pcmag.com— A fun gaming PC doesn't have to cost thousands. To prove it, I built a great low-cost system—and disproved some myths along the way. Want to save some money?
Jan 20, 2007View in Crawl 4
The problem of buying 2 7900 GS cards to equal or slightly surpass a 450+ card is you're basically polishing a turd.Yes the two 7900's will do fairly well, but then you're locked into those for a long time. Instead. . buy the $450 card (GS 8800 or ATI X1950 XTX) and have the option of using those in SLI mode in a year or two. Preferably the 8800 since it's DX10 ready
I love how he's all trying to "get the best bang for the buck" then spending nearly $50 on a keyboard. You can get a $5-$7 keyboard that works just as well as its $50 counterpart, just without the fancy lights and special hot buttons. In addition, if you're going cheap on a gaming computer, you don't NEED a fancy sound card. Most on board sound will work fine, and that's one thing you can always add later (assuming you have the right motherboard). Same goes for the graphics, you don't need to buy two cards right away, one will suffice until you have the cash to add a second.
I've priced out some 1/2 decent gaming rigs via newegg with a 19" widescreen and 5.1 creatives, they come to around 1000-1200 for me. I still can't justify the cost though, since im not a big gamer and have my $2500 thinkpad.
"A low cost gaming rig, by definition, costs less than $1000."Really? Where is this defined? To me $1500 is low cost, then again NZ$ are different to US$...
cyberdactylJan 20, 2007
The problem of buying 2 7900 GS cards to equal or slightly surpass a 450+ card is you're basically polishing a turd.Yes the two 7900's will do fairly well, but then you're locked into those for a long time. Instead. . buy the $450 card (GS 8800 or ATI X1950 XTX) and have the option of using those in SLI mode in a year or two. Preferably the 8800 since it's DX10 ready
eatbeefjerkyJan 20, 2007
I love how he's all trying to "get the best bang for the buck" then spending nearly $50 on a keyboard. You can get a $5-$7 keyboard that works just as well as its $50 counterpart, just without the fancy lights and special hot buttons. In addition, if you're going cheap on a gaming computer, you don't NEED a fancy sound card. Most on board sound will work fine, and that's one thing you can always add later (assuming you have the right motherboard). Same goes for the graphics, you don't need to buy two cards right away, one will suffice until you have the cash to add a second.
riotactingJan 20, 2007
I read the other s**t on this guys site... he's a loser
4ndr01dJan 20, 2007
how about a low cost game development rig ?
mfrattJan 20, 2007
I've priced out some 1/2 decent gaming rigs via newegg with a 19" widescreen and 5.1 creatives, they come to around 1000-1200 for me. I still can't justify the cost though, since im not a big gamer and have my $2500 thinkpad.
gigaJan 21, 2007
"A low cost gaming rig, by definition, costs less than $1000."Really? Where is this defined? To me $1500 is low cost, then again NZ$ are different to US$...