PC gaymers?

Phillipw

Gaymer? Yeah. Enthusiast about Graphics/Rig? Nah… If I can run my games on med. settings, I'm fine.

Same here. For years I was running WoW on a crappy laptop (craptop) on the absolute lowest settings. People would be telling me to "get out of the fire" and I'd be like "what fire?" lol.

I didn't care though, as long as I got to play. Same with D3 and LoL.

yellowbelly

PC gamer here; FPS, fighting, and action RPG are my genres of choice.

My current rig was close to top-of-the-line in 2010, but it's beginning to show its age with newer games $:-\$ Definitely gonna need to upgrade soon if I want to get max enjoyment out of upcoming titles like GTA V and Star Citizen.

hecctor

Has any of you guys actually build their own PC? I'm very tempted to try this out, I know how to install new hardware etc and there's a lot of guides available online, so it shouldn't be too complicated.

GabrielK

Yep, gaming is my addiction.

RPGs, Adventures, and lately FPS and similiar games.

Aridity

@hecctor:

Has any of you guys actually build their own PC? I'm very tempted to try this out, I know how to install new hardware etc and there's a lot of guides available online, so it shouldn't be too complicated.

I have. It's not as easy as people say it is, but it's not too difficult either. Just take it slow. It can sometimes get frustrating, but it's very rewarding.

yellowbelly

@hecctor:

Has any of you guys actually build their own PC? I'm very tempted to try this out, I know how to install new hardware etc and there's a lot of guides available online, so it shouldn't be too complicated.

I'm in the same boat. I've installed hard drives and GPU's in pre-built machines, but never made a rig from scratch. My Dad and good friend are both in the IT field, and have offered to help me put one together, but I'd prefer doing it all myself - probably for bragging rights and a sense of accomplishment ;D

raphjd

Except for laptops and Kindles, I build all my computers myself.

It's not that hard, if you take it easy and do your research. There are plenty of guides online to help you.

superjankk

@superjankk:

With AMD's new APUs you can actually get a decent build for $300-$400 that can run most games

I considered this to save money but an physical GPU coupled with the correct processor can produce much more framerates than an APU alone.

superjankk

@ap2003:

But what's the gfx card you have? I know 0 about AMD processors, TBH: left them alone LOOONG AGO, but I know that as long as the processor is some decent and you have some RAM the gfx card is the thing that actually matters.
I got my rig for like almost 5 years and recently I got tired of all the newer games running like crap and low detail due to the RADEON 5870 being just TOO OLD for the new stuff. Lol. So I went and got myself a GTX 970 G1 and with my oooold i7 920 @ 3GHz + 10Gb DDR3 @ 1600 I can run almost anything @ ultra @ 1920x1200. I guess I won't be upgrading the rest of components at all until it really sucks balls or something just blows up, that I don't know when it'll be XD Rest of stuff like Photoshop, video edition stuff, etc. etc. runs just fine still.

@superjankk:

I feel relatively alone when discussing PC games and tweaking my rig with other gay guys, any other PC nerds out there who enjoy getting the most out of their games? Recently trying to upgrade my quad-core FX-4130 to the hexa-core FX-6300 for increased gaming compatibility, especially with new games such as Ryse, Thief, and Creed:Unity. Not sure if Tiger Direct will trade out the quad-core and let me replace it thought ;D

I have a GTX 750 ti right now which runs games fantastic for the price of the card (got on sale for $150, can play most 2014/2015 games!) but with a better processor like I mentioned I could be playing at a level above the PS4

superjankk

@ap2003:

But what's the gfx card you have? I know 0 about AMD processors, TBH: left them alone LOOONG AGO, but I know that as long as the processor is some decent and you have some RAM the gfx card is the thing that actually matters.
I got my rig for like almost 5 years and recently I got tired of all the newer games running like crap and low detail due to the RADEON 5870 being just TOO OLD for the new stuff. Lol. So I went and got myself a GTX 970 G1 and with my oooold i7 920 @ 3GHz + 10Gb DDR3 @ 1600 I can run almost anything @ ultra @ 1920x1200. I guess I won't be upgrading the rest of components at all until it really sucks balls or something just blows up, that I don't know when it'll be XD Rest of stuff like Photoshop, video edition stuff, etc. etc. runs just fine still.

@superjankk:

I feel relatively alone when discussing PC games and tweaking my rig with other gay guys, any other PC nerds out there who enjoy getting the most out of their games? Recently trying to upgrade my quad-core FX-4130 to the hexa-core FX-6300 for increased gaming compatibility, especially with new games such as Ryse, Thief, and Creed:Unity. Not sure if Tiger Direct will trade out the quad-core and let me replace it thought ;D

I have a GTX 750 ti right now which runs games fantastic for the price of the card (got on sale for $150, can play most 2014/2015 games!) but with a better processor like I mentioned I could be playing at a level above the PS4 & XBOX One:P

superjankk

@hecctor:

Has any of you guys actually build their own PC? I'm very tempted to try this out, I know how to install new hardware etc and there's a lot of guides available online, so it shouldn't be too complicated.

It's really easy, there's only about 8 essential parts you need for a DECENT gaming rig. Most everything snaps or slides into place on the Motherboard. I had never put together anything PC-related before I built my rig, and it only took me one try and about 30 minutes.

You will need:

-CPU (Processor - "Central Processing Unit")

This component (besides the GPU) is arguably the most important part of your rig. You need need to pick a CPU with the processing power to play modern games, so I would personally say you would need at least a quad-core CPU. Intel's CPUs are faster and process frames better than AMD processors, but are much higher in price. Also, you need to match the Motherboard type to your CPU type, so choosing an Intel CPU will cost you a more expensive motherboard too, in most cases. AMDs quad- and hexa- and octo-core FX-series processors perform extremely well for their price point, but you are sacrificing some framerates with the AMDs slower frame processing. AMD should suffice for most gamers but if you want to get really hardcore into your games, go Intel all the way.

-MOBO (Motherboard)

The motherboard MUST have a socket that matches your CPU socket type. Check the tech specs of the CPU for the socket type and select a MOBO accordingly.

-GPU (Graphics Card)

A decent gaming rig (in my opinion) should only use an NVIDIA card. By this, I mean an Nvidia GeForce GTX or newer generation card, preferably in the 600s+ (GTX 660, GTX 750 ti, GTX 770 ti, GTX 780, GTX 900s series, etc.) AMD/ATI's newest Radeon cards are formidable, but they process framerates much slower and are much worse at tessellation than Nvidia GPUs in most cases. The GTX 750 ti (which I currently use) has been tested to show framerates similar or better than a PS4 or Xbox One when paired with an octo-core processor. Also, MAKE SURE you check how MANY and what TYPE of power connectors the GPU needs in order to run - your Power Supply Unit (later down the list) MUST have a connector cord(s) for your specific GPU, so make sure they match!

-RAM (Memory)

A good gaming rig should have at least 4 GB of DDR3 or DDR4 ram. The MHz on the ram (1333, 1666, 2133, etc) MUST match what the Motherboard can handle - refer to the tech specs of the MOBO to see what it can handle.

-HDD (Hard Drive)

Most regular hard drives are, and have been, standard 3.5", 5400 rpm SATA 3.0 or 6.0. Some regular PCs or laptops will have hard drives with 7200 rpm, which is nice. Hard drive speed isn't a HUGE factor when gaming, but the faster your computer can write files to the hard drive, the better, so I'd go with a drive that has at least 7200 rpm's and has SATA 6.0 (as opposed to 3.0) for faster transfer speeds. The size of the hard drive is entirely up to you, however if you plan on storing a lot of games and other media on the PC, aim for at least 500 GB; for a little extra you can max out storage with 1, 1.5, 2, and even 3+ TB (TERAbytes) of storage. Each Terabyte is roughly 1,024 GB - a ton of space.

-Case (without power supply)

Make sure the case comes WITHOUT a power supply pre-installed. Stock PSUs are not the best and tend to short out your expensive PC components or overheat the inside of your rig.

-PSU (Power Supply)

Make sure you get a PSU that has good reviews and preferably has some sort of "eco" or "green" energy feature - powerful gaming PCs can wreck your electricity bill if not regulated! You MUST make sure it has enough wattage to power all of your components…anything above 500w will usually do, but check the specifics on how much your CPU, HDD, RAM and GPU consume.

-DVD/CD/BR Drive

This is the DVD tray that slides out of the front of the PC when you press Eject. Although totally optional, the normal DVD drives are only like $20 so it you might as well get one so you can play music CDs, watch video DVDs, and install PC games from disks! You can get a simple Blu-Ray reader for about $40-$50 that reads regular CDs and DVDs now-a-days, too.

Now you just gotta stick everything together…

-Slide the CPU into the socket on the MOBO (watch a YouTube video for your specific CPU, some slots are different than others - also, this is the MOST FRAGILE PIECE of the entire rig, make sure to do this in a CLEAN and STATIC-FREE enviornment!!! This is very important because even the smallest amount of static can destroy your CPU, so make sure you're not wearing socks and or wool and not near any carpet. CONSTANTLY "discharge" your static buildup by touching something GROUNDED and METAL, like a screwdriver or your PC case.)

-The CPU was the hardest part! Now snap the one or two RAM sticks into the RAM buses on the MOBO (usually vertical slots right near the CPU - again watch YouTube video for your specific MOBO, some have special tabs you need to move in order to install the RAM)

-Plug your GPU into the PCIe 3.0 slot on the MOBO - if the PC case has metal brackets on the back blocking the graphics card from protruding out of the back, remove the metal brackets/panels - most cases will have tabs you can pull or you can knock them out with a screwdriver or similar tool.

-Place the HDD in the hard drive bay (usually a rectangular slot near the top front of the PC case) and use the SATA cord that came with it to plug into the SATA socket on your MOBO (should be clearly labeled, but refer to YouTube or the MOBO manual for help locating the socket.)

-Place the CD/DVD/BR Drive into the disk drive slot (usually above the hard drive bays, at the very top front of the PC case) and use the SATA cord that came with it connect it to the SATA socket on the MOBO (refer to installing the HDD above)

-Connect the cords from your case to the MOBO (the cords controlling any sort of front-USB or audio ports, or the cords leading from the power button on the PC case). This is IMPORTANT because if you don't install these cords or install them in the wrong slots on the MOBO, you won't even be able to turn your PC on in most cases until you configure it correctly. Refer to your MOBO manual to see which specific power connectors go where.

-Finally, connect the cords from the PSU to everything: one to the CPU, one to the CPU's fan, one or two to the GPU, one to the HDD, and one to the CD/DVD/BR drive.

Viola! Everything should be up and ready to go. Obviously everyone's hardware will be different, so make sure to refer to ALL hardware manuals that came with your components and watch plenty of internet videos or read PC blogs on the specifics of installing your specific parts, but this is all basically the jist of it. Power up your PC to make sure you don't get any error messages and to check that everything was installed correctly.

**You will need a copy of Windows to install onto the computer to make it actually do anything. You can use a copy of Mac OS X, but it gets a lot more complicated - Google "hackintosh" in order to find out more about that. Also, I've heard rumors of gaming on Linux, but I would just stay away from that unless you know what you're doing.

**Make sure to keep any and all CDs that come with your components, as they are likely to contain important drivers you will most likely need after you install your OS.

***You can add optional stuff such as additional case fans, an after-market CPU cooler (for better efficiency and less noise), SSD (solid-state drives, flash based-storage instead of written disk storage), etc if you have the money lol.

soullessfire

My current rig is a couple of years old now but I bought all the parts in sales so it's actually pretty good. It'll do until I build my next one sometime next year. This is the second rig I've built for gaming and since building this one, I've not touched my Xbox 360 - the amount of extra benefits you get from a decent PC (work, watching movies, porn lol) just tips the scales for me.

I work in IT too which helps so I'm pretty good at speccing up parts and I keep up (more or less) with trends so I do actually know my way around thankfully.

This rig cost me about £850 but like I said I purchased parts over a 3 month period and only bought them when I found them on sale so I know it would have cost maybe £1,300 - £1,500 for a similarly specced, prebuilt machine. It's easy enough to get a mid-range PC for the price of an XBox one or PS4 though, I do video editing a lot as I'm a web developer so having something with an awful lot of horses under the bonnet was key for me.

qwertylmoa

PC master race haha, I probably build a new rig every couple of years.

Kentishfag

I've been looking to do this and researching quite a bit but when I have shopped for the parts it only saved me about £200. Whilst that's a nice little saving - a pre built wouldn't have the risk of me messing something up, breaking something, being too static and normally comes overclocked too. Which I've also read on how to do, but dare I risk it? I don't know.

Am I shopping in the wrong places? Can I save more? Or is this about right! I've been looking at spending about £1500 and can get it to about £1300 when doing it myself.

noelburgundy

I go with pre-built ones if I'm not confident in my own skills. As for what gaymes I play, only a handful of dating sims at the moment since my hard disk broke down and my pre-made laptop is well over warranty. Not getting a new and better one anytime soon, which sucks.

That aside, if you've technical knowledge of setting up the stuff, I don't see what's stopping you. And you can get the PC checked out or have a more skilled friend or contact put it together for roughly less.

Good luck to you, rig builder person!

Azarth

Never had the money to do a decent computer X2 Y.Y

organi88

In the past I used to buy premade computers but a few years ago I started looking into building my own. I then decided to pick my own parts and had it put together by the store I bought everything from ( www.alternate.nl), for about €1400. Still works fine, but already saving up for a new one. For my next one I'd love to build it myself completely. I also have an PS4 and Xbox 360, but I definitely prefer playing PC games.

drkink

I am looking for more gaymer to play with on steam. Boarderlands 2, MKX (If lag and ping allow= currently trying direct Ethernet plug-in so if that does not work than I am quitting the game)