[pharaoh]

Hi Forum
I am new to this i was going to buy the new xbox 360--- but was advised by warriorscot to build a games machine instead so can someone tell all of the parts that i will need from what type of-- motherboard to what graphics card--- memory and what--- sound card-- and anything else that i would need for full fun in gaming and what sort of price would it be. Thank you


Pharaoh

Edited by pharaoh, 05 October 2006 - 12:18 PM.

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OK check this out a good gaming cpu will cost anywhere from $1500 to $3000 if money is the issue go with the xbox360 I just bought an HP m7480n It came stock with a pentium d 930 3.0GHz cpu(dual core) 2gb ram pc2-4200, 300gb sata hd, geforce 7300le and a 300 watt power supply. It cost me $1600 out the door and I have recently upgraded to a geforce 7900gt($250) and a BFG 650 watt power supply($150) so grand total $2000. I have the xbox 360 also its not a bad console for $400, you are not gonna get in depth pc games for it but if the money is not there for a gaming cpu go with the xbox360. I'm sure anyone will agree with me on the prices I quoted you. PC's can be tricky to build and if you have no knowledge in that department I would recommend not even attempting it, if you run into problems you could ruin exspensive components.

[racinmason001]

OK check this out a good gaming cpu will cost anywhere from $1500 to $3000 if money is the issue go with the xbox360 I just bought an HP m7480n It came stock with a pentium d 930 3.0GHz cpu(dual core) 2gb ram pc2-4200, 300gb sata hd, geforce 7300le and a 300 watt power supply. It cost me $1600 out the door and I have recently upgraded to a geforce 7900gt($250) and a BFG 650 watt power supply($150) so grand total $2000. I have the xbox 360 also its not a bad console for $400, you are not gonna get in depth pc games for it but if the money is not there for a gaming cpu go with the xbox360. I'm sure anyone will agree with me on the prices I quoted you. PC's can be tricky to build and if you have no knowledge in that department I would recommend not even attempting it, if you run into problems you could ruin exspensive components.

[pharaoh]

Hi racinmason001
Thank you for your reply what should i do first what are first part's that i need to buy to start building a game's pc where is a good place for buying the part's should i buy them online or elsewhere and do they ship to international addresses. please give easy instructions as i am just started learning how to do stuff. Thank you

pharaoh

[racinmason001]

Go to www.tigerdirect.com or www.newegg.com and start browsing start out with the case,motherboard,processor,power supply, and ram. We will get into the other components after you get an idea of what these high-end components will cost. I am serious when I say a high-end gaming system can cost upwards of $3000 USD.

[†Gladiator†]

I can't believe that i am saying this but you would be better off buying parts locally and pay like 30 bucks for them to assemble the pc for you. I have no idea what scotish currency is.... but a decent gaming righ will cost you 2 xbox360s at least. So if you just want to game... and could care less about using a keyboard or mouse vs. a controler xbox 360 is a viable option. However pc has a lot more expandablitiy, but it's gonna cost somewhere between 1000 U.S. to 1500 U.S. depending on the display you get. check out www.extremetech.com they have got up to date builds for all budgets and links directly to the shops that sells them online. http://www.extremete...5,644478,00.asp there's the link to the build it section. Bang for the buck or the 800 dollar build is proabably ur best bet to start off with. Remember you can always upgrade parts like the Gfx card and Sound card. Also it really depends on what type of game you are into. So have a look through those and don't hesitate to post back with q's.
Adios

[hudihoo]

you guys prices are way off. By shopping around a friend of mine built

a athlon 64 x2 4200
geforce 7900gt
nice case, 600w PSU, asus pci-e motherboard socket 939
22in. Dell CRT monitor
gaming keyboard and mouse all for $900 U.S. if you shop around it is not hard to find good deals. newegg has great prices on some stuff but to make up for they charge more on other smaller things. most people pay more just to buy everything from the same place. My friend pretty much bought everything at a different place. CompUSA is a good place for good motherboard sales. I would go newegg for CPU. Circuitcity has cheap power supplies sometimes. My friend showed me the site with good cases but i can't remember it right now. I just got a 120gig Harddrive at BestBuy on sale for $50 U.S. You just have to shop around. I am also in the process of building a not great but ok gaming rig and i spent $200 U.S. because I bought parts over time when they were on sale. I bought the harddrive 3 weeks ago. Just last week got the cpu and motherboard and just yesterday the video card. get them on sale and save alot. it will probably take a month before you get all the parts but it will be well worth it in the long run.

[warriorscot]

Yeah they dont have to be expensive especially if you dont need a monitor mines was just over £600 when i built it for the base unit about the price of one xbox360 , gaming machine doesnt automatically mean best of everything just better than your average PC.

Alot depends on how much you are willing to spend and how good you want it to be it doesnt cost all the much to build a system that will beat most consoles, the xbox360s biggest advantage is that it has 1st generation dx10 gpu but the 2nd gen PC graphics cards for dx10 are coming out and they wipe the flour with xbox360, quad core cpus are out at the end of the year making current dual cores even cheaper, the only part of a pc that has held its price in the last couple of yeasr is memory prices and those are going down.

[†Gladiator†]

hudihoo
A computer with a 22crt for sub 900? how much ram?
lol i am sure he did do a lot of shopping, but IMO there are certain standards a "gaming" pc must meet. the core of my gaming rig is probably worth around 1200 cdn, but the other stuff like zalman cooling antec cases and fans and x fi sound card mx518 mouse and a saitek eclipse 2 keyboard puts the price up to 1600 cdn. gaming on standard MS keyboard and mouse, with onboard sound is ok but if you wanna really enjoy games like COD2 and BF2 you need some serious gear to do so. He wants a pc that can match the xbox360 so it would have to have some pretty high specs. as i have said 1000 us is probably the bottom line for a gaming pc and for 1500us you can have the whole package with a nice 19 inch lcd 5.1 sound system etc.

[warriorscot]

You dont need things like zalman coolers, and fancy keyboards there are lots of really good cheap keyboards and mice and decent controllers and joysticks are cheap you dont need to buy the best and you know xboxs arent really all that powerful they have top fo the range GPUs but the cpu isnt anything special and they are pretty short on memory they arent that impressive compared to even a mid range gaming system.

You dont need to have an elite gaming rig to enjoy games look at an xbox you get a controller that is 5 bucks of electronics and a buck worth of molded plastic spending 100s on keyboards and mice is just daft. x-fis are totally un needed most wont notice a difference without expensive sound systems, and antec cases are the cheapest around you get a case to hold your stuff and cool it they arent that expensive.

[†Gladiator†]

seriously if all he wants to do is play (non-fps) games and already own a large tv, then i don't see the point of spending at least twice the money on a gaming pc. xbox360 is built for one thing and one thing only - game. If he already has a computer for everyday use and just want something to play games on, than the 360 is a very plausible choice. gaming on a pc is fun especially for fps games.
here are a few articles to ponder over
http://news.softpedi...-360-2134.shtml this one says pc=f1 racer console=stock car
http://reviews.cnet...._7-6233821.html this one says ps3 and xbox360 makes a lot of sense in terms of $$
what it really comes down to is what YOU want to play, if you are not a huge fps fanatic then go ahead and buy a xbox360. Because no matter how careful you shop around you still have to spend at least 1000 dollars on a near equvilent pc system not mention the headaches and research and time u have to put into it (this of course completely depend on your skills with hardware) where as you can walk into any large electronics store and pick up a xbox 360 and some games, go home plug it in and start playing.

[hudihoo]

$1000 is way to expensive i was looking on new egg earlier and found a athlon64x2 4200 with a good pci-e motherboard plus a gig of ram and sli 7600gt cards are for $750. compusa has a 250gig HD for 80 and newegg also has a NEC dvd-super drive for $35 that is about 900 so by your theory gladiator are you telling me that you infact have 600 for a keyboard and mouse and case. and sound card. a good sound card and speakers could be like 200 that is still 400 for the other stuff. And that rig mops the floor with the 360. you can get an xbox 360 equivilant for under 600 with this from new egg athlon 64 3500 7900gt video 1.5 gigs ram. it all comes down to money and time and effort. Money is probably going to be a bit more for the PC but it will be better for gameing and it can also go online do other things that the 360 can't. I am starting to think that gladiator works for microsoft. If you want the 360 get i am just trying to tell what i think and back it up by facts where as gladiator is really pushing you into getting a 360 instead of just giving you info and letting you make your own choice

[racinmason001]

Everything you guys are saying is true but, this does not constitute a good gaming system to me. If you pay $1000 for gaming system you will not get the best of the best graphics. FPS will be low and you wont be able to turn all the eye candy on. I think these setups are mediocre for gaming not incredible.

[†Gladiator†]

lol hudihoo
I wish i worked for MS i am 17 i work for the ontario ministry of natural resources parttime. I like MS, I would take a computer over a 360 anyday cause i was rasied on keyboards and mice (still have that old com 64 somewhere) I am a COD2 fanatic, I don't own a single console (i play it over at my friend's place, and it does look good on a 50 inch plasma). Don't get the wrong idea i am not advocating for console or pc. I am just saying that building a computer isn't the best option for everybody (it's easy for us to shove a few parts together and build a decent system, for those who have no experience it could be a horrific ordeal.) oh and if you read carefully i said the core of my system was 1200 cdn (that'd be 1000 us) and the rest is the extra stuff that i added in to make gaming more enjoyable for me. a zalman cnps9500 was 85 the vf900 was 50, the x fi elite was 240 (huge deal) and the saitek eclipse 2 was 70 they g5 was 70. So yeah could you live without the 600 worth of extra stuff? Sure, but i just bought them so i could have a silent computer with some amazing fragging gear.
All i am saying is that if you don't need a pc, and only want to play games (like racing, or i dunno halo X or fable or combat games like tekken) than there is nothing wrong with buying a 360. But if you want the fps games like cod2 hl2 fear css and bf2 than you have to spend at least 1000. the 750 you quoted doesn't include a scr does it? the price i am quoting include speakers (decent ones) and at least a 19 inch display. I did provide links to the extreme tech build it section which has budget gaming pc's for 800 bucks (display not included) all i am saying is that gaming on those might not be a very very pleasant experience. I like my computer (that's why i am on this forum) i wouldn't trade it in for a 360 ps3 and wii but that's because i like fps games, but my friend loves racing and fighting games so he uses a ps2 and 360. It's all up to what you play, but no matter how much you shop you still have to put more work and money into a gaming computer (i think it's worth it but it purely depends on the level of computer skills).
But anyways hudihoo you seem to very good at finding deals, a skill that i envy, i am gonna be building a 1500 core 2 duo system in the near future so i will be expecting lots of tips and help from you.

p.s. if i worked for m.s. i won't be scrambling around trying to find a place to pre order a zune in canada.........

[racinmason001]

I'm gonna post one more time in this thread. The title says (for brilliant gaming) these $1000 dollar systems are not gonna give brilliant gaming I have spent around $2000 on my system it consists of a Pentium dual core 3.00 GHz cpu, 2gb of ram, a BFG 650watt power supply, a BFG geforce 7900gt and other misc components. I'm not gonna say gaming is crap but it does not even compete with a SLI system or quad gpu system. So once again I will say $1000 will not produce brilliant gaming just mediocre.

[pharaoh]

Hi Guys
Thank you very much for all your replys what sort of Motherboard would i start with and sort of memory would i need for gaming is it like 1MB OR 2MB or more and is Compatible with these motherboards and pentium 4 or equivalent which of theses is better. I was looking at computer shops online that sell these sort of parts and a few motherboards here are around £100.00 or just over would someone help me build this rig with step by step help as i would appreciate all the help i can get Thanks again you guys.Please let me know if these motherboards are the right sort to start with or can you recommend one Thank you


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pharaoh