I'm looking to get a performance desktop system. Anyone here have purchased one already or is looking for one as well? I'm willing to shell out $2,500 - $2,700 for this. Dell's got the XPS, Alienware's got the Area 51 7500, even MDG's got the Stealth, all in a comparable price range. I'm not sure where else to look and which system is the best deal. Ratings on these systems on cnet is either not all that great or is too new to have any ratings. Any experience gamers here that care to comment?
Performance Gaming Desktops
- Thread starter fearnoevil2005
- Start date
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2789263&Sku=SYXS-DB-989460fearnoevil2005 said:
Tigerdirect sent out ads for this yesterday....
Avoid MDG. For a performance rig either do your own research on all your components, and I mean all, PSU included. These are important parts of any rig, especially high performance rigs.
Also, just so you know, Dell bought Alienware in mid 2006 I believe. But Alienware does make nice machines. I priced one out the other day. By the time I was finished what was supposed to be a $2800 machine was coming out 5Gs. They advertised all the good features but when you click on the cart you find out many of the things they advertised were options. This was on the Aurora laptop.
But if you can control your desire for goodies you don't need you can still do it in your price range.
Also, just so you know, Dell bought Alienware in mid 2006 I believe. But Alienware does make nice machines. I priced one out the other day. By the time I was finished what was supposed to be a $2800 machine was coming out 5Gs. They advertised all the good features but when you click on the cart you find out many of the things they advertised were options. This was on the Aurora laptop.
But if you can control your desire for goodies you don't need you can still do it in your price range.
Remo's right. Research ALL the components. It's really not that hard to assemble your own system if you bought all the parts separately.
Re: TigerDirect offer: They don't brag it's XP 64 bit, so I'm assuming it's the 32 bit version of XP. The 32 bit version can only use 3 GB of memory, so they're selling you 1 GB of memory you can't use!!
Re: TigerDirect offer: They don't brag it's XP 64 bit, so I'm assuming it's the 32 bit version of XP. The 32 bit version can only use 3 GB of memory, so they're selling you 1 GB of memory you can't use!!
ASN, good points but you also forgot to add:
SLI video cards (where two cards run in tandem)
Fast harddrive ......look at the rpm, seek and retrieve times and cache...
Fast and powerful sound card such as the Soundblaster Fatality X-FI. I installed this one and all my games run about 25% faster now. (plus the remote control is cool when you're listening to tunes).
The ram must be DD2 and all the specs should be close to 2,2,2.5,2 (or lower)
If I was building a gamer, I'd go to somewhere like Canada Computer and tell them what you're after and have them build it from all the best components.
I'd also check out gamer sites like gamespy and the like for their ultimate gaming machines.
Don't forget you'll probably want to overclock it too so water cooling is something to be considered for the processor, the northbridge, the hard drives and the memory.
If you're going to be playing online you'll need a 5 mbps connection or better
I'd also look into the specs on AMD based machines. AMD is supposed to be THE architecture for gaming but someone told me recently that an intel based machine matched their performance at less cost.
SLI video cards (where two cards run in tandem)
Fast harddrive ......look at the rpm, seek and retrieve times and cache...
Fast and powerful sound card such as the Soundblaster Fatality X-FI. I installed this one and all my games run about 25% faster now. (plus the remote control is cool when you're listening to tunes).
The ram must be DD2 and all the specs should be close to 2,2,2.5,2 (or lower)
If I was building a gamer, I'd go to somewhere like Canada Computer and tell them what you're after and have them build it from all the best components.
I'd also check out gamer sites like gamespy and the like for their ultimate gaming machines.
Don't forget you'll probably want to overclock it too so water cooling is something to be considered for the processor, the northbridge, the hard drives and the memory.
If you're going to be playing online you'll need a 5 mbps connection or better
I'd also look into the specs on AMD based machines. AMD is supposed to be THE architecture for gaming but someone told me recently that an intel based machine matched their performance at less cost.
The e-mail ad I got said it was shipping with Vista (thats why they sent e-mails out yesterday).... try this link instead:thirdtime said:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2864321&CatId=2404
Start a spreadsheet of various components and options you want. Build it up from system recommendations from sites like Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/index.ars) ... click on "Guides", then "System Guide (Dec 2006 ed)"
http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-guide-200612.ars
Then do a bit of research on component choices from Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com/).
Price components from a quality local vendor; in Ottawa I recommend PCCyber (http://pccyber.com/). You'll get to see how your costs build up, and make your own tradeoffs (e.g. a better graphics card, or more RAM?)
You can decide what features are important to you, and take your list to a shop to get it built to your spec. Or, if you find a pre-configured system that works for you, go for it. But Avoid MDG.
http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-guide-200612.ars
Then do a bit of research on component choices from Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com/).
Price components from a quality local vendor; in Ottawa I recommend PCCyber (http://pccyber.com/). You'll get to see how your costs build up, and make your own tradeoffs (e.g. a better graphics card, or more RAM?)
You can decide what features are important to you, and take your list to a shop to get it built to your spec. Or, if you find a pre-configured system that works for you, go for it. But Avoid MDG.
dont buy an anienware laptop. They are pieces of shit. My brother in law spent about $2500 USD about 3 years ago and hed to put in over $650 in repairs since. Bad motherboard after 18 months, Replaced the latch 2 times. The cable ribbon that connects the monitor caught on fire after 2 years. Bad Power supply at 21 months and now the hinge on the monitor is falling apart. Other than that its been great LOL
I agree Norton takes over your system. Very resource heavy.data1960 said:
Upgrading to a 10K rpm hard drive will make your game levels load faster but the game itself won't run any better.
Going to RAID0 (writes/reads half the data to/from 2 or more hard drives simultaneously) does have a noticable improvement but not as much as it does in theory. If you have 2 drives, in theory it would be 100% faster. Reality is about 60%.
Well, this is where you have to decide for yourself just where to draw the line. I know people (not necessarily for computers) that will spend any amount for even the slightest improvement.data1960 said:
If you realize a 5% increase in overall system speed, would it be worth it to you?
Funny (in response to the sli comment on the previous page) from the examples I've read, all the hot performance machines run sli.....
You don't need to spend wildly for increases in system speed.tboy said:
Just spend smartly.
Make sure the CPU, motherboard and memory work well together and are ALL overclockable.
I have an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz (1066MHz bus) 2 X 2MB L2 Cache Socket 775 Processor mildly overclocked with both cores running at 3.11 GHz.
That's almost a 30% increase.
I'm running a Thermaltake Big Typhoon for CPU cooling instead of the factory Intel heatsink & fan. If I switched to water cooling I could get it to just under 4 GHz.
An Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X6800 runs at 2.93 Ghz (slower than mine) and costs almost $800 more. The Big Typhoon cost me $60 and keeps the CPU cooler (overclocked) than the factory fan would at non-overclocked speed.
Again: spend smartly.
Third, don't take this the wrong way, (because I'm just not UP on all the lingo) but how can you say the E6800 runs slower than your when you state in your post that your E6600 runs at 2.4 and the 6800 runs at 2.93?
I ask because the 6800 is purported to be the processor these days....
I ask because the 6800 is purported to be the processor these days....
ok, then, why couldn't you overclock the 6800 to say 3.22? (which for all intents and purposes you should be able to)
You will definately get more for your money by picking your own components and building it yourself.
PC gamer and Maxximum PC recently had issues with great articles with step by step instructions on how to build.
Best store for pricing I have found in the GTA is
http://www.pccanada.com/
As for video cards, go with nvidia and consider the newer cards that are dx10compatible.
And very important.. dont go cheap on a power supply. No point in having great components if they cant perform beacuse they are fighting for power.
PC gamer and Maxximum PC recently had issues with great articles with step by step instructions on how to build.
Best store for pricing I have found in the GTA is
http://www.pccanada.com/
As for video cards, go with nvidia and consider the newer cards that are dx10compatible.
And very important.. dont go cheap on a power supply. No point in having great components if they cant perform beacuse they are fighting for power.
