Windows 7: What do I look for in a good gaming pc/graphics card?

Ok its that time again I wanna get a new pc and I need a little help when it comes to choosing. Now my price range is up to 1150$ and what ill be doing with this laptop and yes it must be a laptop is. Homework, graphic design/motion graphics(photoshop), creating music(fruityloops), and playing games like starcraft 2 and maybe battle field 2. The specs for the pc that I have are in the specs area of my profile. Also this would help me a lot peridically during this post ill post links to pcs that im interested in and it would be nice to get the opinion on theam, because I really dont know what to look for. and a side question does the graphics when it comes to video games on pc rely on the processor or video cards? Also when i look at the specs for a specific pc and for the processor it says some thing like Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-640M Dual Core Processor (2.8 GHz, 4MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.46GHz what is what is 640M and what does it mean to have dual core is that good? and is a higher ghz better than lowe ghz and whats l3 cache I know its alot of questions but I dont wanna waste my money Thanks everyone



HP Home & Home Office Store - We're sorry!

HP Home & Home Office Store - We're sorry!

if you dont wanna waste your money, stay away from HP or dell. get an acer or sony vaio. they're usually well built.

what makes you say that ??

Not trying to upset ya but for hard work or gaming a lap top is not the way to go. A lap top is for convenience- checking email and pretty much light stuff on the go. A high end lap top said for gaming is a joke. If you must have a lap top get a 4 or $500.00 unit just for that.

For serious work and gaming buy or build your self a decent rig. You can get a cpu mobo memory and cpu cooler like mine in my specs for under 500 bucks- 2 good sized sataIII drives for about $120.00- A good psu for say $100.00- a dvdrw for like $30.00- and a nice vid card for like 250 to $350.00- a sweet led back light lcd like mine is about $200.00 bucks if you need a monitor also. Do not go by the list on this site- I am not sure where these folks get their info but My self and every last person I know will tell ya never buy a ultra psu- they are on the list here as high end or better catigory- they are last on my list- and I will never buy anything from tiger direct period- A psu is the 1 and only thing in your system that can ruin everything else- and ultra has ruined a many.

I bought a ultra 6 years ago for my first build a ultra 500w xconnect- the 5v rail died on day 32 common for ultras- I did not read bad stuff until after- I did not buy anything from tiger but ultra is tiger direct- I could not send the psu back to newegg it was over 30 days- I had to rma through ultra- I had to pay to send it back to them- 3 weeks later I got a new one it was sent via tiger- a year later and for 1 1/2 years later I was getting calls from bill collectors saying I o tiger 120 bucks for the psu- Every day threatening to go against my credit all of it- I was on the phone every day with tiger - they would not correct it- I started cussing out the bill collectors really bad- I would have beat in someones head if I could have.. They was disrespecting me calling me a dead beat what ever. Either they gave up or tiger got it straight- either way I later learned ultra is of the most suck units on earth and I will never buy anything from tiger- they can go under for all I care- I know for a fact abit mobo forums stickied saying buy a ultra psu risk a ruined system- I stand by that to this day.. Them abit mobo folks would rather fall on their heads than use a ultra psu, its just the facts.. I am glad I keep all recites and email to and from them all- Even so- they still tried to rip me off.. Every one I know will tell ya- ultra' are flashy and pretty and low quality junk. Ultra and tiger direct sucks. I can get upset now thinking about it.. It is still new in the box now- I never used it and never will. I bought a 520 ocz to replace it and still works to this day.

I have used and like ok amd and ati but they are generic- Industry standards are windows intel nvidia and soundblaster/creative. I my self will pass on sound blaster I only use on board realtek now a days. But using nvidia vid cards you have way less probs over the many games that are out and nvidia can do physx- ati can not. Ati has claimed such great bench marks over the last 6 years but they could not do sm3 until the 1800 and they can not do physx now so the vid cards should do better they have less to do.

Amd3 has probs with its memory controller you should not use any memory over 1333 or it can burn up the on cpu controller. You can google for your self my p55 i5 750 smokes everything out there even the amd black 6 core in everything other than a very few programs that use over 4 cores and the 1 game dirt2- only some of the i7's can beat out my i5 and my i5 with cooler I have can over clock to like 4.2 on air- over clocked or not it still smokes the amd 6 core black- beats it in both no oc and in both over clocked.

As for vid cards today things are dx11 tho it is but a few games etc that use it and I think next year windows will come out with w8 and dx12- Amd is said to come out some time in the next year with its bulldozer cpu and chip set- I would guess it will correct its poor mem controller too.. But as with all new tech or first gen I would not buy any of it anyway- I would avoid the head akes.

So Something like my set up is mid road and powerful- I would get a nvidia evga or sparkle 460 470 or 480 or 560 70 80 with a cooler that blows the hot air out of the case. You will have dx11 support- but if you are a hard gamer and will play new games with dx11 get no less than a 470 480 or 570 80 or your card will suffer at high res doing tessellation etc.. I say evga or sparkle they only cost 10 to 30.00 more but have life time warranties or all sparkles anyway- You need to make sure the evga you might pick out has lifetime- not all of them do, and you might get a game or 2 or some bench testing program with the evga card- you will get no extra with the sparkle. The sparkle might have a better or longer hdmi cable tho, or on the 5 cards any way..

Also some ati vid cards are like 2 foot long hotdogs or something- Either way you might need a new case- note: the case and side window and or if it has a fan- think about what cpu cooler you might use- some tower types will not like a fan on the side panel- maybe you could move the fan to the out side of the panel- so the cooler has the room it needs- also aluminum cools better than steel or plastic.

I love this case- I built near same system for my bud in this case- I put the psu in the top and a intake fan in the bottom- I feel I would suck less dirt into the psu and I do not like the idea of my video card sucking off the heat of the psu- but the psu would perform better being lower and cooler etc- trade offs.. This case is huge and future proof and can take the larger mobos too- even the small server mobos..>

Newegg.com - LIAN LI PC-A70F Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case

A all new system and some ac mx2 thermal paste and a $350.00 video card is about $1,280 total not including an os- And I do not know what you might be able to carry over from another system you might have- This system and a $ 500.00 laptop $1,780 more less- If you need a monitor say $1,980 You can shop around and find stuff at less cost.. But you would be good to go for a few years and great warranties and have a lap top too..

My mobo and cpu has 3 year warranties - hdd drives 5 years- vid card and memory have lifetime- my monitor has a 3 year warranty. You can spend about 300 or so less but get some crap- do not buy a mobo that has via lan or sound or anything much other than realtek- Or you will most likely be sorry- But you can go a lil cheaper buying a amd mobo cpu- but much cheaper than mine you may not get sataIII or usb3 support.. Things to think about..

I am just trying to give ya some ideas- I am not pushing my hardware on ya- But I did weeks of research and comparisons- It is hard to beat my set up and exact mobo and for the money- If nothing else you could use my system as a starting point and direction to start looking at stuff.

I would avoid the sandy bridge cpu's and mobos they are most all being recalled intel screwed around every1 and sold them defective junk- I would get my money back and not buy that chip set again- even if said the best the gods ever made- to heck with them folks or that crap- I would go amd3 before I spent my money on that chip set etc. Or get something like mine or 1366. The mobo makers have to carry most all the costs- Intel sold them junk- its not right..

Some will try and talk ya to death and flame ya if you do not use ac silver 5- they must not read much- ac mx2 or 3 or gelid 2 or 3 is better. Mx2 cools 4 to 8f better than ac5, gelid cost less and you get more- mx2-3 or gelid2-3 cool about the same 3 being better- but mx beats out gelid by a lil. But ac5 can transfer electrical currents- get sloppy and ruin a cpu mobo or nb or vid card etc., and it has a 200 hour cure time and only has a life of about 2 years before it starts to go brittle and not cool so well etc. MX2 and gelid has a 8 year life time has no cure time and does not transfer electrical currents period- I guess some ac5 fans would like to spit on me now- again they must not read much- I laugh at them..

I Hope my long post helps ya out some- You did say you was asking for ideas..

Good luck. See ya..

What would I do with that money? I would buy a refurbished/On sale/Used laptop for mobility if that is what you need it for, spend 300 bucks max on it.

I will then spend the rest of the money building a nice gaming rig... 2 birds and all that jazz

Now, if I don't really need a laptop... the possibilities are endless

thanks every one whats a psu ?

whats the best place to buy a pc that can handle games? or where can i buy that will allow me to customize it i dont know how to build a pc

and while im searching what should i look for when it comes to graphics cards

power supply

NVidia..460 or 470 or 560 or 570 ..get 2 and SLI

ATI 5850 5870 or 6850 6870...don't xfire..it doesnt scale that well and drivers are not that gr8t imo

NV probably make the better cards as in SLI scales well, supports tessalation and drivers are normally stable.

Before anyone starts fanboi accusations I will use whatever is the better card regardless of Manufacturer. Currently have a 5850 sitting in a box and stopped using it when I bought 2x 460GTX's. Had less problems with the 460's than I had with the 5850.
W/e card you buy get one with 1gb of ram not a 512mb if they exist now. And have good case cooling as all current gen cards run hot. Look also for a card that exhausts the heat out the back of the case unlike the gigabyte cards I'm using atm that just blow the heat all over the internals.