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Graphics Software Hardware

Building A High-End Gaming Workstation 332

Posted by Hemos from the build-it-correctly-or-pay dept.
Alan writes "What's the best platform for playing games *and* doing work? That's the very question FiringSquad tries to answer in the sequel to last year's short but popular workstation building article. This time, they've went with a "no-budget, but don't waste money" approach. There are a dozen products reviewed in the article, some never before reviewed on the 'net, and this time, there's no system building detail left untouched. Discussed are AC line conditioners, 2D graphics performance, and more. This more than 12,000 word article is the most detailed article ever in its genre. "
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Building A High-End Gaming Workstation More

Building A High-End Gaming Workstation

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  • Windows, hands down. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Randolpho ( 628485 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @09:34AM (#7259826) Homepage Journal
    Best platform for games, hands down, and you can do just as much work with it as you can on any other platform.

    I like to dual-boot some random linux distro for when I need good old-fashioned CLI goodness that I can't get from DOS, but I mostly stay on Windows.
    • no doubt, mSindows is the best PC platform to get your gaming on and is also probably your best bet for a workstation too. i'm in the market for a Linux box though, probably a Athlon 64 with RH9. i've just come to realize that i hate relying on closed-source software - you just don't know what the software is doing with the myriad of data you store, and i don't trust windows to keep it secure either....
    • Gaming Workstation?

      Is anyone else stuck buy the self-cancelling nature of this description?

      Laugh time!

      I guess if you are going to strech the idea of a workstation this far, then you can probably call a Windows computer a workstation with a straight face.

    • Try cygwin, Especially when loopbacking to openssh, youll get the cli/unix while never leaving windows.
    • Best platform for games, hands down, and you can do just as much work with it as you can on any other platform.

      [sigh] An ever-so-true comment. Well, the state of Linux gaming is slowly being improved from a global standpoint (though the setback of having Loki go under definitely sucked).
    • gaming workstation? isn't that an oxymoron?

      I suppose it fits with "windows productivity"

      good luck though.
    • The referenced article never brings the OS into question. The "platform" is the hardware in this context. To get back offtopic, I think it depends on what criteria you use to qualify the "best" OS for gaming. If variety of games is the main criteria, then Linux fails by a wide margin. Granted, there's WINE and WineX but I've used 'em, they're ugly kludges and you can really tell in the experience. However, if pure performance in FPS is the main criteria, then Linux wins. The fact that you can tune and optim
    • It's an opinion.

      If all I cared about was Java games on Yahoo!, then, well...
      Solaris is the best platform for games, and you can do just as much work with it as you can on any other platform.
      No dual booting requried there! And scales to 128 CPUs without breaking a sweat.

      Never mind that the article doesn't even venture into this territory. Tsk tsk.

      Can I get an amen?
    • I basically do the same thing you do [slashdot.org], but if you really need some CLI goodness in Windows, simply use Cygwin [cygwin.com]. All the Linux goodies you'd need for your Windows system, and you can play games too.

      And for the person who called the above FUD, read the journal entry. It lists a whole lot of reasons why Windows offers a better desktop experience than Linux and at the bottom has some suggestions on how to improve the Linux experience - although the journal entry is now over six months old.

      • Re:Windows, hands down. (Score:4, Informative)

        by SethJohnson ( 112166 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @12:55PM (#7261370) Homepage Journal
        That dude is talking out his ass when he says he boots into linux when he needs 'CL goodness that DOS can't provide". He was just trying to temper his pro-windows rant by claiming to use Linux. As anyone who uses Linux and windows to any great extent knows, the cool command line tools that originated in Linux have all been ported to windows... you just have to install them seperately. Because their usefulness wasn't conceived in Redmond, they don't come bundled with Windows.

        This guy is a 100% point-and-clicker. He percieves that others prefer a CL environment and wants people to think he's hip to the CL. But to use Linux just for a CL, well, that's about like sitting in your car in the driveway to listen to the radio. You can listen to the stereo in your house just the same. And it's silly to just sit in your driveway listening to the radio when you could be driving around.

  • Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MacBrave ( 247640 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @09:36AM (#7259840) Journal
    I take all of these system building articles with a grain of salt, especially when it picks specific video cards, processors etc.

    Most people usually don't have the $ for the 'latest and greatest' hardware. And by the time they can afford the lastest whiz-bang video card, it's already outdated.
    • Most people usually don't have the $ for the 'latest and greatest' hardware. And by the time they can afford the lastest whiz-bang video card, it's already outdated.

      I agree. Don't buy bleeding edge hardware *or* software. Software that's been out 18 months or more hasn't gotten worse in quality, and it's a whole lot cheaper to run and more reliable (from bugfixes). Sometimes expansion packs start getting bundled.

    • You gotta know what to shoot for. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by pr0ntab ( 632466 ) <pr0ntab.gmail@com> on Monday October 20, 2003 @11:01AM (#7260412) Journal
      1) Read article about whizbang rig.
      2) Search forums about hardware that is equivalent to but slightly underclocked and sells for 1/2 as much
      3) Ignore the $200 keyboard/mice recommended, LCD, silent DVD-ROMs, etc. and get unbranded Taiwanese OEM manufacturer's product line wherever possible.
      4) Wait 4 weeks for shipping instead of going to retailers.
      5) Assemble, overclock, pray, sacrifice old RAM sticks.
      6) Enjoy near-equivalent machine for half to third price.
      7) ???
      8) Profit!
  • I wouldn't invest in a high-end gaming stations because most high-end games seem to suck. They're all about graphics, but the game-play sucks ass. They are not as enjoyable as a lot of old games like the original quake. Any in-expensive system works great for the old games.
    • I dunno... some high-end games need a high-end system. I very much enjoy Simcity 4, but it crawls to a halt relatively quickly on my pissant P3/867Mhz/384Mb/i810 system.

      I agree though, that the vast majority of "high-end" games suck ass.
    • I agree. I have more fun playing old SNES games written ten years ago than I do any pc games released this year.

      • Re:Most high-end games suck (Score:4, Insightful)

        by cK-Gunslinger ( 443452 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @10:21AM (#7260139) Journal
        Interestingly enough, everyone seems to think that the "golden era of gaming" was whatever era they starting playing games in. That was when "graphics didn't matter, it was all about the game play." Ask kids that today, and they will tell you that "Game X (from 3 years ago) was 'all about the game play.'"

        Do you think any game company today could make a profit or even stay afloat if they made SNES-level games today? While I agree that a lot of newer games are mostly fluff, let's not sweep the entire market under the rug in favor of Double Dragon and Rad Racer.
        • Actually, I had my gaming start with the atari 2600. But I still consider the few short years of the SNES the golden age of gaming - the point where graphics, gameplay, music, and all the other aspects balanced perfectly. I like pc games too but for awhile now (and the last year in particular) my interest in what the latest big hits are has dropped to almost zero. The only good games I've seen lately have been console games like Kindgom Hearts. The pc market is full of second rate crap.
          • I do agree that a certain higher level of creativity seems to have emerged in the SNES days. Perhaps all the great NES coders were working on getting around the limitations of an 8-bit system when a 16-bit system arrived, so that they could pour all their work into a system that could add some graphical goodness.

            Also, don't forget that the PC game market is so make-or-break to developers today (do to the almost insane expectations of users who want everything to be shiny and big-budget-looking), that they

          • Actually, I had my gaming start with the atari 2600. But I still consider the few short years of the SNES the golden age of gaming - the point where graphics, gameplay, music, and all the other aspects balanced perfectly.

            I'll second this. I started with Atari and I still consider the SNES the all around best game platform that ever existed. The most good games on a single console were there. Truly the golden age. ZSNES [zsnes.com] keeps it alive for me even today. I've never stopped playing SNES. Gotta get my FF4/5/6

        • "Do you think any game company today could make a profit or even stay afloat if they made SNES-level games today?"

          Nintendo has been re-releasing many of their SNES games for the gameboy advance, and making a lot of money off of it.

          I'd love to play a new sprite based, 2D game again. I'm playing FF6 right now, and am really enjoying it despite its age. With the memory space available nowadays these games could have larger environment, more characters, more music and a bunch of good dialog. Unfortunately
          • Unfortunately every game reviewer would probably blast the game for not looking or sounding 'pretty' as compared to games that are half prerendered cutscenes. But it'd be fun damnit.

            Bingo. I think you hit a valid point there.

            [Gaming Industry]
            Fun? This is a business, dammit! If you don't have features X, Y, and Z, then you can't compete. And after we code X, Y, and partially implement Z, then we're out of money and don't have time to code "Fun" into the game. Oh well, maybe we can implement "Fun" in
    • Yeah, but classic quake is even better at 1600x1200 and 100+ frames/sec in GL mode!
    • I wouldn't invest in a high-end gaming stations because most high-end games seem to suck. They're all about graphics, but the game-play sucks ass

      I understand your need to troll, sir, and well - count me as your "catch" for today. But I will still name some titles that in my opinion obliterate your thesis: "Deux Ex", "Max Payne", "Return To Castle Wolfenstein", "Medal Of Honor", "Red Faction", the whole "Tomb Raider" series.

      And no, I'm not just a kiddo who started gaming. My private "golden era" were th
    • Next year:
      1. Remove Quake
      2. Insert current "high end game"
      3. Repeat

  • Wow 12,000 words (Score:2, Insightful)

    by stratjakt ( 596332 )
    thats long!

    What is this, high school?

    These articles make me laugh. Please, all you "computer experts", go out and buy the most expensive, cutting edge hardware you can find. You absolutely need to spend $5000 to play video games, don't doubt the marketin^H^H^H detailed articles validity.

    These folks are the ones who piss away their money, so folks like me can get useless and obsolete hardware, like the terribly out-of-date Radeon 9700, for cheap cheap cheap.

    • Re:Wow 12,000 words (Score:4, Insightful)

      by danila ( 69889 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @09:53AM (#7259960) Homepage
      Yes, from reading the article it looks like the problem most people face is not which component provides the best price-quality ratio, but which component is the most expensive and how I can justify wasting 2 times more money than needed on that.

      I am sure more people would find an article useful if it was written from a somewhat realistic viewpoint. He says "I'm paying careful attention not to waste any money either" in the beginning of the article. But if spending $40 on an "incredibly well-built USB aluminum knob that acts like a super scroll wheel" with "a pulsing blue LED light at the base of the unit" is not wasting money, I don't know what is.
      • I would agree ... but I bought one of those aluminium knobs, and regard it as some of the best money I spent on my machine!

        It's a useability godsend for certain things. I really miss it when I'm in work. Besides, against the other hojillion dollars they spend on this setup, $40 looks like a bargain.
      • "But if spending $40 on an 'incredibly well-built USB aluminum knob that acts like a super scroll wheel' with 'a pulsing blue LED light at the base of the unit' is not wasting money, I don't know what is."

        I'll go with, "I don't know what is." You have no clue. The useability gain from a quality mouse is of as much value as a couple hundred mhz on your CPU, easy. The only reason people ignore the peripherals is because they are stupid. If you care more about speed than ease of use, your going to have an unc
        • I agree that peripherals are important, almost as important as the display. Personally I use wireless keyboard and mouse and find it really useful (although the mouse is relatively crappy and would suck balls if not for the fact that it's cordless and optical). But
          1) For $40 I can set up a whole computer that would be great for a lot of cool if a bit old games. :)
          2) This is (especially with a pulsing blue LED) a good illustration of the overall attitude of the article - buy lots of shiny expensive things.

          T

    • Pissing away money (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TrekkieGod ( 627867 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @10:14AM (#7260094) Homepage Journal
      These folks are the ones who piss away their money, so folks like me can get useless and obsolete hardware, like the terribly out-of-date Radeon 9700, for cheap cheap cheap. Yeah, you're absolutely right. These folks piss away their money so that you can buy your old (and still good) hardware. Because guess what...if everybody waited for the price of the top of the line to come down, or if everybody waited until they needed faster hardware for their system, prices wouldn't come down as fast, and the 9700 would still be too expensive for you to buy (not to mention that development of faster hardware would slow down). Supply and demand, pal.

      You should thank those people, not complain about them. If they have the money to spend, why shouldn't they? Good for you that you can save money and still get a great system.

    • These folks are the ones who piss away their money, so folks like me can get useless and obsolete hardware, like the terribly out-of-date Radeon 9700, for cheap cheap cheap.

      I look at it a little differently...

      A few YEARS back, I got myself a P4 1.4, latest gforce2gts, scsi 160 and an 18 gig drive.

      The SCSI drive is dead, replaced by cheaper but higher capacity IDE's. The rest of the system is still intact.

      The only game I really play alot is CS, so for me this system suits my needs just fine. In a few
  • a gaming workstation.

  • Nice article covering lots of little tech bits. However I would of thought that better performace might of been got from RAID-0 stripping of the disks or at least setup the swap and system on differenet disks to minimize the load

    Rus
    • I hope you're not proposing using RAID-0 by itself?
      • For absoluate performance yes. However I realise that you really need raid 1+0 for redundancy. I'm not saying its sensible but it will run fast. Of course it might crash faster

        Rus
    • yeah, i thought the same thing about this time last year, when RAID controllers started hitting just about every mobo in my price range. so i researched it a bit and most benchmarks i've seen have shown 0 to negative performance changes when using striping.

      only very large file transfers manage a benefit, on the order of several hundred meg. and thankfully i can still count on one hand, the number of games and situations where i need to squeeze another second or two out of a 200+ mB file transfer.

      given o

  • its not hardware, its skill (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Numeric ( 22250 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @09:43AM (#7259886) Homepage Journal
    (this was back in 1999)
    nothing like getting owned in counter strike, by my clanmate on a dialup with a crappy video card, while i was on a cable connection with a gf2.

  • Up next, "How to build a server (with no budget and things like anti-DOS capabilities)".

  • What about budget systems? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by darkstar949 ( 697933 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @09:43AM (#7259890)
    Interesting artical, but what about the rest of the population that does not have the kinda surplus money that can blown on hardware for a state-of-the-art gaming system that will be outdated in six months. What kind of hardware is nessecary for a good low-end gaming system that the average twenty-something paying off student loans can afford? Also, what are the best recomendations for hardware that might be a bit higher-end, but will still be useful for a long time?
    • Try Sharky's Extreme.
      They do a monthly guide [sharkyextreme.com] to building a value gaming rig.

      If you've got more cash to blow, they also do a high-end guide. [sharkyextreme.com]

    • Re:What about budget systems? (Score:5, Informative)

      by richie2000 ( 159732 ) <rickard.olsson@gmail.com> on Monday October 20, 2003 @09:59AM (#7260000) Homepage Journal
      Low-end gaming system:

      AMD Duron 1300 or slowest/cheapest Athlon you can find

      Any cheap Socket-A mobo with AC97 sound and LAN onboard, like the ECS K7S6a or Epox KH8a+

      A nice quiet harddrive - cue the Seagate 40GB Barracuda

      Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2 - large slow CPU fan that's almost totally silent

      Any noname nvidia Geforce 4MX board with 64 megs. Most of them have passive cooling = no fan

      256MB DDRAM

      Use your old monitor or get a new 17" CRT, they'd be practically free if it weren't for shipping and handling.

      Add a floppy, CD-ROM and some cables in a Q-Tec smileycase, a Trekker mouse and a noname keyboard and you have a complete, brand new machine for peanuts

      This box runs CS perfectly and even bf1942 in a reasonable screensize. No weird drivers either which means very good Linux support. I have built maybe 20 of these for customers, both office and home use. It's dead quiet, too. It has just the one fan in the PSU and the ones Q-Tec use are reasonably silent.
      And everything's upgradeable. Need more RAM? Just add some more when you have the money. Disk? Put it in. Faster graphics? Swap the old one out. Better sound? Get an SB Audigy 2 Player and disable the AC97.

      • You're almost there, but a couple of things:

        1. AMD Athlon XP CPU's are so cheap nowadays you might as well get a 2000+ to 2400+ CPU.

        2. Forget about using a GeForce MX400 board. You're better off getting the boards that use the ATI Radeon 9000/9000 Pro chipset (I'd would rather splurge a little for a board that uses the ATI Radeon 9600 chipset, if only to play games that use DirectX 9.0 reasonably fast).

        3. You really want 512 MB of system RAM, especially if you're running the latest games. Most of the new
      • Avoid the Durons, even on budget systems. Even an XP1900 will be significantly faster, and won't cost much more.

        Careful when suggesting "Any" motherboard; again, the better boards don't cost a whole lot more (and often are one of the cheapest when you're looking at popular tried-and-tested stuff), but you'll be glad for the extra stability and support. You won't go wrong with Epox, though :)

        HD wise, 80-120G is about the best price/size wise, and won't cost a lot more than 40G. 80G is still a single pla
      • I recently bought a radeon 9200, and I'm quite happy with it. No fan, open source drivers for Linux, good picture quality and it was quite cheap too.

        It's about 3x faster than my old geforce 2mx (1980 vs. 650 FPS in glxgears, if that measures anything significant).
      • Don't get a GF4MX for gaming in the future. If you want your box to last through the Source and Doom 3 engines, get a card with hardware shader support, even if it's the previous generation it'll be better than the 4MX.

  • Article is already Slashdotted, but lemme guess... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Maul ( 83993 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @09:45AM (#7259905) Journal
    Step 1: Buy really expensive components.

    Step 2: Put them together.

    Step 3: l33t box that gets 1,000 FPS in Quake 3. Not surprisingly, this box will also run just about every other Windows app there is well.

    Cost of exact same system next year: $500.00
  • Am I the only one who sees the paradox in this story title? It says high end gaming workstation for fscks sakes! Why not just high end gamestation. I swear, this is worst than extra jumbo shrimp.
  • A Gaming Web-Server Station Survive the Slashdot Effect 'omatic.
  • Use a tool designed for the job.
    An Xbox for gaming. 130

    A cheap desktop for everything else 500 :
    internet/email/netty thing, IM doesn't need power.
    Office
    Web Design
    Perl/Java/C/whatever

    None of the above need lots of computing power.

    630

    Beats any 1000+ machine for work and games.
    and you can do both at once... leave the compiles running and watch them while you play Splinter Cell.

  • Ars Technica System guide (Score:5, Informative)

    by Alien54 ( 180860 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @10:01AM (#7260017) Journal
    the Ars technica system guide [arstechnica.com] is not a bad place to start for a lot of folks. They have several suggested custom system systems, at different budget levels, including the money no object "god box [arstechnica.com]".

    of course, with multi panel screens, and other pricey toys, etc. it is possible to go slightly bonkers.

    • God Box = Dual G5 (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by caveat ( 26803 )
      Well, really. I'm surprised Ars didn't at least mention, if you don't want windows, you can get a God Box off-the-shelf from apple. PCI-X, GHz FSB, SATA, dual procs in the same class (Ars uses 2x3GHz Xeons), dual flatpanels (and nicer, too :P), all the same bells and whistles PLUS 64-bit goodness...prebuilt for less (i could be wrong, i didn't spec them both out to check..)
  • How much of this 'you have to buy the latest greatest hardware' crap is just an excuse to cover bad code? What if the only reason we need all this hardware is becuase a bunch of people can't write effecient game code?
    • Actually, I think the 3D FPS realm is one of the last places in commercial software where they ARE tweaking the code trying to eke out every little perfomrance gain they can. some of those engines are lovingly handcracfted.

      That said, I always get a kick out of people who get the latest whiz bang graphics accelerator and then turn off all the special features when they go online to play.

  • Just wait 5 years and you will be able to buy any fancy system used for $250.

  • My take on "gaming workstations" (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Glock27 ( 446276 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @10:04AM (#7260035)
    All the people screaming that "gaming workstations are an oxymoron" are really missing some important points.
    • Game developers need to test on their development boxes.
    • Today's development box is tomorrow's mainstream gaming box (this may not be true of dual Opteron workstations for awhile;).
    • Games are the some of the most intensive non-pro apps out there and it's silly for the fastest hardware not to do both.
    One other point that the author missed: the new dual G5 PowerMac is also a very nice candidate (especially with the 9800 Pro). The authors have declined to provide pricing for anything AFAIK, but I'm pretty sure the Mac will come in less expensive for similar features - and it runs MacOS X among many other advantages. :-)

    A whole lot of the free software the author is enjoying on Linux also runs on MacOS X. There is way more commercial software and games for MacOS X than for Linux (less than for Windows, but then you'd have to run...Windows). The G5s should be ideally suited to scientific computing with the Altivec vector instruction set. The only nit with the G5s is not supporting ECC memory. Apple should do that, as an option.

  • no-budget, but don't waste money

    Seriously, what percentage of even the gaming community (let's not even count joe average, mum & dad or corporate users) does this actually cover? Now disclude all the writers who work for gaming/hardware review sites and are just angling for a "demo" of the latest hardware and just how many are you left with? I'm sure there are exceptions, but come on, gimme a break ....
  • My trick to beating the price is to stay 1 year behind everyone else's upgrade cycle. By the time I upgrade, I can get a decent system for about $500 and play the best games from 1 year ago... which you would probably find the bargin bin with all the bugs worked out. Once you've exhausted the games, repeat.
    • well that's the funny part.

      a geforce 3 and a copy of Unreal or Unreal tournament is just as fun as UT2003 on the best hardware you can get. the game is no more fun, no real difference (I MISS MY SNIPER RIFLE!)

      the other "hot to play" games right now are no different... it's a run around and shoot everyone else. RTCW enemy territory is a bit different in that team play is more fun and you cant get some jerk running around arming himself to the teeth so he can do the suicide rambo running around with the tr
  • Many of these articles (including this one) read like they were written by the marketing departments for the respective hardware companies . . .including excerpts obviously taken directly from sales literature. I am finding it increasingly more difficult to trust any of these "independent" review sites . . .

  • Hi, my name is. . . (Score:3, Funny)

    by Fantastic Lad ( 198284 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @10:39AM (#7260270)
    And it's been 2 years and 8 months since I last played a brain-sucking video game or watched a television.

    Things just keep on getting better since I took back my time! My head is much more clear. I read more and my thinking is sharper than ever before. I have a girlfriend now, my skin has cleared up, and I'm doing much better at work. I feel healthier and stronger than I have in years. I am engaged in more active, outdoor pursuits, and I've taken up the guitar. The amazing part is that I didn't set out to do any of these things; they all just came to me naturally as my free time opened up and my mind sought alternative outlets so that I wouldn't be bored. It's like how it was when I was a child and there were no video games. I couldn't have done any of this without such a supportive group to help me through the hard times. Thank you!

    If only I could have back all those thousands and thousands of wasted hours. . .


    -FL

  • Two Separate Machines (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sabNetwork ( 416076 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @10:42AM (#7260293)
    Okay, this is probably not the answer that you're looking for, but I would recommend getting one low-end, cheap work machine and one high-end gaming system.

    It's just too distracting to have "Quake 3 Arena" on your Start menu next to "Microsoft Word" when you're supposed to be writing your TPS reports. The machine that I work on has only the bare necessities to work, and no distractions.

    On that note, I have to recommend Windows or Mac OS X for your work machine. There is way too much temptation when I'm working on a UNIX box to spend hours hacking around. For the gaming box, maybe a dual boot of Windows and Linux will suffice, with WineX on the Linux partition.
    • Hmm. Take a step back for a second. Your recommendations are based on your weaknesses. Recommending Windows/MacOS because you can't help mucking about in a Unix/Linux environment isn't entirely applicable. (understandable, though :-)

      At any rate, this wasn't a gaming/office machine that they were building, it was a gaming/workstation. In my world (and I believe the world of the article's authors), a workstation is a seriously robust, high-end, number-cruncher. If you need a workstation and want to play game

  • Folks, workstation != office PC (Score:4, Informative)

    by swordgeek ( 112599 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @10:59AM (#7260402) Journal
    I think a lot of people are confused here. There are three basic types of desktop machines.

    1) An office PC. Runs some office package, web browser, acrobat reader, etc. a P3/800MHz with a low-end graphics card is FINE for this.
    2) A gaming machine. You all know what this is.
    3) A workstation. This is NOT the office PC. This is a serious machine for serious work--CAD, 3D modelling, number crunching, etc.

    The requirements for a workstation and a gaming machine are similar but not identical. A workstation may have slower graphics, but accurate. No fudging or edge-blending to make things look prettier (or run faster) at the expense of mathematically correct representation. A workstation also is likely to have multiple processors, since they can be fully used by most software packages one would be looking at.

  • Can't be done. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by jamehec ( 703164 )
    When you're in fun mode, your productivity is shot. When you're in work mode, you can't play worth a dang. Technology can't change that.

    What does your PHB care about most - your ability at your job, or your mad crazy DOOM II skills?
  • They seem kinda ridiculous, I don't even know if I believe that they really exist, but they have an option for a multigig ram drive just to store the OS (with nearly zero latency and 80GB/sec IO... yes GB) and a bunch of other stuff.

    Their monitors look killer too...

    Go-l [go-l.com]

  • I love how they break up articles nowadays. (Score:5, Funny)

    by delus10n0 ( 524126 ) on Monday October 20, 2003 @11:36AM (#7260689)
    Today we're

    [Next Page]

    going to build a

    [Next Page]

    High-End gaming

    [Next Page]

    PC using expensi--

    [Next Page]

    ve and in-expensive

    [Next Page]

    parts.

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