I should first apologize for the very overused stock photo seen:<------
However, in my mind's eye that's exactly how I felt myself to be after my long quest to fulfill some strange itch to build an ultimate gaming rig. But stories are not without their beginnings as I will describe to you the tales of my quest, wrought with heartbreak and scorn, victory and conquest, and above all else an empty wallet.
The year was 2006. Us gaming nerds were about to be adorned the Wii and PS3, our gaming itches were to be fulfilled on all fronts. Poised was I to claim my Wii, however early reports of the PS3 were saddening my inner gamer with developers crying over terrible user interfaces and the price-tag soaring above expectations. All hope was lost for my needs of HD gaming and JRPG's.
Fearing that I have lost a friend in Sony I turned to the PC market. My refusal to get an Xbox as I still deemed it the invader of my otherwise happy Nintendo Sony rivalry, I went to PC's as my alternative. Many Xbox exclusives were also on the PC so I had no worries. I did however have next to no PC building experience, or the ability to decipher what a "good" computer was. I figured if nothing else it will assist in my schoolwork (lol gamer mentality lies).
I did the mildest amount of research on the subject and closed my search on a stock HP Pavilion from Circuit City. Almost immediately I regretted the purchase. I found myself unable to run even the simplest games like Doom 3 which wasn't even a current gen title. Then I learned of graphics cards and that what I had was just an integrated piece of monkey dung. So I set out in search of a good yet affordable graphics card.
My searching left me at a quandary however. I was unable to understand exactly what my computer could handle. The go to gaming graphics card at the time was the Nvidia 8800GTX. Everyone and their mother recommended it. I was not sure that my PC could handle it though. I knew nothing about PCi connections or power supply wattage, or that motherboards even existed. I saw them as fairytale words and phrases tech junkies used to get off. Assuming for no discernible reason that I could not use the 8800GTX in my current rig, I bought a 8600GT.
The improvements in gaming were immediate and noticeably better. I could even run Crysis! I was very pleased. I would have this card for three years in my rig, but not really doing much gaming at all, mostly out of fear that my computer couldn't handle the latest games. Also, I had broken down and bought a PS3 for $600...a decision I do not regret however.
Years waned on, and my PC was all but gameless as my full attention was on the PS3 and fighting games. Nintendo and the Wii had disappointed me greatly the past few years with almost even less offerings than the PC had. That void had to be filled, and though the PS3 had amazing games there was just something missing.
My PC bug blossomed from the Orange Box. I read a few reviews that slammed the PS3 version calling it one of the worst ports of all time. I didn't figure I could run it on my PC, but a sale at Toys r Us for $20 for this set of games was "too good to pass up" (a quote that would later define my PC gaming habit). So I ran through Portal and Half Life 2 and was greatly invigorated, enjoying myself more than most gaming lately.
Somewhere, in the deep void of the Orange Box lurked a small seemingly harmless program called Steam. I would go on to ignore Steam and really not fully understand it's purpose. But on one dark and stormy night after surveying the youtubes, updating my myspace, and growing bored of so much porn I clicked on Steam. There I saw Lost Planet, a very well received Xbox 360 game that I had marginal interest in playing for just $5. Again worrying about how my PC could handle it I was hesitant....but at $5....how could I go wrong?
Luckily the game ran well, and soon this spawned an active interest in Steam and their wacky sales. My PC game library exploded in 2010 going from a mere 6 or 7 games to nearly 40. Not all was well on my Steam list however. Some games were not kind to my 8600GT and decided to run poorly. Late in 2010 I learned a bit more about PC's and realized I could handle a 9800GT just fine. I bought it, and noticed a marginal performance boost but not in the games I was hoping to see a boost.
I learned that this was likely due to a poor processor. Mine was a simple processor of just 2.1 GHz dual core. One of the first dual core models AMD made as well. This was a challenge as I had to learn about many PC related things. My motherboard apparently would only accept up to a 2.9 GHz dual core of the same model. A .8 GHz upgrade...would that noticeably improve my performance? Well at $80 it wouldn't hurt to try....right?
I did try, and try I did. Putting in a processor was the hardest thing I ever did in PC gaming. At first I put too much of that goop on causing the processor to overheat...though I found that out AFTER buying a new heatsink. Putting on this new heatsink was unmanageably difficult. I can't describe in detail what it was that struck me as so challenging as exhaustion and heat from doing this task purged my memory of the experience. Suffice to say I did not want to experience that again.
With the 2.9 dual core in I set out to try my games again. I was instantly disappointed to learn I gained MAYBE 5 frames per second on most games. Not enough to notice, and not enough to stop the constant stuttering of many of my games. Somewhere in this scrum of peace meal upgrades I had bought 2 more 1GB Ram of DDR2, and a Power Supply which I have since forgotten the wattage of. All totaled I spent probably over $500 from 2006 to early 2011 trying to get the performance I wanted out of my PC. The initial purchase was $700 for the Pavilion mind you.
What I ended up with was frustration and a yearning to get that right gaming rig I always wanted. Money was a factor as I moved out recently and pay my own bills on a job which I only work 4 days a week. Though, in this economy I guess I'm doing well? I had done a lot of research in 2010 and had the components I wanted in my Amazon cart gathering digital dust. Uncle Sam had given me enough for a wedding recently with the first home buyers tax credit with quite a sum of money to spare. Enough for my dream computer to be sure. But doubt still lingered...
Admittedly, I could play 85% of my games on medium or higher with few or no hiccups. But increasingly I was noticing games were requiring Quad core processors. With a push from my future wife to get the damn thing already and telling me to "stop whining" I abruptly ordered my parts, though still fearing my ability to put this thing together.
The parts arrived yesterday, and I enlisted the help of a friend with about the same knowledge as me of PC parts. We set to work putting everything in bit by bit. 6 hours later after many very small hiccups we got it on. Of course, my sound didn't work, and one of my 2GB Ram cards wasn't recognized. But, if it's one thing I've been VERY good at, it's troubleshooting and ironed out those small issues.
Using my dedicated Steam hard drive I put on GTA IV first as it gave me many issues on my old computer. It ran beautifully, not a single issue. Later, I ran Saints Row 2 which I deem to be the very worst PC port of all time. It also ran swimmingly. It had become 2am and I had work in the morning. While it needs more testing I think I can say with confidence that this is the PC I've always wanted. And at least this will be much easier to upgrade in the future.
Specs:
Intel i7 950 3.06Ghz
Nvidia GTX 460
6GB DDR3 Ram
ASUS Sabertooth x58 Motherboard
I know I could do with a better video card, I had planned on SLI with another 460, but it seems my case may not allow for it as it would literally bump right up against my power supply....lame. Oh, well SLI is kinda shitty anyway.
*Pixel pushing is a hazardous lifestyle*
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