Expert: Bobbert - 4/7/2009

Question
QUESTION: I am starting to become an avid PC gamer and I'm looking to buy a new desktop computer suitable for gaming. I have a couple of PC games right now that I am running on my laptop but they seem slow and the graphics are choppy. I'm trying to find a PC that meets my requirements but I don't know much about processors or video cards. The requirements are 2.5GHz single core processor and either a 256MB DirectX 9.0c compliant pixel shader 2 or 128MB 3D Video Card. Any suggestions on computers that will work?

ANSWER: What games are you looking to play? And what kind of budget are you able to afford to this?

-bob


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: The games that I want to play, and the ones that are choppy on my laptop are, Grand Ages Rome and the Special Forces Edition of Empire Total War from Best Buy. I'd like to keep my budget between $1,000 and $1,500 at the most but I can save more if needed. I've seen the Alienware laptops but those are really pricey. I can also build one from scratch if that would be cheaper, I'd just need to know some brands of computer components or specs.

Answer
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/16438 Give this a read through, as well as finding similar articles (for example performance comparison charts like this: http://www.guru3d.com/category/vga_charts/ or here http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/16681).

At ~$1000-$1500, I'm thinking you're a bit overkill, I'm liking the TechReport "Utility Player" here:
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/16438/4

I would make a few ammendments, for example perhaps trade the HD 4870 for an HD 4890, or purchase one of the now less expensive HD 4870's (at ~$160, vs $210). Realize that this guide is a bit old (dating to February 2009), so pricing is likely a bit off, although the information contained is still good.

For info on how to build a computer yourself, I usually provide the following general guides:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_To_Assemble_A_Desktop_PC

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/how-to-tech/build-a-computer.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JTFBCbd04Q (follow through the series from links on the righthand side).

If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask.

-bob