Basically, she needs a good recommendation for a reasonably-priced off the shelf computer (mid three-figures) that will play Dragon Age Inquisition well. She’s not going to build her own, because she’s not into that sort of thing; and she’s not really likely to need anything more graphics intensive for another four, five years. With that in mind, suggestions welcome.
13 thoughts on “Computer advice bleg: my wife needs recommendations for a new computer.”
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I can’t help you.
Get a desktop with a Core i5. Buy something like a GeForce 760 or 750ti, and drop it in. (Adding a video card is not really difficult as long as you have a mid-size tower.) The 750ti has an advantage in that, while it’s a weaker card, it doesn’t require additional power.
A fast Core i3 would probably be fine, too.
Something like this is probably cromulent: http://www.microcenter.com/product/423410/B359_Desktop_Computer
$480 + ~$210 for the video card. You can probably find a vendor that would prebuild a similar system if you don’t want to buy the card separately, but it might cost more. Bear in mind that on laptops, i3s and i5s are the same (dual-core HT), except the 5s have Turbo Boost, whereas on the desktop, i5s are quad-cores, so you’ll get a bit more power and life out of an i5.
This looks pretty decent, although it’s not what I’d call a powerhouse: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/New_Year_Special_I/
(or this if you like AMD: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/New_Year_Special_II/)
A PS4 or Xbox One (yeah, you’d need to buy another copy of the game, but it’ll still be under $500 before sales tax)?
If you really want to go PC and don’t want to build one (and inexpensive gaming boxes are one of the few scenarios where I think building your own makes sense), I’d think you probably want to see what you can find for $400-$500 with an i5 and a full-size PCI Express x16 expansion slot, then spend ~$150 on a video card.
I second this answer, if it is mostly for games. Plus your kids would love games like Infinity when she is not at home.
Well .. my normal advice (“Call Dell, buy last year’s business-grade machine, its’ way easier to get parts three years later and their support doesn’t completely suck…”) doesn’t exactly apply ..
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I don’t play Dragon Age so I can’t test out my advice for you.
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Sorry if this isn’t helpful.
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Mew
You’ll want a dual core processor at least that’s a minimum requirement for a lot of the newer games.
Also Windows 7 if you can get it. Windows 8 doesn’t do games it runs a Windows 7 emulator for games which adds a whole level of complication to any game problems. Windows 10, still in Beta, reportedly has a key logger and knowing something of how Microsoft works they’ll simply disable and not remove it. So avoid Windows 10 even if they give you a good deal.
“You’ll want a dual core processor at least that’s a minimum requirement for a lot of the newer games.”
Yeah, but a quad-core has more future-proofing.
“Also Windows 7 if you can get it. Windows 8 doesn’t do games it runs a Windows 7 emulator for games which adds a whole level of complication to any game problems. ”
This is gibberish. My home gaming rig gets 300fps on Minecraft with 8.1. Depending on where in he world I am, I can get 200+FPS in 1920×1080 Ultra in WoW.
It’s pretty much impossible to not get at least a dual-core CPU, and has been for at least five years. And very difficult for at least 8. I’d go with a quad for a desktop, though.
And even if your ranting about Win8.1 were accurate (it’s not), it doesn’t matter; Win7 is not available on consumer-targeted OEM machines anymore (and I doubt Moe is going to go to a custom builder).
What 1_rick and Catseyes said…but I’d wait another week or two if you can…stores will really start moving stock as tax inventory deadline looms at the end of the month.
“What 1_rick and Catseyes said…but I’d wait another week or two if you can”
This is going to be true in some cases, but IIRC the CyberPowerPC systems I linked to are on sale now for several hundred dollars off.
1_Rick and Catseyes are on the money. Only thing I can add is she’ll need to decide laptop or desktop. Your price-point will determine how much bang for buck you can get from either form factor. For a laptop you’ll want a dedicated vid card and traditionally you can’t get as good a card when you go mobile. If I’ve rehashed stuff you already knew I apologize. A neat site I recently discovered is choosemypc.net. It’s a builder site but you can use it as a reference to see what kind of video card/ CPU combo comes up at what price-point. As you scale your $ amount it changes hardware automagically. Another great resource is Tomshardware.com. They do a System Builder Marathon with Entry, Enthusiast and High end builds which you can also use as a reference. Finally, my own rig runs DA:I at medium settings (with the Mesh setting turned to High because I don’t like plastic looking hair). It’s a Frankenrig so a hodgepodge of parts. The CPU is an AMD Phenom II X4 and my vid card is an AMD HD 6900 series w/2GB VRAM. DA:I runs pretty smooth. One or two hiccups with 150+ hrs worth of play. Hope this helps.
there’s no decision involved. You can’t get a decent gaming laptop for what Moe’s willing to pay.
ibuypower.com. Lets you do near-infinite configuration for gaming systems, going from the price range you mentioned, up to waaaay too much, but lets you pick everything. My last couple of gaming rigs have come from there and I’ve been pretty happy. And the markup’s really not that bad over building it yourself.