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What's truly worth playing on the PC is easily playable on a decent laptop. Stuff like Audiosurf and the games the Rev promotes in the Indie Nation features. Build a respectable spec PC and use a slightly older game that was a benchmark for its time, something like Far Cry should do the trick and build to the specs of that, it should come in well within £500 and ought to play most reasonably modern stuff. Here's the most important thing to remember though.
You don't have to play Crysis.
Also, don't write off Microsoft hardware, some of the best keyboards and mice I've used have been MS.
Oh, and get Steam. Immediately.
You don't have to play Crysis.
Also, don't write off Microsoft hardware, some of the best keyboards and mice I've used have been MS.
Oh, and get Steam. Immediately.
"is... is it worth upgrading for PC gaming?"
YES
Current Stuff:
TF2
Sins of a Solar Empire
All of what you mentioned
Up Comming Shit:
Spore
Fallout 3
Starcraft 2
As for the parts you listed, drop that ATI and get an 8800. Id also recommend getting an Asus motherboard instead of Gigabyte, not that Gigabyte is bad, but Asus is just the best.
Also if you dont mind spending some extra money get another 2 Hard Drives and set up a RAID 5 array, its twice as fast and you can't lose any data as a result of a hard drive dying.
YES
Current Stuff:
TF2
Sins of a Solar Empire
All of what you mentioned
Up Comming Shit:
Spore
Fallout 3
Starcraft 2
As for the parts you listed, drop that ATI and get an 8800. Id also recommend getting an Asus motherboard instead of Gigabyte, not that Gigabyte is bad, but Asus is just the best.
Also if you dont mind spending some extra money get another 2 Hard Drives and set up a RAID 5 array, its twice as fast and you can't lose any data as a result of a hard drive dying.
It will most definitely play Doom 3, Quake 4, STALKER, and Supreme Commander. It will probably play Crysis, although it might not run fast enough for your tastes. I'm betting it would play games like COD4 and The Orange Box as well, if you don't own them already.
Also, if you're buying the screen and you are going for 22" just for kicks, you might want to rethink it. Getting a smaller screen with a lower resolution will allow you to play at higher detail settings. I know I really like my 22" screen, but to play Crysis I'm going to have to turn down the details or run it in letterbox mode.
CaffienePowered said it right. 8800gt is what you want.
Also id have a look at what Intel processors you can get for the same price as that amd64. Not that its a bad processor, just that its old, and the newer intel ones tend to be better, for the same price. You'd also need a different motherboard, and if you do go with intel, get an asus p5n-e, its cheap and good.
Other than that... if theres lots of games you want to play, you'll probably want more than 160gb of storage. Youd be surprised at how quickly you can fill it up.
In any case, that pc should run crysis at high, with some tweaking to get all the obvious very high settings. It should be playable the whole game, although that means 20fps or so. If you can play crysis, you can play anything. Except maybe hellgate london, but you dont need to play that...
Also id have a look at what Intel processors you can get for the same price as that amd64. Not that its a bad processor, just that its old, and the newer intel ones tend to be better, for the same price. You'd also need a different motherboard, and if you do go with intel, get an asus p5n-e, its cheap and good.
Other than that... if theres lots of games you want to play, you'll probably want more than 160gb of storage. Youd be surprised at how quickly you can fill it up.
In any case, that pc should run crysis at high, with some tweaking to get all the obvious very high settings. It should be playable the whole game, although that means 20fps or so. If you can play crysis, you can play anything. Except maybe hellgate london, but you dont need to play that...
Oh sorry, by 20fps i mean at least 20fps. Should range between say, 22 and 35. Also crysis still handles nicely at 20fps, surprisingly.
