Hello,

Right; having recently sold both my PS3 and WII systems (to pay some debt) im left console-less for now... Due to circumstance i do not wish to discuss i have been injected with a large cash sum of $5000, i have $1400 left after buying a car,clothes etc. Now im wanting to buy myself a nice gaming computer system. This is where i need you guys to point me in the right direction, i have no idea what makes a good gaming system but i do have substantial knowledge on other computing areas.

Should i purchase a laptop or a desktop?, How much should i spend?, Should i go 3D? etc etc.

Thankyou and godbless.

For $1400, you could get a decent laptop, or an absolute top of the line PC - I'd go with a PC. If you want to spend all of that money, I'm not the person to ask - my price points tend to be somewhat lower!

HeHe, Well it is free money im not going to tell you how i got it though wont both the laptop and pc only be top of the range for around 6 month and then become obsolete after a few years though? thats my only knockback.

With $1400, you probably have enough to build an excellent gaming desktop, including 1080p monitor and still have enough left over to buy a cheap laptop or netbook for non-gaming purposes.

Or you could spend it all to buy a mediocre gaming laptop.

Any brand suggestions? From what i see the Dell Alienware Laptop/Desktop and Acer aspire gaming Desktop are the best?

It will be much cheaper to build your own desktop using components from a source like Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com

you will need to decide on and purchase:
- CPU
- motherboard compatible with that CPU, ideally with at least one or two 16x PCI-e slots
- graphics card - at a minimum get one of the cheapest DX11 cards or better, NVIDIA GTX 460 ($130-150), AMD 5770 ($110-130) or better
- 4 - 6 GB RAM
- power supply
- wifi/bluetooth antenna
- hard drive
- optical drive
- fans
- case
- thermal paste
- monitor, keyboard, mouse

here is a great guide outlining the steps for putting together a desktop
http://techreport.com/articles.x/13671?__sf=1303342434

Thanks but i tried building a computer before i put everything in (600pounds worth) and accidently pressed down on the motherboard whilst it was plugged it and it for some reason fried it and the elctrical current travelled everywhere and burned every piece of hardware and my hands :biggrin:

Put it this way. With that $1400, do you want to buy a $1400 computer that in 6 months will cost $1000 and in one year time will be what, a $500 or $700 system if not less then?

I say buy another PS3 unless you really want a PC gaming system. From reading alot of the threads on what to buy for a PC, it will cost you around $800 if you are in the USA, so I say you really need about $1200 if in Canada maybe less if you build it yourself.

Also, I don't care for 3D so I would say forget about it. It is not what we think of it, but what do you think of it? It's a gimmick. It could stick around it may not. As we see in movies now, instead of having 5 movies a month being in 3D it's about 1 now. Have you tried playing Killzone 3 in 3D? If so, did you really like it and can't live without it?

After all you are most likely sitting infront of the moniter and there is not much games in 3D, so to me it's not really worth the extra cost.

Also if you buy a laptop, in most cases you can't uprgrade it. At least with a gaming tower it can be upgraded in most cases so you can alway get a new graphics card in 6 months to a year to two or more years.

And a $500 system *today* severely outclasses a PS3, never mind next year's. As for 3D, if your only experience is from the PS3, you can't really compare it. I haven't experienced either, but the technical difference between the two is quite significant.

Gaming laptop that's good for the price http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8130-built-clevo-p151hm1-custom-sager-laptop-p-2973.html?wconfigure=yes

Of course for the same amount of money you could build a crazy desktop

Yes a $500 system today outclassesa PS3 or a 360 no doubt, BUT will the same $500 system play games next year? For me, I know, my 360 and PS3 will still play games next year and I don't have to worry about that, while in most casts the $500 system will not.

So while my 360 is way under powered comprared to todays systems or even 2 years ago systems, I rest comftably I know I don't have to worry about it, all i do is insert disk and play. For that I will gladly use an underpowered system knowing I can play it with no worring about tweaking or anything like that.

So that is all that it comes down too. For alot of PC users this is not a problem. Is this a problem for the OP? Only he can answer.

In that case, I'd suggest to buy a cheap (non-gaming) pre-built desktop, and you can still save by buying the RAM and video card separately.

Try to make sure you can replace the video card with something like the 1GB NVIDIA GTX 460 (or better) or the 1GB AMD 5770 (or better), in other words, check how many PCI-e slots will be available and make sure there is space for a gaming card that will be a bit thicker than non-gaming video card.

very untrue. My computer that I bought 3 years ago can still play any game that has been released to date. May not be on high settings, but certainly on medium still. I'll still be able to run every game that's released on this computer for at least another year or two, until they all start to transition towards DX10/11 compatibility, and even then, a simple upgrade to Windows 7 will suffice to let me continue. If the OP spends 1400 bucks on a PC right now, assuming he built it himself(which I see he said he's not willing to due to frying a motherboard previously trying it), that PC would easily handle every game to come on max/near max settings until 2015 easily. On the other hand, your PS3 and Xbox 360 will be obsolete by about the end of 2013(likely) when the new consoles are released(again, likely). I have nothing against consoles though, I own plenty, and play games on them all the time, I'm just disagreeing that a 500 dollar system now wouldn't let the OP play games that are released next year.

http://www.product-reviews.net/2011/05/02/alienware-m18x-specs-most-powerful-18-inch-gaming-laptop/

but i mean this thing is ''the most powerful machine in the universe'' it can use your eyes to lock it, and open pro grammes just by winking or squinting its high tech stuff. Its estimated to last about 5-6 years before all its tech is on the average laptop. It has space to be upgraded too. It can be upgraded to have 32gb of RAM and 2000GB Hard Drive space, as well are a option to upgrade the whole thing with DELL when it becomes outdated. Read about it, its very interesting.

The motto around here is "Never purchase an alienware laptop".

if you decide to go with a gaming laptop (instead of desktop + laptop), then you might consider that Alienware, but also take a look at some of the Sagers and other gaming laptops on http://www.xoticpc.com as Bewareofme suggested above.

You want to make sure to get one with display resolution at least 1600x900 or 1920x1080, recent dual-core or quad-core CPU, at least 4-6GB RAM and with at a minimum 1GB NVIDIA 460m or 1GB AMD 5830m cards (or better).

I have an HP Envy 15 laptop with the 5830M, i7-820QM, 16GB RAM, dual SSDs in Raid0 and it delivers decent framerates for just about any recent game at 1920x1080, with DX11, high res textures, SSAO, 16 x AF, 2 x AA. I don't know if it will handle games like Metro 2033 or Crysis, however.

BTW 18-inch for a laptop is incredibly huge and not convenient to carry around with you everywhere. I'd suggest to check one out in person at a retail store before buying.

To be fair they are extremely cheap for what they have packed inside. However, i have had bad history with Asus.

Yes, it will. It'll probably also play them on max. The year after that you might have to start turning a few settings down. The year after that a few more.

The "PCs become obsolete in a year" argument falls apart when you realise an 8800, a 5 year old card, is only just starting to get near the minimum requirements, and that's for the most technically demanding games. "Obsolete in 6 months" is a myth.

Care to elaborate, sir?

Alienwares are expensive for the components that they offer and generally use worse hardware than you would get with other manufacturers or building it yourself. You are essentially paying for the brand name, thus when it is brought up people discourage you from buying Alienware.

You also need to include if you need to buy a monitor.

I don't quite follow the Asus reference.

Are you referring to some of the laptops sold at http://www.xoticpc.com ?

I believe they sell about 5 or 6 different laptop brands.

They overprice all of their machines. You pay a lot for the name and the lights. I would never, ever buy an Alienware machine. When they are selling a desktop for nearly $1400, that I can build in $850 its too expensive.

You say in "most cases". Do you have any proof to back that claim up? If you have a PC that is faster than a console and can run multiplatform games fine, why shouldn't it be able to play future multiplatform games when they are on the same platforms? Sure, not at highest graphics settings, but definately not lowest.

It's not like consoles get more powerful every year. 500 gigaflops of processing power is still 500 gigaflops of processing power, no matter if it is a week or 10 years old.

Good point.

So what's the decision here? You want a desktop of a laptop? I personally would suggest a desktop PC and one that you build yourself. However, if you wish not to, there are pre-assembled alternatives that are reasonably priced. If still looking for a desktop PC, should probably answer some questions:

You say $1400 budget, but yet make mention that you spent pounds on a previous PC....so where do you live? USA or UK?

And do you need everything? What is needed other than the PC tower? Monitor, speakers, mouse, keyboard, Windows OS disc? All these can affect the price.