New gaming rig, multiple questions

obieone

After a 5 year absence, I wanted to get back into gaming, so I had a gaming pc built.
Here are the spec's:

Gigabyte F2A88XM-DS2 mb
AMD A10 5800k cpu
16 gb ram
Saphire R9 270x 4GB graphics card
WD 1TB 64mb sata3 HDD
Samsung 250gb SSD
LG 14x BRD-RW
Thermaltake v3 Black Edition case
Windows 8.1
Samsung 40" 1080p LCD TV
Sound Blaster external sound card via USB in and toslink out
Pioneer SC-05

Obviously not top shelf, but close enough for me, with (hopefully) enough head room for the next several years. So, the questions;

Q1: What are the limitations of this rig, in regards to properly feeding a larger tv.
I don't plan on going 70" 4K or anything, but if I want to go with a bigger tv (50"+/-)
am I already maxed out?

Q2: Steam: apparently physical media has become passe in recent years, so this looks like a good deal, but I'm nervous about paying for a bunch of games that may not play on this rig? Case in point; Looking at the Half-life pack, and Ghost Recon kits, the spec's state "Windows 2000/ XP(only)" WTF do they mean by "only"

Q3: I've never been into multiplayer gaming, so for right now it'll be single player.
At this time I'm getting 16 mbs download speed from TWC, will this be fast enough IF i decide to move to on-line gaming, and would a 'faster router' help?( it's only 1+ years old?)

Q4: WTF happened to 'affordable' racing wheel rigs? decent ones start at $250!

Q5: Are there any modern PC racing games that do NOT support wheel rigs?

As always, any feedback is greatly appreciated

voltz

as for Stream and half-life pack, the pack will play great on your system with probably over 200+ fps and ignore the old windows recommendations as the game came out years ago before win7 and others. in fact you may find you want to use V-sync on to keep the frame rate at a more fix rate based of your refresher rate, like a solid 60 fps...as when it goes really high it can make your mouse movements very erratic. think your system is going to be fine, plus you maybe able to add a 2nd video card when you new alittle more speed someday!

obieone

Thanks for the response. Where is 'v-sync'? on my pc, or in steam?
Sorry, I'm really old. :-o

voltz

V-snc is a video option in most games or your video control panel.
with the half-life series of games -- at the main menu where you see new game -load game -options.. click on options - there you will see where to set your mouse & keyboard setting and audio & video. click on video and probably a advance button.. then look for a place to set v-sync on/off..think half-life says wait for v-ync enabled or not.

also you can go to your video control panel on your task bar at bottom of desktop... I have a nvidia and in the nvidia control panel I click on manage 3d settings and I can click on global settings and scroll thru the option for many version of V-sync I can force a game to always turn on/off.

obieone

10-4, thanks

AsSiMiLaTeD

PC Performance isn't really related to TV size. The resolution matters and you're already running at 1080P, but going from a 32" to a 60" 1080P screen doesn't really matter, it's all the same to your video card. You'll have issues with that rig if you move up to 4K resolution on more complex games so keep that in mind.

Windows 8 should have a compatibility mode that will allow it to run older games, check into that.

I don't keep up with the AMD CPUs these days, they've pretty much given up on the enthusiast market and higher end CPUs. The biggest factor for a gaming rig is the graphics card, as long your CPU is decent. That 270x is a good card, but should probably be the first thing you look at if you want more performance.

jflail2

I assume you'll be using the SSD for your OS only, with everything else going to the sata drive? If not, you should. I'd consider more drive space, but its usually easy to open the case and add one down the road.

I also know nothing about AMD processors these days, so good luck there. Past that, you should be able to run anything you want to play. I've got a lesser vid card and still run Far Cry 4 at fairly high settings on a 46" 1080p TV.

obieone

Thanks for all the feedback. I think I'm gtg.

Xanthor

2 things we got in common on the pc. 1) we got the same drive sizes lol . 2) I f ing hate TWC. (have that too).