Gaming Computer Hardware
I regularly get question about what is a good computer for gaming. I’m not an expert in the domain but here is what I recommend base on my really superficial knowledge of the question.
This guide is made to inform you on the subject. But it is imperative that you should not consider this page as your only source of information on the subject. If you ultimately take a wrong decision by not searching more information well it’s not my fault. All information I give is in good faith but I’m not a computer master,
I’m a gamer.
The first thing you need to understand when you buy a new computer is that it’s not because it’s new that it’s good for gaming.
The Graphic card the most important computer part for games
Most question I get are about the fact that people can’t play game because they don’t have pixel shader 1.1. The main reason is that they buy an onboard graphics card that are not made for today hardware demanding games.
So it’s important that you buy a graphic card that can run todays games. At the moment there are two main graphique card company. Nvidia and ATI/AMD. The most popular card are probably Nvidia but I tend to prefer ATI because they have a good support and release regularly new drivers.
I currently use an ATI HD 3870 pro 512 meg it does the job for the moment but being a hardcore gamer I regularly buy new games. Of course not every one change regularly of games. So if you plan to play the same game, well an ATI HD 3870 pro 512 meg can serve you well for the coming years.
So you need to find the card that will serve your interest depending the use you plan to make from it.
AGP vs PCI Express, confused?
More information on Wikipedia.
- Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)
- PCI Express (also known as PCIe or PCI-E)
Recommendation:
If your board support PCI Express… Go with it. Otherwise… not much choice.
Graphic Card for future games on Vista
Vista is the future of gaming because of the evolution of DirectX 9 to DirectX10 stuff.
If you want to enjoy DirectX10 Games that’s an other question for of all you computer will need a PCI-Express board because most card will be PCI-Express.
So At the moment there are only a few graphical card that run directX10 card at the moment.
The NVIDIA GeForce 8800 and the ATI Radeon HD 3870
Those two card are not that expensive but should run DirectX10 game in really great condition. Not to speak of older game.
The RAM
I think that with current game the minimum RAM you should get is 2 gig of ram, the recommendation would be to have 3 gig of RAM, if you have the money for it. The more RAM you have the better it is for gamings.
The CPU
The CPU is the brain power of you computer. The speed of computing of the computer is showed by Mhz. The more Mhz your computer will have the faster it will compute information. Now those days there are Multi core chip. Those cpu are better then single core cpu so it’s hard to tell you what is the best because those new technology mess a little the Mhz. But I would say to play game in good condition you need at minimum a 2.6 Ghz or 3 Ghz.
The audio card
Well the audio is alway important in video game but in general on board sound card does an ok job. But if you want all the new game technology like EAX and Dolby Surround 5.1 stuff you will need to buy a good sound card like the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro Series Sound Card. I never actually tested that but I’m confident it does the job.
If you have question and would like clarification, if you disagree with something, see an error. Feel free to tell me.
You can See the Attila computer
If you want to see a global point of view of the computer of many people use check the Valve Hardware survey.
June 5th, 2007 at 10:36 am
[...] Gaming Computer Hardware [...]
June 7th, 2007 at 3:00 am
hey.. that was really cool dude..
thngs got clear in my mind as i am abt 2 buy a new com
June 7th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Happy it help, if there is still unclear stuff feel free to tell me I will improve it.
June 8th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
I really want to thank you for this informative blog. I’m planning on building a rig with newegg.com and this really helped me make some major decisions on what to buy. It was much better than making several topics on some forum where half the people don’t really know their stuff.
June 8th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Happy it help you, it alway hard to know what you need to know about all the hardware stuff you need for gaming, so this guide just show some of the info I know. So at least you will have a clue what is what
June 19th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
yes this helped me very much but i want to know how you can figure out if your computer accepts PCI express
June 19th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
well as stupid as it is from the creator of those thing… it’s only with a visual look at it that you can know… so check carefully the image on the pci and agp definition on wikipedia… that’s the only way…
June 30th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Attilia can you tell me what GHz your computer has? I’m just curious to see what kind of system plays the games so well in the videos ive seen.
June 30th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
you can see my configuration here, http://www.dateyourgame.com/blog/current-attila-configuration
August 9th, 2007 at 10:45 am
well I’m not that good with hardware so I’ll stick with my specs right now, but I’ll probably buy a new PC, so ur guide might b useful
August 19th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Once again i must thank tou attila
. I have now installed BF2142, but i have a problem. The game keep crashing, despite i have all the recommended system requierments and the latest driver for my ATI card 
.
Can some one here on DYG help me?
August 19th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
hmm i’m not familiar with that game, so can’t help…
November 16th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
this has nothing too do with hardware but what recorder do you use? plz reply
November 17th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
check the guide…
December 16th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Oh wow, Attila i didn’t know you used ATI! Now that you mention it, I might upgrade in the future to ATI. Currently using Nvidia 8500GT. Well anyways very useful information, as always! Thanks.
December 17th, 2007 at 10:06 am
yeah i prefer ATI, they are not as powerfull as Nvidia card those days, but they offer a better support with regular update in patch and better warranty.
December 23rd, 2007 at 1:42 am
thank you man I am finally geting into gaming and since tv sucks Im going all the way with pc gaming…
And well Im really new to this.. Today I just went to look for graphics cards and games and well I got som confused with ram and pci e and all that…
Its so confusiing…
I got some nice games tho but it’ll b sad if I cant play them:(
December 23rd, 2007 at 1:46 am
its all very confusing Im so new to pc gaming….
you buy Ram? What is RAM? Oh
and I checked my system settings… I got crapy card right now Intel… lol but its plays RTW and Star Wars BF2 really good …
December 23rd, 2007 at 6:42 pm
well to know what is ram, click on ram
February 12th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Hello, I have to ask that… is NVIDIA GeForce 6600 good for medieval 2 total war? I’ll have to ask cuz M2TW lags a crap out of me. Is it the graphical card problem?
February 12th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
probably, those day graphic card is what make the difference
February 14th, 2008 at 5:46 am
Ok ty
March 12th, 2008 at 5:33 am
were can i download fear for free
March 12th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
that’s not really the topic for that…
but here…
http://files.filefront.com/FEAR+Combat+FREE+Multiplayer/;5417592;/fileinfo.html
April 1st, 2008 at 6:00 pm
My pc is so crappy… check it out:
AMD Duron 1.2 GHz
256 Ram
GeForce2 MX/MX 400 64Mb
40 Gb Disk space
And I don’t even know the rest…
April 1st, 2008 at 9:18 pm
time to buy a new one
April 6th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Pretty decent. One thing though, a mention of SLI/Crossfire would have been nice, seeing how that has a tremendous effect on the performance you get in games (weather you use SLI or Crossfire) and also, I really think there should be information on the motherboard, seeing how the motherboard has some say in what your pc can, and can not do. Lastly, you state that only a few Video Cards are DX10 ready, now most graphics cards are ready for DX10, seeing how that there are some 8500GT, 8600GT/GTS that are set for that picture perfect experience, not just the 8800, and the 3870. Also, I would think that a sound card is strictly optional to a gamer unless you do use 5.1 or something like that, but if you just have to 2 speaker set up, you might just want to stick with the onboard soundcard, (just clarifying that with the people who might think they need to rush out and get a soundcard, when they might not be needing it). My last point is that, to fully take advantage of DX10, you will need vista; DX10 is exclusive to vista (big ass mistake). Well, I hope you read all of this, and take into consideration of what I have to say.
April 6th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
thanks for the complementary information =)
April 7th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Attila i need your help. I have a toshiba laptop with 2 gb of ram, a decent graphics system and 32 bit proccessor. My laptop lags when ever i play medieval 2 total war with full army units and high detail. It lags whenever i zoom in on the battle which gets annoying. I juts need to know how i can improve this lag.
April 8th, 2008 at 8:00 am
turn off shadows
April 8th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
WOW thnx alot finally i could play withput that damn lag. By the way do u noe wut i can upgrade on my laptop???
April 8th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
hmm, i must say i’m not too familiar with laptop stuff, but in general the card names are similar as for the desktops, but make sure they are the design for laptop
April 8th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
okk but i just want to noe like wut i can buy for it like maybe better graphics card or something like that???
April 8th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
by the way wut games do u play the most on multiplayer????becuz i play medieval 2 total war and i use the same name.Oh yeah nice medieval 2 total war videos on youtube:)
April 8th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
i mostly play arma at the moment
yeah better card alway help.
April 8th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
okk thnx buh i took of shadows and it still kind of lagz???wut else could stop it??????
April 8th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
put shader to low
April 9th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Hey Atilla, i have built several systems in the past and am currently working on two. If you want me to write a big article reccomending hardware and explaining it to people i could do that for you.
April 9th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
i put it to none???by ther way can i upgrade my laptops graphics card??
April 9th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
nvm wut i said i fixed it and i found out u cant install betetr graphics:( buh oh well lol
April 9th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
nvm
April 9th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
That would be great BertrumPantyshield, just register and write it, i will check it out and publish it.
April 9th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
heyy attila do u noe any other way to make it not lag my friend is asking and thnx to u my lag stopped so attila THNX ALOT:)
April 9th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
well, just lower other options.
April 11th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
attila by the way how old r u??? cuz im 17:) lol
April 13th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
attial for m2tw wut is ur name for online??is it attila16????and also wut kind of comp would u recommened for me cause im planning to buy a new one and sell my crappy laptop:)and were is a goodwebsite to find it??
April 14th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
nvm wut i said um buh thnx for the giud i printed it out and went to bestbuy and found a hp with a monster hard drive nvidia graphics card 3gb of ram and and intel 2 core dou. thnx alot and thnx to u i have an awesome monster of a comp instead of the sucky toshiba LAPTOP:) TYTY
April 14th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
happy it helped
April 15th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
yea thnx for the help. By the way how old r u cuz i read the description bout u and it says u have over 15 years of gaming experince so that means ur like wut 20 21 22???????????????????????
April 15th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
26
April 15th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
DAMN lol lucky im only 14
April 15th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
well, in many years i will be able to say, you lucky to be 12 years less the me.
but that’s more the kind of discusion that would go on the DYG forum then on a hardware page right?
April 15th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
yea lol sry bout that
April 15th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
well actually to be honest my lil cousin wrote that cuz i waz in soccer practice and im relly 16
April 15th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
14
April 16th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
attila which brand do u think is better hp or gateway fx/?????? becuz i need to noe cuz i might buy one of them so i need u to tell me which one
April 16th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
no opinion on the subject, it’s the component of a computer that make a good computer, not a name
April 17th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
okk buh go to bestbuy.com and type in hp desktop and its the $779.99 one and then type gateway fx and see the specs and in ur OPINION which one is better???:)
April 17th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Best buy website doesn’t give much info on the hardware and HP doesn’t make gaming computer, so my guess is that it would be a poor choice to buy a HP or generic computer that best buy offer.
So my recommendation is, click on the dateyourgame store up the page, search the term, gaming computer
You will see a few computer that are design for gaming.
The computers between $899.00 and $2,999.87, should be what you seek and serve you very well for gaming for at least 2 or 3 years.
buying one of the computer offer in that price range on that DYG amazon store seem a good deal and you should get your computer in few days after buying it.
As for which computer you want to buy in the list on that store, well it depend more your budget then the computer component or brand.
It is clear that the computer at $2,999.87 would give you a great experience in game, but not sure you would like to pay that much.
So choose base on your budget
April 18th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
okk thnx man cuz i needed ur help so now i nnoe buh my friend bought the hp u saw on bestbuy.com and it works really good on medieval and doesent lag no matter wut????
April 18th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
by the way how much u paid for ur comp???
April 18th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
can’t really say how much i paid since it’s a self customize computer but just the computer, nothing add, worth 3000$ new.
As for you friend you should ask him to run 3dmark and see his score as a reference.
This post on the forum give you the info.
http://www.dateyourgame.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=274&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=60
April 19th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
hmmmm in ur opinion whic one was better the hp or the gateway fx. i think its the gateway cuz its stronger better and faster buh it cost more and is a bit over my budget. so i dont noe wut to buy?????? plzzz telll me im confused???
April 19th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
and also i kinda dont want to order it cuz i dont want to wait and my parents wont allow me
so i only have best buy to get my comps 
April 21st, 2008 at 5:56 pm
attila plzzz answer me i neeeeed to NOE ;(
April 25th, 2008 at 5:37 am
Atilla I need to know whether I will be able to run M2TW on high with minimal lag, no shadows on this computer:
1 Gig of RAM
2ghz dual core processor
Nvidia GEforce 8500 with 512mb of VRAM
And xp home edition. I have no real idea what my Motherboard is but I think it was made by a company called Gigabyte. Not sure.
Anyways, if you could get back to me with an answer I would be very grateful. But for some reason a lot of my games randomly crash, just after the graphics turn into giant polygons and the whole freakin’ screen goes yellow or some random colour.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
you should be ok
April 25th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
so attila in ur opinion and u saw the specs which comp would be better the Hp or the Gateway fx?????
April 25th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
no clue
April 26th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
lol well i found a crazy monster hp elite. its used and biult for gaming and im gettin it um thur or fri
:) so i cant wait. By the way wen i get my new comp wanna play online together 
????
April 28th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
by the way wen i get my comp would u like me to post videos that ill make so u can see of medieval 2 total war???
April 28th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
just read the sucriber guideline to post
April 29th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
ok thnx
April 30th, 2008 at 10:11 am
by the way how do u play online on medieval 2 total war????/?? i noe i have to go to multiplayer buh everytime i click it it says failed to login( wen i write my name and password and email???)
April 30th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
ask on the official forum for that kind of help
April 30th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
okk thnx
May 1st, 2008 at 6:30 pm
which is better ati or nvidia???
May 1st, 2008 at 7:42 pm
i will stay neutral in that debate
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
lol ok. By the way how long have u been playing medieval 2 total war attila becuz in my opinion i think ur relly good and u must have alot of exp
May 3rd, 2008 at 7:51 pm
hey attila would this pack be good to play like any game like crysis or rainbow 6 vegas 2? Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 (2.66GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 1333FSB)
BenQ 20″ LCD Screen 1680×1050 Resolution 3 Year Warranty G2000W
4GB DDR2 RAM, 500GB SATA HDD, Asus NVidia GeForce 8800GT Video Card
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:56 pm
yep you should be fine
May 4th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
stumble upon this site, and i must say its kinna neat.
just my 2 pennies,
1. a mere 2GB RAM should be enough. 32bit OS support max 3GB only, while 64 can go more than that. no point buying 4GB if your pc can only detect 3GB.
2. all new graphic card are PCIe. 8600GT is pretty cheap nowadays (budget card)
3. always go for dual core. should last for 2 yrs. for budget gamers, AMD AM2 is the way to go.
benefits of AM2. a) dual core b) great onboard soundcard - nvidia c) PCIe
4. ensure u get a really good motherboard. it tends to ease your future upgrades (processor and ram)
5. if you got extra cash, go for XFI extreme gamer aka previously known as extreme music. if found both, get extreme music.
all in all. great site and keep up the good works XD !
May 4th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
attila my new pc has specs like this its an HP
Memory:3 gb
Proccessor:quad proccessor 9500 3.0 ghz( i think)
Graphics card:nvidia graphics card 8800 gt
is this a good comp for games???
May 4th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
yep
May 5th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
for medieval 2 total war and crysis it would go smoothly riiight???(for medieval yea buh i just want to noe and crysis)
May 5th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
also is this like a good strong comp cuz i think it is becuz it has all the specs u wrote
which i would like to thank you for all ur help atilla thnx man 
May 6th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
your welcome, enjoy
May 6th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
thnx man and i will im supposed to get it today so i will tell u if i get it or not and maybe we can play together
May 9th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
i got my new comp
and im so happy well actually yest buh its sooooo kool 22 in im right now playing med 2 and attila my name is the same 
so see u later 
thnx for the help if it wasent for u i wouldent have a good comp 
May 9th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
by the way attila can u make some more videos about medeival 2 total war plz becuz i relly like ur videos
May 9th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Happy to hear, enjoy
May 11th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
so attila i just hope u make medieval 2 toal war videos becuz i relly like them and i want to learn from them
May 13th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
attila wut kind of graphics options u use for medieval 2 total war cuz i use antistrophic X2
May 15th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
by the way attila i went to see how to record gameplay videos and that guy who showed how um is that u ???????????
May 25th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
never mind
May 28th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
attila y did u stop playin medieval 2 total war
May 28th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Stay on topic, Gaming Computer Hardware, this is not a chat
May 29th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
sry damn
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:14 am
bout the little pack maceman said the computer will be slow do u think so?
Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 (2.66GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 1333FSB)
BenQ 20″ LCD Screen 1680×1050 Resolution 3 Year Warranty G2000W
4GB DDR2 RAM, 500GB SATA HDD, Asus NVidia GeForce 8800GT Video Card
July 18th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
NVIDIA quadro NVS 290 256 MB
What do you think of this graphics card? Is it any good? Can you tell me which other nvidia (or ATI) models are at the same level this card is?
Thanks
July 18th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
a NVIDIA quadro NVS 290 256 MB is a type of card design for 3D environment creator. they are more expensive then the usual kind of card because they are better in some situation. and gaming isn’t one of them. (from experience and understanding)
Unless you are a 3d artist, engineer, etc. I would recommend one of the card recommended above, or (better). It will cost you less with better performence.
I think…
July 20th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
hey
i just got a new computer. d’you think this is good for gaming?
AMD Phenom 3x 8450 triple core processor (cant remember CPU)
3 gig DDR2 RAM
500 gig SATA hard drive
Nvidia GeForce 9300 GE 512mb
(cant remember what sound card, but supports 5.1 surround)
LG 19″ 1440×900 LCD screen
thnx in advance =D
July 21st, 2008 at 12:32 pm
should be ok with most game
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:55 pm
ok thnx!
July 26th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
By the way, thanks. Was on vacation so I only saw your answer now. Really helpful.
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:23 pm
hello i am thinkin on gettin a new gameing computer andd i waz wonderin witchh would be the bestt 1 for me to get with only a budget of 1450$ canadian…
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:25 pm
i ment to say with only of a buddget of 1000$ canadian
August 5th, 2008 at 8:23 am
hard to say, the hardware price alway change and there is soo many variable.
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:06 am
i use nvidia 8400 m 256 with pixel shader 3.0 and also supports direct x 10
i have problems with direct draw
do you think the direct draw will not allow me to play timeshift or is it my graphics
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:15 am
hmm, maybe try to install directx again