navychief 1 Posted November 25, 2004 Happy Thankgiving all! I have made the decision to get a gaming computer. I definitely need advice before actually spending the money for one though. I have always thought that putting a computer together was the way to go, vs purchasing one with all the components instead. The reason being I could choose the quality of the sound, graphics, memory, etc.... Is that still the way to go nowadays? Ok then, just how much should I expect to spend, realistically, for a real good (not necessarily the best) gaming system? Please give me some advice, and websites to check out, my fellow Bio "shipmates"! I can easily do a web search for this information, I supposed, but it is the advice of my friends on BioHazard Central that I trust. Thanks! Navy Chief PS, you can also email me information at: navychief@nyc.rr.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nesher 628 Posted November 25, 2004 u can buy a good gaming pc for about 1K i don't think u will be spending more... check out sales sites to see the prices 1 GB of memory is very good and very fast but u don't have to buy 1GB, u can also use 512 Megs and it will work fine and u better have Radeon Graphics card about the motherboard and processor i'm very pleased with my AMD2500+ and Gigabyte GA-7N400 L1 Pro of course u should and can buy better processor and mb Happy Holiday (we don't have one at this time...) and Cheers :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PG_Raptor 0 Posted November 25, 2004 Hey navychief, how much are you looking to spend? If I have that much info, I can give you a guide on what to buy, and how to put it together. Also, what do you already have that you won't need to buy new? (keyboard, mouse, moniter, PSU, etc.) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Boltz 0 Posted November 25, 2004 Hey Chief, happy Thanksgiving. Here's a link to Anandtech and some buying guides for different types of systems...low, medium, and high. http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2282 Hope this helps with the decision making process. It's a site I use for much the same reason. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Fates 63 Posted November 25, 2004 The first and obvious question is: How much are you willing to spend? Next question is: What can, or do you plan on re-using on your exiting computer if you build a new one or buy one? (ie. Monitor, HD, Keyboard, Speakers, Mouse, CDRW?) If all you want to do is build a killer GAMING Machine and then re-use many of your peripherals, then expect to spend at least $1200-1500 If you want to buy from some outlet place, then expect to pay $1400-2200 for a like machine. There are only 2 major purchase that will account for 75% of the cost. A CPU, and a Video Card. The video card should be around 1/3 of the total cost for the higher end cards. The CPU may just be under that, or over even more if you NEED to have the latest CPU out. These can run $600+ just for the CPU. The problem with building your own is doing some homework on CPU/MOBO compatibility, and then auxillary features of the mobo.... Does it support SATA? Do you need it to? Does it support Firewire? Do you need it to? Does it support AGP or PCI Express? Which is better and do you really need one over the other? Don't mean to confues ya...but there are some great ppl here to help you make solid choices for a solid machine. <C> Fates ================================================ Point is, buiding is easy and overall much cheaper then buying pre-built machines. However, knowing what to build, and doing it to the best of your wallets ability is where PC Builders spend hours doin nothing but researching components...ask BUFF, I believe he does this 24/7...hehe Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
joejoe 0 Posted November 25, 2004 getting a system together isnt all that tough, you can buy all your components at www.newegg.com ive put my computer together from that place. the best thing to do is look at the cpu you want to buy according to price/mghz (in that order). then you can go to www.tomshardware.com to look for reviews. then look for a good mobo, expect to pay between $75-$100 for a good one. then buy 2 sticks of 512mb ram of the highest speed your mobo supports, which will prolly be pc3200. buying 2 sticks of 512 is cheaper than buying 1 stick of 1024. then pick out your sound card, anything by creative or turtle beach is good. then buy your harddrives and cd/rw drive. by now youll have enough money left to select a vid card according to price, in order from cheapest to most expensive are the vid cards i recommend, radeon 9600 (cheapest but good enough for hl2 and doom3 on med settings) radeon 9800pro ( good fps and higher detail settings) nvidia geforce 6800GT (best deal of the 3 6800 series cards, dont bother witht he 6800 regular. and youll have screaming performance in all games) have fun and if you want more info just email me at joejoemonkey@gmail.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
navychief 1 Posted November 25, 2004 I thank you all for your suggestions! I plan to take all your comments to heart, and do a lot of reading up on what is available. I guess I am looking at spending about $1200. My plan is to give my present system to my wife, and everything in the gaming system will be new. NC Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BUFF 8 Posted November 26, 2004 I guess I am looking at spending about $1200. My plan is to give my present system to my wife, and everything in the gaming system will be new. NC So does that mean that you need a new monitor, keyboard, mouse - the works? Are there any specific games that you want to play & any must have features? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
navychief 1 Posted November 26, 2004 I will need mostly everything. Monitor, keyboard; the works. NC Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dagger 21 Posted November 26, 2004 Chief,I use a HP system I bought at Best buy..it has a BIG 120 gig 7200 rpm HD and for teh processor it has a AMD3200+ running at 2.2 came with 512 megs of pc2700 DDR ram and I added a FX 5700 video card it has 128 megs of DDR video ram and I use the on board sound for now,I added a Viewsonic monitor and a X-45,oh yeah I still use my speakers from old system creative surrond sound 5 speaker set 5.1s.I have maybe $1100-$1200(thats everything). in system and I'm getting ready to add another 512 megs of ram.I just got rid of all those programs that can with it and cleaned up my hard drive.has DVD player and burner on it.I'm really happy with this. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PG_Raptor 0 Posted November 26, 2004 Hey navychief, pm inbound... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Weasel Keeper 0 Posted November 26, 2004 I've been eyeing this deal at Best Buy on a refurbished rig for $719.00. Thoughts? Only thing I'd need is a new monitor which is no big deal. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id...02&type=product Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 3.0GHz with Hyper-Threading Technology for improved multitasking performance; 800MHz frontside bus 512MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM for multitasking power, expandable to 2.0GB DVD+RW/CD-RW drive; 48x maximum speed CD-ROM drive 8KB L1 + 512KB L2 cache memory for efficient system processing 160.0GB Ultra DMA hard drive (7200 rpm) NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 8X AGP graphics card with 128MB video memory 7-in-1 media reader supports CompactFlash Type I/II, Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, SmartMedia and IBM Microdrive 6 high-speed USB 2.0 ports and 2 IEEE 1394 (FireWire) ports, both front and rear accessible, for fast digital data transfer and easy peripheral connectivity Built-in 10/100Base-T Ethernet networking interface; V.92 high-speed data/fax modem HP Internet keyboard and deluxe optical scroll mouse Windows XP Home Edition operating system preinstalled; software package included with RecordNow! 6.5, WinDVD SE 4.0, Musicmatch Jukebox 8.0 and more Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Fates 63 Posted November 26, 2004 I'm thinkin AMD-64 <C> Fates Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BUFF 8 Posted November 27, 2004 I'm thinkin AMD-64 How's yours doing, Fates? Anyway, NC you might want to look at http://anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2282 % & similar guides. That looks fair although I would probably add another 512Mb of RAM. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Fates 63 Posted November 27, 2004 BUFF, So far there are no complaints less one. When I built the machine, my brother lacked a little cash to go to 1GB RAM, which was the plan. Fortunately, ASUS allowed for a single stick of DDR. As you may know, 64Bit machines really need 2 sticks installed of like nature for optimal performance. Since he's operating off only (1) 512Mb Kingston DDR 3200, his system appears to become unstable during extreme ticks of the clock.... Other then that.....it's a flawless machine. AMD64 3500 939pin Asus A8V Deluxe R2 ATI 9800 Pro AIW 512Mb Kingston DDR 3200 80Gb Westernd Digital 7200 HD Cheiftec Firered Case w/ 450w Matching wireless Keyboard/mouse Thermaltake CL-p0006 CPU Cooler All Tt controlled fans.... Hopefully this Xmas he can get the other Stick of memory.... All this for $1200 ....no monitor....no speakers.....no other accessories <C> Fates Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
