC version runs smoothly with NVIDIA graphics hardware, and this computer has a "Graphics by NVIDIA" sticker on it, so I thought, "Oh, cool, it’ll be just like old times!" Nope; WRONG! Ah well, we live and learn 😀 Thanks, man!

Alright, I’ll try and throw the best performing computer together I can for between $600-800 then. Should be done in a little bit, I’ll edit this post.

Edit:

Here’s what I came up with!

Take away $70 if you want to just stick with the hard drive you have now. I couldn’t find any information about your hard drive other than that it reads at 7200RPM, so I don’t know how good it is. It’s probably good enough, though.
Add about $40 if you want to get an unopened box version of the motherboard.
Enter the code AN10 to cut 10% off the price of the power supply.

I couldn’t find any good combo deals besides the GPU/RAM one. If you want it cheaper still, change the CPU to an Athlon II X4 640 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103871&cm_re=AMD_Athlon_II_X4-_-19-103-871-_-Product). It isn’t as good (it’ll definitely bottleneck your GPU a bit, maybe by as much as 10 FPS in some cases), but it’s $54 cheaper. If you salvage your old hard drive and go with the Athlon II X4 640 it’ll bring the total cost down to $520 or something, but I don’t know if that’s such a great idea. I’ll look into it more later 🙂

If you don’t like the look of the case (I know I don’t), you can buy a Centurion 5 II (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119228&cm_re=centurion_5_II-_-11-119-228-_-Product) (also comes with a silver trim (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119229&cm_re=centurion_5_II-_-11-119-229-_-Product)) for just as much. I don’t think it’s as good though…

I think that’s about it. If you’ve never put a computer together before, it’s really easy so don’t worry. I built my first computer a year ago or so using just a general guide I printed from the internet and reading the manual. It took me about an hour or so.

Well, Chewey has it nailed. But if possible, I recommend matching the chipset of the GPU/mobo i.e. if you’re using an AMD mobo, go for ATI Radeon video instead. That way, if you choose to go multi-GPU later, you won’t run into the fact that you can’t "SLI" NVidia cards on an AMD mobo, dispite having the necessary two PCIe x16 slots. AMD motherboards only support multi-GPU setups with ATI cards. Just like NVidia motherboards only support multi-GPU setups with NVidia cards.

That’s true. I originally had a HD6850 in there instead but I couldn’t find a good combo deal for it.

Chewey, you’re awesome! I hope it wasn’t too much trouble, and again, I really appreciate it. I’ll be anxious to snag myself a great new comp when the time comes for my next fun purchase, and I’ll have to grab some videos to show how well it does 😀

No worries, I always jump on the chance to do this stuff anyway. It’s lot of fun

Get this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TimPY7UQy8U)

I strongly do not condone gaming laptops. They’re hardly upgradable and given how new games rise in requirements every 6 months or so, they obsolete pretty quick. Take it from someone who’s been bitten once.

did you understand the video? if not, read the description

I agree, RAM. I just steer clear of laptops all together because I’ve never had one that didn’t suffer some horrible death at some point far too soon. They’re handy if you travel a lot, but since I don’t, I just stick to desktop comps.

Also, HOME IMPROVEMENT FTW! Now I wanna peruse the tube and see when it’s on. . . .

And this is why I prefer consoles over gaming with a PC. Don’t have to deal with that kinda stuff if I want to play a game.

He bought a $300 computer from Walmart. The only thing he is dealing with here is buying a capable computer, at which point it’s going to be as much work as playing on console. There’s a lot of reasons to play games on a PC over playing them on consoles anyway.

I agree, RAM. I just steer clear of laptops all together because I’ve never had one that didn’t suffer some horrible death at some point far too soon. They’re handy if you travel a lot, but since I don’t, I just stick to desktop comps.

Also, HOME IMPROVEMENT FTW! Now I wanna peruse the tube and see when it’s on. . . .

I think the whole "you need to upgrade your hardware every 6 months" is just a myth when it comes to PC gaming. I have a laptop which I mostly use for games and it has run every single 2010 game I’ve played so far (except for Starcraft 2) on max settings without any trouble. And that doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon.

What I usually reccomend is to assemble the PC piece by piece…

Have a good eye for top Motherboard, check the Socket that uses, then go for the Proscesor…

I don’t know the real differences between Intel & AMD, I usually go for AMD because of the Durability & price, it’s performance isn’t as powerful as Intel, but AMD isn’t that problematic, it doesn’t overheat & stuff like that…

RAM, this is tricky, it depends a lot of the Motherboard, 3 or 4 GB’s of RAM is the Standard/Minimum IMO these days, considering how heavy is Win7 & new games are equally or even more demanding of Hardware…
Also take a good look at the speed frequency, it’s fundamental, this is another reason that you need to take a good look to the motherboard…

GPU’s, This is up to the preference of the Consumer IMO, some games are more compatible with NVIDIA & others are more compatible to ATI… I always used NVIDIA, but at the same time I have a Lap with ATI & it works perfect too, so it’s up to how you want to spend the money.

And this is why I prefer consoles over gaming with a PC. Don’t have to deal with that kinda stuff if I want to play a game.

I get more out of a computer than a console. 😛

did you understand the video? if not, read the description
*kicks self for being stupid again. Notes that he needs to go see a psychiatrist, been doing that a lot lately*

And this is why I prefer consoles over gaming with a PC. Don’t have to deal with that kinda stuff if I want to play a game.
I think it’s down to the types of game you want to play. Sim games are easier to play on a PC, and strategy games definitely benefit from a PC’s higher RAM and number crunching specs. JRPGs on the other hand, as well as certain platformers, are better when played on consoles.

I think the whole "you need to upgrade your hardware every 6 months" is just a myth when it comes to PC gaming. I have a laptop which I mostly use for games and it has run every single 2010 game I’ve played so far (except for Starcraft 2) on max settings without any trouble. And that doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon.
Idk. I guess it’s just down to my bad experience with HP that soured things.

I think it’s down to the types of game you want to play. Sim games are easier to play on a PC, and strategy games definitely benefit from a PC’s higher RAM and number crunching specs. JRPGs on the other hand, as well as certain platformers, are better when played on consoles.

QFT!!! When I purchased myself a handful of PC games recently I even looked for FFXIII, wondering if by chance it was on PC as well as XBOX360 and PS3, and it wasn’t, but even if it was I think it would’ve felt strange. Even playing RE5 on PC feels odd; the controls are okay, but I found it much more easy to adapt to it on my friend’s XBOX360, especially having that immediate co-op capabilities with a buddy that the PC version doesn’t offer. However, for first-person shooters like Half-life 2 amongst others, the PC is where it’s at. The ‘turn with mouse while moving with W, A, S, D’ seems to be the most natural with shooters, save for Doom of course, which uses solely keyboard keys (at least the version I’ve got does). And I can’t forget special mention of some of my favorite games of all time; the Age of series (i.e. Age of Empires, Age of Mythology) which could only be PC games. So even though some games do feel more natural on a console, there’s simply a myriad more reasons to invest in a capable PC.

I play most multiplatform games on my PC. I’ve got a wired 360 controller I use as a gamepad.

Well, I play what I said straight. I have gaming PCs for sim and strat games. But I also have a PS3 and Wii, those are for platformers and JRPGs as well as niche genres as well as platform exclusive titles. Ex. You’re never going to see LittleBigPlanet running on anything other than Sony’s consoles, as well as Animal Crossing running on anything other than Nintendo’s. On the other hand, DNF will probably shine on a PC more than the console ports would, as with other FPSes and Sims and strategy games. And you certainly cannot get SCII for the PS3 or 360 at this time. And oh, if you go for console versions of games like GTA IV, you cannot mod.

PC > Consoles

Hey guys, I have a question that I felt belonged in this thread, so here goes.

I just bought Dead Space 2 on Steam, and it runs okay on this PC . . . but the performance leaves a lot to be desired. I put Steam on my new Mac, and so far only Half-Life 2 and its episodes will work, but lemme tell ya . . . they run FLAWLESSLY! If I can get those to work, here I am thinking Dead Space 2 is gonna be just as good! But then I discover, the system requirements do not permit it to be installed on Mac. . . . Ahh, great! But I did some poking around and am interested in this ‘Boot Camp’ thing I heard of. No, not like what Corporal Shephard went through. I’m talkin’ about a program that’ll let me run Windows on a Mac, and can let me play my Steam games!

So my question(s) are:
1. Will this be the best solution?
2. Is it free?
3. Is it easy to switch between Windows and Mac OS’s?
4. Will it pretty much let me play any PC-oriented game on my Mac?
5. Is there any other advice or helpful hints you, the expert on this, can give me about this situation?

Chewey I haven’t forgotten your advice about a new PC, but until I have some money saved up, I’m wondering if this might be a temporary solution.

Alienware

If you’re running OS X 10.5 or 10.6, you should have Boot Camp. I don’t know how to set it up, but there should be lots of documentation on the Apple website. Anyway, yes, this is your best bet for playing games right now. It isn’t very difficult to switch between operating systems and you will be able to play any Windows game (provided your system specs are any good) since you’ll actually be running Windows. You will need a copy of Windows 7 to install though, obviously. If you’re all cool with piracy, just google the "Windows 7 Repository" – that’ll walk you through everything you need to do.

As for the computer I recommended, it’s a bit outdated now. Whenever you get around to buying a new PC, post in this thread so I can update the build for you.

Alienware
Alienware computers are really overpriced.

They really are. I saw my buddy when he came back from the middle east and one of the guys in his unit had an Alienware laptop. It had LED lights on all the keys that kept changing color and stuff. He bought it for $1799. I don’t even know the specs of it but I thought only an idiot would pay that much for a computer.

Never heard of Alienware, but that’s a bit too much computation for me :O I’ll have to do some digging around and get Boot Camp to work 🙂 I just don’t have the kind of money to work with right now, so I figured I’d make the most of what I’ve got. I have too many great games sitting on my shelf unable to be played properly.