High End Gaming Rig - Home Brewed

HIGH END GAMING RIG - $4,500 Budget


Motherboard

Asus A8N32-SLI Socket 939 Retail - $205 - ZipZoomFly
Asus P5N32-SLI Socket 775 Retail - $205 - ZipZoomFly

Processor

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.40) GHz Socket 939 64-Bit Retail - $630 - ZipZoomFly
Intel Pentium D 950 (3.4) GHz Socket 775 64-Bit Retail - $659 - ZipZoomFly

Heatsink and Fan

Thermatalke CL-P0114 Big Typhoon 4 in 1 Heatpipe Cooler w/Heatpipe Cooling Tech Retail - $50 - ZipZoomFly

Memory

CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC 3200 (TWINX2048-3200C2PT) Retail - $218 + $5 SH - NewEgg
Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC25300 (CT2KIT12864AA667) Retail - $240 + $5 SH - NewEgg

Hard Drive(s) - (Both Drives Together)

Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB SATA 10,000 RPM w/16MB Buffer - $277 - ZipZoomFly
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KS 320GB SATA II 7200RPM w/16MB Buffer - $122 - ZipZoomFly

Optical Drive(s) - (Both Drives Together)

Plextor PX-740A 16X Internal Dual Layer DVD+/- R/RW CD-R/RW Drive (Black) Retail - $90 - ZipZoomFly
Liteon SOHC-5236K DVD 16x + CD-RW 52x32x52 Combo Drive (Black) OEM - $34 - ZipZoomFly

Floppy Drive

NEC 1.44MB 3.5in Internal Floppy Disk Drive (Black) - $13 - ZipZoomFly

Network

Asus WL-138g Wireless 54Mbps PCI Network Adapter Retail - $35 - ZipZoomFly

Audio

Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS Sound Card Retail - $265 - ZipZoomFly

Video (SLI Configuration)

BFG GeForce 7900 GTX PCI-E 512MB DDR3 w/2 Dual-Link DVI-I & HDTV Retail - $560 - ZipZoomFly
BFG GeForce 7900 GTX PCI-E 512MB DDR3 w/2 Dual-Link DVI-I & HDTV Retail - $560 - ZipZoomFly

Case and Power Supply

Thermaltake Shark Series VA7000BWA Full Tower Case (Black) Retail - $149 + $15 SH - ZipZoomFly
Antec NeoHE 550 Watt ATX Retail - $100 - ZipZoomFly

Keyboard and Mouse

Logitech Premium Desktop Optical Keyboard & Mouse Combo (Black) - $30 - ZipZoomFly

Operating System

Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition (Full Version) Single-Pack OEM - $140 - ZipZoomFly
OR
Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (Full Version) Single-Pack OEM - $140 - ZipZoomFly

TOTAL COST:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.4GHz) Dual Core Desktop - $3,478 + $20 SH = $3,498
Intel Pentium D 950 (3.4GHz) Dual Core Desktop - $3,529 + $20 SH = $3,549


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HIGH END GAMING PERIPHERAL PACKAGE


Display

Dell UltraSharp 2001FP 20.1-inch Flat Panel Monitor w/HAS - $539 - Dell
OR
Viewsonic VX2025WM 20.1in Wide Screen LCD Monitor Retail - $429 + $19 SH - ZipZoomFly


Speakers

Creative Labs GigaWorks S750 7.1 Retail (700 Watts Total RMS Power) - $400 + $50 SH - ZipZoomFly


TOTAL COST:

Display and Speaker Package - $829 + $69 SH = $898


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FINAL THOUGHTS...

I really don't care about having a 24" display, as a 19" or 20" is fine for gaming in general if you get a model with a low enough ms rating. This is all about preference anyways. As you can see, I chose an NVIDIA based card in these two configurations and included both an AMD and Intel Based solution. The pricing difference is less than $55 between the two setups which is quite interesting. I figured an SLI setup would be good to have, but may be overkill especially if something hotter comes out in 6 months. It may be more prudent to get one card instead. I'm considering using this configuration for a suggested gaming rig for a few friends of mine that have outdated machines. Any input?


-- MaSoP

Well, a couple of my friends have Intel P4 3GHz (Non-HT) boxes and they swear by them. They do alot of Video Encoding on them though which Intel is known to be slightly better at from what I have read. They also game on them, but only have ATI 9600 Pro cards. I figured showing both platforms would help in the decision. It used to be alot more of a pricing difference between AMD and Intel back in the day. These days the difference isn't that much anymore. Thanks for the input.

-- MaSoP

Intel is expected to drop prices of their processors so the Intel machine would probably be the better buy. I game on the 950 with that Asus board and its blazing fast.

I would definately get the Intel machine.

one thing to keep in mind is that if you are going with an AMD proccesor there really is no reason to buy an after market heatsink (unless you are OCing) also by adding something other then the stock AMD HSF you violate your proccesors warranty.