First time PC gamer.

I have 2 360s in my house, and am a massive console gamer. However, about a year ago, when my 360 RRoD'd, I downloaded Steam and started playing stuff on it. I'd only downloaded Counter Strike, because my mates were always talking about playing it. I was a bit crap at it, and I didn't really enjoy it, however, recently after seeing the likes of APB, Star Trek Online and Champions Online, all of which ''might happen'' for 360, I figured I wanted to get a PC, so I could play all my old games on (Simcity, stuff like that), but also these new things (Like some FPS stuff).



I already have a PC, but it is a pile of crap now, and although I have a macbook pro, I want a PC for playing games on, and doing all the stuff I can't do on my mac.



So, I have several questions:

1.)Is it worth me buying a gaming PC?

2.)Refurbished machines - yay or nay?

3.)What are the subscriptions like for MMOs?

4.)Will I have to buy a super computer and spend a fortune to get decent graphics out of these games?First time PC gamer.
[QUOTE=''lolnick'']I have 2 360s in my house, and am a massive console gamer. However, about a year ago, when my 360 RRoD'd, I downloaded Steam and started playing stuff on it. I'd only downloaded Counter Strike, because my mates were always talking about playing it. I was a bit crap at it, and I didn't really enjoy it, however, recently after seeing the likes of APB, Star Trek Online and Champions Online, all of which ''might happen'' for 360, I figured I wanted to get a PC, so I could play all my old games on (Simcity, stuff like that), but also these new things (Like some FPS stuff). I already have a PC, but it is a pile of crap now, and although I have a macbook pro, I want a PC for playing games on, and doing all the stuff I can't do on my mac. So, I have several questions: 1.)Is it worth me buying a gaming PC? 2.)Refurbished machines - yay or nay? 3.)What are the subscriptions like for MMOs? 4.)Will I have to buy a super computer and spend a fortune to get decent graphics out of these games?[/QUOTE]1. Only if you plan on moving on from games made in 2000.2. OEMs overall are a nay, try to build one yourself. (We'll help you)3. Most of them are like $10-15 a month.4. ''These games''? If you're referring to MMOs, then no, you'll probably spend at most $600, more if you want a new monitor to go along with it.First time PC gamer.
You should give Team Fortress 2 a try; best to get it via the Orange Box, if you haven't already have Halflife 2, Episode 1 and Episode 2, already. I find it a lot more fun than Counterstrike source, myself.1.) I don't know.... Lots of the games on the 360 are on the PC and vice versa.
2.) Making you're own is the best way to go.
3.) I'm not into MMO's; waste of money as far as I'm concerned.
4.) If a fortune is around 1,200 bucks, then yes. (the little stuff adds up.) An upgrade from a previous, custom build, usually average about 200-600 bucks (about every 2-4 years). Major upgrades from a pre-build, more often than not, aren't worth it.5.) Don't expect every game to run flawlessly, either.... PC'ing isn't always as plug and play as a console.
I'm in the UK, so i'm halving all of your price estimations. :P



I really wanna play TF2, I have it on The Orange Box for 360, but it is a pile of crap on the consoles.



But it may be worth trying to upgrade my old machine? I did look at it before (upgrading the graphics card) but I figured that because of needing to change the power supply too, it was too much effort. My Dad has made a media PC with a 1GB graphics card to watch blu-rays on. I'm thinking maybe of hijacking his one? I just remembered that. That'll be cheaper..
That really depends on WHAT 1GB graphics card and CPU is in his machine. Post specs for enlightenment. :)
[QUOTE=''lolnick'']I'm in the UK, so i'm halving all of your price estimations. :P I really wanna play TF2, I have it on The Orange Box for 360, but it is a pile of crap on the consoles. But it may be worth trying to upgrade my old machine? I did look at it before (upgrading the graphics card) but I figured that because of needing to change the power supply too, it was too much effort. My Dad has made a media PC with a 1GB graphics card to watch blu-rays on. I'm thinking maybe of hijacking his one? I just remembered that. That'll be cheaper..[/QUOTE]Care to give the specs of that machine?
[QUOTE=''lolnick'']I'm in the UK, so i'm halving all of your price estimations. :P



I really wanna play TF2, I have it on The Orange Box for 360, but it is a pile of crap on the consoles.



But it may be worth trying to upgrade my old machine? I did look at it before (upgrading the graphics card) but I figured that because of needing to change the power supply too, it was too much effort. My Dad has made a media PC with a 1GB graphics card to watch blu-rays on. I'm thinking maybe of hijacking his one? I just remembered that. That'll be cheaper..[/QUOTE]



Well whatever is the best computer you can get a hold of please do tell us the specs first. anyway is there any other games you might be interested in such as Half-Life 2 or any other first-person shooters? many of the Xbox 360's lineup of FPS is also available on the PC such as Fallout 3, Call of Duty 4/5 etc.
[QUOTE=''kaitanuvax''][QUOTE=''lolnick'']I'm in the UK, so i'm halving all of your price estimations. :P I really wanna play TF2, I have it on The Orange Box for 360, but it is a pile of crap on the consoles. But it may be worth trying to upgrade my old machine? I did look at it before (upgrading the graphics card) but I figured that because of needing to change the power supply too, it was too much effort. My Dad has made a media PC with a 1GB graphics card to watch blu-rays on. I'm thinking maybe of hijacking his one? I just remembered that. That'll be cheaper..[/QUOTE]Care to give the specs of that machine?[/QUOTE]



If you can give the specs of your PC it might be as easy as upgrading a few parts...



It would help if you gave us your processor spec, graphic card spec, memory(RAM) spec, and you should check to see if you're computer has a PCI-E slot available.



If you want to build a computer from the ground up the only way I think it would be worth it is if you went from being predominately a system gamer to being predominately a PC gamer. Otherwise the start up cost is a bit steep.
[QUOTE=''lolnick'']I'm in the UK, so i'm halving all of your price estimations. :P



[/QUOTE]

Don't do that, everything costs more over here.
I didn't get Half-Life. I played it on The Orange Box and didn't find it to be that good. I would wanna play COD4 probs, just stuff like that on steam, and also a few MMOs. But anyway, here are the specs of that media blu-ray thing.



Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.99 GHz

3GB RAM

ATI Radeon HD 4350



What d'you think?
[QUOTE=''lolnick'']

Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.99 GHz

3GB RAM

ATI Radeon HD 4350

[/QUOTE]

I guess it's fine with what you want to do. Don't expect great things, but older games will run fine. The 1 GB of vRAM for the HD 4350 is pointless though...
Well, my Dad told me that the graphics card was 1GB, but when I actually looked it up, it was only 512. :/



If I wanted to improve it, what would be the quickest, and most efficient way of doing so?
[QUOTE=''lolnick'']Well, my Dad told me that the graphics card was 1GB, but when I actually looked it up, it was only 512. :/



If I wanted to improve it, what would be the quickest, and most efficient way of doing so?[/QUOTE]

If you wanted to do a quick fix, upgrade the video card. Your performance will improve significantly, but there will be a limit. The issue is that the CPU is lackluster and doesn't perform any where near a $200 processor on the market today. You also may be limited in the choice of your video cards by the strength of your Power Supply in the computer. So you may have to buy a new Power Supply and rewire it yourself if you want a good video card. That makes it no so much of a quick fix anymore though...



The best thing you can do is move on and buy new PC, but that would end up costing a rather large sum of money.



And still, 512 MB on a 4350 is still pointless for the most part.
I don't know anything about the 4350.... 4850 and 4870 are respectable ATI type cards (without having to pay over 150 dollars). I never looked into where a 4350 would rank, but it can't be much of a gaming card @ 35 dollars.Anyway... I'd guess all you'd have to upgrade is that video card. Although.... I don't know what the Powersupply can handle.
[QUOTE=''Threesixtyci'']I never looked into where a 4350 would rank, but it can't be much of a gaming card @ 35 dollars.[/QUOTE][QUOTE=''Anandtech'']So the short answer to this quesiton is not really. If you want to play casual games or older games, you'll be fine. Generally, you don't even have to run on the absolute worst settings. But you can't get near the quality even the 9500 GT is capable of delivering (let alone the 4670 which can deliver AA in some cases to low resolution gaming). [/QUOTE]SourceBasically, it's not a gaming card.
That True that card is like the 7300GS it not a gaming card but it still can play WoW at max tough id say it would have some lagspike at some moment if everything was put at max inside the game and even more lag in MMO that have more graphic then WoW
[img]http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/video/ATI/4550/oblivion2.png[/img]
The only reason that card is in the computer is because it allowed HD, and blu-ray playback. But if it isn't gonna do much good, I may have to look into completely remaking it. Cranking up the RAM and changing the motherboard are all things which I'm sure i could do.



It can be a little father-son project. ;)
Oh, and another few questions:



1.)AMD or Intel?

2.)What else should I be looking for?



I think i'm going to build one from scratch.
[QUOTE=''lolnick'']Oh, and another few questions:



1.)AMD or Intel?

2.)What else should I be looking for?



I think i'm going to build one from scratch.[/QUOTE]



AMD has a better price/performance ratio.
[QUOTE=''UltimateGamer95''][QUOTE=''lolnick'']Oh, and another few questions: 1.)AMD or Intel? 2.)What else should I be looking for? I think i'm going to build one from scratch.[/QUOTE] AMD has a better price/performance ratio.[/QUOTE]Usually.... anyway.Given the recent thread about an I5, not so sure that's true, for now. http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=27032197%26tag=topics;title Although, AMD socket motherboards tend to be less expensive than Intel socket boards.