Buget Gaming Box Configuration

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

All,

Want to build a budget gaming box for son's BD. Looking for
suggestions on:

motherboard
chip
vid card
powersupply

Thanks,

Douglas

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

You don't mention a budget, but here are two reasonably up-to-date articles:

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MVGSBG/article.php/3435541

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1675320,00.asp

My own preference is to use only the Socket 939 version of the Athlon64, but
the performance difference between that and the Socket 754 version is
supposed to be small for games.

Regards,

Bob Knowlden

Address may be scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

"Douglas Fifield" <douglas.fifield@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:hcv7u0l22i4b7f3cthsrgfh1kq2j09mino@4ax.com...
> All,
>
> Want to build a budget gaming box for son's BD. Looking for
> suggestions on:
>
> motherboard
> chip
> vid card
> powersupply
>
> Thanks,
>
> Douglas

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

>All,
>
>Want to build a budget gaming box for son's BD. Looking for
>suggestions on:
>
>motherboard
>chip
>vid card
>powersupply
>
>Thanks,
>
>Douglas


What type of games are we talking about here, games like Halo and Far Cry or
the really cheap games that cost less than $10?

 

[JohnS]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Check out mwave.com .... This box will run any game
out there pretty well. There's no way you are going
to build a game box for much less than this, and have
it work. If you go the DELL route, you will think you
are saving a lot of money, but you won't get the video
card, enough ram, and a decent looking monitor for
$500 ... and it won't run games worth a hoot. Also, I
did not spec a modem. Your son will want to go online,
and DSL is a must. Also, I did not spec McAffee anti
virus ( a must ), nor MS Office. So by the time you
have a complete system, expect to have about $1500
in it ... and that does not include the "games"
Good luck!

Antec case SLK1650B $58

Mobo bundle:
Gigabyte GA-7N400L $59
AMD XP 3000+ $146
1 gb mwave ddr333( 512 x 2) $128

Sony cdrw/dvd combo CRX320E-B2 $43
Floppy Mitsumi black $8
Maxtor 160 gig IDE $92
Microsoft multmedia keybd and
Optical / ps2 mouse bundle $29

Monitor AOC pure flat 19 $175
Creative Labs Inspire 2500 $38
ATI 9800 Pro 128 $219

WinXP Pro $134

johns

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Douglas Fifield <douglas.fifield@comcast.net> wrote:

>Want to build a budget gaming box for son's BD. Looking for
>suggestions on:
>motherboard
>chip
>vid card
>powersupply

I agree with the other comments. Gamers usually have fast systems, fast
isn't cheap, so you will need to specify the budget.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Conor wrote:
> In article <hcv7u0l22i4b7f3cthsrgfh1kq2j09mino@4ax.com>, Douglas
> Fifield says...
> > All,
> >
> > Want to build a budget gaming box for son's BD. Looking for
> > suggestions on:
> >
> No such thing as a budget gaming system. Gaming systems are high end.

Yeah, but you still have a scale running from "more money than sense"
down to "rummage through the dumpster".

Important thing is what the budget is. How much lucre will the OP part
with?

I'd basically agree with John's spec, but you could shave a bit off by
getting a boring beige case, a bog standard (eg. Cherry) keyboard &
mouse bundle, a 17" CRT monitor, cheaper speakers and XP Home. Won't be
as pretty, but it'll do the job (I'm using pretty much that gear to
play HL2 at the moment.)

I'd recommend getting 5.1 speakers rather than just stereo because most
of today's action games do output 5.1 sound for a more immersive
environment.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Thanks for your comments, all.

Son is 12 and plays Sims, Need for Speed, Halo. I want to build a box
with him that will do as well as our current family PC (Dell 8100) and
get his stuff off the family PC. I am interested in building a
"starting point" that will work for him and that he can upgrade on his
own as he desires (and can afford). I am not interested in building a
mid to high-end gaming system.

I figure he can get by with low-level sound and speakers as long as he
has decent CPU, graphics, and memory. He can upgrade the sound later.

Douglas

On 12 Jan 2005 09:58:41 -0800, chadwick110@hotmail.com wrote:

>
>Conor wrote:
>> In article <hcv7u0l22i4b7f3cthsrgfh1kq2j09mino@4ax.com>, Douglas
>> Fifield says...
>> > All,
>> >
>> > Want to build a budget gaming box for son's BD. Looking for
>> > suggestions on:
>> >
>> No such thing as a budget gaming system. Gaming systems are high end.
>
>Yeah, but you still have a scale running from "more money than sense"
>down to "rummage through the dumpster".
>
>Important thing is what the budget is. How much lucre will the OP part
>with?
>
>I'd basically agree with John's spec, but you could shave a bit off by
>getting a boring beige case, a bog standard (eg. Cherry) keyboard &
>mouse bundle, a 17" CRT monitor, cheaper speakers and XP Home. Won't be
>as pretty, but it'll do the job (I'm using pretty much that gear to
>play HL2 at the moment.)
>
>I'd recommend getting 5.1 speakers rather than just stereo because most
>of today's action games do output 5.1 sound for a more immersive
>environment.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

In article <hcv7u0l22i4b7f3cthsrgfh1kq2j09mino@4ax.com>, Douglas
Fifield says...
> All,
>
> Want to build a budget gaming box for son's BD. Looking for
> suggestions on:
>
No such thing as a budget gaming system. Gaming systems are high end.


--
Conor

An imperfect plan executed violently is far superior to a perfect plan.
-- George Patton

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Douglas Fifield wrote:
....
> I figure he can get by with low-level sound and speakers as long as
he
> has decent CPU, graphics, and memory. He can upgrade the sound
later.
>

In that case, most motherboards come with integrated sound these days,
which will see you through for a while.

Meanwhile, a couple of questions:
What's your budget?
Do you have any existing parts that could be reused?

You won't get a definitive shopping list on this forum (although
someone will doubtless accuse you of being lazy for asking for one),
but you should get some recommendations of specific parts. Hopefully
you'll get some generic advice as well.

On which subject, my generic advice would be:
1) Get a PSU of 450W+ because that will be sufficient for future sound
and video card upgrades and probably some way into the future. You will
receive conflicting advice about whether a branded one is worth the
money over a non-branded one.
2) Look out for a keyboard, mouse & speaker bundle for best value for
money at this stage. A barebones kit might include these.
3) If you've got the space, a 17" CRT monitor really is OK for gaming.
Only get a TFT now if you're pushed for space or if you see a good
bargain. Remember to get one with a refresh rate of less than 25ns, or
you will see "ghosting" on the screen with fast action games like Halo.
4) Don't bother with PCI-E graphics (your budget will probably rule
this out anyway) or BTX format motherboards. These are both new
technologies and the existing AGP and ATX (respectively) standards are
more than capable of handling the demands of today's games and for the
foreseeable future.
5) Whatever case you get, make sure it's got a case fan. CPUs and
graphics cards in particular run hot these days.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Conor:

> No such thing as a budget gaming system. Gaming systems are high end.

Not true. Gaming systems can built to suit a variety of budgets. Not
everyone plays the latest FPS and not everyone can afford the hardware to
play them at high resolutions with high details. You'll notice that gaming
cards come in a wide spectrum of price points from $600 - $150. While it's
true that a gaming system will necessarily cost more than a non-gaming
system, there are such things as budget gaming systems.
--
Mac Cool

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

On 13 Jan 2005 02:25:52 -0800, chadwick110@hotmail.com wrote:

>
>Douglas Fifield wrote:
>...
>> I figure he can get by with low-level sound and speakers as long as
>he
>> has decent CPU, graphics, and memory. He can upgrade the sound
>later.
>>
>
>In that case, most motherboards come with integrated sound these days,
>which will see you through for a while.
>
>Meanwhile, a couple of questions:
>What's your budget?

I'd like to be between $500 and $1000

>Do you have any existing parts that could be reused?

No

>
>You won't get a definitive shopping list on this forum (although
>someone will doubtless accuse you of being lazy for asking for one),
>but you should get some recommendations of specific parts. Hopefully
>you'll get some generic advice as well.
>
>On which subject, my generic advice would be:
>1) Get a PSU of 450W+ because that will be sufficient for future sound
>and video card upgrades and probably some way into the future. You will
>receive conflicting advice about whether a branded one is worth the
>money over a non-branded one.
>2) Look out for a keyboard, mouse & speaker bundle for best value for
>money at this stage. A barebones kit might include these.
>3) If you've got the space, a 17" CRT monitor really is OK for gaming.
>Only get a TFT now if you're pushed for space or if you see a good
>bargain. Remember to get one with a refresh rate of less than 25ns, or
>you will see "ghosting" on the screen with fast action games like Halo.
>4) Don't bother with PCI-E graphics (your budget will probably rule
>this out anyway) or BTX format motherboards. These are both new
>technologies and the existing AGP and ATX (respectively) standards are
>more than capable of handling the demands of today's games and for the
>foreseeable future.
>5) Whatever case you get, make sure it's got a case fan. CPUs and
>graphics cards in particular run hot these days.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Douglas Fifield <douglas.fifield@comcast.net> wrote:

>Son is 12 and plays Sims, Need for Speed, Halo. I want to build a
>box with him that will do as well as our current family PC (Dell
>8100) and get his stuff off the family PC. I am interested in
>building a "starting point" that will work for him and that he can
>upgrade on his own as he desires (and can afford). I am not
>interested in building a mid to high-end gaming system.
>I figure he can get by with low-level sound and speakers as long as
>he has decent CPU, graphics, and memory. He can upgrade the sound
>later.

I'm not sure that you can save money by building a system yourself,
especially not at first.

Do you want him to learn how to build a system? Do you have spare
hand-me-down parts? Parts are expensive. Seems to me that building a
system is more expensive than buying a prebuilt system from an
original equipment manufacturer that buys parts 100,000 at a time.
You could use his money for payments on that system.

I build my own system because it's fun and I end up with the
(nearest) perfect system for me. I don't do it to save money.

I really don't know much about how my system compares with others
prebuilt, but I don't think it's faster for the same cost. You do
sacrifice upgradability, so later you buy a another new inexpensive
system.

If I were you, I might seek advice on what configuration to order
from an OEM. Probably a prepackaged inexpensive system would be
fine, maybe plus a decent monitor. A split (ergonomic) keyboard is
nice too.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Douglas Fifield:

>>What's your budget?
>
> I'd like to be between $500 and $1000
>
>>Do you have any existing parts that could be reused?
>
> No

~$850 shipped
http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-guide-200411.ars/2

I suggest the following substitutions:
$142 Sapphire Radeon 9800 Video Card, 128MB DDR 128bit DVI/TV-Out 8X AGP
$67 NEC 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive ND-3520A
--
Mac Cool