Buying a gamer-PC

[Gink]

So I've decided to buy a PC for gaming, and gaming exclusively.
I'll be using the mac for interwebbing, downloading'n everything but playing games on, so I'm looking for a PC designed towards gaming only, and I could use some help, since my computer knowledge is lacking at best.

I't shouldn't cost much more than around 1k - 1.5k euro (including monitor), but I want a PC that can run any present, and hopefully most nearby future games smoothly on any graphical setting.

Some I've looked at on a norwegian site (the site's in norwegian, but I guess the speccs'n stuff are understandable to anyone that knows computers):
http://www.komplett.no/k/ci.asp?sku=10390
http://www.komplett.no/k/ci.asp?sku=10384
http://www.komplett.no/k/ci.asp?sku=10274
http://www.komplett.no/k/ci.aspx?sku=10386

1 Euro = aprox 10 NoK
I've no idea what to look for really, the specs of computers these days are greek to me.

Are these suitable for what I'm looking for, or am I better off (quality and price wise) having someone help me with the PC-building tool, swapping parts around some?

 

[Khalo]

http://www.alienware.com/

 

[Bani]

http://www.komplett.no/k/ci.asp?sku=10274 is the best choice out of the bunch if you spend another 20 euros to buy 2 gigs of additional RAM.

You can get around 20% more performance at 20% less cost if you build it yourself or charm a geek into doing it for you.

 

[Gink]

http://www.alienware.com/

That doesn't really answer anything I asked :S

charm a geek into doing it for you.

Hay, haw j00 doin?

 

[Croga]

Okay, a gaming PC, let's run through the basics:

Current games rely very heavily on the graphics card. RAM memory is a second priority whilst the CPU really is of hardly any influence anymore.
Then there's the brand choices.
Graphics wise ATi and nVidia aren't too far apart. nVidia is generally the fastest but that comes at a cost. Running dual GT295's just isn't worth the money. Currently there are some trouble with WoW and nVidia drivers so I would recommend going for any card in the ATi HD48## series. They are all whopping good value for money at the moment (except for the 4870X2 which is too expensive in my opinion).
CPU wise there's a choice between Intel and AMD. One could opt for Via but then one would be completely mad. AMD has very good low-end CPUs but the performance is lacking in the midrange and high end sections. I personally only run Intel anymore but that's mostly an upgrade question as all my boards are Socket775. I would generally advice to go for something around 100-200 euros as anything more doesn't really improve your performance much. Stay far away from the Core i7 at the moment as it costs way too much to spend on a gaming rig.
In motherboards I can honestly say there aren't any real bad ones at the moment. I have had a couple of very bad experiences with ASUS support so I would stay far away from those even though they are very solid in price/performance/quality. I lean slightly towards Asrock (even though they are a part of ASUS) as they have extremely good driver support, very easy to install boards (high end brands tend to use chipsets that require tinkering in Windows install. Asrock uses only the most mainstream products) at very good prices.

Looking at your links: Both the cheap ones would be very good buys. The offer what you need to be able to game decently. The other two systems don't improve much on that, gaming wise, whilst still costing a pretty penny more.

 

[Gink]

http://www.komplett.no/k/ci.asp?sku=10274 - (Komplett Gamer i05 - inkludert 24" skjerm!!) also includes a 24" screen in the price; 9.995 (aprox 1k euro)

There's also the possibility to alter it if you press the button that says "Konfigurer selv" to the right of the image of the PC. Is there any not too costly way I can improve it in the configuration tool?

 

[Croga]

http://www.komplett.no/k/ci.asp?sku=10274 - (Komplett Gamer i05 - inkludert 24" skjerm!!) also includes a 24" screen in the price; 9.995 (aprox 1k euro)
There's also the possibility to alter it if you press the button that says "Konfigurer selv" to the right of the image of the PC. Is there any not too costly way I can improve it in the configuration tool?

Change it to a cheaper case (really; the case isn't worth extra money).
Add 2GB RAM (change from 2048 to 4096MB).
Ask them to change the OS to Windows 64-bit instead of 32-bit.

That should cover it all.

 

[Bani]

yeah go for 4GB RAM (+188 3rd world currency). If the option would exist, you should change the gfx card for an Ati 4870 1 GB too, but I don't see it on there

 

[Khalo]

That doesn't really answer anything I asked :S

hm?

So I've decided to buy a PC for gaming, and gaming exclusively

.... so I'm looking for a PC designed towards gaming only

.... but I want a PC that can run any present, and hopefully most nearby future games smoothly on any graphical setting.

 

[Johras]

I'd personally avoid the Seagate Barricuda 7200.11 harddrive, many people reporting problems with them. And what Croga/Bani said. :yes:

 

[Gink]

That doesn't really answer anything I asked :S

hm?

So I've decided to buy a PC for gaming, and gaming exclusively

.... so I'm looking for a PC designed towards gaming only

.... but I want a PC that can run any present, and hopefully most nearby future games smoothly on any graphical setting.

You just posted a web address, even a fuckwad like me knows how to google "stores that sells computers" >_>

 

[Zermo]

Personally when it comes to price I'd recomend Dell, they got nice package plans, also ATI cards are usually the best graphic cards when it comes to price

 

[Anshrr]

Alienware is really overpriced, u'd be a sucker to buy one. Building it urself is the cheapest, plus unlike most prebuilt pc's, all the parts will be ace, not all but one.
Can't help u with the parts tho, as I'm not really into specs these days either I (re)built my box last summer or so? for 5k (nok), but it struggled abit with Crysis, so it ain't awesome. Should get tons of computer for 10-15k tho, screens aren't that expensive. Hard part is deciding on a motherboard and gfx card, and finding out if they fit together
A dualcore, 512mb gfxcard and atleast 2gb ram should be fine but.. as I said, I can't run Crysis so what do I know

 

[Ahnalia]

I use an ATI gfx card, it's cheaper than nVidia as they said, but for me it did indeed come with a cost=P
The ATI driver doesn't match well with wow. (I only play wow tho, u might wanna play other stuff too? =P) I play windowed mode, maximized, and everytime I point at something else I have open, like if I wanna surf or swap song on winamp, the lil tooltip lags the hell outta wow, for like 5 secs. not a big issue I guess, and I did get used to it by now, but it took like a year;D

 

[Gink]

Ye well I won't be running anything but games on the PC, I'll run vent, itunes'n everything on the mac. All I want is a PC that can run any game lagless with high fps on high graphical settings. (ye i wanna start trying out other games that wow )

 

[Khalo]

aww @ anal avatar

 

[Gink]

So, the machine I'm looking at now has:

Graphic card - XFX GeForce 9800GTX+ 765M 512MB PhysX PCI-Express 2.0, "OC" 2xDVI, HDCP, Graphics Plus, 3D Stereo, w/FarCry2
Processor - Intel Core™ 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz, Socket LGA775, 6MB, 1333Mhz BOXED w/fan
Motherboard - MSI P45 NEO-F, P45, Socket-775, DDR2, 1600FSB, ATX, ICH10, PCI-Ex(2.0)x16
Memory - Corsair TWIN2X 6400C5DHX DDR2, 4096MB Kit w/two CL5 2GB Dimm's, E.P.P and DHX

Anyone got any input on these specs? Any issues at all? Will it do what I want?

 

[Bani]

solid choices yeah. Might have to fork out another 150 or so in a year or two for the latest games, but that's it

 

[Ahnalia]

I checked hw.no if they had any "tests" and stuff of gamerpcs, and I found:
http://prisguide.hardware.no/vis_handle .... on_id=2738

it's not a test tho I guess, more what they'd recommend as a gamepc.
downside is that ud have to order the diff components from a few diff sites, and make someone put it together for ya. =/

 

[Croga]

I'd personally avoid the Seagate Barricuda 7200.11 harddrive, many people reporting problems with them. And what Croga/Bani said. :yes:

Only the 1TB and 1.5TB have problems. And they are indeed serious enough to avoid them for the moment. The 500GB has no trouble at all.

I use an ATI gfx card, it's cheaper than nVidia as they said, but for me it did indeed come with a cost=P
The ATI driver doesn't match well with wow. (I only play wow tho, u might wanna play other stuff too? =P) I play windowed mode, maximized, and everytime I point at something else I have open, like if I wanna surf or swap song on winamp, the lil tooltip lags the hell outta wow, for like 5 secs. not a big issue I guess, and I did get used to it by now, but it took like a year;D

I've been using an ATi card ever since I started WoW. 9800Pro at first, X1900Pro, now HD4870. Never had any trouble at all. Even when playing windowed, maxed, whatever.