Computer Rigs

Epowerj · Post by **Epowerj** » October 9th, 2012, 10:56 am

What kind of computer do you use for gaming? Did you recently upgrade it? Post about your computer or whatever you use to play games here.

Post by **Wowfunhappy** » October 9th, 2012, 11:00 am

At home, I used to have this nice Desktop I used. It was no gaming powerhouse, but it ran the majority of games very well.

Here at college though, the only computer I have with me is my Macbook Air. While the library of games it's capable of playing is far more limited, it's still capable of playing a lot. I've been using it to play Space Channel 5 Part 2, Rayman Origins, Psychonauts, Atmosphir (yes, Atmosphir), and Minecraft.

Post by **Adz** » October 9th, 2012, 11:08 am

My main computer is a project I've been working on over time. Basically, what I did, is I went and bought a super cheap 'gaming' computer for around £200-£300 ($320-$480) and then upgraded components over time. This way, I always have a usable gaming computer.
It's currently almost fully upgraded, with only the graphics card to go:

Intel i5 @4.4GHz
128GB OCZ SSD
1.5TB 5400RPM HDD
500GB 7200RPM HDD
16GB Corsair Dominator RAM
and a not so impressive Nvidia GTS 450 Graphics card
(Keyboard is a Saitek Eclipse II - Love that thing, and the mouse is a Logitech Performance MX)

I use it to play a wide variety of games, but currently I'm working through my second playthrough on Borderlands 2

papaya · Post by **papaya** » October 9th, 2012, 3:40 pm

i use a mac

Semesto · Post by **Semesto** » October 9th, 2012, 4:57 pm

papaya wrote:i use a mac

About Sums it up

I use a Mac too but I also use a PC...
Processor: i5-3210M 2.5GHz 2.5GHz quad-core
6 GB RAM
445 HD
And a really Derpy Graphics Card, it's fine for now though.

nonic5 · Post by **nonic5** » October 9th, 2012, 7:30 pm

papaya wrote:i use a mac

You really don't need to say more fellow mac user.

Newah · Post by **Newah** » October 10th, 2012, 12:15 am

I have a computer I built myself over the period of a few months time. It has:

90 GB SSD

1TB HDD

8 GB RAM

3.6 GHz Intel i5

Nvidia GTX 550 Multiview

and it includes several USB 3.0 ports, which are truly invaluable.

nonic5 · Post by **nonic5** » October 10th, 2012, 7:38 am

Newah wrote:I have a computer I built myself over the period of a few months time. It has:

90 GB SSD

1TB HDD

8 GB RAM

3.6 GHz Intel i5

Nvidia GTX 550 Multiview

and it includes several USB 3.0 ports, which are truly invaluable.

Not to bad

brendiculous · Post by **brendiculous** » October 10th, 2012, 1:43 pm

My specs:

Intel Sandy Bridge i3-2100 (I have plans to upgrade to an Ivy Bridge i7 at the end of the year)
8gb g.skill RAM
Sapphire Radeon 5450 (which is okay; I want to upgrade as soon as I have the money)
a 250gb HDD, and a 640gb HDD.

Epowerj · Post by **Epowerj** » October 10th, 2012, 5:02 pm

I have a really old Dell Dimension with a Pentium 4 processor and 2gb ram. I upgraded the video card to a EVGA 8400 GS 1gb card, and that (amazingly) manages to run most games.

Newah · Post by **Newah** » October 10th, 2012, 6:50 pm

Epowerj wrote:I have a really old Dell Dimension with a Pentium 4 processor and 2gb ram. I upgraded the video card to a EVGA 8400 GS 1gb card, and that (amazingly) manages to run most games.

Well, I've always thought that most games don't need that much RAM, or even CPU power. The video card is really what matters most of the time.

brendiculous · Post by **brendiculous** » October 10th, 2012, 8:44 pm

If you don't have a halfway decent CPU, it'll bottleneck the power of your gpu no matter how good it is. Same dealio with RAM - if you don't have enough of it, you'll be lacking severely in speed. The graphics card is definitely the most essential piece of hardware in the equation if you're looking to play games, but you need to balance the 3 out if you want stability and maximum power.

EyceKubes · Post by **EyceKubes** » October 11th, 2012, 11:07 am

I'm saving up $1000 to build my own gaming rig. My little laptop is not good enough to support Fraps or even medium-high graphics

Newah · Post by **Newah** » October 12th, 2012, 12:23 am

You don't need 1000$ man, believe me. I got mine for around six hundred dollars, all I had to do was wait around for certain parts to go on sale. Once they do, snatch em up.

Epowerj · Post by **Epowerj** » October 12th, 2012, 9:23 am

brendiculous wrote:If you don't have a halfway decent CPU, it'll bottleneck the power of your gpu no matter how good it is. Same dealio with RAM - if you don't have enough of it, you'll be lacking severely in speed. The graphics card is definitely the most essential piece of hardware in the equation if you're looking to play games, but you need to balance the 3 out if you want stability and maximum power.

Yes, I noticed. It runs 3D games really well, about medium graphics. On the other hand, 2D games not as well. I didn't notice any change in performance with flash games especially. As with ram I haven't noticed it go close to the max, I have very memory hogging games. At least for now, I'll stick with 2 gigs.

Post by **Adz** » October 12th, 2012, 9:57 am

Newah wrote: Nvidia GTX 550 Multiview

I was looking into getting that a while back, is it any good?
(considering it is essentially a modded 550)

EyceKubes · Post by **EyceKubes** » October 12th, 2012, 10:48 am

Newah wrote:You don't need 1000$ man, believe me. I got mine for around six hundred dollars, all I had to do was wait around for certain parts to go on sale. Once they do, snatch em up.

Well the computer itself wont be $1000, but the three monitors I'd like to have will increase the price a lot, and some new accessories as well.

Newah · Post by **Newah** » October 12th, 2012, 11:18 am

Adz wrote:I was looking into getting that a while back, is it any good?
(considering it is essentially a modded 550)

I like it personally, but it isn't as good as I would have hoped. To give you an example, it runs Skyrim on 30 FPS in the highest graphics settings, which is a less than I expected, but it runs. So I mean at least it does run all of the latest games I throw at it.

I wouldn't recommend it though, they have already discontinued it for some reason. Aside from its inexpensive price, it's really just an average video card.

Post by **Adz** » October 12th, 2012, 11:26 am

The main reason I was looking into it was for the multi-screen capability. I'd quite like to have a 3-screen setup, but still stick to Nvidia (PhysX is just too damn nice looking)

Newah · Post by **Newah** » October 12th, 2012, 12:17 pm

Adz wrote:The main reason I was looking into it was for the multi-screen capability. I'd quite like to have a 3-screen setup, but still stick to Nvidia (PhysX is just too damn nice looking)

Well, if that's what you're looking for than the 550 Ti does that perfectly. I've had it hooked up to three screens at one time, and it's certainly impressive.