DIY 4 GHz Dual Core Gaming Rig For $720 201
Tom's Hardware has posted the detailed results of their recent quest to build a beefy gaming rig without a visit to the poorhouse. The trick it seems is to find a processor with 'cores designed for a much faster clock than their nominal rating at a speed of up to 4 GHz without problems.' They provide shopping lists for both a 'budget version' and a 'top flight version'.
Site getting slow by page 3 (Score:4, Informative)
Maybe try using a Coral Cache version [nyud.net] so other folks get a chance to see the article.
Cheers!
Re:Site getting slow by page 3 (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Site getting slow by page 3 (Score:2)
At least they changed the link so it points direct to Tom's. The original redirected through pheedo.com (whatever that is).
Re:Site getting slow by page 3 (Score:2)
Tough shit if the majority come through Coral thanks to slashdot, but it serves him doubly right if he really did pay for his feature (Slashdot wouldn't stoop so low
Perfect! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Perfect! (Score:2)
Re:Perfect! (Score:2)
Already outdated (Score:5, Insightful)
"we purchased a stock processor at the prevailing retail price. Since then, demand for this CPU has spiked, and prices have also gone up."
I always see these "Build a super system for no money!" articles, but when *I* try to price the components, it never seems to add up.
Re:Already outdated (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Already outdated (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Already outdated (Score:3, Informative)
Also, Tom's did a benchmark a few months ago comparing performance with various amounts of RAM. While they found a decent improvement going 512MB -> 1Gig, they didn't find much difference going 1Gig -> 2Gig.
That said, even after reading it I included a matched pair of 1Gig sticks in my upgrade; it didn't add much to the price and it can't hurt. (Besides which, being able to alt-tab out of a game withou
Re:Already outdated (Score:2)
Re:Already outdated (Score:2)
I run back background programs that use up some RAM (utorrent and winamp) while I play though
i hear those two are real hogs...
Re:Already outdated (Score:2)
Re:Already outdated (Score:2)
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sar chasm&r=f [urbandictionary.com]
Winamp 5.13 / classic skin - 7.4M
uTorrent 1.5 / 62 torrents - 7.6M
both started a couple of months ago.
Re:Already outdated (Score:2)
Re:Already outdated (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Already outdated (Score:3, Insightful)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N8
First google hit on "computer parts" btw so its probably even cheaper somewhere else.
Re:Already outdated (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Already outdated (Score:2)
ME TOO!!!1 (Score:3, Funny)
Nice OC on the processor but... (Score:5, Informative)
Most game programmers optimize their engines around video cards these days, not the CPU.
Re:Nice OC on the processor but... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Nice OC on the processor but... (Score:2)
I like the idea of using one of these low-cost chips, but am not one to engage in the overclocked e-peen constests. I just want a cost-effective system.
How much could I overclock this chip and use just forced-air cooling and a large surface-area heatsink?
Re:Nice OC on the processor but... (Score:2)
Here is my comment about the article (Score:3, Funny)
what's interesting about this is the unique
No visit to the poorhouse (Score:5, Funny)
.
*next*
.
visit to
.
*next*
.
the mother-
.
*next*
.
fucking adhouse.
Re:No visit to the poorhouse (Score:2, Informative)
What ads? (Score:2)
LOL
print url (Score:5, Informative)
Working link (Score:3, Informative)
Use this url if you're too lazy to copy and paste. It should strip the referer header and take you straight to the one-page print version.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
For those of you who will complain (Score:4, Informative)
Re:For those of you who will complain (Score:2)
Re:For those of you who will complain (Score:2)
http://www.dansdata.com/homepc.htm [dansdata.com]
The $710 dollar one was not the overclocked one (Score:5, Insightful)
Next, that X1300 is godawful. Lastly, I disagree with water cooling. A thermalright XP-120 with a ~80 CFM fan and decent thermal grease would provide very similar thermal performance, albeit louder.
Re:The $710 dollar one was not the overclocked one (Score:3, Informative)
http://svcompucycle.stores.yahoo.net/ultra-120.ht
Re:The $710 dollar one was not the overclocked one (Score:2)
Re:The $710 dollar one was not the overclocked one (Score:2)
By 2nd system, they mean the $1200 one. "A different system" could mean anything using that same processor.
Re:The $710 dollar one was not the overclocked one (Score:2)
Yep, its hardly a "gameing rig" with that thing in there, and lets face it, with modern PCs graphics card is a substatial part of the cost.
How about we slot a 7900gt in there, and maybe ANY amd64 939 chip, as it will beat the intel for gameing (per $) every time
Re:The $710 dollar one was not the overclocked one (Score:2)
I'm a firm believer in the more memory the merrier. Looking around the home office, I have machines with anything from 1GB (laptop) to 3GB (my video editing box). Swapping to the hard drive is *slow*. Sure, it made sense back when systems were slower and RAM was super-expensive, but today it's something that should be avoided.
I'd rather have a 20% slower CPU and twice the RAM for the same cost. Which is something I always tell prospective buy
Re:The $710 dollar one was not the overclocked one (Score:2)
You mean, like, yesterday?
No, I get what you're saying, but I haven't run into a game yet that needed more than 1 GB of RAM to function at 100%. More important would be the the RAM modules on the video card itself.
As for video editing, bring on the memory. You can never have enough.
What I don't get is why everyone seems to think that systems should be OCed just for the sake of being OCed. Seriously. I'm running an Athlon64 X2 3800
Re:The $710 dollar one was not the overclocked one (Score:2)
The only example I know off off-hand is Civilization IV when using the larger and more complex settings. The size (number of tiles) drives the memory size and I think I was using 1.5GB of RAM for Civ4 last December. I could've run a smaller map and fit within 1GB, but I preferred large maps. I haven't kept up with th
Nice (Score:2)
Yeah, sure, only $720 for the machine... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Yeah, sure, only $720 for the machine... (Score:2)
Re:Yeah, sure, only $720 for the machine... (Score:2)
Re:Yeah, sure, only $720 for the machine... (Score:2)
200W = 4.8KWh/day = 144KHh/month
144KWh at a pricey $.20/KWh = $28.80/mo
$1,000
Stable Power Supply: 400 Watts Is Plenty? (Score:4, Insightful)
Quality Quantity (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Quality Quantity (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Quality Quantity (Score:2)
* Intel Pentium D 805
* Tagan i-Xeye 480 W PSU
* Asus P5WD2-E Premium
* OCZ DDR2-800 (2x 512 MB)
* 2x Western Digital WD160
* GeForce 7800 GTX
* Gigabyte DVD-Rom 16x
Honestly, do you think that 7800GTX might have helped with those game benchmarks? Maybe...
Now duplicate those results with the machine in the article.
Re:Quality Quantity (Score:2, Insightful)
One of the conclusions that
overclocking a false economy (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:overclocking a false economy (Score:2)
Re:Quality Quantity (Score:2)
Dude, Give it a rest. Apple finally switched to Intel. You can quit reciting the ole GHZ doesn't mater mantra.
Re:Quality Quantity (Score:2, Informative)
Differences in work done per clock cycle don't just apply to the PowerPC architecture. I know you were probably
$720 and an ATI X1300 != 'beefy' (Score:2)
As with most rigs, if you can, reuse components from the previous rig like optical drives, hard drives, case + power supply even. You really want to get the upgrade down to CPU, Motherboard, Memory, Graphics Card.
In a month's time, and AMD X2 3800+ will cost around $170 due to upcoming price cuts. That's far better than any house-cooking Pentium D 805, and will probably overclock nicely as well. Stick that onto a $100 motherboard, with $100 R
Re:$720 and an ATI X1300 != 'beefy' (Score:2)
Re:$720 and an ATI X1300 != 'beefy' (Score:5, Insightful)
"how cheap can we make a rig that is based around the Pentium D 805"
rather than
"what is the best rig we can specify for ~$700"
When a huge amount is spent on exotic cooling (plus a 12" fan on the case, lol) because the processor gets so hot when overclocked and you want to still hear the gameplay, and sucks down nearly half a kiloWatt of juice, you know something isn't right. The video card is the obvious casualty in this situation, nullifying the entire worth and purpose of the article.
It's a typical THG article, written with a certain bent that almost seems as if it is sponsored, rather than having any real use to the reader.
Horrible (Score:4, Insightful)
My $800 system from 3.5 years ago would beat this in most games with justa a $100 video card upgrade.
Re:Horrible (Score:2)
Annd hered GeekLimits Rebuttal (Score:2, Interesting)
How much for the... (Score:3, Funny)
Is Dual Core Gaming Actually Viable Yet? (Score:5, Insightful)
First of all, a few comments about the article itself... The article mentions that the $720 rig is "sufficient for non-gamers". I think they're considering it more for high-end video editing... this also explains the choice of RAID 0. I'm somewhat puzzled with their choice of using 3G/s discs on a 1.5 G/s SATA board, however. I suppose this could be for economic reasons -- those Samsungs could be about the cheapest disc on the market at the moment.
Moreover, since when is Dual Core really a gaming solution to begin with? Sure, if you want to make big downloads or burn CDs in the background while gaming, there might be some benefit. Other than that, we have a handful of games that actually support dual core. I guess it makes sense to include dual core for the sake of future releases, but what's the point of installing something that's basically bleeding edge (as far as gaming is concerned) on a budget system? It seems to me that your other components are going to be horribly dated well before most game releases are really supporting dual cores.
Am I wrong here? Have games started secretly taking advantage of two physical cores while I wasn't looking? Are we in the future yet?
Re:Is Dual Core Gaming Actually Viable Yet? (Score:2)
That being said, if I was building a budget level game box (using the motherboard bundles at MWave): [mwave.com]
Athlon64 3000+ 939pin, 1GB Kingston RAM, $75 MB, Assembled = $264
Which would have reasonable performance, good expandability. T
Noisy power hog for $720+ is a deal ? (Score:3, Interesting)
I can imagine plenty of business uses for a box like this, however is the home draw for this very big ? If so, is it purely the "pimp my PC" crowd that goes for this ?
Just curious.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
depressing... (Score:2)
Compare to overclocking the Opteron 165 (Score:2)
Re:Okay.... stop reading diggvsdot before posting (Score:2)
Huh? (Score:2)
Re:Okay.... stop reading diggvsdot before posting (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Okay.... stop reading diggvsdot before posting (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Okay.... stop reading diggvsdot before posting (Score:2)
Re:Okay.... stop reading diggvsdot before posting (Score:3, Insightful)
Give me a break. I don't read digg because the site annoys me on several levels. When this site's charter changes to "News for Nerds Who Also Read Digg", then everyone should get right on making your life easier. Until then, if the dupes bother you so much, hack together something in RSS that listens to both sites and presents an unduped, merged view of things that are important to
Re:How do new gaming consoles compete? (Score:2)
Re:How do new gaming consoles compete? (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course, I could be wrong. It might be nice to have an upgradable game machine.
Re:How do new gaming consoles compete? (Score:2)
Re:Tomshardware is a joke (Score:2)
Re:Tomshardware is a joke (Score:2)
Who are you, Tom?
Re:Tomshardware is a joke (Score:2)
if you like we'll get ahold of newegg and get them to put the price up to make you happier.
Re:Tomshardware is a joke (Score:2)
CPU: Crap, can't even get it at that price anymore.
What I said:
3 dollars less is not at the same price as the article,
what you said:
a $3 cheaper price is different than a significantly higher price like some were claiming
I don't remember anyone saying it was higher or lower, just not the same.
BTAIM, here is an example of you sense of humor:
Re:Tomshardware is a joke (Score:2)
Sounds like someone who didn't read TFA and just made a half-assed comment to appear smart or funny.
If he's seriously going to call an article crap because the component is now $3 cheaper than what was in the article at time of posting, then yes, his entire comment is garbage.
Re:Tomshardware is a joke (Score:2)
Re:Tomshardware is a joke (Score:4, Funny)
Heatsink: Mounted with piece of 2x4. Super Crap.
Seriously I'd be embarassed to have this computer. Chipset fan mounted with twist ties and a heatsink held in place with a piece of 2x4? That is ridiculous. I stopped reading the article as I was afraid I'd find out they mounted the harddrive with some chicken wire
Re:Tomshardware is a joke (Score:2)
No, it was a live chicken wasn't it?
Re:Tomshardware is a joke (Score:2)
Re:Tomshardware is a joke (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Tomshardware is a joke (Score:2, Insightful)
Hey, but at least we aren't accusing Tom of being biased for AMD's like /.ers usually do.
Re:Get a console it's Cheaper! (Score:2)
I know the PS2 has a linux kit and a keyboard, but i think you had to either use firewire networking or something else bizarre can't recall off hand. so, yeah, I'll stick to my PCs
Re:Get a console it's Cheaper! (Score:2)
which has nothing to do with gaming.
Hint: Gaming != offsite server administration.
Re:Get a console it's Cheaper! (Score:2)
Re:Orthography? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Orthography? (Score:2)
Re:Orthography? (Score:2)
Re:Price Comparison (Score:2)
Re:Price Comparison (Score:2)
But these days, you only need Windows for gaming.