Our Pc gaming console machine uder $800...any critiques?

[rickpcnerd]

well, me and bro are working on making a Pc Console Machine type to compete against our friends PS3 and Xbox 360.lol. The Machine will be using GameEx software, windows will not boot, will boot Directly to GameEx.exe by doing a registry tweak. These machine will play DVDs.These machine will have from Atari to N64 consoles emulator loaded with a total of 15,000 roms to their platform library, and 55 pc games (from 2005 to 2007) installed from second hard drive with NO-CD patches . This machine will use wireless Xbox 360 controllers (with our own home made controller designed using xbox 360 controller hardware)wit USB adapter built inside home made case made out of wood along with xbox controller charger built inside. Xbox controller will replace the mouse to navigate to Game Library or picture library with Game picture box art and game description. . Will be connected to a 45" HDTV 720p LCD, and all pc games will be running at !280 x 720 at everything set to high and is DX 10 ready once Vista mature for gaming then ill upgrade. We finally finish building our wood case after figuiring out cooling methods, the case is a little bit smaller than Xbox 360. . Our goal is to keep it under $800 and this is what we got. And no, we are not planning using Intels 6x00 series. Sadly we cant post pictures of our project cause it says i must have 100 post to insert pictures here in toms hardware. And these baby will be connected with Logitech 5.1 speakers 505 wt with our XFI Fatality sound card we alread have.

Samsung SHS182M/BEBN Dual Layer DVD±RW Writer $41.08
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Dual Core Processor $128.95
eVGA GeForce 8800 GTS Video Card (320MB, PCI Express x16, Dual DVI $306.69
Antec TP3550 550W Power Supply with Three 12V Rails $92.70
Corsair XMS2 1GB PC2-5400 DDR2 DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit $80.11
WD Caviar SE 250GB Hard Drive $70.36
GigaByte GA-M61PM-S2 Motherboard $78.81
$798.70 with tax and shipping

 

[rickpcnerd]

Thanks for your advice. Im not planning over clocking, since this is not a good motherboard to overclock, and will be inside a very small case wish will produce more heat. Already have heat sink cpu cooler, works great with my other amd 4600. I want system to be quiet as possible. Ill consider DDR2 800 as long does not passes my budget.

 

[proof]

Corsair is overpriced and for gaming I would get no less than 2GB. Save some money on a cheaper DVD-R/ R/W drive and look into OCZ, G.Skill. Patriot, or GeIL.

 

[rickpcnerd]

all my games runs great with 1gb after registry tweaks and disableling some windows services. I dont think i need more ram for gaming since it will not boot into windows and all games will be install in a separate hard drive and im not planning upgrading to Vista for now since it eats lots of memory, maybe in 1 to 2 years until is stable and faster for gaming. Thinking about it, I will invest about 20 dollar for a 1 gb ddr2 800 memory, later in future add another stick.

 

[col-p-todd]

This is what I would recommend:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827152076
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103749
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143091
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227160
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144701
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131172



And as the other dude said if heat is a concern get a brisbane the have a temp. 1/3 of the windsor. But they cost a little more

 

[proof]

April when? Early?

 

[col-p-todd]

But if you look at the perf/price then they are more expensive, compaired to the windsor.

 

[proof]

Of course. AMD is much less expensive than Intel right now.

 

[col-p-todd]

I,m sorry I was refering to the Brisbane.

Brisbane vs windsor

 

[proof]

Oh, no problem. But the Windsor still offers much more performance. I wish they had a bigger cache and didn't hit a 3GHz wall though...

 

[col-p-todd]

Yes the windsor does perform better then the brisbane but runs alot hotter around 3x the heat vs brisbane. That is the only nice thing about the brisbane along the lower power consumption.

 

[proof]

True. I built my brother a 5200+ rig and it is running at 3.01GHz. Hot as hell though.

 

[proof]

I have a $hit load of SCA SCSI drives from 18 to 36GB. anyone wanna buy some? 10k and 15k.

 

[AeroB1033]

Don't skimp on the memory brand. Let me repeat that: Don't skimp on the memory brand. That means no G.skill, Geil, A-Data, or any of that stuff. Do you really want to deal with DOA sticks, RMAs, breakdowns after X months, etc? Corsair is better than they are, but I've still had breakdowns even with them. The only brand I trust for long-term stability is Kingston. They've never broken down and never had any compatibility issues. Expensive, but worthwhile.

 

[Bruins004]

How low will the X2 3600+ go with these price cuts?

I myself am going to get this proc w/ the Biostar combo.
Should I wait until April to even bother ordering?

 

[Lionhardt]

i dont understand how he'll get these games to work on this machine, dont you need some sort of reliable OS to run them?