I'm thinking of getting a PC

[ChooChooBot]

I haven't gamed on a PC in a long time. Most of my games I still play can run on my old dell laptops with 256mbs of ram lol. With the new Starwars MMO coming out sometime I'm interested in maybe buying a PC again. I would like the PC to be able to run game graphics at a reasonably high setting. How much would a good gaming computer run now a days. What are considered good specs in a PC. What would you recommend?

[MrPopo]

www.tomshardware.com

Also, welcome back to the PC Gaming Master Race.

[noiseredux]

here's MrPopo now...



...master race, indeed.

[isiolia]

There are a number of variables there, so it's hard to say for certain. Obviously, you can jump the cost up pretty easily.

IMO, the best route to go is to build your own. The problem with most prebuilt systems for gaming is that OEMs really aren't GPU-centric. You have cheaper low end machines, but they're usually not available with a decent card in them, and are ill-equipped to support adding one in (meager power supplies, tight cases, etc). By the time you start getting a good card even available, you're usually into the higher profit margin product range and could save a bit of money building it yourself.

Long and short is that building offers you a lot more flexibility about where to put the money. Purely for gaming, skewing things towards a GPU tends to offer the best results. Almost any current build with enough of a budget to work in a midrange GPU will probably do fairly well as a gaming machine.

That said, I'd probably ballpark a good bang for the buck gaming tower as starting around $800 for hardware (if you need a Windows license, another $100-130 for an OEM copy). Currently, that'd probably be an i5 2500k w/third party cooler, Z68 mobo, 8GB of RAM (unnecessary, but the cost over 4GB isn't much), hdd, optical, decent case/PSU, and around $200 for a GPU (6870 with money to spare or a 560GT most likely), which should suffice for running nearly anything on the market nicely at 1920x1200 or lower.

You can build a tower for a fair bit lower, but I'd say that for me personally, that's where it's stops becoming quite as easy to justify a few bucks more for the next notch up the product line.

[CFFJR]

here's MrPopo now...



...master race, indeed.

[deathsled]

here's MrPopo now...



...master race, indeed.

the best part is this picture has been my avatar on AIM for like 7 years hahaha

[MrPopo]

here's MrPopo now...



...master race, indeed.

Noise is just mad that he can't figure out how to work a computer for more than trolling the RB forums.

[J T]

here's MrPopo before he finished building his PC...



Here's MrPopo now...



...master race, indeed!

[BoringSupreez]

here's MrPopo now...



...master race, indeed.

Deeesgusting, yet hilarious. I'd think MrPopo would have gotten a newer PC by now instead of playing around with old ivory beasts, but whatever.

[pakopako]

here's MrPopo before he finished building his PC...

Dear gods, I'm blind!

Mind bleach, mind bleach. Use the emergency mind bleach.

NNNGGGGGGAAAAaaaahh.

Here's MrPopo now...

...master race, indeed!

Dear gods, I'm blind, again! (Wait, how did he turn that into a Commodore? Was Old Spice involved?)