Hi guys, my cousins are interested in a gaming machine (they don't know much about pc's) and I thought I would give them a hand and design a system for them.. They would like to be able to play all the latest games eg TF2, COD4 etc etc..

So my knowledge being a little limited aswell, what are your opinions on this system I designed:

(all prices from Umart except for video card which is from Computer Alliance)

Intel ATX E8500 CORE 2 DUO/3.16GHz/6MB/1333FSB/LGA775 $309.00
Asus P5E-DELUXE S775 X48 FSB1600, DDR2, 2xPCIE2.0 RAID GbLAN $243.00
Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D 2GB $83.00
ASUS GTX 260 896M PCIe Video Card $449
Antec Three Hundred Tower Gaming Case- Black NO PSU $80.00
Powersupply Antec NeoPower 2.2 550W Modular $127.00
Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard Refresh $88.00
Logitech G7 Cordless Laser Mouse $85.00
Benq G2400W 24 Lcd Mon.D-sub Dvi-D HDMI 5ms $399.00
Antec TriCool 120mm Red LED Case Fan with 3-Speed Switch $29.00 x 3 = $87 (optional fans to move more air)


Total: $1950

hard drives?

Have they got everything else they need? Ie headphones/mic, speakers, that sort of thing? How about a good swivel chair? Also, you might want to consider picking up a surge protector or UPS, especially if they are in an area with overhead power lines.

The parts all look fine to me, though in recent years I've had a preference for Gigabyte motherboards.

Is the extra cost of a 24" (about $150 more I believe) worth it over a 22"? You could save another hundred or so by grabbing a G5 mouse and a cheaper keyboard, though by the looks of things you aren't looking to skimp.

On the other hand, if you DID go with a cheaper keyboard, mouse and monitor, you'd have enough room in your budget to pick up a high end video card such as a GTX 280, which is what I'd be tempted to do.

Edit: Oh yeah, hard drives and also a sata burner.

last edited by icewyrm at 07:58:45 10/Jul/08

Dont skimp on a mouse and keyboard, get the one which you like the feel of.
For programming it just happens that the keyboard I prefer is a $29 Microsoft keyboard, but for gaming I like the older Microsoft ones which you can't buy anymore and ran at about $89. If I had to pay $100 for one I like the feel of, I would.

Similar I have standardized on Logitech MX510s on all three of my systems. They're not the cheapest, but I like them (or have gotten used to them).

Intel ATX E8500 CORE 2 DUO/3.16GHz/6MB/1333FSB/LGA775 $309.00 (get the e8400 better value for $)
Asus P5E-DELUXE S775 X48 FSB1600, DDR2, 2xPCIE2.0 RAID GbLAN $243.00
Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D 2GB $83.00
ASUS GTX 260 896M PCIe Video Card $449 - (HAHA waste of money, get a 4870 also its a crossfire board, not sli)
Antec Three Hundred Tower Gaming Case- Black NO PSU $80.00 (get the CM690, better cable management and airflow)
Powersupply Antec NeoPower 2.2 550W Modular $127.00 (get a HX620 if you can)
Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard Refresh $88.00
Logitech G7 Cordless Laser Mouse $85.00
Benq G2400W 24 Lcd Mon.D-sub Dvi-D HDMI 5ms $399.00
Antec TriCool 120mm Red LED Case Fan with 3-Speed Switch $29.00 x 3 = $87 (optional fans to move more air)

Headset: (forgot about this) I will advise them to get the Steelsound 5H V2's
HDD: They can pull out an old 60GB HDD from old pc, they also have an external 1TB Seagate Sata HDD.
DVD Burner: Already have a relatively new one in old PC they can take.
Swivel chair: they don't need.
24" Monitor: I thought would be better for the higher res and also if they wanted to watch full HD movies.
Mouse: I might get the G5 instead, dunno if they will like having to change batteries ever so often..

ATI 4870 is way better then the GTX 260 and $50 cheaper also 2 of them will out perform GTX 280 no problems

get a 4870 also its a crossfire board, not sli

I didn't think it mattered? you can still run a single nvidia card on a crossfire board?? I would have preferred a non crossfire board but I didn't see many options :(

Edit: Did a little more reasearch, the 4870 does indeed kill the nvidia cards in terms of bang for buck.

last edited by Martz at 09:03:17 10/Jul/08

Vote #1 buying them a dell or you'll be tech support for the life span of that PC dude

f*** oath trog speaks the truth

I send a lot of people off to dell.com.au to buy pcs and I still end up as tech support........ :(

Or you could get them to buy a Mac, then they'll never be able to break (or run) anything, and you'll never have to worry about tech support either :D

Or you could get them to buy a Mac, then they'll never be able to break (or run) anything, and you'll never have to worry about tech support either :D

Yeah, that will work! They can't even break the games they'll be playing becuase, well, it won't play games!

id be glad they arent going to you guys for tech support if you are so stupid to think that macs cant run anything, let alone games these days. (bootcamp/parralells anyone???) sheesh there are some ignorant little boys on here.

mac, lol.







asus, lol.

reso, lol

d be glad they arent going to you guys for tech support if you are so stupid to think that macs cant run anything, let alone games these days. (bootcamp/parralells anyone???) sheesh there are some ignorant little boys on here.

sorry we arnt all hardcore c++ programers that has the complex knowledge that is required to get a mac to run games...

in his defence, the new macs with core2duo's can boot natively into windows.... and its a pretty simple thing to setup..

case in point, c++ HAHAHAHAHAHA you fool. as above boot natively into windows and away you go. OR you could just buy the mac version, lots of them have them now, in the 21 centry. its ok for you to live in past tho.

in his defence, the new macs with core2duo's can boot natively into windows.... and its a pretty simple thing to setup..

well there u go then, i havnt used macs since they have been this user friendly...

still stfu anono, no1 wants macs for a home computer unless u use it for work.

id be glad they arent going to you guys for tech support if you are so stupid to think that macs cant run anything, let alone games these days. (bootcamp/parralells anyone???) sheesh there are some ignorant little boys on here.

f*** I'd hate to be someone you'd recommend a computer to. They can't even put together their own and you expect them to deal with dual booting or virtualisation? The equivalent mac to a gaming pc is probably half again as expensive (note: sub 2 grand gaming), so why the hell would they get a mac?

ahaha u need to learn to read. i never recommended a mac, if you actually looked i suggested improvements for the windows based machine, because pc is better for gaming. WHAT I SAID WAS that a mac can play games and also alot of other things, in response to the ignorants above. and dual boot is super easy on a mac even a 5yo could do it. Another reason why mac is a great machine, ease of use at everything other then gaming.

and dual boot is super easy on a mac even a 5yo could do it.

some ppl dont know how to turn a monitor on, let alone duel boot fool

you dont need to turn a monitor on with a mac fool, its built in. and if you can read you can dual boot, its that easy.

Send them to Dell and then tell them to call Dell tech support everytime they call you.

You can thank me later.

id be glad they arent going to you guys for tech support if you are so stupid to think that macs cant run anything, let alone games these days. (bootcamp/parralells anyone???) sheesh there are some ignorant little boys on here.

Indeed there are. Are you a Mac user? I am. There's two on my desk at home, and the Windows system only gets turned on for... oh yeah, games.
Have you actually *tried* to run anything Direct3D under parallels? Spore and LEGO Indiana Jones certainly didn't work... nor anything much older, still.

case in point, c++ HAHAHAHAHAHA you fool. as above boot natively into windows and away you go

If I'm going to boot natively into Windows, why wouldn't I just use a dedicated 'doze box?

i wouldnt try and run games under virtualization software (parallels / vmware)... They have to run natively.. Dual boot in mac is VERY VERY easy..

My advice is to buy the platform that suits your needs... If you are planning on using adobe products (photoshop, premier), 3d editing (Maya / 3dsMAX) sound editing (Reason, Cubase, Protools), or webdev (Dreamweaver) and also want to be able to flip to windows to play some games, a Mac is a viable option... However, all of the aforementioned products are available on a PC and run perfectly fine. and ths clincher for me is the cost.. i can build a good gaming rig for <$1500 including monitor.. The mac equivilant is around the $2.5k mark

each to their own

If I'm going to boot natively into Windows, why wouldn't I just use a dedicated 'doze box?

not everyone can afford multiple PC's...

They can't even put together their own and you expect them to deal with dual booting or virtualisation?

assembling a PC from scratch is a fair bit harder than selecting "Boot to Windows" from the menu

last edited by Strik3r at 12:55:26 10/Jul/08

HDD: They can pull out an old 60GB HDD from old pc, they also have an external 1TB Seagate Sata HDD.

I can almost guarantee that the "old 60GB HDD" will be slow as s*** and bottleneck the rest of the new system. imho it's worth spending another $100 to get a new drive

ok whilst you guys were carrying on, I took onboard some of the suggestions and if I don't go with dell, this is a revision of the sytem in the op:

Intel ATX E8400 CORE 2 DUO /3.0GHz/6MB/1333FSB/LGA775 $207.00
Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard Refresh $88.00
Asus P5E-DELUXE S775 X48 FSB1600, DDR2, 2xPCIE2.0 RAID GbLAN $243.00
Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D 2GB $83.00
Logitech G5 Laser Mouse $64.00
Sapphire HD4870 512M GDDR5 PCI E TVO $389.00
Benq G2400W 24 Lcd Mon.D-sub Dvi-D HDMI 5ms $399.00
Antec Three Hundred Tower Gaming Case- Black NO PSUA $80.00
Antec TriCool 120mm Red LED Case Fan with 3-Speed Switch $29.00 x 3 = $87
Corsair HX-620 ATX Power Supply 120mm fan Dual PCI-E Graphics Card Connector 8 SATA Connectors $146.00
SteelSound 5H Professional Gaming Headset V2 $115.00
Seagate SATAII NCQ 500GB 7200RPM 32mb Cache(ST3500320AS) $104.00

Total: $2005

Logitech G5 Laser Mouse $64.00
Corsair HX-620 ATX Power Supply 120mm fan Dual PCI-E Graphics Card Co $146.00
Asus ASUS VW222U 22 WIDE 2MS DVI/VGA Tilt Speakers HDCP Vista Premium $268.00
Logitech Media Keyboard 600 USB ONLY Black $29.00
Logitech X-240 2.1 Speakers System $39.00
Seagate SATAII NCQ 500GB 7200RPM 32mb Cache(ST3500320AS) $104.00
Patriot 4G(2x2G) PC6400 800Mhz Viper EPP 4-4-4(PVS24G6400LLK) $133.00
Intel CORE 2 QUAD Q9450/2.66GHz/12MB CACHE/1333MHz FSB/LGA775 $409.00
Antec Three Hundred Tower Gaming Case- Black NO PSU $80.00
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 P45+ICH10R DDR2 1200 1600MHz PCI-E 2.0 SATAII GLA $147.00
Sapphire HD4870 512M GDDR5 PCI E TVO $389.00

Total $1808.00

Full complete system under budget pricing from Umart.

Actually the corsair in your spec is probably a better choice.

last edited by rubba-chikin at 19:13:45 10/Jul/08

I'm confused >_<

Any benefits from getting a quad these days??

Worth checking out the G9 Mouse, It's got a great feel to it and it's not much more then the G5.

g9 feels like u have a rock in ur hand

not unless u can customize the shape of it :/

there's nothing wrong with providing gear for family... but you have to have the balls to manage expectations.

if you're going to help someone out off your own bat - it's on your conditions. not theirs

things i have learnt from this thread:
G9s are fully customisable
Helping others can be dangerous
Anono severely underestimates the talent of true idiots

Another thing that you should have learnt as well is no matter what mac fanbois will stop at nothing to put forward their great machines in retarded environments while they go to get to know your mac wine and cheese tasting events.

And unfortunately I'm not joking, I recently found out the mac store at stones corner literally has wine and cheese tasting and get to know your mac days ... Jesus Zombie H. Raptor Christ on a wiffle bat, what the hell is wrong with people.

Hi, check out siegecomputers.com new Australian high performance gaming computers

You might find a rig that suits you and if not they can customize specs for you to suit your price and requirements.

last edited by Jim at 09:46:06 14/Jul/08

Only retards would buy from your store.

harsh

Siege Computer System Australia was formed by a consortium of gamers to create the ultimate High Performance Computer System Brand name.

consortium of gamers

harsh

Edit: Hell, even a retard wouln't buy from anyone who don't display contact phone numbers or addresses on their website.

last edited by scuzzy at 09:22:02 14/Jul/08

or here http://www.enspiredigital.com.au/products.php?subgroup=gaming%20systems&product_group=desktop%20systems fully customizable...

^^LOL Flexirent a custom gaming rig.

Does that mean if I go pro I can claim the repayments of my gaming rig on tax?

Your probably after a brand new PC but im thinking of selling my Gaming rig for under 850$$ The specs are as follows
3.2ghz Dual core Intel Processor (6.4ghz processing speed)
Gigabyte GeForce 8500 GT 512mb Graphics Card
2.5gig ofDDR2 RAM
320gig Harddrive
Windows XP Professional
I can get all the exact tihngs such as DVD drive name, motherboard type etc if u are interested.

Its also got a sweet case design (http://byte-better.com/img/image.php?special_id=8013) with 3 LED fans. 2 multi coloured and 1 red 120mm antec tricool at the back.

It plays all the latest games nicely (including COD4 and TF2).

I could buy better than that for new.

I was just putting it out there. Id b willing to go as low as 700 though

I was mucking around on ebay and came across this: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=300240085476&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=020

what are your thoughts?? good enough for Cod4 TF2 and the like??