As a console gamer, I tried a master race PC rig recently, and now I have a dirty eyesight. I want!!

[Shifty Geezer]

Why is it always PC Master Race and Console Plebs? How about PC Plebs? PC Middle Class? Where is the cut for Master Race? When talking about PC vs Console, Master Race always the one pitted against Console, but I don't think I'm in that race since my PC is weaker than PS4/X1.

Did you read the OP? That's not the rig of a PC Peasant. PC Plebs do get a mention (integrated graphics holding back console development), but the high-end PC user is the master race. No getting around it.

Of course, the common folk tend to have more fun than the elite...

 

[Rurouni]

I did read it... I just get irritated at the sight of PC Master Race. It makes people forget that there are PC Plebs out there... a lot! I just read a kotaku article about how GTA looks like on PC... of course they use PC Master Race rig and not Plebs rig.... It is like suddenly every PC gamer having Master Race rig, which is not the case for the majority of PC gamers. Maybe if the title "What GTA V Looks Like Maxed Out on PC" or "On High End PC" I won't be annoyed so much. PC Plebs rarely gets a mention and a lot of reviewer rarely bothers review a game on low to mid end rig. I hate youuuuuu Master Race [emoji34] [emoji34] [emoji34]
I should organize something to dethrone PC Master Race as the poster boy for PC gaming and demand that reviewer starts using low to mid end rig for their review [emoji57] [emoji57] [emoji57]

 

[pjbliverpool]

I think you're taking it a bit too seriously tbh, it's a tongue in cheek term, it shouldn't be used outside of a light hearted/joking context.

 

[Davros]

Just wanted to point out it's not PC Master Race it's Glorious PC Gaming Master Race

 

[London Geezer]

Race discrimination is bad

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Yes, I feel triggered by getting called "Glorious".
Anything short of "Ultra Spectacular" before addressing me falters my self-esteem.

Please be supportive of my diversity and avoid the Glorious thing.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

PC Plebs rarely gets a mention and a lot of reviewer rarely bothers review a game on low to mid end rig.

Plebs by and large are ignored. The great unwashed masses aren't particularly interesting. They only get noticed when they rise up. If they want attention, they need to start their own communities like "MediocreGaming.com" and "ReducedSettings.org - how low must you go?", and try to drum up mainstream interest in the challenges of getting Intel integrated graphics to run the latest AAA titles at reasonable framerates.

I'm sure the console fanboys users will be highly respectful and supportive of low-end PC gamers trying to get their outdated and/or £300+ laptop to run the games that cheaper consoles are managing.

 

[Mize]

I'm still gaming on an ancient, three screens, water cooled, i7-2600k (@4.6 GHz) with 2x GTX 680s & 32GB RAM while the PS4 collects dust. The benefits of being a strategy gamer.

All my fun money has gone into cycling these last couple years instead of keeping up the computer hardware...

 

[London Geezer]

I'm still gaming on an ancient, three screens, water cooled, i7-2600k (@4.6 GHz) with 2x GTX 680s & 32GB RAM while the PS4 collects dust. The benefits of being a strategy gamer.

All my fun money has gone into cycling these last couple years instead of keeping up the computer hardware...

Cycling? As in physical exercise?? Outdoors???

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Exercise bike linked to Cycling Simulator 2014 on his three screens!

 

[Arwin]

Cycling is great! But actually, I spent all of 400 euro on a good bike, and 100 on shoes, and that's it. So it doesn't have to be that expensive. On the other hand, when you got this: i7-2600k (@4.6 GHz) with 2x GTX 680s & 32GB - I bet you paid a nice sum for that. When I was a kid working at the helpdesk, I made price/performance curve graphs to help advise people what hardware to get. You can upgrade a lot more often for the same money and have a better performance average if you buy at the right point in the curve.

 

[Mize]

Outdoor, competitive racing...although I'm also a beta tester for Zwift which is online, virtual cycling with resistance control of the trainer unit to simulate hills and what not.

I'm racing 40+ races/criteriums per year as a cat 3 racer and the bikes (road racer, crit racer, TT) and related gear (race wheels, trainers, etc.) really add up fast. A 7 kilo, carbon race bike with aero wheels, etc. will push $10k easy.

On the plus side my weight is down 20 kilos from three years ago, my resting heart rate is 50 bpm and my blood pressure is to die for. At 48 years old I compete with guys twenty to thirty years younger as I've not switched to racing Masters categories as yet. It's a blast. But, yeah, it actually makes PC gaming seem more affordable.

 

[Mize]

Here's my cycling simulator:

 

[milk]

Nice graphics, but why so much DoF?! Even on this tiny screenshot you can barely distinguish any detail on the cyclists a mere few feet from you. Whats the point in paying top money for a rig that can render all that detail if it's all gonna be hidden behind a vaseline curtain?

 

[homerdog]

After not playing any kind of console in a few years, I tried GTAV on my buddy's XBOX One the other day. The graphics looked messed up like it wasn't running at the native resolution of his television (?? I thought HDMI could autodetect resolution and his TV is only 1080p. Did R* eff something up or is the console not capable of running games at 1080p?), but the most annoying thing was how stuttery the game was. Seriously I can't imagine playing a game like that, but I guess people just get used to it or don't know any better.

Anyway I'm super glad I game on PC. Yeah I spend the equivalent of an Xbox every year on hardware but I use the thing for work too, and my old parts get put in older systems. Right now I have 3 perfectly capable gaming PCs and I let my brother and buddies use the spares.

 

[Cyan]

Also if you want to do some win 98 and xp retro gaming

I still have a full functioning classic Sound Blaster Live -which was bundled with the excellent Alien vs Predator- if need be.

Here's some more hints about audio setup. Don't bother with anything for audio other than using the HDMI Audio that's built into the video cards anyways. Save the money on the audio card and get yourself a proper AV Receiver and 5.1 / 7.1 speaker system.

Many thanks for the advice. Some PC monitors with excellent technology like 144Hz and 1ms of input lag, plus Lightboost have built-in speakers (like this one http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B2HH7G0/?tag=blurbust0c-21 ) but I am torn between between the AV Receiver, 5.1/7.1 speaker system or a 7.1 headset, like the Ozone ones I've tried at my friend's house, which you can get for 60€.

Here's some tips...

Unless you plan on overclocking, go for the cheapest motherboard you can get with good reviews. In other words somewhere in the 60-100 USD range. It will give you the exact same performance and stability as motherboards costing 250-400 USD. And even if you do overclock, you can usually get the same overclocked performance in a 100-150 USD MB as you do in a 300+ USD MB.

Some great advice in there, Silent. As for the motherboard, I am thinking about getting a budget Gigabyte or MSi, as I am keen on them because they have very good software which makes overclocking a breeze, plus they feature things like quick boost.

I shall start reading reviews and so on, just like I did before buying my HDTV a year and a half ago, spending 3 months reading reviews and choosing one.

Top notch computer cases don't have to cost an arm and a leg. You can get very high quality cases for around 100-150 USD. You can get good cases for under 100 USD (they just tend to make assembling the system a bit more of a pain in the butt).

Just that would save you 1000 USD/Euros off your build.

The assembly is something I wouldn't mind doing myself because that's how things used to be when I started as a PC gamer, so I could save some money in one of those. Another possibility would be grabbing a low cost case while the store do the assembly and if I ever need an upgrade I can assemble the components myself.

Also, don't get a sound card right away. The vast majority of people can't tell the difference between onboard audio and a sound card. And for those that can? They can't tell the difference in games, only in music...with extremely high quality speakers or headphones. Save the money and don't bother with a sound card.

Yes, same reply as the ones addressing @Davros and @BRiT comments

Another tip, you don't need a NAS HDD for a desktop system, unless you REALLY think your computer is going to be on 24/7 with the potential for the HDD to be constantly accessed for most of the day. Save money and get a standard HDD. Or SSD (but wait on the SSD, prices are rumored to be dropping by up to 50% in the next 6 months). Really good quality 120 GB SSDs can already be gotten for around 50-60 USD on sale

A CPU at 2/3 the cost of the one you chose will likely give you at worst 95% of the gaming performance. But will usually give you almost the exact

7-8 months to a year when the first fully DirectX 12 GPUs are released is my deadline to buy a new PC, so I think I can get a SSD then for a good price, to sit the OS layer alone, I think.

Sigh... you are right in the NAS thing, I didn't know what the acronym NAS stood for and now that I read your post I searched and found out why the HD is quite expensive compared to others. Agreed, I don't need that at all.

A CPU at 2/3 the cost of the one you chose will likely give you at worst 95% of the gaming performance. But will usually give you almost the exact same gaming performance.

Er, a Karaoke speaker?

Watercooler is a bit excessive, again unless you plan on doing some relatively extreme (not liquid nitrogren extreme ) overclocking. And even then it usually only gives on average another 100 or so mhz more than a really good air cooler. Unless you live in a place that is very hot and you don't have air conditioning.

A high performance PC doesn't have to be extremely expensive.

Regards,
SB

Hopefully there are some nice review sites that compare CPU performance where you can find what you look for. I know that some desktop i5 -my laptop does have a humble but fast i5-2450m CPU- processors where renowned for their performance and overclocking capabilities.

Errr.. The karaoke speaker thing was a lapsus.

Temperatures are mild where I live so that shouldn't be a problem. No liquid nitrogen for me but if things get hot I can always open the window. The material is not expensive

Regards!!

 

[pjbliverpool]

7-8 months to a year when the first fully DirectX 12 GPUs are released is my deadline to buy a new PC

There are already 4 fully DX12 GPU's on the market ranging in price from about £160 - £860. Take your pick!

 

[Cyan]

- Peripherals are a very personal thing but consider not buying the best of the best just because. On the note of peripherals being personal but very important, this applies to a monitor more than anything, so a build like that that implies using some old crappy monitor.... don't. You don't build a machine with such a video card to game at 1080p or less.

Thanks for the tips.

After watching games in motion at my friend's house running on his 144Hz display with 1ms input lag, I think that the PC display is an essential peripheral, as it eliminates ghosting and the annoying blur.

I've seen it in motion and it's not even comparable to 60 fps!!, which I think is usually an optimal framerate. The difference is quite noticeable. This amazing NeoGAF thread on 144Hz displays sums it up really well.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=720113

Why use a high refresh rate monitor?

The importance of a high refresh rate monitor is something that is hard to describe, because it really is an interesting experience going from one to the other. Outside of subjective enjoyment level, there are some hard facts on why it is objectively better than using standard 60Hz displays.

Much is said about graphical fidelity to present a lifelike creation to fully immerse the player. I’m sure everyone has been told by Dennis how important this is. No matter how pretty those pixels are, you also need proper illusion of motion. Without this, you just have a pretty slideshow.

“But 60 fps/hz is great, it’s so smooth”, you say. There’s also a lot of people who insist their 30 fps times are great too. But, there’s still room for improvement. Though for some the transition from 60 to 120/144hz might not be as significant as going from 30 to 60 for some, for others it’s the difference between night and day.

Generally this split is between competitive gamers and those who enjoy more standard AAA, RPG, strategy, or indie games. The high speed and movement in competitive games does lend itself towards being more obviously smooth with a higher refresh rate. Don’t count yourself out, as even people who are bad at games like Sethos and Smokey will attest to an improved experience in most games. It’s even been known to reduce or eliminate frame tearing.

"The other major factor is motion blur. For those who started being extremely interested in games in the last console lifecycle, I can see the confusion on your face right now. Motion Blur is not a graphical improvement. It was designed to make a sub-par 30 fps experience feel smooth. What it does is muddy everything on screen, reducing graphical fidelity. Getting rid of that mess is the key to having a consistent level of clarity and richness."

Using everyone’s favorite blur tool, Testufo, take a look at these differences.

60Hz

120Hz

120Hz w/ Lightboost

"Lightboost? What is this?

You should read this. But, the tl;dr version is that it strobes the backlight only when the LCD panel has fully refreshed, presenting a series of clear images rather than holding on to a refresh before the next occurs.
Click this to read more about why even OLED’s with a zero response time have motion blur, due to the sample-and-hold effect.

What this means is a return to CRT days when everything was crisp, without the downsides of the technology."

 

[Billy Idol]

Since when are PC gamers master race? I wish they where...I could easily join them.

Instead, PC gamers are just the idiots of the industry...e.g.?? What about this

Meh. PC master race....more like: lol race!!

 

[pjbliverpool]

Since when are PC gamers master race? I wish they where...I could easily join them.

Instead, PC gamers are just the idiots of the industry...e.g.?? What about this

Meh. PC master race....more like: lol race!!

It's obviously a major bug related to the installation rather than the actual game which will clearly be fixed by a patch pretty quickly. Day 1 issues plague console games too, anyone who wants to avoid them knows not to buy on day 1 and if they choose to do so anyway they need to be prepared to have to wait for a patch in the event of an issue like this. That's not excusing the developers for not picking this issue up during testing but to suggest something like this equates to all PC games being "the idiots of the industry" sounds fairly idiotic in itself to me.

Bottom line is that once this issue if fixed, MK X will be probably have it's best incarnation on the PC and will cost the least there too.