I’m looking to build a new gaming rig and haven’t shopped in quite a while, so I am soliciting experts to tell me things like -
best graphics card
best sound card
fastest CPU/mobo for gaming
favorite turnkey vendors
what not to buy because the architecture is incompatible or about to undergo a major change
The last time I looked (but didn’t buy) there was a lot of discussion about whether 64-bit CPU’s were beneficial and whether they interoperated with PCI-Express and the desired configuration of dual-channel DDR RAM.
Googling for this information isn’t always helpful because a lot of what’s out there is industry-funded hype rags, fanboy bullshit, and nerd elitism. So I thought I’d come here first and sound out a trusted community for opinions.
Inevitably someone is going to ask “What are you going to run” and the answer is the biggest, fattest, hoggiest 3D shoot-em-up games on the highest quality graphics and sound settings. However I do not want to pay AlienWare $3500 if I can get the same thing elsewhere for much cheaper.
Believe it or not, I use my onboard sound on my board (Asus…um, I’m drawing a blank on the model at the moment; it’s a couple of years old). I haven’t bought a sound card in a few years. But it’s worth noting that I’m not an audiophile. I mean, I have good speakers, Klipsch 2.1 somethings (sorry, I’m bad about remembering models after I’ve bought something), but I don’t look for the absolute best in sound quality. Still, the onboard sound on the better mobos has been quite good for the last few years. My husband is more of an audiophile than I am, and he uses his onboard sound, too.
My video card is the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB (only reason I remember is because I bought it in the last year). It’s a good card, but it’s a bit older. I *think *the X1800 series is considered one of the best out there at the moment.
Whenever I’m ready to upgrade, I use Tom’s Hardware and start my research. I’ve never bought audio, video, CPU and mobo at once, though. I usually upgrade in stages. The list of Hardware Reviews on Blue’s News might also get you started.
Well, if money is no object, you’ll want 2 nVidia 7800GTX graphics boards running in SLI. For sound, whatever Creative Labs has as their newest line should do it. AMD 64 x2 processors are the way to go; I would pair it with a Asus motherboard. 4 300gb hard drives running in striped and mirrored raid array should give you speed and protection and enough storage to last for at least the next 3 … months. You’ll need something beefy to power such a monster; I would suggest a power supply by PC Power and Cooling in the 800 watt range. Plus, this is going to run HOT; Zalman water cooling would be my recommended cooling solution.
Deadly Accurate, onboard sound uses processor clock cycles. A sound card should provide it’s own. Most human being (self included) won’t notice a difference in sound or speed, but the raw performance numbers will take a hit and some audiophiles while chime in about how much better their sound card sounds.
Another idea is to look up the Alienware rig you’d buy if you had the money, then buy the parts it lists elsewhere.
I certainly don’t doubt you, D_Odds. At times I can be a stereotypical girl. Start talking like you’re reading off a Sandra log, and my eyes glaze over. That’s why I’m willing to accept some measure of decreased performance by using onboard sound just to avoid having to spend too much time researching the matter.
How much do you want to spend is another question. For $1200 or so, you can assemble a very nice gaming rig, with an Athlon x2 64 3800+, 2GB RAM, and Geforce 7800GT video card. I like Asus motherboards myself. Also, just go with regular “value RAM” from a reputable maker (Corsair, Crucial, OCZ, and a couple others) instead of the fancy expensive low latency stuff. Real world difference between the two is extremely trivial, while the price isn’t - its best to put that extra money into a better video card.
So I’ve been a little intrigued by some low costs I’ve seen for water-cooled systems and I can’t understand it. Is water-cooling worth it, and is it stable? I am a little leery about running water next to expensive circuitry but I guess if it didn’t work then people wouldn’t do it, I guess.
Building a water-cooled PC takes care. If you are not the “measure twice, cut once” type of person, it may not be right for you. Prices have come down simply due to supply and demand. At first, people were using fish pumps and makeshift cooling blocks because no one served the market. As more people started to water-cool, parts makers identified the trend and started making products. Plus, they started making them much easier to work with for intermediate builders (not yet something to try the first time out). Water cooling tends to be quieter than air-cooled systems and they do lower temps better in most cases.
Just remember that if you self-assemble, there is no overall warranty or service, and many of teh parts haev limited warranties. I know it doesn’t always happen, but I got burned on a self-assemble when I had intermitent problems I could never track down myself (bad mobo, bad memory, bad sound card? dunno.) Sometimes, for some users, the extra hundred is worth a lot of foregone headaches and stress and new parts.
What’s a reputable vendor, though? All I hear is Dell sucks, HP sucks, everything sucks. And I have had my share of bad experience with boxes of parts made by no-name vendors from Taiwan.
Dells and HPs don’t suck; that’s just elitist crap. I like to build PCs, but I learned my lesson about building them for family. I don’t like serving as tech support. So for my brother, who also likes to game, I’ll recommend a PC with tech support like Dell or HP. They have their issues (proprietary parts in Dells especially), but if you want to pick up the phone and get problems solved and have someone to blame, there’s nothing like it. Most recent PC World, while it didn’t rave about Dell services, still had them at or near the top of the pack along with HP. ABS, which I had been looking at, fared very poorly.
Thanks to everyone for the replies… I ended up building my own and coming out with a good machine for about $2500 (or $1500 less than what Alienware wanted). I got
single NVidia 7800GTX
Athlon dual-core 4800+ CPU
2GB of Corsair DDR
Seagate 7200.9 120GB SATA HD
creative labs audigy sound card
some premium power, case, and air cooling solutions.
Asus mobo
I could have spent about $1000 more and got the highest-rated stuff, but I decided after some analysis that there was a severely diminishing return on performance for SLI graphics cards, premium sound cards, and 10,000 RPM drives. Also I do not figure on hassling with water cooling, this machine is fast enough without severely overclocking it.
I haven’t benchmarked it yet, but I can tell you that I run the hungriest games on the highest video and audio settings, with antialiasing turned all the way up, and it doesn’t stutter at all.
I will also add that self-building only took me about a day or so… there was a bit of confusion because I haven’t built my own rig in about 8 years, and some of the parts have changed. But all in all, it was a fairly easy experience.
Should someone like me who doesn’t know alot about the inner workings of computers and isn’t mechanically inclined build one, or just buy one? You guys make it sound easy.
The fact is that building a PC is insanely easy. There are only about 6 or 7 parts to put together, and now-a-days they really only go in one way.
What’s difficult (and pretty much what people mean when they say “build a PC”) is the inevitable troubleshooting you have to do when you put everything together and it won’t boot, or won’t recognize something or other.
From time to time, we all get lucky and it starts purring from the first power on.
Considering how you’ve described yourself, my conscience wouldn’t let me advise you to build one. But if you are really interested in computers, don’t mind doing a little research, and have an existing computer to keep you going during the build process, it sure is an educational and satisfying experience. I have built about 8 PC’s in my time. Each time is always a little different because of new equipment and different vendors, and there are always moments of frustration, but somehow it always gets done.
A cautionary tale of liquid cooling systems - my boyfriend is an amateur filmmaker who needs hardcore video editing capabilities on his machine. He had a liquid cooling system - new, a couple months old. It leaked and should have fried the hell out of his system - evidently there were actually marks where it arced or whatever. Miraculously, the whole thing still works - sans liquid cooling system. He’ll never use one again.
Thanks, Jayrot and Brain Wreck. I think I’ll try to look into it on my own to see if I could manage it, since your answers are contradictory. I looked around on some websites a few years ago but couldn’t find anything that would tell me what I needed to do, but I’m sure I could find something now.
Zsofia, I don’t know if I’d write off all water-cooled systems based on that one experience. Maybe the one he had was just not one of the better ones? Still, to be honest the idea of computers having to be water-cooled is kind of scary to me for some reason.
Well, I didn’t mean to put you off, but to put it a little more specifically, building your own PC is a way for someone with basic technical aptitude to save money and learn more on a computer. If you truly think you have zero technical aptitude or interest in the subject, you’ll wish you went ahead and spent the extra grand for a turnkey solution.
Here’s a link that gives you a basic orientation:
Like Jayrot said, the physical assembly of the machine is pretty easy as long as you know how to use a screwdriver in tight spaces. If you follow the instructions, most of the large parts snap into place fairly easily. Slightly more difficult is connecting about 20 wires from the various parts into the motherboard. After doing it a few times, you get a habitual familiarity with the size and shape of the plugs and location of the connectors. Otherwise, you’ll have to go completely by the book, which can take time. Next, there’s powering it on and observing the signs that the bios, memory, board, and cpu are working. Finally, there’s installing Windows and the drivers. These latter two steps are the most complex and unpredictable. Thanfully, owing to modern components and Windows XP, this turned out a lot easier than my last build (in 1998 or so).
Most people can work out the physical assembly on their own, but the latter two parts can be challenging (not impossible) to the layman. As for me personally, it took about 10 days the first time I did this (in 1996), but I didn’t mind slogging through it because I really wanted to learn and didn’t mind researching. Keep in mind also that in 1996 the internet didn’t have as much info as it does now, and back then it seemed most PC components were downright hostile to each other, whereas now they interoperate a lot better.
Anyway, sorry for rambling, good luck with your decision
You’ll need something beefy to power such a monster; I would suggest a power supply by PC Power and Cooling in the 800 watt range. Plus, this is going to run HOT; Zalman water cooling would be my recommended cooling solution.