Hey, I'm VballChick PMS, some of you who know me know that I'm a console gamer. When I got back from NVISION 08 (thank god I got to go!) I was so excited at the many things I saw, one of them being PC Gaming. I loved watching it, I loved playing on it, I just loved everything about it. My question to all of you PC Gamers is...

What kind of setup should I get???

we are sponsored by Alienware, ATI, Patriot Memory, Plantronics, Sapphire, and ProGamer so I figured I would get something with one of those things in it. our of those companys whats the best product to put in it. Should I get a desktop or a notebook, should I get something diffrent but atleast one of those products. Any advice? :P

You should get a powerful setup.

lol.. that was helpful... i mean what should i get in it..

Honestly pc gaming seems less and less appealing as time goes by, there's just not much there that can't be done on a console. And not enough to justify the building of an expensive rig, the likes of which is required to play something like Crysis the way it is intended but a system for most other games can be built reasonably cheaply.

But...

I'd suggest something with an Intel core 2 duo or quadro processor. 3GB of RAM. ATI HD cards are quite competitive at the moment.

Gaming laptops tend to be very heavy and not as powewrful as desktops so you have to trade off power for portability, but for serious gaming a desktop is more practical.

What kind of stuff do you want to play?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Ninja_Kn1ght,

I wouldn't bother getting a prebuilt setup (like with what you get when you order through a company like Alienware). Although they build nice computers, it is typically cheaper (and therefore, in your best interests) to buy the parts separately and assemble it yourself.

I would first suggest getting a desktop over getting a laptop, but it really depends on what/how you are going to be playing. If you are going to be playing casual, offline games on occasions, I'd say the laptop might be fine for taking it on the go. Otherwise, a desktop is by far superior for gaming. A laptop and a desktop with the same specs typically find the laptop being much more expensive. Also, desktop are better suited for upgraded parts, etc.

Like Ninja said, I would suggest maybe getting a good quadcore processor. I also have 6gb of RAM in the desktop that I just got this summer, and it's wonderful. However, you need to make sure that the sticks of RAM are also fast enough. As for the GPU / graphics card, it's really up to you. There are plenty of great cards out there by Nvidia and Ati. It just comes down to how much you want to spend and what works best with your motherboard.

That's pretty much teh essentials when getting a PC. The cooling system, monitor, mouse, etc., are all simply minor extras in term of influencing your experience in playing. Sure, you could have some liquid cooling system worth hundreds of dollars, but it probably won't do jack **** unless you are overclocking something...which I doubt you would be doing if you are asking about what kind of rig to get.

I want to play UT3 or quake maybe some team fortress 2

Luckily TF2 and Quake aren't very demanding and UT3 is quite scalable. UT3 doesn't have a very large community at all though, I'm pretty sure there's still more people playing UT2004.

quote:

Originally posted by VballChickPMS:
What kind of setup should I get???

Maybe this will help? Yes, I know it's a UK site but, y'know, the interwebs is funny for boundaries...

I see suggestions for quad core procs.

What games today fully utilize -dual- core never mind quad core?

Might be better to get a faster dual core, since those are available sooner than an equivalent speed quad.

I agree with the wise tooth. I just upgraded my computer recently and I went with a faster dual core, with the 45nm chipset for reduced power and heat usage. I used this guide on Tom's Hardware to select some components, and there was also a $700 machine that they had an article for but I can't find it now. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-graphic-game,1810.html

Since the guide is a bit old now you can probably upgrade several of the components without much of a cost increase. I definately don't recommend spending anything over $1000 since it will be old and busted in a year anyways.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: stonelance,

I also use a dual core. I bought It because it's cheaper then quad core, but what Tooth says is true.

If you want something pre-built, you can always just get one from Alienware. They do complete PC setups.

Tom's Hardware Guide is an excellent resource if you want to research various components. I use it all the time when I build my machines.

If you're sponsored by Alienware, does that mean you get free stuff?

Dual core is probably enough for most folks. AFAIK the only game I play that really makes use of my quad core is City of Heroes.

2GB of RAM minimum. 4GB+ is you can swing it, although that gets you into Vista, since vanilla XP won't recognize much more then 3GBs.

ATI's current offerings are pretty competitive, but I haven't actually used them myself so I can't really say.

Make sure your case has adequate cooling, if you go the build your own route be sure to read up on reviews on the models that appeal to you.

Gaming laptops: I own a XPS1730. It's a heavy beast of a machine. But I can play just about any game out there and it is convenient for LAN parties. Cause it fits in a bag and I carry it on the plane. Is it worth the price I paid? That's debatable, but likely not since at home I use my desktop for gaming.

quote:

Originally posted by daristar:
2GB of RAM minimum. 4GB+ is you can swing it, although that gets you into Vista, since vanilla XP won't recognize much more then 3GBs.
.

For more than 3GBs of RAM a 64-bit version of Vista or XP is required. Vista 64-bit is quite good now.

quote:

Originally posted by Ninja_Kn1ght:

quote:

Originally posted by daristar:
2GB of RAM minimum. 4GB+ is you can swing it, although that gets you into Vista, since vanilla XP won't recognize much more then 3GBs.
.

For more than 3GBs of RAM a 64-bit version of Vista or XP is required. Vista 64-bit is quite good now.

Yeah, I'm loving the 64-bit Vista that came with my new desktop. Though, I'm not use needing so much RAM. My last pc only had 2GB, and running vista on my new pc seemingly uses that much memory just for explorer.exe, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by Pino_GruntFest:

quote:

Originally posted by Ninja_Kn1ght:

quote:

Originally posted by daristar:
2GB of RAM minimum. 4GB+ is you can swing it, although that gets you into Vista, since vanilla XP won't recognize much more then 3GBs.
.

For more than 3GBs of RAM a 64-bit version of Vista or XP is required. Vista 64-bit is quite good now.

Yeah, I'm loving the 64-bit Vista that came with my new desktop. Though, I'm not use needing so much RAM. My last pc only had 2GB, and running vista on my new pc seemingly uses that much memory just for explorer.exe, etc.

XP is still widely regarded as the best OS for gaming since Vista is a resource hog. I believe you can solve this problem with Vista by turning off all the bells and whistles but that kinda defeats the purpose of having it. Also, depending on your system you might not need the 64-bit OS to use most of your RAM. My system recognizes 3.5 GB out of 4 GB available. I plan to eventually move up to 64-bit but just haven't seen the need to yet.

The PC is a lie

quote:

Originally posted by Pino_GruntFest:

quote:

Originally posted by Ninja_Kn1ght:

quote:

Originally posted by daristar:
2GB of RAM minimum. 4GB+ is you can swing it, although that gets you into Vista, since vanilla XP won't recognize much more then 3GBs.
.

For more than 3GBs of RAM a 64-bit version of Vista or XP is required. Vista 64-bit is quite good now.

Yeah, I'm loving the 64-bit Vista that came with my new desktop. Though, I'm not use needing so much RAM. My last pc only had 2GB, and running vista on my new pc seemingly uses that much memory just for explorer.exe, etc.

Vista is designed to make use of as much memory as it can to store data and programs that you use a lot for fast access. It makes sense really, not much point in have it there, unused.

quote:

Originally posted by the_Brayn:
Also, depending on your system you might not need the 64-bit OS to use most of your RAM. My system recognizes 3.5 GB out of 4 GB available. I plan to eventually move up to 64-bit but just haven't seen the need to yet.

Just because it recognizes it doesn't mean it can use it. You can use up to 3GB on 32bit systems if you turn on the 3GB registry key, but that might cause incompatibilities with some apps.

The thing people don't realize is that the limit is not physical RAM, it is virtual address space. Your video RAM gets mapped into virtual address space when you are playing a game as well. So if you have a video card with 512MB RAM, then the game can only use 1.5GB of system RAM anyway. The time has really come where no one buying a new machine should be using 32bits.