Specifications of a gaming PC

[skawarrior]

A unit of OCR level 3 ICT requires our students to study computer gaming hardware and software. For this reason I have been tasked with sourcing the hardware, which is an Xbox, a Xbox360, a PSP, a PS3, a Gamecube, a Wii, a DS and a PC capable of playing most modern PC games.

The consoles are easy enough but as someone who has always avoided PC gaming in favour of a console I'm not entirely sure what sort of specs I should be looking for. I find that a games official minimum specs have in the past been dubious, so could someone suggest a standard specification bearing in mind that in addition to the consoles 2 HD ready TV's are to purchased so we are on a pretty tight budget.

And yes I intend to make use of the new school facilities during half term breaks

[silver_hippo]

The AMD 790X gamer is pretty much it.

I reckon good speced gamer computer would be: Dual/ quad core processor at around 2.8GHz. nvidia geforce 9600 gt graphics card or something along those lines. 400w psu. around 160gb 10000rpm hdd (or could go for a larger hdd like 500gb @ 7200rpm) 4gb ram an 64 bit opertating system.

Or something like that I hope that helps!

[JohnMason]

Originally Posted by silver_hippo

The AMD 790X gamer is pretty much it.

I reckon good speced gamer computer would be: Dual/ quad core processor at around 2.8GHz. nvidia geforce 9600 gt graphics card or something along those lines. 400w psu. around 160gb 10000rpm hdd (or could go for a larger hdd like 500gb @ 7200rpm) 4gb ram an 64 bit opertating system.

Or something like that I hope that helps!

If price is a huge factor, 2GB RAM isn't the end of the world. I'm running a comparable system to the one above (but with 2GB ram and an Core 2 Duo E8200 (2.66Ghz dual core) and haven't had any problems with anything yet. So far I haven't found a game that didn't fly by on full settings. Not sure if it's the GT in the 9600 range I have, but really any 9600 should stand up well to any current games?

[sidewinder]

I want your job!

I imagine extensive testing of all the consoles will be needed

[dhicks]

Originally Posted by skawarrior

I'm not entirely sure what sort of specs I should be looking for.

Isn't the latest thing these days to have two (or more?) PCI Express graphics cards installed, configured in "crossfire" mode? And I think you can now get dedicated physics cards... You might want to check the motherboard you get in the machine, make sure it has a bunch of free PCI / Pci Express slots and can support Crossfire.

Also, this post might be handy:

Coding Horror: Feeding My Graphics Card Addiction

--
David Hicks

[matt40k]

Crossfire is AMD\ATI
SLI was NVIDIA
This is all pretty old hat, Voodoo done this first.
Microsoft Windows 7 is rumoured to have support for multiple graphics card.

Personally a good DX10 with a fast GPU, GDDR4, about 512mb ram should be fine.

Intel new CoreTi or something with support for tri-channel is the best.

Personally, a good Core2Duo, 8GB DDR2 800 RAM, WinXP\Vista 64bit, NVIDIA graphics card. Good quality case\psu\etc. Mesh makes some good machines. Alienware being one of the best, no money no object. Maybe RAID-0 SSD for something a bit special.

[ahuxham]

Originally Posted by dhicks

Isn't the latest thing these days to have two (or more?) PCI Express graphics cards installed, configured in "crossfire" mode? And I think you can now get dedicated physics cards... You might want to check the motherboard you get in the machine, make sure it has a bunch of free PCI / Pci Express slots and can support Crossfire.

Also, this post might be handy:

Coding Horror: Feeding My Graphics Card Addiction

--
David Hicks

Crossfire for ATI/AMD, SLI for Nvidia. Alot of boards only support either Crossfire or SLI, however new ones support both, PCI-express slots for Crossfire, SLI

Ageia do the Physx cards, however Nvidia now own them, so the majority of the technology now sits in there x260 and x280 cards.

[somabc]

It really depends, most modern PC's can play games, just not with a particularly high resolution / frame rate. This might not be that important to you if it is only for educational purposes so you could save some money.

If I was going to buy a PC now just to play games and wanted to keep costs down on I would buy something like this.

Core 2 - quad core processor 2.4GHZ or higher
(not that much more expensive than dual core)
~£100-200

Motherboard (midrange)
~£70-100

4GB RAM
~£50

500GB HD, (SATAII)
~£50

DVD Drive (SATA)
~£20

Graphics Card (mid range)
~£100-200

Case
~£50-100

PSU (around 500W)
~£50

You can plug it into one of the HDTVs via HDMI.

If money is no object and you want the newest technology ready made
http://www.scan.co.uk/downloads/CPCR...X58_Corei7.pdf

[DSapseid]

How about this Alienware machine its quite cheap starting at £2,999!! Oh well best have a whole suite of 30 then.

[browolf]

If you're on some kind of budget generally I've found graphics capability & memory amount is most important.If you skimp on everything else, it might equate to slower throughput generally but it wont stop things working.

[pete]

Pick the Hot Rod from the Arstechnica System Guide?

Ars Technica System Guide: September 2008 Edition: Page 1

[skawarrior]

If we were to go cutting edge would there be a huge difference graphics wise between the same games played on a PS3 or Xbox? The course requires that students can evaluate games on console and on PC. If there is little difference between the consoles and PCs when it comes to playing what is essentialy the same game then I'd rather save cash on the PC system and use it else where i.e better quality TV's.

[JohnMason]

Originally Posted by skawarrior

If we were to go cutting edge would there be a huge difference graphics wise between the same games played on a PS3 or Xbox? The course requires that students can evaluate games on console and on PC. If there is little difference between the consoles and PCs when it comes to playing what is essentialy the same game then I'd rather save cash on the PC system and use it else where i.e better quality TV's.

A high end gaming machine will be way above a console in terms of graphics.

[TonyRidal]

I'm waiting for Grand Theft Auto for the Wii

Punch, kick, shoot then slot on the wheel and drive!!

[skawarrior]

I'm looking at this system it seems reasonable priced for what should provide adequate performance.
AMD Nvidia Ultra 400 Gaming PC - Cheap Computers & PC Repairs Wolverhampton

Anyone see any flaws in this system bearing in mind I'd like to run the games with most graphical settings on full.

Now there is no operating system so I plan on installing XP, a 64bit system would allow full use of the 4GB of RAM. But as JohnMason said 2GB isn't the end of the world, besides which if its a pair of 2GB modules I can reallocate a module to somewhere it would be quite useful.