Tech help general

[Sleauxbreaux]

My computer is approximately four thousand years old and was handed down to me by a friend when my real computer died. It handles WoW like a champ, though, so it's not too bad.

[Zang]

i have a question

with skyrim coming out soon I'm thinkin about getting a job/saving up to buy a gaming computer

preferably one around 600-700 bucks. or lower. My dad insist that I go ask some guy at our local computer shop and buy a $300 computer that will play games and shit

i'd love to be able to multitask as well

what tower do I need/upgrade for the computer do i need? preferably to run skyrim smooth as butter

but i suppose we'll see if that's possible when the specs come out

[YCobb]

I'm expecting my computer to be able to handle Skyrim (although probably not at maximum settings or anything like that), but to be safe, you should go a bit higher:
AMD Phenom II X4 940 (about %150 of my CPU's capability, for around $100)

General rule for DDR3 RAM seems to be $10 a gigabyte; you'll almost definitely never need more than 4 but 6 is nice too.

Doubtlessly, the weakest part of my system is my graphics card, and EN9500GT GeForce. I don't have any experience with ATI cards, so someone else has to chip in on that. The way GeForce cards are ranked, though, is by their hundreds-digit. EG an 8800 card beats a 9500 card. The thousands-digit is just the series, although you obviously don't want a 3900, because that would be so outdated it wouldn't even be funny. You probably want a 9800, which can be gotten for as low as $60

You'd obviously need a new motherboard to deal with these fancy components, which would run you at least $100, likely more. Be careful with this part, as some motherboards can be really picky about what RAM they'll accept. Also be sure to match the CPU slot, and ensure that it has at least on of the proper PCI slots for your graphics card (usually a PCIe x16).

The last component you'll really need is a power supply, which can be anywhere from $30 to more than $100 depending on your components. There's a very slight chance you can reuse the one from your current computer, but I wouldn't count on it if your current computer wasn't built for gaming back when it was made.


Finally, you should check which form factor your current box is, if it's an ATX you'd be hard pressed finding a motherboard that wouldn't fit in it.


Overall, it would cost about $350 (ideal) to $450 (if you're unlucky with power supplies and cases).


My computer is only 4 gigs of RAM and (as stated) only about 2/3s of the CPU I recommended, and I've yet to see anything but iTunes (shittiest program ever) freeze it up, even with almost ten programs running on Windows 7.
Speaking of Windows 7, you should look into it as well, it's a great OS. Unfortunately, it will run you another $100+.


Some final things to consider-my computer runs everything I've thrown at it fine on my smaller screen, but stutters a bit on my HDTV. I have no idea what the upper limits of the above setup are, but remember to try turning off anti aliasing if a game is running slowly. Even 2X AA is, by my understanding, effectively running the game at twice the normal resolution so that the game can merge two colors into one pixel to create a smoother effect. Playing at 8X, or even 16X, as I often do, is obviously a huge number of pixels rendered. You should consider the size of your screen, as size affects performance more and more dramatically the more you anti alias your games*.

Also never trust the "recommended settings" in games. Portal insists that I need everything set to medium, but runs fine, as I've stated, with everything cranked up to absolute maximum. Don't get discouraged if a game insists you need it to look like shit, it's lying.

* the actual workings of anti aliasing may be entirely different, this is just how I believe it is done.

[Syobon]

i have a question

with skyrim coming out soon I'm thinkin about getting a job/saving up to buy a gaming computer

preferably one around 600-700 bucks. or lower. My dad insist that I go ask some guy at our local computer shop and buy a $300 computer that will play games and shit

i'd love to be able to multitask as well

what tower do I need/upgrade for the computer do i need? preferably to run skyrim smooth as butter

but i suppose we'll see if that's possible when the specs come out

>run skyrim smoothly

What you need to do my friend, is break into Nasa and steal their computers. Even with supplies, you'll definitely end up under 300$!

[Nefarious Bear]

i suggest you get a computer with many processors. 3 at least. but I've seen computers that go up to 8 processors.

[Zang]

>run skyrim smoothly

What you need to do my friend, is break into Nasa and steal their computers. Even with supplies, you'll definitely end up under 300$!

when i say smoothly I mean not fall under 20 fps. because that's bullshit. at least, maybe be able to livestream it too.

what do I need?

[Nancymaker]

Depending on how old or cheap your current computer is it may be less expensive to upgrade what you've currently got.

Processors are good to have, and a good quality graphics card. Some RAM wouldn't hurt either.

I am not an expert on these things though sadly so I cannot recommend you specific pieces of equipment (brands and such)

[Paco]

How is anybody supposed to know the bare minimum to play a game that hasn't been released yet?

[Nachalnik]

tf2 crashes whenever i use the capslock button and i use that button all the fucking time so this is obviously annoying as fuck

what do i do?

[Nefarious Bear]

>run skyrim smoothly

What you need to do my friend, is break into Nasa and steal their computers. Even with supplies, you'll definitely end up under 300$!

when i say smoothly I mean not fall under 20 fps. because that's bullshit. at least, maybe be able to livestream it too.

what do I need?

Like i said, get a computer with multiple processors, ESPECIALLY if you want to livestream some games.

[Paco]

That's a waste of $. Few motherboards even support multiple processors, and plenty CPUs can handle modern games. Streaming video is hardly CPU-intensive and even then, a simple cheapish dual-core processor could handle that, which is less than what would be needed to play a new game.

[Nefarious Bear]

Not what i've been experiencing. my computer has 2 CPUs each at 2.8 Ghz, and it cant even handle bioshock 2 in full screen without lag.
I have to play it at 800x600 with textures turned down a bit.

[Syobon]

But what's your video card?

[Nefarious Bear]

ATI Radeon HD 4200.

[Paco]

If dxdiag says 2 CPUs then it's most likely one processor with two cores. CPU can refer to one core or the whole processor so it's a bit confusing. And your video card is horrid as far as I know, that's definitely holding you back. You can have an amazing processor or video card, but it will never reach its full potential in video games unless the other one is equally (or similarly) powerful.

EDIT: Actually if it's a laptop card I don't know much about those.