Thinking about going PC, quick questions

sigh it's only as loud as you make it depending on the cooling option you choose.

and no offense but this:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=making+older+ga...een+resolution

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=steam

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=using+a+controller+with+pc

yes to all your questions...

Once you PC game, you won't go back.

It's an addiction, no question about it.

If you dont have patience and a willing to learn pc gaming is not for you. Theres lots of guys who have come in here building their first gaming pc then realize theres a learning curve involved. So they stomp up and down the forums crying how their rigs arent running perfect and how they spent all this money. But if your willin to take your time and have the patience pc gaming can be rewarding. Google is your friend and checking out sites like tomshardware can help you in your journey. Good Luck and have fun

"Waaay Better" is subjective. PC Graphics are almost always higher resolution, but with many PC games being console ports, the things like "Way Better" graphics can be misleading. PC's offer the following advantages over consoles:

1) The ability to run the games at higher (sometimes much higher) resolutions than on a console.

2) The ability to run the games at a higher (sometimes much higher) framerate than on a console.

3) The ability to play the games with a mouse/keyboard or a steering wheel designed for a PC rather than whatever your current console allows.

4) The ability to apply trainers and other such questionable items to give yourself an advantage in the game. I threw my 360 copy of PROTOTYPE out the window, but thanks to the cheats I was able to actually complete the game on the PC. And even with infinite health THAT was a pain in the ass.

5) The ability to do multiplayer without having to subscribe to a service or own a bluetooth headset.

WHAT YOU LOSE:
The ability to have chat/texting/game making easily integrated into each and every game...this applies more to LIVE than the PS3 . Its not the wild west on the PC that it used to be...but....


Most, if not all, PC games can be made to go widescreen via .ini file tweaks or 3rd party applications and hacks.


Yes...how well they perform with a controller however is questionable. Most games released since the Xbox 360 was out will usually come with some kind of game-pad support, although honestly if you are at a desk with a PC you'll use the keyboard and mouse for shooters, and use a pad for 3rd person and driving games (or a wheel).


My PC runs at 4.8Ghz and has a GTX 580 video card that runs at 933Mhz....when its fans spool up it doesn't sound like a helicopter, more like a "whooshing of air" behind me. The idea is to move the PC a few feet away from you if you can, invest in some low-noise fans, and if possible you can go further to "hush" a loud PC.......


Even better......you can just buy the games online and download them directly, no discs.

If you do buy discs (increasingly uncommon for PC games by the way, most folks gaming on the PC are doing direct-downloads these days) you can use a 3rd party crack to not have to keep the disc in the drive, if the game even requires that you do that. That of course isn't really legal....but its a route you can choose to take. Don't be surprised if that boots you out of online services however.

Ultimately your best bet is to just buy the game online and download it. YOu'll need some reasonable broadband to do this of course....with games approaching 15+ gigabytes in size for downloads.

Hope this helps.

Another huge advantage is the cost of games for the pc. If you take your time and build your own rig using websites like newegg, tigerdirect, amazon, techbargains, etc., you can build a pc for the lowest cost possible. Also, if you have a bit of patience, you can buy games for way cheaper than the consoles. Depending on how many games you purchase, in a year or two you could account for a HUGE chunk of your pc build cost from what you saved on the cost of the games themselves (compared to the cost of the same games on xbox or ps3).

my ps3 is easily twice as loud as my pc. Get a good case, look at antec p18x series or the newer and better 280. Fractal design is a good budget one, Silverstone makes some quiet ones as well but are higher end. xbox controller is pretty much the defacto standard

> Can you force games to work with a controller?

Many games have controller support but not all that you would think (Mass Effect, MW3, etc. don't). BF3 does though and most other games that are released on consoles.

Microcenter, Fry's Electronics and newegg typically will have your best prices if you wait for sales. Microcenter normally has the best CPU/Motherboard deal (at least with Intel). Newegg has awesome deals if you don't have to pay tax. They have good sales if you can be patient.



Also, I'm in a very similar boat as you. I have no interest in using a mouse and keyboard to play games, even with FPS's. I know that must seem asinine to some of the hardcore PC guys, but hey, that's just the way it is for me. I'm a console gamer, that is simply playing his console games on PC, cause I want them to look more purdy....

As soon as a new Xbox or PS4 comes along, I'll be right back on the console bandwagons. No disrespect intended to PC gaming, but I prefer console gaming, as long as it's new, and high end. After it's like 3 or 4 years old, it starts to get a bit stale, and that's when I'll want a PC again likely. So, if you think you might fall into a similar scenario, then I recommend that you don't go overboard on your build. The next Xbox is coming November 2013, so you don't need this rig to last you that long. You should be able to build a tower with a 560 Ti 448 and an overclocked i5 2600k, and about 8 gigs of ram, and you'll be in business. I have a regular 560 Ti (not the 448 version), but a friend has almost the exact same build as me, but he has the 560 Ti 448, and with his overclocked 2600k, he can run Crysis 2 at max settings (1080p). So, you figure a combo like that will hold you over till the late November 2013 launch of "Durango".... heh...



Also, in regards to buying PC games. Remember, you don't "own" PC games. Not like a console game that can be sold on Craigslist or Ebay. You can't trade your used games into GameStop or Amazon or anybody like that. You can't give the games to your cousin, etc, etc. Limited installs, etc, etc.

CONSIDER PC GAMES AS PAYING FOR AN EXTENDED RENTAL.



You're basically leasing PC games for a certain amount of time, and under certain stringent conditions. Understand that, and always buy your games dirt cheap, because who wants to pay a ton of money for an extended rental?


Here is a list of my recent PC game purchases. Notice the price I paid:


Modern Warfare 2 - 5 bucks via Amazon

Assassin's Creed 2 - 5 bucks via Amazon

Dead Space 2 - Free via Amazon ( had a $5 coupon)

Need for Speed - Hot Pursuit - 5 bucks via Amazon

Bulletstorm - 5 bucks via Amazon

Dead Space - 5 bucks via Steam

Mass Effect 2 - 5 bucks via Amazon



The last time I spent more than $5 on a PC game, was when I bought the Fallout 3 GOTY Edition for $7.50, and when I bought Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY version for $7.50. Other than that, everything has been only 5 bucks. Because the games can't be traded in, or resold or anything like that, it's just so hard for me to justify spending more than say 20 bucks on a game. If you do buy a game right away and pay full pop for it, make sure it's a game that you're going to love, and don't do it frequently. Patience is a big time virtue with buying PC games. You spend all that money on the hardware, so you gotta make PC gaming pay off by waiting on the sales. Check Cheapassgamer.com daily. Wait for the 75 percent off Steam Sales. Check Amazon downloads frequently. They will often have 1 day sales, or sales that last only a couple of days. GamersGate "sometimes" will have a deal.

If a certain game does not natively support a controller you can use a program like Pinnacle Game Profiler where you can map any keyboard button to any button on the controller. For example for SWTOR I was using a XBOX controller, and with PGP I have a total of 38 keys mapped out. I have it set as one tap of a controller button is a keyboard press and holding it down is another. It's very flexible.

True, I have a friend who thought it would be for him, but it turned out he is just not at all interested with having to tinker and tweak with settings.. I had to do all that for him.. many people will find that sort of thing intimidating, but for me and many others its pretty much the biggest plus when it comes to PC gaming.

Options > No Options, I always say.

I also didn't see anyone answer the 4:3 / 16:9 question.. and the answer is, its up to you. If you want to stretch 4:3 games to 16:9 you can change that setting in your video card's control panel. But I personally think its best to preserve the true 4:3 aspect ratio with the black bars on the side. However, you'll even find that many older games have custom workarounds to RENDER true 16:9 widescreen, not just STRETCH it.

Also, cd/dvd drives are becoming a thing of the past. You can direct-download pretty much every new game, and even old games (good old games . com) I just built a new rig a week ago with no cd/dvd drive what-so-ever. Mostly every driver or software can be downloaded, and even Windows can be installed off a simple USB flash drive.

Lastly, I've never in my life heard a louder fan than the Xbox 360's.. so if you can tolerate that you can tolerate anything.. you will even have the ability to manually adjust every single fan in your computer if things are too loud!

There are many methods for creating a virtually silent PC. You are only limited by your budget. The single best recommendation anyone can give you is to do your research, learn what components do what, and then build your own. This will save you a ton of money and give the reward of doing it yourself. Also if anything goes wrong, have a better idea of what the problem could be or at least be familiar with the components so if someone says you need to replace your GPU, you'll know what they are talking about and not have to pay a tech to do it. There is a wealth of knowledge over at www . evga . com.

I used to build my own PC and game on the PC way back in the days of Wolfenstein, Quake, Half Life, Red Baron (and RB3D)...well you get the idea. Had consoles all that time too (and way before back to PONG). Went pretty much exclusive to console when XBOX/Playstations came out. Have 'toyed" with the idea of going back to PC gaming. What do you gentlemen think of the "mid-range build" listed at this site. They continually update the prices to TigerDirect. But their listed price is sometimes even cheaper than what is showing.

http://www.build-gaming-computers.co...-computer.html

The midrange setup seems great. That rig would run every game either maxed out or nearly maxed out, 1080p with 4xAA/16xAF until the next generation of consoles roll out.

Except for the seagate drive. I would switch that to a WD. Newegg ratings are consistently stronger across the board with WD drives than Seagate's.

Only thing that sucks is that since the flooding in China, hard drive prices are subject to price gouging. So you pretty much have to overspend on a hard drive right now. Might make sense to leave that part out for now, and re-use an existing hard drive until hard drive prices go back to normal.

Only other advice is a $30 sound card is pretty much worthless. Motherboards are coming with pretty decent onboard sound these days.. and until you are willing to spend $150-200 on a sound card like an HT OMEGA, you won't notice any significant improvement in sound quality over onboard sound.

Thank you for the reply. Yeah I would probably bypass the sound card. I hear what you are saying about the HD prices. An unfortunate situation indeed. Was also possibly considering an SSD, as the option to load an OS and a game or two for quick loading IS enticing.

I know that will take the price higher and I would need to research that the current (in the mid-range build) cooling, MOBO configuration options, PWSPLY, etc would support that SSD. I think I checked before and an SSD would work in the set up as is. I am fairly patient with OS boot times and "loading" screens, but the benefit of that added drive is tempting.

Would definitely check out WD drives. I've bought from NewEgg and Tiger and am comfortable with both for comparing pricing.

The SSD that my windows 7 install and desktop live on has been the biggest single improvement to my system that I have made in all my system builds. Yes, they are that much faster and more responsive. System boots up....ready to work, no waiting 30 seconds for an hourglass to disappear while a hard drive thrashes in your case. BOom, desktop. Double click mail icon...boom, its up in 1-2 seconds tops and downloading.

I'm going to disagree above on the hard drive replacement but only for the following reason: Seagate sells a million bajillion drives every year. You can get duds. But Seagate drives are about as reliable as I think any other drives are. I also prefer WD, but before that I hated WD after getting crappy, loud, slow ones in the late 90's...and switched to Seagate's. I just wouldn't swap based on "Hmmm I hear those are better", not at these prices anyways...its not like the Seagate one is made of tin and rusting when it arrives.....

But the SSD...that is a must-do.

Thanks for the SSD "confidence vote". I will strongly consider the option....sounds like a no-brainer decision when building these days. Now, just gotta talk myself into returning to the PC gaming world.

You would think it would be an easy decision as even though I have paid for LIVE since its inception, I am hardly ever truly using it these days. Certainly not for first person shooters as I have tired of the genre. Maybe its the pull of being able to sit on the couch and game on a 50" plasma . Of course I would not totally give up console gaming. Decisions.....

I don't think a SSD is a consideration anymore. It's a must for any type of rig now. The performance gains are so huge and the prices are not so bad anymore, it's would be a pretty bad move no to have one.

DO IT!!!!

I just came across Xpadder tonight but haven't tried it, saw a guy playing mass effect 3 pc with 360 controller.

www.xpadder.com

Video link

Also don't forget about the monitor, IPS or 120hz TN, 3D. 1, or 3 like eyefinity.

Here is a crazy example, 5 120hz monitors

The bezels would drive me insane. Awesome setup none the less.

For a racing game, or a flight sim, I don't think it's too bad. However, any other type of game and yeah... it would drive me insane as well..

3x1 in landscape mode is pretty good. But that setup looks horrible in portrait mode. The bezels cut right through where your main focus would be. My setup all the stuff is happening in my middle monitor and the two sides are my peripheral vision. So the bezels arent too distracting.

Same thought, and why I think some people misunderstand about the bezels; you aren't supposed to be looking at the sides, staring at the center of the screen lets you savor the sides. I might even consider a higher FOV with a bigger screen although, like in a projector set up (and without borders), that can emulate the 5x1 portrait/ 6x2 landscape modes very well.

That would be an awesome setup

I would have a 3 projector setup if I had the room!!! It seriously takes alot of room for 3+ projector screens at an adequate size and do it right :-(

IMO...racing games you can't go portrait mode or it looks like that, when you are driving a car you can only see so much above your head because of your roof and your windshield is only so big.

Landscape mode > portrait .... imo

http://www.riimini.com/wireless-mess...soft-xbox-360/

This company makes a lot of different kinds of wireless keyboards and gadgets.

I built my first Gaming PC starting back in November of last year. I had some problems, mostly related to micro-stuttering from the graphics cards I chose and issues with my soundcard. It has definitely been worth it - but it's a commitment and like Wiseguy said - you'll have to have a willingness to learn. I say go for it! Just do yourself a favor and go big from the start that way you don't find yourself doing what I did and upgrading stuff after only a short while. And when I say go big I mean like good GPU (possibly the new GTX 680), a good PSU, and a solid CPU. You'll be glad you did!