Gaming Machine
Contents |
$750 AMD
Part | Model | Price | Case |
---|---|---|---|
CPU | AMD Athlon X2 5200+ | 144 | |
Motherboard | MSI K9N-Neo V3 | 98 | |
RAM | 2GB Kingston DDR2-667 | 65 | |
Hard Drive | 250GB Samsung Spinpoint P120 SP2504C | 70 | |
Optical Drive | LG GSA-H62N 18x SATA DVDRW | 35 | |
Graphics Card | 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS | 187 | |
Sound Card | Onboard from motherboard | - | |
Case | Cooler Master Centurion 5 CAC-T05 w/430W PSU | 100 | |
Power Supply | Included with case | - | |
Cooling | - | - | |
Additional | - | - | |
Total Cost | - | 697 + Postage |
This system, despite its low price is a viable ticket to entry level gaming. It features a reasonable sized hard drive (250GB) sufficient for most users, and a decent video card, which will be plenty quick enough for most games.
$750 Intel
Part | Model | Price | Case |
---|---|---|---|
CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 | 145 | |
Motherboard | Gigabyte P31-S3L | 97 | |
RAM | 2GB Kingston DDR2-667 | 65 | |
Hard Drive | 250GB Samsung Spinpoint P120 SP2504C | 70 | |
Optical Drive | LG GSA-H62N 18x SATA DVDRW | 35 | |
Graphics Card | 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS | 187 | |
Sound Card | Onboard from motherboard | - | |
Case | Cooler Master Centurion 5 CAC-T05 w/430W PSU | 100 | |
Power Supply | Included with case | - | |
Cooling | - | - | |
Additional | - | - | |
Total Cost | - | 694 + Postage |
$1000 AMD
Part | Model | Price | Case |
---|---|---|---|
CPU | AMD Athlon X2 5600+ | 168 | |
Motherboard | MSI K9N-Neo V3 | 98 | |
RAM | 2GB Kingston DDR2-667 | 65 | |
Hard Drive | 320GB Samsung Spinpoint T HD321KJ | 88 | |
Optical Drive | LG GSA-H62N 18x SATA DVDRW | 35 | |
Graphics Card | 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT | 314 | |
Sound Card | Onboard from motherboard | - | |
Case | Cooler Master Centurion 5 CAC-T05 | 67 | |
Power Supply | SilverStone Strider ST56F 560W | 111 | |
Cooling | - | - | |
Additional | - | - | |
Total Cost | - | 946 + Postage |
For under $1000 this machine is a bargain beast.
$1000 Intel
Part | Model | Price | Case |
---|---|---|---|
CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 | 145 | |
Motherboard | Gigabyte P35-DS3L | 123 | |
RAM | 2GB Kingston DDR2-667 | 65 | |
Hard Drive | 320GB Samsung Spinpoint T HD321KJ | 88 | |
Optical Drive | LG GSA-H62N 18x SATA DVDRW | 35 | |
Graphics Card | 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT | 314 | |
Sound Card | Onboard from motherboard | - | |
Case | Cooler Master Centurion 5 CAC-T05 | 67 | |
Power Supply | SilverStone Strider ST56F 560W | 111 | |
Cooling | - | - | |
Additional | - | - | |
Total Cost | - | 948 + Postage |
At a touch under $1000 the Intel Core 2 Duo system is quite impressive. For $1000, this system would be very quick and well suited for demanding office applications and some decent gaming.
$1250 AMD
Part | Model | Price | Case |
---|---|---|---|
CPU | AMD Athlon X2 6400+ | 259 | |
Motherboard | MSI K9N-Neo V3 | 98 | |
RAM | 2GB Kingston DDR2-667 | 65 | |
Hard Drive | 500GB Samsung Spinpoint T166 HD501LJ | 129 | |
Optical Drive | LG GSA-H62N 18x SATA DVDRW | 35 | |
Graphics Card | 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT | 314 | |
Sound Card | Onboard from motherboard | - | |
Case | Cooler Master Centurion 5 CAC-T05 | 67 | |
Power Supply | 620W Corsair CMPSU-620HX | 164 | |
Cooling | Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro | 35 | |
Additional | - | - | |
Total Cost | - | 1166 + Postage |
This machine is a bargain beast, with a high-end AMD CPU, GeForce 8800GT, 2GB of RAM and a 500GB HDD. Definitely a good value system :)
$1250 Intel
Part | Model | Price | Case |
---|---|---|---|
CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 | 219 | |
Motherboard | Gigabyte P35-DS3L | 124 | |
RAM | 2GB Kingston DDR2-667 | 65 | |
Hard Drive | 500GB Samsung Spinpoint T166 HD501LJ | 129 | |
Optical Drive | LG GSA-H62N 18x SATA DVDRW | 35 | |
Graphics Card | 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT | 314 | |
Sound Card | Onboard from motherboard | - | |
Case | Cooler Master Centurion 5 CAC-T05 | 67 | |
Power Supply | 620W Corsair CMPSU-620HX | 164 | |
Cooling | - | - | |
Additional | - | - | |
Total Cost | - | 1137 + Postage |
I'd say that this machine is probably the sweet spot. It has a quick CPU, plenty of RAM, and a very quick video card. :)
$1500 Intel
Part | Model | Price | Case |
---|---|---|---|
CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 | 219 | |
Motherboard | Gigabyte P35-DS3L | 124 | |
RAM | 2GB Kingston DDR2-667 | 65 | |
Hard Drive | 500GB Samsung Spinpoint T166 HD501LJ | 129 | |
Optical Drive | LG GSA-H62N 18x SATA DVDRW | 35 | |
Graphics Card | 768MB nVidia GeForce 8800GTX | 640 | |
Sound Card | Onboard from motherboard | - | |
Case | Cooler Master Centurion 5 CAC-T05 | 67 | |
Power Supply | 620W Corsair CMPSU-620HX | 164 | |
Cooling | Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro | 39 | |
Additional | - | - | |
Total Cost | - | 1482 + Postage |
This does go over budget, but it gives you an excellent video card. If price is an issue, maybe drop down to an E6550 or a Radeon HD2900XT/GeForce 8800GTS instead.
$1750 Intel
Part | Model | Price | Case |
---|---|---|---|
CPU | Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 | 318 | |
Motherboard | Gigabyte P35-DS3L | 124 | |
RAM | 2GB Corsair TwinX DDR2 800 | 106 | |
Hard Drive | 500GB Samsung Spinpoint T166 HD501LJ | 129 | |
Optical Drive | LG GSA-H62N 18x SATA DVDRW | 35 | |
Graphics Card | 768MB nVidia GeForce 8800GTX | 640 | |
Sound Card | Onboard from motherboard | - | |
Case | Cooler Master Centurion 5 CAC-T05 | 67 | |
Power Supply | 620W Corsair CMPSU-620HX | 164 | |
Cooling | Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro | 39 | |
Additional | - | - | |
Total Cost | - | 1632 + Postage |
Probably as far as the average user needs to go to have a very decent gaming experience - top of the range graphics card with a decent CPU. If dualcore is more your thing, an E6850 is similar money.
After this point, the higher end systems are found in the Dream Machine section