Gaming PC

So I am looking to buy a Gaming PC but I don't have any idea about which one should I buy. I was first thinking in the Alienware Aurora but many people have told me that those PC's are overprized and what not, so can I hear some recommendations from anyone?

* Also would be nice to know about good gaming keyboards, mouse and everything game related... thanks

If you are serious about buying a gaming desktop and don't want to get ripped off, look into building it yourself.

Or find that one friend that everyone has who would do that for you.

i say build your own its not hard to do, only takes a little bit of research. pretty much choose the cpu you want and then go from there. an example i will use is my computer, i wanted a Intel i7 2600k which the socket or connection is a LGA 1155 so next i looked at mother boards that fit that socket. i found the motherboard i liked because under the specs it lets you know what it can handle and what comes with it like mine had Bluetooth adapter for my headphones and stuff and it tells you clearly what size of ram it can hold and what type of speed the ram can have. once you pick the motherboard then you see the size it is and look for a tower for that size mine was a ATX which in pc terms they call it Form not size. so i picked a tower i liked and yea its all a matter of picking what fits under the guidelines of your motherboard and the power supply you want enough power to handle the parts you installed and then some extra in case you want to upgrade. sites like Newegg have build it yourself kits with select parts that you can use as a reference or just read up online forums on basic building a pc even new egg has videos for that.

Kirana: I am bad at building a gaming desktop but I'm sure I can be able to contact a friend thar could help me out with that.

Colonelace: I will make sure to visit the Newegg website and read more about it in forums so I can be able to build a gaming desktop with everything I want it to have.

Thanks for your advice :)

Razer Keyboards and other Peripherals are SUPER Sexy!!!

Thats all that I use.

As everyone has said, build it yourself. if you're solely building it for gaming and have no intent on benching it and doing extreme video editing you can actually get by with AMD CPU's and GPu's to save cash. Now if you don't care about price intel CPU's and Nvidia GPU's are the better top end. But you can build an extremely strong machine off AMD on a tighter budget. Mouse and Keyboard all comes down to preference. If you want you can give us a budget and we can post recommendations. As for building itself its incredibly easy and you can find guide videos on youtube. newegg has a very good series of building video guides.

started this thread yesterday may help you - regarding mice.

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/36367/buying-a-new-mouse#2234202

Yes, building it yourself isn't at all daunting.

But if you want to buy here is a trick that few know. Dell owns Alienware. They will build to order. If you have them build you any Alienware build in a Dell case you can save 15 - 20% over the Alienware price. Only problem is when your friends see the Dell label.

Newegg has ... I hate the word kits, but they sell complete and well balanced build your own computer kits.

also here is another i started a while back regarding CPUs and keyboards

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/32244/is-over-clocking-worth-it

People see a bunch of parts and terms that they don't really understand so it seems complicated.

Building a pc is like putting legos together. Most pieces only fit one slot and can only go one way. The hardest part in my opinion is putting on a heatsink. And that is really just because I'm ocd and need my thermal paste perfect and it requires some delicacy as not to over tighten.

Plenty of people on these forums can give you help on what parts to get. So like others have said, give us a budget, what all you're looking for in a pc, and what all peripherals you need.

:O we can build it, you just need to put it together.

This, I tell everyone it's just big kid legos.

now not to start a fanboy war... since i built my computer with the notion of wanting the best gpu and cpu for gaming at the time with price not being a factor, Nvidia was not the better gpu so please dont false advertise :). as far as gpu its all preference some people like nvidia because it has its on set of stereoscopic glasses that work with their cards and stuff but here is a link as of almost end of 2012 that compared gpu's. I went with a Radeon HD 7970 and im happy with my choice, ive actually doubled it and now have 2 on crossfire but thats just me... Oh and for cpu i went with i7 2600k sandy bridge (ivy wasnt out at the time) because for strictly gaming i read it was best bang for your buck if you planned on OC'ing

link:
Nvidia vs AMD

Side note: when buying a cpu if intel make sure it has a k at the end because it means you can overclock it, dont do the mistake a friend of mine did

True.
I just give it the hands up because of physx and games that have it enabled.

That being said I haven't researched more than bench numbers in this last series of cards.
As for price to power I've been recommending AMD this Gen. the 7970 is a great card for the price.

GPU is a wash depending on what the price range is. Each has their strengths/weaknesses.

AMD Cards are far less power efficient.
NVidia Cards can sometimes be less happy about OCing them.
PhysX pushes NVidia cards ahead on certain games.

Again, each has it's strengths and weaknesses.

CPU, you'll want to go Intel. Current AMD chips just can't match them, and it's not as close as some people make it sound.

If you are strictly gaming, an i5 2500k/3570k will be perfect.

My budget is around 3k - 3.5k (maybe I can push a little more if it is worth it) and the gaming part is like a 1/3 of what I want this computer for. Since I am a Graphic Designer and Programmer I also need to install all the Adobe Suite (video editing), Autodesk (3D design), Visual Studio, Microsoft SQL Server etc. So I do need it to support all this and also give me the possibility of gaming.

All your links and recommendations are really helping me out since I don't know much about the topic and I really appreciate all of you trying to help me out :D

mmm im not 100 % sure but the apps you mentioned may benefit from the HT capabilities of an i7 over an i5 - also im sure they will all be "optimized" for a (w7) 64 bit O/S

Oh, I'll have fun.
:D
monitors also?
1?
2?
3?

Urial: For starters I just want 1 monitor but in the long run the idea is to get myself 2 or 3 monitors to enhance the gameplay. So if you have an idea you can share it with me.

Thanks

Once you try 3, you'll never go back. And given your budget it's easy to swing.

As someone who owns an Auraura I cant recommend them enough, I have heard and read all the horror story's but if you look after it (like you should) you shouldn't have any major issues

Monitors depend need/budget

1. go big as you can 27 " (1920x1080)- they so cheap....
2. will you need/want higher res support (2560x1440) ... this gets $$$ and may need to downsize the screen size (you may wish to also google/ebay Korean import models - ive read some great things if your feeling adventurous)
3. 120 hrz - only if your a big into FPS or want to future proof for a better 3D experience

a few ive spoke to about 3way monitor play (via eyefinity) say its cool but you wont use it long as it gives you a real brain drain.. xd

Dont really want to derail the tread too much, but exactly how easy is it to run 3 monitors? Can you give a brief explanation of how either here or PM? I've been running 2 for the longest time, but every time I try to look up how to go up to 3 I get lost...

Edit: and yes as he said once you got up to 2/3 you will never go back. It's VERY worth it.

For me it's easy, I just open up the Nvidia controller and configure my monitor layout. Not sure what you're running but me PM me some details and I'll see if I can help. Also make sure your card/set up supports more than 2.

Edit:

I will say though at a certain point they become too large and hurt your head for multi monitor configs.

I wish I could see that GPU comparison had the Nvidia cards been the 4gb model.

If you are a Graphic Designer and Programmer you might want to look into what cpu gpu combo will be better for you

it is all situational there is not really a good or bad choice.

intel amd both have the pros and cons same with amd nvidia.

how u should look at it balance it with work and game time.

pure gaming go with Intel

graphic design programming go with AMD

same for games while nvidia offer great 3d solutions and phsyX
look at the game's u play and or buying if the gme dosent use it or isent optermised for it no point

maybe do a little research look around see what suits ur needs best

This is a great website, it has cpu and gpu benchmarks and also gives you a performance/price rating for each component. I found it very useful when I built mine. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

Unless you are encoding video on the apps you mentioned, you won't need an expensive CPU, as mentioned above. The 8 core AMD chips seem the best value for money right now, but for gaming an i5 or 6 core AMD is more than enough.

If you plan on Crossfire or SLI, depending on the brand, just make sure your MB and PSU can support it.

64 bit OS I'd recommend for you as you are using SQL server. It will also enable you to upgrade/add RAM if needed in the future.

Building a PC is very simple, don't be put off, you can save 100's. Personally I would also stick with Win 7 for now, MS and users are finding it problematic currently.

Good luck.

The AMD 8 Cores may be cheap, but there is a reason. Bulldozer and Vishera are not good. Single threaded performance is around 40-50% behind Ivy. Also, AMD will consume a fair bit more power. AMD just doesn't have enough benefits to make it a major player at this point. Which is a shame because at the time of the 1090t it was right on par with Intel. Would love to see AMD come back and put some real pressure on Intel again.

This article does a good job of comparing the Intel vs AMD market.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6396/the-vishera-review-amd-fx8350-fx8320-fx6300-and-fx4300-tested/2

Operating System is another point of interest. It should go without saying that you get a 64bit operating system. Then it really comes down to Windows 8 vs Windows 7. I use, Windows 8 and like it more. You'll see performance gains in some areas using Windows 8 over Windows 7, but it's not enough to jump ship on what you are used to.

http://usabilitygeek.com/windows-8-vs-windows-7-speed-and-performance-testing/

Something I haven't really seen mentioned in here is hard drives. SSD is a no brainer. My personal build I have 4 120GB SSDs put into a Raid0.

I saw multi-monitor displays mentioned. Keep in mind, that the more displays and higher resolutions will need more VRAM. NVidia has the Titan coming out here very soon which will be the King of cards for a while (Slightly behind 690 in performance, but it's a single gpu). The Titan is going to boast 6GB Memory, as well as a 384-Bit memory interface width.

The best resource on price/preformance is Tom's hardware. Every month they publish on Best Graphics Cards For The Money and Best Gaming CPUs For The Money. The February 2013 pair was posted this week.

Check them for motherboard recomendations too.

P.S. They recently benchmarked the Titan.

how about multi-thread applications encodeing or heavy use x64 can personaly say i own both I7 extreme and piledriver 8core BE when it comes to encodeing and heave 64 gaming i use the amd less delay better respose due to its native x64 frame and physical cores not 4-6 core with 2 software cores

if im useing a single game for justgaming ill use the I7.

but please dont be sucked into the delusional online ranting about how uber fantastic intel are while they may lead in the gameing market for pc's keep in mind it wasent so long ago intel was penalised for paying off companys to buffer there benchmarks and there failed attept at an apu

that in mind as i stated early post its all about bang for the buck now days and sadly people dont want to pay outa the butt when they can get a good substitue that willl do just as good

When your looking at monitors look at the response time first if its higher than 5ms (GTG) you can end up with Ghosting (Ghosting = blurry picture when there is high speed gaming or movies on screen) here is a list of best eyefinity, nvidia surround and single monitors based on Response time, Brightness, refresh rate, bezel thickness, type of panel, resolution and price

Eyefinity, Nvidia (VESA mounting compatible)
1. ASUS VN247H-P <-- 1ms (GTG) response time, real thin bezel and awesome price
2. BenQ XL2420T
3. LG 29EA93 <-- Stats are amazing but price & finding a Triple stand for these will be hard so it gets third

Eyefinity, Nvidia (Not VESA mounting compatible)
1. ASUS MX279H<-- really good looking, thin bezel, decent response time
2. ASUS MX239H
3. Dell U2913WM

Single Large format display
1. ASUS MX279H<-- really good looking, thin bezel, decent response time
2. ViewSonic Graphic Series VG2732m <--not very good looking moniter but good overall stats
3. LG 29EA93 <-- Stats are amazing but price puts it in third