Gaming PC/Laptop Questions

[botfly10]

Oh good. Sold out. Thanks for nothing Clone! :tongue:v-::-v

If you spend 1200 on a gaming laptop, I will come over to your house and slap you. You wont get half the performance out of a laptop as you would for a PC at the same money.

 

[botfly10]

Skylake would be the ideal target build, if you can wait. It has a decent workaround for the bus problem, although not a full solution. Regular users wont notice the difference, and you'll have room to upgrade over-time with a good base to build on. I would say 8 months for Skylake. Unfortunately, because Intel isn't getting competition from AMD, and Rory Read(CEO that stepped down last month) basically shat on enthusiasts in his 3 years at the company to focus on niche markets and ultramobile development. When Intel gets no competition, they act Special person. So 8 months could become a year. IDK. Just note that Intel has been showing off Skylake for a months now, so most of it is ready, they are just milking the latest releases before this really rolls out.

A year for the shit to come out, then another year for software to take advantage of the tech to where you can even tell a difference between today's high end cpu's. Then after those 2 years are up, another revolution in design will be 2 years out.

If you want a gaming PC, build one. The current intel chips are great. Nvidia just came out with new GPUs a month ago and the Geoforce 970 is a great deal.

 

[Monk]

If you spend 1200 on a gaming laptop, I will come over to your house and slap you. You wont get half the performance out of a laptop as you would for a PC at the same money.

I'd be glad to have you over. We could play some techmo super bowl

 

[botfly10]

Super advanced: Windows 8.1+ all patches, strip old and legacy regs that wont be used(if it's an old plug-in-play device, windows update will autoinstall it back anyways off the cloud). All codecs for video, all newest runtimes, strip out all fonts, except the majors(Arial, Calibri, Roman, Fixedsys, Impact, Verona, Tahoma, Terminal, Verdana, Symbol, Wingdings) and few others you might like, but these are the ones to keep for max layout compatibility(and you can delete calibri if you don't use newer MS office).
Remove all driver sys and infs other than the ones you need(IIRC there might be a tool for this). Strip out all MS programs that you wont use, including all dependencies and services. Get rid of shell based addons, like out of the box file compression and notepad, install winrar or 7zip, notepad++. Delete all Internet explorer dependencies, use an alternative file explorer(I use Directory Opus), Install Classic Shell. Strip out Windows Live and Multimedia services, replace those with Media Player Classic(unless you use WMP based services). Find a cracked version of ACDSee 2.43-3.1(Yes it's old, but wow, it's fast and still renders all image files, except 2009 transparent PNG correctly and faster than anything else, including a ton of image browsers that claim to be faster).

And there you go, Windows 8.1(7, XP, even when 10 comes out) running smooth, stable, fast, and secure to the point that even a 2 year old-computer will smoke it's modern counterpart with default installation. It also makes troubleshooting all that much easier, because you eliminate more conflicts.

BTW, my Windows 8.1 custom image is only 482mb, compared to the MS bloatware 4gig

Thats fucking incredible

 

[clonetrooper264]

If you spend 1200 on a gaming laptop, I will come over to your house and slap you. You wont get half the performance out of a laptop as you would for a PC at the same money.

Fortunate for me I neither spent that much nor is it truly a "gaming laptop" rather than a laptop that can play some games. Obviously if you're serious about PC gaming you get an actual PC. It's not a question. I got a laptop because it's what I needed. Hard to drag a desktop around to group project meetings after all. :elephant:

 

[Crystallas]

A year for the shit to come out, then another year for software to take advantage of the tech to where you can even tell a difference between today's high end cpu's. Then after those 2 years are up, another revolution in design will be 2 years out.

If you want a gaming PC, build one. The current intel chips are great. Nvidia just came out with new GPUs a month ago and the Geoforce 970 is a great deal.

The point that I was trying to make about a multiple standards transition that occurs every decade or so, and these are the lonely periods in time where waiting is better. But I already made a very lengthy post about it, and don't need to repeat myself. Also, it's GeForce.

 

[Jester]

What Crys said in his first post. Build your own PC, it's really not that difficult and it will save you a lot of money. Don't buy a laptop for the purpose of gaming, you will overpay, it won't perform like a cheaper faster desktop, and you will fight heat issues. Hooking a desktop up to the TV is amazing, and the games also support controllers so you have a multi purpose machine that looks better and plays better. If you are buying a laptop for gaming just save yourself money and buy a console.

 

[Jester]

Good info Crys, I can figure just about anything out in Windows but I'm still more of a linux guy due to my profession.

 

[Ares]

What Crys said in his first post. Build your own PC, it's really not that difficult and it will save you a lot of money. Don't buy a laptop for the purpose of gaming, you will overpay, it won't perform like a cheaper faster desktop, and you will fight heat issues. Hooking a desktop up to the TV is amazing, and the games also support controllers so you have a multi purpose machine that looks better and plays better. If you are buying a laptop for gaming just save yourself money and buy a console.

You will pay more, but it will perform.... and if you get the right one you will not fight heat issues.

Building a gaming desktop is much more cost effective and gives you more options in terms of getting better performance, but trust me... you can game just fine on a laptop in this day and age and not have a 90 degree slab on your lap that cannot handle the games you want it to.

I have built gaming desktops many times and I own my gaming laptop and I own consoles..... they are all viable options with perks and drawbacks.... lets not act like there is only one option and none other.

Also people need to stop making PC building sound like it is as simple as putting Legos together.... it becomes easy once you have done it for a while, but I think you guys are being a bit dishonest in acting like someone with no prior experience ought to just be handed a case and a bunch of components and be able to slap it all together real quick and be fine.

Let me throw some shit out there that still bothers me doing builds today, as someone who has built many times....

The faceplate for the Mobo on the case.... sometimes it takes me 20 mins trying to get it to fit in there right.

The CPU cooler, usually aftermarket and getting it mounted correctly without getting thermal paste all over.... I cannot be the only one who has mounted a Mobo and then had to unmount everything to go back and put in the CPU cooler cause it needed a backplate.

Memory that won't fit in a slot because of blockage from the giant CPU cooler you wind up with.

Connecting all those pins for Case power button and HDD LED and Power LED.... it took me like 30 mins to figure that out the first time.

Mounting the Power Supply when you have to hold it in place with one hand and get screws in with the other.... wouldn't trump a newb lol but it is annoying.

Connecting all the power cables and not forgetting anything that needs it.... oops forgot axillary power on the board.... Y U NO WORK.

And best is when you do it all right..... and one of your components is fucked.... memory stick is bad? CPU is bad? Did I install them right? Video card is bad? Power Supply is bad? Worst experience as a newb builder is when it don't work and now you have to guess at what is wrong and get on forums crying for help.

I do not intend to make it seem like PC building is rocket science, but lets not act like it is finger painting either.

 

[Wintermute]

Yeah, unfortunately part of enjoying PG gaming, needs to be enjoying PC building. Building is rewarding, as long as you don't turn it into a chore. Kind of like how video games give you points, but really those mean shit IRL, but building your rig gives you real life experience and saves you money.
So when someone says Alienware, right off the bat either you have money to blow or not. And if not, console it is. But depending on the game types you're into, you can save a lot of cash going the PC route. Hell, you can even just hook it up to a TV and use it like a console.

Agree with the other poster. Prices are ridiculous for what you get. I have a cheap, 2 year old Asus notebook I've upgraded and modded which gives me just enough push to play a few of my favorite FPS games. And I had a blast doing it. Swapped out the APU (new and proper application of thermal paste made a HUGE different), made some vents on the bottom case, and added a cooling pad. Also upgraded the RAM some time ago. The only doubts I had was going from a 35W to a 45W APU, as the thermal profile on a cheap notebooks can be tight. Been watching the temps very closely and it's running stable so far... The only hiccups came when I smushed the fan wire during re-assembly, and broke many pems - both fixed with a splice here and a new screw/nut there. It runs cooler not than it did before.

Still have to turn down the video settings, and can't expect the response time to be on par with my tower. But hey, it works in a pinch. I got a significant jump in graphic performance. Take a look:

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[Jester]

You will pay more, but it will perform.... and if you get the right one you will not fight heat issues.

Building a gaming desktop is much more cost effective and gives you more options in terms of getting better performance, but trust me... you can game just fine on a laptop in this day and age and not have a 90 degree slab on your lap that cannot handle the games you want it to.

I have built gaming desktops many times and I own my gaming laptop and I own consoles..... they are all viable options with perks and drawbacks.... lets not act like there is only one option and none other.

Also people need to stop making PC building sound like it is as simple as putting Legos together.... it becomes easy once you have done it for a while, but I think you guys are being a bit dishonest in acting like someone with no prior experience ought to just be handed a case and a bunch of components and be able to slap it all together real quick and be fine.

Let me throw some shit out there that still bothers me doing builds today, as someone who has built many times....

The faceplate for the Mobo on the case.... sometimes it takes me 20 mins trying to get it to fit in there right.

The CPU cooler, usually aftermarket and getting it mounted correctly without getting thermal paste all over.... I cannot be the only one who has mounted a Mobo and then had to unmount everything to go back and put in the CPU cooler cause it needed a backplate.

Memory that won't fit in a slot because of blockage from the giant CPU cooler you wind up with.

Connecting all those pins for Case power button and HDD LED and Power LED.... it took me like 30 mins to figure that out the first time.

Mounting the Power Supply when you have to hold it in place with one hand and get screws in with the other.... wouldn't trump a newb lol but it is annoying.

Connecting all the power cables and not forgetting anything that needs it.... oops forgot axillary power on the board.... Y U NO WORK.

And best is when you do it all right..... and one of your components is fucked.... memory stick is bad? CPU is bad? Did I install them right? Video card is bad? Power Supply is bad? Worst experience as a newb builder is when it don't work and now you have to guess at what is wrong and get on forums crying for help.

I do not intend to make it seem like PC building is rocket science, but lets not act like it is finger painting either.

I know someone with an alienware laptop and an Asus, both get pretty hot after playing a couple of hours. They are also VERY expensive. I'm just not a big fan, sorry. It just doesn't make sense to me unless you have legit mobility needs. If you are mobile and want PC gaming obviously that's a very good solution.

I believe most can assemble a PC with a little research and taking an interest in it. Also, that's not your only option, it will just save you some money. An option I have is a computer store locally that custom builds. They will assemble it for free if you buy the parts with them, which are only slightly more expensive. A custom built system might between 25-100$ more than ordering the parts from newegg or amazon. You can also get high quality and well priced systems from Amazon and newegg if building isn't your thing.

Unless you are a gaming purist or really need the top end graphics just go with one of the new consoles.

Lot's of options and not implying everyone needs to pick the same. My buddy that has the alienware laptop works at nuke plants and moves all around the country every couple of months. The laptop clearly makes sense for him.

For me I like the best graphics on a HUGE TV so I have a 1300$ desktop and could have gone even cheaper and still gotten great performance. For mobility I use my nexus 10 or my 300$ cheap toshiba, which works great BTW, just not for intense gaming.

My son has a console XBOX ONE. It's a reasonable price and performs just fine for him. XBOX or plystation should be the platform of choice for most people IMO.

 

[Crystallas]

Good info Crys, I can figure just about anything out in Windows but I'm still more of a linux guy due to my profession.

Same. Windows is on VM for me. Been a *nix user longer than MS user.

 

[Crystallas]

I do not intend to make it seem like PC building is rocket science, but lets not act like it is finger painting either.

It's a hell of a lot easier today. When I built my first system, soldering and metering was required. But I think most of us suggest a newbie do it with a friend.

 

[clonetrooper264]

It's a hell of a lot easier today. When I built my first system, soldering and metering was required. But I think most of us suggest a newbie do it with a friend.

lol I imagine you now as this old dude saying "back in my day, we had to solder our own dang motherboards" :fist:

Tis a funny image

 

[Crystallas]

I still sometimes solder my new components when I don't like some of the components that are used.

 

[Monk]

http://lifehacker.com/5840963/the-best-pcs-you-can-build-for-600-and-1200

Found this site for suggestions.

 

[Crystallas]

Wow, they love MSI. I like MSI too, but not that much.

 

[botfly10]

If you put time into selecting components, and then when they get there, you take your time and proceed with caution, its not hard at all to put a PC together. Its literally just plugging shit in. Especially if you are using a full ATX board and a medium to full tower. The only tricky part is applying thermal paste and mounting the cpu cooler. But even for that, there are a thousand youtube videos.

The key is to frontload your effort when you start selecting shit. Make sure you get low profile ram if you need it. Make sure your cooler will fit in your case before you order it... and etc. And ffs, read the directions/consult message boards.

Besides the thermal paste, the only thing that is annoying is keeping track of all the pins on the mother board, and for that you just need to keep consulting the directions.

Shit, you can just use google images to look at about every combo of popular board, cooler, ram, and case there is.

Just don't ask an engineer the best way to sharpen a pencil because you will get a 45 minute lecture on optimal wood density and carbon composition.

Working on a computer is just like working on a car. Give yourself plenty of time, take it slow, keep track of all the parts, and don't force anything.

 

[botfly10]

http://lifehacker.com/5840963/the-best-pcs-you-can-build-for-600-and-1200

Found this site for suggestions.

Swap that GPU out for a Geforce 970 and you have a great system.

 

[Crystallas]

You could save a lot on that $1200 build and be VERY close in performance. Skip the the i5, get a G33/34xx. Change the ram for something with more headroom, cut costs on the case. Buy a better PSU, ditch one of the drives(The 840s are as good as it gets, but 256gb is a little short on space if you want to have more than 20 games installed, and do more than game.. as well as swapping space), so it's a matter of preference if you want r/w speed or capacity.

Heck, that build is actually pretty stupid. It's reminiscent of some trash you would find off tom's or other reviewsites where sponsors influence the benchmarks, more than the real world.