To skip the explanation and read my questions, read this.
1. Is THIS combo package a good setup for a basic gaming computer capable of playing MineCraft well and with the possibility of running higher-class games well in the future?
2. What kind of graphics card should I look into getting for this setup? Would the one's I've looked at (GeForce GTX 650 Ti and GTX 650 Ti BOOST) be good choices and compatible?
3. Is it worth it spending $100 for a case, even with it part of the combo? (I don't care if it runs out of a cardboard box honestly, as long as it runs fast and well)
4. Is it worth buying windows operating system, and upgrading to Windows 8 if I do?
5. Do I need to buy an additional sound card for use with youtube recording/stereo mix?
6. Along with other stuff I need to buy (shipping, thermal paste, processor/graphics card cooling, etc.), will this whole project be within the $750 range? If not, how much over should I be expecting?
Everything below is pretty much just background info - feel free to read it though.
Hello! After trying my best to play MineCraft on my current laptop, (2.53ghz 2 core processor, spent money upgrading ram to 8gb, Intel HD integrated graphics -.-, and the lack of support for stuff like, oh, the newest DirectX), I'm done.
If you want to read about how much my old computer sucks, open the spoiler
So back to the point, I looked around on some sites including Newegg and happened across some combo packages that really struck my interest while browsing processors and stuff. One in particular caught my eye - and it is linked HERE.
If you read the link, you won't have to read the story of my amazement with this modern miracle. Unless you want to, that is
I want to know if this would be a good buy for the price, and although I'm pretty sure it could handle even maxed minecraft without a problem, how it would handle games such as Battlefield 3 and Skyrim and how well/easily it would overclock. This being my first time building a computer and my relative inexperience with the hardware aspect of things, I just want to hear from some pros what they think of it.
That means buying a special processor cooler, (as the stock one is apparently crap). That's one thing I would need, as well as the graphics card. Well, I looked around at the competition usingthis site and came up with a few cards that I liked.
Now this is a bit of a point of unsurety for me - I don't know what kind of power I should get for what I'm going to be doing. I know for a fact that I could run minecraft perfectly well (for someone used to 10fps) just off that beast processor, but a graphics card is a must for something I'm going to spend as much money for as this computer. That's another thing - budget. I am a highschool student with a part-time job that I can only work a few weekends a week. Regardless, I've managed to save up about $800 in my work account so far. I'd like to not spend ALL of this if possible, but I guess my upper price range is about $750.
So the cards that most caught my attention were the GeForce GTX 650 Ti and GTX 650 Ti BOOST. Looking through the specs, they seem pretty similar with only a slight variation in price, and honestly for a lot of points the BOOST seems lesser to the regular one.
I haven't considered many others, mainly because I don't know where to start, but from what I can read, I would be perfectly happy with this for the time being. I just want to make sure that they would be compatible with the rest of setup.
Well, I guess that's pretty much it. If you actually made it to the end, you're an angel and I appreciate it more than I can say. Anyway, thanks for the help!
EDIT: After browsing a bit more from these forums, I've come into some questions involving sound cards. My current machine doesn't have a stereo mix, making recording youtube impossible (even if I could get good enough fps to make it work). In addition, what kind of operating system should I look into getting? Is Windows 7/8 worth the price, or should I go ahead and learn Ubuntu? I've used windows all my life, but if it's going to add another $100+ to my cost I may consider ubuntu or some other linux partition. I can always get windows later.
1. Is THIS combo package a good setup for a basic gaming computer capable of playing MineCraft well and with the possibility of running higher-class games well in the future?
2. What kind of graphics card should I look into getting for this setup? Would the one's I've looked at (GeForce GTX 650 Ti and GTX 650 Ti BOOST) be good choices and compatible?
3. Is it worth it spending $100 for a case, even with it part of the combo? (I don't care if it runs out of a cardboard box honestly, as long as it runs fast and well)
4. Is it worth buying windows operating system, and upgrading to Windows 8 if I do?
5. Do I need to buy an additional sound card for use with youtube recording/stereo mix?
6. Along with other stuff I need to buy (shipping, thermal paste, processor/graphics card cooling, etc.), will this whole project be within the $750 range? If not, how much over should I be expecting?
Everything below is pretty much just background info - feel free to read it though.
Hello! After trying my best to play MineCraft on my current laptop, (2.53ghz 2 core processor, spent money upgrading ram to 8gb, Intel HD integrated graphics -.-, and the lack of support for stuff like, oh, the newest DirectX), I'm done.
If you want to read about how much my old computer sucks, open the spoiler
I've installed every plugin, upgrade, and performance tweak there is, bought more ram, got a ram optimizer, nerfed down to the absolute minimum in settings.
However, even with that, it doesn't stop the crippling 0-10 fps spikes and my inability to maintain anything over 30 on a good day for more than a minute or two. At bad times, I am simply unable to play the game at all. It really has taken a lot of the enjoyment away from it all.
Finally, I decided that I was done with it. I'm relatively new to the gaming world, and everything I've really played before MineCraft has been relatively simple and very non-demanding. I just got this laptop two years ago, but since then I've evolved to being much more into PC gaming and decided it was time to actually be able to play a game without the impediment of periodic blindness.
Anyway, I've spent some time looking around and doing my research on how to get started with getting a good computer. Now I'm not looking for a top-of-the-line water cooled $2,000 setup here. At the moment, the most intensive long-term thing I'd be using it for would be MineCraft. However, in the future, I am sure I will move on to other games that require more out of the computer.
So after looking around for a while, I decided that I wanted to build my own computer. The current laptop I have is just a off-the-assembly line dell with absolutely no overclocking or other customization options available. (Yes, I did try overclocking my dell laptop). I want a computer that I can say I made and that will allow me to actually have fun playing the games I love.
However, even with that, it doesn't stop the crippling 0-10 fps spikes and my inability to maintain anything over 30 on a good day for more than a minute or two. At bad times, I am simply unable to play the game at all. It really has taken a lot of the enjoyment away from it all.
Finally, I decided that I was done with it. I'm relatively new to the gaming world, and everything I've really played before MineCraft has been relatively simple and very non-demanding. I just got this laptop two years ago, but since then I've evolved to being much more into PC gaming and decided it was time to actually be able to play a game without the impediment of periodic blindness.
Anyway, I've spent some time looking around and doing my research on how to get started with getting a good computer. Now I'm not looking for a top-of-the-line water cooled $2,000 setup here. At the moment, the most intensive long-term thing I'd be using it for would be MineCraft. However, in the future, I am sure I will move on to other games that require more out of the computer.
So after looking around for a while, I decided that I wanted to build my own computer. The current laptop I have is just a off-the-assembly line dell with absolutely no overclocking or other customization options available. (Yes, I did try overclocking my dell laptop). I want a computer that I can say I made and that will allow me to actually have fun playing the games I love.
So back to the point, I looked around on some sites including Newegg and happened across some combo packages that really struck my interest while browsing processors and stuff. One in particular caught my eye - and it is linked HERE.
If you read the link, you won't have to read the story of my amazement with this modern miracle. Unless you want to, that is
The processor alone literally made my jaw drop. Even the server I rent for the minecraft server I rent isn't as good as that is. The prospect of having 8 cores, each running at 4ghz stock blew my mind. I have nice ram as it is, having completely overhauled it and upgraded it (with the help of you wonderful people from Tom's Hardware forums 
, but the stuff included in the package also looks really good. However, the thing that got me most about it was that all the stuff must be compatible with each other; I don't have the experience or will to deal with incompatibilities.
The whole thing has a total price of just over $500, which also makes it look really good for me. However, as I looked closer into it, it turns out that there is a variety of stuff that is not included in that deal that I'll also need. Namely a graphics card and processor cooler. I read some of the reviews of the processor, and saw lots of people talking about how hot it ran, especially after overclocking (something I'd love to do, just because I can).
, but the stuff included in the package also looks really good. However, the thing that got me most about it was that all the stuff must be compatible with each other; I don't have the experience or will to deal with incompatibilities. The whole thing has a total price of just over $500, which also makes it look really good for me. However, as I looked closer into it, it turns out that there is a variety of stuff that is not included in that deal that I'll also need. Namely a graphics card and processor cooler. I read some of the reviews of the processor, and saw lots of people talking about how hot it ran, especially after overclocking (something I'd love to do, just because I can).
I want to know if this would be a good buy for the price, and although I'm pretty sure it could handle even maxed minecraft without a problem, how it would handle games such as Battlefield 3 and Skyrim and how well/easily it would overclock. This being my first time building a computer and my relative inexperience with the hardware aspect of things, I just want to hear from some pros what they think of it.
That means buying a special processor cooler, (as the stock one is apparently crap). That's one thing I would need, as well as the graphics card. Well, I looked around at the competition usingthis site and came up with a few cards that I liked.
Now this is a bit of a point of unsurety for me - I don't know what kind of power I should get for what I'm going to be doing. I know for a fact that I could run minecraft perfectly well (for someone used to 10fps) just off that beast processor, but a graphics card is a must for something I'm going to spend as much money for as this computer. That's another thing - budget. I am a highschool student with a part-time job that I can only work a few weekends a week. Regardless, I've managed to save up about $800 in my work account so far. I'd like to not spend ALL of this if possible, but I guess my upper price range is about $750.
So the cards that most caught my attention were the GeForce GTX 650 Ti and GTX 650 Ti BOOST. Looking through the specs, they seem pretty similar with only a slight variation in price, and honestly for a lot of points the BOOST seems lesser to the regular one.
I haven't considered many others, mainly because I don't know where to start, but from what I can read, I would be perfectly happy with this for the time being. I just want to make sure that they would be compatible with the rest of setup.
Well, I guess that's pretty much it. If you actually made it to the end, you're an angel and I appreciate it more than I can say. Anyway, thanks for the help!
EDIT: After browsing a bit more from these forums, I've come into some questions involving sound cards. My current machine doesn't have a stereo mix, making recording youtube impossible (even if I could get good enough fps to make it work). In addition, what kind of operating system should I look into getting? Is Windows 7/8 worth the price, or should I go ahead and learn Ubuntu? I've used windows all my life, but if it's going to add another $100+ to my cost I may consider ubuntu or some other linux partition. I can always get windows later.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram