then asked a local place I trusted to get mobo, psu etc that would round it out and build.
i did that for the rig i made Caveman v1.0 on, back in 2000. great way to get a custom box without getting your hands dirty. seems to be getting harder and harder to find "local places" though. i don't think there are any mom and pop PC stores left around me.
its better to buy on spec, rather than just brand. but it requires more research. you can't really make blanket statements like "alienware is good or not-so-good". their rigs these days are actually pretty competitive. you really have to go on a case-by-case basis: model X from manufacturer Y has the desired specs Z. which means you start by figuring out your desired specs Z. minimum system requirements for current games, and for tools you may want to use (IE 3d modeling software etc) are a good place to start for deciding on your desired specs. for me, for a FPSRPG due out within 1 year, that works out to 4+ cores, 8+ threads, 3+Ghz, (probably an i7, not an i5) and a 900 series card or better.
- Get an SSD of some sort for your main drive (512GB would be ideal). The difference between SSD and HDD is almost night and day.
Just to add some counter opinion to this. SSDs are great but they are a bit of a luxury and would probably mean needing an additional drive too.
Considering that you need it for collage, is it not better to buy a laptop?
What happens if you need to use it to study with colleagues or to make some presentation/demo/something at the university?
Or think only about if you want to study or do assignments in the library...
In order to develop a decent game you don't need a super expensive machine.
Get something decent, core i5 maybe with a good GPU (like a gtx950m or gtx960m and at least 8GB of memory and you are fine.
If possible an SSD is very well spent money.
- Get an SSD of some sort for your main drive (512GB would be ideal). The difference between SSD and HDD is almost night and day.
Just to add some counter opinion to this. SSDs are great but they are a bit of a luxury and would probably mean needing an additional drive too.
I've had my SSD for quite a while now and I can count on one hand the number of programs that it actually speeds up. It's definitely a luxury item, and they're still very expensive compared to HDDs. Fortunately, the few programs that it does help are ones that I needed help with, so I count it as being about on par for cost effectiveness. I really wish the prices would drop more. I want to get a 1TB SSD to replace the external HDD my Raspberry Pi is using (mainly for power effectiveness).
If you're at all concerned about money then DO NOT BUY A PREFAB BOX. If you want to work with computers then it's worth sitting down and figuring out how to put them together from parts. You'll probably want a CPU with a clock speed better than 3.0GHz and between four and eight cores. 8GB of RAM is probably enough, though 16GB is fine if you can get it cheap (you probably can). You don't necessarily need super fancy RAM, but the way prices are right now you can probably get some anyway. For graphics, figure out the market price-v-quality curve and try to find the best value for money right about in the middle of that range. If you're paying more than $200 without targeting a specific requirement then you are playing yourself. Buy a PSU with high customer ratings and high wattage so you never have to worry about it again. For PSU it's cheaper to just buy more than you need rather than fall short when you upgrade later and have to buy a whole new one. Make sure that your mobo supports high-speed SATA and USB 3.0, as well as being compatible with all your components. Use online tools to ensure that the CPU/RAM/MOBO/PSU are all compatible. Finally, try to find a case that supports multiple mobo form factors and is very well ventilated. Having plenty of room inside the case is easier on you when you have to adjust components, and easier on the components because they have more room to breathe.
On the other hand, if you're not concerned about money then DO NOT BUY A PREFAB BOX. Instead, build your own and send me the extra money.
should i buy a very exepsnive pc , and just not have to worry about anything for a really long time?
This is not always the case. I would find, maybe not a basic PC, but one that is not overly high priced and then you have the option to upgrade it later in the areas of ram and video cards.
It's honestly very hard to mess up while assembling a computer these days. Parts that aren't meant to go together won't fit, and you would have to try very hard (as in furiously rubbing your feet against carpet during assembly) to damage them with static electricity. Just be careful to not press on the motherboard like a madman; sometimes it takes a little work to plug components into it and lock them, and in some cases you will need to push fairly hard to insert them, but do not apply excessive force, take it slow and check what the issue is. The most intimidating part for a newbie is probably putting the CPU in its socket, just work slowly, read the instructions, think twice before doing and don't break anything and you'll be fine.
Just make sure to buy components that are actually compatible, e.g. don't buy a motherboard with an AMD socket and an Intel CPU, because that simply will not work.
It really isn't that hard :)
You just buy a laptop or desktop computer around the price of $1000. 16GB Ram is more than necessary. Considering you might play some games other than the ones you make, get 8GB Ram and that's enough. Spending more is just wasting money. I wouldn't recommend that. Go for 2GB of Vram or you can choose 4GB. 2GB is the minimum. If you choose a laptop, go for CPU that has a base of at least 2.6GB and can boost up to 3GB and above. Not sure about assembling a computer because if something goes wrong on your end none of the people here will be responsible for that. As I said earlier, you don't need super expensive computers. It's ideal you change your computers every 2 - 3 years anyways.
