Hmm.. It's actually worse here. Our buying power is very limited. Most graduates here are only paid about RM 1,600-2,000 (USD 432-540), depending on their specialty. Even a government doctor's basic pay is only RM 2,137 or USD 578). As such, many people would still need to save up for 3-4 months before they can afford to buy this PC. Unless you are really LICH.
You will note that I compared the GeForce 7600 GT to the GeForce 7800 GT early in the article. That's because we selected it PRIOR to setting up the PC and then testing it. If you check our GeForce 7600 GT review, you will note that while we compared it to a variety of other cards, the GeForce 7800 GT was the closest in performance. As for the GeForce 7950 GT, unfortunately, we were not able to obtain a sample of the card. So, there was no way we could test it. Then again, that card is more than twice as expensive as the GeForce 7600 GT. Hardly suitable for an affordable gaming PC. It would actually be cheaper to buy two GeForce 7600 GTs and run them in SLI. Hmm.. If we had to deduct $300 from the budget, I would drop the E6600 for the E6300. Not a bad processor in its own right, and it's much cheaper than the E6600. Probably replace the Antec PSU with a cheaper one.
Good point! I was wondering when anyone would notice. I actually thought of adding this as a question in the contest - "What is missing in the buying guide?" Okay, regarding this point, we skipped stuff like keyboard, case, etc. because there are so many choices, what the heck should we put down? Plus, what is available here may not be available over there. Makes it hard to make a valid comparison. In addition, they do not really affect the performance of the gaming PC. So, whatever you choose, well, really has no effect on its performance. Besides, what if you are upgrading from your old PC and already have those parts? Now what? Deduct from the budget? That's why we decided to stick to the key components. Even if we want to talk about cost, we can get a keyboard here for RM 15 (USD 4), a case for RM 80 (USD 22) and a decent set of headphones or earphones for RM 50 (USD 13.5). Total cost would be an extra RM 145 or USD 39.50. As for the operating system, we didn't include it because again, what if you are upgrading from an old PC. You may already have Windows XP Professional. But if we were to add in Windows XP Home, that's only RM 300 (or USD 81). If you don't mind a second-hand copy, you can get one for about half price - RM 150 (USD 40). Even if we add everything, that's an extra USD 79.50 or RM 295.
BTW, please take the prices with a pinch of salt. When I checked the prices just now, they seemed to have dropped a little. Best to check the latest price at Pricegrabber or Low Yat Plaza price lists here or here.
Yes u can consider THG as Mr.Bush coz they both have similarity in that they both wanna control the world with their supremacy.
a nice guide for a gaming system without going over the budget. Although I think the mobo selection could be slightly better and the gfx. I think you should rename the best "mainstream' gaming guide. I would think that the 7900 would be a better choice.
Hmm.. You think it should be mainstream? But this is really not about building a low-cost gaming PC. The keyword here is affordable. Something most of us can afford. Actually, it's better to buy TWO GeForce 7600 GTs and run them in SLI, then to buy a single GeForce 7900 GT. If you check the current prices, a GeForce 7600 GT is half the price of a GeForce 7900 GT. But the performance of the GeForce 7600 GT SLI is better than the single GeForce 7900 GT in our tests.
haha, one 1950pro rulez them all. cheaper and better performance. seriously, drop the E6600 and go for a cheaper CPU, and get this card. you get better overall gaming performance.
well, that's why I said without going over the budget. I think that the choice is not bad, but I think a single 7900 is a better choice just because in order to use SLI, the game need to able to take advantage of it and not all games can do so. Not to mention the need for higher PSU if you choose sli. Also, I think maybe we can save like 100 by just going to the E6400 or even E6300 and then just overclock it (or just leave it the way it is, since either one performs better than similar priced amd cpu). I think your system is priced slightly higher than others just because you included keyboard and monitor (which some othe sites do not do ).
Yeah, it might be better to go with the E6300, but I was thinking a little long-term. I would prefer to pay more for a more expensive processor now rather than a graphics card that will drop in value quickly. A few months down the road, we will see mainstream GeForce 8-series cards which will push current 7-series card prices down even further. At that time, the GeForce 7950 GT would probably cost only as much as a 7600 GT right now. I don't see the Intel C2D E6600 dropping that much. Oh, there's really no need for a better PSU. The Antec 430W PSU we selected is more than capable of handling the GeForce 7600 GT SLI. In fact, if we intend to go with a single card, we can actually use a much cheaper PSU.
I agree, the cpu usually don't drop in price as much as gpu. I think in a month or two, the guide will see a big change after new intel cpu and hopefully mainstream 8xxx cards will be out. By then, maybe you will have a Vista ready gaming system
You mean the Intel mainstream quad-core processor? Hehe.. It won't cheaper than the E6600, but hopefully, it will lower the price of the dual-cores.
nope, isn't rumor has that intel will release new cheap version of cpu in january. And maybe even newer dual core sometimes next year.
Yup, it's the mainstream quad-core. We covered it here - http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=362&pgno=0
Just incase u changed your mind for $1010. You could rob a Santa instead, well, thats a good option to me. Love the Razor optical mice. Its highly recommended for those who are new abt it. Still.. LOGiTECH MX SERiES !!! WOooooo~ weee~
My point is that the "missing parts" most definitely have a negative effect on the performance as long as they are missing. Without them it's simply not a PC, but parts of a PC, which makes the headline misleading. It's not as much of a "PC buying guide", but a "buying PC upgrade parts guide". Cheers Olle