Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

by **Erik** Wed Jul 20, 2011 11:50 am

Its time for me to buy a new computer, and it looks like this time a laptop sounds nice. I've been sent on a quest to find out what my computer would need to still be working well on games in the next 3-4 years. Right now, I'm looking at this, but I am told I need to be more specific. I'm not looking for the best for price or anything, or for entire laptops, I'm looking basically for what I should have for these topics:

Video Card:

Processor:

Ram:

What should I be looking for at the minimum if I want it to play games fine in a few years?

by **Cial** Wed Jul 20, 2011 12:40 pm

Right now I'm primarilly using my HP Pavillion dv7 Laptop And I love it. I have probably 20+ full games installed on here, and I'm playing Fallout New Vegas. It kicks butt, and it's got a nice big 17'' screen. It's a good way to go for gaming and/or school projects, etc.

by **Erik** Wed Jul 20, 2011 12:57 pm

But will that be enough to run Skyrim or other games that are supposedly graphics heavy?

by **Cial** Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:23 pm

Erik wrote:But will that be enough to run Skyrim or other games that are supposedly graphics heavy?

If you want to run Skyrim you'll have to drop about $1000.

by **DigDog** Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:56 pm

How much do you want to invest?

Also, if you want to play on a laptop expect the price to be higher than a comparable desktop computer with the same processing/graphics power.

by **Tim Hortans** Wed Jul 20, 2011 9:23 pm

My two cents are to find someone who can help you build your own PC. Buy your own parts, research them, and customize it to your liking. If you do it right, you'll end up with a computer possibly more powerful than retail, and for a couple hundred bucks cheaper.

by V Wed Jul 20, 2011 9:40 pm

Cial wrote:Right now I'm primarilly using my HP Pavillion dv7 Laptop And I love it. I have probably 20+ full games installed on here, and I'm playing Fallout New Vegas. It kicks butt, and it's got a nice big 17'' screen. It's a good way to go for gaming and/or school projects, etc.

ARE YOU SERIOUS I HAVE ONE REALLY SIMILAR TO THAT.

Pavillions are great little laptops, the 17" screens are great as Cial described and they have a nice wide keyboard. The only flaw, at least for my model, is that it has a horrible trackpad: but I use a USB mouse so it doesn't really matter any way.

If you're serious about gaming, though, I wouldn't suggest using a laptop. Either find someone as Tim suggested or register at a place like MajorGeeks or r/BuildAPC and just build your own gaming PC. You'll be able to get up a great rig for ~$600 as opposed to the $1000 - 2000 you'd end up spending on a high-end laptop. If I had the time, I probably would of gotten a cheap laptop for college and then built a serious gaming machine.

by **Tim Hortans** Wed Jul 20, 2011 9:43 pm

Also don't end up buying anything by Alienware. They're overpriced to crap. They may look good but you could save an easy 400$ by building your own.

by **Erik** Thu Jul 21, 2011 12:14 am

I've already gone through the build vs buy stuff, and the desktop vs laptop, and decided either I build a desktop which my dad is very reluctant to do, or I buy a good quality laptop.

What I really want to know is what minimum graphics card and processor do I need to buy if I want to be gaming on the same laptop in three years? Until I figure it out, I am at a standstill in the debate with my dad.

by **DigDog** Thu Jul 21, 2011 12:38 am

There is no graphics card that will let you play games in three years compared to the day when you bought it. Those cards "degrade" the fastest of all parts in a computer. Buying a high end graphics card is a waste of money anyway, on the upper ends you pay $100 more for 5% more power.

Anyway, there is no definite minimum because the names of the cards are very confusing. A source I trust is this list though. It's created and updated regularly by the best German games magazine. Even though it's in German you should understand the list since it's basically just a top 20 that mentions the name, the score and the price.

Those aren't laptop graphics cards though, but as someone already mentioned, a laptop is horrible for high quality gaming. It will either be terribly expensive, poorly made and have heat problems, or simply not strong enough. I'd go for a desktop PC if you want to play anything better than Flash games and MMO's.

Also,

graphics card and video card

Those are the same thing, you know.

by **Erik** Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:18 am

I meant to say processor, my bad.

by **Erik** Sat Jul 30, 2011 10:29 pm

Bump.

Ordered the parts for my new computer earlier off of newegg :3

Its an AMD.

by **Tim Hortans** Sat Jul 30, 2011 10:31 pm

What are the specs?

by Mrsebi Sat Jul 30, 2011 10:59 pm

This is why everyone should have a friend who likes tech stuff and reads about it.
And a friend with a pickup.
And one who is good at fixing crap.

by **DigDog** Sat Jul 30, 2011 11:28 pm

Tim Hortans wrote:What are the specs?

That. What's the point of telling us that you ordered one without telling us the specs? Geez, people.

by **Erik** Sun Jul 31, 2011 1:13 am

MAYBE I'M SELFISH.

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDE00ZFBGRBOX

ASUS M4A89TD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

(2) CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C9

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply

XFX HD-687A-ZNFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

RAIDMAX Tornado ATX-238WU Black / Blue SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Those are just the things that I think you would find important, not included are the monitor, windows 7 OEM, some free stuff, and the blue ray burner.

by **DigDog** Sun Jul 31, 2011 1:26 am

Price?

Oh and I hope it's silent. The one thing I hate most about computers is when the fans are unnecessary loud.

by **Flaw of Insanity** Sun Jul 31, 2011 3:17 am

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 OC Mini HDMI Dual-DVI 1GB (gaphics card)

Asus M4A78LT-M LE (motherboard)

Thermaltake Litepower W0355 600W (PSU)

Athlon II X4 640 3.0GHz Socket AM3 Box (CPU)

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 16MB 500GB (HDD)

Antec Three Hundred (Case).

Kingston HyperX Blu DDR3 PC12800/1600MHz CL9 XMP 2x2GB (RAM).

Finally built it yesterday. So pleased.

by **Erik** Sun Jul 31, 2011 4:08 am

DigDog wrote:Price?

Oh and I hope it's silent. The one thing I hate most about computers is when the fans are unnecessary loud.

The whole thing, including the other things I didn't list out but made a note about is about $1,359, and there are some mail in rebates which brings it down closer to $1,280. I'm told its the best stuff I can get without paying an extra couple hundred for another 5% of power. Probably will arrive... Wednesday, I will build between Wednesday and Friday, whenever time allows it for my friend, my dad, and I to get together.

by **Tim Hortans** Sun Jul 31, 2011 5:15 am

Flaw, how much did yours cost?

by **Flaw of Insanity** Sun Jul 31, 2011 3:56 pm

About $850. I quite like it. But I don't have a CD drive or Wireless adaptor, so no disk games or downloads because no internet asufhksdhfzsdf.

by **Erik** Sun Jul 31, 2011 8:16 pm

wat

WHAT CAN YOU EVEN DO THEN

by **Tim Hortans** Sun Jul 31, 2011 9:46 pm

He can play high definition solitaire.

by **DigDog** Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:35 pm

Or Minesweeper in Dolby Surround.

by **Erik** Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:55 pm

24 seconds is my high score on intermediate from when I was on vacation if I remember correctly.

by Sponsored content

Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow

Re: Computer Specification: Thinking of Today, and Tomorrow