Good Gaming PC's?

[Brtnboarder495]

What are some suggetions for a good gaming PC. I need at least 1 gig of ram (533 mhz not cheap weak poop) and a good PCI video card preferably with 256 mb or 128 mb. I really am trying to keep it below $1500. A packaged monitor is necessary too. Thanks to anyone who helps.

[coolbeans326]

a good PCI video card preferably with 256 mb or 128 mb.

Bad idea. Either go AGP or PCI express, but not PCI.
Just go to Dell website and customize your computer with the stuff you want, its that simple.

[Brtnboarder495]

Okay thanks. I am pissed off the $500 rebate ends today and its 11 pm here so noway I am gettin that deal. I think I may just build, I mean 2000+ just for 1 gig ram and 6800 256mb with shitty monitor? Seems building is better.

I have a Dell XPS Gen 4, bought this year, for 1300.

P4 3.2Ghz
1GIG Ram
Geforce 6800 256MB
250GB SATA HD


The works.


Just check out the Dell refurbished stuff. But be fast, they go quickly. I had my hands on another one but within 2 hours someone else got it. They only hold it in your cart for something like 15 minutes. But mine was virtually brand new since refurbished means any computer that was returned within the first 30 days. They re-test every part, disassemble and reassemble and retest one more time, just like they do with a brand new computer.

Then repackage just as it would for a brand new computer. Plus I got a brand new 17inch UltraSharp LCD (the ms on it is low, but its not a big deal to me right now)


All for 1350 was the exact price. Dell Outlet - its your friend.

[Brtnboarder495]

Yea looked there a few hours ago, no Gen 4 oddly enough. There were some with great monitors on ebay but they were both taken off ebay for some reason... Thanks though I will keep looking!

BUILD!!!!!!!
Although I'd wait for ATi Crossfire, you could get a nice gaming rig for pretty cheap. Here's how I'd budget:
-Case: Decent quality without power supply, at least 3x80mm fans, or 2x 120mm. Try to get some front USB and audio ports, possibly IEEE 1394 Firewire. If it doesn't come with fans that's okay, at least have them as options - you'll NEED the cooling. A nice Antec or Lian Li can be found for $80-$100, and if you look around xoxide.com, there's free shipping right now until June 12th! You can find the MGE Sidewinder there for $65, a steal imo.
-Power Supply: Do yourself a favor and get a QUALITY one. NO POWMAX. Spend about $60-$70 on a good 500W-600W PSU. There's the Aspire Chameleon on xoxide.com which goes for $70ish. OCZ makes great ones, and also at xoxide.com there's a rebate on X-connects.
-Case Fans: If you can find a good fan (brand doesn't matter much), snag it. For 120mm fans, look for at least 40cfm and 25 db, 80mm go for at least 35ish cfm and around 25 db.
-Processor: Gaming = AMD, office/work = Intel. I'd easily go AMD over Intel, better value. If you can, find a nice AMD Athlon 64 *VENICE* core 939 socket proccy. They're great, and on newegg.com they're around $160sih i believe. Venice cores clock better than other A64's and they'll easily go to 3700+ speeds from 3000+ speeds. For Intel, a 2.4C or 3.0E can be clocked to 3000mhz and 3500 mhz respectively on stock cooling, go aftermarket, and you're bound to go even further. Spend only $240 at the most.
-RAM: High quality OCZ, Corsair, or Mushkin. Spend about $180 for 1GB Dual Channel PC3700 or more. The speed at stock doesn't matter! You can overclock it later anyways. DDR400 isn't bad anyways...if you want DDR2, i'd lead you to OCZ methinks....not sure on DDR2.
-Video Card: A Radeon X800XL will run you $280 and kick ass. If you want more, look at the nVidia eVGA 6800GT. SLI sucks for 6600GT, and 6800GT SLI's are friggin expensive. Although ATi cards don't support pixel shader 3.0, they're still very competitively priced these days. Don't go over $380.
-Sound Card: Optional, depends if you want it. Shouldn't matter too much.
-Motherboard: For the socket 939s, I'd recommend an ASUS A8V-E. Good stuff, but look around, there's more to be seen too. Intel...well, who knows, there's tons out there. Shop around, post your results here, and we can give second opinions.
-Monitor: Samsung 710N for $220ish on newegg.com. The decent 19" are DAMN EXPENSIVE lol. I have a Samsung 710T, which utilizes the same technology as the 710N, just with swivelly stuff (great for LANs/transport). 17" should suffice, if not, a 19" 193P Syncmaster also from Samsung, a Dell ($650+ though for a good one that won't blur), or a BenQ (again, quite expensive) will do well. Samsung>pretty much everyone else so far.

Good luck, if you need more help, plz ask!

I getting the same as Real for 300 bucks less.

Go to dell and customise the 8400, its great!

I got mine custom made my one of my mum's friends. We didnt get a new monitor since we only wanted a new tower. Here are the specs:

AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+
1.81 GHz, 1.00 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
128MB Graphics Card.

It is an extremely fast computer compaired to my last one. It took 10 minutes to log on! Now it take like 10 secs.
It cost about ?????????519.

[Brtnboarder495]

That's exactly what I am building Coaster 4 me, except I have a 3200+. I think I will up the memmory to 533 mhz vs my current 400.

I will get some new parts to my birthday, then it will be like this:

amd athlon 3400+ with 2.4 Ghz
1 GB of RAM
ATI Raseon 9600 pro.
not the best computer but still enough for the next years.

AMD 3200+ (64-bit)
ABIT KV-8 Pro Mother Board
280Watt 5.1 Surround Sound THX Cert. Speakers (well worth it)
Logitech MX700 Wireless Mouse and Keyboard
ATI 9800 PRO 256Mb Card (with XT bios)
400Watt Power Supply
120GB Hd Western Digital
Samsung 910V 19" Monitor

This got me to $2000 last year, but the monitor was around 500 and well worth it so if you got the same rig with a different monitor, you could be looking at a $1500 rig (remember though, my AMD CPU was socket 754, not 939)

[Brtnboarder495]

hmmm, I have something pretty similar. 939 socket 3200+ though and 6600 GT 128 mb. This should work for me, now to make sure it's all compatible.

What motherboard are you planning on? What type of memory? Links would be nice if you want any extra help too btw.

EDIT:
Forgot to add: MAKE SURE ITS A VENICE CORE AMD 64 3200+! And btw, you can overclock those things to 2.2 GHz without wearing it down much at all and it'll still last a long while. Really, you're so cluky you're getting a new pc! My piece of junk here will have to stay a while.