Ensis Ferrae wrote:
I'd check out http://www.ibuypower.com/

I used to shop newegg.com and completely build computers from scratch, but have gotten lazy, and went with these guys.... 800 won't actually get you all that much for a modern gaming design/testing rig, but I should think it'll get you in the door.

With anything nowadays, I'd look for something with multiple HDD capacity, DDR3 (or ability to upgrade to DDR3) RAM. Most gaming people prefer Nvidia graphics, but ATi builds some pretty good ones as well. For mother board, I prefer MSI, or ASUS (ASUS generally makes good hardware all around from laptops to desktop components)


Obviously, for testing/design, I'd want to have as much RAM and as much Dedicated video memory as possible. I usually also prefer the largest HDD size that I can afford, as the more free space a drive has on a Windows based system, the better is usually performs.

 Asherian Command wrote:

Wow really? 800 isn't a lot? I am on quite a budget so, I won't be able to spend that much. I do not plan on buying the top of the line in any point.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:

Wow really? 800 isn't a lot? I am on quite a budget so, I won't be able to spend that much. I do not plan on buying the top of the line in any point.

As I said, 800 will get you in the door. The nice thing with Desktops is, if you get a good mid-sized case, you can upgrade literally everything inside of it as you can/need to. I bought my current desktop 3 or 4 years ago, and it's STILL well above the "recommended" specs for every game coming out now.

If you buy a computer piece by piece from a place like Newegg, the most expensive things usually are the Video Card, and OS. If you play around on that ibuypower website that I linked, an 800 dollar machine will certainly play the games you probably currently play, and it'll help get you started on your schooling... but it's certainly not top of the line, or groundbreaking. With Desktops, you can get away with this better than a laptop.


Personally, I've always seen a desktop as more of an investment, as mine have all lasted so long... So while you're a "broke college kid" certainly that 3-4000 dollar "rolls royce gaming computer" will be out of your reach, but that 800 budget machine will get the job done, provided you take care of it.

 Grey Templar wrote:
That is the fortunate thing about desktops in that you can upgrade piecemeal over time.

$800 will definitely get you a workable machine. Nothing high end of course.


Now that is assuming you don't also get a screen, speakers, mouse, and keyboard to match. But you probably already have those so don't need to use up any of your $800 getting new ones.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Are they incompatible or something?

No reason not to save a little money and use your old accessories.

 Ouze wrote:
For $800, if you don't have a monitor or any accessories... you should buy a laptop. You can get a laptop with a dedicated GPU for $800, and you can add a monitor and stuff later if you want to.

You're not going to be able to build a decent gaming PC and get all the accessories for that price, although you can do the PC part.

 Medium of Death wrote:
I'm surprised it's a requirement to have a desktop and laptop . Doesn't the University you are attending have all the programs you'll be using installed on it's own computers?

 Medium of Death wrote:
I thought the use of the computers would have been included in the fees? Seems odd.

Obviously it's good to be able to work from home, but if you haven't even started the course yet then I don't really know why they are placing such importance on getting this all set up before the semester starts.

Definitely won't be cheaper to buy each program individually rather than use the Uni computers.

 Ouze wrote:
Sorry, I missed where you had a monitor.

The link I dropped in my last post has exact components to build a gaming PC for $773ish. It was a few months ago so it might be a hair cheaper now.

 Peregrine wrote:
The first thing you need to do is to learn what software you'll be using and figure out what hardware you need to do your work, not what will allow you to play the latest games you want to play. Since game design is mostly about things that have nothing to do with pretty graphics I strongly suspect that everything you do will be in simple engines with basic graphics, something any PC from the latest 10-20 years can run. You aren't going to be dealing with high-end graphics because it takes an obscene amount of time to create the art for that kind of game and you can't afford to spend a year or two on a single class project.

 Asherian Command wrote:
Also it is better as a gamer to have one. Because Game Design is about learning from others and using other ideas skillfully.

Yes, but let's be realistic here, you aren't going to be learning anything from playing the latest Call of Battlefield game on max graphics settings. Even if you do need to play a modern game for some reason you can always turn all of the settings down to the absolute minimum, which should help your budget significantly.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:
Here's a quick link to what I threw together on Newegg... All you'd need would be your keyboard/mouse, a Windows or whatever OS you want to run, and the monitor that you've got...

Personally, when I build a new machine I add more CD/DVD drives (I put one down here), and you could look at more RAM, but I think this would work:

http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingCart.aspx?Submit=view

Daemonhammer wrote:
If you get decent cooling system you could overclock to get way more out of the computer.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:
Lol, My bad. Links to individual items, hopefully it'll work out better


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136270
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119227
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148912
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127783
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171089
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233170
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1735217


As I said, only need a couple other things, like the OS (which, unfortunately last I looked can run around 300 bucks... Nice thing with the Motherboard/CPU combo pack, is you KNOW it's compatible and will work.

 Ouze wrote:
If the PSU's fan is hitting anything inside it's housing, it should be returned. Presumably it's under warranty.

 Ouze wrote:
Under no circumstance open the power supply housing. It contains lethal voltage and no user-serviceable parts.

 Ouze wrote:
Under no circumstance open the power supply housing. It contains lethal voltage and no user-serviceable parts.

 whembly wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
Under no circumstance open the power supply housing. It contains lethal voltage and no user-serviceable parts.

I can't stress this enough...

Don't every do it.

<--- IT professional here.

 whembly wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
Under no circumstance open the power supply housing. It contains lethal voltage and no user-serviceable parts.

I can't stress this enough...

Don't every do it.

<--- IT professional here.

 Asherian Command wrote:

 whembly wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
Under no circumstance open the power supply housing. It contains lethal voltage and no user-serviceable parts.

I can't stress this enough...

Don't every do it.

<--- IT professional here.

What should I buy to replace that part?

As an IT professional. I mean I can't get a rosewill modular because those are all gone.
(The part was Rosewill CAPSTONE Series 450W 80 Plus Gold Certified Modular ATX12V/EPS12V Power Supply CAPSTONE-450-M) And I got it from Amazon Warehouse INC

The power also turns on and off strangely when ever i plug something in as well. I assumed it was the power supply. Turns out I was right :/

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:

 whembly wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
Under no circumstance open the power supply housing. It contains lethal voltage and no user-serviceable parts.

I can't stress this enough...

Don't every do it.

<--- IT professional here.

What should I buy to replace that part?

As an IT professional. I mean I can't get a rosewill modular because those are all gone.
(The part was Rosewill CAPSTONE Series 450W 80 Plus Gold Certified Modular ATX12V/EPS12V Power Supply CAPSTONE-450-M) And I got it from Amazon Warehouse INC

The power also turns on and off strangely when ever i plug something in as well. I assumed it was the power supply. Turns out I was right :/

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182073


From what you're saying, your old PSU wasn't putting out enough, so that should help out.


Also, I used to work in the army in what you could call IT (but you'd only be half right).... So we'd actually take this sort of gak apart for fun (under controlled environments and all that)

 Asherian Command wrote:

I will use my brothers amazon prime account to get the item in two days, because I have only a week before I leave for college. My parents have been paying for everything, but I have actually been wanting to buy it myself as I was the moron who decided to purchase a used and refurbished part. So now that I have learned never ever to buy from a used seller, I will only buy new things

My psu was just bought to, I just got it. And it worked briefly. My bios were set up and everything, now the power supply goes plewy.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:

I will use my brothers amazon prime account to get the item in two days, because I have only a week before I leave for college. My parents have been paying for everything, but I have actually been wanting to buy it myself as I was the moron who decided to purchase a used and refurbished part. So now that I have learned never ever to buy from a used seller, I will only buy new things

My psu was just bought to, I just got it. And it worked briefly. My bios were set up and everything, now the power supply goes plewy.

Lol, there are some things that you can buy used (couches, dining tables, lamps, books, miniatures, etc) but some things you really, REALLY want to avoid buying used (computer parts, mattresses, etc) simply because you can't verify how well they were treated by previous owners.

 Ouze wrote:
Additionally, I never get cheap on my PSU - I always get more wattage than I might need, and only from a reputable brand like Corsair, Antec, Enermax, Thermaltake, etc - a shoddy hard drive might fail, but a shoddy power supply might take everything plugged into it when it fails.

 Ouze wrote:
"Trouble" is kind of a wide umbrella, as is "problems". What specifically is the issue? Is it showing yellow exclamation points in control panel?

SM Bus Controller - What kind of motherboard do you have?

Teredo Tunneling - disable it or ignore it. You don't use it.