Need help with gaming desktop advice!

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Need help with gaming desktop advice!

by Daltonroars May 2, 2012 9:20AM PDT

Hi there, I have been interested in gaming for as long as I can remember, but have never been fortunate enough to go as in depth as I have wanted. I am the kind of person who likes to record what I play and share it with others. I have played so many games, ranging from MMO's to dungeon crawlers, to RTS's to browser based and even FPS. I enjoy any game that I can get my hands on.

My problem is this: When I started out gaming I was kinda brought up on laptops.... And that's all I ever used. Now that I am older, and wiser, I know that laptops are not ideal for gaming. What brought that out of the water is the fact that I used to do all my gaming on a dual core, then upgraded to a i5, and see no real performance increase.

Long story short, I want to purchase a desktop. Now my girlfriend already has a desktop, but it's not that great. I figured maybe I can just build off that, as she doesn't use it much. She's a gamer too and can run quite a few games on it. I want to be able to run max graphics, and play effortlessly without running into huge graphics lag, and games taking control of my computer so I literally have to shut it off.
Whenever I read about putting together a gaming desktop I have no idea what people are talking about, as I have no idea what overclocking is or PSU or cooling systems. I never really spent too much time on learning that.

****I am going to be saving up some money, so at most down the road I can spend is $2,000 on a gaming desktop, but that may not be needed because I am not building it from scratch. I just need the insides, basically. I have a monitor/mouse/keyboard/headset, and they are all fine. I also don't even really need to upgrade the desktop case. I need some suggestions on what to purchase to make her current desktop a great gaming desktop.*****

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Clarification Request

What's in the desktop now?

by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 2, 2012 10:50AM PDT

Sometimes all I need is bump the RAM, othertimes I'll pop in a big PSU and a video card from THE LIST!

The list? -> See http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html
Bob

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Not sure the contents

by Daltonroars May 2, 2012 4:16PM PDT

I must have read that "list" at least 3 times now. I just don't really know what all the technical mumbo jumbo means. All this over clocking and PSU and CPU and GPU. No idea what they all stand for. (I'm a newb :3)

I know that to be a gamer and want a good computer I should understand the basic knowledge of this stuff, but I don't.

If I am to spend money on a desktop, then the graphics card, the motherboard and the ram will be primarily what I spend my money on.

I want NO lag at all, NO graphics lag at all, and NO loading time (Virtually). I want to be able to run max graphics with no problem, and I hope to have no loading time (Say running a game like skyrim). From what I understand the motherboard, ram and graphics card all take care of those things.

Now I understand now that a PSU is basically the cooling system in your computer. Will I have to spend a lot of money on this as well?

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I didn't write about overclocking.

by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 2, 2012 4:19PM PDT

There is no system today that will not lag.

You'll have to wait for something to happen in the next few years. Sorry but that's the truth.

The list is so you can pick your price and work up the list and see what you get for the money. The PSU is the Power Supply Unit which is much more than cooling.

Sadly we don't know what machine are starting with.
Bob

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I checked

by Daltonroars May 3, 2012 5:22AM PDT

So I checked the specs on her computer, It's an Acer Aspire E380 running a dual core AMD athlon processor, 2304MB ram

and the graphics card is an NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430....

Is that enough info or am I missing something?

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256MB RAM? You'll want more.

by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 3, 2012 5:39AM PDT

http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/desktop/0000/Acer/AspireE380/AspireE380sp2.shtml

I don't see a current OS listed but if this machine was in my home I would do TWO UPGRADES and STOP! This is not a platform to turn into a gamer PC.

1. Since it is XP, head to crucial.com and bump the RAM to 2 or 4GB.
2. Since it is a 300W PSU and we want to bring the video card up to the point of not being in the stone age for VERY LITTLE money I'd get this card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131338

Some folk have issues with installation but this card is only 29.99 and will give this machine a nice boost.

NO! A gamer would not want this PC. NO! I would not do any more than this.
Bob

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Interesting...

by Daltonroars May 3, 2012 6:10AM PDT

So there is no way to make this a top of the line gaming pc? Basically what you're saying is I can give it a boost, but that's about it.

So I guess I will have to create one from scratch then? too bad.

I will have a bit of money in a couple months that I can play with, and my brother is a apparently good at this sort of thing. He used to build desktops from scratch and sell them for profit, but he's in Colorado, so he won't be much help right now.

I'm going to check out that list once more and start putting things together, maybe you can look it over once I am finished? you seem like you know what you're talking about, and it would be greatly appreciated. =D

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Well we could

by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 3, 2012 6:15AM PDT

Change the power supply, motherboard, CPU, add ram, get a top end video card but what did we salvage? Not much and then we have to get an Operating System, tweak etc.

For under 100 bucks this machine can be a lot better.
Bob

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hm

by Daltonroars May 3, 2012 6:31AM PDT

Well that's all fine and dandy, I will probably do that regardless, but If that system can't be GREAT, then I may just build my own. And btw I said 2304mb, not 256mb of ram. So 2 gigs basically.

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Why I wrote 256MB

by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 3, 2012 6:35AM PDT

That looks like what it came with.

--> For about 30 bucks this machine would be many times better. I'd do that if this was mine to use. It could let me wait for something better.
Bob

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Oh

by Daltonroars May 3, 2012 6:42AM PDT

Okay well that's good. For under 100 bucks I may do that. But I don't really need something better, as I have an i5 laptop that is a lot better than my girlfriends desktop. I just don't want to game on a laptop anymore. That is why I am trying to come up with a desktop I can build that will be great.

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Let's compare the i5 laptop to this desktop?

by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 3, 2012 11:11AM PDT

I wonder if the desktop with the pop in the 30 buck solution would be better or worse. I'd have to see what we are comparing with.
Bob

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Specs of the laptop

by Daltonroars May 3, 2012 1:49PM PDT

The laptop is an Asus K52Jc, it's running windows 7 home premium with an intel core i5 processor 2.40GHz 4 CPUs and has 4 gigs of ram it has stock Intel HD graphics but I think that is a problem with her laptop, because as far as I know it is running NVIDIA also. Which one I'm not sure, because the laptop constantly downgrades the graphics card to not include the NVIDIA, and I have to usually reset the BIOS settings for it to work.

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Thanks a lot

by Daltonroars May 3, 2012 2:50PM PDT

I see your point, and interesting use of the word "foray". Thanks a lot for your expertise, I will try and put it to good use!

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I few ideas fpr a Desktop that can run Skyrim on Ultra.

by Vastias May 5, 2012 10:36PM PDT

Hey,

I recently built my own desktop capable of running Skyrim with multiple mods installed on Ultra settings with little to no lag.

Below are links to everything I have in this build and an explanation of what each part does as well as a YouTube video I made out of boredom when I was building it so you can get an Idea of what you're going to be doing.

The MoBo (Motherboard) @ $95:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131767
[This is essentially the soul of your computer, it's what everything else plugs into and without it nothing else will run, at least not very well]

The PSU (Power Supply Unit) @ $105:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021
[This is exactly what its name suggest. It's like the heart of your build. This is what carries power from the outlet to the motherboard and everything else requiring power. The larger the wattage, the more power it has, the more power it has the more high-end components it can run]

The CPU (Central Processing Unit) @ $140:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103962
[The CPU can be thought of as the brain of your computer, it does all the calculations and deals with all the things needed to be dealt with in order to make your games and you OS (Operating System) run]

The GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) @ 150:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908
[The GPU is responsible for making games like Skyrim look as good as they do and it handles most visual effects on your PC. It's like the creative half of the brain, and the better it is, the better Framerate and better quality graphics you can run]

The RAM sticks (Random Access Memory) @ $120:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233246
[The RAM is what allows you to run multiple things at a time. It's essentially your computers multitasking ability. The more RAM you have, the more things you can run at the same time without any system lag. **The Link I gave you is for 16GB which is probably more than you need but I used it for working with 3D models and needed much more RAM. I would suggest getting the 8GB sticks from the same company (You'll still run Skyrim just fine) and the 8GB can be found here::http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233255 ::For only $70]

The HDD (Hard Disk Drive) @ $100:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840
[The HDD is your computers main area for storing information. It's like you PC's long term memory bank. The bigger it is and the faster it goes (7200rpms {rotations per minute} in this case) then the more stuff it can store and the faster it can store it. I'm not sure if you need 1TB (1000GBs) of storage, but I did so I linked it. Look for a smaller HDD if you think you need it but keep in mind that Skyrim alone will take up about 7-11GB depending on how many mods and texture mods you install. If you're like me and decompress the sound files to edit them then you're looking at about 40GB for the whole thing]

The Optical Drive (CD Tray) @ $80:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136241
[The Optical Drive is pretty straightforward and has very little affect on system performance, but having a good one comes in handy. The Optical Drive is like the eyes of you PC in a sense as it "sees" everything you put in it and then "reads" it. Like most components the faster it goes the faster things get done. The biggest thing to notice about this particular Drive is its ability to not only read, but write Blu-Ray discs. With how popular they're becoming it's never a bad idea to prepare. Please keep in mind that although the Drive itself plays Blu-Ray, you will still need to purchase additional software such as CyberDVD in order to actually watch the Blu-Rays]

The Monitor (Uhm, The Monitor) @ $160:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236079
[The Monitor is even more straightforward as it is what displays everything you work with while on you PC. Essentially, the bigger it is the bigger your picture will be. The faster the refresh rate, the faster it updates itself with new image information from whatever you plug into it (like you PC). I understand you already have a perfectly good monitor, but it never hurts to look at things from time to time. This one is rather larger and I find myself downsizing most windows as I really don't need them to be that big, but when I work in Photoshop I need as much "canvas" so to speak as possible.

The Tower (The case everything goes in) @ $100:
http://www.xoxide.com/aerocool-sycloniiblackedition-fulltowercase.html
[The Tower is mostly there to look nice and to let people know at first glance how bad *** your desktop is. But there are very little real reasons to have fancy towers. The biggest thing is space. The more powerful you want your computer to be then the better parts your going to have to put in it and the better the parts, the bigger the parts. Mainly the Motherboard, PSU, and GPU will take up the most space. This is tower I'm currently using because of the look, the fact that it fits the Motherboard I listed above, and because...well...it's sexy as hell]

All in all that brings you too a manageable $1,050 or $1,000 with the smaller RAM or $840 without the monitor. That's a very reasonable price for something that can do exactly what you're asking it to.

Keep in mind that when ordered from NewEgg you will have to build it yourself (honestly not that hard, this was the first one I ever put together and it was up and running within 2hours of unpacking. Also when built yourself it costs a fraction of what the exact same things would cost from a brand name store. The reason? Their logo. That's it.

Here's the link to the YouTube video (Send me a message on YouTube or comment on the video and we can get in touch if need be.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDtUKub4uGA

Hope this helped!! Good Luck!!

Back to Desktops forum

r. proffitt · Accepted Answer · May 3, 2012 2:38PM PDT

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Link, comment.

by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 3, 2012 2:38PM PDT

That Asus has the Geforce 310 http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Versatile_Performance/K52JC/#specifications

So the issue with setting the graphics is a common one as you see it has the Optimus tech. On my laptop I have a right click option which offers me a way to select the GPU or the Intel HD solution.

It's a shame the makers don't offer courses on this but given it's at the bottom of the GPU list (310 is...) and the 5450 is not this should level the playing field and for 30 bucks is worth the gamble.

Yes you could get a more powerful card but this may be your first foray into PC upgrading. Let's keep it cheap and simple.
Bob

Need help with gaming desktop advice!

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