Hey there readers! I've been on something of a break from Magic and MTGS for many reasons, but I still remember this part of the forums being very helpful. A few months ago I bought a desktop tower and a monitor at a garage sale for $20. I only need a hard drive (old one is corrupted/damaged) and the whole thing works fine (my brother and I transplanted one from another desktop to test it). However, I am looking to update the graphics card and/or processor as well. There are two issues I need resolved:
1) I do not exactly know what is a good/reliable hard drive or video card. I know what most of the specs mean, but I would like some wisdom from people who have experience with computer parts and building computers.
2) I'm on a tight budget. Right now I am looking to buy the hard drive off of Amazon (b/c I have gift cards, so it will be free). The video card and processor are what I really need advice on. I do not exactly know what specs qualify as good and I don't know what price I should be paying for decent specs (once again, I am not looking for the best, but the most out of my money).
Any thoughts, suggestions, stories, or criticisms of my ignorance are appreciated!
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Haven't played anything but EDH and casual for over a year
Thank you for your suggestion! I really am getting into this for the first time, so I don't know how exactly anything might work.
The intent is primarily gaming, though I will use it for some schoolwork. The first game I will probably install will be Nosgoth or Shadow of Mordor. Though if Overwatch is out by the time I get the parts, I will probably install that first. Right now my laptop cannot display these games properly, so I would want to test it on those games to see if it runs smoothly.
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Haven't played anything but EDH and casual for over a year
So, more important than those other specs is your power supply. Make sure you have/can get a Power Supply that will support your needs. I'm not incredibly knowledgeable on it, but in general the recommended voltage by the graphics card companies is nonsense - you need something that has a fair amount of wattage (600-650 is plenty for modern cards) but that's also incredibly efficient.
The hard drive is whatever. If you've got the budget, go with a solid state hard drive as it speeds up your PC much faster than any increase in RAM. But you can get a regular hard drive inexpensively.
As for the processor, honestly the video card is more important. You can be a couple decimal points off the processor speed and still get pretty great performance as long as you have a good video card.
1) I do not exactly know what is a good/reliable hard drive or video card. I know what most of the specs mean, but I would like some wisdom from people who have experience with computer parts and building computers.
2) I'm on a tight budget. Right now I am looking to buy the hard drive off of Amazon (b/c I have gift cards, so it will be free). The video card and processor are what I really need advice on. I do not exactly know what specs qualify as good and I don't know what price I should be paying for decent specs (once again, I am not looking for the best, but the most out of my money).
Any thoughts, suggestions, stories, or criticisms of my ignorance are appreciated!
The intent is primarily gaming, though I will use it for some schoolwork. The first game I will probably install will be Nosgoth or Shadow of Mordor. Though if Overwatch is out by the time I get the parts, I will probably install that first. Right now my laptop cannot display these games properly, so I would want to test it on those games to see if it runs smoothly.
The hard drive is whatever. If you've got the budget, go with a solid state hard drive as it speeds up your PC much faster than any increase in RAM. But you can get a regular hard drive inexpensively.
As for the processor, honestly the video card is more important. You can be a couple decimal points off the processor speed and still get pretty great performance as long as you have a good video card.
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