Computer Assistance Please

Alright so my son has let me know he really wants a gaming PC. The games he is wanting to play are DayZ standalone, Arma series, Rust, etc. I am on a limited budget (think 2 kids in college and an ex-wife alimony LIMITED)

I am so behind on PC tech it is not funny. I swear my smart phone is more powerful than my PC...LOL

So here is what DayZ has listed for requirements:

Recommended:
OS: Windows 7 SP1
Processor: Intel Core i5-2300 or AMD Phenom II X4 940 or better
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 or AMD Radeon HD 7750 with 1 GB VRAM or better
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Hard Drive: 14 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX®-compatible

Here is a computer I found. Will it work? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you all.

General Specifications:
•Operating System: Windows 8.1 64-bit (WILL SUB WITH 7)
•Form Factor: Mid-Tower
•Bays: (External) 3 - 5.25" Drive Bays
•Internal Bays: 4 - 3.5" Drive Bays, 4 - 2.5" Drive Bays
•PCI Slots (Total): 1
•PCI Slots (Available): 1
•PCI Express X1 Slots (Total): 1
•PCI Express X1 Slots (Available): 1
•PCI Express X16 Slots (Total): 1
•PCI Express X16 Slots (Available): 0
•PS/2 Connectors: 1 - Keyboard / Mouse Combo
•USB Ports: 8; 4x USB 3.0 (2x Front); 4x USB 2.0
•LAN Ports: 1
•Audio Out Jacks: 2
•Line In Jacks: 1
•Microphone Jacks: 2
•VGA Video: 1
•DVI Video: 1
•HDMI Port: 1
•Warranty: 1 Year Labor and Parts
•Additional Support: FREE LIFETIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Processor:
•Processor Brand: AMD
•Processor Class: FX
•Processor Cores: 4
•Processor Number: 4130
•Processor Speed: 3.80GHz
•Processor Interface: AM3+

Memory:
•Memory Type: DDR3
•Total Memory: 8GB
•Memory Speed: DDR3 1600MHz (PC3-12800)
•Memory Slots (total): 4
•Max Memory Supported: 32GB

Hard Drive / Mass Storage:
•Hard Drives Included: 1
•Hard Drive Types: Hard Disk Drive
•Capacity: 1TB
•Speed: 7200 RPM

Optical Drive:
•Optical Drive Type: DVD±RW DL

Audio:
•Audio Description: Integrated Audio
•Audio Channels: 7.1 Channel

Video Graphics:
•GPU/VPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT610
•Video Memory: 1GB dedicated
•Video Interface: 1x VGA; 1x DVI; 1x HDMI

Networking:
•LAN Description: Integrated Gigabit
•LAN Data Transfer Rate: 10/100/1000Mbps
•LAN Interface Type: RJ-45
•LAN Ports: 1

I'm no guru but as far as I can tell it should work. Make sure to stay away from windows 8 and go with 7. I would say if its in your budget go for it. After you get it there is a website I use to see if i can play any game.

http://systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

From there you should be able to check if you can run most every game.

I think that that processor is pretty good but graphic card seems to be very weak. You should find stronger one. Also when choosing operating system, choose 64 bit version because 32 bit one can't recognize more than 4GB memory. Other components should be ok.

Senor Italaura is right. I looked up the video card and people online are saying there frames per second a really low with Arma 2 DayZ. You might be able to run it on low settings but I can't find anything about that.

Big questions to consider:

How are you getting this computer? Is it a custom build or pre-assembled?

Are you able to get into a computer and correctly change out components like a GPU?

How much are you willing to spend on a GPU?

Your CPU, RAM, and HDD are all fine for it, but the GPU (as with most computers) SUCKS! Good graphics cards are probably going to run upwards of $100 or more. The more you can put into it, the better chance it will be able to handle the games.

If you do that make sure to match your vid card to your powersupply make sure it has the energy it wants to do its job.

Some computer manufacturers go cheap on the power-supply the more expensive ones even come with additional cooling.. but that requires you to make premeasurements.

My friend actually bought one that was huge and had actually 2 fans in it, one sucked air out of the tower and the other tossed it out, which caught me off guard I was wondering why there was a big fan pointed to the insides of the tower...

Again I just suggest finding out the suggested power supply from the manufactor for that specific card you will put in it.

Now to piss people off, I have a dual core with 2 gb of ram and a 1gb dedicated video card, you can feel not having enough ram to be honest but the game feels beautiful.

OH btw Tiburon143 do you know what Arma 2 is just out of curiosity?

-Chris
-Chris

So the big items from that list when buying a computer are:

CPU, GPU, RAM, Hard Drive. If you're making one consider making everything compatible which is easy using one of many sites to do so. Depending on how specific you want to get you consider things like bridge type for cpu and much more.

What is your budget? Thats the biggest thing for me to recommend something for you either custom or not.

Arn't custom computers usually cheaper than pre-made ones?

Apollo221 wrote:Arn't custom computers usually cheaper than pre-made ones?

For the benchmarks you can achieve yes. Usually cheaper to build it yourself.

Thanks everyone for the responses. Here is a mass response to some topics.

The computer is from CybertronPC. It is the Borg gaming model. I can add and delete items from it so will look at what a better Graphics card will be. Here is a link to the computer itself.
http://www.cybertronpc.com/customkititems~kc~gm4213a~group~home~cat~gamers.htm

Other computers are here. http://www.cybertronpc.com/HOME~Cat~GAMERS.htm

He is a good kid, honor roll, straight A student so I am trying to get him something that he wants. He doesn't ask for much knowing we don't have extra with his sisters in college.

dk3dknight - Yes I looked at Arma2. He is 15, but don't think he will be playing that one...LOL

Blondeninja - I have $500 - $600 to spend. I don't even know where to look so after some Google searching I came up with the above computer.

Thanks again everyone for your responses and answers.

You all said a better video card is needed. Here are some of the ones that I can swap the existing one for. Are any of these better and would work?

Radeon HD6570 1GD3 X16 XFRX DVI VGA HDMI [Add $26.68]
Radeon HD6670 1GD3 X16 XFRX DVI VGA HDMI [Add $34.93]
Radeon HD7750 1GD5 X16 XFRX DVI HDMI DSP [Add $66.53]
GeForce GT640 2GD3 X16 2DVI MHDMI [Add $79.38]

like dk said, you'll have to make sure the power supply can handle a different graphics card, and i see no specs on the power supply here.  you can probably double check what each of those graphics cards need for power with a simple google search.

and idk who was mentioning the frames for dayz, but thats just bad coding on arma 2, I know people with insane rigs that still only get 30 frames a second in cherno, the stand alone is a bit more optimised.

Thanks Twisted. Here is a link to the computer I was looking at. I don't know what to look for in a power supply. Maybe the info is on here. There are a bunch of PC's from this company. It is a basically I can add or delete items to upgrade it.

http://www.cybertronpc.com/customkititems~kc~gm4213a~group~home~cat~gamers.htm

It comes with this power supply: InWin 450W ATX12v PSU

Here are some of the cheaper priced add ons.

Ultra 600W PSU [Add $13.30]
Ultra 650W PSU [Add $14.70]
Ultra 750W PSU [Add $37.09]

Am I to assume the 750W would be better with a upgraded video card than the 450W

I am so out of touch with PC tech. Dam me....LOL

Well if you want to get a good gaming desktop 600 wont cut it imho. You will end up with something subpar in one regard because you have to sacrifice something for the cost. For a laptop you can getaway with 600 for a decent machine but 700 will get you something that can consistently run what you want it to.

A good processor (i5 @3ghz) is like $200
A good GPU (GTX 660x) is like $200

together those are 66% of your cost and you will need about $60 for decent ram, $50 for an HDD, and $150+ for a MB puts you over budget.

If you cant go higher I would use [url=newegg.com]Newegg[/url] and use the sort there to try and find something with the benchmarks you need. If you ask me, you should wait, save a bit more money and buy something in the $800-$900 range. Once you get it and start using it for your games you will see your investment pay off especially over time as you have far less issues than something cheaper.

~ Blonde

We just spent about $1k on a crazy good machine (w/o an OS because we're using Linux & a school-provided copy of Windows 7). You could probably cut back on some of the things we have, but I would guess ours could handle just about anything you would want to throw at it.

Last time then I am going to give up for a while and the boy will have to wait. I found this PC. Is it any better or is Vid Card still to weak

AMD FX 4100 3.60GHz Quad-Core AM3+ RET Processor
Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P REV. 5.1 AM3+ V X16 2D3 M8 GL R MATX Motherboard
8GB DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 Memory
1TB SATA3 7200RPM 64MB Cache
DVD±RW DL 24x SATA Black Optical Drive
Radeon HD6670 1GD3 X16 XFRX DVI VGA HDMI Video Card
Ultra 650W PSU
10/100/1000 Gigabit Network Onboard
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 32/64bit COA

I have no idea personally I feel horrible this went so long unanswered.
:(

-Chris