AKICOLJ - new PC

[king_pellinor]

On the off-chance LoA's PC can't be revived economically, we'd be looking to get a new one for her.

She needs to be able to play FPSs and maybe CRPGs.  What's the current upper-middle class for games PCs?  I have no idea what current graphics cards and processor names mean :-)

For the rest, we'd probably be looking at your basic DVD-RW drive, plenty of RAM, basic ethernet.  Onboard sound would be good enough, and the smallest hard drive around should be bigger than the one she hasn't got near filling yet anyway.

Oh, and is there any real advantage to a Professional version of Win7 instead of Home?

Comments

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

If you can wait until this evening, I'll write a full reply...

Other necessary information: resolution of monitor (or will you get a new monitor?) or will you want a laptop?

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit is the one to get. For mainstream users and even gamers, there are no real advantages in getting the Professional or Ultimate editions.

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

I think it can wait (it's not my PC ;-) ).

The monitor is a 19" TFT on something like 1280x1024. I doubt we'll get a new one (we'd have to get two, anyway, to have the duplicate in my room for gaming). No laptop - we have one already. Perhaps looking at some cloud storage to make it easier to work on documents across different PCs, devices and locations might be interesting, but that's a separate issue.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of an upper middle class gaming computer. No doubt it's constantly obsessed with status and is absolutely determined to use only the right brand names.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't that be lower middle class? I note that your computer has an ancient 19" low res monitor, which is definitely upper middle class in the sense that it's the equivalent of a battered old Range Rover.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Well, good news. If your monitor is only 1280x1024, you really don't need to spend much money to get good frame rates. Also, because we seem to be a while away from the next generation of consoles, most PC games are still being made to broadly the same graphical standards as the PS3 and XBox360.

Here's an example: a cheap, entry-level gaming PC from overclockers.co.uk http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-168-OE&groupid=43&catid=2385&subcat= built around a Sandybridge processor (albeit one of the entry level Sandybridges), 4gb of RAM and a Radeon 7770 graphics card. Now I can't actually find a benchmark online that goes down as low as 1280x1024, but I can say that this system should be capable of playing Skyrim at 1920x1080 (so that's more than one and a half times as many pixels) at around 30 frames per second on ultra high detail.

That's hardly an "upper middle class" system though. For that, I'd want a somewhat faster processor, 8gb of RAM and a better graphics card - and a new monitor. To put the new monitor idea into context, you can get a very decent new 24" 1920x1080 monitor for £120. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-182-SA&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=

So what would an "upper middle class" system look like? Something like this perhaps:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-248-OE&groupid=43&catid=2385&subcat=1444 with the Radeon 7870 graphics card option for £874.24 incl VAT, plus the monitor I mentioned above. And maybe the largest SSD option (big enough that you could put Windows and all your Steam games on the SSD). An SSD is one of the best ways to make a PC really faster at everything, as opposed to a few more fps in some games. That would be all the power you would need for at least the next two years of gaming. (Skyrim 1920x1080, ultra high settings >70fps. Close to 70fps at those settings in Battlefield 3.)

What about a lower middle class system? Well probably the same basic system but with a Radeon 7770 instead of a 7870. But that's probably only saving you £70 or so while halving your fps, so I don't think it's worth it. Basically the sweet spot on the price/performance curve would be with the "upper middle class" system. So either stick with your ancient monitor (in which case you don't need anything remotely powerful, and you could in fact go even cheaper if you were happy to play at less than ultra high settings) or get a new 24" monitor and an upper middle class system with something like a Radeon 7870 and an SSD.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Incidentally I just used overclockers as an example supplier. I've heard good things about CyberPower, and their systems are very configurable. I doubt it's worth trying to buy a gaming desktop from PC World or anywhere else on the high street.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Most of this means little to me, but I really don't want a bigger monitor. Larger monitors seem to make me more seasick in games. For example, I played Deus Ex very happily many years ago on a teeny monitor with no problem, but when I went to play it again a couple of years ago, I was literally sick after 20 minutes. The only difference I can think of is the monitor size. (This is very very annoying, since I love that game.) I can't play the most recent Serious Sam due to seasickness, either. I'm not really sure how that leaves me when it comes to future games. :-(

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

That's weird. Bunn's FPS* seasickness doesn't seem dependent upon monitor size.

Incidentally, I'm very much enjoying Deus Ex: Human Revolution at the moment. It strikes me as your sort of game.




* First Person Shooter, not frames per second.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. If it is literally the physical screen space rather than the number of pixels that is a trigger, I wonder if one of those wee little monitors they sell as second screens for people with laptops might help?

This is probably one of those annoying 'hard to test without spending money' ideas. :-/

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I could be wrong. More recent games are more likely to make me ill than older games, so I'd assumed it was something about graphics quality. But with Deus Ex, it was still the same old game, and the only thing that had changed was the screen size. Unless something about me has changed in the intervening years...

Hmm... Maybe I should try watching one of those hand-held camera movies on the laptop screen, to see if it makes me feel ill the same way it does on the TV.

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that's all very useful.