CNCVol88
Local Band Nerd
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2012
- Messages
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I've been having a small discussion in another thread about PC gaming but I felt like I wanted to give PC gaming a place of its own to talk about in a broad sense.
The first thing I want to do is talk about a couple of common misconceptions about PC Gaming.
The first is that it costs >= $1000 USD to get into PC gaming. The truth is that for around 600 dollars, you could get something that at the very least is going to be the same level as the xbox and PS4 and may even outperform it in some ways. This will most likely pay for itself within a year due to not having to pay for online and for services like Steam's Winter and Summer sales and humble Bundles (As an Aside, I picked up Far Cry 3 for 7.50 and the New Tomb Raider for 10 dollars this week for example and I picked up Dead Space, Dead Space 3, Crysis 2 Maximum Edition, Burnout Paradise Ultimate box, and Mirror's Edge for 1 Dollar in a humble bundle a while ago so basically 20 Cents each.)
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($44.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: GeIL EVO Veloce Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($164.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cougar Spike MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: CoolMax 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) ($94.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $634.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-23 10:17 EST-0500)
After Rebates, you're looking at a system that cost you a little more than an xbox one but your games will be mostly cheaper (or will become cheaper quicker) and there's no online fee. The Case I chose is a Mini-ATX case. Its a small Form Factor case. You won't be able to SLI the Graphics card I picked out but it will fit in the case and you should be able to sit it near your TV if you wish to play with a Controller. The CPU only has 6 cores but each core is running at twice the speed as the PS4 and Xbone so I think that's a good tradeoff.
2) There are no good games on PC. That is strictly false. Not only are there great games, some games that appear on both, are played best on PC (Battlefield and Skyrim I'm looking at you) We also have the ultimate Backward Compatibility. I can play games from 15 years ago on my rig if I want. We have games that over 10 years later are still going strong. I made a short list of quality games on PC that's either out or coming out in the next year or so on another thread. I won't type that out again but I will say google Star Citizen, Path of Exile (which I've seen it mentioned in several best games of 2013 lists), Just Cause 2 Multiplayer Mod, Skyrim Mods, DOTA2, League Of Legends, Starcraft II (as if you didn't know what that was), and that's just scratching the surface. We have great stuff on PC. its not as hyped as a lot of console stuff, but then again, they don't have the backing of Activision and EA a lot of the times.
I'd love to talk about PC gaming and have this an Open discussion. Its a Topic I like to talk about. Its a hobby for me (PC Gaming...and that includes tinkering with Hardware. That part is insanely fun)
The first thing I want to do is talk about a couple of common misconceptions about PC Gaming.
The first is that it costs >= $1000 USD to get into PC gaming. The truth is that for around 600 dollars, you could get something that at the very least is going to be the same level as the xbox and PS4 and may even outperform it in some ways. This will most likely pay for itself within a year due to not having to pay for online and for services like Steam's Winter and Summer sales and humble Bundles (As an Aside, I picked up Far Cry 3 for 7.50 and the New Tomb Raider for 10 dollars this week for example and I picked up Dead Space, Dead Space 3, Crysis 2 Maximum Edition, Burnout Paradise Ultimate box, and Mirror's Edge for 1 Dollar in a humble bundle a while ago so basically 20 Cents each.)
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($44.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: GeIL EVO Veloce Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($164.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cougar Spike MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: CoolMax 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) ($94.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $634.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-23 10:17 EST-0500)
After Rebates, you're looking at a system that cost you a little more than an xbox one but your games will be mostly cheaper (or will become cheaper quicker) and there's no online fee. The Case I chose is a Mini-ATX case. Its a small Form Factor case. You won't be able to SLI the Graphics card I picked out but it will fit in the case and you should be able to sit it near your TV if you wish to play with a Controller. The CPU only has 6 cores but each core is running at twice the speed as the PS4 and Xbone so I think that's a good tradeoff.
2) There are no good games on PC. That is strictly false. Not only are there great games, some games that appear on both, are played best on PC (Battlefield and Skyrim I'm looking at you) We also have the ultimate Backward Compatibility. I can play games from 15 years ago on my rig if I want. We have games that over 10 years later are still going strong. I made a short list of quality games on PC that's either out or coming out in the next year or so on another thread. I won't type that out again but I will say google Star Citizen, Path of Exile (which I've seen it mentioned in several best games of 2013 lists), Just Cause 2 Multiplayer Mod, Skyrim Mods, DOTA2, League Of Legends, Starcraft II (as if you didn't know what that was), and that's just scratching the surface. We have great stuff on PC. its not as hyped as a lot of console stuff, but then again, they don't have the backing of Activision and EA a lot of the times.
I'd love to talk about PC gaming and have this an Open discussion. Its a Topic I like to talk about. Its a hobby for me (PC Gaming...and that includes tinkering with Hardware. That part is insanely fun)
