Gaming PC Suggestions

[Bnet505]

I used to play all my games (TFC, FF, TF2) on a crappy old computer that barely held. Now, it finally died, and I have a good excuse to buy a new gaming PC. I can't build anything, so I'm gonna ask for suggestions here. The PC I want is solely for gaming, I have a Ubuntu run laptop for all general computing.

Things I want:
-A Good CPU (Quad-Core, or Double Duo Core Preferable)
-A Good GPU (Have no idea about any types)
-Lots and lots of RAM
-Huge harddrive.
-Directx10
-Something Future Proofed
-Price is a factor. You can change anything on this list to meet a goal of around $750 or lower. I want a good gaming PC and nothing else.
-Must be a purchase and not a built one.

Games I want to be able to run perfectly:

-Fortress Forever (Duh)
-Team Fortress 2 (Shoot me)
-TFC (This wont be a problem)
-Half life 2 and related products.
-Portal
-The Ship
-Perhaps CS:Source (It is required to have to play Black Mesa Source Mod)

That's about it. Any suggestions?

[Suite307]

You can basically run these games perfectly for like 800$.
and nothing is future proof. Nothing. NOTHING. Your computer will be outdated in 2 months.

[Everything]

When a new game comes out, your pc is fucked sideways.

[Unknownfigure]

DirectX10 has been a failure in nearly every way so far, and Vista has been out since 2007. Even in Crysis, DirectX10 does not provide any visual difference, other than the new "Ultra-High" settings, but those require you to be running a monstrous quad-sli setup which will run you over a grand just in video cards. Quite simply, DX10 is crap and I don't recommend it because it offers no advantages in any game unless you count resource hogging as an advantage. But whatever, it's your money. Not likely to get acceptable "DX10" performance off of $750, though. Not trying to be mean, but it's the general truth, and I'm sure you don't want to be disappointed with your purchase.

A $750 pre-built? Not too hot for that range... Wish you could build, then it would be far more manageable.

So let's discuss this. I believe the highest price/performance CPU right now at a good deal would be the Intel Core2Duo E6750, which should be found on Newegg for about $160-$190. Runs I believe at a nice 2.66. The best cheapish GPU that would give you OUTSTANDING performance for the price would be the Nvidia 8800 GTS, which can be found on Newegg for less than $200. Note that that is also the GPU that would give you decent "DX10 features" for the least amount of money. Great card. Or, you could ditch the DX10 idea and just get a very nice Evga Geforce 7800 GT for a cool $140, which should provide you with pretty nice performance for the games you listed, even though that card is a bit "dated." Of course, these are the prices of the individual components, and wide-scale distributors tend to make things more expensive than they are. 2 GB of ram is generally great, unless you are going to run vista, in which case a heavy match will probably start to bog down your performance quite a bit. In that case, you'd want 3-4 GB of RAM, but I know 2 GB can be snagged for $100.

But maybe you really don't care of the tech stuff. You probably just want me to shut up and give you a manufacterer that can give you an alright deal that will let you play.


Well, seeing as how you are like me, in that we are both used to playing on shitty computers at home, you can look at Dell. Or you can look at Ibuypower. Or Cyberpower. Or HP. I'd generally recommend Ibuypower, or places like that, because that's where you can be really specific about what goes into your PC, which means you can be really specific about your price. But you can also find great deals at Dell - specifically the Business pages. While the XPS line can easily go over $1500, in the business pages, there is a model that has some decent hardware in it that would be great for the games you listed, and would generally fit your wishes all around. It won't be a great graphics card, but it will do, and it won't be at all futureproof, less so actually because it's Dell and I'm not sure if they stopped using proprietary parts for anything other than their XPS line. The price might be a problem, as it can easily get between $800-$999 but that is probably your best bet at a great-for-now computer gaming solution.


Or, you could go someplace like Ibuypower, get only what will hold you over for awhile, and in the future if you desire any better performance, you could just upgrade one part whenever it's convenient for you. That way, you probably spend $600, and if you end up satisfied with that, great - if not, you could always improve where you want improvement whenever it's convenient for you, and until then, you'd atleast be playing.

[zSilver_Fox]

Learn to build computers ( http://www.overclockersclub.com/forums/ ) and you'll be able to build a good gaming machine for that price. $800 for a prebuilt is buying crap. In fact, remove the numbers and first two words, and you have an even more accurate statement. My English teacher spent $1k on an HP prebuilt, built for gaming, and it still didn't run WoW on medium settings @ 1024x768 any better than 20 FPS.