The Best of PC Gaming

[SoulChicken]

Hey Armchair General, I'm putting together a computer for my mum in the UK, well getting her to order the parts then I'll put it together for her when I visit in June. Would be helpful to know what went into that £500 pc, I want to make sure my mum is set for a long time. Which supplier in the UK is solid like newegg.com is over here?

[Garple]

Following your dad getting a new PC, has he got a budget, the newegg ones I pointed out could well be ideal, if you were to get a harddrive for games, I'd suggest internal, USB just won't cut it.

Ok. I appreciate the warning about hard drives, I kind of had a feeling that wouldn't work out after I typed it. My dad doesn't really have a budget, but he's not a gamer, so I wouldn't guide him toward something suited for gaming when he can meet his needs more cheaply.

Also: thanks everybody for all the suggestions and thanks guys for offering to help me when you thought I lived in the UK...it did get me thinking, there's a guy at my work who is super tech savvy. Maybe I could pay him (or someone else) to build a computer for me and get something good without paying prebuilt prices.

Any American thumbs like building PCs? When I said $400 I only said that because I was thinking about someone's old PC that they don't use anymore...I could manage a higher budget than that if we were talking about a new machine.

However, spending the kind of money a PC costs is a big leap so I'm still working out whether or not I'd enjoy it enough to splurge.

I think I'll wait a little while longer before buying a new machine and try a bunch of the recommended games (the ones I can run w/ my hardware) to see how I feel about PC gaming in general. Do you guys think there are enough great games and features of PC gaming to make spending a ton of money worthwhile?

Thanks again for the outpouring of responses...please keep the advice and recommendations coming (if you feel like it).

[Patters]

Hey Armchair General, I'm putting together a computer for my mum in the UK, well getting her to order the parts then I'll put it together for her when I visit in June. Would be helpful to know what went into that £500 pc, I want to make sure my mum is set for a long time. Which supplier in the UK is solid like newegg.com is over here?

Its:

AMD Phenom II X4 955

Gigabyte UD3 Mobo

4870 GPU

OCZ 500W ModXStream

2 gig corsair xms2 ram

250gb F1 Spinpoint HDD

The OS (Windows 7 pro £40 with student discount) made the total roughly £540

[Armchair General]

Hey Armchair General, I'm putting together a computer for my mum in the UK, well getting her to order the parts then I'll put it together for her when I visit in June. Would be helpful to know what went into that £500 pc, I want to make sure my mum is set for a long time. Which supplier in the UK is solid like newegg.com is over here?

Overclockers.co.uk is the best for price and are extremely good at getting the stuff out to you quickly.

Patters initial build (he changed a few things)

Your basket

Product Name

Qty

Price

Line Total

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 945 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail

£125.99

(£109.56)

£125.99

(£109.56)

Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

£99.99

(£86.95)

£99.99

(£86.95)

Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P AMD 790X (Socket AM3/AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

£83.98

(£73.03)

£83.98

(£73.03)

OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply

£55.99

(£48.69)

£55.99

(£48.69)

Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black

£39.99

(£34.77)

£39.99

(£34.77)

Corsair XMS2 2GB (1x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 Memory Module (CM2X2G6400C5B4)

£38.99

(£33.90)

£38.99

(£33.90)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD251HJ)

£27.99

(£24.34)

£27.99

(£24.34)

Samsung SH-S223B/RSMN 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black/Silver/Biege) - Retail

£18.99

(£16.51)

£18.99

(£16.51)

Sub Total :

£427.75

Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:

DPD Next Day Parcel

(This can be changed during checkout)

Shipping :

£11.75

VAT is being charged at 15%

VAT :

£65.93

Total :

£505.42

EDIT: Sorry that didn't come out very well! Also, the 4870 is hard to come by these days, you could easily substitute it for a 5830 or similar, budget permitting.

EDIT EDIT: I notice that VAT is 15% on this order, I think it's back up to 17.5% now, so that would add a bit extra.

[Garple]

Oh jeez. 500 pounds is almost 800 dollars. what if I wanted to play games...but I didn't want to spend that much and was willing to settle for less demanding/older games?

The fact is, if it's not a laptop, I'll never use it as my primary computer so basically a PC would be just a really expensive gaming machine in my case if I were going to go all out with it.

Also: keep in mind I'm very much not a tech-guy as you have already noticed, so I can probably accept a much lower framerate than hardcore people...and stuff like that.

[SoulChicken]

That's really helpful, sorry to hijack! Now lets find Groucho a cheapie laptop to play Video Games on.

[Garple]

Now lets find Groucho a cheapie laptop to play Video Games on.

Thanks for your concern. If it can run all the valve games, a bunch of cool indie stuff and some rpgs I'll be happy.

[toblix]

Metro 2033. You'll need a beast of a machine to get the full experience, but it's the most awesome action game I've played probably since Half-Life 2 (which I'd mention if everyone else hadn't already)

[Patters]

Oh jeez. 500 pounds is almost 800 dollars. what if I wanted to play games...but I didn't want to spend that much and was willing to settle for less demanding/older games?

The fact is, if it's not a laptop, I'll never use it as my primary computer so basically a PC would be just a really expensive gaming machine in my case if I were going to go all out with it.

Also: keep in mind I'm very much not a tech-guy as you have already noticed, so I can probably accept a much lower framerate than hardcore people...and stuff like that.

The closest I built on Newegg was $715 with $50 mail in rebate. Which is easily dropped by about $100 by picking a weaker GPU and a dual core processor opposed to quad.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146612 decent laptop.

EDIT2: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220707 even better

EDIT3: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220715 another promising laptop.

Edited April 12, 2010 by Patters

[Garple]

The closest I built on Newegg was $715 with $50 mail in rebate. Which is easily dropped by about $100 by picking a weaker GPU and a dual core processor opposed to quad.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146612 decent laptop.

EDIT2: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220707 even better

EDIT3: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220715 another promising laptop.

Thanks, Patrick. Do you think these would run most games? How long do you think they will be fairly "current"? I'm willing to spend more on a laptop than I would on a PC.

[Lu]

I'm guessing for a while; at least until the next generation of consoles come out. Once you get your new PC, you should totally play Left 4 dead 2/Bad Company 2 with us.

[Armchair General]

I'm guessing for a while; at least until the next generation of consoles come out. Once you get your new PC, you should totally play Left 4 dead 2/Bad Company 2 with us.

Rave on! :tup::tup:

[mkenyon]

In addition to the classics and modern classics (Quakes, Half Lifes, Dragon Ages, Civs, etc):

King's Bounty

Hearts of Iron II/III

Mount and Blade: Warbands (would've put vanilla M&B here until two weeks ago)

Tribes (my #1 PC game ever)

Rise of Nations

Freespace

IL-2: Sturmovik

Also, if you need help building a PC, this thread is actually helpful:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=383771

[Patters]

I'm guessing for a while; at least until the next generation of consoles come out. Once you get your new PC, you should totally play Left 4 dead 2/Bad Company 2 with us.

Yeah, I'd go with that. The main problem with gaming laptops is that they tend to get hot. The second one I linked to seems to be the best offer from Newegg.

[Brannigan]

Don't think anyone mentioned it. But another advantage to building a desktop is being able to swap parts out as needed for upgrade. Instead of getting stuck with a old laptop or having to buy a new one. Contrary to popular belief you also won't be upgrading constantly. Usually it ends up being a few years unless there's some magical leap in technology that nobody sees coming. I spent about 800 on my current machine, it's by no means top of the line, nor was it when I built it. But I can still run most games with high settings. The only thing I've upgraded was adding a little more RAM when I changed to windows 7.

Try out some games you can run currently and see if it's interesting. If so, go for it!

I'm probably slightly biased because I can't stand using laptops for anything. My meaty hands don't agree with them!

[James]

HEY ANDY, YOUR DIRECTORY STRUCTURE IS SHOWING.

[Armchair General]

HEY ANDY, YOUR DIRECTORY STRUCTURE IS SHOWING.

Leave off hackerz! Errr..does it matter or are you just being rude?

[toblix]

Leave off hackerz! Errr..does it matter or are you just being rude?

No, and yes.

[Armchair General]

No, and yes.

I thought as much. You give him ONE compliment and it goes straight to his head.

[Jayel]

I don't think Baldur's Gate series or Planescape: Torment has been mentioned anywhere in this thread, so... there you go. Unmatched RPG classics.

Oh yeah, Fallout too.

[DanJW]

I don't think Baldur's Gate series or Planescape: Torment has been mentioned anywhere in this thread, so... there you go. Unmatched RPG classics.

Oh yeah, Fallout too.

I was going to mention those, but you beat me to it. I will mention that all the infinity engine games now have fan mods that allow you to play them in modern resolutions. Awesome!

[Garple]

I don't think Baldur's Gate series or Planescape: Torment

I know Planescape has been rereleased in the UK, but last I knew you can't buy it in America.

[Twig]

I can't say what games are the best of the genres or the best of their time or the best of anything...

But I do know that Team Fortress 2 is probably my favorite multiplayer game of all time, and I've played it more than perhaps any other game ever, barring WoW, which really doesn't count. X: Occasionally I take breaks but every time I come back to it, I love it all over again. Been playing every night almost for the past few weeks. God it's so good.

Also, Commander Keen is one of my favorite platformers. I prefer Keen 1-3 to the rest, but they're all good. In fact, I might even rank 1-3 above Mario in some regards. :3

[Jayel]

I know Planescape has been rereleased in the UK, but last I knew you can't buy it in America.

Amazon.com sellers seem to sell new copies for $15 or so. Probably Jewelcase editions, but you wouldn't be missing much. The original game didn't come with a thick juicy manual, cloth map, rub-on tattoo, or anything.

I think you need to download microsoft's compatibility toolkit (free from ms website) and set up some directx emulation stuff to play on a modern windows os. don't remember the details.

[Armchair General]

...rub-on tattoo...

Is there a game that does come with one of these? If so, I want it.