Which Gaming PC Offers the Best Value?

[emma530]

OK, I have been playing on a pretty bad comp for a while now and i think its time for a new one. I have been looking around for a good priced comp that is good for gaming. I have looked at a few and i would like help on figuring which would be the best. The folowing are links to some of the comps i was considering. If you would like to help please take a look and post which you think is the best for its price. or can you give some other good links.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Alienware-Area-51-gaming-general-use-%20computer_W0QQitemZ140176021190QQihZ004QQcategoryZ140068QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://www.dealstudio.com/searchdeals.php?deal_id=67809
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00025BZM0/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[fargoth]

i won't get any of them for gaming...
a new computer now should have a minimum of 2GB of ram (and its VERY cheap nowadays) ,
a core2dou 2.4-2.8 Ghz, and 8600gt or 8800gt as a video card - the 7300gs get you very poor performance...

this computer I described should cost you about 1000$ give or take...
where are you from, i'll find you one in your neighborhood.

 

[las3rjock]

http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/guide-200708.ars/2

 

[B. Elliott]

As much as I hate to say it, snag a Dell and drop in a sound card and video card. Dells have come a long way since they first got big. The quality of components has gone up and you just plain can't beat the prices.

Like fargoth said, get something with a dual core processor. Preferably one of the Core 2 Duo's... E6600 or E6700. If you can get one with a motherboard that allows upping the bus speed, you can overclock the E6600 and E6700's like mad. I've personally gone from 2.67GHz to 3.3GHz with an E6700 without having to modify the supplied voltage and with regular air cooling (a decent Zalman cooler though). Some people have hit 3.5GHz without any other mods except upping the bus freq. A good thing to look into with the motherboard would be one with an X38 Intel chipset as it'll be able to support the later generation Penryn processors when they come out... adding a bit of scalability. Another good thing to look out for would be for a motherboard with dual x16 PCI-e slots so you can slap in two video card and run them in SLI when the prices drop... especially if you plan on getting a big monitor and running high resolutions (which is where SLI really shines).

On the video card its self, go with an 8800GT like fargoth said. They just recently hit the market and let me tell you, they hit it like a freight train. The bang for the buck performance is phenomenal. Under half of the games and quite a few benchmarks they run neck and neck with (and sometimes beat) the $400 8800GTS's. The power requirements are also 10-20W lower along with less heat output due to NVidia shrinking down the die from 90 to 65nm. Your looking at around $250 for a 512MB 8800GT (A year ago I spent $580 on my 8800GTX!)

On ram, go with 2GB no doubt. Especially if your running Vista which is a memory hog with its pre-caching ability. For a gaming rig, 4GB would be optimal. If you were just running XP (wouldn't take advantage of the video cards DX10 ability though) you could get by easily with just 2GB.

For the hard drive get a 10,000RPM Western Digital Raptor. You have the option of a 74 or 150Gb model. You also would have the option of running a RAID setup (where the data is stored on both hard drives to speed up transfer rates) if you wanted to add another like hard drive later on.

On the sound card, get a cheap Creative XFI Xtreme Audio... especially if the computer comes with onboard audio. Onboard audio taxes the processor for work at a MUCH greater amount as opposed to a dedicated sound card (with it's own processor) freeing up your main processor to do other work.

 

[B. Elliott]

$1300.00
(before all applicable rebates)


CASE: ($20 off Mail-in Rebate) NEW! Apevia X-Jupiter Jr. 420 Watts Case (G Type Metallic Gray Color with Side-Window)
CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6850 CPU @ 3.00GHz 1333FSB 4MB L2 Cache 64-bit
MOTHERBOARD: (Quad-Core FSB1333) Asus P5N-E nForce 650i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
VIDEO CARD 2: NONE
LCD Monitor: NONE
HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (74GB Gaming Western Digital Rapter 10, 000RPM SATA150 16MB Cache WD740ADFD)
Data Hard Drive: NONE
Optical Drive: (Special Price) 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2: NONE
SOUND: Creative Labs SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio 24-BIT PCI Sound Card

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Intel_Core_2_Duo_SLI_Custom_Build_Configurator/#configurator_top
It would cost for me approximately $1237 to build an equivalent system. These prices were taken off Newegg.com and also don't take into consideration rebate offers (which are on more than half of the items listed)...

Case: $85
Power Supply: 650w $54.99
CPU: E6600 $229.99
CPU Cooler: Zalman 9700 $59.99
Motherboard:ASUS P5E LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX $229.99
Memory: CORSAIR (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 PC2 6400 $101.00
Video Card:Leadtek PX8800GT 512MB $269.00
Hard Drive: 10K RPM 150GB WD Raptor $179.99
Optical Drive: Sony NEC Optiarc Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner - OEM $27.99This would be one bang-up system. Very close to what I have now.

 

[B. Elliott]

Forgot the sound card...

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme $65.99

That brings the grand total to $1302.99. Surprisingly close to their amount. The only differences would be that my build would have a 650w vs. 420w power supply, my selected motherboard will support the next generation processors (the other websites will not), my hard drive would be 150GB vs. 74GB and my selected CPU would be a tad bit slower. The speed difference in the CPU's would be negligible though because you can overclock the front side bus on the 1066MHz processor to match the 1333MHz FSB speed. The L2 cache sizes are the exact same at 4MB... after overclocked... greater speed for MUCH less cost without being a strain at all on the CPU (and clocked at 3.33GHz). That's where the Zalman cooler comes into play just for good measure (most likely won't need it though).

 

[Stevedye56]

If you check out Newegg right now they have 4gb of memory for $129.99. Although this might require Windows XP 64 bit

 

[ShawnD]

Forgot the sound card...

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme $65.99

Not worth it. Windows Vista no longer supports hardware acceleration on sound, so having a real sound card gives no performance gains. As for sound quality, you won't even notice a difference unless A) you are using digital audio (I don't know 1 person who uses this) and B) you have speakers that cost more than $200 at the very minimum (again, I don't know anybody who has this).

If you're not sure whether or not you are using digital audio, look at the color of the jack your speakers plug into. If it's green, it's not digital. I think digital is the black one.

 

[B. Elliott]

Not worth it. Windows Vista no longer supports hardware acceleration on sound, so having a real sound card gives no performance gains. As for sound quality, you won't even notice a difference unless A) you are using digital audio (I don't know 1 person who uses this) and B) you have speakers that cost more than $200 at the very minimum (again, I don't know anybody who has this).

If you're not sure whether or not you are using digital audio, look at the color of the jack your speakers plug into. If it's green, it's not digital. I think digital is the black one.

Vista not supporting sound acceleration was an issue over a year ago right before Vista was released, but is now of no concern. Creative Labs solved the issue by developing a new audio API, OpenAL. All you have to do is download the ALchemy drivers.

If your into gaming and are looking for every possible fps, a sound card is worth it. Especially if your not investing in a processor alone that costs over $1,000. The slower guys need all the help they can get. I personally run Vista and XP and also have the sound card right above the model that I recommended to him. I notice a significant increase in quality over onboard audio with every computer that I have built or worked on for someone.. A high quality sound system is also going to be a natural nobrainer purchase if he's wanting to play games... they go hand in hand. Playing games that support full surround sound capability on two lowly little stock Dell speakers is a horrid experience. Especially if you've already invested almost a grand in everything else that affects the overall experience.