How Do I Plan To Buy A Future-proof Gaming Pc?

[H.O.D 0]

The last PC game that I bought was Prince of Persia:Two Thrones which was released in 2007 if I remember correctly. It ran on my Pentium4 PC after I turned off all effects and the gameplay was very smooth. After that, I couldn't buy any other PC game because my system just doesn't support the new games due to lack of a graphics card (and the other specs as well). So I am looking forward to buying a new PC which will play almost all the newly released games without a hiccup (except the ones like Crysis which demand too-high specs)Every year there is some or the other game which demands higher specs than the rest of the games and this creates confusion in people like me who are worried about their PC config. What creates more confusion is the sheer number of graphics cards available in the market. Which one is better for future-proof gaming, which one is the best fit in my budget, and such questions are confusing a lot on whether or not to upgrade the PC at all!What I'm asking in this thread is not to suggest a configuration according to my budget, but according to your opinion, which type of configuration is the best future-proof gaming PC? By "future", I mean at least five years from now, the PC should still be able to play the latest games, at least in the minimal mode! That is quite a challenge, but is there such a config available? If so, what would such a PC cost? If someone could take the time to answer these questions it would be very helpful to me as I can then start dreaming about owning it

[yordan 10]

Lot of cpu power, lot of memory, and a very good graphic adapter.
Have a look at here, for instance : http://forums.xisto.com/Whats-High-Qualityml&hl=gamer

[H.O.D 0]

Lot of cpu power, lot of memory, and a very good graphic adapter.Have a look at here, for instance : http://forums.xisto.com/Whats-High-Qualityml&hl=gamer

Wow that thread had replies right from 2005! I skipped over to the last page to find the latest specs and those are some really amazing configs! I'm drooling right now thinking about the power in those components But it'll be a really long time before I can even consider to think of buying them

[yordan 10]

At least you have an idea of what you should buy today.A 4-processor PC with at least 4 gigs memory.A very performant graphic adapter with a lot of memory.Lots of disks.And a custom case with a very powerful Power Supply ind order to sustain all these things, and a very efficient cooling system because the graphic adapter and the disks will give a lot of heat. And the box should be very carefully designed in order not to be noisy, because while you will be very concentrated on your game you will not want to be disturbed by the fans noise.Have a look at the internet, you will see that most of the sites selling computers have a "special gamer" PC, which is five to ten times more expensive than a standard system.

[H.O.D 0]

Have a look at the internet, you will see that most of the sites selling computers have a "special gamer" PC, which is five to ten times more expensive than a standard system.

Yes I have noticed such sites and I think the most famous of them is the Dell brand, which sells the Alienware PCs and Laptops. They are meant especially for gaming and have brilliant configurations, but they're very expensive and one could buy a brand new car instead of the most expensive Alienware computer!

[yordan 10]

Yes I have noticed such sites and I think the most famous of them is the Dell brand, which sells the Alienware PCs and Laptops. They are meant especially for gaming and have brilliant configurations,

Also have a look at the alienware topic here : http://forums.xisto.com/AlienWare-Good-Badmp;hl=alienware

[k_nitin_r 8]

Hi!I believe you can't really future-proof something that shifts to a different technology and moves on to a next generation in about 4 years or less. If you have a PC from about 4 years ago, chances are that you would not have 802.11n wireless and would instead be running on 802.11g. Sure, it's backwards compatible but it does not match the speeds offered by 802.11n.Your best bet in getting something that works for games in the future is a desktop with max-ed out RAM and a decent CPU. After a couple of years, you can trade in the graphics card for a newer one since the CPU is unlikely to be a bottleneck for most games, but with the increasing realism in computer games, the graphics accelerator would need to be upgraded to keep up. If the start-up time in computer games is an issue, you would want to get a solid state disk drive but it is not something that should take away anything from the gaming experience.If you can get an assembled system with a custom case, you ought to stay away from the slim-line cases as they make upgrades more difficult. A larger case gives more room for the components to dissipate heat and gives you additional bays for installing hard disk drives and optical disk drives, among other things.

[yordan 10]

I agree.The only thing you can thing about is buying something which allows you to play the current PC games, and will allow you to feel happy this year and next year.

[H.O.D 0]

Your best bet in getting something that works for games in the future is a desktop with max-ed out RAM and a decent CPU. After a couple of years, you can trade in the graphics card for a newer one since the CPU is unlikely to be a bottleneck for most games, but with the increasing realism in computer games, the graphics accelerator would need to be upgraded to keep up. If the start-up time in computer games is an issue, you would want to get a solid state disk drive but it is not something that should take away anything from the gaming experience.
If you can get an assembled system with a custom case, you ought to stay away from the slim-line cases as they make upgrades more difficult. A larger case gives more room for the components to dissipate heat and gives you additional bays for installing hard disk drives and optical disk drives, among other things.

That's a good suggestion. I've seen some Dell computers with slim-line cases and I think it's very difficult to upgrade or modify parts in these. In any case I'm not looking to buy a branded PC and would prefer to assemble it myself. Your other point that there's no real future-proof PC also sounds sensible. When Crysis came out I think no one was ready to play it at the highest setting and it might have been a while for most people to upgrade their systems so that they could play it So each game may bring new surprises so in the end it is up to the gamer to choose.

[grim reaper1666 0]

i d recommend the latest parts, maybe a mid range quad core or even some of the 6 core processors out there but they are really costly. a ati graphics card since in my opinion they are more advanced (gddr5 faster clock speeds more shader cores) its the shader cores that make the biggest difference not just the total amount of memory i upgraded from a card with 8 shader cores to 60 shader cores and it made a unbelievable difference with the same memory btw. a ddr3 motherboard, see if its got 4 memory slots as you can usually have a higher amount of memory with 4 slots. i wonder if you can put a computer in a fridge?

[yordan 10]

i wonder if you can put a computer in a fridge?

Computers hate humidity.
If there is some humidity somewhere in a house, it will concentrate inside the fridge.
So, you probably can't put a standard computer directly inside a standard fridge.
At least you must find a way allowing the fans to make the ear circulation all around without allowing some water drops to be aspired inside the computer box!

[mahesh2k 0]

As yordan said earlier about specs. I think one thing you can do is see the current demo or beta or RCP version of the game check the specs and then decide what could be the requirement for the future games. I mean that way you'll surely find few things out about the specification.For example, memory for which you can't settle for less than 4GB. Hard disk should be 500GB onwards. If you can get it with USB hardisks these days easily. I think 500GB onwards should be the goal for most of the gamers. Anything less than 500 GB and people are likley to see the need for more memory in future. If you're music addict like most of the other gamers then surely you'll need 1TB onwards in future. I'm totally clueless about the path for the graphic cards and processor. Because there are lot of reviews and not a single gaming company favors particular processor or graphics cards. Though nvidia and AMD are taking market but still i do think there is no way you can decide which should be good because no matter which you choose you end up getting some box which requires upgrade after year or so.

[zenia 0]

An appropiate way to keep a computer up to date and able to cope with the new releases of the latest games is to buy a new part for the computer each year. Sometimes the processor can be renewed, sometimes the graphic card. And after some time the complete main board of the computer needs to be refreshed. This is a way to keep the computer fast and running the latest games.

[vhortex 1]

We seldom replace parts and my computer which is a mid range gaming computer when I assembled it last 2003 still performs nicely except that I need to play at mid level graphics if I will play shader 3 (Video card algo for 3D models) games. 7 years have passed before I need am upgrade and that is a lot of savings :)Alienware is way expensive and if you will calculate every parts used on the setup, you are actually paying 2x-4x of the actual price. You are only buying alienware's trademark. I don't know what is the condition on the topic starters country but on our country, we assemble our own pc and never bother buying those "branded" builts.The newest series of hardware gives more favor for AMD series of processors and Radeon cards series. Nvidia is also good but most new NVDIA or shall I shay GEFORCE based video cards comes out with lots of bugs and firmware updates (update for the built in computer software on your video card) is a must.Intel chips are now being beaten to the trend with cheaper AMD chips for high speed games. Nvidia is losing stability in comparison with Radeon.For an amount of $1200 (USD), we are able to construct a gaming system similar to alienware that are being sold at $3000-$6000. And if you really like the alienware look, you need to add another $600 to that price to get the customized casings.The easiest path to know which trend are going to be used in the future is to find a processor that is getting good reviews and cheaper cost. Most manufacturers won't invest on building a system that cost a fortune unless you are selling a very known brand that most of the consumer thinks as the only possible build that can fix what they need.The tip I can give about video card is to aim for the chips power, with regards to video in games, high memory for the video card means nothing compared to what the video cards processor can accomplish. It is also not important for a video card to have more than 512MB of memory when you have a compatible video card, motherboard and memory rams that can sync together. This will allow you to give 1GB memory from the total system memory.We typically set up 4GB base memory for the system and 512MB video memory, the 1GB of memory from the system is then pumped up to share to the video memory giving a final memory of 1.512GB of video memory and 3GB system memory. In order for this to work, you need a fast video card and a dual channel system ram. There are also some motherboards that can dual stack video cards, take that in consideration.For casing and heat reduction, invest on a casing that have the haet exhaust on top of the casing putting everything that heats up as low as possible on the case with a space of around 3-5 inches from the base. This will efficiently push the hot air out of the assembly. Even branded build system such as Dell overheats from time to time and thats a fact

Edited October 23, 2010 by vhortex (see edit history)

[zenia 0]

Alienware is way expensive and if you will calculate every parts used on the setup, you are actually paying 2x-4x of the actual price. You are only buying alienware's trademark5 inches from the base.

To inform me this question:What is ment by Alienware by vhortex?