Curse

Ewon · Jul 03, 2012, 11:39 AM // 11:39

To start off, I will mention that I am currently a mac user, and will continue to use a mac at least for work. I am now looking at getting a gaming pc as running windows on my mbp is not the greatest anymore.

Being a mac user, i have no interest in building my own pc, or researching the best parts etc. I am looking to buy a pre-built gaming pc that will hopefully last a few years.

Currently I was looking to order a pc from http://www.newegg.ca/, but I am looking for advice on what to pick, or if there is a better option to go through. (I live in Canada, please keep this in mind with any suggestions.)

PC Uses/requirements:
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Games: Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, Diablo 3, etc
- Game recording and possible streaming
- Would like to run multiple instances of GW1 and be able to say have D3 open as well as GW1.
- Dual screen setup. (Doesn't need to come with 2 screens, but I will need to get another monitor that matches.)

Budget:
I thinking $2000 for the entire setup which will include the PC, dual screens, and a gaming keyboard.

Thanks for any help/advice you can offer. I will also be checking with some people I know who build their own regularly.

Update:
After some more looking and suggestions, I might go through these guys: http://www.mysterybyte.com/series/1/.

If you want to suggest an customization to one of those, or reasons not to go with them, please let me know.

As far as the "Being a mac user" thing. I mean when buying my mac I just picked the model of mbp I wanted. There are only so many options there and I have to build nothing. I do not have interest in building anything.

Quaker · Jul 03, 2012, 01:53 PM // 13:53

I'm not sure what "being a mac user" has to do with building your own PC.

But anyway, for what you want and the budget you have, it becomes relatively easy. You basically want an i7-3770K* with 8Gigs, or more, of RAM and some high-end video card such as an HD7870, HD7950/70, or GTX-670 or 680.
Most of the rest of it just depends upon what you want or like the the look of - that is, things like the case, hard drive size, optical drive, keyboard, monitor, etc.

Since you don't want to build it yourself, the next best thing is to get something from one of the on-line retailers that let you customize your rig, such as Dell or Cyberpower, etc.

Or, check this out - http://pc.ncix.com/ncixpc_new/ncixpc...ategoryid=1003

Also, if you want more replies and more opinions, I would suggest that you join and post in GWGuru2 (the GW2 part of this site). It's much more active, and lots of people are looking for new rigs for GW2.
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/...ying-building/

*normally you only need an i5-3570K for gaming, but the HyperThreading of the i5-3770K may actually help some of your apps.

Lithril Ashwalker · Jul 04, 2012, 03:53 PM // 15:53

Dell XPS 8300
Windows 7
Intel Core i5 - 2320 CPU 3.00 GHz and 3.00GHz
6GB INSTALLED(can upgrade) RAM
64 bit operating system
Pen and Touch screen option available give or take you ahve the screen
comes built with AMD Radeon HD 6459
and Wireless Mini card hub
over 5 usb slots
all under $2000 WITH warranty and plays GW2 like a beast

look on Best Buy for it.

mr_stealth · Jul 05, 2012, 11:56 PM // 23:56

Given your budget, Quaker's suggestions would be about what you're looking for. Find a good deal, and you might be able to double the GPU to run an SLI/Crossfire setup, but that would be a bit of overkill for D3 and GW2. Might be nice for WvW or large boss battles, though.

He mentioned CyberPower and NCIX, which I've always heard/read good things about. IBuyPower and Falcon-NW are worth mentioning, too. I usually advise avoiding the big name brands since some have a history of using proprietary parts and overcharge horribly for the non-standard replacements. Even more so for their off-the-shelf systems like you find in Walmart, Best Buy, etc. Those systems tend to be "special" models built just for that store, leaving you with cheaper components and less support (very few driver updates/bug fixes being one big issue I've seen with these systems).

The system builders I mentioned usually provide much more info on what you are actually buying, giving multiple options for brands/models for quite a few components. Even going customized with a company like Dell, you're blindly buying parts without knowing the manufacturer or model in most cases. If you do find more specific details, it's possible that your system (advertised as the same model) could have different parts in it.

Quaker · Jul 06, 2012, 02:09 PM // 14:09

Btw, it's worth mentioning that Macs are "PCs" and use the same components as Windows based computers. So, learning what's good in a "PC" applies to Macs as well.

All that Mac vs PC crap is just marketing BS. It's really OSX vs Windows - the hardware is essentially the same.