Console gamer seeking help joining the master race

[Connorrrr]

In September, I'm moving out of my parents' place and going to live in a student flat when I go to university... As such my room is gonna be really small and I can't take my consoles and 40" tv, so I'm looking to change to PC gaming.

 

I've been messing around on a website that has you pick out the parts and then it builds it for you, but it seems like it's gonna be far too expensive for what I'm going to end up getting, and I think I'd rather just buy the parts and attempt to build it myself.

 

Okay, on to business.

 

What I really need to know is what I need to buy. I know the obvious stuff like a case, power supply, motherboard, processor, RAM, DVD-Drive, HDD, etc.

 

What else do I need, and what are your recommendations for them? I'm sorry I'm being really vague, I'm just totally clueless. Help me become a gaming God like you are!

 

PS: Budget is undecided, but I'm looking under £1000 GBP (1107 euros, 1607 usd)

 

With the limited amount of research I've been doing, I like the look of the ATI Radeon HD 6950, it seems like it'd run new games for a while to come (I could be wrong about this, please correct me if I am).

 

Processor I'm looking at is intel core i7. Everything else, I'm looking for help with.

 

Thanks in advance.

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

$1607 USD? iMac with student discount is $1599!

 

But jesting aside, all you need you listed above, really. Case, hard drive, ram, mobo, processor, disc drive, video card, psu, keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, and you're all set. I can offer up some recommendations in a bit.

[Connorrrr]

$1607 USD? iMac with student discount is $1599!

 

But jesting aside, all you need you listed above, really. Case, hard drive, ram, mobo, processor, disc drive, video card, psu, keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, and you're all set. I can offer up some recommendations in a bit.

 

Thanks, I'd really appreciate that. On the site I was using they really over-complicated things by making you choose everything, really, so I was confused as to whether or not I'd need more than what I listed.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

When are you looking to purchase this PC? My reason for asking is volatile prices and worth from things like the ever-changing video card universe.

[Connorrrr]

When are you looking to purchase this PC? My reason for asking is volatile prices and worth from things like the ever-changing video card universe.

 

Yeah, I'm planning to buy it late august/early September, really. Definitely before October at the very latest. Hopefully nothing changes too drastically in that short time.

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

Alright, so here's what I got

 

Case - Anything will do, just the things to look for are mainly airflow and size (big enough for your board [ATX form factor is mostly everything] and small enough for the space you are going to be putting it in.) I am a fan of Cooler Master so if you find one of those go for it.

 

PSU - Pay attention to the required wattage of each of your parts, from the sounds of it you'll need quite a bit of power. I would avoid cheesy sounding brands like LIGHTNING XTREME POWAH; stick to Antec, Cooler Master, or Corsair or another brand you recognize.

 

Motherboard - With motherboards, it's usually just a matter of quantity: make sure it has all the PCIe and RAM slots you'll be needing, and pay attention to the socket type (most online stores will mention which processor lines are compatible)

 

RAM: I've had good luck with Corsair, but I've had good luck with generics also. Again check out compatibility with your motherboard. As far as quantity goes, 6-8 GB will be plenty and sounds like will fit your budget.

 

Processor: Sounds like your i7 is all picked out. If price becomes an issue, though, AMD's Phenom II quad- or 6x- line are beastly for the value. This should come with everything you need to install it, including the fan.

 

Disc drive: I usually just find one lying around the house. But if it's in the budget, Blu Ray drives can be hand for under $100 regularly on Newegg and such sites.

 

HDD: Brand is important here. Stick to name brand, no less than 7200 RPM. Looking at your budget, I'd go for 2 terabytes, shouldn't set you back more than $80 USD. Most everything should be SATA nowadays, but check to be sure.

 

Video card: That 6950 looks like a great value; I'd stick with that or equivalent.

 

As far as sound card goes, the integrated one on your mobo should suffice unless you're an audiophile. Monitor/keyboard/mouse is pretty much up to taste and price, of course. Let me know if there is anything else you need help with.

[RockyRan]

If you want to know what I did for my gaming PC, check this website out:

 

http://www.hardware-revolution.com/

 

Look in top tabs, the one that says "Gaming and Web PC". It shows lower-end PC's, "mainstream" PC's, and high-end PC's. I literally just went to that site, picked out the parts for an $850 budget, ordered them off Amazon/Newegg, and put them together when they got here. "Shopping" process took like an hour tops. Certainly better than the last time I built a PC, in which I picked out the parts myself and ensuring I got the best parts for my money and making sure they were all compatible took probably over a month of shopping around.

 

So yeah, I swear by this site. Building the PC itself isn't anything difficult either. I can look up the video I followed for you if you're interested.

[Connorrrr]

Okay, thanks for the help guys. Here's what I have bookmarked at the moment, if you can tell me if I've gone wrong anywhere that would be great, but I think it's all okay.

 

RAM: Corsair 8gb (2x4gb) DDR3

Motherboard: Intel DH67BL H67 Socket 1155 DVI HDMI Out ATX Motherboard(Not sure this is good?)

Video Card: Sapphire HD 6970 2GB (not sure why it says sapphire rather than AMD/ATI)

Case: Coolermaster Mid tower case

PSU: Coolermaster Silent Pro 1000w

Processor: Intel Core i7 3.2 ghz

DVD Drive: Any old random one

HDD: Seagate 1tb 7200 RPM

 

So yeah, how is it looking to you guys? I picked a 1tb instead of a 2tb because I wanted to put some money aside for a monitor, Windows, and all the other things.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

There really is no need for a 1000w power supply. I'd go with 750 or so considering your setup. I'll take a closer look in a bit. People(not just yourself) tend to really go overboard on power supplies.

 

Edit: Apparently, Newegg has a PSU calculator. For the example, I added twice the RAM and two more hard drives. Came out with 720w.

Edited July 2, 2011 by Saturnine Tenshi

[Connorrrr]

There really is no need for a 1000w power supply. I'd go with 750 or so considering your setup. I'll take a closer look in a bit. People(not just yourself) tend to really go overboard on power supplies.

 

Edit: Apparently, Newegg has a PSU calculator. For the example, I added twice the RAM and two more hard drives. Came out with 720w.

 

Really? Jeez, some other site I was using was telling me I'd need 750 with less than what I put in so I went for a safe option. Thanks for bringing that to my attention, I'll check out the calculator thing and correct that, I'll be able to save a little bit from doing that.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Fuck a DVD drive. Unnecessary in this day and age.

 

Really? Jeez, some other site I was using was telling me I'd need 750 with less than what I put in so I went for a safe option. Thanks for bringing that to my attention, I'll check out the calculator thing and correct that, I'll be able to save a little bit from doing that.

 

I think the biggest hurdle with figuring out what's going on with buying a PSU is figuring out if what is being marketed is the actual power the thing puts out rather than peak and dumb shit like that. IMO the PSU is one thing you really should go with a quality brand on almost above everything else as it's going to be powering every single thing on your computer.

[Connorrrr]

Fuck a DVD drive. Unnecessary in this day and age.

 

Yeah I see your point but I'd rather have one just on the off chance I need it, never know what I might end up doing with it and they cost a pittance.

 

 

I think the biggest hurdle with figuring out what's going on with buying a PSU is figuring out if what is being marketed is the actual power the thing puts out rather than peak and dumb shit like that. IMO the PSU is one thing you really should go with a quality brand on almost above everything else as it's going to be powering every single thing on your computer.

 

Yeah that is an issue. I've settled for 800w corsair, since that's a brand I hear thrown around quite often. I know even 800w is high, but rather safe than sorry, and I won't have to worry about when I upgrade something (hopefully)

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Yes, Corsair makes quality products. No worries there. Power usage has gone down over time (wait, right?) so 800w will last you for the interim if not the long term. I'm running on 530w (630?) and this is a DX10.1 system. I still wouldn't need to upgrade my power with a more powerful card unless I went for the whole dual card thing.

[RockyRan]

I say spend a bit more on a DVD drive. I rarely use it but when I do, I prefer to have it.

 

Yes, that was a really terrible reference to those Dos Equis commercials.

 

But srsly, do get one. Especially if you have older games, and they're cheap enough that it really shouldn't make a dent on your budget.

[Cyber Rat]

Regardless of how powerful your PSU is, don't cut corners with that one. If it dies, it might take some other things with you. Just general advice.

[WTF]

First things first.Compare parts prices from scan.co.uk or overclockers as well.

 

Get a Blu Ray drive with DVD read/write at the very least even if it's not a Blu-Ray player because it's a handy thing to have and it's going to be useful.

 

As for cards I'm more of an Nvidia guy and I'd recommend twin 560Tis or a 580 since the 590 is still more than half your budget. The 6970 is just an overclocked 6950 and the price is about comparable these days but personally I prefer the tesselation and Physx and you can see the difference in games like Alice. Plus I like the drivers with Nvidia more. I use an ATI 6950 on an older machine and I'm using twin 560Tis now but I'll be buying a 590 later this year. And FDS is right you don't need more than 700W unless you're on a dual card setup. However saying that I'll say it's pretty handy for some games. Also you have a spec there anyway for most games coming out for about a year and I'm sure it'll run the Crystal Engine 2 (the one that TR runs on) with high as well since I'm sure this is a 9.5-10 system for Deus Ex:HR (the earlier version of that engine) and TR's probably the better engine for a game that's actually coming out in the next 15 months.

edit: edited to add that I agree with CyberRat.

Edited July 2, 2011 by WTF

[Connorrrr]

As for cards I'm more of an Nvidia guy and I'd recommend twin 560Tis or a 580 since the 590 is still more than half your budget. The 6970 is just an overclocked 6950 and the price is about comparable these days but personally I prefer the tesselation and Physx and you can see the difference in games like Alice. Plus I like the drivers with Nvidia more.

 

Having done some research on a lot of different nvidia cards just now after reading your post, I've got to say that the 580 is very tempting. It'd push my budget up by around £90 but I think I can push for that and it would be worth it, it looks like a better card that will run the newest games for a lot longer and a lot better than the 6970 I was looking at.

 

Is it worth the swap?

[MasterDex]

I'd go with a different motherboard. There's not really anything wrong with that one but it doesn't have crossfire or SLI support which may become an issue for you in the future. What you want is a board that will allow you to upgrade a bit before having to replace it so one that supports crossfire (if you're getting the 6950) or SLI or both would save you some money if you find your graphical capabilities waning.

 

As the others have said, a good brandname PSU in the 700-750 range should do the trick. Personally, I'd go with a 750w or even an 800w so you have some room to play around with (liquid cooling, more ram and a second graphics card can really drain the power).

 

Don't get a case that's too small. Don't go for anything smaller than your average midi tower and make sure there's enough fans to induct and expel air efficiently.

 

For the HDD, I'd go for a Samsung Spinpoint F3, they're one of the best 7200rpm drives on the market, at least they were when I bought mine last year. The Spinpoint range is good anyhow.

 

If you decide to go for a good soundcard, I advise grabbing one that has a front panel for your case.

 

A gaming grade mouse is a must if you plan on playing many FPS too.

 

I'll be throwing up a How To guide sometime next week on PXOD that will show how to put a PC together so if you're unsure about the construction, check in there and (hopefully) it'll help. - shameless plug

[deanb]

Yeah I'm a Nvidia guy myself. ATi's are cheaper, but Nvidias have a few more features and better support from and for games. ATi's do get updated by Steam though.

(and it says "sapphire" because that's the company that makes them. Nvidia and AMD just supply the chips, other companies assemble the PCB and stick connectors on back and fans etc.)

 

I'm gonna agree with Masterdex on swapping that Seagate for a Spinpoint. I assume you like to keep your data?

Get a DVD drive too. Blu-Ray might be overkill for now. But you'll always need some kind of disc drive. I've mentioned of my netbook, have a ton of old games that would run fine on it's specs. All on disc. Had to go n rip them all. If you have no DVD drive you can't even rip them.

 

Add a mouse to the mix too (we have a thread), maybe a gaming keyboard, but they're not required so much. The main part that makes mine "gaming" is it's missing the Windows key. It has macro keys but I don't use them for games

 

Maybe it's part of the i7's having a GPU on-board but I don't see the need for a motherboard with DVI and HDMI when your'e getting a dedicated card. (I've not had a proper oggle at sandy bridge systems yet). I don't see much worry with lack of crossfire/SLI because in my experience while it's a nice thing to have, by the time your current card is ageing you have the cash to pick up the latest high end card anyway. The main reason it's missing SLI/Crossfire is because it's a Micro-ATX MoBo. You have a full ATX case so you can go bigger and more spacious if you want (your fingers will love you for it). The MoBo ain't bad, it's just you may be able to do better if you have a fish around.

 

Oh and your PSU may be overkill. Yeah go good, but I doubt you "need" a modular PSU or at that wattage.

[Connorrrr]

Yeah I'm a Nvidia guy myself. ATi's are cheaper, but Nvidias have a few more features and better support from and for games. ATi's do get updated by Steam though.

(and it says "sapphire" because that's the company that makes them. Nvidia and AMD just supply the chips, other companies assemble the PCB and stick connectors on back and fans etc.)

 

Alright, well I'm liking the look of the Nvidia GTX 580. Is this a good choice that will still be a good card in a couple years? I don't want to have to upgrade for at least two years, but even that is too early, really.

 

 

I'm gonna agree with Masterdex on swapping that Seagate for a Spinpoint. I assume you like to keep your data?

Get a DVD drive too. Blu-Ray might be overkill for now. But you'll always need some kind of disc drive. I've mentioned of my netbook, have a ton of old games that would run fine on it's specs. All on disc. Had to go n rip them all. If you have no DVD drive you can't even rip them.

 

I took yours and Masterdex's advice and swapped out for a 1tb Samsung spinpoint, thanks for the tip.

 

Maybe it's part of the i7's having a GPU on-board but I don't see the need for a motherboard with DVI and HDMI when your'e getting a dedicated card. (I've not had a proper oggle at sandy bridge systems yet). I don't see much worry with lack of crossfire/SLI because in my experience while it's a nice thing to have, by the time your current card is ageing you have the cash to pick up the latest high end card anyway. The main reason it's missing SLI/Crossfire is because it's a Micro-ATX MoBo. You have a full ATX case so you can go bigger and more spacious if you want (your fingers will love you for it). The MoBo ain't bad, it's just you may be able to do better if you have a fish around.

 

Do you have any recommendations? Going off of my new plans to get a GTX 580, what sort of motherboard should I be looking for? That's the component I'm most worried about messing up on, and the one I know the least about, so any and all advice on that would be greatly appreciated.

[deanb]

I'm going to say "It should do you for 2 years" buuuuttttt it kinda depends on the consoles at this point. They might make a sudden leap within the next years (though I'm doubting it) that would push PC upto a new plateau.

 

As for MoBos, sorry no recommendations. Are you aiming to go for SLI or not? Cos that can be a big factor. If you don't care for SLI it opens up more doors on MoBo options but closes the door to going for SLI at a later date.

[Thorgi Duke of Frisbee]

If you're willing to spend the money, more power to you, but you could also grab a 27" flat screen TV from VIZIO for something like $200-400, depending on where you look. My space is incredibly small, yet I easily fit my 360, games and TV in my room comfortably, while giving me plenty of space for other trivial/important stuff.

 

And I also agree that in this day and age, a disc drive is practically useless. Movies? I stream Netflix. Music? No one buys CDs anymore, especially since every store backs everything up for you online for free now. Even then, I get most of my music from an Rdio subscription. Any TV shows or movies I can't get from Netflix are available for rent/purchase from Apple/Amazon/Vudu/etc. If I could buy all of my 360 games/indie shows online, I would own absolutely zero physical media today. I hate physical media. It takes up far too much space for my liking, and it's prone to loss/theft/damage. I love the idea of an entirely sparse apartment, save for the electronic devices that access the traditionally-physical media.

[Connorrrr]

I'm going to say "It should do you for 2 years" buuuuttttt it kinda depends on the consoles at this point. They might make a sudden leap within the next years (though I'm doubting it) that would push PC upto a new plateau.

 

As for MoBos, sorry no recommendations. Are you aiming to go for SLI or not? Cos that can be a big factor. If you don't care for SLI it opens up more doors on MoBo options but closes the door to going for SLI at a later date.

 

I'm not too interested in SLI, partly because I'm not totally sure what it is. As long as I'm not going to NEED it, I think I can get by.

 

If you're willing to spend the money, more power to you, but you could also grab a 27" flat screen TV from VIZIO for something like $200-400, depending on where you look. My space is incredibly small, yet I easily fit my 360, games and TV in my room comfortably, while giving me plenty of space for other trivial/important stuff.

 

And I also agree that in this day and age, a disc drive is practically useless. Movies? I stream Netflix. Music? No one buys CDs anymore, especially since every store backs everything up for you online for free now. Even then, I get most of my music from an Rdio subscription. Any TV shows or movies I can't get from Netflix are available for rent/purchase from Apple/Amazon/Vudu/etc. If I could buy all of my 360 games/indie shows online, I would own absolutely zero physical media today. I hate physical media. It takes up far too much space for my liking, and it's prone to loss/theft/damage. I love the idea of an entirely sparse apartment, save for the electronic devices that access the traditionally-physical media.

 

Well, I've been wanting to get into PC gaming for a while anyway, this is just the motivator I suppose. I might end up taking my consoles after some time living away but I don't want to pack it all in at once.

[deanb]

And I also agree that in this day and age, a disc drive is practically useless. Movies? I stream Netflix. Music? No one buys CDs anymore, especially since every store backs everything up for you online for free now. Even then, I get most of my music from an Rdio subscription. Any TV shows or movies I can't get from Netflix are available for rent/purchase from Apple/Amazon/Vudu/etc. If I could buy all of my 360 games/indie shows online, I would own absolutely zero physical media today. I hate physical media. It takes up far too much space for my liking, and it's prone to loss/theft/damage. I love the idea of an entirely sparse apartment, save for the electronic devices that access the traditionally-physical media.

 

Of note: Nearly everything you named there is available in NA only. Conorr is from UK

[WTF]

The GT580 is basically what I'd say would be most likely enough for at least a couple of years. I agree with Dex and would suggest going for an SLI motherboard. See here's the thing in case in the future there's some sort of major graphical overhaul and new consoles do actually get released if you've an SLI MoBo you should be set for future upgrades. Like you might get the next 600 series card for cheap and use that as a PhysX card and use the current one as the main processing one. Regardless either way you should be able to run most games at pretty high settings with the 580. of course it's not going to be like the 590 because that's like 1.6x of the 580. However it's the same chipset the 110 architecture as the 590 (approx). The card was released in November 2010 and it's the second highest performer overall. If memory serves me right the 6970 also makes more noise during processing. The 580 generates less heat than it's bigger brother the 590.

 

I think while 700W is fine. Go with 750-800 just to keep yourself on the safe side. It's mostly cause some cards take about 200W and right now your system with the coolers and such would probably consume 550-600W so having an excess of 200W is good for future upgrades.

 

The most important thing to keep in mind is that this is the base computer that you are going to be using for at least 5 years and upgrading step by step. it's the best way to be since sometimes stuff gets released that's not really great. Buy a good case, something big. See if you can get a Lian Li for cheap somewhere. They make pretty good cases. Antec is alright but get something that's bigger than midtower and with a removable front. Make sure your mobo has USB 3.0 since that's getting more acceptance. The HDD is fine with a spinpoint.

 

When it comes to a gaming mouse you might like the Logitech G400 it's the successor of a very popular mouse the MX518 and would do well for most of your gaming needs. Comes to £34 from logitech directly, you can get it cheaper elsewhere. There are razers and the like but nah. I wouldn't really say you need a dedicated sound card yet, I mean they're nice but unless you're into good sound and do some audio processing you can make do with integrated with ease.