It is 2014 and PC specs are still way too confuisng.

gelf said:
The only part I'm "scared" of is the CPU as its the most delicate part. I'm glad I've not had to change it in 5 years. One time removing the fan from an old Pentium 4 yanked the chip out with it and could have easily broken it. I've been wary ever since. I fear making an expensive mistake as I'm a bit of a clutz at times.
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well thats likely from someone going a little crazy with the TIM.
 
SliceSabre said:
Here's the article I was talking about: http://kotaku.com/the-terrifying-experience-of-building-a-pc-for-the-firs-1586099346

It hit on a lot of my fears.
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its kotaku

edit

Lots of other little issues arose as I went along: the motherboard didn't seem to fit in quite right, I made the mistake of mixing together the screws for different things and I stopped being able to tell what screws belonged to what, and I even forgot about applying thermal paste to the processor. Heck, I forgot that I'd bought a special heat sink for that processor. By the time I remembered, I'd already attached the heat sink that the processor came with, and for whatever reason, it was hell trying to detach the thing. One of the corners got stuck on the motherboard, and I couldn't for the life of me detach it.
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like come on
 
I've always been hesitant to try water cooling. I'm fine with assembling a pretty complicated rig, but the thought of water inside my rig is scary.

As I understand it, there are maintenance issues involved as well.
 
OP looks mad shady.

Ask other people. We have threads for this. We have sites for this. It'll usually boil down to "$100 motherboard from Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI" then RAM from "Corsair or Samsung", "an overclockable i5", etc. Learn the first time, and you'll be pretty much fine for the rest of your life. Did you not go to school and have to understand remotely complicated subjects? Yes there'll be difficulty, yes there'll be risk, but such is the way of grand things.
 
Like any major new purchase (car, house, men's suit, etc.), you need to do a bit of research first. It isn't hard to learn, nor does it take much time to learn it all. The details come later. Specs are probably the most straightforward thing about PC gaming.
 
Nah, it's not just confusing to newcomer, for me it is definitely more confusing because of the recent naming conventions of GPU and CPU. We used to have look at CPU frequency line and may be slightly higher version number of GPU. Now we have a lot more standards for CPU and GPU card number whose powers aren't sometime ranked numerically because of budget version, which is a bit annoying looking at spec. There are simply a lot more variety to build.

It's not harder to assemble a PC, but too much choices kinda add back that confusion to it.
 
Lanrutcon said:
I've always been hesitant to try water cooling. I'm fine with assembling a pretty complicated rig, but the thought of water inside my rig is scary.

As I understand it, there are maintenance issues involved as well.
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If you buy good air cooler (like a hypercooler cpu cooler and not the cheapest ones for the tower) you dont have to worry about the temperature or the noise. imho water cooler pumps are way louder than a good air cooling
 
Now despite this fear I mentioned before, I am in the middle of collecting the needed parts for my first self-built PC. My desire to save money going self-built has overcome my fear of doing it myself. Plus I hate the pre-built one I'm using now anyway.
 
SparkTR said:
Yeah I guess I'm different there, it was pretty exhilarating for me.
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Yeah try driving around Hanham high street with the bloody schools coming out and insane parents driving around like no one else is on the road. Exhilarating is not the word I would use in those circumstances.
 
The biggest assembly issue anyone, pro or newbie, can run into is memory module and CPU cooler interference. Lots of coolers nowadays have hugeass heatsinks and memory modules have those weird fins sticking out of them. In some cases these interfere with each other and you have to either go for low-height modules or a differently-shaped cooler.
 
the first thing you should know is, AMD makes both cpus and gpus (video cards).

another is specs change over time. alot of what you are reading was written long ago.

the most demanding modern games are measured by intel cpus and nvidia gpus in the recommended specs.
 
Lanrutcon said:
I've always been hesitant to try water cooling. I'm fine with assembling a pretty complicated rig, but the thought of water inside my rig is scary.

As I understand it, there are maintenance issues involved as well.
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Advice: don't use AIO water cooling, they have low life expectancy, either stick with high-end air cooling or go all out with customized water solution.
 
System Requirements Lab is your friend. It just compares the specs of your computer to the specs of the minimum/recommended requirements of the game, and rates accordingly.
 
On static damaging parts: be careful. Don't do something you think is stupid. But don't get paranoid about it.

Let me tell you something about the computer industry. I've worked in it for 17 years and have seen everything. From discovering porn on hard drives, kids taking pictures of themselves on drugs (and putting the incriminating evidence on dvd's inside the drive), exploding power supplies and the shock that came with them. skimming memory sticks across granite floors and finding they still work, deliberately faulting a machine by shorting it out to we can get it back to the supplier so we don't get charged (I've probably killed hundreds of pcs, servers and printers that way. Printers you have to be careful with. You wouldn't believe how many smacks on the floor a 7200 drive can withstand, but you can shatter the platters on a laptop hard drive with 2 or 3 hefty slams. Sounds like a box of matches when you shake it afterwards).

PC components are a lot more durable than most people think.

EDIT
btw, I don't work for pc world/best buy/any retailer you've heard of.
 
Things have simplified considerably, and they still can get a bit better but if you want the benefits of an open platform where you can make your own hardware choices and want to more control over how games play, there will be some level of complexity that goes beyond what a completely closed platform like a console would involve. It's what I would consider a small hurdle that you have to overcome if you want to experience PC gaming.

As far as building your own PC, at this point, I feel like the trickiest parts are connecting all the little led/power/reset button connectors from your case to your motherboard, since they can't quite seem to agree on terminology and certain after market heat sinks. No matter what, though, you will be excessively nervous your first time. Just do a little research, pretty much everything you can think of has been documented.
 
Gipsy Danger said:
I feel like you think googling is way harder than the reality. Yes, sometimes things on PC can get a little confusing. But if you put the bare minimum of effort into researching it then it's not a problem. And if your using IGN to get your usual game coverage then you've already made a big mistake.

It just sounds like you refuse to learn about the platform, which is fine, but don't make it out to be this super difficult thing with hundreds of hoops to jump through when it simply is not true.
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I'm just bringing up things that consoles try to make sure customers don't need to do, and it's one of the most popular things about consoles. They come from a major company and run every major title on people's wish lists.

And besides Gaf, where do you get your news? I said IGN because it's the mainstream pick.
 
CannonO said:
But you need to do it for every game and there's still a sad number of people saying they have crashes or need troubleshooting or need a mod or need to open the files to fix something...
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If you buy a decent gaming PC in 2014, it will run all games for at least the next 3 years. I very rarely have to do anything to run modern games, I don't know why people think this is a common occurrence. In my experience I've had the same amount of issues with consoles as I have with my PC.

And even when things do go wrong, it's completely worth it for the freedom of choice and that sweet 60fps.

And besides Gaf, where do you get your news? I said IGN because it's the mainstream pick.
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I only ever visit Game Informer (for their video content), Giant Bomb, Rock Paper Shotgun and PC Gamer. I get all the news I need from them, Game Informer is probably the only mainstream one admittedly. But even the mainstream sites are still dedicated to the more hardcore of audiences, I can't imagine your average gamer gives a shit about most prerelease news except for very specific games. They tend to just walk into stores and buy games they think look good.
 
CannonO said:
But you need to do it for every game and there's still a sad number of people saying they have crashes or need troubleshooting or need a mod or need to open the files to fix something...
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Then you google these crashes. In 99% of the time you will find a fix within 5 minutes.
Your arguments seem to suggest that you just don't want a PC because you don't want to inform yourself or are too lazy.
If you can't copy a mod( a lot of games even have programms doing it for you) or use google you probably should stay with consoles.
 
CannonO said:
I'm just bringing up things that consoles try to make sure customers don't need to do, and it's one of the most popular things about consoles. They come from a major company and run every major title on people's wish lists.

And besides Gaf, where do you get your news? I said IGN because it's the mainstream pick.
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I think PC gaming is a bit more mainstream then the picture your trying to paint. There are a lot of people who manage to work it all out. It's certainly not for everybody but it's not nearly as difficult to navigate as you're making it out to be.
 
All you gotta do is apply yourself for 20 mins. Do some research and read up on guides. Its really simple. Anyone that doesnt get it just hasnt applied themselves.
 
TUSR said:
PCs have never been easier to build, do some research.

There are tons of great benchmarking sites and pricing guides.
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Yes, they are easier than they were in 1998, but that doesn't make them as easy as a console.

Lots of people don't understand how CPUs work, let alone why a dedicated GPU would be beneficial, or what RAM is, or why RAM and an HDD are both needed. For a lot of people, the response to this reality is "Um, er, ugh, nevermind, I've got plenty to play on console anyway."
 
Opiate said:
Yes, they are easier than they were in 1998, but that doesn't make them as easy as a console.

Lots of people don't understand how CPUs work, let alone why a dedicated GPU would be beneficial, or what RAM is, or why RAM and an HDD are both needed. For a lot of people, the response to this reality is "Um, er, ugh, nevermind, I've got plenty to play on console anyway."
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And even if you know those basics, when a game doesn't boot up, or stalls after 20 minutes, or gets crazy slowdown after the same, or plays in a weird border at a locked 24fps with no option to change it, or the game boots you out because it can't find some random file path, you don't necessary have the know-how to adequately troubleshoot the problem and come up with a resolution quickly.

Hell, its a skill enough to know the right questions to ask, and the right terminology to use in google searches and forum posts.

PCs are great when everything just works - its when they don't that things can get super complicated very quickly, with arcane and unreliable fixes that could make matters even worse for the novice.
 
Opiate said:
Yes, they are easier than they were in 1998, but that doesn't make them as easy as a console.

Lots of people don't understand how CPUs work, let alone why a dedicated GPU would be beneficial, or what RAM is, or why RAM and an HDD are both needed. For a lot of people, the response to this reality is "Um, er, ugh, nevermind, I've got plenty to play on console anyway."
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This is certainly true. And if they would rather play a console than deal with the research required to build and maintain a PC then that is fine. But people make it sound like this herculean task when it's just a little bit of research.
 
Xando said:
Then you google these crashes. In 99% of the time you will find a fix within 5 minutes.
Your arguments seem to suggest that you just don't want a PC because you don't want to inform yourself or are too lazy.
If you can't copy a mod( a lot of games even have programms doing it for you) or use google you probably should stay with consoles.
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You are missing the point. It's not about me. I plan on getting a PC sometime. I think at some point, the resource gathering is worth the hobby. But crashes, googling, and learning mod programs or where they go is adding even more to the list I've posted. It's a lot of technical stuff to learn and most people don't want that, especially a crash that they need to google in the middle of a level or a game that won't start at all.
 
At the end of the day, your computer will play pretty much any game you want. It WILL play it. If you do not want to bother/worry about how well it will run, us Raptr for AMD or Nvidia Experience to have it set your graphic presets and you'll pretty much always have a game that runs/looks better than a console.
 
CannonO said:
You are missing the point. It's not about me. I plan on getting a PC sometime. I think at some point, the resource gathering is worth the hobby. But crashes, googling, and learning mod programs or where they go is adding even more to the list I've posted. It's a lot of technical stuff to learn and most people don't want that, especially a crash that they need to google in the middle of a level or a game that won't start at all.
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And that's fine. If people don't want to play on PC then they don't want to, it's no big deal. People do need to be pretty computer literate to build and maintain a machine but it's not as difficult as people make it sound and only requires an hour or two of research and there are plenty of places on the internet to ask questions if you have a problem.
 
Well... You've got things like Alienware Alpha and other Steam Machines that are on the horizon, so why not go with those? They will have UI's that you won't even have to deviate from if you don't want to see the desktop. I'm also sure they'll have Geforce Experience preinstalled to allow you to auto update drivers without having to use any thought at all. It also gives you presets for graphical configurations that should work best on your current setup.

I know that things could still be a little easier, but if this still deters you just buy a console. If you don't plan on hoarding games and don't mind paying for online play, then it might be cheaper for you anyways. Plus if your console screws up you can just replace the whole thing if it's under warranty.
 
All of you saying that it's too complicated or that having to research for hours before buying is a deterent. Have you considered that you might be what's wrong with humanity? You should be curious, you should want to know how things works. And not just with pc's, with cars, electrical systems, plumbing, physics, maths, chemistry...everything. I'm not saying you need a professional level mastery of it or anything. But the fact that you see learning more about something as a negative is kinda scary to me.
 
Relativ9 said:
All of you saying that it's too complicated or that having to research for hours before buying is a deterent. Have you considered that you might be what's wrong with humanity? You should be curious, you should want to know how things works. And not just with pc's, with cars, electrical systems, plumbing, physics, maths, chemistry...everything. I'm not saying you need a professional level mastery of it or anything. But the fact that you see learning more about something as a negative is kinda scary to me.
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Get off with that nonsense.
 
Sanjay said:
Its sockets/mobo/cpu compatibility that are the most confusing because there's so damn many of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_socket
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It's really not that complicated. At all.

Buying a new CPU? Upgrading to a new CPU and a new motherboard?

You get a motherboard with a socket interface that matches that CPU.

Upgrading an existing CPU?

You google your motherboard make/model+"CPU support" and you get a nice list of the options you can choose from if you want to upgrade without replacing the motherboard.

One of the hangups here is that there is a lot of theoretical hemming and hawing over minimal/recommended specs and other items that no one who actually games on the PC gives a shit about. So on one side of things you get people with information overload, and on the other you have people (like me) wondering why you are even bothering to attempt to process this (mostly useless) information.
 
Relativ9 said:
All of you saying that it's too complicated or that having to research for hours before buying is a deterent. Have you considered that you might be what's wrong with humanity? You should be curious, you should want to know how things works. And not just with pc's, with cars, electrical systems, plumbing, physics, maths, chemistry...everything. I'm not saying you need a professional level mastery of it or anything. But the fact that you see learning more about something as a negative is kinda scary to me.
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As much of a proponent of PC gaming as I am, I don't agree with this line of thinking at all. Everyone is going to have major gaps in their knowledge in specific areas. There is only so much time in the day, so the people who don't want to spend too much time researching PC components, could also be extremely well-versed in areas that you know nothing about. I would never make a character judgement call on someones unwillingness to invest time into researching computers.
 
Felix Lighter said:
As much of a proponent of PC gaming as I am, I don't agree with this line of thinking at all. Everyone is going to have major gaps in their knowledge in specific areas. There is only so much time in the day, so the people who don't want to spend too much time researching PC components, could also be extremely well-versed in areas that you know nothing about. I would never make a character judgement call on someones unwillingness to invest time into researching computers.
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While I understand that, it's not that I mind people not knowing about certian subjects, their curiosity simply hasn't been piqued yet. What I mind is when their curiosity IS piqued and they still don't want to learn about it for fear of it being too difficult or time consuming. Let's not forget that we're not talking about people who are ignorant of Pc's but are never going to use them anyway.
 
Jimmy Rustle said:
Build a decent PC and none of it will matter.

The Build a PC thread has a chart that is of AMAZING help for those that are not sure what parts to choose from. From a budget $500 build to an enthusiast "nice things" $1500 build.

In fact, the Enthusiast build is about a month outdated. Switch the GTX 780 with the new 970, subtract around $200, and you'll be set for the entire console generation (assuming your still content with its performance as the years go by).
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This is really the only post this thread needs. It can be slightly confusing but the GaF thread has everything you need.

And once you have a decent system you literally never have to read requirements. Ever. Just enjoy games for the next four or five years and when you start feeling the need to upgrade to run at higher settings, then upgrade.

If you buy nVidia graphics cards it is even easier because they will auto download updates and auto optimize games settings for you if you don't want to fiddle with settings, literally one button press every couple of weeks and all your games settings are optimized and updates installed.
 
Fragamemnon said:
It's really not that complicated. At all.

Buying a new CPU? Upgrading to a new CPU and a new motherboard?

You get a motherboard with a socket interface that matches that CPU.

Upgrading an existing CPU?

You google your motherboard make/model+"CPU support" and you get a nice list of the options you can choose from if you want to upgrade without replacing the motherboard.

One of the hangups here is that there is a lot of theoretical hemming and hawing over minimal/recommended specs and other items that no one who actually games on the PC gives a shit about. So on one side of things you get people with information overload, and on the other you have people (like me) wondering why you are even bothering to attempt to process this (mostly useless) information.
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What I meant is deciding which one to go is the problem when not going with the latest tech.

How do you know what is best bang for your buck with performance in mind.

Finding this out is going to take ages by your self. It's just better to ask someone who has the knowledge already and this is what people do.

If you check the current Neogaf PC thread, its range of PC build's only cater to Haswell. To keep things simple.

Ignore:-
Bloomfield
Lynnfield
Clarksfield
Sandy Bridge
Ivy Bridge

End of the day, your going to need advice, and its best to ask people that know instead of doing it on your own if your starting from scratch.
 
I don't think I have checked PC requirements since about 2004. Unlike back in the 90's and early 2000's, most games these days do a better job of providing a lot of graphics options so that they work on a wide range of computer hardware.

On a side note, I remember when "MMX" was a new thing on Intel CPUs and some certain games of the time actually required it. Those were the days...
 
The area I struggle with is the AA terminology and ambient occlusion settings. I've been a PC gamer since the mid 1980's and I still get confused about which AA I should use or if HBAO is correct for Nvidia or AMD.

Also, modding games has always been a struggle. Adding SweetFX to games or downsampling can seem like black magic at times.
 
The only complicated portion is selecting the video card because the numbering schemes change over time and there are always so many choices. Not so much with CPU - get an Intel I5 or I7 and you are pretty much done, memory doesn't matter much as long as you get 8-16 GB, hard drives again not so much other than a nice 128-512 GB SSD as the boot drive.

The GPU can be confusing because AMD went from 7800 to 290, Nvidia jumped from 780 to 980, etc... Also, if you aren't buying a top of the line GPU, it is incredibly confusing which low end video card is better because so many cross generation cards are available. Right now, the clear winner is the Nvidia Geforce 970 GTX but not everyone is willing to spend $330 on a video card. But getting the 970 now should last a good number of years.

bro1 said:
The area I struggle with is the AA terminology and ambient occlusion settings. I've been a PC gamer since the mid 1980's and I still get confused about which AA I should use or if HBAO is correct for Nvidia or AMD.

Also, modding games has always been a struggle. Adding SweetFX to games or downsampling can seem like black magic at times.
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I agree with the AA stuff. It is very confusing coming from an AMD card to Nvidia that have alot of different proprietary AA techniques, temporal stuff, etc. I haven't a clue other than MSAA is one of the better choices and FXAA is usually blurry ;p. Also, the AA stuff seems to be all hidden unless you use Nvidia inspector. When various choices are given in game, it isn't obvious which will be the best because even then some games don't do various AA techniques justice.
 
It is a necessary evil, I would say. It is a consequence of modularity and diversity. You have to admit, though, that the process is largely automatic in terms of software nowadays. Steam installs anything you need and the NVidia/AMD drivers even configure the graphics settings by themselves.

As far as hardware goes, despite the huge diversity, most modern components will work one way or another. What you might be missing out is some fine tuning of performance, but the game will most likely run either way.

Edit: as suggested above, one thing that would be great is a standard of what "minimum" and "recommended" specs mean. Like, in actual FPS, resolution and graphic effects numbers. "To run this game in mostly stable 60FPS@1080p with anisotropic filtering you need X" or something like that.

Devs are just afraid of stating anything like that because they KNOW that there will always be some lunatic trying to sue them because a game dropped below 50FPS in one scene because of his esoteric hardware configuration.
 
Every single day I have at least 3-5 people walk into my store and simply cannot figure out consoles. So it doesn't surprise
me people still can't figure out PC gaming. If a person can't be bothered to do a little research on the lowest common form of gaming, they won't be bothered to do it for the step up.

2014 folks.
 
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