For those of you want more out of your computer than e-mail and Internet, but don’t have the money to dish out for a $3,000 rig that will get outdated in a week, look no further. I have compiled a list of the various components to let you get the most for your money for 2008. You want to play Crysis on high set on 1280 X 768 resolution with flawless performance? Done. You don’t want to wait longer than 8 seconds when starting up your computer? Done. You want to have all the Internet tabs open as you want? Done. Incredible graphics on a 22” screen? Ability to download and watch HD movies at the same time? Option to immerse yourself in a MMORPG game with your own surround sound system? Done, done, and done. For a computer with this type of performance, you would probably pay $3000+ for a retail version. I’ll show you how to do it for a little over $2,000.
Motherboard: ASRock NVIDIA 650i SLI ATX
This high-end motherboard supports two graphics cards running in SLI mode. Also features 4 ram slots at DDR2 800 with dual channel support, support for LAN and wireless, with onboard audio. Great for graphics.
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad QX6600 2.66GHz
With four processing cores you will be able to do all the multitasking you want. Reasonably well priced, good compatibility, and cheaper than some of the dual core processors.
Memory: Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (4 X 1GB) DDR2 800
You can’t go wrong with this RAM. You will experience faster speeds and loading times for applications and programs. Even games will run faster with the improved CAS latency.
Video Card: 2X ZOTAC 8800GT 512MB AMP Edition in SLI
One of the fastest 8800GT cards out there. Beats the 8800GTS 320MB and 640MB versions, and keeps within 1-3 fps of the 8800GTX priced almost twice as much. Pre-over clocked to 700MHz stock, 2GHz memory, and 1760Mhz shader, this thing is definitely AMP’ed up. 2 of these in SLI mode will allow you to play even the most intense games at an incredible level with stunning graphics and phenomenal frame-rate for the price. Will probably be able to handle anything you throw at it for a solid couple years.
Case: NZXT HUSH ATX mid-tower
Has two extremely quiet fans to keep your rig nice and quiet even when you pull late night gaming sessions. Also has many expansion slots, HDD drives, and optical drive slots on the outside. Plenty of room to expand.
Hard Drive: 2X Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10,000RPM in RAID 0
If you thought 7200RPM was fast, think again. This hard drive comes with a speed of 10,000RPM; almost double the old 5400RPM version. 2 of these in RAID 0 will yield even more impressive speed with a total of 300GB for storage. Great combination of speed and storage.
Optical Drive: 2 X Samsung DVD+/-R/W Combo burner with Lightscribe
The standard for running and burning DVD’s and CD’s. Includes Lightscribe technology for disc writing abilities. Incredible reading and writing speeds. With two you will be able to simultaneously burn a CD or DVD while watching a movie or playing a game on the other.
Monitor: Sceptre 22” Widescreen 2ms
Super fast response time, 1680 X 1050 for great gaming and video picture. Contrast Ratio is 2000:1, so your blacks and whites will be easily told apart.
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Only the best use this keyboard. Has over 100 programmable buttons to make RTS and MMORPG games a breeze. LCD screen provides critical information from the current game you are playing and also monitors your CPU and memory load. Different backlight brightness allows for overall one of the best customizable keyboard ever.
Mouse: Logitech G9
You will need a good mouse to keep up with this computer. This mouse will have no trouble at all. Can be optimized to up to 3200dpi for super fast response when caught up in intense battles, while able to be adjusted lower for the recon sniper roles. Comes with alternate cover and adjustable weights.
Speakers: Logitech 5.1 surround sound system
Immerse yourself into the game with this sound system from Logitech. With this setup you will be able to hear (and feel) a grenade explosion like it was meant to be.
Power System: Hiper ATX 880watt quad 12V rails
To run two graphics cards and a quad core processor, it will take a lot of juice. This power system is up to the task with 880 total watts of raw power, coming from 4 12V rails, two of which set at 30 amps compared to the average 18-22. Great for over-clocking.
Cooling: Zalman 2 ball CPU cooler
If you want the best out of your money, you are going to want to over-clock your processor. Swap this out with the cheap one they send with the processor packaging and you will notice significant temperature drops, allowing for you to easily attain 3.0GHz or more on all four cores stable.
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
If you want to play DX10 games, vista is the way to go. It may be a tad slower performance than XP and a bit buggy, but new updates are coming out almost every day fixing the problems and improving the overall vista performance.
Price Listings from Newegg
| Motherboard | $104.99 |
| Processor | $259.99 |
| Memory | $103.99 |
| Graphics Card X2 | $519.98($419.98 with rebates) |
| Case | $89.99 |
| Hard Drive | $174.99 |
| Optical Drives | $29.99 |
| Monitor | $249.99($229.99 with rebates) |
| Keyboard | $71.99 |
| Mouse | $69.99 |
| Speakers | $68.99 |
| Power | $159.99 |
| Cooling | $41.99 |
| Operating System | $99.99 |
| Grand Total | $2211.84 + rebates = $2091.84 |
So for a little over $2000 you can get a high-quality gaming computer that provides the performance of a high-budget enthusiast but without the price of one. For example on Alienware the same specs would cost $3,479.87! And that doesn’t count that this setup has factory over-clocked graphics cards, a quality CPU cooler for over-clockability, and 5.1 surround sound speakers. Sure $2000 for a computer may seem steep, but each and every component will feel like they were worth it, from the dual graphics setup to the mouse. No buyer’s remorse and no need to sell your car. You can go to the store and no longer worry about the minimum requirements on the back of those brand new shiny games. You don’t have to leave the computer for 10-60 minutes anymore when it’s downloading something. The more you use this computer, the more you’ll realize what a great buy it is for the price, which is why it is one of the best bang for the buck gaming computers of 2008.
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Justin Hitchborn (hitchface) said:
3/5/2008 8:41 pm
Nice rig! I can’t believe the power you can get for the money these days…
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Jay said:
3/5/2008 9:05 pm
Nice rig, a little pricey! Games now days (crysis) won’t be able to take advantage of the quad core, so thats a little too much chip also!
Game developers are in the dawn of dual core programming and now all the sudden AMD and Intel wants them to go quad core. For the time being Quad cores are good for rendering and serves but not for games.
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Mike said:
3/6/2008 12:45 am
no way, The quad and 8-core processors get better framerates than the dual cores especially on the high resolution monitors
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Al said:
3/6/2008 1:25 am
good job
i think quad core is good for RTS games that have many things on screen
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perkster said:
3/6/2008 3:54 am
make sure that the vista is the 64 bit version if you want to utilise the whole of that 4gb ram.
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Aaron said:
3/6/2008 9:57 am
yea nice parts for the price. I am in the market for a new gaming computer, and I am leaning towards similar components. I want it to last like 3-4 years without any real issues. The dual graphics, quad core, and 2 drives in RAID look like a strong competitor
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David M said:
3/6/2008 1:06 pm
Nice writeup! Just a couple things that I would change, but I may be wrong.
For RAID 0, you are going to need a second Raptor drive. Add another $175 to the bottom line price.
For a very small difference in speed and a big difference in price I would go with a single 500Gig Seagate Barracuda hard drive with 32Mb of memory for $130 at Newegg. Compare this to spending $350 for the two Raptors. Also, drives have nothing to do with frame rates or eye candy in games. That saves a big chunk of change ($220) right there with only a tiny loss in read/write times.
Instead of the QX6600 with its 2.4GHz operating frequency, I would wait until the E8500 becomes available for two reasons. The E8500 is easily overclockable from 3.17GHz to over 4GHz on aftermarket air cooling and the QX6600 is not capable of that frequency or even close to it according to Anandtech Also, gaming software is not being written for more than dual core processors. Both processors will be around the same price. Patience will be a virtue here waiting for the E8500 to come out and to drop in price after the initial price gouging is over.
Gaming machines are supposed to be fast right? Go with XP until Vista proves itself to be faster, more compatible and a better OS. Even with SP1 for Vista, there are no guarantees Vista will be faster for games. I would go with the sure thing here. We know all the games that are a few years old will play on XP…with Vista, that is a question. Why chance the incompatibility?
If you want a lower price then shop around. I like Newegg personally, but rarely do they have the lowest prices amongst the high end internet retailers.
Since we are over $2200 at this point, I would add another $120 and purchase a Logitec Z-5500 5.1 THX certified sound system for around $200(Amazon), $267(Newegg). I have this system at home and it rivals my Denon A/V receiver with JBL speakers. Good sound is half the pleasure of playing computer games. You may as well go with the best computer sound system out there for comparitively only a little more money if you are already spending over $2200
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David M said:
3/6/2008 1:08 pm
Correction, the QX6600 has an operating frequency of 2.66Ghz and not 2.4GHz as I stated
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Aaron said:
3/6/2008 2:09 pm
Actually if you look closely it says 2x raptor 150Gb. By the way I also like the Z-5500 5.1, but it probably isn’t the best bang for the buck
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Nathan N said:
3/6/2008 6:23 pm
great comments guys.
Dave, yes i made a small typo in the price listing part, I didn’t list the price for the hard drives as 349.98, so thanks for pointing that out. However the total price still includes two of the hard drives, so it doesn’t change anything.
I was looking at the Western Digital 500Gb HD with 32MB cache as well. I had some extra room in the $2000 budget, so i went with two raptors instead. Unfortuantely that meant I had to downsize on the quality of speakers, since I was in fact originally aiming for the logitech z-5500 5.1 speakers.
For the processor, the E8500 would have been a good choice, however it’s been out a while and I have no idea when it is coming back. The quad core seemed like a very good buy, compared it’s other versions at over $1000.
As for the OS, it really is a matter of preference. I happen to have two computers, one with vista ultimate and one with xp pro. Although I really enjoy the nice glossy features it has, the main reason i chose vista was because the xp versions are a little harder to get and more expensive in most cases, especially since we will have to switch to vista eventually anyway(unless you decide to wait for windows 7).
to Perkster, you don’t need vista 64-bit to utilize 4GB of ram, although the box from this setup has it.
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David M said:
3/6/2008 8:28 pm
In the list it does say two Raptors but the price list at the end only has the price for one Raptor.
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Al said:
3/6/2008 9:48 pm
maybe the 500GB seagate 7200.11 with 32MB cache is faster.
oh and if you used 3850’s in crossfire it’s better bang for buck and you can use the intel P35 chipset which is better.
the CPU is a Q6600 which is 2.4ghz.
I think you should use the CPU cooler ‘Freezer 7′ by arctic cooling.
what do you guys think, crossfire or SLI, comment back and tell me
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David M said:
3/7/2008 1:27 am
Nvidia SLI…its faster.
The Q6600 is a 2.4GHz processor. The QX6600 as mentioned by the author is 2.66GHz processor.
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MrMyke said:
3/7/2008 1:41 pm
Bwwaaahhh…No floppy!
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mc said:
3/7/2008 2:58 pm
Amateur article. Reads like the amateur prattled off the list of things he just bought.
It certainly isn’t the best bang for the buck computer when you can get something almost as good for half the price. The amateur should look up value and bang for the buck at dictionary.com.
“Sure $2000 for a computer may seem steep, but each and every component will feel like they were worth it”
Thanks for the advice, einstein.
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Gaming Computers said:
3/7/2008 3:22 pm
I recently purchased a system from Digital Storm, these guys seem great. You guys should check them out, they got some good systems and they are heavy on support.
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Paul g said:
3/7/2008 5:28 pm
Just a note on a spotted error!
There is a price discrepancy on the cpu: a QX6700 (2.66GHz) retails for about $550+ (pricewatch.com), the Q6600 retails for about $260 (and is 2.4GHz)… as others noted only the cost of 1 raptor drive is included in the bottom price.
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Al said:
3/7/2008 7:48 pm
QX6600 doesn’t exist, guys.
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David M said:
3/7/2008 11:28 pm
Apparently the “X” means it has an unlocked multiplier. The 6600 never had one.
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joe said:
3/8/2008 8:52 am
yeah i never heard of a qx6600 either ,i bought the q6600 go step and an happy, paid $249.00 ,nice rig but where exactly can you get those exact video cards at? thanks
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Al said:
3/8/2008 11:13 pm
you used to be able to get ‘em at newegg, but they’re sold out now. just find any 8800GT that has 700mhz core, basically.
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Nathan N said:
3/8/2008 11:45 pm
I meant to put down q6600, sorry for the mix up
just to clarify the Grand total price includes 2 of the raptors, even though on the individual price it is only listed as 174.99. Just add them up and you’ll see.
btw that version of graphics card is back in stock at newegg so it is still available
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Eric said:
3/9/2008 5:47 pm
You build a dream machine like that and then cripple it with Vista Home Premium? I wouldn’t even consider it. Get Ultimate at least, or if you don’t want to waste half of that hardware just running the OS, install XP Pro x64 and take advantage of the full computing power of that computer.
Also, I’d prefer 2 Maxtor SATA 500gb drives for plenty of economical storage space.
=D
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Jason said:
3/10/2008 9:45 am
Windows Vista doesn’t cripple all that much anymore. The performance has become roughly on par with Windows XP over the last few months, and as the drivers and other applications mature the performance will be even better.
In addition, you can now find Windows Vista starting to surpass Windows XP in performance in games, and in some cases by a good amount. It had it’s rough start, but it’s gotten past most of the rough now.
However, there are still some applications out there that still have issues with Windows Vista, but you typically don’t find most of them on home computers — as most of them are expensive 3D Editing tools.
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Marc said:
3/10/2008 1:16 pm
Vista Home? Vista is the new Windows ME and pure garbage. If you want a rockin’ box there is only one choice: Windows XP Pro x64 Edition.
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Al said:
3/12/2008 12:06 am
whats the difference between vista basic and vista premium
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krisia2006 said:
3/28/2008 4:38 pm
For that resolution (22″ LCD), a single 8800GT would suffice in most games, no? (does for me) The Q6600 sounds nice. I make do with a E8400.
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JokerCandy said:
4/19/2008 8:15 am
Excuse me for being a “noob” but I have a few questions such as do we have to install all the hardware ourselfs? Is this U.S. only? (I live in Australia) and do you have a hotmail or yahoo or email that I could use so we could talk about this? Thank you and I will check this website everyday for a possible answer
Thanks in Advnace
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Nathan N said:
4/20/2008 11:11 am
yes these all must be assembled by hand, but it’s not just available for U.S. though I don;t know of any online hardware stores in Australia i.e. in the U.S. a lot of people use http://www.newegg.com
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JokerCandy said:
4/20/2008 11:12 am
Thanks for the info and last thing, is this American Currency?
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JokerCandy said:
4/20/2008 11:13 am
Thanks for the info and one last thing… this is all USD right? probably
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Nathan N said:
4/20/2008 5:11 pm
yea it’s USD
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Paul said:
5/21/2008 4:44 pm
Nathan, its been a few months… How would you modify/upgrade your system on current pricing?
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Bill said:
5/21/2008 7:43 pm
Also curious how this stacks up now, Anything else that you’d switch out? I need to know rather quickly so if you happen to come across this message, please reply.
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Nate said:
5/25/2008 1:13 pm
probably change out the Q6600 for a Q6700 or E8400
switch out the 650i motherboard for a 750i motherboard
change the hard drive to a 500GB 7200RPM with 3.0GB/s bandwith
video card could be dual 9600GT’s or a single 9800GX2
OS would be vista ultimate
everything else can stay the same