Define a gaming rig

[smarteyeball]

. But, I think you are wrong about a water cooled X79 rig with 3 Titans.(sic) I don't believe a water cooled X79 will play any of your games any better than what you have, and you know that.

Whats one thing that does take advantage of the extra grunt? Benchmarks

I still only benchmark for ballpark/stability, but let's be honest - gamers also benchmark

In all honestly, I think after a certain point, it becomes what the individual considers a 'good gaming experience'. You need 3 monitors and all the gadgets that go with it for that. You have a rig that will accomplish that. Others don't require all of that to be perfectly happy with their gaming experience.

Exactly.

As I was saying to Drew the other day, I have always been an eye candy addict. Even right back when, I always tried tried to run games in 640x480 when all my machine could handle was 320x240, 1024x768 when it struggled with 640x480 etc.

But when I built my first rig, and then specifically, created my first crossfire setup - I was hooked. Finally I could have both Eyecandy and performance. Over time my quest has expanded across 3 screens... so too has the been the overkill needed to run it all

I'm actually looking forward to having 3 x30" screens one distant day. For now though, it's cost prohibitive and the grunts not there to power it.

Others however are perfectly happy with xbox quality or are happy to sacrifice details. Tbh, I envy you guys

What's that saying... an un-happy wife makes for a miserable night

Miserable night or life depending on how far over budget

As I mentioned, my wife was very supportive and I always told her what and how much. To her credit she maintained a good poker face at times Her words said "I don't mind" but her expression said "You need another what??"

 

[sygnus21]

As I mentioned, my wife was very supportive and I always told her what and how much. To her credit she maintained a good poker face at times Her words said "I don't mind" but her expression said "You need another what??"

Remember the good times my friend. Remember the good times

 

[smarteyeball]

I do mate. I do

 

[Solarstarshines]

When you have someone in your life you will always get that do you really need this look
I think my Wife has accepted this and would rather me be a web and Tech junkie then out on the streets picking up strange women

Last thing a spouse or partner should do is rob them of the things that make them happy even though you forget Anniversaries or that special day you both met lol

Truth be told though they would rather you buy them something to show off while you have them on your arm

 

[smarteyeball]

lol, yeah. At least our 'mistresses' are where the ladies can see and keep an eye on them

And yes they do prefer something to show off. And since I've got a 'female approved' good taste in Jewelery, I got a lot of brownie points for earrings, bracelets etc. Nothing too expensive, but not cheap either. I got as much pleasure out of making Kaz happy with gifts as she did watching me with mine, so it was a win-win in that regard.

(One bracelet was usually worth a few Drives, an extra card etc )

Mind you though, Karren loved bragging about my setup. I didn't need to brag. She did it for me lol.

There was this particular guy who was the "KING OF ALL KNOWLEDGE" and knew everything about computers. According to him at least lol. He was one of those guys

This guy was so clueless, he didn't even know what computer he had. Specs? Pfft. Specs to him were eye glasses. Now there's nothing wrong with being clueless. But there is something wrong when you proclaim to be a genius and people take your bad, bad advice. I know I personally saved a few of the staff and patients $$$ by giving them a second opinion.

 

[essenbe]

I think we all know a "King of all knowledge" about computers.

 

[Solarstarshines]

I'm King of nothing ruler of none

 

[Contrabardus]

A gaming rig, or a UGM rig? There's a difference. A UGM, or 'Ultimate Gaming Machine' rig is a high end machine that has supercharged hardware and can normally be overclocked to stupid levels because of cooling. That's what I've got.

A gaming rig is as said previously, a computer that's main function is playing video games. It doesn't matter how low end it is.

I've got an overkill rig. There's nothing on the market it won't run at the highest settings, and probably won't be for a while. It's not the absolute best you can buy, but it's got a high end processor, three of the fastest single GPUs AMD currently makes in crossfire, and plenty of high speed memory across the board including a SSD.

Most games are programmed with consoles in mind, so it's doubtful that there will actually be more than a handful of games my PC won't be able to run at maxed out or near to maxed out settings for about seven or eight years.

How much you need depends on what you want to play. I want to turn any video game I buy up to the max possible settings and get a decent framerate. I run Crysis 3 balls to the wall without so much as a hickup, I've got Skyrim modded to a level that would make a 360 or PS3, [and to be honest, even a Xbox 1 or PS4] gpu melt into slag under the strain of rendering it all. Farcry 3? No problem just push those little graphics sliders to the end and it'll run just fine. Metro LL? Yeah, smooth like buttah.

So yeah, I'm set.

If you just want to play Saint's Row 3, The Sims 3, Serious Sam, Half Life, WoW, or even the majority of games that are currently on the market today, you don't really need all that. Depends on what you're doing with it, though it is nice to be able to put a game in and turn everything up, most casual gamers don't need that much. Most games are still looking and playing better than the console counterparts at mid ranged settings. Given the current specs of the next generation, that will hold true even after they are released too, except it'll be around 'high' but still less than Ultra or Very High settings.

Most people don't really need an Uber rig. A mid to mid-high range rig is fine and still has you with your head above the hardware the console crowd will be using. A UGM is pretty much just penis points for the truly hardcore like myself.

 

[sygnus21]

A UGM is pretty much just penis points for the truly hardcore like myself.

LOL. Right on dude. That's what it's about, balls to walls fun


Nice post

 

[JackALope52x]

Nice post Contrabass! :thumbup:

 

[Juxxize]

sorry i'm a little off topic, i don't want to start a new thread

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

 

[JackALope52x]

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.

 

[essenbe]

Good advice from JackALope52x. You can also go to the gaming section and find the gamers and click on my system specs in the bottom left of their posts and see what hardware they run. It may give you an idea of what you would want. Then adjust from there based on your budget.

 

[Contrabardus]

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.

 

[AstaLaVista]

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!


Newegg.com - Shell Shocker Deal. Exclusive Jaw Dropping Savings on PC Components and Electronics.


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?

 

[sygnus21]

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

 

[AstaLaVista]

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

 

[sygnus21]

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]

. 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?

Kinect.

Yep, I can't recall the amount, but if Kinect detects more than the allowed - no movie for you!

(The ONLY thing I've found the Kinect good for is head tracking in Forza 4. That's it.)

I always expected the next xbox to be a disappointment, but not this much of one

I would probably build a cinematic room with a theater like screen

Before I had three monitors, I was looking into a 1080P projector. The cost of replacement bulbs finally put me off.

I did have a 4:3 1024x768 projector for a while. 100"+ screens are AWESOME. My rig at the time couldn't handle crysis at 1920x1200, but it could at 1024x768

The ultimate would be three 1080P projectors in Surround. Scratch that - go AMD and have 6 1080P projectors in Eyefinity :shock: :drool:

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

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.

And tbh, there's not really much else I can do to improve my rig for now. I've got speed, space, reliability and longevity. A new pair of cards in a couple of years. Maybe upsize to x3 30" if cards can handle it by then.


Well, that's the plan...

 

[sygnus21]

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