Any PC gamers out there?

What's a good system for PC gaming...looking for dual video cards and lots of memory etc and so on.

Was looking at alien and Dell XPS...thoughts?

Dell owns Alien Ware now and from the reports that I have read in the Tech section of the online games I play they are overvalued and over-rated plus the support is not that good.

I have gleaned this from reading many negative comments. The vast majority of the tech people say for the same money you can build twice the system by simply getting the stuff yourself and building it on on you own. Newegg seems to be the choice of most of them. Plus there is the satisfaction of saying, "I built it myself."



After all, it's not rocket science.

Ditto that - put out some inquiries on gaming forums and ask them, "if you had $XXXX to put together a gaming system, what would you buy?". You'll get plenty of advice.

Originally posted by CQBArms
What's a good system for PC gaming...looking for dual video cards and lots of memory etc and so on.

Was looking at alien and Dell XPS...thoughts?

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Personally I'd work out what exactly I wanted before starting to look for system makers, or posting on a gaming forum about home building one. 'Lots' of memory to me is 2gb, but some gamers won't take less than 4. Do you want nVidia or ATI graphics cards? What sort of processor do you want? Etc.

Of course if you've already done this and was just wanting to see other people's opinions on computer manufacturers, then sorry for pointing out the obvious.

I like Dell, personally, although they install a heck of a lot of junk on your computer before you've even turned it on.

Cheers,
Phil

I am looking for a "quick box" solution I guess.
Yeah I could source out all the parts, price watch it and have them all shipped in, build the thing and save some money but the convenience factor would not be there.

Quit frankly I am sort of at a loss on the video cards, I thought I had it figured out but just as I did, they sort of leap-frogged each other in terms of memory, processing power etc.

I figure about $6k should get a pretty good system, not into liquid cooling, would like a T of storage, a 30 inch flat panel, 4 gb of ram, was thinking about quad duo, another math unit, dual DVD/CD burners. That kinda thing.

$6k? is that a joke or what? , that is WAY more than enough for a gaming PC.

Build your own.

The XPS systems are overpriced, alien ware are known for good stuff but honestly, you will learn an inconceivable amount from building one, plus you get to brag that you have a custom rig.

6k can buy you a lan setup if you budget

www.pcmech.com

That sight is a god send.

30 inch screen and two high end video cards suck up a lot of cash pretty quick, no matter where you buy them.

Originally posted by Chrisn
$6k? is that a joke or what? , that is WAY more than enough for a gaming PC.

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I posted in the City of Heroes tech forum and these were their suggestions:

https://voodoopc.com/default.aspx

https://www.falcon-nw.com/

https://www.overdrivepc.com/

https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/


One of the biggest reasons they listed for not getting Dell/AW is the implanted keystroke loggers in the OS.

The companies listed will build anything you want. My advice for video cards is get the best nVidia card you can get and an Ageia PhysX graphics card instead of two vid cards.

Most said that $6k is overkill, $3k is more in line with a top drawer gaming comp and that a 24" Dell monitor for around $750 a much better choice for a monitor. Seems that when you get bigger it's not better in this case. One stated that with a 30" monitor your relief distance needs to be along the lines of four feet from the screen and the quality just isn't as good.

I hope this helps.

PhysX isn't a graphics card, it does physics simulation.

AFAIK there aren't very many games that support it yet.

City of Heroes does. Most of the NCSoft games do and I hear Blizzard is ramping up to use it also. One of my respondances said that he has a 1 gig nVidia card and the PhysX card and the explosions have never looked better.

I myself have seen the difference and the improvement is impressive.

https://www.ageia.com/

And to quote directaly from their page, "highly specialized graphics processor"

"60+ leading publishers & developers are now using AGEIA PhysX in 100+ new games. Game On."

Maybe a little more going on with Ageia than you thought.

:kill:

A voodoo Omen system with the right graphics cards is like $6600! And that doesn't include a monitor! ouch!

Originally posted by dave carver
I posted in the City of Heroes tech forum and these were their suggestions:

https://voodoopc.com/default.aspx

https://www.falcon-nw.com/

https://www.overdrivepc.com/

https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/


One of the biggest reasons they listed for not getting Dell/AW is the implanted keystroke loggers in the OS.

The companies listed will build anything you want. My advice for video cards is get the best nVidia card you can get and an Ageia PhysX graphics card instead of two vid cards.

Most said that $6k is overkill, $3k is more in line with a top drawer gaming comp and that a 24" Dell monitor for around $750 a much better choice for a monitor. Seems that when you get bigger it's not better in this case. One stated that with a 30" monitor your relief distance needs to be along the lines of four feet from the screen and the quality just isn't as good.

I hope this helps.

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Originally posted by dave carver


And to quote directaly from their page, "highly specialized graphics processor"

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Taken out of context.

Meanwhile, the highly specialized graphics processor is fully engaged with handling the rendering requirements of cinematic visuals at interactive framerates. As a result, physics in games has been limited to a few objects in a scene, one-off "effects" or visual trickery that just mimics real physics. Now for the first time, the AGEIA PhysX Processor delivers the computing horsepower necessary to enable true, advanced physics in games.

Click to expand...

'highly specalized graphics processor' is a reference to your graphics card, not the PhysX chip - it handles physics, thats it. Has nothing to do with graphics.



I know, I've programmed for it.

What it does do is allow more intensive physics simulation, for stuff like particles - an important part of explosions (in some engines, anyway).



I didn't know there were that many games for it, though - but I did say 'yet'. The majority are upcoming titles.