Hi ho my fellows of NL!

I recently came into a bit of cash, and I decided to get into this whole 'PC' gaming thing. Y'know, that new fad everyone's going on about?

Anyway, my budget is in the $1000-$1500 range; but I don't know jack about PC gaming.

Like, seriously, I've only played around three PC games in my life. I've always been a console guy, so I need help from my cool and handsome friends here on this site!

I don't trust anyone else.

Any recommendations for a particular model? Useful sites? Anything?

Thanks a lot for ANY help you guys can provide!

If you want to get into PC gaming, don't look into buying a laptop.

Laptops have pretty bad price/performance ratio compared to desktops, but never buy a pre-built desktop anyway, you'll be totally screwed on the price. If you wanna get into PC gaming, $1000 would build a very competent machine. And don't be scared to build a PC, do research, or post here. We can help you. It's very easy, and not easy to screw up if you buy the right parts.

Thanks for the feedback guys! Much appreciated.

My brother-in-law is pretty good with PCs, and he gave me a document a while ago that shows how to build an awesome rig. So I may take a look at that (all 410 pages of it...).

Thanks again.

What kind of games are you looking to play? And are you okay with building a PC, like you aren't set on a laptop?

Yep, mine burnt out after one year. Just built a $650 desktop and it runs much cooler.

I agree with everyone here. If you are looking for a gaming rig go with a desktop period. Unless there is some huge reason that you have to do with a laptop like you travel all the time for your job but still you will be going through laptops like crazy. Besides to keep a PC up to gaming standards you will have to do upgrades on parts like the vid card and sound card, ram etc. YOu cant do that with a laptop as easy or as cheaply as you can with a desktop.

If you know someone that can build you a PC, by all means go for that. It's a lot more cost effective and PCs are better gaming machines than laptops.

That said, I do all of my computer gaming exclusively on my laptop. I got it for under $1000 and it can play nearly any modern game on moderate to high settings. Laptops are perfectly capable gaming machines as long as you know what to look for. I also like to hook my laptop up to my plasma TV, something I couldn't do very easily with a desktop PC.

Weeeelll...I would probably like to have something that is future-proof to an extent. Like, something that would be able to run games like Crysis 3 and Witcher 3.

I'm not really locked into buying anything specific...I just think my PC is getting pretty old. I normally only used it to write and do uni, but gaming technology is changing so much. Steam and GOG becoming more and more prominent everyday. Also, Sony and Microsoft's consoles are becoming more and more like PCs...with none of the benefits, IMO. They are becoming incredibly unfocused in their respective visions, what with their 'Moves', 'PS Mobiles', 'Kinects', and 'Smartglasses'. There's just so much crap they are peddling...I just feel that it's going to get worse before it gets better.

I see PC gaming as something reliable and stable that provides relatively 'traditional' gaming experiences; a perfect balance with my love of the innovative and creative Nintendo.

I veered towards a laptop, because I thought it would be less hassle than a traditional desktop, and WesCash's comments are certainly encouraging if I decide to go that route.

...Still, desktops are upgradable - whereas I would have to keep buying new laptops to stay in the game (no pun intended). Maybe both have their pros and cons?

Or maybe I should wait to see what this fancy-smancy 'Steambox' offers...

if you want a laptop for gaming, get a laptop - you can very much play every pc game on high settings if the laptop is good enough
i myself bought a MacBook Pro for about 2,7k euros and im using OS X + Windows 7 (via bootcamp), and i have no lag whatsoever, every game i'm playing runs perfectly on it

in america laptops are cheaper so you should be able to buy a decent one with 1500$, you definitely have to look at Windows laptops though

• you can't really play on an ultrabook/macbook air, etc., keep that in mind
  they're not made for gaming, just browsing and the most basic stuff

i wanted awesome specs, but the laptop had to be thin, light, nice design, long battery life and stuff like that, so i had to go with apple (love their laptops)
if you're not looking for a laptop like that and just want a laptop with good specs, then 1500$ will be enough, or save some more money + buy a more expensive one

otherwise you could look into the possibility of buying a desktop pc + a not so expensive ultrabook

Right, thanks for the advice Romeo!

no problem!
anytime

You could build a PC for like half the price of a laptop that performs comparably. And NEVER buy anything Apple when looking to play games, PC-wise. Apple products charge a huge premium for their little logo on the back, but they're built with the exact same parts as Windows PCs

^ This. I'd look into either Alienware or Asus desktops computers. For around $600-999 you can get a fantastic PC computer that will play most anything currently available.

Macbooks are fantastic computers, but do not buy one if your desire is for gaming! You will be highly disappointed with your purchase if you do.

Yep I agree what people are saying about Mac. Keep in mind to that if you purchase a Mac you will only be able to play games that have a Mac client. For example Star Wars: The Old Republic doesnt have a Mac client the game only works with Windows. Of course there is a way around that but its alot more trouble than its worth at least thats what alot of Mac owners tell me. Yeah if you are going gaming go with a WIndows machine so that way you will have alot of choices when it comes to games.

As for Alienware I personally would not go that route I had an Alienware laptop a few years ago and it was the biggest POS laptop I ever own. Alienware was good years ago when they were on their own but when Dell bought them out they just became junk.

I went here http://www.ibuypower.com/lobby.aspx for both my desktop and a laptop for my son and they are the best machines I have ever had. Nice thing about them to is that they specialize in gaming comps plus they seem to have sales all the time which is nice. A few years ago I got my desktop which was normally price at 1200 dollars for 800.

Lenovo think pad carbon or a macbook air though they aren't gaming machines in the slightest.

I can play games at around 40-60 FPS with mostly high settings on my Macbook Air.

The actually hard part will probably be which components to buy if you want to build your own PC. If you have trouble with that, Tom's Hardware may be helpful to you.

My pc build is a DIY kit from newegg, putting it together isn't too bad at all, and newegg has some lengthy video walkthroughs of building it and installing an OS.

@Tasuki & FOREST_RANGER - Thanks for the links! I'll take a long look at 'em.