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navychief

Gaming computer

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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? :dntknw:

 

Ok then, just how much should I expect to spend, realistically, for a real good (not necessarily the best) gaming system? :dntknw:

 

Please give me some advice, and websites to check out, my fellow Bio "shipmates"! :grin:

 

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

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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 :)

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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.)

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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I will need mostly everything. Monitor, keyboard; the works.

 

NC

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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.

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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

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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

pipe101.jpg

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

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