Jesus. What is the deal with people having this much money set aside for a gaming rig. Incredible. It cost me less than $900 to build mine. Granted, it's getting a little old in the joints, after 15 months of use, but it's still got at least another year in it. Nonetheless, I will answer the call as best I can. So, a
Quote:
|
state of the art, hardcore gaming system that would be ready to handle the new wave of fps games about to ship? Budget ~$2000-2500. Thanks for any help...
|
eh?
Well, I'll see what I can dooooo. First and foremost, I'm here to recommend Intel. I can give some damn decent AMD-based solutions, but in reality, guys like Lasereth are the real people to give recommendations on that.
First off, video card. Since you've got $2500 bucks to spend on the uber-rig, let's get you something nice. My opinion, you're gonna have the choice of either a) ATI's newest God-card the
X800 Pro Platinum or b) an Nvidia 6800 Pro Ultra GT. Both cards are gonna run you around 500 bucks, give or take a few.
For the CPU, if you're wanting current-state-of-the-art, I suggest either a P4
3.2C or a
3.2EE. Those 2 chips are Intel's current best, and by God they will continue to run games DAMN good for the next 2+ years easily. Now, the 3.2C is gonna hit you up for about $266, and the 3.2EE will spank your wallet at $900+, but with your budget, going overboard on the processor is worthwhile.
Mobos. There are many choices out there, and more becoming available everyday. But, for our purposes, a high-performance-beast-of-a-mobo must be recommended. My recommendation is the
ABIT IC7-MAX3 . Simply one of the best on the market, and an overclocking beast of a BIOS. That shit will take you far dude.
Now RAM. I recommend some of the Good Shit. Let me introduce you to the
DDR PC-3200 .
That be some sweet shit. It'll run you $179 for 512, and you'll probably want to do another 512, to really max out the performance.
After these recommendations, writeable drives, HDD, case, power supply, mouse, keyboard, and monitor become sort of meaningless. But, I will express opinions on what I like.
Cases:
Thermaltake's Xaser V Wingo V7000A. I like it a lot, and will probably acquiring it this summer. However, it doesn't come with a PSU, but I lack expertise in that area, so I'll leave someone else to that. The least I can say is that it 1) should be P4-approved, and 2) fit your case, gotta make sure of that.
Mouse, meh, it really doesn't matter, performance-wise per se, but since you're going to be gaming, you should *probably* go with a simplistic ball-mouse, and while they seem ancient and are easily dirtied (if you live in a dust factory), the general low-cost and extremely high controlability of a ball mouse simply outweighs the fact that it could possibly get dirty. With that in mind, I recommend this simple
Dell 3-button mouse and as far as keyboards go, also this cheap, simple
Dell Keyboard. At $1.99 apiece, how can you resist? They're super cheap, and if'n you don't like them, well, what's 2 bucks in a budget of over $2000?
HDDs: I recommend you just monitor websites like
Techbargains for crazy deals that places like Staples, OfficeMax, Office Depot, and Best Buy occasionally offer. The deals are insane, you can usually get a steal on a Maxtor or Western Digital, like a 250GB ATA133 8MB Cache for like 150 bucks or something ludicrous like that. Good shit. Better than the deals you can even get from Newegg.
Oh yeah, when ordering online, and, believe me, getting shit like this from stores like Best Buy and Compusa is a 200% ripoff guarantee (excluding hdd's
), use sites that garner only the highest of ratings from
Reseller Ratings, such as Newegg, Directron, and Xoxide. No lower than a 8.0 would gain even a browse from most people, much less a purchase. But, that's my piece. Take it for what it's worth, and if someone can do better, please have at it.
Total price: $2351 - given 1024 MB PC3200 Corsair XMS, 2 250 GB HDD's ($300), a P4 3.2 EE, and no PSU. Or as low as: $1376 - only one hdd, a P4 3.2C, no PSU, 512 MB PC3200 Corsair XMS.