Video & PC Game Discussion

sleeper wrote: ^You have to remember Lindsay that for a consol to be viable it has to have a shelf life of at least a few years, and not everyone can afford a top of the range computer every three months, I certanly cant and the most graphically astounding games of the last couple of years wont work on my PC as the card is cheap 'n' nasty.

It's not as bad as you describe it. A new computer every 2 years, and a new graphics card every year, that's enough. And if you sell the old graphics card on Ebay and manage to give away the old computer to friends or parent (who aren't into gaming), you can maintain a decent system for gaming for less than $500/year. It's more expensive than consoles, but not as expensive as you describe it.

Also i built a pc for $2000 a year ago and i still can use the highest graphics settings on games like forexample Quake 4.

You can also get a good graphics card for about $200 and that can atleast hold 1 1/2 year.

And every 2nd or 3rd year ye might have to upgrade the Motherboard

which would be about $150 for the motherboard + $300 for a decent processor also you might have to invest in more memory which is about $150.

Consoles in general are built to cheaply to be profitable so console games are often more expansive than PC-games and you also have to live with knowing that the graphics you see on the first PS3 game forexample is going to be just as good as a PS3 game relased 5 years after.

Also games can not be patched or modified and so on...

MikeEnRegalia wrote: ^ let's face it ... you have to update the whole computer every 2-3 years: ATX -> BTX AGP -> PCIe IDE -> SATA CD -> DVD USB -> USB 2 ... ... Every 2-3 years the hardware industry WILL come up with a new feature that requires upgrading. So the key IMO is: Buy yourself a decent, but not top-of-the-line system for around $1000. if you do that every 2 years, you'll be better of (performance-wise) than if you buy a $2000 system and keep that for 4 years.

Well most standards like PCIe USB2 and such is implemented in the motherboard...except for the motherboard,processor, memory and graphics card usually you dont have to change anything else because HDD usually can last 3-4 years depending on how much you fill em up cd/dvd players/burners is also not needed to mantain a good system.

Also BTX is just a different standard of motherboard that has been around for a long time and most motherboards are backward complitable with systems that are forexample 3-4 year old or atleast you can find an adapter like forexample a AGP-PCI-e adapter which is available now.

MikeEnRegalia wrote:  a few examples: in one or two years BTX will begin to replace ATX. So if you then decide to upgrade your motherboard - you'll need a new computer case (and power supply). If you today upgrade your system and still use an IDE harddisk, you will eventually want to upgrade to a SATA disk - or else your old harddisk will become a performance bottleneck. If you currently own a really good AGP graphics board and plan to upgrade your mainboard in a year or so - forget about it, because you WILL need a new graphics board for PCIe. USB is backward compatible, that's true. But eventually you will want to upgrade to USB2 if you use a memory stick, because it's at least 10x faster. ...

Yes as i said before most standards SATA, PCIe,USB2 and BTX is implemented in the MOTHERBOARD so when you buy a new MOTHERBOARD all these things comes naturally.

I was not aware of BTX becoming a new standard for motherboards? It is quite an old standard and have been used for DELL for years but as you say changing from ATX to BTX will require new case and PS but new motherboard standards happen very rarely.

Also SATA disk does not run faster than IDE  disks on games really but most motherboards supports both standards so when space restrictions calls for it you will propably buy a SATA disc since they cost the same.

Also many got a good AGP card and wants to buy a new motherboard but still want to wait 5-6 months or so before buying a new graphics card and since all new graphics card today are PCI-e they would ofcourse buy a motherboard with PCI-e but there are adapters that can put in the PCI-e slot and also some motherboards run both AGP and PCI-e

So in reality you really only need to buy a new Motherboard, processor and memory at the same time. The rest (Optic drives,HDD,Human interfaces,Soundcards,Graphics cards) You can really buy afterwards as standards for these products rarely changes so fast and if they do you propably can get a adapter or something for it.

Lindsay Lohan wrote: MikeEnRegalia wrote:  a few examples: in one or two years BTX will begin to replace ATX. So if you then decide to upgrade your motherboard - you'll need a new computer case (and power supply). If you today upgrade your system and still use an IDE harddisk, you will eventually want to upgrade to a SATA disk - or else your old harddisk will become a performance bottleneck. If you currently own a really good AGP graphics board and plan to upgrade your mainboard in a year or so - forget about it, because you WILL need a new graphics board for PCIe. USB is backward compatible, that's true. But eventually you will want to upgrade to USB2 if you use a memory stick, because it's at least 10x faster. ...   Yes as i said before most standards SATA, PCIe,USB2 and BTX is implemented in the MOTHERBOARD so when you buy a new MOTHERBOARD all these things comes naturally. I was not aware of BTX becoming a new standard for motherboards? It is quite an old standard and have been used for DELL for years but as you say changing from ATX to BTX will require new case and PS but new motherboard standards happen very rarely. It's a fairly new standard ... the successor of ATX. It features a different layout which optimizes air flow. Also SATA disk does not run faster than IDE  disks on games really but most motherboards supports both standards so when space restrictions calls for it you will propably buy a SATA disc since they cost the same. Currently SATA is not faster than IDE, that's correct. But it won't stay that way ... that particular issue is not a big problem though as you correctly point out. Also many got a good AGP card and wants to buy a new motherboard but still want to wait 5-6 months or so before buying a new graphics card and since all new graphics card today are PCI-e they would ofcourse buy a motherboard with PCI-e but there are adapters that can put in the PCI-e slot and also some motherboards run both AGP and PCI-e No. converters seriously degrade performance, so you really have to decide which one to use. I currently have a good combo (Athlon 64 3000 + GeForce 6800 AGP), and when I upgrade the mainboard it will be PCIe, and thus also a new graphics board. So in reality you really only need to buy a new Motherboard, processor and memory at the same time. The rest (Optic drives,HDD,Human interfaces,Soundcards,Graphics cards) You can really buy afterwards as standards for these products rarely changes so fast and if they do you propably can get a adapter or something for it. In two years from now, you will also want a new case, new hard disk (because then SATA III will be standard, and a lot faster than IDE), new optic drives (with DHCP so you can watch Blu Ray / HD DVD discs on the computer) and graphics card (with DHCP).

I've only just recently updated my 400MHz. AMD K6-2 AT machine to a slightly better 1GHz. AMD Athlon ATX machine, I seriously need about 3.2GHz. minimum, but my Motherboard only supports 1GHz., oh well, I'll give it some time.  I really want Neverwinter Nights 2 when it is released next year, but I fear my machine won't be able to run it.  I do have USB 2.0 though and I've recently bought a low spec. graphics card (GeForce 5200FX at around £45-50, I'm so cheap!) to get me by until I can afford a complete upgrade.

I've only ever played Zelda: A Link To The Past on SNES and it's a cool game, but they do keep re-hashing the same old story lines...

Lindsay Lohan wrote: Consoles in general are built to cheaply to be profitable so console games are often more expansive than PC-games and you also have to live with knowing that the graphics you see on the first PS3 game forexample is going to be just as good as a PS3 game relased 5 years after.

This is not true. The graphics for launch games for most all next-gen games (when compared to the previous generation) are demonstrably better. After a few years go by and the developers really disect the console and get everything out of it that they can, the games released thereafter are incredibly better than the launch games, both in graphics and design, simply because the developers know the ins and outs and what the console is made of and can juice it for all it's got.

When I see not-prerendered pics and footage for MGS4 on the PS3, presumably a launch title or soon after, I get excited because it has the best graphics I have ever seen in a game. It makes Half-Life 2 look like Tetris. And I know that that game is using far less than 50% of the PS3's total power.

stonebeard wrote: Cygnus X-2 wrote: stonebeard wrote: Cyggie: Buying into the novelty Japanese market, eh? My next purchase will be the popular game Phoenix Wright: Attorney at Law for the Nintendo DS, what is it with the Japanese and their painfully sane games? Geez...can't you buy a nice, American game like 187 Ride Or Die or something....

Please I'd rather play this:

^^
Oh god if you are buying stuff from Loose Change then kill yourself
enjoyed a good round of
CS 1.6