extremetech.com— These days it's pretty easy to put together your own Windows PC, but which parts should you get for the most performance for your money? This article tells you.
Jun 12, 2007View in Crawl 4
f**king Extreme Tech. Their articles are always one paragraph per page so you have to click through a dozen pages to read what could have been done with two pages max. Way to pump up the ad revenue. You Suck.
@zdigglerThe addition of good memory and hard drive depends on what your doing. Most gamers are gonna need fast RAM and a hard drive (especially because of Windows page file used for games). I went out and got the Raptor a few months ago, and I've gotten the fastest boot times, game load times, and any other times possible in Windows. I've had it for about 6 months and wouldn't go back to a 7200 RPM drive. Highly recommended.
Actually, it's not a 'budget pc' they were building... The idea was to build a 'bang-for-the-buck' pc... There's a difference.Also, it's funny to me how many people are like 'that totally sucks' but how few actually put any sort of details as to why and even fewer that offer alternatives.
Too bad the Pentium D is a piece of s**t. You are kind of right on the video card. Right now I would go with a 7900gs or 8600 gt. The 7600 is way old news.
It's not that bad of a list if you tweak it a little and dump some of the crap I won't need...plus some of the prices they quote have come down already (on newegg). I got it down to $968 by excluding: KB, Mouse, monitor, speakers, sound card, reader, OS and ready boost (things I have already or don't need). I bumped the CPU down a notch to the 2.4g (save $105); The mobo is $40 cheaper on newegg already, The video card is $250 at newegg now (take that down a notch and save a few more bucks), get a cheaper DVD drive of any sort.Exclude the stuff you don't need/want, bump the processor down a notch and this beefy box will set you back less than $1k. Not cheap, but not bad for a rig with these specs.
I don't think they justified alot of the recommendations enough.. they were looking to somehow trump their previous system's specs and base everything on that.. not what is REALLY more perfect/efficient in today's market.. What I'd say is make strategic purchases of equipment.. for example, in the summer you wait for the price cuts as we go into the late summer/back to school season in CPU's, flash memory and hard drives. Video cards are plain OBSCENE in their pricing schemes vs performance given the paltry software list that takes full advantage of them. Still, video card makers keep prices high at their peril. This is what happens when there only TWO significant GPU makers left (now one joined at the hip with a CPU maker). IMHO, these guys shouldn't have gone above $1500 for a decent all-around system. I have mixed feelings about the (couple notches off the extreme edition) cpu's.. fundamentally its solid advice.. but like the comments here, the cost is just TOO HIGH. Also, I'd go with a m/b that has fire-wire for a while longer.. I'm sure more than a few of us may have camcorders with fire-wire ports (dv cam video transfers). Also, unless you have a compelling reason for an ADD-ON sound card (X-FI??)... nix it.. $90 extra?! Sheesh!About 3 years ago I spent about $850 for a 3.2ghz amd system (250gb) with Radeon 9600/256.. modernizing this shouldn't cost much more than that.. especially if you reuse some stuff. Given that some technologies are quite different today.. new SOCKETS, DDR2, Pci-E, Sata 2, Esata, Efficient high wattage Power supplies, Super large disk capacity etc you will be forced kicking and screaming into buying NEW STUFF. My advice in picking components.. CPU no more than $250-300, M/b No more than $150, Memory, no more than $150, case WITH 500w p/s $125, hard drive $100 (puts 400gb & 500gb into play), Monitor $250 and Video card no more than $275. Keyboard & Mouse $50 All of which at the extreme puts you at about: $1400-1500 (plus tax or shipping, take your pick), DUH! Spend more and you see your hard earned cash line the pockets of companies who don't deserve it by buying into the hype they tell you that you need. If your moderately rich, by all means.. go over $2000 knock yourself out.. until the software industry finishes its temper tantrum about piracy the top of the line components will suffer from LOW consumer adoption because there is little reason to buy them. Which when volumes go up, prices go down (theoretically) and the consumer would benefit, provided there was a compelling reason to buy in the first place.. but there isn't. Vista in and of itself doesn't do it. The vast majority of gaming developers/resources are in Guantanamo lock-down for the console market, so either start giving the consumer reasons to buy, or suffer the consequences. Also, look into either selling, donating, or salvaging the old system/parts as a "hand-me-down" to friends/relatives.
fuzzynyankoJun 13, 2007
There's settings for Oblivion that makes the Geforce 8800 GTX go below 30 fps.
yodajonesJun 13, 2007
f**king Extreme Tech. Their articles are always one paragraph per page so you have to click through a dozen pages to read what could have been done with two pages max. Way to pump up the ad revenue. You Suck.
returnofajediJun 13, 2007
@zdigglerThe addition of good memory and hard drive depends on what your doing. Most gamers are gonna need fast RAM and a hard drive (especially because of Windows page file used for games). I went out and got the Raptor a few months ago, and I've gotten the fastest boot times, game load times, and any other times possible in Windows. I've had it for about 6 months and wouldn't go back to a 7200 RPM drive. Highly recommended.
dijitalJun 13, 2007
Actually, it's not a 'budget pc' they were building... The idea was to build a 'bang-for-the-buck' pc... There's a difference.Also, it's funny to me how many people are like 'that totally sucks' but how few actually put any sort of details as to why and even fewer that offer alternatives.
colonelpanicJun 14, 2007
Too bad the Pentium D is a piece of s**t. You are kind of right on the video card. Right now I would go with a 7900gs or 8600 gt. The 7600 is way old news.
slythfoxJun 14, 2007
My E6600 build costed me $900 at the beginning of this year. The same build now is worth ~$700.This guide is stupid.
drewskyjonesJun 14, 2007
It's not that bad of a list if you tweak it a little and dump some of the crap I won't need...plus some of the prices they quote have come down already (on newegg). I got it down to $968 by excluding: KB, Mouse, monitor, speakers, sound card, reader, OS and ready boost (things I have already or don't need). I bumped the CPU down a notch to the 2.4g (save $105); The mobo is $40 cheaper on newegg already, The video card is $250 at newegg now (take that down a notch and save a few more bucks), get a cheaper DVD drive of any sort.Exclude the stuff you don't need/want, bump the processor down a notch and this beefy box will set you back less than $1k. Not cheap, but not bad for a rig with these specs.
tmcdiggJun 18, 2007
I don't think they justified alot of the recommendations enough.. they were looking to somehow trump their previous system's specs and base everything on that.. not what is REALLY more perfect/efficient in today's market.. What I'd say is make strategic purchases of equipment.. for example, in the summer you wait for the price cuts as we go into the late summer/back to school season in CPU's, flash memory and hard drives. Video cards are plain OBSCENE in their pricing schemes vs performance given the paltry software list that takes full advantage of them. Still, video card makers keep prices high at their peril. This is what happens when there only TWO significant GPU makers left (now one joined at the hip with a CPU maker). IMHO, these guys shouldn't have gone above $1500 for a decent all-around system. I have mixed feelings about the (couple notches off the extreme edition) cpu's.. fundamentally its solid advice.. but like the comments here, the cost is just TOO HIGH. Also, I'd go with a m/b that has fire-wire for a while longer.. I'm sure more than a few of us may have camcorders with fire-wire ports (dv cam video transfers). Also, unless you have a compelling reason for an ADD-ON sound card (X-FI??)... nix it.. $90 extra?! Sheesh!About 3 years ago I spent about $850 for a 3.2ghz amd system (250gb) with Radeon 9600/256.. modernizing this shouldn't cost much more than that.. especially if you reuse some stuff. Given that some technologies are quite different today.. new SOCKETS, DDR2, Pci-E, Sata 2, Esata, Efficient high wattage Power supplies, Super large disk capacity etc you will be forced kicking and screaming into buying NEW STUFF. My advice in picking components.. CPU no more than $250-300, M/b No more than $150, Memory, no more than $150, case WITH 500w p/s $125, hard drive $100 (puts 400gb & 500gb into play), Monitor $250 and Video card no more than $275. Keyboard & Mouse $50 All of which at the extreme puts you at about: $1400-1500 (plus tax or shipping, take your pick), DUH! Spend more and you see your hard earned cash line the pockets of companies who don't deserve it by buying into the hype they tell you that you need. If your moderately rich, by all means.. go over $2000 knock yourself out.. until the software industry finishes its temper tantrum about piracy the top of the line components will suffer from LOW consumer adoption because there is little reason to buy them. Which when volumes go up, prices go down (theoretically) and the consumer would benefit, provided there was a compelling reason to buy in the first place.. but there isn't. Vista in and of itself doesn't do it. The vast majority of gaming developers/resources are in Guantanamo lock-down for the console market, so either start giving the consumer reasons to buy, or suffer the consequences. Also, look into either selling, donating, or salvaging the old system/parts as a "hand-me-down" to friends/relatives.
Closed AccountDec 13, 2008
This is like more buck for the bang.