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Thread ID: 105239 2009-11-24 07:59:00 Gaming machine - what specs? Myth (110) Press F1
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833131 2009-11-24 07:59:00 Having never built one, I'm not sure what I should be looking for here.

Client wants me to set up a list with prices so he can have something of a start-point. At this stage, budget is not an issue, he wants to be able to do media to TV, games emulation, and PC games.
Also, include which OS would be better for this (must be media centre capable)

Thanks :)

note:
Gamers/builders: I know there a lot of you out there, your input is valued here
Dreamers: refrain from posting about what-you-wish-you-had

Thank you 		Myth (110)
833132 2009-11-24 08:06:00 Default GP $500 - $2000+ PC Build Suggestions

~$1000
Intel + ATI
CPU: $134.00 Intel Pentium Dual Core E6300 2.80GHz 1066Mhz FSB 2MB Cache 65W TDP
Mobo: $138.00 Asustek P5QL SE Intel P43 DDR2 ATX
RAM: $125.00 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-1000
GFX: $249.00 ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB GDDR5
Case: $100.00 Case
PSU: $95.00 Cooler Master 460W eXtreme Power Plus PSU
DVD: $65.00 SATA 22x DVD-RW Drive (brand varies)
HDD: $99.00 640GB Western Digital Caviar Blue/SE 16MB 7200RPM SATA HDD
= $1,005.00 Total inc gst, ex shipping

~$1500
Intel + ATI
CPU: $355.00 Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz 8MB Cache 95W TDP LGA1156
Mobo: $229.00 Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX
RAM: $155.00 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-1333 CL9 MEMORY
GFX: $319.00 ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 - or - ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 (DX11)
Case: $125.00 Case
PSU: $119.00 Corsair VX450 450W Series Power Supply
DVD: $65.00 SATA 22x DVD-RW Drive (brand varies)
HDD: $139.00 1TB (1,000GB) Seagate Barracuda 7200.12
= $1,506.00 Total inc gst, ex shipping

~$2000
Intel + ATI
CPU: $355.00 Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz 8MB Cache 95W TDP LGA1156
Mobo: $295.00 Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4 LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX (x8/x8 Crossfire + SLI)
RAM: $170.00 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 MEMORY
GFX: $529.00 2x ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB (Crossfire) - or - 1x ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB (DX11)
Case: $179.00 Case (eg CM Scout or Lian Li Lancool Dragonlord PC-K62B)
PSU: $209.00 Corsair HX620 620W Modular Power Supply
DVD: $65.00 SATA 22x DVD-RW Drive (brand varies)
HDD: $139.00 1TB (1,000GB) Seagate Barracuda 7200.12
= $1,941.00 Total inc gst, ex shipping

~$3000
Intel + ATI
CPU: $509.00 Intel Core i7 860 2.80GHz 8MB Cache 95W TDP Hyper-threading LGA1156
Mobo: $295.00 Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4 LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX (x8/x8 Crossfire + SLI)
RAM: $170.00 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 MEMORY
GFX: $729.00 ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB (DX11)
Case: $300.00 Case
PSU: $239.00 Corsair TX750 750W Series Power Supply
DVD: $65.00 SATA 22x DVD-RW Drive (brand varies)
HDD1: $529.00 Intel X25-M 80GB 2.5" SSD
HDD: $215.00 1.5TB Western Digital Caviar Green 32MB Cache SATAII
= $3,051.00 Total inc gst, ex shipping

Note: prices on some components are a bit cheaper now 		whellington (15030)
833133 2009-11-24 08:52:00 +1 yep that thread is a great starting point. Assuming budget is no issue the I7 might be a goer, id go for the 1366 platform over the 1156 listed there at about $135 more, as its arguably the better platform. You can still run the same Dual channel ram if you choose.

www.computerlounge.co.nz
www.computerlounge.co.nz 		Battleneter2 (9361)
833134 2009-11-24 09:16:00 Recommended reading from nVidia on a "Balanced PC" for gaming:
www.nvidia.com


:) 		Chilling_Silence (9)
833135 2009-11-24 09:53:00 Whellington: I couldn't dream of putting together a better list than that...

Also, I can't see anyone who doesn't play games religiously needing anything more than the $1500 PC at any stage, ever. 		Thebananamonkey (7741)
833136 2009-11-24 10:07:00 Anything based on I7 will be awesome, 4gig+ of RAM, Windows 7 is just as fast as XP and alot pretty/functionable

And best graphics card the client can afford

Would Windows Media Center (built in to windows) suffice for media center? 		hueybot3000 (3646)
833137 2009-11-24 10:10:00 @ whellington - woah!! Wasn't expecting this. Awesome
@ Chilling - Thanks for that. Will have a read up tomorrow :)
@ hueybot - Windows MC what I am looking at, mainly due to the limitations of other OS's in regards to PC gaming. I need something that can be a Media centre, as well as a gaming machine 		Myth (110)
833138 2009-11-24 10:11:00 SSD is not THAT important for gaming, though from what I've read there will be some noticeable improvements in some games, if not FPS-wise then those mini pauses where the game has to load something from the HDD. Loading time improvement varies from game to game, I think I read Crysis loading time was shaved by about 14 seconds, which isn't too shabby, and those mini pauses almost disappeared.

If he wants to future proof then it's best to get an X58 platform, not P55. However if he doesn't want to future proof too much then a P55 motherboard with an i7 860 is a great choice. Newer cards like the 5870 scales extremely well in Crossfire at 8x/8x config with each card delivering about 95% of a 16x config. I think we may be able to expect the same level of multi-GPU scaling with nVidia's new Fermi cards in the future, which is expected around March 2010. 		qazwsxokmijn (102)
833139 2009-11-24 17:07:00 Yeah SSD's will generally affect load times, but if you're not going for uber-high-end then yeah it'll be a waste of time and it's money better spent on a higher-spec (Or SLI) graphics card Chilling_Silence (9)
833140 2009-11-24 20:05:00 IMO, the new ATi 5000 series are so powerful, you really only need 1 card, if you have to you could get the twin version 5970, you would need to be running over 2560x1600 w/ 4xAA to bring it to its knees.
If you only get one GPU, you could then get TV tuners etc to be media centre capable. SLIíng would make this difficult.

As the Lynnfield platform has better thermals and turbo mode, I would get that over the 1366. Sure you cant upgrade to the next CPU (6 core), but I really cant see that as a necessity, few programs use all thread at present and even fewer games. When only 2 cores are used the Lynnfield processor is ONLY bettered buy the extreme i7 CPU, meaning while it is a quad core, it is also the fastest dual core on the market today. 		SolMiester (139)
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