Define a gaming rig

Juxxize said:

after watching the launch and reading about the xbox one i've decided to make the move to pc gaming , i've wanted to do it for a while but the xbox one has made my mind up , xbox one isn't a games console. as it is i only have a laptop and i don't know where to start when i'm looking at parts as i was think about building it myself because i'm not stupid but i just wondered if anyone had any advice for me on the matter

Hey Juxxize. I am glad to hear that you are making the switch to PC gaming. Anyways if you wanted some help / advice on building your own PC I would recommend creating a thread in the General Discussion or Hardware and Devices section of the forum. Most of us enjoy helping out with builds and I am sure you will get replies within minutes.

Juxxize said:

after watching the launch and reading about the xbox one i've decided to make the move to pc gaming , i've wanted to do it for a while but the xbox one has made my mind up , xbox one isn't a games console. as it is i only have a laptop and i don't know where to start when i'm looking at parts as i was think about building it myself because i'm not stupid but i just wondered if anyone had any advice for me on the matter

Start a new thread, give us a ballpark figure of about how much you want to spend, and what games you're thinking of playing on it. That can give everyone else a rough idea of what you'll need.

Honestly, I'd recommend buying a midgrade PC and upgrading it before moving on to building. This is a good way to do things for a number of reasons. It makes it easier to afford as you can use it as is and buy upgrade parts a little at a time. Buy a decent mid-ranged PC, then upgrade the PSU, upgrade your cooling system if needed a new heat sink, maybe a couple of extra fans, then buy a new gpu a month or so later, then maybe a processor a few weeks or so later, replace the ram if needed [you'll probably have enough with a mid ranged PC], get a decent sized HDD or SSD after that, etc.

It's tempting to get the CPU and GPU first, but you should upgrade cooling and PSU first.

You won't have to do it all at once and since you'll have a complete PC to begin with, and you'll be able to actually use it between each stage of upgrading rather than having to put it all together at once and hope it works.

Building isn't hard, but you've got to research and make sure everything works together. Your ram needs to be compatible with your processor, your cooling, and the motherboard slots. You need to make sure you've got enough power from whatever PSU you're planning on buying to run everything, and make sure it has enough of the right kinds of connections. You've got to be careful when you apply thermal paste, make sure you've got enough cooling. Also, you must take extra care when flashing the Bios. Screwing up just about anything else can be corrected. Screwing up flashing the Bios can brick your PC easily and ruin your build.

The details are important, it's easy to learn and research, but upgrading is a much easier way to learn the basics and get an idea of what you're doing and how things work.

You can net yourself a very nice PC just getting a decent pre-built with a good motherboard inside of it and upgrading it to suit your needs. I upgraded two PCs this way before I even thought of building my own. All you need is to do a little research to make sure that the internal components can handle whatever upgrades you plan to do later before you buy your base system. Having a good Motherboard is the most important thing to look for if you're upgrading. Everything else you'll probably want to change out, but the MOBO is the base from which you'll build up on. If you're planning on upgrading, it's better to buy something with weak components on a good MOBO for cheap than to buy something that has decent components on a cheap MOBO that can barely handle what's already on it at mid-ranged prices.

In fact, if you're looking to upgrade, you might get someone to build you a super cheap PC that has a decent MOBO, a good case with lots of cooling, a good PSU, and everything else as cheap as you can get it. [Which is what I did.]

Whatever you decide to do, if you're building or upgrading, make sure you research every part you plan on putting into your PC to make sure it will play nice with everything else. The most common problem those new to building run across is RAM, DDR3 is not backwards compatible with DDR2, and you need to make sure your processor likes the particular brand and speed of your RAM and that it will fit into place with whatever cooling you decide on. It's easy to look up, but most new builder's never think to do so.

Here's a great starter and unless you have money burning a hole in ALL your pockets... don't go looking at smarteyeball system specs or you'll go blind!


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And yeah, someone was talking to me about the new Xbox One and all I gotta say is... You go Microsoft, not only you like raping people but you don't even want them buying nivea cream to sooth their gaping hole as I heard, you can't sell your game to a third party once you are done with or in case you didn't like it. I also heard that they will restrict the amount of people that can watch a movie in the same living room with Kinect or Konect, what ever the name of that thing is?

AstaLaVista said:

Here's a great starter and unless you have money burning a hole in ALL your pockets... don't go looking at smarteyeball system specs or you'll go blind!

On the flipside, if building an ultra rig is your thing, go for it.

I'll be building another rig in the coming months and it'll be a high end, probably overkill, system. But, it's what I want. While it wont have multiple monitors, or quad cards, it'll nonetheless be high end.

That's what enthusiast custom building is all about - building the system you want.

As someone said earlier - "A UGM is pretty much just penis points for the truly hardcore like myself".

So very true

Believe me, if I had money burning holes in all my pockets (there is nothing wrong with having it and enjoy it, nothing at all)... I would have an UBer Mega Bucku Rig as well! Hell, I would probably build a cinematic room with a theater like screen

AstaLaVista said:

Believe me, if I had money burning holes in all my pockets (there is nothing wrong with having it and enjoy it, nothing at all)... I would have an UBer Mega Bucku Rig as well! Hell, I would probably build a cinematic room with a theater like screen

You don't have to have big bucks to build, you just have to decide on what's more important at that time, or may have to give up other things to get what you want.

For me, I don't drink, smoke, eat out, or party like I used to. I also decide in advance what toys I want and then budget for them accordingly. Doing it like that saves you more than you might think as you're not impulse buying

smarteyeball said:

sygnus21 said:

I also decide in advance what toys I want and then budget for them accordingly. Doing it like that saves you more than you might think as you're not impulse buying

not so lol

To be fair, I splurged while I could knowing one day I would have to come to a screaming halt. Like now.

Trust me, I know what you mean. I used to be an impulse/splurge buyer before my finances changed. Now I've been humbled to the point where every penny counts, and everything planned in advance. I call these investment purchases.

Anyway I always do major upgrades (MB, CPU, GPU, RAM) about every 3 years so it's not like this hasn't been thought about :)