What should I look for on a PC?

[Love Angel PMS]

Hello everyone,

At the moment, I am using my poor little laptop for gaming, but I fear it is not the best solution.
Even though I am only playing Diablo II, there are times when it does not run smooth and I get blocked on game for a couple of seconds.

I know that the solution for this problem would be getting a REAL PC/laptop to play, however, I am not really sure about which specifications/features I should look for when choosing the system.

I have a slight preference for a laptop.

Could you help me on that, please?

Besides Diablo II, I am looking forward playing CSS and WoW.

Thanks in advance.

[Arbee H2O]

Honestly, none of the above really require an intensive gaming system, so it depends on what you want to plan for. Obviously a laptop will be more expensive, and not upgradeable for the most part so what you get is what you are stuck with. You are definitely better off with a desktop that you can upgrade pieces as needed, will be much cheaper for a comparable system and if possible have someone build it for you. If you really want to get a laptop, and don't want to get an expensive gaming laptop here are just a few things I would look out for to play your games:

- Don't get one with the standard intel video chipset. Even if you aren't getting a higher end system, at least get one with its own seperate video chipset. e.g- nvidia go8600, atiXXX etc.. won't share the system ram, and is always better then standard intel video. Of course, if you want to play higher end games down the line you would be looking more on par with better graphic chipsets (8800, etc..)

- Try to get a laptop with a harddrive speed of 7200rpm. Cheap ones are 4200, some are 5400, you would really rather have 7200rpm sata drive. It makes a good size difference.

- If you get one running vista, get at least 2gb ram (pref in single slot so you can upgrade, but might get expensive). This reason, Vista tends to use most of 1gb by itself so you really need more for a decent gaming experience.

I would say those are most important to look out for when trying not to spend too much on a laptop. Like I said your games listed don't require anything too high, but if you want to be able to play higher end stuff, and for keeping price low, you really are better off trying to build a mid-lvl pc.

Feel free to drop me a line, if u have other questions and gl :)

[Nakashige H2O]

CSS uses the cpu more than a graphics card

[H2O Uk.Cobra]

if you need a PC built hit me up in vent or PM me when you want to talk i could build a Gaming PC that will play anything perfectly fine for around 800-1000$ including monitor keyboard mouse etc

if the price is to much i can work on by changing parts could probably going around 600-800$


going to sites that pre-build for you are very overpriced and the rigs i built are better then pre-built pc's that cost around 2000$ or more

as for a laptop i can help you find a cheap one that has a decent graphics card for you

[Saint]

Hello everyone,

At the moment, I am using my poor little laptop for gaming, but I fear it is not the best solution.
Even though I am only playing Diablo II, there are times when it does not run smooth and I get blocked on game for a couple of seconds.

I know that the solution for this problem would be getting a REAL PC/laptop to play, however, I am not really sure about which specifications/features I should look for when choosing the system.

I have a slight preference for a laptop.

Could you help me on that, please?

Besides Diablo II, I am looking forward playing CSS and WoW.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.pricewatch.com

I bought a refurbished laptop here for 400.00 with a 1gig ram and 80 gb harddrive....i believe that they have gaming pcs and notebooks on here as well

[Maxman]

if you need a PC built hit me up in vent or PM me when you want to talk i could build a Gaming PC that will play anything perfectly fine for around 800-1000$ including monitor keyboard mouse etc

if the price is to much i can work on by changing parts could probably going around 600-800$


going to sites that pre-build for you are very overpriced and the rigs i built are better then pre-built pc's that cost around 2000$ or more

as for a laptop i can help you find a cheap one that has a decent graphics card for you

Nice specifications Cobra, as declared inside your Sig...

[H2O sobe]

Yes, I agree with you Cobra though on the $2000 thing being ridiculous. AlienWare is a great example of that when Falcon NorthWest offers better quality at towards the same price, plus better service, why go for the lesser of the 2(Though you hear more about AlienWare due to promotional advantages).

Although in your sig, get rid of Crucial :P -.- Go grab some g.Skill or something XD


I was going to make a post before, but didn't feel like mentioning honestly. You'd need to add about another $100 or so towards any cost of the rig as a whole, for the shipping charges + $1k, etc. insurance or however much is being spent to make sure it's all covered..

[Nakashige H2O]

no u need patriot memory

[H2O sobe]

I did some testing with that and found g.Skill to be the best between Corsair XMS2, Patriot Extreme, g.Skill, Crucial Ballistix, and Adata. Though Adata and Crucial fell right behind as overclockable, Crucial had a high fail rate from fellow overclockers and enthusiasts it seems. The only real reason I don't recommend Crucial, reliability.

Patriot memory though was reliable though, I'll give it that. I'd put Patriot above Corsair in any choices. Their sticks didn't go too far, that's all. Doesn't take away their reliability nor credibility.

[H2O Uk.Cobra]

I did some testing with that and found g.Skill to be the best between Corsair XMS2, Patriot Extreme, g.Skill, Crucial Ballistix, and Adata. Though Adata and Crucial fell right behind as overclockable, Crucial had a high fail rate from fellow overclockers and enthusiasts it seems. The only real reason I don't recommend Crucial, reliability.

Patriot memory though was reliable though, I'll give it that. I'd put Patriot above Corsair in any choices. Their sticks didn't go too far, that's all. Doesn't take away their reliability nor credibility.


totally the other way around for me G.Skill is cheap not very overclockable ram

Corsair ram is good cheap ram very reliable semi overclockable

patriot extreme i tryed them MY opinion from what ive used very bad ram i got 4 4gig sets all but 1 set had 1 or 2 bad sticks had to return them, then when i finally got a set that worked the 4th set very bad at overclocking stick fryed cause of the crappy heatsinks and i only went to 2.2v


Crucial on the other hand VERY GOOD first 4gig worked flawlessly came in nice sealed anti static bags heat sinks were OK but the chips didnt get really hot, After patriot i got a Corsair ram cooler just incase

well they overclocked like a DREAM micron D9 chips for ya got the 800mhz set to 933mhz at 4-4-4-15 T2 but right now i wanted everything synced so i went to 800mhz 4-4-4-12 T2

anyways this is my opinion from what ive tested and seen

[H2O sobe]

Well yea, it all comes down to each batch. But Crucial is a great brand, don't let me take that away from it, but down the road they tend to be the first to fail.

g.Skill, from the 8 kits I was able to test with all but 1 overclocked from DDR2 800 specs to DDR2 1066 with ease. Crucial should be oc'able to the same for Ballistix and Tracers. Though I was only able to test a few kits of Ballistix, couldn't get the Tracers :(

Patriot just seemed more of average RAM like Corsair with the kits I tested. Kinda lame you got a bad g.Skill kit though :(

[H2OSilentCid]

Hello everyone,

At the moment, I am using my poor little laptop for gaming, but I fear it is not the best solution.
Even though I am only playing Diablo II, there are times when it does not run smooth and I get blocked on game for a couple of seconds.

I know that the solution for this problem would be getting a REAL PC/laptop to play, however, I am not really sure about which specifications/features I should look for when choosing the system.

I have a slight preference for a laptop.

Could you help me on that, please?

Besides Diablo II, I am looking forward playing CSS and WoW.

Thanks in advance.

Well first what is your slight preference for a laptop? Might be the best way to start this off for ya.

[H2O sobe]

I sent a PM when she first posted, but no response yet.

[Gun Monkey]

For WoW:

1 gig of memory

2.6+ ghz CPU

80 gig HDD

For CSS:

3.2ghz proc (or a 2ghz dual core)

1.5 (1536mb) of memory

at least 256mb shared or 128mb dedicated video memory.

Also, stay away from celerons and semprons.

[Archer]

my current rig plays CS well and the bits in that can be had for a song

amd black edition dual core cpu
2900XT card
2 gig of Patriot 1200mhz DDR2 (currently at 1000mhz with 4,4,4 10 timings)
My HDD is a WD raptorX but you could obviously get a cheaper one..

[Knucks@Archers]

Yes it really depends on your budget, over here in the UK 500 GBP would get you a decent rig, 800 a banging rig.

but if your in the states Cobra's offer is a good one