Gaming PC: Current best value systems for the price - UPDATED 20/7/2008

[xr6_turbo]

That also is there as well elmo, how bad would you feel buying a $250 motherboard only to get home with it DOA.

Only way I'd ever buy overseas is getting a system built then dismantling it

-Shawn

[BailCakes]

Yes I did know all this when buying the parts, but as I said if I brought the money back to australia an 8800GT would have turned into HD2900 at BEST. Not to mention the Ram and mobo. Imo the lack of warranty was worth it.

[Westy]

Imo the lack of warranty was worth it.

you say that now .. but you will regret when you get a piece with no warranty and it dies on you really early.


it sucks

[l_w_88]

Yeah now I'm with them.

Looks like you made a really bad decision. Even if the card doesn't crap out in 5 months time it's still a very bad decision.

[mad dog]

thanks for these elmo i think ill get my parents to buy me the 1500 one

[reLive Subaru]

Gigabyte is **** you groupies.

www.abit.com.tw

ABiT IP35-Pro. No more needs to be said. Sorry to be so blunt but every time somebody puts Gigabyte and Good in the same sentence/context i die a little inside.

[Liam]

yes theyre terrible.
pretty sure the p35-pro is a 180~ board aswell?

[l_w_88]

Gigabyte is **** you groupies.

www.abit.com.tw

ABiT IP35-Pro. No more needs to be said. Sorry to be so blunt but every time somebody puts Gigabyte and Good in the same sentence/context i die a little inside.

Obvious troll is Obvious?

Srsly this is shawn's domain - he sees you bad mouthing gigabyte - you're a dead ******.

[sb^]

Gigabyte is **** you groupies.

www.abit.com.tw

ABiT IP35-Pro. No more needs to be said. Sorry to be so blunt but every time somebody puts Gigabyte and Good in the same sentence/context i die a little inside.

yes, absolutely terrible boards

...

[xr6_turbo]

Dunno, from what I heard the abit boards, were quite substandard for the cheaper budget range, not to mention overclocking was poor, Abit expensive is always good, But I still rate Gigabyte one of the best socket 775 boards ever.

Not to mention they overclock really well, and won the highest fsb overclock challenge , Also Gigabyte have all solid capacitors compared to the abit cheaper models only having them near the CPU area.

Each to their own.

-Shawn

[reLive Subaru]

Dunno, from what I heard the abit boards, were quite substandard for the cheaper budget range, not to mention overclocking was poor, Abit expensive is always good, But I still rate Gigabyte one of the best socket 775 boards ever.

Not to mention they overclock really well, and won the highest fsb overclock challenge , Also Gigabyte have all solid capacitors compared to the abit cheaper models only having them near the CPU area.

Each to their own.

-Shawn

I build plenty of low end gigabyte systems, they do not have 100% solid state No brand does on a $70 board.

[xr6_turbo]

If they are the DS series then they will but I do understand extremely cheap low end boards do not have these features

-Shawn

[elmo]

OP updated 22/3/2008.

[xr6_turbo]

Sweet Elmo

Thanks for the Update.

-Shawn

[BailCakes]

nice updates, now every1 has an 8800 !

[xRtizzle!]

Noooice.

[xr6_turbo]

Yeah the 8800 series is a solid card, lived out well

Shame the 8400's are so rare.

-Shawn

[stuN]

good thread elmo Thanks Alot ^^

[shredzy]

9800 are good. But the 8800 series are still running very strong

9800GTX is only slightly better then a 8800GTX.

[elmo]

9800 are good. But the 8800 series are still running very strong

9800GTX is only slightly better then a 8800GTX.

Correct - which is why I only included the 9800GX2. It was expected though, only a 256 bit memory bus on the 9800GTX meant it was always going to be a let down...especially considering about a year and a half ago the 8800GTX was released with a 384 bit bus ><

I think both Nvidia and ATi are changing their market strategy a lot...only about 18 months ago we saw the 8800GTS 640mb, 8800GTX and Ultra retailing for over $600, now the only card in that price category recently released is the 9800GX2. I think they've realised that only a handful of people want to spend that much cash on a graphics card and are now starting to focus more on the mainstream market eg. 8800GT/8800GTS 512mb. Same goes for ATi, their 9800GX2 equivalent is the 3870X2 and are just continuing to push sales on the HD3850/HD3870's.

[xr6_turbo]

Basically complementing what elmo said, the midrange market was lacking with the 8800gts 640mb. Times changed with the 8800gt and 9800 series, focused on the "Mid Range" to grasp more customers.

-Shawn

[smitewOw]

would the 750 dollar one make 100fps on medium/low details with no aa/HDR etc?

[elmo]

would the 750 dollar one make 100fps on medium/low details with no aa/HDR etc?

Easy - you'd most likely be getting 100+ fps with everything on high and 2xAA no problems. Overclocking it to 3ghz easily would help it out - the problem with the Pentium Dual Core E2*** series is the 1mb cache, but it'd still perform very well in source.

[DarKcS]

Easy - you'd most likely be getting 100+ fps with everything on high and 2xAA no problems. Overclocking it to 3ghz easily would help it out - the problem with the Pentium Dual Core E2*** series is the 1mb cache, but it'd still perform very well in source.

Past 1MB cache doesn't help all that much, though Source is a CPU heavy game so every bit helps.
Course you find faster CPUs with more cache doesn't necessarily mean that the cache is the reason.
You need to take the same model and clock speed and chuck more cache on it for any direct comparison.

[xr6_turbo]

In easy terms and my experience with processors

Many Games don't benefit from more cache. Faster clock speed will service a game better than cache. More cache, however, will not hurt a game at all. Cache can only do good and has minor performance benefits. For just about anything else, more cache = better.

-Shawn

[Liam]

some games benefit from more cache rather than speed actually..

[xr6_turbo]

Yes whilst true Liam, and I did not say they didn't the difference between 2mb and 4mb is very small in terms of performance

-Shawn

[freakdawg_]

think it needs to be updated.

Just saw a 8800gt for $220 and the e8400 is around $240 and a 9600gt for $169!

(prices from IT estate)

[xr6_turbo]

Prices are dynamically changing Mitchii

-Shawn

[freakdawg_]

i know shawn, but im jsut saying so you may update the thread :P

[xr6_turbo]

Nah

Elmo will probably do it when hes free

-Shawn

[funkybuddha_-]

thank yee for this

[freakdawg_]

Updates for 13/6/08 (was bored xD)


ALL PRICES BASED ON ITESTATE



$750 Build

Case: Midi ATX Case ThermalTake WingRS 100 with Tt-430W PSU Black $88
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 (2.66GHz/45nm/1333FSB/6M) LGA775 $179.00
MOBO: Intel S775 Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R $145.00
GFX: Card PCI-e (nV) 8800GT 512MB Sparkle $209.00
RAM: DDR2 Ram 2GB Kit (2x1024MB) PC6400 800MHz Geil 5-5-5-15 $69.00
HDD: 3.5" HDD SATA-300 250GB 16MB Seagate $66.00

=$756 (With a CD-Drive is about $30-$40




$1000 Build

Case:Midi ATX Case ThermalTake WingRS 100 with Tt-430W PSU Black $88
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (3GHz/45nm/1333FSB/6M) LGA775 $209.00
MOBO: Intel S775 Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R $145.00
GFX: Leadtek PX8800GTS PCI-E 512MB $344.90 (this is from ARC computers, not it estate)
RAM: DDR2 Ram 2GB Kit PC6400 800MHz Geil Ultra 4-4-4-12 $79.00
HDD: 3.5" HDD SATA-300 500GB 32MB Seagate $99.00

=$964.90



Can do other Prices, if asked, but atm i cbf doing them.

If there is anything i missed, or something may work better or something PM me and can change it.

[elmo]

Thanks freakdawg, was planning to update this within the next couple days actually - it's been a while.

[ozp_]

Prices are dynamically changing Mitchii

-Shawn

The world price and dynamic in the same sentence makes me shiver :P

[elmo]

Updated 13/6/2008.

[xr6_turbo]

Thanks Elmo looks decent

-Shawn

[etriC!]

wow that 750 build ****s on mine and i got mine for 1250 like a year ago, wish i did my research.

[SHo]

Wait, 430w Thermaltake PSU's. The one's that aren't even rated for 330w?

Maybe a rethink in the PSU department.

[xRtizzle!]

nah tt psu's are ****. Just stick with the CM 430w.