Your Computer

Hey guys. I've been wanting to get into pc gaming for a very very long time. I've always wanted to play that DayZ mod but my bro's $1800 mac cant even run the game on low settings. Also, console games tend to get a little dull due to their limitations, so pc gaming sounds like the perfect option when I get bored.

Do you guys think you can help me build a pc? You know give me a little info on what I need to know when building one. I know for a fact that I want at least 6 gigs of ram with 2 gigs dedicated video memory and a i7 processor.

Space is an issue and im planning on moving out in a few months so i dont think i want a desktop now. A good gaming laptop sounds just about right.

p.s. I saw an Asus laptop on newegg that was $749.
Newegg.com - ASUS A53SD-NS71 Notebook Intel Core i7 2670QM(2.20GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce GT 610M

Is it a good deal? Should I just buy this laptop or build my own?

 

I can't offer much advice on what you should purchase, but do a little research for yourself.

1. Don't build a laptop, just don't even go there.
2. Decide what you want to spend first.
3. I reccomend a PC. You'll get more bang for your buck, plus you get the luxury of larger screens, which is awesome!
4. Build your pc with the some of the games you'd like to play in mind, this affects your budget. If you want to run those big-name titles then you're gonna have to pay extra.
5. You can spend between 600-800 on the pc alone and play the majority of games out on market today. Especially if you look for deals.
6. Be prepared to troubleshoot stuff, but do as much research on the products you're getting so you know ahead of time.
7. Build with a friend who's done it before, makes it much easier.

 

I don't really see how it's wishy washy. I get daily use out of it, and in a way that wouldn't even be possible, let alone really easy, with a tablet. I'm not really fussed what is true of most people, I'm not telling most people they either need a tower + laptop or that they need a Mac. I just take exception to people telling me that I don't need them, or that it does nothing that a windows laptop couldn't do or that it doesn't do it any better. My point is that you can care about hardware and also want a separate laptop, but one that still stays solid and is nice to use as opposed to a cheap piece of crap to browse the web on. Though frankly, even for this level I think your assertion that everyone else could do this just as well with a tablet is pretty hollow as well. It smacks of the kind of speil that Jobs used to pedal when convincing people that an iPad was a fully functional replacement for a netbook. It is for plenty, but not all by any means, and looking at tablet uptake right now I'd be hesitant about even saying most.

 

You sir, have changed my mind about what processors really are. I figured since its an i7 it would be better than its lesser counterparts no matter what. I have much to learn and a lot to research.

I have another question. I've recently found out about the wonders of solid state drives. Is it possible to have a ssd and a hdd in a single laptop? I have a friend who owns a laptop with 2 500 gb hdd, so i'm just wondering...

 

Yes you can. What people usually do is use a small SSD for booting and the system, and use the HDD to store the files. It helps windows run a lot smoother to have your apps run on the SSD and store your files on the HDD.

 

Oh they are better, and worth the money, but only if extra processor oomph is actually what you need. The fact is that, as Insane says, for gaming and most day to day tasks your primary limiting factor (and therefore where you want to spend money when you're forced to prioritise, which pretty much everyone is to some extent when building a system) won't be your CPU, it'll be GPU and RAM. A decent i5 is enough for plenty of stuff, particularly what you're talking about. You'll be much more likely to find that the GPU is where the bottleneck forms (ie. the point where performance is being limited). RAM also, but since that's so cheap it's really not an issue, just chuck 6-8GB in when you're building and I can't see you running in to any issues there.

But yeah, he's right, pour money in to a really nice graphics card, and then think about upping to a high end CPU if you have the funds left over, but don't be wary about settling on a good i5 by any means, I've seen some very capable systems built on i3s even.

 

Only reason I bought an i7 was for multithreading which comes in great when rendering video. If I didn't render video frequently, i5 would have been the way to go.

Either way, picture time of the new computer!



Sorry they're sideways. Took 'em with my phone.

 

Precisely. If you're using something that uses multithreading a lot (the main programs I know of which do this are media apps, video editing like Bloo says but also multitracking software like Protools or Logic) then the CPU will matter a lot. I'm selling my old Mac Pro to a friend who's gonna use it as the base for his DAW setup. It's only got half the RAM of his MBP (a measly 2GB), but that's got an old Core2Duo rather than the dual Xeons that the Pro uses. He loaded up Logic and dumped plugin after plugin in to a project and it handled it fine, whereas his laptop crumbled under the pressure with much fewer plugins. RAM is also a massive help in multitracking, he's gonna need to put more in this thing ASAP, but it's staggering how much of a difference the CPU makes in this case.

With gaming...not so much.

EDIT: Bloo, I know that machine is a beast cause I saw you list the parts before, and this is probably just the Mac snob in me talking, but is it just me that thinks the vast majority of gaming cases look ridiculous? Gimme a black tower, no frills. Fans up the ass of course, but the coloured LEDs and extra aesthetic grills just don't do it for me.

 

Hey, believe me. I looked for something minimalistic and simple, but those cases didn't have an appeal. I found a couple cases which I really liked but they were really out of my price range. This one combined simple with price in just the perfect manner in my eyes. To me, I didn't care less if it had LEDs or extra grills or anything. I looked for size and fans, which this one had. The pushed out portions on the side of the case actually include fans for the hard drives. This case has really good air flow.

I say simple, but I mean it has to have a minimal style to it. I couldn't just take a black box. I could take a black box with a rounded top corner. Hell, I would love to see a Mass Effect citadel styled case with simple curves and a white/grey/black colour scheme.

As for my specs, I actually bumped up the RAM to 16GB as well. It's really nice. Boots in less than a minute.

 

Very swish, what games are you running on it?

 

please keep up the boycotting of i7's.

I'd just like to point out that this is the only i7 that outperforms it's cousins. There are no i7 sandybridge's, and that's because the i5 already outperforms all i7's from previous years. The number one trick in the current market of bundle PC's is to lump you with an overpriced, under performing, and inefficient i7 from 2010 or earlier. this bang for buck is the best processor on the market, and when over clocked (because it's so kronos-damn efficient) is probably one of the best performers too. The sandybridge i5 was stable at 4.5ghz with no expense in cooling, so i imagine this can do the same.

 

Whatever is on my steam lol. I only have a couple games installed right now. I have only had it for 3 days and I'm away this week from my baby.

 

I'm referring to the majority of young Mac buyers that spend their student loan check on an overpriced computer that they only use as a glorified note-taker and Facebook machine. If you want to be real, a college-rule notebook and any rickety old desktop would be plenty; To be clear, I think tablets are an uncomfortable middle between phone and laptop that serve no real purpose, but I was trying to be generous by acknowledging that the people who insist on being tech-savvy could still save a few thousand bucks and settle for one.

Matty, the Ivy Bridge i5 is actually not as stable at overclocking high as the 2500k, but it's a must if you want to take advantage of PCI 3.0. Of course, you'll also need a Z77 motherboard and a 7xxx or 6xx series video card if you intend to make the most of it.

 

In the UK, nobody blows their loan on a laptop. We blow our loans on alcohol and drugs. Students who get their accommodation paid for in one lump sum by their parents are the kind that get a macbook for studying. And that's not to demonise those middle class among us.

I must say that i sympathise with Peg. I use a laptop mainly to share with friends, but for long distance travel it's a great thing to have. I've been thinking of building one in a nice case, simply composed of a new i3 and a great screen. I do believe that a heat and energy efficient laptop will have a much longer lifespan, which is why i would avoid a gpu and other bulky apparatus.

However i also agree with Chrono in that i feel it's literally just a few years before a tablet is going to have the processing power to do everything an average laptop user is going to need. For most that situation has already presented itself, but like Peg said, there is much room for functionality between different products, and mainly different kinds of files. I can see a tablet running photoshop one day, and then maya, and then who knows.

And i have the 2500k, so it's nice to hear you affirm how awesome it is after a year of usage.

 

As for the i7 for rendering, it's somewhat come and go. I do quite a lot of rendering, and my i5-3550 manages the job superbly. 20 minute video takes about 30 minutes or so, but that is with 2-5 tracks running. With just one track it will render a 20 minute video in all of 10 minutes, if that. Only 1% slower than an i7-2700k (going on benchmarks) and it more than makes up for that with general day to day use. It could actually be worth waiting until the next generation of intel processors come out, that will really leap things forward. Haswell, I think it is.

But for gaming (and rendering on fancier software) then the GPU is more important than the CPU. An i5-3570k with a GTX 570 is better (all around) than an i7-3770k with a GTX 560Ti. And it will be cheaper. Giving you money for a solid mobo (I would recommend either the Asus P8Z77-V LX (or similar models, I have one of those) or an ASRock Extreme 4. Both £100 so dead middle of the line. One thing I would say is that the ASROCK is better fitted on features, such at 6.1 onboard sound (if you don't want a soundcard) and a high power red USB board. The Asus option has no SLI support, but does have Crossfire support, so keep that in mind. I have the Z77 V LX and going on benchmarks it isn't even 2% slower for gaming than your super extreme £300 X79 mobos. It's like 101 FPS to 103 FPS being the difference between that and a top budget model. So an extra £150 in graphics will bring you more FPS gain than a better mobo.

 

And, as I've pointed out multiple times and frankly should be obvious even if I hadn't, why people buy a machine doesn't inherently damage the value for money of the machine itself. If (as plenty do) people buy a Mac for no other reason than they have enough (read: too much) money and because it's a Mac then that proves nothing except they wasted their money. If everyone started buying spec'd out server machines as their home desktops, would that make servers a stupid idea? AT WORST it'd make the company who make them arguably unscrupulous for pedalling expensive items to people who don't even close to need them, but A) no one in here is defending Apple as nice, and B) in the context of a profit making organisation, are Apple actually anything other than smart and successful in this regard?

But even this is generally an overzealous attitude to the debate, as most people buy it for some small aspect that they prefer about either the hardware or OS X. Does this justify the big difference in price between that and their other options? Not to the vast majority, but honestly at this stage you're trying to quantify how much something is worth to someone who wants it, and of their own money. The best you can really do is just think them stupid, and I'll join you in that. BUT what's your actual point in this discussion? Stupid people supporting an idea doesn't make the idea invalid, so people criticising Mac on this basis is essentially the worst form of ad hominem: one that isn't even directed at the person making the argument. That's basically like telling me that because some other idiot agrees with what I'm putting forward, I'm just wrong, without you even trying to counter the points I put forward.

Basically, all you're saying is something that's been said over and over: lots and lots of people buy Macs either for a small reason (which doesn't, for the majority of onlookers, justify the extra price), or for no reason other than brand. Not only is this a tired statement which no one in here is really disagreeing with, but it doesn't really pertain to the discussion. You started off talking about the possible reasons for buying one, then talking about people who buy for hardware etc., and then just came back to the tired old favourite of "hipsters buy Macs for no good reason." You're either missing the point or being incredibly lazy with your argument.

 

Get rid of Norton. Straight away. Don't even say goodbye. Or even text it to say your relationship is over and to GTFO.

Symnatek got hacked by Anonymous a few months ago and then subsequently released large amounts of its source code online. I'm pretty sure that they kept some of it for themselves too, so there are a large amount of viruses taht it can't detect. I have used McAfee since windows XP, and I have to say that it has gone generally downhill, although it still does a good job. PC Pro has an A List of good virus scanners that you should really check out. I'm not linking it.