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 Post subject: Gaming PC
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 1:55 pm 
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Peon
Joined: Fri Nov 19, 2010 12:08 am
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Location: Gainesville, Florida
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Lately I have been playing WoW on my laptop because something has been up with my desktop. My desktop is nothing special just an 4 year old Dell that I have upgraded here and there with various components and it seems that it has come to the end of its life. My wife is going to buy me a Macbook this semester as my graduation present and I am going to give my current laptop (the one I play WoW on) to my mother-in-law, so she can have a computer. I really dont want to play WoW on a Mac and I would rather get back to playing on the 32" HD monitor that I have.

So I have written all of that to get to my question...I want a gaming PC. However, I do not know enough about the brands and everything that are out there to make a decision. I would love some input on good ones that I should check out and possibly buy. I would like to stay in the $1000-$1500 range so I can justify the purchase to my wife.

Any input would be helpful...Thanks in advance.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 3:16 pm 
Peon
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2008 1:15 pm
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Well if you just want the monitor, you can buy a minidisplay -> vga/dvi adapter for your macbook and set it up like a desktop. http://www.cellphoneshop.net/midipotovgaa.html?cagpspn=pla&gclid=CNjX0JGx1LQCFSWoPAodd3QAeg

I have played wow on laptops for the last 4 years because of college. I have concluded that I may as well just buy a desktop because when I'm playing wow it is set up as a desktop. Most recently I was playing on the 13" macbook pro set up with the minidisplay to vga for a monitor with keyboard and mouse. This was the same thing as a desktop. So after I spilled wine on my laptop, I built my first desktop for around $900, and it works beautifully on ultra settings in wow with 60+ FPS. It was less than my macbook pro and at least 10x better.

So are you getting a macbook and a desktop or just one? After owning a macbook pro, I don't think I'll ever buy another mac. They work fine under normal conditions, but I find windows much more intuitive and easier to work with. Anyway if I were to buy another laptop, I'd get the PC ultrabooks (Samsung makes a nice one for less than half the price of a mac at about $500) then have a desktop for the gaming.

But to finally answer your question, check out newegg. There are a ton of prebuilt computers. I would recommend building your own if you haven't. It is surprisingly easy and a lot of fun. You can customize exactly which components you get, and you can make a reeeeeeeeeeeally nice one for $1000-$1500. That being said, it may not be cheaper than buying a prebuilt, just customized and a fun experience. If you don't want to build your own, just look for a computer that has what you want. For that price range, here is a list of some things you would want to look for:

CPU: Ivy Bridge I7
Memory: 16 GB RAM & 500+ GB ROM & 128+ GB SSD
Video Card: Radeon HD 7950+ or GeForce GTX 670+

These three components should be your most expensive and crucial parts. When trying to select which components you want, tom's hardware is an excellent resouce: http://www.tomshardware.com/ . They have a ton of information on which components are the best in different price ranges.

If you want, I can email you the computer I made, which would be slightly less than your price range. Hope this helps.
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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 8:17 pm 
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Peon
Joined: Fri Nov 19, 2010 12:08 am
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Location: Gainesville, Florida
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I guess I should have been a little more clear, I did kind of ramble in my original post.

I am getting a 17" MacBook Pro from my wife for work and school. That is a guarantee. I want to buy a gaming PC to play WoW and some other games on. I already have a 32" HD monitor I just want to get a decent tower to hook up to it.

Thanks for your input. I thought about building my own but honestly I'm a little lazy and this might need to be something I need to get soon.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 8:21 pm 
Peon
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2008 1:15 pm
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Well if you are getting the 17", that is going to have pretty awesome hardware on it already. I would just hook it up to your monitor and connect a mouse and keyboard. Saves you a lot of money. You can get a cooling pad with additional USB ports that will help any cooling problems and usb ports.

Edit: the other information I gave is still very relevant. You just need to decide what is best for you. Just do some research for a couple days and you can learn a lot about the components.
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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 8:26 pm 
Peon
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2012 7:12 pm
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Location: Mpls, MN
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Well depending how good you wanna go I'd check out HP desktops right now I play on a quad core amd laptop with no issues hp does have some good computers cheap that will handle a lot I'd go with amd but that's my preference either way hp does make a good computer
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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 10:08 pm 
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Head Hunter
Joined: Tue Sep 28, 2010 9:00 pm
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Regardless of what you get or how you do it, if you know how to assemble a PC, building your own is easily the best bang for your buck. Myself and many other people on here could steer you in (our often biased and opinionated) the right direction.

The first PC I "built" I had the processor, motherboard and RAM post checked and assembled for $20 at the store that I purchased everything from just to be safe, if you decide to go that route (which I usually recommend to anyone inexperienced in putting one together) everything after that is plug and play.

As I said there are many people here that can help you with each step along the way though.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 11:05 pm 
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Officer
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 12:03 pm
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http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/307 ... -the-Month

This dude keeps mmo-champion readers up to date on hardware trends every month to two months.

if you read toward the bottom you'll find the options.


[[Cross:Wudang:Matahari:Crosshairs:Trevark]]
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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 1:51 pm 
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Peon
Joined: Fri Nov 19, 2010 12:08 am
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Location: Gainesville, Florida
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Thanks for the input...It looks like I am going to do a little more research and not rush this. Thanks again.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:11 pm 
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Peon
Joined: Fri Nov 19, 2010 12:08 am
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Location: Gainesville, Florida
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Ok so I have done some research and did some pricing and everything and this is the build that I am thinking about going with. Most of the items I am going to purchase from newegg.com but I might try and pick up a few from ebay if they are new and cheap.

• Case:
• Cooler Master HAF 932 (RC-932-KKN3-GP)
A. 6x 5.25" external drive bays
B. 5x 3.5" drive bays
C. Fans:
• 1x 140mm rear fan
• 1x 140mm front fan
• 1x 230mm side fan
• 1x 230mm top fan

• Processor:
• Intel i7-2600k 3.4GHz quad core or
• Intel i5-3470 3.2GHz quad core

• Motherboard:
• Asus P8Z77-V

• Memory:
• Kingston HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3

• Hard Drive:
• Intel Maple Crest 120GB SATA SSD and/or
• Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 7200RPM SATA

• Video Card:
• EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB PCI-E

• Power Supply:
• Cooler Master GX Series RS750-ACAAD3-US 750W


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 2:46 pm 
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Officer
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:45 pm
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That looks almost exactly like the system I put together last month (except I used my existing case, power supply, etc).

I went with a Samsung 120GM ssd, and it is definitely worth it. It makes rebooting, restarting WoW, and running back into a raid after a wipe much faster - but then you'll need a second big cheap drive for everything other than Windows and WoW... I'd recommend going with an i5 3rd generation instead of the i7 2nd generation, unless the i7 is actually cheaper.
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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 3:00 pm 
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Peon
Joined: Fri Nov 19, 2010 12:08 am
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Location: Gainesville, Florida
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Spirulina wrote:
That looks almost exactly like the system I put together last month (except I used my existing case, power supply, etc).

I went with a Samsung 120GM ssd, and it is definitely worth it. It makes rebooting, restarting WoW, and running back into a raid after a wipe much faster - but then you'll need a second big cheap drive for everything other than Windows and WoW... I'd recommend going with an i5 3rd generation instead of the i7 2nd generation, unless the i7 is actually cheaper.


The hard drive suggestion is exactly what I was thinking about doing...having a smaller SSD drive for WoW and Windows (maybe some other games) and then a larger standard drive for everything else. I wasnt not 100% on how good of an idea that was because I have never had an SSD drive before but I have heard good things.

Interesting that you say to go with the 3rd generation of the i5 over the i7 2nd generation. I was kind of just assuming that the i7 would be hands down better, I was mainly debating between the 2 because of the price. Good to know tho. Thanks!


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 4:10 pm 
Peon
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2008 1:15 pm
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For that price range, a SSD is a must. Your list looks good. just need to make sure that your mobo matches up with the CPU and RAM. I use the 660 Ti as well and it is really nice. 750 W should be enough power.
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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 4:28 pm 
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Head Hunter
Joined: Tue Sep 28, 2010 9:00 pm
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It's been a little while (enough for a few series of processors to come out since mine was new) since I put mine together, but at the time, the i5 that I purchased outperformed nearly every stock i7 when overclocked and was a fraction of the price. I love Tom's Hardware... (the website :lol: )

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gam ... ,3106.html

Looks like a very solid setup, make sure to check your RAM speed>size.


[[Meverack:Blacksocks]]
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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 2:46 am 
Peon
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2011 11:02 pm
Posts: 26
Location: Brazil, PR
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Definitely make some effort to get an SSD, I got one Vertex 4 120gb paid $145 (its cheaper than this in the US, they go for about $120) but its worth every penny of it, makes loading shit way faster


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 11:43 am 
Peon
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2008 1:15 pm
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I actually have the same SSD. I bought it for about $110. It works really well.
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