The $500 Gaming PC Upgrade

[Zalis]

It seems you can throw together a budget gaming rig for less and less these days. While the tests show that high-end machines ultimately top the benchmark tests, you may be surprised at what the budget pc can do. This all, of course, is assuming you already have essential equipment like displays and keyboards, etc.

Firing Squad - $500 Gaming Upgrade

(just bought an 8800GT myself and can vouch for their awesomeness... they'll pep up any PCI-Express capable system)

[Dante Reims]

That's a nice article there Zalis. I'm still hoping to upgrade my computer soon and have been wondering about a new graphics card. There are some decent suggestions there

[paleblade]

I've really been holding back from building a new computer, as I have been waiting for the new AMD Phenom numbers to be posted. I had planned to build a new system this summer but the Intel Core 2 /Quad core stuff was really expensive (still is for the extreme).

By November 19th the AMD numbers should be out and we'll see if its faster than the Core 2. If not, I'll be building an Intel system over the Xmas holidays.

[Radicc Tyranntt]

not that you can find a 8800gt for msrp and probably won't be able to until at least the Thanksgiving and thats only if the new Ati card rocks it. So add another $25-$50 onto the price tag.


I've just be repairing my agp system when something dies. I'm hoping to wait till quad cores come down to a reasonable price before building a new rig that way I won't have to deal with it again for 10 or more years. My current computer is 3-5 years old depending on which parts have or have not failed.

[Thalion Orbdrin]

radicc said:

I'm hoping to wait till quad cores come down to a reasonable price before building a new rig that way I won't have to deal with it again for 10 or more years.

Woah... my PC guts change pretty much on a yearly basis.

[Tanin'iver BlindDragon]

I built myself a new one recently - I try to go high-end, then only replace every 3-4 years. My previous one was built in April 2004, so 3 years and 7 months old. It did have a little RAM upgrade and a graphics card replacement during its lifetime though.

Anyone interested can check out the specs on this Tech Report forum thread, where I had been trying to find performance benchmarks of Intel's ICH9R southbridge chipset for RAID5, and eventually posted my own:

techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=757076

[Pass The Towel]

Nice benchmarking there Taniniver .

I need to get used to having a steady income before I can really start playing around with more PC upgrades, but hopefully it will be soon... ;D

Very nice article Zalis. It's nice to see the AMD CPU prices low enough to be worth buying again. I was surprised to see an AMD there, because of the Core 2's better overall performance. As their benchmarks show though, if it's just for gaming it holds out in the benchmarks.

Here's an AMD-critical quote from PC-Format in their September "CPU Supertest":

While the AMD superbrain grinds its gears about getting a brand new chip out there to replace the increasingly doddling Athlon 64, its current line-up just isn't that interesting. It's ludicrous, unaffordable two-chip QuadFX range can essentially be discounted, as it's just too far off the coast of sanity for anyone to realistically sail after. Which leaves the rest as little more than speed revisions of the same chip, one that hits a performance ceiling at about half the height Intel's best does.

Hence, that moral dilemma. Given that, quite frankly, we were already pretty sure what the theme of this test's results was likely to be, and that word's got around enough that most anyone with a passing knowledge of PCs knows Intel's Core 2 Duo is currently the chip to get, was it really, honestly, worth going half-and-half? Well, no. So, proportionally speaking, there's a slight Intel bias in this test, this is not favouritism, but simply a painful acknowledgement that Core 2 is currently the superior and more varied chip, and the one that people want to be informed about the most.

They didn't review the X2 4000+, but here is what they had to say about the Athlon 64 X2 4600+:

AMD's fallen upon hard times lately: this sub-£70 chip went for £120 just three short months ago, for a start. The better news is that , with Core 2's high-end action largely revolving around quad core, the 4600+ hasn't slipped in the rankings any.

It's still a reasonably fair fight when in the ring against the E6320 and E6420, overclocking aside. If it suddenly rained AM2 motherboards from the skies or you're a crazy AMD fanboy who never gave up the dream, picking up one of these isn't the worst idea in the world. The poor 4600+ looks a right mook against the £10 dearer E4300 though, which casually shames everything it can do once you drop that astonishing overclock onto it. Still a strong chip, but despite rockbottom prices loses the value war. Verdict: 68/100.

They gave the E4300 92/100. I can type that out too if anyone is interested enough.

[Radicc Tyranntt]

Are the scsi, sata, ata from the graph done with raid as well or just single drives? (I was assuming single drives.) I remember back in the day one of my friends had a system with all scsi lvd drives in it, and I was impressed by how fast that was. Hard drives that need heat sinks on them are funny.


I stopped reading stuff after the dual cores rolled out because everything I was reading wanted to talk about over-clocked specs instead of just what they come as. I guess they forgot that not everybody wants to automatically void the warranty of their new stuff. I still stick to the old reason for over-clocking myself, my cpu is getting old and dated and I don't want to have to pay for another one just yet. So I juice up the old one.

I did see the 8800gt review right when it came out and thought I'd love to put that in my new computer and it should have a reasonable price by the time I build a new one. However the price spike leads me to believe that they won't be down in my price range by then. Oh well I have no problem holding onto what little money I have.

I've always built the budget system and never had any problem with it. If I were building a system right now though, I'd go with the Q6600 and not waste my time with dual core chips.

[Tanin'iver BlindDragon]

They are single drives Radicc, though the red bars down at the bottom left are just the burst speeds, so not that important.

Agreed on the overclocking score - the major problem I have with it is the way they say "oh yeah, this processor can clock from 2.6 Ghz to 4 Ghz, sweet!" and either really downplay or don't even mention the fact that was overvolted from 1.3 to about 1.55 volts and running about 90 C, likely to kill the processor within a few months if used at that speed constantly. I will always see what overclock I can manage without a voltage increase and keeping the temps below recommended levels though.

Those new 8800GT look like a very nice price/performance combination, I would have got one if they were available when I built! Not many games take advantage of quad-core yet but they will during the useful lifetime of the processor.

[Zalis]

taniniver said:

TThose new 8800GT look like a very nice price/performance combination, I would have got one if they were available when I built! Not many games take advantage of quad-core yet but they will during the useful lifetime of the processor.

Despite my gripes with Nvidia's driver situation, (not as good in the last year or so), I'm quite satisfied w/ the 8800GT. Fast, single-slot, and very quiet. No complaints so far, but it's only been five days. It's been fast enough to make me consider holding off on the Core2Duo upgrade. (running an AMD X2 4400 currently)

The price gouging needs to stop though, since some go for $50 over their recommended price.