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Convert me, PC gamers!

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Hello Thumbs:

In lieu of moving out to university next year, I've decided to get back into PC gaming. For a long time, I've seen the merits of being a PC gamer, and I've figured now is the best time to jump into to.The problem is, it's been so long that I've actively used a PC for video games that I don't know where to start. I know for sure that I want to order parts individually and then build it myself; it's just so much more a rewarding experience that way, from what I hear. I have some ideas of what I want to achieve in the end. Can you guys help me out by listing some mock builds or giving me some recommendations? Are there any useful web resources/links you would recommend for someone diving into today's current state of PC gaming without any thorough understanding? So far, these are my buyer's goals:

  • Build budget (with taxes): $900(at minimum) - $1300
  • A build that's easily upgradeable and lasting.
  • Cooling fans need to be effective.
  • Want it running quiet.

Go nuts.

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Easily upgradable is the hard part, as CPU chipsets tend to outpace whatever motherboard you buy pretty quickly. Basically, for the most part, any time you want to upgrade your CPU, you're going to have to upgrade your motherboard, as well. Which sometimes means RAM, too! If all you want to upgrade is the video card... PCI-e will probably stick around for a long while, and is generally at least marginally backwards compatible.

I recently bought these parts to upgrade my own PC, as it'd been over five years since I last did. This is everything you absolutely NEED in the tower but the video card (and a wireless card, if you need one).

CPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504 I went i5. No need to go i7 this early. Adds too much cost for not enough benefit, for my liking. U:

SSD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227792 SSD isn't strictly necessary, but it is strictly superior. You COULD go for the old-fashioned HDD, but your load times will be vastly improved by employing a SSD. It also makes your PC quieter on average!

RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231568 You... don't really need 16GB. I may have gone a bit insane, here. D:

Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128551 Pick the motherboard last, based on the hardware requirements of the rest of your parts.

It's all working perfectly! I have never been happier. Every other set of hardware I've purchased since I started building my own PCs has come with at least one flawed piece.

If you're building completely fresh, aside from the video card, you'll also need a case, a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse. That's mostly preference.

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Word up on the SSD thing. I haven't made the jump yet, but my friend's PC has one. Load times are ridiculous! It's awesome. 900 Dollars is gonna build you a beast of a machine by the way, but you probably already know that.

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Easily upgradable is the hard part, as CPU chipsets tend to outpace whatever motherboard you buy pretty quickly. Basically, for the most part, any time you want to upgrade your CPU, you're going to have to upgrade your motherboard, as well. Which sometimes means RAM, too! If all you want to upgrade is the video card... PCI-e will probably stick around for a long while, and is generally at least marginally backwards compatible.

I recently bought these parts to upgrade my own PC, as it'd been over five years since I last did. This is everything you absolutely NEED in the tower but the video card (and a wireless card, if you need one).

CPU http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819116504 I went i5. No need to go i7 this early. Adds too much cost for not enough benefit, for my liking. U:

SSD http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820227792 SSD isn't strictly necessary, but it is strictly superior. You COULD go for the old-fashioned HDD, but your load times will be vastly improved by employing a SSD. It also makes your PC quieter on average!

RAM http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231568 You... don't really need 16GB. I may have gone a bit insane, here. D:

Motherboard http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128551 Pick the motherboard last, based on the hardware requirements of the rest of your parts.

It's all working perfectly! I have never been happier. Every other set of hardware I've purchased since I started building my own PCs has come with at least one flawed piece.

If you're building completely fresh, aside from the video card, you'll also need a case, a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse. That's mostly preference.

Thank you! Do you know of any good transportable cases i.e. (durable, good for travel, but compact and sexy?) Already have a keyboard and monitor. In terms of video cards, I'm looking at NVIDIA; perhaps the 670 or 660 Ti. Are there any specific manufacturers you would choose over the others?

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Word up on the SSD thing. I haven't made the jump yet, but my friend's PC has one. Load times are ridiculous! It's awesome. 900 Dollars is gonna build you a beast of a machine by the way, but you probably already know that.

Yeah. It's gonna be great. ^_^

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You might want to pay attention whether the videocard has more than one output, in case you ever want to hook up a 2nd monitor. Or even a TV or whatever. Once you get used to a 2 monitor setup though, you'll never want to go back.

And I can't tell you which manufacters would be preferred, but the 670 and 660 are good choices, I think. I currently have a 560 and I can crank up everything to 11 without having to worry about performance, to give you an idea.

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Once you get used to a 2 monitor setup though, you'll never want to go back.

I actually went from a two-monitor setup back two a one-monitor one, and I'm really glad I did. AMA

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I actually went from a two-monitor setup back two a one-monitor one, and I'm really glad I did. AMA

Was that "two" intentional? I'm beginning to think you like to cause mischief, toblix... :P

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An i5 is overkill for video games. An i3 will handle things perfectly well for less money. This guide is pretty handy. If you want it to be quiet, read reviews of cases before you buy them to see whether people are saying they're quiet or not. The same goes for the GPU, since often different vendors will use different coolers that differ in noise level. Depending on how much space you want, you might want a traditional HD + a small SSD rather than a large SSD.

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An i5 is overkill for video games. An i3 will handle things perfectly well for less money. This guide is pretty handy. If you want it to be quiet, read reviews of cases before you buy them to see whether people are saying they're quiet or not. The same goes for the GPU, since often different vendors will use different coolers that differ in noise level. Depending on how much space you want, you might want a traditional HD + a small SSD rather than a large SSD.

I'll keep that in mind. If I have money to spend, though, is it worth it? I want this to last at peak performance for as much time as possible. When you mean an "HD + plus a small SSD", do you mean it has all the positives of a running SSD, but takes up less space? Apologies for my ignorant questions. I'm still acclimating myself to the terms and jargon of a PC user.

Also, found this feature on The Verge, which is really helpful. Appreciate the recommendations, guys! Keep 'em coming! :tup:

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An i5 is overkill for video games. An i3 will handle things perfectly well for less money. This guide is pretty handy. If you want it to be quiet, read reviews of cases before you buy them to see whether people are saying they're quiet or not. The same goes for the GPU, since often different vendors will use different coolers that differ in noise level. Depending on how much space you want, you might want a traditional HD + a small SSD rather than a large SSD.

Eh... an i3 is perfectly capable, but for this budget I think an i5 is a no-brainer. The most critical bit of information not included in this guide is the resolution you'll be running games at. If it's 1080p or below, you'd really see diminishing returns for any video card more expensive than $300 and few substantive differences between a $200 card and $300 card. If you want the PC to be truly quiet, you could easily sink a lot of cash into quiet cooling solutions. Grab a Noctua CPU cooler + a couple SilenX fans and you'll be out of $150 in a jiffy.

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I'll keep that in mind. If I have money to spend, though, is it worth it? I want this to last at peak performance for as much time as possible. When you mean an "HD + plus a small SSD", do you mean it has all the positives of a running SSD, but takes up less space? Apologies for my ignorant questions. I'm still acclimating myself to the terms and jargon of a PC user.

Also, found this feature on The Verge, which is really helpful. Appreciate the recommendations, guys! Keep 'em coming! :tup:

You get most of the benefits of an SSD when you install the system files on it. Many people just grab a 128GB SSD to run the OS and a few critical games then relegate the rest of the games to a secondary storage drive.

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I'll keep that in mind. If I have money to spend, though, is it worth it? I want this to last at peak performance for as much time as possible. When you mean an "HD + plus a small SSD", do you mean it has all the positives of a running SSD, but takes up less space? Apologies for my ignorant questions. I'm still acclimating myself to the terms and jargon of a PC user.

Also, found this feature on The Verge, which is really helpful. Appreciate the recommendations, guys! Keep 'em coming! :tup:

An i5 will only matter in a few games and even then the difference won't be very big. I realized belatedly that I should just have linked this article for CPUs and this article for GPUs since they're more in depth than anything else you're likely to find. I tend to be a bit of a cheapskate and I guess an i5 could be sensible now that prices have dropped a bit, Ivy Bridge is out, and four cores are useful in more cases than they used to be. It will be more future proof, at least, so your choice is between buying an i3 now (which can easily run everything at max) and saving the money for an upgrade later, or buying an i5 and hoping it lasts through the next console generation's worth of games. I dunno how risky of a bet that is.

The reason to get an HD + a small SSD because for the same price as a large SSD, you get much more storage, and if you put your OS and whatever games you're playing at the time on the SSD and use the normal HD for storage, your performance will be basically the same. "Small" meant in terms of gigabytes, not physical space.

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An i5 will only matter in a few games and even then the difference won't be very big. I realized belatedly that I should just have linked this article for CPUs and this article for GPUs since they're more in depth than anything else you're likely to find. I tend to be a bit of a cheapskate and I guess an i5 could be sensible now that prices have dropped a bit, Ivy Bridge is out, and four cores are useful in more cases than they used to be. It will be more future proof, at least, so your choice is between buying an i3 now (which can easily run everything at max) and saving the money for an upgrade later, or buying an i5 and hoping it lasts through the next console generation's worth of games. I dunno how risky of a bet that is.

The reason to get an HD + a small SSD because for the same price as a large SSD, you get much more storage, and if you put your OS and whatever games you're playing at the time on the SSD and use the normal HD for storage, your performance will be basically the same. "Small" meant in terms of gigabytes, not physical space.

Thank you for the links; they're useful, but some of it is just technobabble to me. I'll catch onto it eventually.

I have a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate that can be very easily loaded on once it's assembled. Four cores is more than enough for what I will be running; I've come of the opinion that anything more would be just a waste of space and money. The way you're describing the HD and small SSD combo seems the best of both worlds. What would you suggest specifically? I was looking at this single Crucial SSD before.

Eh... an i3 is perfectly capable, but for this budget I think an i5 is a no-brainer. The most critical bit of information not included in this guide is the resolution you'll be running games at. If it's 1080p or below, you'd really see diminishing returns for any video card more expensive than $300 and few substantive differences between a $200 card and $300 card. If you want the PC to be truly quiet, you could easily sink a lot of cash into quiet cooling solutions. Grab a Noctua CPU cooler + a couple SilenX fans and you'll be out of $150 in a jiffy.

Thanks! That being said, I don't want to splurge all my money away. I want to invest in the parts that will matter the most a few years down the road.

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Thanks! That being said, I don't want to splurge all my money away. I want to invest in the parts that will matter the most a few years down the road.

Well, it's already been said a few times, but I'll say it again - futureproofing isn't really a thing. It's worth getting the most modern parts possible rather than older parts simply for their relative lifespan, but make no mistake in thinking that your PC will be top shelf for years to come. If I had any advice for you, it'd be to invest in exactly what you want (regardless of price) for the following items - case, power supply, cooling. Those things are multigenerational in their usefulness and can last for 5+ years each, which is something you can't say about most other parts in the PC. A high wattage, power-efficient (80 Plus Gold), modular PSU is one of the best things you could buy for making your box both upgradeable and easily modified without having to fiddle with too much. More specifically put, I'd personally rather get an i3 as Tycho suggests with a whisper quiet cooler and slick case than a more expensive i5 or i7.

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i5 is totally worth it for the newest of games, especially the ones that really take advantage of being, you know, PC games. Not to mention, i5 will be good for far longer than an i3...

And i7 is complete overkill. But i5 is not at all.

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I'd like to offer completely gratuitous and unnecessary support for switching back from two monitors to a single one. In my opinion, it is the second monitor that is gratuitous and unnecessary, not my support.

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In fact, what do you even nee one monitor for? Are you so superficial and shallow that you need fancy visuals to enjoy interactive digital narration? What, you need a monitor to play Halo and Gears of War «death match» with your slack-jawed bros? Get out of my library!

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I'd like to offer completely gratuitous and unnecessary support for switching back from two monitors to a single one. In my opinion, it is the second monitor that is gratuitous and unnecessary, not my support.

Both you and Toblix are welcome to be wrong. :tup: Also, Toblix has admitted to me in a very private conversation that, when he's working, he needs 2 monitors. He's of the closeted multi-monitor-persuasion. I just want everyone to know, it's okay to use 2 monitors at the same time. It's nothing to be embarrassed about.

The first step is admitting we need two.

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The only time I used it was when I was doing a lot of Photoshop and wanted to see TV shows at the same time. Otherwise I barely used it. But it can be useful, I am mentally powerful enough to admit.

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THAT WAS A PRIVATE CONVERSATION MEANT ONLY FOR THE TWO OF US PIRATE.

It's true, though. When doing actual programming, especially when you need to have one or more browsers open at the same time, you need two monitors (or a ridiculolousluy wide one.) OR MORE.

Oh, and http://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/topic/7746-show-me-your-deskgaming-space/page__st__40

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I'm totally going to buy a second monitor soon, now that I finally have the money to afford such gratuitous awesomeness.

Single monitor is lame and horrible and for dumb and/or poor people.

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DO NOT BUY AN SSD MADE BY ANYONE OTHER THAN INTEL, SAMSUNG OR CRUCIAL.

(there are some exceptions but these are the most reliable). Anything with a Sandforce controller is likely to fail, you will lose your data if you do this.

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