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PC Gaming ERA | March 2020 - The month between 2 and 4
- Thread starter Uzzy
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What's the best way to play Doom 1 and 2 on PC these days? I'm not a purist so I don't mind some upgrades if they aren't obnoxious.
Ok took your advice and here is what I came up with;
900703: iBUYPOWER®
Custom Gaming PC - 10 years of award-winning Custom Gaming Computers & gaming laptops custom-built for PC gamers. Build the best Gaming PC at iBUYPOWER
Is there anything in there that you would consider overkill for running the game? I would be more comfortable if I could get it down to around $800 but not at the cost of game stability. Also how much of a premium am I paying for them to build this for me, would it be significantly cheaper if I bought the parts separately and put it together myself?
I'm kind of surprised at how expensive it is, I was under the impression that $500 to $600 was the price range for a pretty decent gaming PC from posts on here.
And thank you for all the help you've already provided :)
They are included with Doom 3 BFG edition, if that's your thing.
You'd be much better off buying the parts individually and paying a store/someone to put the system together, assuming there are no lockdowns in your area that render that impossible. Outside of a good sale, OEM systems are invariably poor value propositions.
Normally, with next-gen consoles supposedly still on the horizon and AMD and Nvidia both aiming to release next-gen desktop GPUs this year, I'd recommend sitting on your hands for a while longer, but there's no denying the very real possibility that the ongoing pandemic will derail those plans, so if you're ready to upgrade today, then upgrade today.
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For the average person I'd recommend ZDoom, for a purist I'd recommend Chocolate Doom, and for someone into multiplayer I'd recommend Zandronum.
ZDoom - Downloads
zdoom.org
Downloads - Chocolate Doom
www.chocolate-doom.org
Yeah sredgrin convinced me to go down that path so now I'm looking at custom PC build websites. Any opinions on the rig I posted above? I think this pandemic is going to fuck up supply chains for a long while so I'm not going to bother sitting around hoping prices are going to drop, just going to jump in right now. I need something to do in the house all day god damn it!
Ok took your advice and here is what I came up with;
900703: iBUYPOWER®
Custom Gaming PC - 10 years of award-winning Custom Gaming Computers & gaming laptops custom-built for PC gamers. Build the best Gaming PC at iBUYPOWERwww.ibuypower.com
Is there anything in there that you would consider overkill for running the game? I would be more comfortable if I could get it down to around $800 but not at the cost of game stability. Also how much of a premium am I paying for them to build this for me, would it be significantly cheaper if I bought the parts separately and put it together myself?
I'm kind of surprised at how expensive it is, I was under the impression that $500 to $600 was the price range for a pretty decent gaming PC from posts on here.
And thank you for all the help you've already provided :)
It seems solid, if a bit expensive.
Re: The price, you're paying a premium for their work, this is one of the reasons people harp on building yourself, you get a large markup. The 1660 TI + CPU you chose are something that would not cost more than 370 dollars by themselves. Add in a solid MOBO (100), PSU (50), Windows 10 (50) 16GB RAM (varies wildly but let's say 70), Case (50), that's about 700ish dollars. So I'd check out other prebuilt sites and see if they have similar computers for cheaper.
Or like JaseC said, see if you have local electronics store that assemble computers. My Fry's Electronics did them for like 50 bucks I think. Though you're kind of getting a computer at the worst time right now. Assembly is unlikely due to the virus, and ordering stuff is unlikely to be cheap due to impacted supply chains.
Also if you do decide to get that one, there's a free like 2tb hard drive option they gave you, might as well take it even if you have no plans to use it right away.
IMO, prboom+ is the best choice.
It has small QOL features that Chocolate/Crispy Doom don't have (much higher resolutions, unlocked frame rate, boom compatibility) without making the sorts of major changes that zdoom and its derivatives introduce.
The one downside is that it's a bit of a hassle to configure. You'll definitely want to turn on secret discovery indicators, and I think it may default to making the sprites look blurry, which is probably worth disabling.
Also, if you enjoy your time with the Doom 1, you may want to check out SIGIL, an unofficial 5th episode designed by John Romero. If you're still having fun after Doom 2, Plutonia (included in Final Doom) is worth playing as well. It's tough, but a really good campaign.
Although it's a custom build, as sredgrin notes, it's still an OEM system. Looks like Newegg doesn't offer any sort of assembly service at all, which seems absurd to me, but Microcenter, Fry's and B&H do. If they've closed down or don't have retail stores in your area, I'd still try contacting them to see if it's possible to place an online order that includes assembly.
So I'm basically paying $300 for labor, yeah that's a pretty big premium. On the other hand it would take me way too long to figure out how to put everything together. I just want to jump into some VR with minimal hassle and forgot about all the shit going on in the world for a few hours. I'm thinking I'm just going to accept the hit but I'll do some more searching to see if I can find something slightly cheaper on another website.
That's the issue, i went through my backlog and nothing was obvious. Maybe i will take time to finish some DLCs i never did. Visiting San Francisco from Watch Dogs 2 again doesn't sound like bad idea for example :D
It got a GOG release with the same launch discount as Steam I'll grab it there instead.
OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer. Basically, it's just a catch-all term for third-party-built systems that are sold as marked-up products.
$500 is what I paid for mine. However, that was 7 years ago. Prices have increased a lot during that time frame.
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Ok got it. So I did some more searching and the best deal I could find that meets the required specs is this at $900;
NZXT BLD | Custom Gaming PC Builder
Build a custom gaming PC with the NZXT BLD Service.
www.letsbld.com
I also found this Alienware that seems like a solid build;
Alienware Aurora Gaming Desktop with Intel 10th Gen CPU
The new Alienware Aurora gaming desktop with 10th Gen Intel Core processors and liquid-cooled graphics lets you push performance to unprecedented levels.
www.dell.com
Of the 3 builds I've posted in this thread, can you or anyone else tell me which one you think would perform the best?
Every single action-game PC port from Bamco/KoeiTecmo has been 60fps console cap, (Warriors Orochi 4/Dynasty Warriors 9/Attack On Titan 2/DBZ Katakarot/One-Punch Man/My Hero Academia 2 etc.), but rumors are One Piece - Pirate Warriors 4 has an unlocked framerate. So it could be a worlds first.
Small potatoes, but not if you've been demanding it for a long time. But can I handle all these frames in anime musou!
Small potatoes, but not if you've been demanding it for a long time. But can I handle all these frames in anime musou!
Ok got it. So I did some more searching and the best deal I could find that meets the required specs is this at $900;
NZXT BLD | Custom Gaming PC Builder
Build a custom gaming PC with the NZXT BLD Service.
I also found this Alienware that seems like a solid build;
Alienware Aurora Gaming Desktop with Intel 10th Gen CPU
The new Alienware Aurora gaming desktop with 10th Gen Intel Core processors and liquid-cooled graphics lets you push performance to unprecedented levels.www.dell.com
Of the 3 builds I've posted in this thread, can you or anyone else tell me which one you think would perform the best?
The NZXT Starter build is the best of the bunch despite being the cheapest option. The Alienware build has the same GPU but slower RAM and doesn't include an SSD, and the iBuyPower build has slower everything-that-isn't-the-CPU.
Edit: Also, don't bother going up a notch to the Starter Plus build. The 1660 Super and 1660 Ti perform very similarly, so you're really just paying +$100 for a larger SSD. 512GB minus the space you lose to GB -> GiB conversion, Windows, and, say, 100GB set aside for general storage will leave you with somewhere around 330GB for games, which is still enough for a handful of current-gen AAA titles (assuming an install size of ~60GB).
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Thanks a bunch, you've been incredibly helpful!
Also for a second I got excited because I thought my work laptop was strong enough to run Alyx but I got fooled by the graphics card :'(
Just for shits and giggles, if I tried running the game on the laptop with the following specs, could I potentially get something playable?
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Core i7-8850 @ 2.60GHz
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA Quadpro P1000
Yeah. The Quadro P1000 is basically a GTX 1050 2GB with twice the memory but ~30% less memory bandwidth.
So close but yet so far XP
Guess I'm going with the NZXT starter build, thank you again!
You and I both, that backlog is real. DLC or shorter games is my MO.
I split my "immediate" backlog into several categories based on genres (Imsim, metroidvania, open-world, hack'n'slash, one of several sub-types of RPGs) and I try to make sure to alternate categories to avoid burnout in any particular genre
Smart move, I usually push for variety in games overall. Case in point, just marathoned Half-Life so now I'm thinking of tackling Sonic Mania while I return to the Witcher 3.
Anybody has experience playing the Gamepass version of State of Decay 2 on a second monitor?
You often need to manually move a game to the right monitor after booting it (using Win+Shift+Left/Right) but with SoD2, the game keeps moving back to the main monitor anytime it gets focus back (if i alt tab) or after loadings...
Not the end of the world since I can just move it again, it's just annoying...
You often need to manually move a game to the right monitor after booting it (using Win+Shift+Left/Right) but with SoD2, the game keeps moving back to the main monitor anytime it gets focus back (if i alt tab) or after loadings...
Not the end of the world since I can just move it again, it's just annoying...
Because no one wants to use EGS, period. The only people that would get a game on EGS are those that have regional pricing for their countries and Steam doesn't. In most cases, the key sites will not be able to match the price so you lose out on those customers too. And then you're left with the "I dont care about launchers, just games" crowd and its clear those people are not enough to continue peddling EGS keys.
Its funny in a time when the talk of backwards compatibility and next gen consoles, era continues to be obtuse about people not wanting to split up their games among various launchers and services on PC. Just setting aside the risk of having your games you bought suddenly at the whims of these companies with dubious intentions and even more dubious approaches to handling security of said services(hello Bethesda launcher), there is just something about having games you bought all in one place that makes your lizard brain at ease.
Been playing a lot of it lately but on my main monitor so no specific experience with the issue, but switching which monitor is the primary monitor before playing should work if that is less annoying than what you're already doing.
Oh, I'm well aware of the concerns with the EGS. MY lizard brain takes things a step further, and I'm not truly happy until a game is in my GOG collection and then the installer is backed up on my external hard drive, so that nothing that might happen to Steam or Galaxy would affect my games.
I will never understand why Rockstar accepted to sell Epic store keys on Humble Bundle for RDR2.
I mean let's be honest here, having multiple stores is a good thing for consumers IF the stores are good and offer similar level of services. EGS might some day be decent, but right now it's totally not worth investing in. If any of my console friends asked for a PC gaming platform recommendation I would only recommend Steam for now.
Remedy signs deal with Epic for two next-gen games | VGC
UPDATED: Control studio signs with new label…
www.videogameschronicle.com
Remedy signs deal with Epic for two next-gen games | VGC
UPDATED: Control studio signs with new label…
Microsoft one assumes
I missed the "mult-platform" part. In that case, probably those former THQ cats, they buy everything :p
After Alan Wake/Quantum Break Remedy will try to stay away from MS as far as possible, i guess.
I can only play so much of Alyx in one sitting because it is genuinely stressing me out. But it is so damn good.
I really wish we would get more VR games like this but I am not holding my breath for it. It is genuinely amazing. For a split second I even thought about getting an Index just for the fingertracking which would obviously be completely insane.
I really wish we would get more VR games like this but I am not holding my breath for it. It is genuinely amazing. For a split second I even thought about getting an Index just for the fingertracking which would obviously be completely insane.
yes i also can play only 2 hours at a time. it makes my head sick, i think cause i suffer headache also without vr, but it is really worth it. im loving it!
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