Matthew Chmiel

Outside of the ability to support 1600 MHz RAM alongside PCI Express 3.0 support, there's very little difference between the power of Sandy Bridge to Haswell. Since you're utilizing it for gaming, the Intel HD Graphics support means nothing.

I have an i7-2600 and my machine is still a beast.

With Broadwell not coming out until 2015, it's just better to hold out and wait.

fumanstan

Yeah, I've had a 2500K since it launched and it's still going strong. The performance differences from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge and now Haswell has been pretty lackluster, so it's been pretty damn nice not even having to think about an upgrade on that front.

Edison

I'm in the process of upgrading finally, already got a motherboard and processor (Asus Maximus IV Hero and i5-4670K. I found a case and ram, but still trying to decide on a graphics card (I'm leaning towards a Nvidia 760).

Raul3

Same here, I have an i7 2600K, and for gaming, encoding and all that stuff that I do sometimes there's no reason to upgrade. My next upgrade is going to be a videocard, but maybe next year, since I have a 7950, and I only play at 1080p.

DthRdrX

Haswell is a PITA to overclock. I have a 4770k and can't seem to get anything stable without shooting temps up.

fumanstan

This is kind of neat, Ars Technica independently tried to get a bunch of Steam stats and data like most owned or most played games by having a server parse Steam ID information.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/0...popular-games/

Some fun data there.

shizawn

Interesting to see just how many people seem to use Steam for nothing but Valve games.

Matthew Chmiel

To be fair...

1. Both Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2 are free.
2. Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, and all of the Counter-strike games (1.3, Source, and Global-Offensive) still have the largest gaming communities outside of Battle.net/Blizzard and games like League of Legends.
3. Valve has discounted their games to $2.74 to free on numerous occasions.

I have a Steam account and like everyone else, I own every Valve game on the platform. I even paid full price for a few.

Also, the Valve games are a night-and-day difference on the PC compared to their console (360/PS3) equivalent. You can't match the experience of Team Fortress 2 on the PC compared to what one experiences on the 360.

fumanstan

I'm like the opposite, other then TF2 I don't care much at all for the other Valve games (even Half-Life and CS)

They've made some updates, here's an easier to read table of the top 100 games.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/0...nd-concerns/2/

fumanstan

EA is giving away Dead Space for free via Origin. It sounds like something they're going to do regularly, based on the website.

https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/o...4-10&cid=20633

wlj

i have such a weird relationship with this game. When I play it, I am like "Man, this is so cool and fun", but then I don't play it again for months. I still haven't finished the first.

RichC2

So just how bad was Thief? It's currently $13.59 on GMG, $14.41 for Digital Deluxe.

Brack

I'm playing it on PS4. I'm liking it. Nothing spectacular, but it's a good stealth game with some challenge to it, but not so much that it doesn't make it fun. At that price I would definitely get it on PC if I had a PC that could run it. I about it for $29.99 a couple of weeks back when it was on sale.

taffer

It's really not bad at all. It's not as good as the previous Thief trilogy, but it's not nearly as bad as most of the reviews say.

I think most reviewers have rose-colored nostalgia glasses on and have put the original trilogy up on a pedestal as being better than it really was. I love the original trilogy; it's my favorite game trilogy of all time, and my username actually comes from the original games. I don't put the original trilogy up on a pedestal though. I replayed the original trilogy right before the new game released, so it's fresh in my mind. The original games have a lot of problems, and they haven't aged all that well.

That said, the new Thief game does do some things better and some things worse. The levels are smaller than Thief 1 and 2, but still much bigger than Thief 3 which was designed for the original Xbox's pitifully small RAM. The city itself is kind of bland, but the actual missions are good for the most part. There's one mission that is very reminiscent of the Shalebridge Cradle, which is a fan-favorite from the original trilogy. The story is pretty generic. The villain is pretty crappy compared to the villains from the previous games. The gameplay is good though, and there are many customizable options.

Nausicaa

Yeah, it's amazing how computer technology has changed. I also have a three year old 2600k and SLI 570s, and as far as I can tell they still approach benchmarks from most single cards in the 700 series with modern CPUs.

VRAM is a problem though and I want to upgrade to 1440p. With the 2600k and p67 motherboard, 800W PSU, would I be able to run SLI 780tis? Or will there be compatibility issues or CPU bottlenecks with that setup?

funkyryno

Maybe I won't go with a pre-built system. Newegg has some nice deals on DIY combo packages. I'll I'd need to do is buy an OS. I imagine it shouldn't take more than an evening to assemble a system. Does that sound about right?

lopper

Have you done it before?

Most how-to videos make it seem like you can slap something together in an hour or so, and maybe you can, I don't know. However, based on watching dozens upon dozens of youtube videos on the subject, I think it can take quite a bit of time, especially factoring in cable management, software/driver installation, troubleshooting, etc.

I've been tempted for years to build my own but never did, so I really have no experience whatsoever.

funkyryno

Yes, I've built systems from scratch before. But it's been at least 10 years since I've last attempted it. It was back in the pre-windows XP days, so maybe the process has gotten a little easier.

My biggest hesitancy on doing it myself is the actual ordering of parts. Figuring out what I need seems like a bigger hassle than the assembly, especially as I haven't been following computer hardware specs in recent years.

fumanstan

I'd say it would only take an hour for assembling if you're used to it, a couple hours if you're familiar with the process but haven't done it in awhile. And maybe another hour for OS installation (and updates, etc). Not too much has changed in 10 years.

flashburn

It's really not that hard. There's an entire thread over at NeoGAF dedicated towards system building, and quite a few pre-configured setups you can start with.

Raul3

Nowadays is really easy.

Get a good case and that would help a lot. Sometimes you spend more time fighting the case limitations.

flashburn

So true. I always make sure to splurge a little bit extra on a case, because that's the one component that is going to last you the longest. I think my desktop case has lasted me through 3 full upgrades now. I think it's easy to consider that your case will last you 10+ years of upgrades. Make it count.

fumanstan

Yeah, I used the same case through a few builds (Antec Solo) until the higher end video cards started being too long to fit in it Although i'd say some cases can make it harder to make the cabling clean, especially those that run them behind the motherboard tray.

I'm using a Fractal Design Define R4 right now and love the sleek, plain look of it

funkyryno

Hmm ... looking at how gross and dusty my fans and the interior of my current case are now, I think a new case is in order for me (my current one has one of those annoying doors on the front that ends up always being left open).

mhg83

For anyone that missed it, Here's the fantastic trailer

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qtYWqE55s24" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I'm not a fan of strategy games, but this one might get me into it. The developers were inspired by the new Cosmos show.