Turn Your Crappy Desktop into a Gaming PC [from PCPer]

Pretty interesting video. Thought some might enjoy it.

Nice vid. This card is beastly but my problem is my pc is essential that cheap lenova one. Its a amd 3.3ghz dual core with nvidia 9800gt so I think with gamging moving to quad core I might need to upgrade processor and this card alone wont make much of a difference

This is a great card to get more people into pc gaming.

It will still make a difference over the 9800gt, probably not as much as it would if you had a better CPU, for for 150 quid it's a great little card, gonna get one for my HTPC to replace my 6770.

plus, you could buy the card and get a boost now

and in the future if you up the cpu, or gut the thing and up cpu/mobo/ram - you might get another boost, and you've already got a decent gpu and didn't pay too much.

its one of my favorite moves, but of course you can hate the idea.

Im in 2 minds right now, dont know wether to build my own budget pc or buy steam machine and install windows. Have a massive console backlog right now anyway so pc can wait

Nice video. The problem is, most people that have computers just for work computers probably own laptops, not towers.

It's not always easy for PC Gamers to stand on a pedastool and say "Anyone can be a PC Gamer, here's how."

The "$500 PC" seems to be all the rage in this forum as a sort of counter-argument to PCs being better only cause their way more expensive.

No.

If you're going to do it, do it right. Don't care about what a console player might respond to your argument.

PC gamers on here are very insecure. Happy with your PC great, just stop yelling at everyone about it.

Yeah, call out PC gamers for having pride in their rigs and talking about them but be sure to ignore the consolites bragging about 20 extra fps or a few pixels more, yeah that doesn't reek of insecurity at all, only hermits can be insecure.

Though i agree with your whole "if you're gonna do it do it right" thing, some people can't afford to do it right and solutions like the one in the vid or the $500 PCs you see people talking about can be a good stepping stone toward doing it right while on a budget.

There are plenty of games on PC that aren't on consoles, plenty enough to make building even a low end gmaing PC worthwhile.

@dbtbandit67: I agree that PC gaming is an investment, and sometimes, it's not worth it. However, never overlook the fact that for 150 dollars, you can salvage a pre-built desktop into a gaming ready platform. At the very least, you can play LoL for cheap and thus, lower the requirement to play such games.

Is it a long term solution? No, but at least it's something that will do until you have the funds needed to make your own rig.

why would you want to play games the inferior way?

Ask yourself.

that gpu sucks and those rigs could hold that back. Love when my fellow hermits recommend awful rigs they would never touch because how bad it would run. Stop trying to hide the price of pc gaming and admit it costs more but has cheaper software.

It costs as much as you want to put into

Just keep in mind that most hermits and PC gamers prefer a "balanced", more expensive system.

I.E. You still have to pay a fair amount of money in addition to doing some nerdery if you want to transcend and become true master race.

Will console gamers stop yelling about their crap too?

If you're stuck with a prebuilt because your parents doesn't know better, and for only $150, you can have at least 5 fold increase in performance, would you not invest in one?

There is a market for such a card, and it's not going to appeal to you. Saying PC gaming costs more is like saying a Ferrari costs more.

I'm waiting for my 4670k to come in the mail today. I think that is all I need in my computer atm. =P

My PC is limited by the OS. I have a free PC from work, which is decent on its own, but has 32-bit Windows. Unfortunately, I cannot upgrade the OS according to company policy, and if I did, most of the business apps would no longer work.

The thing about PC hardware is that the initial investment is high, but you can re-use and re-use and upgrade one part at a time instead of throwing out a whole machine.

For example, all rigs can recycle the following easily:

-Case

-Power Supply

-Optical Drive

-Expansion Cards

-Peripherals

These parts below can be transferred over, but with a few stipulations

-Operating System (you can usually count on an OS being good for ~8-12 years, but you'll eventually be forced to upgrade as drivers and features will start to not be rolled into it)

-GPU (though this will probably be the first thing to get replaced however)

-Mobo + CPU + RAM combo (these are usually a package deal, but they usually last quite awhile after the initial investment. A Core-2 Quad with LGA 775 Mobo and DDR2 RAM can still hold it's own in most games)

Yes, buying a rig initially is usually a large investment, but the modular nature of the platform allows for a lot more flexibility, and not only that but a rig is not only a game machine, but can also be a work station and media center.

Kiddies start saving your lunch money so you can get your training wheels. Great card for entry level pc gaming. Puts you basically on par with the xbone if you put this in a modern desktop.

This is a great idea to get people into PC gaming. I did this with my latest PC. I would recommend getting a cheap PC that has at least a quad core CPU with 8GB DDR3. It's alot easier to change out the GPU and the PSU than building a complete PC from the ground up.

Pretty dumb.

I built a £600 PC for a friend with a FX 6100 and HD 7850 late 2012 and he's playing Battlefield 4 at 1920x1080 on medium settings no problem what so ever.

If I couldn't afford to have a high end PC I would still have a gaming PC and I would just lower my settings. I would build a system with a FX 6300 and a R9 270X for £550.

I built my PC because I have the money... If I didn't have that amount I would work with what I can and honestly £600 is enough to get you gaming at 1920x1080 medium settings with ease on every game and its all superior to consoles running the same games on medium to high at sub 1920x1080 at 30FPS and some times 60FPS.

I'm very happy with my 7950 atm.

so i can build a 1$ pc it costs what the market demands it to.

With modern PC sales, this makes sense. Unfortunately, this isn't relevant to those utilizing older desktop PC's. Though, this could work with 3-4 year old PC's.

All I need to answer is : derp

yep same here. Thank you Sony and MS for launching consoles weak enough to ensure that I will never have to upgrade this gen to keep playing multiplats. Of course I will still upgrade in a few years though. I upgrade to keep up with what is happening on PC.

My first PC cost £499. Intel E7300, 2GB of RAM and a ATi 4670.

Didn't that card cost like $70-80 at launch? Was a solid mid-ranger too; that whole series had great pricing. $300 for the flagship, which within half a year dropped below $200? GPUs these days are horrendously overpriced.

Having pride in your PC is great, the Hermits here are massive idiots. They invade threads that have nothing to do with PC and start some stupid debate about why console gaming is shit. Many here are insecure, or have buyers remorse. In fact, the internet is filled with PC gamers like that.

I see what you did there...

I'm not sure what did I do? I was just stating what I see. I mean many of the hermits here act just like that. I'm proud of all my PCs, but I don't see the point it bragging about it.

Check out that self reflection

This is actually perfect for me.

I have a crappy desktop (Dell Inspiron 530) that I upgraded slightly. I wanted to get into PC gaming, but it didn't have the capability. Originally I could play Left 4 Dead on Medium setting at 720p and around 30fps with drops (basically console settings). It had 2GB of DDR2 RAM and a dual core @ 2.20GHz. Since then, I spent $100 and put in an HD 6670 DDR5 1GB GPU and upgraded to 4GB of RAM for another $40. Now I can run L4D almost maxed out at 1080p between 45-60 fps. There are still games that barely run though. My plan now is to replace my CPU with a Core 2 Duo at 3.33Ghz (mobo won't allow a quadcore) and swap the 6670 for a 750Ti.

I'm hoping that'll hold me over until I save enough for the PC I want to build (which will be around $2000).

...or it could just be that this is system wars and that kind of shit is allowed...Or you're just thinking of Jankar

My crappy desktop is a pentium 4 single core, so that's impossible.

And for the love of all things holy, don't start with the tired ole " you can get a dual core case on the cheap for x amount of money, then get some help and pick a GT25xxZOMEGA mothership board with dual heatsink modified ampule adjusters, and a quidPROquo alphaFAN cooler and 90million gigahurtz of golden RAM chip sets with anti-spark enhancer casing die caster carbonite future vision oculator myops on 20" rims", because I just don't give a shoot about modern gaming on a desktop PC.

...so you entered this thread because...?

Because I don't want to turn my crappy desktop in to a gaming PC. Oh, and because I like having fun with solicitors and beggars.

If you don't want to turn your desktop into a gaming PC, why would you be interested in a thread about doing just that

For the same reason posters like Stevo goes into a JRPG thread and says "eww, do not want"?

If you guys don't want static and just want sweetness, go talk about this stuff on a PC-only board somewhere.

My crappy desktop is staying crappy through college.

That is unless someone wants to buy me this card? I got an A on my biology test last week. Surely that deserves a reward?

So you admit you have no self control ...cool, cool

All fanboys here are massive idiots and this is System Wars, most people bitching or moaning are insecure and/or have buyers remorse and that applies to the console muppets aswell. Trying to single out one faction as insecure says more about you than it does about them.

Having said that, there are a few zealots in the hermit faction that go into every thread to preach about PC superiority, but honestly for every zealot in the hermit camp you have 20 in the Sony camp and a few in the MS camp, so stop being a hypocrite, i don't see you bitching like this in every "PC gaming is dead" or similar thread.