[Note: Sorry for the late post, I was swamped with work and I won't make more promises I can't keep]
Onto part three of how to build a gaming PC for under $1500. I'm assuming many of you have a mouse, monitor, and keyboard, no matter how old, which means you don't really need to buy anything new. However, unless you still have the install discs from XP, you will need to get a new OS, which is the first thing I'll be talking about this time around. I'll also discuss new mice, monitors, and keyboards.
THE OS:
The OS is THE most important part. Since it's gaming, if you want DX10 and the prettiness that comes with it, get Vista. However, graphics cards do perform slightly worse on Vista due to less effective drivers. That should change within the next few months however. XP is still supported by everyone and some games (CoD4 for example) don't even use DX10. I would recommend XP as it's cheapcheapcheap and can still run high powered games.
MOUSE:
This is all personal preference, but if you want the best all around gaming mouse and you're a righty, you cannot go wrong with the logitech G5, G7, or G9 mice. The G5 and G7 are all around comfortable mice with extremely high sensitivity and adjustable weight (the G7 is the cordless version of the G5). The G9 has an even higher sensitivity but a wide grip. Since those are all made for rightys, if you're a lefty gamer you should go with one of Razer's options as they are great for leftys and are extremely high quality. I would recommend the Habu or the DeathAdder.
MONITORS:
The perfect monitor depends on how much coin you have. If you want displayport (the latest connector from PC to monitor that is overall better but high priced right now) then jump on the Dell 3008WFP with a 30" screen, max resolution of 2560x1600, and a multitude of connectors for anything you might need to put in it. Ever. For much less money (still high priced) and a 19" screen, go with the Acer AL1916WABD.
KEYBOARD:
If you want a keyboard meant for gaming, go with the Logitech G11 or G15. There's an insane amount of customization in these. On the other hand, if you have an amazingly large amount of disposable income, grab the Optimus Maximus. Although the keyboard is scarely produced and costs most than most of the other components put together, OMFG is it amazing. All of the keys are OLEDs and can be customized to any image you want as well as macroed. Most amazing keyboard out there.
Cheerio till next time.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Late Post
Sorry for the late post everybody, I've been overflowed with work. I'll update Wednesday with How To: ... Part III.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
How to: Build a Gaming PC for under $1500 (Part 2)
In part one I covered a lot and in part two I'm going to cover the case, PSU, hard drive, and optical drive.
Quick reminder of the rules: Everything is budget for under $1500 total when bought from amazon, built for possible expansion, and I'll give possible alternatives. Also, amazon is constantly changing prices, so the possibility of this being a <$1500 PC may be slightly off.
Case: For a case, the price merely depends on how stylish you want it to look. Cases run from $60 for a beige box to around $170 for see through boxes with LEDs. However, you still want to make sure that any case you buy has plenty of room for your components and/or future parts. A cheap, good looking case is the Aluminus Black High Gloss Case from Ultra which costs $70.
PSU: The PSU depends on how much expansion you want to have. For the purposes of this, we'll go with a 700 watt PSU which goes for $100 (the Xion 700-watt Quad Rail ATX Power Supply). You can buy up to 1200 watt PSUs which will be able to handle the greatest expansions. However, they will most definitely be extreme overkill for the base version of this PC and cost much much more. Even the 700 watt is overkill, but it's based for expansion. Depending on your expansion plans for the future however, it may be more beneficial to go with a slightly smaller 600 watt PSU (the ULT31848). These cost around 20-50 dollars less, but they also limit future expansion and you may have to tone down the base configuration to provide your parts with enough power.
HDD:
The hard drive is simple: the more space you want, the more expensive. Also, how fast the disk spins (measured in RPM; the higher the better) is a factor, but the difference is truly negligible to all but the most hardcore users. For a cheap version, we'll go with a 250 gb version running at 7200 rpm for $80 (the WD2500KSRTL from Western Digital). What interface each hard drive runs on is important for speed, but delving into that is for the most hardcore. You can get hard drives with enough space for a terabyte (1000 gigs) for around $350 dollars from Seagate.
Optical Drive:
A cheap and fast disc drive is the LH20A1L06, an extremely fast drive for its cost ($45). You can upgrade to a BRD (blu-ray) or HD-DVD drive, but even with warner withdrawing support from HD-DVD, I would hold off on upgrading. Also, the current drives are slow and expensive, two traits which will definitely improve in the next few months.
Next week: Optionals, such as the mouse, keyboard, monitor, and OS. Cheers till then.
Image Credit: Amazon.
And from now on I'll have a creative signature in this spot.
Quick reminder of the rules: Everything is budget for under $1500 total when bought from amazon, built for possible expansion, and I'll give possible alternatives. Also, amazon is constantly changing prices, so the possibility of this being a <$1500 PC may be slightly off.
Case: For a case, the price merely depends on how stylish you want it to look. Cases run from $60 for a beige box to around $170 for see through boxes with LEDs. However, you still want to make sure that any case you buy has plenty of room for your components and/or future parts. A cheap, good looking case is the Aluminus Black High Gloss Case from Ultra which costs $70.
PSU: The PSU depends on how much expansion you want to have. For the purposes of this, we'll go with a 700 watt PSU which goes for $100 (the Xion 700-watt Quad Rail ATX Power Supply). You can buy up to 1200 watt PSUs which will be able to handle the greatest expansions. However, they will most definitely be extreme overkill for the base version of this PC and cost much much more. Even the 700 watt is overkill, but it's based for expansion. Depending on your expansion plans for the future however, it may be more beneficial to go with a slightly smaller 600 watt PSU (the ULT31848). These cost around 20-50 dollars less, but they also limit future expansion and you may have to tone down the base configuration to provide your parts with enough power.HDD:
The hard drive is simple: the more space you want, the more expensive. Also, how fast the disk spins (measured in RPM; the higher the better) is a factor, but the difference is truly negligible to all but the most hardcore users. For a cheap version, we'll go with a 250 gb version running at 7200 rpm for $80 (the WD2500KSRTL from Western Digital). What interface each hard drive runs on is important for speed, but delving into that is for the most hardcore. You can get hard drives with enough space for a terabyte (1000 gigs) for around $350 dollars from Seagate.
Optical Drive:
A cheap and fast disc drive is the LH20A1L06, an extremely fast drive for its cost ($45). You can upgrade to a BRD (blu-ray) or HD-DVD drive, but even with warner withdrawing support from HD-DVD, I would hold off on upgrading. Also, the current drives are slow and expensive, two traits which will definitely improve in the next few months.
Next week: Optionals, such as the mouse, keyboard, monitor, and OS. Cheers till then.
Image Credit: Amazon.
And from now on I'll have a creative signature in this spot.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Note on Graphics Cards
ATI recenty released a graphics card that can run games better than the 8800 GTX, competitor Nvidia's high-end graphics card. The Radeon™ HD 3870 X2 costs $449 and will be availible soon. This is the press release from ATI if you're interested.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Manufacturer's Spotlight: VoodooPC
Let’s take a gaze into the online high-end PC market shall we? VoodooPC was a privately owned company from Alberta Canada in 1991, and was the first to introduce the concept of the accelerated graphics card. The company focuses on not only gaming PC’s, but multimedia powerhouses, home office PC’s, and ‘luxury PC’s’ (lined with silk and comfy pillows? Mmm not really). Voodoo is currently owned by HP, but still functions as a brand. So what is so groundbreaking about Voodoo? What makes it so special? Why Voodoo?
Well they asked that questions themselves, and from the ‘Why Voodoo’ section, I bring you:
“When I received my laptop I was in awe of the sheer beauty of it. My pc is an absolute work of art. I have owned my
-Anonymous poster on Voodoo
I’d show you more quotes, but you can go to the website yourself if you’re reading this, and the comments are all pretty much the same. Voodoo PC is highly noted for their paint jobs, which are actually quite amazing. One can also add ‘tattoos’ to his/her laptop (sorry no desktop tattoos) to make it sleek and good looking.
Envious of the yellow!!!
Solid Gold.
Want to get one? Okay! Cough up 2,400 USD, that’s the base price of the cheapest laptop (12’ screen!). 5,000 USD approximately for the ‘cheapest’ computer(no screen!). What drives up the price? Well despite the fact that it takes longer to paint and tattoo one of these than it is to ride a wheelchair for 2 miles (oh and you can’t use your hands), Voodoo PC offers the top of the line hardware and performance.... and only the top of the line hardware and performance.
The lowest possible specs for their ‘Omen’ Desktop, (the gaming one, the only one you should care about), are:
1000 Watt Power Supply
Intel Core 2 Extreme 2.93 GHz
2G Corsair RAM
160GB Hard Drive
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 767MB
Oh and you have to pick it up, from
Customizing this rig any further will probably drain all your power in your house/apartment (probably other rooms too), but hey at least you got l337 paintjobz!!11
Costs more than a car.
Final Word: If you have a budget, at all, hit ‘Back’ on your browser from the Voodoo page, and go to Newegg and build your own computer. While it has top of the line hardware, Voodoo is pretty much for those who have the ability to pay about 3000 USD on paint jobs and tattoos, while leaving about 2000 USD for the actual computer. So what if it costs about as much as a used car? At least the rig is shiny and bright red.
-Yannick
VoodooPC Website: www.voodoopc.com
Image Sources: Google
Quote: www.voodoopc.com
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