When purchasing a new computer rig for gaming, you need to take a different approach to finding a new setup for gaming. While most home computer users do not have a need for a high end computer system.
While you will find most websites speaking of gaming systems, you will find a typical price tag of $500 or more for a gaming setup, with a $1,000 dollar system being more main stream for any type of good gaming system. However, you will realize quickly that your purchasing a personal computer that most likely has features you never need, or will use, essentially your paying twice as much for the same features of a lower end computer.
So how do you pick a computer that fits you best? Well, seeing that your visiting here at FreeMMORPG.com, we can assume you will be playing some amount of computer games. While all computer games do not require a monster PC to play on, they do have some similar requirements.
Dual-Core Processors Dual core is not a requirement for all games, but we are looking at the verge of it being that way. Dual-core, accounts for almost every PC on the market, and you will find some games now require dual-core as new game-engines and enhanced graphics simply put to much strain on a single-core processor. Do you need a Quad-Core Processor? At this point in time, no you don’t. Despite what your typical Sales Associate tells you, quad-core is largely untapped in the gaming world, most games simply can not take advantage of the quad-core processor and you will be wasting your time if your not doing high end photo, video, or computer aided drafting.
Memory (RAM) With the release of DDR2 memory, this is the most effective upgrade a PC can have. When searching for a PC, do not let them believe that it will cost you an arm and leg to upgrade your memory. Let the bare minimum memory in a computer your looking at be at least 1.5 gigabytes. A simple google search for a commonly made DDR2 memory stick shows a rough price around $20 bucks for an extra stick of 1 gig of ram. But doing this same “upgrade” as a additional option on a PC you are purchasing can cost near $50, although it takes a bit of work to install it yourself, there are countless How-To articles and helpers on the internet, save yourself some money and do not let them scam you.
Hard Drive The majority of people believe that you need a huge capacity harddrive to keep the computer from slowing down, this is mostly untrue as slow downs are hardly, if ever, cause by the amount of pictures, save games, documents you have on your PC. A good rule of thumb is to keep at least 25% of your hard drive cleared.
A good size to go with is a 500 GB, these are coming down in price, and will hold every game you have played in the last 10 years without using ½ of the space. Again, like the quad-core processor, unless files quadruple in size, paying for anything over 500 GB will probably be a waste of money.
Video Card Probably the biggest pitfall to budget gaming, and the most talked about piece. In most low end computers, the video card is the first to be taken out and replaced with a cheap on-board video displayer. In almost any sub-$500 dollar PC this will be the case, and for 9 out of 10 games out there, the on-board video will not even start the game, let alone play it.
I am going to avoid saying going with NVIDA or ATI, particularly because each week the top video game card seems to change, however, going with something that fits your budget and works well with your PC is your best bet. You will also see some games “prefer” ATI or NVIDA, if you have a PC and intent to purchase a video card, you may want to look into sites about the game and see what is better for that particular game you play.
Sound Card While some people can simply go with a 2 speaker setup or even laptop speakers, some of us (including me) like to be immersed into a game. While I personally do not believe my Audigy 2 Card is outdated, sound is sound isn’t? The benefit of going with a newer sound card is simply more support. While I have no issues with the 7.1 surround sound experience, certain games had a crackle or odd sounds (Dungeon and Dragons: Online) while I went over to Creative’s website only to find out I was on the latest drivers already, support had ceased to exist for my card. And while sound cards are rather cheap now, you are better off finding a good setup that works well with what you have, spending a bit more now may save you some hassle later down the road.
Recommendations
Compaq Presario CQ5210Y (Found at Bestbuy.com for $399) This is a cheaper model that fits exactly what a cheap gamer is looking for, it features a 500 GB harddrive, a NVIDIA video card, a dual-core 2.7ghz AMD processor, 3 GB of DDR2 ram, and the very important expansion slots.
Acer Aspire AX1301-U9052 (Found at Newegg.com for $419.99)
This Acer hits the nail on the head of a budget gaming system, with a dedicated 256 MB video adapter, AMD Athlon II processor, and 4 GB of ram, it fits the requirements for most games quiet well. The other options on this computer are a bit behind such as the number of USB ports and lack of a larger power supply (220 watt however it should work for the casual MMORPG gamer. However it does have HDMI outputs and DVI standard for high-def gaming.
Building Your Own System
Building your own PC can be a daunting task for a newbie, but this can easily be a very rewarding experience, and can save huge amounts of money. The most important step is to read, and read again. If you decide to build your own system star with picking a motherboard and building the rest of the system around it, find one with good reviews on multiple sites, and within your budget, then after you figured out which one, go out and price out all of the components that are needed to complete the computer. If something is not right with the system don’t fret, Ebay, and Craigslist can recoup your money quickly, especially if it’s a newer item. However being patient pays off, and you will be much happier to get it right the first time.
By Dan Edgley for FreeMMORPGs.com
(4.18 out of 5)
Gerald