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Thinking of getting into PC gaming, help guys?

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Alright, so I've came into some money recently, and I've decided that I might as well use the money while I have it to get a gaming PC/Laptop. I've wanted to get into PC gaming since high school but never had the chance cost-wise but now that money's not an issue I've hit another snag.

Trouble is, this is my first time and I don't know a single thing about what makes a decent gaming computer. All I know is that you need a good graphics card and a decent CPU, problem is every time I try to do a bit of research I end up going cross-eyed at the thousands of choice's you apparently have to make when building a PC: which parts to choose and what differences they make < like I said I don't have a clue.

I'll get to the point now, I have a few questions:

Could anyone give me a basic rundown of what makes a good gaming PC? Also are there any you would recommend personally?

Is it easy to tinker with a PC once you get used to it? I heard you have to upgrade them once in a while to keep up with the latest games.

I was also thinking of trying to get a decent gaming laptop instead of a PC, reason being that my Internet router is downstairs, which means I can move it downstairs easily when I need a good connection. Only problem is I heard a lot of laptops can't be upgraded as easily as PC's which could come back and bite me a few years down the line when the newest games won't run well on what might become pretty outdated in a few years time. I was wondering whether a gaming laptop was worth it? If so, any recommendations?

Relating to the above question I was looking at Alienware laptops like the M17x and the M18 but I've heard mixed opinions, A lot of people say Alienware laptops/desktops run game really well and that they are happy with them, but then I see just as much of an equal amount of people saying that they are overpriced garbage, does anyone here own an Alienware Laptop/Desktop or have an opinion? I also heard the CPU's can't be upgraded, is this true? Is it much of a problem given how powerful the Alienware laptops are? (or so I've heard.) I'm confused as hell and would really appreciate the advice, If you have the money are they worth it? Any possible alternatives?

I've got a budget of about £1000 to £1500 but I want to make sure it's money we'll spent, the games I'm planning to play are ones like Battlefield 3, Red Orchestra 2, the Total war series and Fallout, Skyrim, etc I'm basically just looking for something that can play these games on high settings, but like I said I don't know much about what makes a good PC/Laptop so I need some pointers.

Also I've heard you can get multiple graphics cards, what's that all about? Do more graphics cards mean better performance or am I making a serious misjudgement here?

Sorry there are so many questions, and I hate to bore whoever's reading this to death with them, but as I've said I'm new to this and I really do need the advice. Thanks guys.
 

Tsuyu

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Laptops are fer workin', not fer gamin'. To get the same type of "power" from a laptop as a stationary you would have to spend a lot more money. And as you say, opening them up to tinker with them is not as easy as a stationary.

I recently bought a PC with these specs. I can run pretty much every modern game (Guild Wars 2/Borderlands 2 to mention two) on the highest setting flawless. If you look at getting something similar I guess you'd be OK.

Category: PC
Manufacturer: THOR Computer


Chassi: Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower
PowerSupply: Corsair TX 650W V2 80+
SSD: Corsair 120GB SSD - Force 3
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-G45 Z77
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-3570K (6M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz)
Memory: Corsair 16GB DDR3 1600MHz
Hard-drive: Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB - 5900RPM - 64MB
Optic storage: Samsung 22X DL - SH-222BB/BEBE
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB GDDR5 1006Mhz
Sound: High Definition Audio 5.1
Network: Gigabit Ethernet, 10/100/1000 Mbps
Ports: 2xDVI, HDMI, Displayport
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Do you currently run Windows XP? Upgrading to Windows 7 is a huge improvement because it is a 64 bit operating system rather than 32 bit. Though I was very late in making the transition, so you probably already have it I guess...
 

Tyloric

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Tsuyu is biased. Laptops can easily be for gaming. They're just much more difficult to upgrade and the parts are much more expensive.
 

Tsuyu

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Gaming laptops... There's an oxymoron!
 

ScareCrowReturn

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Bro, get a mac laptop, they've got the best kind of gaming, I would know. :thumbsup:
 

Tsuyu

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Mac... laptop?

That's like the antithesis of what he wants!
 

ScareCrowReturn

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Sorry, forgot to write *Sarcastic tone, at the end of my sentence
 

TRA Rotid

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1000-1500$ is well enough to get you a decent rig that'll last you years without any upgrades.

I got my PC last year as a "charity case" - a friend of mine gave me most of the parts. I have 4GB DDR3, AMD Phenom x2 2,8GHz, nVidia GeForce 8800 GT (easily the most expensive part), the cheapest DDR 3 MSI mobo I could find, the cheapest HDD and it runs Skyrim fine. Yes, maybe not on ultra high settings, but the whole kit is 2, maybe 3 years old now anyway.

Something like Tsuyu has is nice and he even has 16 Gigs of RAM, which is unneeded on current era games.
 
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Thanks for the input guys, really appreciate the advice. :)

By the way Tsuyu, did you have to put the PC together yourself, or did the store you ordered it from build it for you after you selected the parts? It's just that I've been watching a few vids on how to assemble a gaming PC and to my astonishment I think I might actually be able to manage it, it looks surpriseingly straightforward after seeing someone else put one together. Just a matter of getting to know the components and what they do then slotting them to the motherboard lol.

Also I don't have windows 7, I actually don't even own any kind of computer at the moment. (Using the I-pad for the past 6 months since my old laptop went bust.)
 

TRA Rotid

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Most of the time you won't have compatibility issues either (I'm packing an AMD CPU and nVidia GPU), though one thing you want to keep an eye on is the manufacturer. Some companies might have issues, especially in the reliability department. PSUs are the most clear example as some cheaper, unknown companies might give you numbers that don't match reality at all.
For example, Tsuyu has a Corsair PSU: a good, reliable company that sells what it tells.

However, considering your budget, I don't think that's much of an issue.
 

Tsuyu

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Pre-asembled and pre-installed, ja boi!

Probably could've saved a few bucks picking and choosing and putting it together myself, but I couldn't be assed to do so.
 

Marcodian Elite

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But putting it together yourself can be fun ^.^, I'd say research into what you want, I did so for about a month or so and had a list of what I wanted, some advice - get a good solid motherboard for your cpu and gpu, first pc I got few years ago (before I knew about anything lol) was low budget because of my lack of money, and it's only a while later when I went to get up some upgrades I was limited by my motherboard, so in jan. when I was getting parts I made sure to get a solid motherboard. This allowed me to use my older gpu until I could afford a newer own (which I got 2 weeks ago whup lol) aswell as leaving room for other upgrades.

About your build, I'd go for a destop over a laptop, but if you want portability obv. go for the laptop but my preference would be a desktop.
Get a large case with good ventilation, full tower - lots of options here - if you want more specifics just ask :)
ATM I'd say you'd best to go with an intel processor, best price/performance - and no Im not an intel fanboy - I had amd but the bulldoser didnt life up to its hype by any means. - Tsuys build is very solid and you could just take that and modify it to your suiting btw - just be aware that you may have to add in the cost of mouse/keyboard/monitor if you dont already have a mouse/keyboard and are happy using a tv (like myself)
You ask about multiple gpus (crossfire if ur using amd cards and SLI if using nvidia cards) - using multiple cards does give a boost to performance, but its not directly scalable - 2 cards doesnt exactly give twice the performance, and running multiple gpus can be tricky - especially because of driver issues (which are getting better btw), general consensus is get the best single gpu you can rather than 2 lower gpu's and running them together.
 
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Pre-asembled and pre-installed, ja boi!

Probably could've saved a few bucks picking and choosing and putting it together myself, but I couldn't be assed to do so.

Don't blame you mate, I suppose it's worth the extra cost If you want convenience though.
 

Marcodian Elite

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I dont know if you follow any - but a magazine pfcormat, it's newest edition has a review on the top 10 retailers, they gave 1000 pound to each of them to prebuild a system, and recorded the results, their views are that after all the postage from different places it could actually cost more to self build it - I have the issue, only a few days old, I could post the top retailer and system spec if you wish :) - or it could be online lol
 
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Laptops are fer workin', not fer gamin'. To get the same type of "power" from a laptop as a stationary you would have to spend a lot more money. And as you say, opening them up to tinker with them is not as easy as a stationary.

I recently bought a PC with these specs. I can run pretty much every modern game (Guild Wars 2/Borderlands 2 to mention two) on the highest setting flawless. If you look at getting something similar I guess you'd be OK.

Category: PC
Manufacturer: THOR Computer


Chassi: Fractal Design Arc Midi Tower
PowerSupply: Corsair TX 650W V2 80+
SSD: Corsair 120GB SSD - Force 3
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-G45 Z77
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-3570K (6M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz)
Memory: Corsair 16GB DDR3 1600MHz
Hard-drive: Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB - 5900RPM - 64MB
Optic storage: Samsung 22X DL - SH-222BB/BEBE
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB GDDR5 1006Mhz
Sound: High Definition Audio 5.1
Network: Gigabit Ethernet, 10/100/1000 Mbps
Ports: 2xDVI, HDMI, Displayport
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Do you currently run Windows XP? Upgrading to Windows 7 is a huge improvement because it is a 64 bit operating system rather than 32 bit. Though I was very late in making the transition, so you probably already have it I guess...

Where did you order this from? Could you give me the web address? if it can play the latest games on high then I think I might just play it safe and copy you if you don't mind :D Maybe change a thing or two if I'm feeling confident.

Case wise I might go for a coolmaster storm enforcer, Really like that case for some reason.
 

HeroOfCrapsalot

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MS Windows 7 Ultimate N 32-bit
CPU
Intel Core i5 2500K @ 3.30GHz
Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology
RAM
8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 666MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
MSI Z77A-G45 (MS-7752)
Graphics
VX900-2 (1280x1024@60Hz)
1024MB GeForce GTX 560 Ti (EVGA)
Hard Drives
466GB Western Digital WDC WD5000AAKS-00Z7B0 ATA Device (SATA)35 °C
75GB INTEL SSDSA2M080G2GC ATA Device (SSD)

That's what I've got running for like $1200 in a CM Storm case. Had to put it all together myself though. Of course I had to borrow someones special Microsoft program writer edition of Windows 7 but you could get just a regular one.
 
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One of my main concerns about this is the fact that I'm going to have use wifi for playing online because of the room I'm going to set it up in. Can't keep it in the living room with a cable on account of having two very destructive siblings who would probably wreck it in a heartbeat so my bedroom's the only option. I've seen some motherboards online that supposedly have built in wifi capabilities but I don't know how reliable they are. This is one of the reasons I was considering laptop gaming, that way once the kids have gone to bed I can just move take it downstairs and set it up on a desk in the living room like a desktop.

Got another question to ask, does anyone here use wifi on their PC? If so how reliable is it?
 

TRA Rotid

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I have a 12Mb/s connection at home and I'm using a cheap D-Link USB adapter for WiFi and it works fine - even for gaming. There are occasional hiccups, but I can't tell if it's the stick or my weird router setup, which is another topic entirely entirely.

WiFi cards for the PC tend to cost quite a lot.
If you're at home, though, it'd be easier to just get a cable from the other room.
 
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Hmm I suppose if I end up putting it downstairs with a wired connection I could always order a mesh cage for the tower with a padlock, that way I've got the best possible connection and the little one's can't touch it.
 
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