PC Gaming Discussion

[Happenstance]

Bought Rogue Legacy myself from the sale(along with Civ V). It's fun but pretty difficult. I knew there was some platforming involved but it's a basically a Mario platformer sometimes and I'm pretty bad it :p

 

Yeah I started off pretty terrible. As soon as you start upgrading though it gets easier.

[Happenstance]

Left 4 Dead 2 is currently free on Steam iif anyone doesnt have it

[gaggle64]

Finally booted up the Kerbal Space Programme demo out of curiosity - holy crap I need to get in on this. It's so much fun just learning from trial and error, definitely will get into the full version at some point. I'll try to resist for a while though, I've got a PC backlog as long as my arm. Do try the demo, you won't be sorry for having done so.

 

Left 4 Dead 2 is currently free on Steam iif anyone doesnt have it

 

Trying to get to it now but I can see the smoke coming off the store servers from here.

[The Bard]

Kerbal Space makes me feel like a kid messing around with Meccano parts again.

 

Does anyone know if you can gift the free version of Left 4 Dead? Going to try and send a copy to all of my peasant friends.

[gaggle64]

Heads up to anyone going for the free L4D2, Steam has totally collapsed under the demand but you've got until 10am PST (6pm GMT) tomorrow to keep trying. Round about lunchtime should be ideal.

Edited December 25, 2013 by gaggle64

[drahkon]

Been playing loads of Volgarr the Viking and Rogue Legacy over the past few days. Both are excellent games and well worth buying.

 

I knew Rogue Legacy already. You reminded me that I need to play this again.

 

And...I bought Volgarr the Viking...

 

Well thank you, you sumbitch. It's fucking awesome. The Demon's/Dark Souls of platformers.

 

I'm already in rage/tears...and I only played 5 minutes and haven't gotten very far.

[Jamba]

Got a fantastic haul of goodies from @bluey for Christmas. Already been enjoying Fez and itching to play Gone Home but I have hours of gaming ahead of me (not all from bluey):

- Tomb Raider

- Dark Souls

- Fez

- Gone Home

- Ben there, Dan that!

- Braid

- Sk'rim

- Magicka

- Sanctum 2

- Stanley Parable

- XCOM: EU

- Trine 2

 

 

And now off to play Broken Sword with the missus too!

[Goron_3]

So I got a new Macbook Air over Christmas and for the first time ever I've been checking out Steam and yeah, I LOVE IT! So many incredible games on there and I must admit that I spoilt myself over the Christmas period with Limbo, Mark of the Ninja and a few others.

 

Anyway, it's got me thinking about building a gaming PC. What is the best set up I could get for say £500? Of course, I'd be looking to upgrade it regularly but I think I just need a good starting point. Then there are these Steam machines which are tempting me, but I'm wondering if I could build it cheaper myself?

 

(p.s. First ever post in the PC thread YEAHHHH).

[Retro_Link]

I'm the same!!

 

I haven't just got a shiny new Macbook Air :p... but the other week was the first time I'd ever taken a look on the Steam website, after hearing about and wanting to find out how to play Gone Home and The Stanley Parable. I signed up to Steam but still need to download it.

 

I couldn't believe how cheap some games were on the website and all the sales they have going on! Tomb Raider was a couple of quid or something!

 

I'd still look to play that sort of game on a console, because the thought of playing it on my laptop seems strange to me... however I did find I could of course hook my laptop up to the TV with HDMI, but it still doesn't quite seem right somehow.

 

However, there are of course PC games I'd like to play, the two I mentioned for example, and other Indie games past and in the future.

 

So I have a question... can I use my PS3 controller to play such games, either on my laptop or through the TV? How do people best play these games on their laptops?

Edited January 6, 2014 by Retro_Link

[The Bard]

So I got a new Macbook Air over Christmas and for the first time ever I've been checking out Steam and yeah, I LOVE IT! So many incredible games on there and I must admit that I spoilt myself over the Christmas period with Limbo, Mark of the Ninja and a few others.

 

Anyway, it's got me thinking about building a gaming PC. What is the best set up I could get for say £500? Of course, I'd be looking to upgrade it regularly but I think I just need a good starting point. Then there are these Steam machines which are tempting me, but I'm wondering if I could build it cheaper myself?

 

(p.s. First ever post in the PC thread YEAHHHH).

 

Got Walking Dead Season 1 for me and my lady on your recommendation man, hope it's worf it! :p.

 

As for PC, you'd want to go for something like this lot:

 

Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3

Intel i5 3570k (4670k ain't worf it, doesn't overclock well and generally isn't as good for gaming as either the 3570k or the 2550k)

Any good 750w PSU

8gb Ram

1tb Sata HD (If you want to spend an unnecessary amount of money, get an SSD, the load times are fucking outrageously good).

 

Leaves you with about £140 for a GPU, which should be just a little under budget for something like a 7870 (Which is, incidentally quite similar to the PS4's GPU.

[Tales]

 

So I have a question... can I use my PS3 controller to play such games, either on my laptop or through the TV?

How do people best play these games on their laptops?

 

Internet recommend MotionInJoy but I couldn't figure out how to use it. This one below was easier to configure and use for me. Used it to play Rouge Legacy with my PS3 controller, making the game significantly easier to play.

 

http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-XInput-Wrapper-for-DS3-and-Play-com-USB-Dual-DS2-Controller

 

You use the charger cable to connect the PS3 controller to the laptop btw.

 

And I don't know about Mac. Might be just for Windows for all I know.

Edited January 6, 2014 by Tales

[Retro_Link]

Thanks man!

 

Mind you, I guess Gone Home and The Stanley Parable are best played with a mouse, but it's good to know I can potentially use it for games I feel would be more comfortable with a controller.

 

I'm pretty excited to start trying some PC games.

Edited January 6, 2014 by Retro_Link

[Agent Gibbs]

i'm using one of Mayflash's WiiU pro adaptors to use my WiiU pro controller on my PC....its awesome such a good pad

[Cube]

The 360 controller is probably the best for the PC as the majority of PC games are configured for it. They even show the correct buttons.

[flameboy]

@Retro_Link pinnacle game profiler is really good and includes both xbox 360 and ps3 controller. It does however cost money but I gladly stumped up the cash.

[Retro_Link]

@Retro_Link pinnacle game profiler is really good and includes both xbox 360 and ps3 controller. It does however cost money but I gladly stumped up the cash.

Just looking on that website now, am I right in thinking it says it's now free or? http://pinnaclegameprofiler.com/

[Sheikah]

Anyway, it's got me thinking about building a gaming PC. What is the best set up I could get for say £500? Of course, I'd be looking to upgrade it regularly but I think I just need a good starting point. Then there are these Steam machines which are tempting me, but I'm wondering if I could build it cheaper myself?

 

(p.s. First ever post in the PC thread YEAHHHH).

 

I've had a go at spec'ing a PC for you, I pretty much agree with Bard's suggestions, although I've opted for a few cheaper options to bring the price down (which still sits a little above your budget, but everything I've put here I couldn't really trim any more). This would be a really nice machine capable of running all games out now on very high:

 

Case:

 

AvP Defender 400 K2 USB 3.0 Mid Tower Case with 1x LED for PC - Black/Red (Amazon) £28.11

 

Antec One Midi Tower Case - (Amazon) - £43. Antec make really good cases with good fan circulation, and this case has 2 front USB 3.0 ports as well as tool-less installation (ie. no screwdriver required to install hard drives/optical drives). Up to you if you want to switch with this.

 

 

Motherboard:

 

Gigabyte GA-Z77-HD3 Motherboard (Socket 1155, Z77 Express, DDR3, S-ATA 600, ATX) - (Amazon) - £67.81

 

^ The cheapest Z77 1155 socket motherboard from a decent brand with favourable reviews I could find.

 

Processor:

 

Intel i5-3570K CPU (4 x 3.40GHz, Ivy Bridge, Socket 1155) - (Amazon) - £163.57

 

^ The wallet always takes a hit with the processor...but you want this one since you can easily overclock it to get far more for your money.

 

 

Graphics card: Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7870 Dual-X 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card - (Amazon) - £132.14

 

^ A really good price for this card.

 

1TB HDD:

 

Western Digital 1TB internal Hard Drive - Caviar Blue (3.5 inch) - (Amazon) - £43.99

 

^ Delete from the cost if you don't need it.

 

 

Power supply:

 

OCZ ZS Series 650W 80+ Bronze Power Supply - (dabs.com) - £54.99

 

^ This is a pretty good price for the model. When it comes to power supplies you want one that's 80 Plus (ie. over 80% efficient) and from a decent company, so this one checks out. 650W should be more than enough for what you need.

 

RAM:

 

Crucial Sport 8GB RAM Kit (4GBx2), Ballistix 240-pin DIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800 - (Amazon) - £60.00

 

Processor Cooler:

 

Hyper 212 EVO Processor Cooler- (Scan.co.uk) - £23.98

 

^ The cooler that comes with the processor is gash. Get this one, it'll reduce the temperature a lot more effectively. There are some cheaper ones out there, but this one is much better at reducing temperature and well worth the money.

 

 

All in all that costs £574.59. A bit above your budget, but I can't really get it lower without the PC basically being a fair bit worse/less future proof. I can tell you though, this will be a beast. It's nice when you build it yourself since you know what you're putting in is actually good stuff.

 

At some point I highly recommend getting an SSD - even a 64GB/60GB will be enough since the primary reason is to just have it to install your OS onto it as well as commonly used programs (web browser, office programs, photoshop etc). This will make your PC boot and run incredibly fast as well as vastly speeding up the operation of the programs on the drive.

 

This one is very affordable:

 

Kingston 60GB Solid State Drive 2.5-inch SATA 3 with Adapter - (Amazon) - £39.45

 

(I'm also guessing you've got a DVD drive you can move over, but if not try this one for £12.98 off Amazon)

 

(Second edit: For some reason my post wasn't displaying everything I wrote so I took some images out)

Edited January 7, 2014 by Sheikah
Automerged Doublepost

[Deathjam]

Internet recommend MotionInJoy but I couldn't figure out how to use it. This one below was easier to configure and use for me. Used it to play Rouge Legacy with my PS3 controller, making the game significantly easier to play.

 

http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-XInput-Wrapper-for-DS3-and-Play-com-USB-Dual-DS2-Controller

 

You use the charger cable to connect the PS3 controller to the laptop btw.

 

And I don't know about Mac. Might be just for Windows for all I know.

 

Don't use MotionInJoy. It has the potential to really screw with your drivers for other components and devices.

 

But the other one you suggested works perfectly and is more seamless than motioninjoy ever was. Also has continuing support.

 

Just looking on that website now, am I right in thinking it says it's now free or? http://pinnaclegameprofiler.com/

 

It's not free.

[Sheikah]

I swear you said that before but I've never had a problem with MotionJoy. :p

[Deathjam]

I swear you said that before but I've never had a problem with MotionJoy. :p

 

Yeah I did but just last week I continued to have problems even after uninstalling the motioninjoy. It would reinstall itself when I connected my iphone to my pc, killing the connection between itunes and my phone. I would literally watch windows install the driver when I inserted my phone and it took me a week to figure out and hours to resolve.

[Goron_3]

 

Got Walking Dead Season 1 for me and my lady on your recommendation man, hope it's worf it! :p.

 

As for PC, you'd want to go for something like this lot:

 

Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3

Intel i5 3570k (4670k ain't worf it, doesn't overclock well and generally isn't as good for gaming as either the 3570k or the 2550k)

Any good 750w PSU

8gb Ram

1tb Sata HD (If you want to spend an unnecessary amount of money, get an SSD, the load times are fucking outrageously good).

 

Leaves you with about £140 for a GPU, which should be just a little under budget for something like a 7870 (Which is, incidentally quite similar to the PS4's GPU.

 

I've had a go at spec'ing a PC for you, I pretty much agree with Bard's suggestions, although I've opted for a few cheaper options to bring the price down (which still sits a little above your budget, but everything I've put here I couldn't really trim any more). This would be a really nice machine capable of running all games out now on very high:

 

Case:

 

AvP Defender 400 K2 USB 3.0 Mid Tower Case with 1x LED for PC - Black/Red (Amazon) £28.11

 

Antec One Midi Tower Case - (Amazon) - £43. Antec make really good cases with good fan circulation, and this case has 2 front USB 3.0 ports as well as tool-less installation (ie. no screwdriver required to install hard drives/optical drives). Up to you if you want to switch with this.

 

 

Motherboard:

 

Gigabyte GA-Z77-HD3 Motherboard (Socket 1155, Z77 Express, DDR3, S-ATA 600, ATX) - (Amazon) - £67.81

 

^ The cheapest Z77 1155 socket motherboard from a decent brand with favourable reviews I could find.

 

Processor:

 

Intel i5-3570K CPU (4 x 3.40GHz, Ivy Bridge, Socket 1155) - (Amazon) - £163.57

 

^ The wallet always takes a hit with the processor...but you want this one since you can easily overclock it to get far more for your money.

 

 

Graphics card: Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7870 Dual-X 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card - (Amazon) - £132.14

 

^ A really good price for this card.

 

1TB HDD:

 

Western Digital 1TB internal Hard Drive - Caviar Blue (3.5 inch) - (Amazon) - £43.99

 

^ Delete from the cost if you don't need it.

 

 

Power supply:

 

OCZ ZS Series 650W 80+ Bronze Power Supply - (dabs.com) - £54.99

 

^ This is a pretty good price for the model. When it comes to power supplies you want one that's 80 Plus (ie. over 80% efficient) and from a decent company, so this one checks out. 650W should be more than enough for what you need.

 

RAM:

 

Crucial Sport 8GB RAM Kit (4GBx2), Ballistix 240-pin DIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800 - (Amazon) - £60.00

 

Processor Cooler:

 

Hyper 212 EVO Processor Cooler- (Scan.co.uk) - £23.98

 

^ The cooler that comes with the processor is gash. Get this one, it'll reduce the temperature a lot more effectively. There are some cheaper ones out there, but this one is much better at reducing temperature and well worth the money.

 

 

All in all that costs £574.59. A bit above your budget, but I can't really get it lower without the PC basically being a fair bit worse/less future proof. I can tell you though, this will be a beast. It's nice when you build it yourself since you know what you're putting in is actually good stuff.

 

At some point I highly recommend getting an SSD - even a 64GB/60GB will be enough since the primary reason is to just have it to install your OS onto it as well as commonly used programs (web browser, office programs, photoshop etc). This will make your PC boot and run incredibly fast as well as vastly speeding up the operation of the programs on the drive.

 

This one is very affordable:

 

Kingston 60GB Solid State Drive 2.5-inch SATA 3 with Adapter - (Amazon) - £39.45

 

(I'm also guessing you've got a DVD drive you can move over, but if not try this one for £12.98 off Amazon)

 

(Second edit: For some reason my post wasn't displaying everything I wrote so I took some images out)

 

Thanks a lot guys Much appreciated! Out of interest, how hard is it to actually build the damn thing? I'm a computer noob, would it be easy?

 

OH! And Bard, enjoy the Walking Dead. Episode 2 still gives me goosebumps :') I've actually just restarted it (this time on my Macbook as opposed to that damn iPad), I forgot how much I hate Kenny

[Happenstance]

Its not that hard and if you dont feel all too confident theres loads of text guides and Youtube videos that will pretty much explain it all./

[Sheikah]

Pretty easy. You take the motherboard out of the box, then slot on the RAM, graphics card, processor, then splotch a bit of thermal paste on the top of the processor and place the processor cooler on top (followed by some screwing it in place on the board). Screw the motherboard into the designated holes on the case. Then you screw the PSU into place against the case. The Antec case has screwless installation so hard drives, DVD drives and SSDs don't need screwing in, just slotting. Then it's a case of hooking up cables supplied with your PSU from the PSU to individual drives and components (they're pretty clearly labeled).

[Deathjam]

Reading the paperwork and manuals that come with the components is also very handy. Some things are colour coded and the most if not all motherboards have labeling that dictates what needs to be placed in that given slot. But the manual that comes with them is a great source of information.

[Goron_3]

Thanks a lot guys Much appreciated.