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Building a $1K Gaming Rig
Timmus writes "Firingsquad has posted an article on building a cutting-edge PC for gaming. The author manages to build an Athlon 64 3500+ rig with GeForce 7800 GT graphics and 1GB of RAM for $1,000. In the end they run benchmarks of the budget PC against a high-end FX-57 system to see how they compare. Surprisingly, the budget PC performs pretty close to the flagship system!" From the article: "Quite often we get emails asking which component(s) are 'the best' or, 'I have [x] amount of money to spend for my next upgrade, what do you think I should get?' It's impossible for us to answer these types of questions for you, simply because only you know what your needs are. Only you know how you use your computer, every person out there is different, even among gamers."
They should do this type of report every 3months, if not the information and prices get dated very quickly. I was suprised at what kind of system you can get with 1k these days.
$1k is the BUDGET system? I'll keep playing world of warcraft at 800x600.
I'd rank the PSU just slightly ahead of the case, but behind memory and hard disk drive in order of importance.
I don't agree with that. The PSU is one of the most important components, in my experience. Then again, no one should really be buying crap quality HW in the first place.
Ummm... hello?
Should have just modded your comment off-topic, but instead Let me say this:
1k is a VERY 'Budget' --- Key word here: GAMING RIG...
You jsut cant compare 'budget' *school* PC with 'budget' gaming rig.. I can make a budget school PC for probably $400 (Not using celeron processors).. gaming rigs easily hit $1,000-1,250 however.. as you need certain higher-quality parts.. the '1k' gaming rig is nothing new.. but it is nice to see someone spreading the word you dont need to spend $3,000-5,000 talking to Dell or Alienware to get a gaming rig...
I find it funny how some people complain about the $1000 price tag on a moderate PC. These are the same people who seem to overlook a lot of the important, but subtle, details. To illustrate my point, let's compare the subtle differences between a budget PC and an XBox 360 (or any consoles within the last 5 years) that people tend to overlook.
.45 while drive at 70mph on a winding cliff-side road, and at the end of the day, to post on slashdot? No. Can a PC do that? Yes...except for the part about shooting the bird. The bottom line is, if you're going to spend another $600 on a PC that can do...what a PC does...on top of a console for those features, you might as well have spent that $1000 to begin with to get a "budget" gaming PC.
1. Warrantee. That's right, you get a 30-day warrantee on your XBox 360 based on the date of the receipt. On the other hand, you get a 1-3 year warantee on your (retail, which, in most cases costs $10 more, if at all) PC parts. To top that off, if you don't register until your hardware is broken, you can prolong that with an additional year or two in most cases (maybe this part is the same with the consoles...but I don't suggest doing it...yeah...).
2. Sure, some of you may think that your first XBox is still live and kicking after 3 years and that these consoles are made with the best parts possible. Well, tell that to your friend who just got 9 dead pixels on his brand spanking new PSP. So, if your console ever dies, well, tough luck. Get a new one. On the other hand, with your PC you can just slap in a new off-the-shelf part and go. (I know, I know, some of you might be scrounging up ebay for those half-dead consoles in hopes of getting a replacement part...but that's, well, that.)
3. Upgrades. One has to realize that a lot of these prices for PCs represent a WHOLE new PC. But do you really need that new, but does exactly the same, optical drive (remember, PC optical drives don't wear out nearly as fast, since you most likely installed those games onto your hard drives)? Or that new sound card? How about that hard drive? Within consecutive upgrades, most likely not.
4. More upgrades. Within a year after the console's introduction (consoles have 4-year cycles, usually), you'll probably be able to pick up a "budget" video card and CPU that outperforms the console's graphics card and CPU, respectively, for $100 each. And for the next 3 years, you'll have a rig that does more FPS than on the best days of said console.
5. Performance. People always say that their games work great on XBox and PC users always complain about low framerates. Well, guess what? These are actually two separate issues. If you're playing console, you're most likely playing at something close to, or less than, 720x480 resolution. This is almost the same as 640x480 on a PC. When's the last time that you saw a person even using his/her desktop at that resolution (ok, ok, there must be a truckload of them...but they're most likely not gamers)? Let's just see how well the XBox 360 will run at 1080i, which is interlaced (which you can achieve with your 24" Dell LCDs, people)! As for the rest of the PC gaming crowd, I think we've been enjoying our games at at least 800x600 for quite a long time now.
6. Usability. Can a console allow you type documents, edit pictures, compress (your own) videos, pir8 games (ok, maybe they can do this part), hack into CIA mainframes, shoot a flying bird with a
So, is PC gaming dying? Yes, if you keep on listening to the drivel all these console marketing people are saying. Are PCs more versatile, more powerful, more dependable, cheaper (amortized) overall, and make you look more like a OMGPWNZ0RZ geek than a pop-culture going-with-the-fad who-likes-to-call-themselves-gamers-but-aren't person? Definitely. Am I a PC gamer who hates the crap re-iterations that EA keeps putting out on consoles? You can bet your ass off that I am.