Who makes the best systems?

[GasX]

Originally posted by: Gurck

Originally posted by: deathkoba
Dual G5 Power Mac. Talk about overpower, simplicity, elegane, total lower cost of ownership and maximum compatibility.

And if he wants to play games?

I'd like to play throw the stupid macintosh off a tall building game, but it doesn't have a lot of replayability...

 

[thirdlegstump]

Originally posted by: Gurck

Originally posted by: deathkoba
Dual G5 Power Mac. Talk about overpower, simplicity, elegane, total lower cost of ownership and maximum compatibility.

And if he wants to play games?

There are hundreds of games for the Mac. There's really no lack of games.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: deathkoba

Originally posted by: Gurck

Originally posted by: deathkoba
Dual G5 Power Mac. Talk about overpower, simplicity, elegane, total lower cost of ownership and maximum compatibility.

And if he wants to play games?

There are hundreds of games for the Mac. There's really no lack of games.

Well, you know...except for the ones you want to play.

 

[Nick5324]

Originally posted by: Mwilding

Originally posted by: tornadobox
just make sure you buy GOOD components and you won't have any problems (at least I haven't in the past 5 years)...you can buy the SAME stuff they put into Alienware computers for $1000 less.

Well, you've got me motivated, but my wife seems hell bent on me not building...

screw it.

recommend me a PC spec with the following requirements:

budget: less than $700 (just the box)
Case: preferably small form-factor
HD: minimum of 120GB
Mem: min of 512MB
Vid: good enough for HL2

I vote for build your own, however if that is not in the cards, i went to CyberPower as Ike0069 reccomended and was able to put together a box with an Athlon 64 2800+, 120 GB HDD, 512MB DDR PC3200, and a Radeon 9800 Pro EZ 128MB DDR. No OS though, don't know if that is a problem or not. Not SFF either. I didn't spend anytime looking over options, don't know if you can configure a little better deal or not. Came to $636 + shipping of $65, so $701.

 

[GasX]

Well, I pulled the trigger on a Newegg DIY rig today...

Cooler Master Centurion 5 Mid-Tower Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "CAC-T05-UWA" -RETAIL
Shuttle "AN35N-Ultra" nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
AMD Mobile Athlon XP 2400+, 266FSB, 512K Cache, 45 Watt- OEM
Thermaltake Silent Boost HSF
SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600PRO Video Card, 256MB DDR, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP
Corsair Value Select (Dual Pack) 184 Pin 512MBx2 DDR PC-3200 - OEM
Optorite 8X DVD+RW/-RW Drive Model DD0405, Retail
Aopen Keyboard

a hair over $600

 

[Gurck]

:thumbsup:

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: Mwilding
Well, I pulled the trigger on a Newegg DIY rig today...

Cooler Master Centurion 5 Mid-Tower Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "CAC-T05-UWA" -RETAIL
Shuttle "AN35N-Ultra" nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
AMD Mobile Athlon XP 2400+, 266FSB, 512K Cache, 45 Watt- OEM
Thermaltake Silent Boost HSF
SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600PRO Video Card, 256MB DDR, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP
Corsair Value Select (Dual Pack) 184 Pin 512MBx2 DDR PC-3200 - OEM
Optorite 8X DVD+RW/-RW Drive Model DD0405, Retail
Aopen Keyboard

a hair over $600

9600 Pro? I thought you wanted to play games on it.
I hope you're planning to OC the crap out of it.

 

[GasX]

Originally posted by: Ike0069

Originally posted by: Mwilding
Well, I pulled the trigger on a Newegg DIY rig today...

Cooler Master Centurion 5 Mid-Tower Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "CAC-T05-UWA" -RETAIL
Shuttle "AN35N-Ultra" nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
AMD Mobile Athlon XP 2400+, 266FSB, 512K Cache, 45 Watt- OEM
Thermaltake Silent Boost HSF
SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600PRO Video Card, 256MB DDR, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP
Corsair Value Select (Dual Pack) 184 Pin 512MBx2 DDR PC-3200 - OEM
Optorite 8X DVD+RW/-RW Drive Model DD0405, Retail
Aopen Keyboard

a hair over $600

9600 Pro? I thought you wanted to play games on it.
I hope you're planning to OC the crap out of it.

You got a better idea that costs the same or less?

 

[Tarrant64]

If you got the cash,
Voodoo, then Alienware.

If you are a modder, Build your own.

 

[Tarrant64]

Originally posted by: Mwilding
Well, I pulled the trigger on a Newegg DIY rig today...

Cooler Master Centurion 5 Mid-Tower Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "CAC-T05-UWA" -RETAIL
Shuttle "AN35N-Ultra" nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
AMD Mobile Athlon XP 2400+, 266FSB, 512K Cache, 45 Watt- OEM
Thermaltake Silent Boost HSF
SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600PRO Video Card, 256MB DDR, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP
Corsair Value Select (Dual Pack) 184 Pin 512MBx2 DDR PC-3200 - OEM
Optorite 8X DVD+RW/-RW Drive Model DD0405, Retail
Aopen Keyboard

a hair over $600

Decent buy if you ask me.

 

[Ike0069]

[/quote]
You got a better idea that costs the same or less?
[/quote]

No, but if you want to game with it, buying an already out of date VC is pointless IMO. You could only get 512 MB RAM and upgrade to a 9800 pro for only a little more $. Also could go with a retail processor and save on "Thermaltake Silent Boost HSF".

 

[Sureshot324]

A 256mb 9600pro? I would go 128mb unless it was a really high end card. Also a barton 2500 is a much better value than an tbred 2400 if you're going to oc.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Aspire X-DreamerII w/350 Watt- $68
WD 120GB SE 7200 - $86
512MB PC3200 Kingmax- $72
AN35N Ultra Mobo- $58
Lite-On 52x32x52- $26
Athlon XP 2700+ Retail- $103
Albatron 6800LE- $255

$672

Under $700 and this system will obliterate the one you listed for gaming.

Edit- Forgot to mention, all prices shipped from NewEgg

Edit2-

To give you an idea of the performance difference-

42.2FPS for the 6800LE, 15.5 for the 9600XT.

32.2 for the LE, 19.5 for the 9600XT.

HL2 Beta- LE pulling 44.3FPS with the 9600XT running 24.0.

That's 172%, 65% and 84.5% faster respectively. Maximizing the vid card is the best way to go whenever looking at a gaming rig, even if you must sacrifice elsewhere.

 

[Ike0069]

Hey Mwilding,
Have you already purchased the components you listed?

 

[lobadobadingdong]

Originally posted by: Mwilding

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
Build your own..

Been there - done that. I want a system that I don't have to worry about hardware compatibility issues out of the box.

I've never had that problem

 

[GasX]

Originally posted by: Ike0069
Hey Mwilding,
Have you already purchased the components you listed?

Yes

 

[Teuton]

Building your own is best. After that i would go with Alienware or Voodoo. If you don't have the money I have been impressed with HPs or Compaq and I know their tech support has been superior to Dell lately.

When you build your own you can get exactly what you want and you know exactly what revisions of hardware you have and what drivers are best. You just can't beat a home built system.

 

[GasX]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
Aspire X-DreamerII w/350 Watt- $68
WD 120GB SE 7200 - $86
512MB PC3200 Kingmax- $72
AN35N Ultra Mobo- $58
Lite-On 52x32x52- $26
Athlon XP 2700+ Retail- $103
Albatron 6800LE- $255

$672

Under $700 and this system will obliterate the one you listed for gaming.

Edit- Forgot to mention, all prices shipped from NewEgg

Edit2-

To give you an idea of the performance difference-

42.2FPS for the 6800LE, 15.5 for the 9600XT.

32.2 for the LE, 19.5 for the 9600XT.

HL2 Beta- LE pulling 44.3FPS with the 9600XT running 24.0.

That's 172%, 65% and 84.5% faster respectively. Maximizing the vid card is the best way to go whenever looking at a gaming rig, even if you must sacrifice elsewhere.

That's all well and good, but add tax and shipping and it is well over $100 more than I paid.

I'll admit, I am considering changing the video card to this 6600GT. Most of the extra cost gets you Doom3 anyway and it looks good on the benchmarks you posted...

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: Mwilding
I'll admit, I am considering changing the video card to this 6600GT. Most of the extra cost gets you Doom3 anyway and it looks good on the benchmarks you posted...

You do realize that's a PCI-E VC, not AGP, right?

 

[GasX]

Originally posted by: Ike0069

Originally posted by: Mwilding
I'll admit, I am considering changing the video card to this 6600GT. Most of the extra cost gets you Doom3 anyway and it looks good on the benchmarks you posted...

You do realize that's a PCI-E VC, not AGP, right?

I do now!

I think I will go with what I have and get a used card in 6 months...

 

[Ike0069]

Just watch Ebay. You will find incredible deals if you are patient.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: Mwilding

Originally posted by: Ike0069

Originally posted by: Mwilding
I'll admit, I am considering changing the video card to this 6600GT. Most of the extra cost gets you Doom3 anyway and it looks good on the benchmarks you posted...

You do realize that's a PCI-E VC, not AGP, right?

I do now!

I think I will go with what I have and get a used card in 6 months...

LOL. I was about to say...that is perhaps not the best choice for your machine.

 

[Zinn2b]

I like the RAID Computers Emperior model
AMD 64 FX55-CPU
X800XT Platinun Edition(lifetime warranty)
Crucial Ballistic PC3200 Memory(2-2-2-10 )(lifetime warranty)
Sony 16x DVD+-Double layer
SonyCD-RW
Lian LI PC-V2100 fulltower case
Raid Computers Super watercooling(my next door neighbor has this and it is an incredible watercooling system 40 degrees F) (I would have gotten the Intel model myself)
PC power and cooling modular 500 watt power supply(5 year warranty)
3 year unlimited warranty(except were noted)
Sells for $4900
You can also get the Conquor Model has all the above features except Superwater cooling
And it comes with PC V1100 Midtower case $3500
Custom paint also available add another $1000
YOU can contact them at (raidcomputers.msn.com)
I forgot to mention 2 Raptor harddrives running at SATA 0 (148G)

More on the serious side it is going to be very difficult for you to build a PC for $ 700 dollars that well play the game you suggested I have the RAID conqour model which I build. For myself I like the P43.2C
Its not as fast as the AMD models I build but I love it. Its just so smooth But I have to say when I play HALF LIFE It puts this thing against the wall And it has an X800XT PE installed.
My neighbor has the AMDFX55 model with watercooling and nvidia 6800ultra and thats a bit better. He never O/C when I am round but I have seen the scores he gets AT 3d mark 05 and he O/C like crazy. His scores are quit a bit better than mine. So what I am saying is the finest PC's outthere struggle in half life . So to build 1 for $700 that well play this game and make you happy good luck your going to need it.

 

[Silex]

Soltek makes pretty decent systems if you're into o/cing sff's. Here's a link to the hard-to-find review comparison between the only two athlon socket 939 sff's our right now. Site is in Dutch so I direct linked through babelfish to translate it.

Shuttle XPC SN95G5 and Soltek Qbic EQ3901

 

[jonnyGURU]

That iDeq is a decent unit. Well made too.

Barebones are good. You don't have to pay as much as a complete build, have the freedom of choice of hard drive size, CPU speed and RAM capacity, but don't have to build from the ground up.

I've actually gotten so burned out on building PC's, I now order AOpen CustomPC barebones for work, ten at a time. I just open them up, install CPU, RAM and HDD and install Win 2K.