Trading console for gaming PC.

OK I have been a console gamer for basically my whole life. I am getting sick of the AAA release schedule and dreck that comes from it. There seems to be a ton of stuff on Steam and GOG that could keep me happy for years and with 1/10th the cost in terms of games then 70$ a pop for the PS4. Pls iRacing. My G5 Mac Pro media server just kicked the bucket and I am at a crossroads.

So I have a old G5 Mac case and two GTX580's sitting leftover from upgrading a friends system for him. Figure I can dump the PS4 and the games I have on Craigslist for 500$ would be able to build something decent for that right. I have a 128 SSD as well for the operating system, a 1TB 7200 looks cheap enough online for storage.

Anybody make the jump and be unhappy about it. Is a SLI GTX580 going to be enough to run modern stuff like GTA5 at a decent resolution. I don't want to do 4K gaming but I would love to build something that can max out 1080 or maybe even 2440 if possible.

Or is it more cost effective to find something prebuilt from dell that can handle SLI and just throw the cards in instead of building something.

I'm not sure about those cards performance. They should get you by to start with. You don't want to go pre-built. Those cases have stupid designs that limit your power supply, video card, and cooling options. I've had the same Asus? (Can't remember anymore) chassis for the last ten years. It was probably $80. You can build something pretty powerful if you build yourself and shop carefully. Newegg has some good open box deals. I recently was forced to replace most of my rig.

I've been seriously considering switching to mostly PC gaming due to repeated issues with xbox live lately.

I'd be a bit concerned that the budget is a little on the small side - I built a gaming-capable PC a couple of months back (please note I said gaming capable, it's not a full-blown gaming rig) and that cost me about $1100.

Granted, there's a bunch of stuff in there that you can sub cheaper parts for (I used a well noise insulated case with very quiet fans, very quiet CPU fan and PSU, all of which aren't cheap) but I doubt I could get it much below $800. That's with a single ASUS GTX750Ti Strix graphics card which is about $160 on its own.

The Geforce cards you have are obviously a few years old and while you may get the necessary performance out of them you'll also be spending extra money on a more powerful PSU just to run the dual cards. They'll probably do fine initially but you'll also have to spend the extra cash on the SLI-capable board.

GTX 580s were high end when they were new, and are about as powerful as today's midrange cards. Two of them should still put you soldily in "max out 1080p" territory.

If it were me, I'd look for someone unloading a SandyBridge / IvyBridge Intel i5 setup, I usually sell my CPU/motherboard/RAM as a combo when I upgrade. Put that in your case, add a decent power supply (you'll need like 800W to run a SLi 580 setup), and you should be off and running.

I've run both. I don't know that I could run dedicated just because of the exclusives to each platform, but if you're not solidly in one camp or another and just looking for a good gaming experience, PC is the way to go. PILES more games, tons of indie support, great sales, huge improvements on graphics, endless modability (take a look at what they've done with GTAV in just a months time... it's hilarious) and not nearly as many of the issues that tend to plague dedicateds like PSN or XBL. Now- PC is a WAAAAY deeper rabbit hole, but you probably know that already.

Budget is far too small, IMHO. Not to mention I can't imagine trying to do a racing game on a single monitor. Or having a good seat/wheel/pedals. I've got the entry level Fanatec stuff which is noticeably better than the G25/27 setups.

Pic of my dad playing iRacing on my setup with 3 27" monitors. Even with a 3.3Ghz quad core AMD, 8gb of RAM, and a 4gb Sapphire R9 290 games like Asseto Corsa and the new Project C.A.R.S. won't be able to run full tilt without a heavier duty rig.

Shoot, from what I have heard, nothing can run Project CARS full on yet.

Bearded.Bird wrote: Shoot, from what I have heard, nothing can run Project CARS full on yet.

It would take something like dual TITANs, massive Intel processor, tons of RAM if you wanted to come close on 3 monitors and run MAX settings.

Well the correct answer like always is Craigslist. Found this for 700 bucks. Got a 450$ GPU in it I5 quad core and more storage then you can shake a stick at. Going to sell the two cards that I have and pickup enough cash for another GTX 780 3GB to run in SLI that will do 4K on a single monitor without breaking a sweat according to the internet. Plus its all compatible to build a hackintosh with it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price :----|:----|:---- CPU | Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor | $200.00 CPU Cooler | Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler | $83.99 @ Newegg Motherboard | ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard | $126.98 @ Newegg Memory | Corsair Dominator Platinum 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $119.99 Storage | Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $93.94 Storage | Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $93.99 @ Newegg Video Card | EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Superclocked ACX Video Card | $450.00 Case | Corsair C70 Arctic White (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case | $90.00 Power Supply | Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply | $182.99 @ Amazon Optical Drive | LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer | $49.98 @ OutletPC | Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts | | Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1501.86 | Mail-in rebates | -$10.00 | Total | $1491.86 | Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-15 11:20 EDT-0400 |

In reply to wearymicrobe:

Well rock on then!

wearymicrobe wrote: Well the correct answer like always is Craigslist. Found this for 700 bucks. Got a 450$ GPU in it I5 quad core and more storage then you can shake a stick at. Going to sell the two cards that I have and pickup enough cash for another GTX 780 3GB to run in SLI that will do 4K on a single monitor without breaking a sweat according to the internet. Plus its all compatible to build a hackintosh with it. [PCPartPicker part list](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/KZKT7P) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/KZKT7P/by_merchant/) Type|Item|Price :----|:----|:---- **CPU** | [Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80637i53570k) | $200.00 **CPU Cooler** | [Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-cpu-cooler-h100i) | $83.99 @ Newegg **Motherboard** | [ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-z77extreme4) | $126.98 @ Newegg **Memory** | [Corsair Dominator Platinum 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-memory-cmd8gx3m2a1600c9) | $119.99 **Storage** | [Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz7te120bw) | $93.94 **Storage** | [Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/toshiba-internal-hard-drive-dt01aca300) | $93.99 @ Newegg **Video Card** | [EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Superclocked ACX Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-03gp42784kr) | $450.00 **Case** | [Corsair C70 Arctic White (White/Black) ATX Mid Tower Case](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-case-c70arcticwhite) | $90.00 **Power Supply** | [Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-ax760i) | $182.99 @ Amazon **Optical Drive** | [LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/lg-optical-drive-wh14ns40) | $49.98 @ OutletPC | *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* | | Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1501.86 | Mail-in rebates | -$10.00 | **Total** | **$1491.86** | Generated by [PCPartPicker](http://pcpartpicker.com) 2015-05-15 11:20 EDT-0400 |

That will work for 1 monitor. But do you already have a wheel pedal setup?

I'm not trying to be condescending but the field of view you get from 3, really helps it be much more realistic.

z31maniac wrote: I'm not trying to be condescending but the field of view you get from 3, really helps it be much more realistic.

Oculus Rift is going to obsolete that.

Bearded.Bird wrote: Shoot, from what I have heard, nothing can run Project CARS full on yet.

That's the big difference between console games and PC games right there. Console games are written to take full advantage of a fixed set of hardware. PC games are written with the assumption that the hardware will improve, so you're always chasing the performance.

Says the guy who has a PS2 in the basement. This is what I decided a decade or two ago, I haven't really kept up. But I suspect it's as true now as it was when Doom was out.

Keith Tanner wrote:

Bearded.Bird wrote: Shoot, from what I have heard, nothing can run Project CARS full on yet.

That's the big difference between console games and PC games right there. Console games are written to take full advantage of a fixed set of hardware. PC games are written with the assumption that the hardware will improve, so you're always chasing the performance. Says the guy who has a PS2 in the basement. This is what I decided a decade or two ago, I haven't really kept up. But I suspect it's as true now as it was when Doom was out.

True. Many PC games I've owned I have never been able to take full advantage of until years after they were released (and some I still can't).

However with a console you also run into issues where the developer tries to stay right on the edge of the console's performance and ends up making a title that has poor frame rates or load times or whatever. And since its developed for that console, there's no choice to A) upgrade to overcome or B) scale back the graphics to bring the performance up to par :(

Me, I'm happy to sacrifice graphics for a very good frame rate so I like to have that option.

Keith Tanner wrote:

Bearded.Bird wrote: Shoot, from what I have heard, nothing can run Project CARS full on yet.

That's the big difference between console games and PC games right there. Console games are written to take full advantage of a fixed set of hardware. PC games are written with the assumption that the hardware will improve, so you're always chasing the performance.

Nowadays it's more like console games are written to the best compromise of graphical settings the developers can come up with (it doesn't always work).

PC hardware on the other hand has been on somewhat of a plateau these days. There hasn't really been a "can it run Crysis?" title in the last 5 years or so. I'm getting by just fine on a CPU and video card that launched in 2011, which would have been unthinkable back then.