For those of you with high end gaming computers

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Hell, you don't even NEED a $250 video card. A $150 card like the HD3850 can play just about any game fine, but when you need that extra punch you can jump up to an 8800GT.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

I've spent money on a "high end" gaming computer before, but no, I wouldn't say it was worth it. Why? Because now with an $80 cpu/mobo combo at fry's and a $150 videocard and some cheap ram I can run pretty much anything, and I would say that was definitely worth the price.

 

[BFG10K]

I definitely think it's worth it but I don't bother with stuff like water cooling, the fastest CPUs or Crossfire/SLI.

 

[Qutlass]

built my puter back in feb-march of last year and can comfortably skip this gen of cpu's and probably the next gen vid cards for the games i play. Everything is still stock.
E6600 + 8800 gtx + westy 37= Me happy for 3 years!

crossing fingers, knocks on wood, do the black spot removal dance from pirates of the caribbean and hope nothing craps on out on me. hehe

 

[BlueAcolyte]

A good gaming computer costs $700-800, I don't think you know what you are talking about, Bigtoque. $1000 if you include all the peripherals. That's not bad considering that you can do more than game on it. Plus, you can add HD-DVD and Blu-Ray functionality for about $200-300 more, negating the only advantage consoles had.

 

[Thor86]

I will never buy a console until:

1) Multiplayer gaming capable of 64 players and higher.
2) Don't have to pay a monthly subscription to play online other than the game purchase.
3) Option to use any keyboard/mice (can't stand gamepads).

 

[potato28]

I feel that I'm getting the money's worth out of it, but this machine was an upgrade for $700 from my last machine using the parts I could reuse. I just need a new PSU and Video Card to make it all good for another few years.

 

[n7]

If you are smart with your money, "high end" can be pretty cheap these days.
Okay, i spent a lot on my main monitors, but i consider them worth it since it's what i look at every time i'm in front of my desk.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I bought a $700 computer (X2 3800+, 7900GT, 1GB DDR2, 160GB HD) over a year ago, and I still love it right now. If that counts as a high-end computer then I would say that it is worth the price, but I'd never buy a $2000 one like some people do. Not a graphics whore at all.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: HamburgerBoy
I bought a $700 computer (X2 3800+, 7900GT, 1GB DDR2, 160GB HD) over a year ago, and I still love it right now. If that counts as a high-end computer then I would say that it is worth the price, but I'd never buy a $2000 one like some people do. Not a graphics whore at all.

it would not count anymore as a high end gaming rig although it could easily be transformed into one with a simple CPU/GPU/RAM upgrade

 

[tommo123]

well in 2006 i bought :

7950 GX2
E6600
2GB DDR2

plays crysis @ 1650 res. my other card in a diff pc is a 2400XT. that can do cod4 @ 720p res. really like that card - carries audio out via hdmi to my tv/monitor

 

[hi tek]

I guess it depends. If your gonna spend thousands a year on upgrading, you better be spending a significant portion of your life playing games or it isn't worth it. If your a casual gamer that's not rich and you always got to have a high-end pc than you're a fool

 

[skace]

I think everyone would like to pay less and get more. But outside of that fact, I have no problem with my PC and how much I spent. In fact, there was a point in the middle of playing Crysis where I just kind of smiled and was so happy I upgraded when I did. It was running great and looked beautiful and I could tell my old system never would have let me enjoy the game. I upgraded at such a perfect time, I played Crysis, CoD4, The Witcher, and a bunch of other games on my new machine.

 

[Oyeve]

For the most part I would say yes. Except fot the ATI 2900Pro I bought in september for 259. About less than a month later the price dropped to ~159 or so. Even tho I have the 512bit version (all others are 256) I feel I should have waited for the 3870 or even the new 3870 X2. the 2900Pro is such a power hog and even tho it works great, it sure as hell aint worth what I paid for. But, that is the nature of the PC and buying stuff as soon as it comes out.

 

[chizow]

Its an insanely expensive hobby, but well worth it imo. I get more enjoyment out of PC gaming than any other "tech" hobby so its a cost I'm willing to bear. My most recent rig has elevated my gaming experience exponentially compared to past upgrades; easily the most stable and best performing system (relatively speaking) I've put together.

Best thing about maintaining a high-end PC is that it can be such a tech-enabler in areas outside of PC gaming as well. My 24" LCD doubles as a 1080p HDTV and most recently I've added a HD-DVD/Blu-Ray combo drive in order to watch HD movies. Held off on buying SAPs or PS3 in the past because of the whole format war, but now I get to enjoy both. Needless to say, I can't stand watching non-HD movies anymore.

 

[mooncancook]

as long as the cost of the graphic card is just a tiny portion of my income it's always worth it.

 

[skillyho]

Like someone already said.....the older you get, the more inexpensive a PC seems. When you can build a very nice PC for what *ONE* monthly mortgage payment is, why not do it? There is so much to enjoy on the PC besides gaming, and just getting that $300 video card will keep you set for a year or two, as long as you don't intend to push everything to the max.

I voted NO b/c I don't think High End is worth it, but I think Mid-High is.

My .02

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: skillyho
Like someone already said.....the older you get, the more inexpensive a PC seems. When you can build a very nice PC for what *ONE* monthly mortgage payment is, why not do it? There is so much to enjoy on the PC besides gaming, and just getting that $300 video card will keep you set for a year or two, as long as you don't intend to push everything to the max.

I voted NO b/c I don't think High End is worth it, but I think Mid-High is.

My .02

Well, the more inexpensive it *is*, too, really, if you don't go high-end.

I remember a friend of mine and I buying an *amazing* deal on hard drives at one point, from a guy at a computer swap far below market - 500MB, more than we'd ever need, for $300.

I spent $2,200 on my NEC 21" monitor, as did two friends. (Worked great for many years left on 24x7 until I finally turned it off one day on a whim. That was that).

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
For the most part I would say yes. Except fot the ATI 2900Pro I bought in september for 259. About less than a month later the price dropped to ~159 or so. Even tho I have the 512bit version (all others are 256) I feel I should have waited for the 3870 or even the new 3870 X2. the 2900Pro is such a power hog and even tho it works great, it sure as hell aint worth what I paid for. But, that is the nature of the PC and buying stuff as soon as it comes out.

My 2900Pro only 256bit but i did only pay $150 for it [yesterday] ... all i can do is OC it and put it in X-fire with my 2900xt for which i paid $330 back in May - including Orange Box.
{the moral of the above ^ is to *wait* for a sale - it doesn't mean you shouldn't 'jump' at something new ... i got my money's worth out of it}


i'd also say if you OC it or flash the BIOS to 2900XT - which *can* be done for your card [afaik] - you will still get your money's worth

 

[techwanabe]

I think some good points have been made here. Sure, you can spend a large sum on hardware but as always, especially in this day and age, you pay a HUGE premium for a relatively minor improvement in performance and eye candy. It seems that you can put together a very decent machine for under a $1000, especially if you have a good monitor which often can outlast an upgrade to a new machine. I'm still running on my Dell 3.1 Ghz machine with X800 graphics card, and about the only thing I have done is bump the memory up to 2 gb. I haven't been running alot of the latest games on it so perhaps a new graphics card would keep me going for another year or so. It sure seems to me that in the last 5 years, the hardware has been racing ahead in terms of performance. I can remember in the mid to late 90's when you could never get a fast enough computer. Not so anymore. The last 5 years have seen PC's really pull ahead. Naturally Microsoft had to burden the PC with Vista forcing people who don't have computers made in the last couple years upgrade to feed it enough resources to run well.

 

[styrafoam]

Even if the only thing you could do with a pc is play games it would be worth any perceived premium over a console for the lone fact that you would never have to play any of these half baked "revolutionary" FPSs that the consoles love to throw at you with A GOD FORSAKEN GAME PAD. Every time i get talked in to playing one of these things i just wonder how people can torture themselves, it is so clumsy and akward.