So I am really interested in playing ArmA 2 and DayZ and other such demanding games, but I have a really bad desktop, I also can only spend 500$ max for the new one, I would like to be able to run both at higher settings and still have it run smoothly, should I get a laptop or desktop? And if either does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks for any input:)

Get Desktop, You will get better gaming experience and reality, awesome. You can sit back and relax, very comfortable with desktop.

For both ArmA2 and DayZ you need medium configuration PC. As the both games runs on dual core processors but totally settings must be changed to low detail. If you want to play the Game with out struck and if you want to experience the Game play, you need to have these configurations

 

Core i5-750s Quad 2.4GHz

Phenom II X4 B97 

GeForce GTX 260 

Radeon HD 5770 1024MB

 

I recommend to take AMD Phenom II, as it is the old processor try for the AMD APU's they are awesome. I brought AMD APU A8 3870k which is excellent performing. So i Suggest to go with AMD and Radeon.

2 GB of RAM is recommended for these games to run in a smooth way and hard disk space about 7 GB.

If you can afford to buy the highend PC go for Core i7 black edition in Intel or AMD APU A10 black edition have medium end mother board I recommend ASUS, GIGABYTE. and RAM of 4GB.

Will this computer still be relevant in four years?
ie. run most programs and games that are released in two years time:

1) Intel Core i7 2700K Sandy Bridge Desktop processor.
2) Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 Graphics Card.
3) 16 Gb DDR3 RAM
4) 120 gb Intel 520 SSD with 3 TB Hard disk space and Windows 7 home premium installed on SSD.

 

We cant guess that the PC with these specification will support the upcoming softwares in the future. Because my PC configuration is AMD Atholon 64, 512 mb ram, 750 gb harddisk. It lasted for 7 years. I brought in 2005. It's worked fine.

I think you may need to change the Grpahic card, because the upcoming games in the future will be not supported by GPU. You may need to change it, the rendering engine mostly depends on. Processor which you have is highend, which works excellent. Motherboards also plays a main role here. You didnot mentioned the motherboard details. Check for your motherboard specifications as well.

If you are an hardcore gamer, you need to check the Game requirements. Buy GPU after checking the specifications.

Everytime I play a game my screen freezes up on me what can I do to stop this.

You are playing game fine, your screen freezes at what time in the same period or if you are playing game, is that screen freezes same for same game or for different game.

Mention the problem clearly, if you playing a game that might not meet the system requirements of that game, the game strucks.

If the game meets the system requirements, you are playing and freezes at same time. There may be your system is infected with virus. Install a good internet security softwares to get rid of infections.

In old systems, if the processor overheats, screen also freezes in this way. Because the the heating is not in control by the processor, may the equipments of that CPU should be upgraded.

Try to install the same game on different computer, If you had installed if the screen freezes at same time. there may be problem in the installed game.

Contact the game manufacturer for further solution.

I want to split my C drive up into C and D partitions. I am planning on putting all my games (very new one's) and personal data on D: and C: for system OS and applications. How much data for games on my D partition slow them down? is it a notice able slowdown? or will it only slow down loading times and not actual game performance? it is a 500gb HDD 5400rpm I am planning to do 80 or 100 for C: (curently using only up 25 GB) (should i just make it 50 for partition c?) and the rest for D:

Before installing any Game check for the requirements of that Game because the requirements of that game only monitors. As your C drive is have 100 gb you can make it partition. You must know the how much space occupies by that game this information is available in system requirements of that game and better dont install the game in C drive because if that game occupies 30 GB of data that might slow down your system and performance aswell.

Make sure that system requirements of that particular game meets your system configuration. Recommended partition for the C drive or primary partition is 50 GB. Minimum of 50 GB is required for the C drive to install an OS.