Gamers, PC Geeks

iAMsmiling
iAMsmiling Posts: 2,394 Member
edited January 2 in Chit-Chat
My 13 year old is saving for a desktop computer. The nice i5 based laptop I got him is not adequate to his gaming needs.
Thing is, right now, I know he's not really playing anything challenging from a hardware point of view, so I can't tell you what games he'll play. Let's just assume they will be your standard graphics intensive stuff.

I've been pricing systems. My first thought was to get him an Intel i5 or i7 based system, but the starting price is pretty high. I'm wondering if we wouldn't be better off with a less expensive processor...something from AMD perhaps, and putting the extra money in to a good graphics card.

If you were putting say...$6-$650 in to a machine, what processor/graphics card would you chose? How about if you were to spend a bit more?

Thanks,

Replies

  • sarahu8226
    sarahu8226 Posts: 38
    My husband just helped our neighbor get his 15 year old kid all hooked up with a new PC. It was about $1,000 for all (including case and monitor). They are all gamers.

    Here are the things he bought:
    ✘ VisionTek 900505 Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129230
    (which now says discontinued, but he bought it Sunday night)
    ✘ ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131837
    ✘ Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504

    Hope all that helps... It's really gibberish to me :wink:
  • guardian419
    guardian419 Posts: 391 Member
    I've sadly lost the free time to keep current on building my own PC. Recently I've devolved to just using HP's website and finding what will work well for me.

    You will always get better performance from building your own than buying from a company, but even $650 will buy a decent PC capable of playing games like Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3. If you've got more time than me (probably), I'd recommend shopping on sites like www.newegg.com. It's been my go-to parts site since highschool when I was still enveloped by EverQuest.

    *edit* I will say... I've never been a fan of intel because they come pre-overclocked, so you have to make sure your cooling is suitable. AMD has been my chip of choice for ever. They post lower processor speeds, but I've never had an issue with them, and performance has been either equal to or greater than Intel chips of the same, or slightly higher speeds.
  • iAMsmiling
    iAMsmiling Posts: 2,394 Member
    I'm actually trying to avoid building it from scratch.
    Thinking of buying something off the shelf and adding a good graphics card. Just really don't know much about CPU performance these days. I stopped paying attention years ago when they all got to be good enough for my needs.
  • ekz13
    ekz13 Posts: 725 Member
    Without getting into parts, costs, etc.. my input would be that if he's playing games now, he's going to continue playing and those games will become more and more CPU/GPU intensive. I'm the gamer in the house and fortunately, I'm also the adult :) so I have only the wife's permission to get... LOL... but currently I'm suffering the same fate, I bought the gateway FX about 2 years ago which was the top of the gamer line (of the shelf type systems, excluding alien ware, custom built, etc.) and it worked great, however, now I'm struggling to even play off line games (Borderlands 2, Civ V, I'm Alive, Assassin's creed, etc.) and MMO's are just lagging bad for me now too..

    with that said, I’ll say, get the best system within reason that you can get now and it'll last a bit longer in the long run. I haven't researched desktops, but for laptops I'm looking at the G75VW from Asus, which is running 1199 atm, pretty sweet rig.

    I'd go i7 min, at least 3-4gb on the video card ( I have 2 and I’m dying on games)
  • iAMsmiling
    iAMsmiling Posts: 2,394 Member
    Without getting into parts, costs, etc.. my input would be that if he's playing games now, he's going to continue playing and those games will become more and more CPU/GPU intensive. I'm the gamer in the house and fortunately, I'm also the adult :) so I have only the wife's permission to get... LOL... but currently I'm suffering the same fate, I bought the gateway FX about 2 years ago which was the top of the gamer line (of the shelf type systems, excluding alien ware, custom built, etc.) and it worked great, however, now I'm struggling to even play off line games (Borderlands 2, Civ V, I'm Alive, Assassin's creed, etc.) and MMO's are just lagging bad for me now too..

    with that said, I’ll say, get the best system within reason that you can get now and it'll last a bit longer in the long run. I haven't researched desktops, but for laptops I'm looking at the G75VW from Asus, which is running 1199 atm, pretty sweet rig.

    I'd go i7 min, at least 3-4gb on the video card ( I have 2 and I’m dying on games)

    Dang video game advances are about the only thing left driving the need for better hardware all the time.
    i7 is going to take a lot longer for him to save for.
  • ekz13
    ekz13 Posts: 725 Member
    I agree, I have steadily been dialing down my settings to survive..

    and yes, it'll take him longer sadly, but weigh this with the frustration he might have a year from now when he wants to start playing the lastest MMO (take Pirates 101, good kids game, my system won't run it ) he might regret his purchase some. desktops are cheaper too, and might last longer (being able to swap out the vid card and maybe the cpu later to breath some new life into it.
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