Today I saw an article on Toms Hardware and shook my head at some of the choices made in a sub $1000 PC.
This is the guide I'm talking about at Tom's
Also I tend to disagree some with the price guides on Anandtech.
I do understand that everything is personal opinion, but I simply cannot agree on some things in sub $1000 gaming PCs. For instance, at Toms hardware they were trying to go for a black theme, spending extra money on case, keyboard, and mouse, and then just ruin it by going with a cheaper beige Viewsonic monitor.
I believe that if you are on a budget, and want your machine to do well in games, screw looks, spend every penny you can on performance.
Also, 512MB of RAM is getting to be on the low side. Have you ever checked resources playing newer games such as UT2004? You?ll notice well over 512 is in use. I believe it is possible to have 1GB of RAM in a value system. Granted, it won?t be very high performance RAM, but having more RAM in these newer demanding games will be better than having better performing 512MB RAM.
I modeled my system after the Toms Hardware Article (no speakers) and took a page from Anand and didn?t include keyboard and mouse. I used only 2 venders. One can shave off price by using other venders (I know you can get some of these components cheaper elsewhere). I also did not include OS (the one at Toms did not and neither does Anand).
Here is what I came up with for $999.98 shipped (All prices include shipping):
Newegg:
ABIT NF7-S: $86
AMD 45 Watt Mobile Athlon XP 2500+: $88
Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2 TC: $19.99
Corsair Value Select Dual Channel Kit 184 Pin 1G(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200: $186
APEX Beige Mid-Tower Super Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "7C574-115": $39
NEC 8X Beige DVD+/-RW Drive, Model ND-2510A: $92.99
SAMSUNG 160GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive: $91
POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit: $206
TECHONWEB.COM:
Samsung 955df: $191
The user would have to purchase extra cooling fans (if they don?t have already) for their case, speakers, and keyboard and mouse (again, if they don?t have already. If they are upgrading they should have these things). I do realize that the HD isn?t the best, but I opted for more storage and it is 7200 rpm. Plus the Samsung drives are very quiet.
I also opted for a silent cooler. The XP mobiles run very very cool and this should do the trick nicely. Plus the user can OC the heck out of these things (maybe not to 2.5 GHz with this cooler, but at least 2.3).
This system is MUCH MUCH better than any other sub $1000 guide I have seen. At least this is my opinion. It would SMOKE the system listed at Tom's.
This is the guide I'm talking about at Tom's
Also I tend to disagree some with the price guides on Anandtech.
I do understand that everything is personal opinion, but I simply cannot agree on some things in sub $1000 gaming PCs. For instance, at Toms hardware they were trying to go for a black theme, spending extra money on case, keyboard, and mouse, and then just ruin it by going with a cheaper beige Viewsonic monitor.
I believe that if you are on a budget, and want your machine to do well in games, screw looks, spend every penny you can on performance.
Also, 512MB of RAM is getting to be on the low side. Have you ever checked resources playing newer games such as UT2004? You?ll notice well over 512 is in use. I believe it is possible to have 1GB of RAM in a value system. Granted, it won?t be very high performance RAM, but having more RAM in these newer demanding games will be better than having better performing 512MB RAM.
I modeled my system after the Toms Hardware Article (no speakers) and took a page from Anand and didn?t include keyboard and mouse. I used only 2 venders. One can shave off price by using other venders (I know you can get some of these components cheaper elsewhere). I also did not include OS (the one at Toms did not and neither does Anand).
Here is what I came up with for $999.98 shipped (All prices include shipping):
Newegg:
ABIT NF7-S: $86
AMD 45 Watt Mobile Athlon XP 2500+: $88
Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2 TC: $19.99
Corsair Value Select Dual Channel Kit 184 Pin 1G(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200: $186
APEX Beige Mid-Tower Super Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "7C574-115": $39
NEC 8X Beige DVD+/-RW Drive, Model ND-2510A: $92.99
SAMSUNG 160GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive: $91
POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit: $206
TECHONWEB.COM:
Samsung 955df: $191
The user would have to purchase extra cooling fans (if they don?t have already) for their case, speakers, and keyboard and mouse (again, if they don?t have already. If they are upgrading they should have these things). I do realize that the HD isn?t the best, but I opted for more storage and it is 7200 rpm. Plus the Samsung drives are very quiet.
I also opted for a silent cooler. The XP mobiles run very very cool and this should do the trick nicely. Plus the user can OC the heck out of these things (maybe not to 2.5 GHz with this cooler, but at least 2.3).
This system is MUCH MUCH better than any other sub $1000 guide I have seen. At least this is my opinion. It would SMOKE the system listed at Tom's.
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