technology The Glorious PC master race thread

[long gone 8,929]

The Alpha actually seems like a decent option for people who want to get into PC gaming but don't have the budget or don't want to put time into researching parts because they don't know where to start, but even then it's still better to build your own.

 

Anyway, this keyboard seems nice for a budget membrane keyboard. Even has backlit keys, dedicated media keys and macros, for just $30!

[Galen Selanno 351]

You're, trolling right? 

No, I'm not. PCs really do suck. At least, to me they do. If you think otherwise, that's fine. I'll share my opinion, and you can share yours.

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,978]

No, I'm not. PCs really do suck. At least, to me they do. If you think otherwise, that's fine. I'll share my opinion, and you can share yours.

Care to explain your opinion?

[Galen Selanno 351]

Care to explain your opinion?

I don't really feel like it right now. 

[Admiral Regulus 2,769]

The Alpha actually seems like a decent option for people who want to get into PC gaming but don't have the budget or don't want to put time into researching parts because they don't know where to start, but even then it's still better to build your own.

 

Anyway, this keyboard seems nice for a budget membrane keyboard. Even has backlit keys, dedicated media keys and macros, for just $30!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWlnFXwO5pY

 

Not bad for $30. I still prefer the sexy form of my Sidewinder x4, but that thing is half the price.

Mmm... yep, such a nice looking keyboard.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Regulus

[Celli 4,337]

No, I'm not. PCs really do suck. At least, to me they do. If you think otherwise, that's fine. I'll share my opinion, and you can share yours.

This is the PC discussion thread, though. There are other places to state your opinion.

The Alpha actually seems like a decent option for people who want to get into PC gaming but don't have the budget or don't want to put time into researching parts because they don't know where to start, but even then it's still better to build your own.

 

Anyway, this keyboard seems nice for a budget membrane keyboard. Even has backlit keys, dedicated media keys and macros, for just $30!

But there are better options aren't there? Like MSI, ASUS, ibuypower?

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

Looks like I'm the Guinea Pig, MGS: Ground Zeros went on sale for $14 so I grabbed it. 

[TheMarkz0ne 962]

Updated specs 

 

Haff 922 red LED fan

EVGA GTX 970 4GB SC

i5 3570k(not OC) at 3.40ghz

Hyper Master Cooler 212

Asus P8Z77 V LX 

Corsair Vengeance 2x8GB DDR3

Corsair 600cx

2 TB WD HDD(Windows 7 64 bit)

1 TB WD HDD( Ubuntu)

Corsair vengeance keyboard 

Sensei mouse

Asus VG248QE 144hz monitor 

 

Logitech HD speakers 

 

I really wanted a cpu upgrade, but my i5 will serve me well with my new GPU. 

[Azure Envy 1,092]

Hey hey.

 

Probably gonna catch some flak for this.

 

I picked up an XPS 8700 for about 580 OTD.

 

i7-4790

12GB RAM

1TB HDD

GeForce GT 720m

BT 4.0/WiFi

 

Now to figure out what to do with it.

[Snivinerior 79]

No, I'm not. PCs really do suck. At least, to me they do. If you think otherwise, that's fine. I'll share my opinion, and you can share yours.

May I ask why?

 

Anyway my specs: 

1TB Harddrive plus a 1TB  and 500GB external HD

8GB DDR3 RAM

1GB AMD Radeon R7 DDR5

AMD A8-7600K 3.1GHz

Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Edited December 19, 2014 by Snivinerior

[Dsanders 5,746]

Even though I don't own a PC yet, I have been wanting to show my support for the PC gaming community here for some time now. My girlfriend is starting to get into it (in a couple years, she is planning on building one herself) and I've been trying my best to help her out by using some of the helpful advice that was given on this thread.

 

Recently I've been contemplating about getting involved as well. I'll be getting a laptop soon and it will be for mainly college use. But once I'm done with that, I will definitely want to try to get into PC gaming along with my girlfriend. It seems to have a lot of advantages, not to mention numerous mods! Plus, it gives me a good reason to sell my Xbox 360

 

Now how exactly do I join this PC master race? I would imagine that I have to familiarize myself with all the terminology and essential internal workings of a PC. I plan on building one myself once I get the opportunity. So if any of you can provide me with all the resources and links that would serve as a kick-starter for me, I would appreciate it immensely.

[VictiniStar101 214]

I would imagine that I have to familiarize myself with all the terminology and essential internal workings of a PC. I plan on building one myself once I get the opportunity. So if any of you can provide me with all the resources and links that would serve as a kick-starter for me, I would appreciate it immensely.

pcpartpicker.com is a good website to form your parts list once you want to learn how to build a pc.  It checks for compatability and checks prices on various merchants.

 

Other then that, I'm pretty sure Lifehacker has a PC building guide and Newegg does as well, although Newegg's is probably more helpful since it's a Youtube Video

 

 

Hope this helps

Edited December 22, 2014 by VictiniStar101

[long gone 8,929]

Now how exactly do I join this PC master race? I would imagine that I have to familiarize myself with all the terminology and essential internal workings of a PC. I plan on building one myself once I get the opportunity. So if any of you can provide me with all the resources and links that would serve as a kick-starter for me, I would appreciate it immensely.

 Congrats on your decision to ascend to the PC Master Race! Just as a note, to join you just need to recognize that the PC is objectively superior to consoles, although if you wish to know more, read this.

 

For terminology, we tend to use words like "rig" or "build" to refer to our PCs, most of which are custom-built machines. Don't believe the media when they say that the PC is dying, while it is true that pre-built desktop sales are down, individual part sales have reached an all-time high as more and more people wish to build their PCs instead of dealing with OEM shit like bloatware or wanting to get specifications to their requirements rather than what the OEMs say is good (I've seen "gaming PCs" with Intel Core i7-4960Xs and nVIDIA GeForce GTX 745s, that's a high-end, $1000 processor paired with an $80 GPU, a huge no-no). Cores are physical mini-processors on your processor that help make it process things faster by offloading a bit of the workload to each core. Most high-end gaming PCs have 4 - 8 cores, although more cores isn't necessarily better. Personally, I have 4 and it's just fine. Another thing is HyperThreading, which is where the OS sees each present core as two cores, so if you have a quad-core Intel Core i7, then even though it has four physical cores, the OS will display it as 8; this feature is useless for gaming, however, as most games do not take advantage of the extra threads. Thus, for a pure gaming machine, an i7 is unnecessary. Storage refers to things like mechanical drives, which are an older storage standard where there are moving parts, and they're both fragile and slow; most high-end system builders prefer to use an SSD for the boot drive. Speaking of SSDs, they're basically like bigger, more durable flash drives. Don't treat them like a normal mechanical drive, as that will kill them faster. Boot drives are basically the storage device you boot your operating system off of. That's all I want to type right now, but you get what I'm saying, right? 

 

Also, if you need some help finding out what is probably "the best" for you, look around YouTube and see some gameplay videos of certain games on certain hardware (such as Battlefield 4 on an AMD R7 265, that GPU in that build I showed you earlier, or a processor doing general productivity work such as file compression or video editing). This will give you a general idea of how the hardware will perform in the real world. Don't just rely on synthetic benchmarks for measuring performance, mix in real-world performance as well. For general hardware reviews, I highly recommend LinusTechTips and Jayztwocents on YouTube, for cases I recommend HardwareCanucks and for software, I don't have any recommended channels in particular, but I sometimes watch the Tek Syndicate if they have a review of some software I'm looking at. LinusTechTips also has a few build guides as well; you don't need to strictly follow them, but the build process is so simple now the same steps can be applied from PC to PC. For price tracking and checking compatibility, I recommend PCPartPicker, it's easily one of the most useful things out there for a system builder.

 

May your frame rates be high and your temperatures low.

Edited December 22, 2014 by Festive Daring

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

Ground Zeroes looks really good, even on the slighter lower settings you need for 1080p/60FPS on a 750ti. 

 

 

 

 

[Dsanders 5,746]

Congrats on your decision to ascend to the PC Master Race! Just as a note, to join you just need to recognize that the PC is objectively superior to consoles, although if you wish to know more, read this.

That link alone has changed my life. I skimmed through some of it but I'm definitely going to reread everything at least ten times. From what I've read, this is practically the perfect guide for any beginner PC gamer.

[long gone 8,929]

That link alone has changed my life. I skimmed through some of it but I'm definitely going to reread everything at least ten times. From what I've read, this is practically the perfect guide for any beginner PC gamer.

Wow, I wasn't expecting that response. Most people I've shown it to just went like "lol /r/pcmasterrace, and you say you aren't a PC elitist"

 

Because, y'know, elitism doesn't exist on consoles too.

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

Wow, I wasn't expecting that response. Most people I've shown it to just went like "lol /r/pcmasterrace, and you say you aren't a PC elitist"

 

Because, y'know, elitism doesn't exist on consoles too.

 

about the 100th time I saw a console fanboy say "30FPS is better"(not, "30FPS is playable" or "30FPS doesn't bother me", literally "30FPS is better than 60FPS" or "FPS doesn't matter") I realized there was plenty of console brats just as stupid as the worst of the PC brats. 

 

Don't even get me started on the people that somehow believe console gaming is cheaper when Steam bundles can get you loads of games for next to nothing(I nabbed the first three Farcry Games AND Blood Dragon for $10 during a sale, the same collection on consoles that doesn't even have the first game is still a solid $25 in stores and 2/3 of the games are just digital copies, making the concept of spending the extra for a physical copy a moot point)

Hit up the sale and grabbed some good deals on games I had been eyeing(Well, Issac was just kinda "meh", but I couldn't mess up a $.50 game, especially one cut down from $5

 

)

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,978]

about the 100th time I saw a console fanboy say "30FPS is better"(not, "30FPS is playable" or "30FPS doesn't bother me", literally "30FPS is better than 60FPS" or "FPS doesn't matter") I realized there was plenty of console brats just as stupid as the worst of the PC brats.

That Ubisoft propaganda.

[Dsanders 5,746]

So what's the best I can do on a laptop when it comes to PC gaming? I'm curious because I'll be getting a laptop soon as my post-enrollment gift

[VictiniStar101 214]

So what's the best I can do on a laptop when it comes to PC gaming? I'm curious because I'll be getting a laptop soon as my post-enrollment gift

Depends on whether the laptop has Intel graphics or discrete graphics.  Discrete graphics are usually made my AMD or NVIDIA, so if your laptop's intergrated graphics are made by AMD or NVIDIA, then your mileage may vary, but if it's made by Intel, good luck.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong on any of this.

[long gone 8,929]

So what's the best I can do on a laptop when it comes to PC gaming? I'm curious because I'll be getting a laptop soon as my post-enrollment gift

Having come off a laptop (a high-end one by 2012 standards, but still decent), games run well, but it'll never be able to hold a candle to a full desktop. Lower-end ones, like ones without dedicated graphics (e.g. Intel HD Graphics or an AMD APU), like my current laptop, don't fare as well in a lot of games. Doesn't really help that my current laptop, which doesn't have a dedicated nVIDIA or AMD GPU, has a 3200x1800 screen, although 1600x900 medium or 1920x1080 low settings works okay on it. Would still rather game on my desktop, but Intel HD Graphics 4400 is acceptable at best in some games and terrible at worst in others.

Edited December 23, 2014 by Festive Daring

[Dsanders 5,746]

Having come off a laptop (a high-end one by 2012 standards, but still decent), games run well, but it'll never be able to hold a candle to a full desktop. Lower-end ones, like ones without dedicated graphics (e.g. Intel HD Graphics or an AMD APU), like my current laptop, don't fare as well in a lot of games. Doesn't really help that my current laptop, which doesn't have a dedicated nVIDIA or AMD GPU, has a 3200x1800 screen, although 1600x900 medium or 1920x1080 low settings works okay on it. Would still rather game on my desktop, but Intel HD Graphics 4400 is acceptable at best in some games and terrible at worst in others.

So the Intel HD Graphics 4400 would be my best bet for a laptop?

 

It's a shame that PC gaming hasn't breached the potable frontier yet. Hopefully within the coming decades, we may see this become a mainstream reality.

[long gone 8,929]

So the Intel HD Graphics 4400 would be my best bet for a laptop?

 

It's a shame that PC gaming hasn't breached the potable frontier yet. Hopefully within the coming decades, we may see this become a mainstream reality.

Intel HD Graphics 4600 would be better if you want a decent experience without having to pay much. Although Lenovo does have some laptops with GeForce GTX 860Ms for around $1000, if your family is willing to pay that much.

[Azure Envy 1,092]

So the Intel HD Graphics 4400 would be my best bet for a laptop?

 

It's a shame that PC gaming hasn't breached the potable frontier yet. Hopefully within the coming decades, we may see this become a mainstream reality.

 

I've only gone back a page, so please correct me if I'm wrong. You're looking to game on a laptop, is that correct?

 

Depending on your budget, you can almost always do better than Intel graphics. Intel is the lowest common denominator (outside of some especially weak AMD or NVIDIA solutions in some business-oriented laptops.) While laptops aren't as powerful as the best desktops, you can certainly get a ton of power in a laptop, especially if you're willing to go with something heavier.

[Dsanders 5,746]

I've only gone back a page, so please correct me if I'm wrong. You're looking to game on a laptop, is that correct?

 

While laptops aren't as powerful as the best desktops, you can certainly get a ton of power in a laptop, especially if you're willing to go with something heavier.

1). Correct!

 

2). Ah I see ... well that makes sense. However, I take it that it would cost me a lot to utilize any graphics card that has better performance than Intel, right?