ASRock P67 EXTREME4
INTEL CORE i5-2500K SANDY BRIDGE 3.3GHz
8GB G.SKILL RIPJAWS DDR3 1333
2 SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 6870 1GB's IN CROSSFIRE
HT OMEGA STRIKER 7.1
WD CAVIAR BLACK 500GB
SEAGATE 300GB RAPTOR
750W CORSAIR
WIN7 64 PRO

Went as big as I could comfortably afford when I built it last year and am hoping it will get me by for quite a few years with maybe just a video card upgrade in the next few years.

1st system:

400 MHz Intel CPU
64 MB old flavour RAM (before Dance Dance RAM was invented); eventually upgraded it to 384 MB for "lightning speed")
TNT2 Ultra GFX card (which carried the entire computer on its back for 5 long years)
10 Gb HDD + 20Gb HDD (positively GARGANTUAN)
Windows 98 SE (perhaps not 100% official)
1024x768 CRT (enormous monitor; tiny, tiny screen)

This was my first ever home PC, which I acquired in 1998 (I'd had to make do with using PCs at college, and before then BBC Micros at high school - I'm not THAT old but my school was shit).

Somehow I managed not to be disillusioned with computers forever by the "crashes every 46.2 seconds nature" of Windows 98 SE (the SE is important), but I still became very familiar indeed with the reinstalling windows wizard.

Still works (apart from the monitor, which I left in a box and then came back to discover a hideous black ooze seeping out of the air vents...)


2nd (laptop):

3.6 Ghz AMD CPU (about 3 months before all this dual-core business started, bah)
1Gb Ram
Half-arsed attempt at a graphics card (onboard)
40Gb HDD (barely serviceable when I bought it, eventually exploded and had to be replaced with a 20Gb one I nabbed from a photocopier)
Windows XP (which I complained about and then finally realised was lots better than Win 98 (SE or no SE))
1366x768 screen (with convenient 'is part of the laptop' upgrade already built-in)

Used being a manager & having to write reports and stuff as an excuse to need a laptop, so I could piss around on it in my office. It was handy, but like all laptops it was shit for gaming and had only a very short lifespan - which I overextended, until it died piece by piece.

First the screen went all flickery and I needed to take it apart and rebuild it. Then the sound card melted, so I bought an el-cheap USB one, which was an arse to carry around. Then the battery pack died, so I couldn't carry it around anyway. Then the screen died entirely, so I bought a monitor.

Then it started overheating to terrifying degree whenever it had been on for too long...

3rd (current):
2x 2.5Ghz Intel
4 Gb RAM (need to get on that actually, it's DDR2 though which is the most expensive RAM ever made, ever)
AMD 5770 GFX (with awesome "looks a bit like the batmobile" case
1080p Monitor & still have the old 'was plugged into laptop' 1366x768 monitor as a 2nd screen, so I feel like I'm in Blade Runner.
500Gb HDD and 200 Gb HDD (all seems rather too small these days)
Windows 7 (64-bit flavour)

Because I was fucking sick of the laptop dying on its arse all the time, I firmly decided I would get a proper desktop PC, one that could play games and everything. So I did. And it can.

I also use it for writing and that (with my first actual legally owned copy of MS Office*, I feel like a real adult now).

Pimped out with space age keyboard and a R.A.T. mouse (which looks a bit peculiar but is the most comfortable mouse I have ever used, ever in the history of ever (no good for lefties though, you sickening mutant freaks))

-

*not that I have ever of course owned dodgy copies of this product, or any other, in the past. Your honour.

Yikes. What brand was this?

i7-2600K, GTX 570, 8GB Mhz RAM, 24" LED

Bought at the beginning of last year when I moved. I've been considering a new GPU, but it doesn't really seem worth it; I can't say I've had any trouble running anything at 1080p.

One of the best things I've done is hooked it up to the TV (not pictured, one metre to the left) for controller friendly games.

Okay, so I'm sort of wanting to get myself a PC for gaming, and the question I have is how badly would I be hurting my performance if I got an i3 instead of an i5?

Like I was thinking of getting something like

http://lifehacker.com/5840963/the-best-pcs-you-can-build-for-600-and-1200 the 600 dollar model if I build it myself,

Or buying The 699 X51 from Dell with an i3 and a 640gt.

I don't need top dollar performance by any means I just want to make sure the current gen i3 chips aren't sort of doomed.

In Reply To #20

Depends what you play, but I am inclined to say no, it won't really make a difference.

Games where it will make a difference would be Civ5 (in terms of wait-time, not FPS) and perhaps Sins of a Solar Empire (More MHz really matters there).

FPS/RPG type games, you can pretty much get any processor and it'll be fine as long as you don't skimp on the GPU.

Asus; bought in 2003, started to die in 2007.

Finally put a bullet in its head in 2010.



That's almost as big as my TV... (and would be exactly the same size, but there was a sale on so I took the opportunity to get a bigger one (rather than the sensible "cheaper TV" option))

I sit 8 feet away from my TV.

Wouldn't it have been more Manchester-like to use a knife?

Asus has definitely improved it's notebook quality in recent years from what I have seen, but I still think it lags behind the rest of...wait... no. They all suck except Lenovo, in terms of reliability. Pity Lenovo doesn't make anything decent for gaming.

In Reply To #20

It's going to depend on the technology that the game is running. If you're sticking with older Unreal Engine 3 games then the i3 should be fine. If you're planning more recent UE3 and CryEngine based games you'll want the i5 as CPU definitely comes into play in those engines.

I'd also recommend checking out http://www.ibuypower.com and http://www.cyberpowerpc.com as they both build machines to your custom spec. You'll often find pretty good deals on pre-configured machines that can be tweaked.

No, because "Gunchester" makes an hilarious if not-all-that-appropriate-actually headline, so the tabloids keep fucking using it.

Ignore that cyclops who threw hand grenades at police officers the other week, he doesn't count.

I've been trying to find that bit from Brass Eye where they show a Manchester housing estate turning into a gun, but nobody has uploaded it (bah)

I did find this though, which is Brass Eye comedy gold.

In Reply To #24

PlanetSide 2 is also a CPU-hog.

Here's mine:



2.66GHz Core 2 Quad
8GB DDR3 1333MHz Corsair RAM
1GB XFX Radeon HD5850
4x 500GB HDDs
24" Dell and 19" Samsung displays

Put it together about 4 years ago, it's starting to show its age but I can't afford to replace it until I'm done with Uni. I'm sure it'll carry on well enough until then.