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The Best Gaming PC Money Can Buy
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Wed Jan 07, 2009 08:59 AM
from the don't-we-post-this-every-few-months dept.
from the don't-we-post-this-every-few-months dept.
SlappingOysters writes "Gameplayer has gone live with their best PC hardware configurations for Q1 2009. They've broken it into three tiers depending on the investor's budget. And while the prices are regional, it is comparative across the globe. The site has also detailed the 10 Hottest PC Games of 2009 to unveil the software on the horizon which may seduce gamers into an upgrade."
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What a crock... (Score:5, Insightful)
Tom's Hardware does these, and the budget is usually closer to the $600 mark, with the mid range around $1200.
And the fact that they put two optical BD burners on the extreme one (one on each page) makes me think that this article was slapped together instead of fully investigated. Where's the benchmarks? The proof that you built a good machine?
Looks like a buncha kids opened up newegg and built themselves machines in their head...
Re:What a crock... (Score:4, Funny)
And the fact that they put two optical BD burners on the extreme one (one on each page) makes me think that this article was slapped together instead of fully investigated. Where's the benchmarks? The proof that you built a good machine?
Looks like a buncha kids opened up newegg and built themselves machines in their head...
Why the hell would you want to benchmark one of those beauties? It's like a wife. Your supposed to spend money on it, care for it and look but not touch.
Parent
Re:What a crock... (Score:5, Funny)
You need to reinstall your sarcasm detection package.
Parent
Re:What a crock... (Score:4, Funny)
You need to reinstall your sarcasm detection package.
There's a serious lack of sarcasm tags, and it's required when it's not immediately obvious.
Parent
Re:What a crock... (Score:4, Funny)
You need to reinstall your sarcasm detection package.
There's a serious lack of sarcasm tags, and it's required when it's not immediately obvious.
Where is your irony tag...
Guys! I found it:
[/irony]
Parent
Re:What a crock... (Score:5, Insightful)
Tom's is way better. If I want to upgrade my PC or video card, they actually do proper benchmarks and realistic budgets. I may never have triple SLI, but only because I don't feel like dropping another $500 on video cards for relatively minimal fps gains.
I dropped a grand on a new i7 system last week. Primarily because I was tied of my old Opteron 170 rig, but a good deal because I'd been influenced by the Tom's hardware midprice build. A grand is not "budget."
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
A grand is not "budget."
Of course, 1000 AUD is about $700 USD.
Re:What a crock... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:What a crock... (Score:5, Funny)
Yo dawg, I heard you like burning, so we put a burner in your burner so you can burn while you burn.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Sharky Extreme used to do these (not sure if they do it anymore), and it sounds like the budgets are similar (though I think they had 4 tiers - budget, mid, high, and extreme). The budget machine there was also $1000, but that includes some stuff like Monitor that isn't always included in other PC building guides. The extreme guide usually had the disclaimer that "if money was no object...," so I say "only 2 blue ray burners? Why not 4?" I can't tell if they're similar due to the slashdotting.
I'd questi
Re:What a crock... (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:What a crock... (Score:5, Informative)
Also, Blu-Ray is abbreviated to BD, for Blu-Ray Disc. All of the abbreviations for the format use BD, not BR, such as BD-J, BD+, BD-ROM, BD-R.
"Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA)"
Taken from http://www.blu-ray.com/info/ [blu-ray.com]
Parent
Re:What a crock... (Score:4, Interesting)
Alan Wake
Bioshock
Company of Heroes
Crysis
Far Cry 2
Hellgate: London
Lost Planet
Microsft Flight Sim X
Rainbow Six Vegas
Source Engine
Splinter Cell Double Agent
STALKER
Stranglehold
Supreme Commander
Unreal Engine 3
Half-life2: Orange box engine games/mods
Nowadays you've basically got a choice between a 3.4ghz quadcore and a 3.4-3.8ghz dualcore (4ghz is still a little out of range for the average overclocker). I'd rather have another 2 cores and a slower clockspeed than a slight boost in clockspeed. Then again maybe that's because I'm not an idiot that relies on the false logic that just because it's not immediately the absolute best thing out there that it won't be very useful to have for the next few years.
Parent
Pffft. (Score:5, Funny)
These PC's are low-end when compared to my overclocked Commodore 64.
Re:Pffft. (Score:5, Funny)
The flames that are coming out of the back isn't a case mode then.
Parent
Re:Pffft. (Score:5, Funny)
Your overclocked Commodore 64 can't beat my overclocked CoCo3.
Parent
GPU: 2x2GB 4870 = No 32 bit XP? (Score:4, Insightful)
On the Extreme 4 GB of Video RAM? Seriously?
Someone please Correct me if I'm wrong but if you're mapping 4GB of video RAM you'll not be able to run a 32 bit OS. Given that this is a gaming PC, wouldn't this be a deal breaker? I mean even the uber gamers occassionally like to run older games right?
What games don't run in 64-bit Windows? (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously, I'm honestly curious. I'm a huge PC gamer and I run Vista 64-bit. All 32-bit Windows apps, which accounts for most games made in the last 10 years or so, seem to run great natively. For older DOS games, well those don't run well in 32-bit Windows. You get no sound, video problems, etc. The NTVDM isn't really good fro games. So what you do is fire up DOSBox, which runs them great. However that runs just as well in 64-bit as it does in 32-bit.
Thus far, I don't see any gaming problems with a 64-bit OS. So if you know of some, I'd be interested in what they are.
Parent
Re:What games don't run in 64-bit Windows? (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously, I'm honestly curious. I'm a huge PC gamer and I run Vista 64-bit.
No offence, but maybe a Wii Fit would be a good investment, then? I'm just sayin...
Parent
Re:GPU: 2x2GB 4870 = No 32 bit XP? (Score:4, Funny)
On the Extreme 4 GB of Video RAM? Seriously?
Someone please Correct me if I'm wrong but if you're mapping 4GB of video RAM you'll not be able to run a 32 bit OS. Given that this is a gaming PC, wouldn't this be a deal breaker? I mean even the uber gamers occassionally like to run older games right?
The kernel should deal with that. If you request some memory address, paging assigns a virtual address for the physical memory so that you can access -any- 4 Gb of data in some order.
You can still only access 4 Gb at one specific time per process, but that should be enough for most purposes, no?
Parent
6GB of ram? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
FFS (Score:4, Insightful)
There is nothing wrong, per se, with buying such things; but the notion that you are "investing" in them is patent nonsense.
Re:FFS (Score:5, Funny)
In 1 years time, it will be worth 40% of what they paid for it. That's an investement, isn't it? Heck, it's not even a bad investement these days.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:FFS (Score:5, Insightful)
There is nothing wrong, per se, with buying such things; but the notion that you are "investing" in them is patent nonsense.
This. You put central air/heat into your house, you're investing it. You put money into a company, you're investing it. You fork out about $3000 to build a computer that is completely overkill, you're NOT investing it. An investment is when you'll see some sort of profit from it, so unless if you're a professional gamer and it will make your frag count increase by 23.2%, it's not an investment.
Parent
Re:FFS (Score:5, Insightful)
An investment is when you'll see some sort of profit from it, so unless if you're a professional gamer and it will make your frag count increase by 23.2%, it's not an investment.
So I take it you put a fairly low value on personal enjoyment and satisfaction? BACK TO THE SALT MINES WITH YOU, SLAVE!
Parent
MOD PARENT INSIGHTFUL (Score:4, Insightful)
If investing for you means exclusively monetary returns, then you forgot the reason you need money in the first place. You failed to invest in your life.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
"Investment" means "trying to grow your money."
Maybe you should consider utilizing a dictionary occasionally. In particular, the American Heritage Dictionary defines sense three of the word as "Property or another possession acquired for future financial return or benefit." Pleasure is a benefit. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Re:FFS (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
next up on article series ... (Score:5, Funny)
Not worth it (Score:3, Insightful)
Considering how few high-end PC games actually come out, getting a flashy PC just to play them isn't worth it.
Hardware issues aside, serious gameplayers need to be where the developers are, which at the moment means the Xbox 360. A Nintendo Wii or DS is optional, for those people who want to see some of the more innovative designs. (PC gaming diehards can now interject the usual comments about FPS controls and real-time strategy games and mods.)
And, yes, I'll point out that a 360 + Wii + DS + several years of Xbox Live is still cheaper than the PC mentioned in the article.
I have a feeling... (Score:3, Insightful)
That these machines would not run half as well as some system that would cost half as much but built by someone with a clue. Not just someone who went down line and picked out parts based on how much they cost.
For anyone really interested in performance rigs spend some time on a overclocking site. Those guys and gals really will show what it's all about. I know I'm damn amazed at some of the stuff they pull off and have learned a bunch just browsing.
Re:The thing about these machines is (Score:5, Interesting)
Your eyes can only pickup 80fps anyway; you wouldn't know if it was 100 or 10,000 fps unless the fps counter didn't say.
It doesn't matter what your eyes can see. It's about responsiveness. Faster rendering makes the game more responsive. See, we live in an analog world which has essentially infinite FPS. The closer a game gets to that then the better it feels because it will respond at the exact microsecond you do something. It does make a very real difference.
Now granted many people don't care otherwise there wouldn't be people like you that think "80 FPS is enough for anyone." Gunny how that number keeps creeping upwards. First it was 24 FPS (because that was all the eye could see), then 30, then 60, now you're saying 80. LOL
Parent
Re:The thing about these machines is (Score:5, Insightful)
Bump your PC spending to $1800, and the extra $1000 gives you better graphics, maybe 120 fps, maybe 200, whatever. But unless you have money to burn, that extra grand wasn't well spent. Just put it into the bank, and buy another $800 machine in 3 years.
Parent
Re:The thing about these machines is (Score:5, Funny)
See, we live in an analog world which has essentially infinite FPS.
The Planck time allows for only around 1.86x10^43 fps, which is nowhere even close to infinity.
Parent
Re:The thing about these machines is (Score:5, Funny)
The Planck time allows for only around 1.86x10^43 fps, which is nowhere even close to infinity.
Holy frak. What sort of high-spec machine is our universe running on then?
Parent
Re:Mod parent up recursively. (Score:4, Funny)
Upgrade your head.
Parent
64.0 fps should be enough for anyone! (Score:5, Funny)
64.0 fps should be enough for anyone!
Parent
Re:The thing about these machines is (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re:The thing about these machines is (Score:5, Informative)
You can easily tell the difference between 100fps and 10000fps by looking at high contrast fast motion. Human eyes don't see in frames, but the point where increasing framerate won't cause any perceptible difference is probably in the thousands of fps.
Here's a good explanation of the issues of motion reproduction:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/TempRate.mspx [microsoft.com]
Parent
Re:The thing about these machines is (Score:4, Interesting)
I know because I have both running on a Core 2 Quad Q9550 with 2 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 and a Geforce 9800GT. Warhead runs smoother on higher settings.
Parent
Re:The thing about these machines is (Score:4, Funny)
Wrong. Mine, which is specced to run Duke Nukem Forever, runs your game at that resolution just fine.
Parent
Re:Too rich for my blood (Score:5, Informative)
It's articles that really do pc gaming a disservice. All you need to get pc gaming at reasonable resolutions is a decent mid range card like a 9600 or 9800. I have an 8800 GTS 512 and even on the absolute newest games I still achieve great framerates on good looking settings.
Parent
Cost Perception (Score:3, Informative)
I game on my HD TV in the basement which can only do 720p, a single 4850 will get you about 30 fps in Warhead maxed out.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Stop getting your ideas from stupid guides like this and check out a thread full of advice from people who aren't insane. [somethingawful.com]
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Tell me about it, I built a new PC earlier this year having been playing mostly XBox 360 games for the past 2 and a half years.
I spent £1,600 (equivalent to $3,200 US at the time) on my new machine. I bought high end named RAM (something I never usually do), I bought a high end gaming motherboard (again, I always used to just go for any old board) etc. etc. So imagine my display when as soon as it was built I fired up Crysis to find it would not run smoothly anywhere even close to highest detail at 19
Re:Why best gaming machine? (Score:4, Insightful)
The Unreal 3 engine and others happy put two cores to use. On top of that you still have OS processes and services running while you are gaming (unless you are playing some hot old DOS games off a boot floppy!). While I agree that for a "budget" style PC quad core is way over kill, dual core is far from being a silly investment. Once you consider the cost of a AMD Athlon X2 or something it is a no brainer.
Parent
Re:Why best gaming machine? (Score:4, Interesting)
Anyone who spends that kind of money on hardware to play last gen games is a fool.
Plenty of current and next gen games when they arrive utilise 4 cores, it seems to make sense if you're spending money on a PC like that for it to be able to still play the games of tommorrow than to play the games of yesterday that can be run perfectly well even if using only 1 of 4 cores anyway.
To create an example to make this point clear:
Game A is out now
- it can be run on a single core higher clock speed CPU at 150fps
- or a lower clock speed quad core CPU utilising only one of them at 140fps
The difference will be narrow (or may not even exist in fact) because the OS still utilises multiple cores to ensure the game has a core to itself whilst single core has to share the core with the OS and background processes so even if the game doesn't use 4 cores, the OS does. Then onto the next scenario, a new game:
Game B comes out in a month
- it can be run on a single core higher clock speed CPU at 20fps due to not supporting the latest SIMD extensions etc.
- or it can be run on a quad core CPU utilising all cores, with the latest SIMD extensions and such at 200fps
So tell me, if you're laying down this kind of cash for a PC that you'll probably want to last for a while, what makes the most sense to go for?
Only a fool uses the "quad core is pointless, existing games don't use them all" argument when spending the amount of cash required for a high end gaming PC.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I'm a little surprised they haven't added macs to reviews like that. This one was apparently not too intelligent, they look like they went shopping to see how much money they could spend on a system, not really looking to make sure they got the best hardware configuration possible. Macs do tend to be more expensive on the average, and there's a lot more shiny expensive options available at their store, so this would have probably helped them with the direction they were headed.
Lets play...
- 8 core (dual qu