Can anyone recommend an inexpensive desktop that works well with steam games?
Decent Steam gamer system
- Thread starter LeakySeals
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Won't steam ruin the electronics?
...a meeting of the Centuries.
Perhaps he was referring to stReaming games.
Perhaps he was referring to stReaming games.
MrQuackers
Site Donor 2024
PC power has very little to do with Steam and very much to do with the specific games you want to play.
Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
Can anyone recommend an inexpensive desktop that works well with steam games?
Which particular games do you play? Look up their respective recommended hardware requirements, and make your buying decision based on that.
Can anyone recommend an inexpensive desktop that works well with steam games?
Which particular games do you play? Look up their respective recommended hardware requirements, and make your buying decision based on that.
I actually stopped buying and playing computer games because they seem to all require a Steam account to run them these days. And I don't just mean downloaded games. Even if you go to the store and buy the hard copy on disk you still need a Steam account. Can't even resell them because the game locks itself to the account it is registered too.
No use for Steam whatsoever.
No use for Steam whatsoever.
Quad core, quality i5 or better yet, i7, 960 graphics card and good memory should do it. A SSD is a must if you want fast load times.
The hyperthreading of an i7 is, to my understanding, not really used in games. But quad cores are. And the i7 has other advantages with certain games. As some games are very CPU intensive.
You may read that the i5 is only 3 frames per second slower than the i7 in benchmark tests. However, in some games that's not true at all. It can be as much as 15-20 frames per second with certain games and simulators. As the CPU is bound up with other tasks.
Another interesting option is to look on ebay for a used HP Z400. Sometimes these can be purchased with just the right equipment.
The hyperthreading of an i7 is, to my understanding, not really used in games. But quad cores are. And the i7 has other advantages with certain games. As some games are very CPU intensive.
You may read that the i5 is only 3 frames per second slower than the i7 in benchmark tests. However, in some games that's not true at all. It can be as much as 15-20 frames per second with certain games and simulators. As the CPU is bound up with other tasks.
Another interesting option is to look on ebay for a used HP Z400. Sometimes these can be purchased with just the right equipment.
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My son just got a GUA4500A for the same application, works great.
The AMD fx6350 is tended to be regarded as the best budged processor and best price to performance processor. But it depends on what games you are planning to play. As for Video card, I don't know what the newest models are, but I would generally go with the equivalent to the amd 370 or Nvidia 960.
Minimum I would build is an Intel i5 6500, 16Gb ram, SSD drive 500 Gb, GTX 1070 video card.
700 Watt power supply, ASUS or Gigabyte Motherboard.
Stick with Intel for CPU and Nvidia for video cards.
I like MSI for the video card brand.
SSD of choice is the Samsung EVO.
Build it once and build it right.
pcpartpicker dot com is a great place to build your PC
I built the above system for $1080, all with parts that rate at 4 stars or higher.
I come from the school of hard knocks having built many systems for family and friends.
If you want to review a specific build, just PM me.
700 Watt power supply, ASUS or Gigabyte Motherboard.
Stick with Intel for CPU and Nvidia for video cards.
I like MSI for the video card brand.
SSD of choice is the Samsung EVO.
Build it once and build it right.
pcpartpicker dot com is a great place to build your PC
I built the above system for $1080, all with parts that rate at 4 stars or higher.
I come from the school of hard knocks having built many systems for family and friends.
If you want to review a specific build, just PM me.
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First off budget is an important factor. Then are you looking for an entire system. Monitor keyboard mouse speakers and computer. Used or new. Open to building your own system?
Nvidia graphics cards go higher in number as they get newer and better. Example a 670 is better than a 660 and a 970 is several years newer. There current gen is the 10 series example 1060. 1070. 1080. Also we need to know the types of games. Big budget triple A games. Older ones. Indie games. Free to play. Then finally what resolution. If your only playing free games at 1080p you can get a fairly cheep if willing to buy used or build your own
Nvidia graphics cards go higher in number as they get newer and better. Example a 670 is better than a 660 and a 970 is several years newer. There current gen is the 10 series example 1060. 1070. 1080. Also we need to know the types of games. Big budget triple A games. Older ones. Indie games. Free to play. Then finally what resolution. If your only playing free games at 1080p you can get a fairly cheep if willing to buy used or build your own
Originally Posted By: NHHEMI
I actually stopped buying and playing computer games because they seem to all require a Steam account to run them these days. And I don't just mean downloaded games. Even if you go to the store and buy the hard copy on disk you still need a Steam account. Can't even resell them because the game locks itself to the account it is registered too.
No use for Steam whatsoever.
GOG for the infirm.
I actually stopped buying and playing computer games because they seem to all require a Steam account to run them these days. And I don't just mean downloaded games. Even if you go to the store and buy the hard copy on disk you still need a Steam account. Can't even resell them because the game locks itself to the account it is registered too.
No use for Steam whatsoever.
GOG for the infirm.
Originally Posted By: cptbarkey
Originally Posted By: NHHEMI
I actually stopped buying and playing computer games because they seem to all require a Steam account to run them these days. And I don't just mean downloaded games. Even if you go to the store and buy the hard copy on disk you still need a Steam account. Can't even resell them because the game locks itself to the account it is registered too.
No use for Steam whatsoever.
GOG for the infirm.
????
Originally Posted By: NHHEMI
I actually stopped buying and playing computer games because they seem to all require a Steam account to run them these days. And I don't just mean downloaded games. Even if you go to the store and buy the hard copy on disk you still need a Steam account. Can't even resell them because the game locks itself to the account it is registered too.
No use for Steam whatsoever.
GOG for the infirm.
????
1060 is more than sufficient. its faster than a 970 which will play most games almost fully maxxed out at 1080p.
No need for 500 gb SSD drive get a 250GB for OS and a fast regular hard drive for the steam folder.
something like a toshiba x300 is plenty fast. OTOH if you have money to burn you can always put in a steam SSD drive too.
Seems like I just saw a low end crucial 525GB drive for just over 100$ so thats certainly an option although my steam folder is 670GB and that is just the games I currently have installed.
A quality build on a budget that is somewhat optimized to not have bottleneck components for modern games would be
I5-6600k
16gb ram
1060 6gb
250GB ssd boot drive
1 tb WD blue HDD steam drive
motherboard and case etc to suit your taste
could go Mini-ITX or EATX doesnt really matter.
High end is needed for 1440p gaming you would need even more video card for 4k@60hz. like a 1080 or sli 1070
A high end system (1440p gaming or 1080p@144hz)
I7-6700k
1070 or 1080 video card
16GB ram, more is optional
BOOT SSD , Steam SSD
Of course this varies based on game
CS:go can do 1080p@144hz on my 970 setup.
Witcher 3 1440p on ultra brings it to its knees.
with sustained drops to 30fps.
No need for 500 gb SSD drive get a 250GB for OS and a fast regular hard drive for the steam folder.
something like a toshiba x300 is plenty fast. OTOH if you have money to burn you can always put in a steam SSD drive too.
Seems like I just saw a low end crucial 525GB drive for just over 100$ so thats certainly an option although my steam folder is 670GB and that is just the games I currently have installed.
A quality build on a budget that is somewhat optimized to not have bottleneck components for modern games would be
I5-6600k
16gb ram
1060 6gb
250GB ssd boot drive
1 tb WD blue HDD steam drive
motherboard and case etc to suit your taste
could go Mini-ITX or EATX doesnt really matter.
High end is needed for 1440p gaming you would need even more video card for 4k@60hz. like a 1080 or sli 1070
A high end system (1440p gaming or 1080p@144hz)
I7-6700k
1070 or 1080 video card
16GB ram, more is optional
BOOT SSD , Steam SSD
Of course this varies based on game
CS:go can do 1080p@144hz on my 970 setup.
Witcher 3 1440p on ultra brings it to its knees.
with sustained drops to 30fps.
Whatever hardware you end up with will likely get more bang for your buck using Steam's Debian-powered SteamOS http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/
Originally Posted By: NHHEMI
Originally Posted By: cptbarkey
Originally Posted By: NHHEMI
I actually stopped buying and playing computer games because they seem to all require a Steam account to run them these days. And I don't just mean downloaded games. Even if you go to the store and buy the hard copy on disk you still need a Steam account. Can't even resell them because the game locks itself to the account it is registered too.
No use for Steam whatsoever.
GOG for the infirm.
????
Good Old Games. Never used them but they offer DRM-free games without the use of a client. Yeah I remember PC gaming in the late 90's. Letting my friends or cousins borrow my game discs. You'd also have that one friend with a dual drive/burner combo to make a copy (for himself.) Arr!
Originally Posted By: cptbarkey
Originally Posted By: NHHEMI
I actually stopped buying and playing computer games because they seem to all require a Steam account to run them these days. And I don't just mean downloaded games. Even if you go to the store and buy the hard copy on disk you still need a Steam account. Can't even resell them because the game locks itself to the account it is registered too.
No use for Steam whatsoever.
GOG for the infirm.
????
Good Old Games. Never used them but they offer DRM-free games without the use of a client. Yeah I remember PC gaming in the late 90's. Letting my friends or cousins borrow my game discs. You'd also have that one friend with a dual drive/burner combo to make a copy (for himself.) Arr!
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Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
Whatever hardware you end up with will likely get more bang for your buck using Steam's Debian-powered SteamOS http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/
IIRC the Performance(FPS) is lower on that than windows (same hardware)
also the prebuilt steam "console like" boxes are overpriced.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/11/ar...steamos-gaming/
The first benchmarks dont seem too bad
but the actual gaming benchmarks are terrible.
Quote:
We finally settled on a couple of mid-to-late-2014 releases that had SteamOS ports suitable for our tests: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Metro: Last Light Redux. Both are relatively graphically intensive 3D games with built-in benchmarking tools and a variety of quality sliders to play with (including six handy presets in Shadow of Mordor's case). For all the gaming benchmarks, we ran each test at least three times and took the median number to ensure the results were reliable.
No matter how you slice it, running these two high-end titles on SteamOS comes with a sizable frame rate hit; we got anywhere from 21- to 58-percent fewer frames per second, depending on the graphical settings. On our hardware running Shadow of Mordor at Ultra settings and HD resolution, the OS change alone was the difference between a playable 34.5 fps average on Windows and a stuttering 14.6 fps mess on SteamOS.
Whatever hardware you end up with will likely get more bang for your buck using Steam's Debian-powered SteamOS http://store.steampowered.com/steamos/
IIRC the Performance(FPS) is lower on that than windows (same hardware)
also the prebuilt steam "console like" boxes are overpriced.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/11/ar...steamos-gaming/
The first benchmarks dont seem too bad
but the actual gaming benchmarks are terrible.
Quote:
We finally settled on a couple of mid-to-late-2014 releases that had SteamOS ports suitable for our tests: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Metro: Last Light Redux. Both are relatively graphically intensive 3D games with built-in benchmarking tools and a variety of quality sliders to play with (including six handy presets in Shadow of Mordor's case). For all the gaming benchmarks, we ran each test at least three times and took the median number to ensure the results were reliable.
No matter how you slice it, running these two high-end titles on SteamOS comes with a sizable frame rate hit; we got anywhere from 21- to 58-percent fewer frames per second, depending on the graphical settings. On our hardware running Shadow of Mordor at Ultra settings and HD resolution, the OS change alone was the difference between a playable 34.5 fps average on Windows and a stuttering 14.6 fps mess on SteamOS.
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