Daddy Needs A New Comp!
Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:57 am
Okay so I've decided to spoil myself with a new, high powered desktop computer.
I've had my laptop since freshmen year of college (I'm going into my senior year) and it still works great for everything but video games. I actually play a lot of games on my computer, ones that require some pretty hefty hardware to run well.
After beating myself up trying to figure out why my laptop that once ran the games so smoothly now lags, I was told by someone that it's simply because laptop hardware gets out of date pretty quickly, and that the only way to really go if you want to do some serious gaming is a desktop.
And thats how we've arrived here.
I plan to keep my laptop, and use it for pretty much everything else still. I have all my bookmarks, files, and programs on here...and it still works, so I see no need to dump it. That being the case, all I really need is a nice computer that is going to run my games smoothly and occasionally play a movie or something. I don't anticipate doing much, if any, web browsing, or much else on it really. I don't know if any of that matters, but maybe I'd need less on the desktop knowing that I won't really be using it for a whole lot of tasks?
Either way.... pretty much everyone I've talked to (and I'm fully confident the knowledge on this site is far greater than that from which I've been pulling) has been saying that the best and most cost efficient way to go is just to build your own. They say it's not as hard a task as one would think...it's sort of a "buy the parts and put them together" type deal. As of right now I'm just partial to buying one that's already made but I can sort of customize the features...but I have a feeling that shit is probably like twice the price.
As has been discussed before, my knowledge is pretty low about all this stuff despite how much time I spend on the computer, so I'm pretty much a blank slate in terms of what I know.
My assumption is, because I won't be bogging it down with a whole ton of other stuff...and I'll still do all my pron watching and shit on my laptop, I wouldn't need to go top of the line to achieve the performance I desire. That being said, I'm not really looking for absolute top of the line anyway, just because I'm on a budget.
Ideally, I'd like to spend around 900-1200 for the whole package...computer, monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers. Because I'm doing gaming, the mouse and keyboard will probably be a bit more expensive than just the average because I'll look for ones that are tailoring to that... more buttons for keybindings, etc, etc. Speakers I don't really care about at all, I'm fine getting the cheapest of the cheap lol. I know I want a pretty sizable monitor (over 24'' ). I don't even know if HD makes a difference in the monitor or not? I've seen the games perform wonderfully without an HD monitor, so if that's going to bump the price up considerably, I'm fine passing on that.
I haven't done much research, but according to my friends' estimates (two of whom have built their own) they said they paid about 400 for all of the above (everything besides the actual computer) which, if accurate, leaves about 500-800 for the computer itself.
Basically, the short version, if based on your knowledge, the above figures are right...I'm looking to buy or build my own high powered desktop, that isn't necessarily top of the line, but is quality enough to have a decent shelf life and not be outdate in two years, and do that all for around 500-800 bucks.
Any help, direction, suggestions are very much appreciated.
Sorry for the wall of text.
I've had my laptop since freshmen year of college (I'm going into my senior year) and it still works great for everything but video games. I actually play a lot of games on my computer, ones that require some pretty hefty hardware to run well.
After beating myself up trying to figure out why my laptop that once ran the games so smoothly now lags, I was told by someone that it's simply because laptop hardware gets out of date pretty quickly, and that the only way to really go if you want to do some serious gaming is a desktop.
And thats how we've arrived here.
I plan to keep my laptop, and use it for pretty much everything else still. I have all my bookmarks, files, and programs on here...and it still works, so I see no need to dump it. That being the case, all I really need is a nice computer that is going to run my games smoothly and occasionally play a movie or something. I don't anticipate doing much, if any, web browsing, or much else on it really. I don't know if any of that matters, but maybe I'd need less on the desktop knowing that I won't really be using it for a whole lot of tasks?
Either way.... pretty much everyone I've talked to (and I'm fully confident the knowledge on this site is far greater than that from which I've been pulling) has been saying that the best and most cost efficient way to go is just to build your own. They say it's not as hard a task as one would think...it's sort of a "buy the parts and put them together" type deal. As of right now I'm just partial to buying one that's already made but I can sort of customize the features...but I have a feeling that shit is probably like twice the price.
As has been discussed before, my knowledge is pretty low about all this stuff despite how much time I spend on the computer, so I'm pretty much a blank slate in terms of what I know.
My assumption is, because I won't be bogging it down with a whole ton of other stuff...and I'll still do all my pron watching and shit on my laptop, I wouldn't need to go top of the line to achieve the performance I desire. That being said, I'm not really looking for absolute top of the line anyway, just because I'm on a budget.
Ideally, I'd like to spend around 900-1200 for the whole package...computer, monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers. Because I'm doing gaming, the mouse and keyboard will probably be a bit more expensive than just the average because I'll look for ones that are tailoring to that... more buttons for keybindings, etc, etc. Speakers I don't really care about at all, I'm fine getting the cheapest of the cheap lol. I know I want a pretty sizable monitor (over 24'' ). I don't even know if HD makes a difference in the monitor or not? I've seen the games perform wonderfully without an HD monitor, so if that's going to bump the price up considerably, I'm fine passing on that.
I haven't done much research, but according to my friends' estimates (two of whom have built their own) they said they paid about 400 for all of the above (everything besides the actual computer) which, if accurate, leaves about 500-800 for the computer itself.
Basically, the short version, if based on your knowledge, the above figures are right...I'm looking to buy or build my own high powered desktop, that isn't necessarily top of the line, but is quality enough to have a decent shelf life and not be outdate in two years, and do that all for around 500-800 bucks.
Any help, direction, suggestions are very much appreciated.
Sorry for the wall of text.