Do you really need to spend a lot for a casual gamer?

jayuk20

jayuk20

jayuk20

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24 Dec 2008
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My mates rig got me thinking, do you really need to spend a lot as a casual gamer? My mate spend 30 quid on an Asrock n68-s ucc mb and a sempron 140 plus an ati 4550 gfx card and it plays games like mw2 and bad company 2 very well, though game detail is low. Is there a need for exspensive systems unless you better looking games?
 
The answer is no you don't. Nobody "needs" an i7 processor to play games, nobody "needs" to overclock that processor and you certainly don't need sl or corssfire or indeed the latest cards.

It's all just personal preference and on occasion e-peen related.
 
I consider myself a casual gamer, and my computer has a Q6600 at 3.2GHz and an HD 5770. These two components are reasonably priced, and I can run all my games at high settings at native resolution, and they run flawlessly. I don't think you have to spend huge sums of money to get a decent gaming computer.
 
Agreed

lcg said:
I consider myself a casual gamer, and my computer has a Q6600 at 3.2GHz and an HD 5770. These two components are reasonably priced, and I can run all my games at high settings at native resolution, and they run flawlessly. I don't think you have to spend huge sums of money to get a decent gaming computer.
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I'm happy enough with a Q8200 @ 3.2GHz o'cd 8GB DDR2 and a oc'd 9800 GTX+.

Runs cool and quiet in a biiiiig ATCS 840 with a stack of drives for photography and video work and plays anything on reasonable settings without problems.
 
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jayuk20 said:
My mates rig got me thinking, do you really need to spend a lot as a casual gamer? My mate spend 30 quid on an Asrock n68-s ucc mb and a sempron 140 plus an ati 4550 gfx card and it plays games like mw2 and bad company 2 very well, though game detail is low. Is there a need for exspensive systems unless you better looking games?
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Yes, as I highly doubt your mates rig runs these games very well at all.
 
Well i'm coming to the end of the road with my system i think.. but i wont be upgrading till next year.. what you also got to remember is a lot of games are console ports so are less demanding to run than say Crysis :p eg BlackOps no doubt i'll be able to max out with 1920x1200 resolution just like quite a few recent games, so there really isnt a reason to upgrade just yet.
 
Depends how often you want to upgrade. If you buy a computer that can only run new games at very low detail then its not going to last very long. Even casually, you are going to play more than 2 single games for years and nothing else. Theres probly a curve somewhere with cost/longevity. Im a casual gamer but I wouldnt buy the bare minimum (using gtx 460 and phenom x4). I would rather buy a decent rig now and play games on good quality and then lower the res further down the line when its needed. So it can be done but its not really very efficient.
 
lcg said:
I consider myself a casual gamer, and my computer has a Q6600 at 3.2GHz and an HD 5770. These two components are reasonably priced, and I can run all my games at high settings at native resolution, and they run flawlessly. I don't think you have to spend huge sums of money to get a decent gaming computer.
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That's the thing with 'reasonably priced', just because it's not hugely overpriced doesn't mean it's worth it over something like say an Athlon II X3 and a 4670 or something similar. For me i doubt it is, but it's all personal preference - not that i have the money to spend on it or anything, still stuck with my E2140 and 8400GS ;)
 
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