Gaming Buyer's Guide - November 2004
by Jarred Walton on November 21, 2004 5:54 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Conclusion
The past few months have been huge for gamers. First came the long-awaited Doom 3 and now we have Half-Life 2 - not to mention the numerous other titles that are eagerly awaited. Surprisingly, both games can scale down with slower systems quite well. However, those looking to get the most out of their system should now have a lot of ideas for upgrades. As our recent look at the CPU and GPU scaling of Half-Life 2 have shown, a 2.4 GHz/2400+ processor paired with a moderate graphics is sufficient for running at low to medium detail levels. Older Pentium 3 and Athlon systems will have difficulty running modern games, and for such systems, a full upgrade is in order. We have provided options to fit any budget ranging from $800 to several thousand dollars.That wraps it up for this Buyer's Guide. We are doing our best to mix things up a bit and provide different perspectives on the market. We hope that you appreciate the variation, as we often feel that things can get bogged down with repeating the same recommendations month after month. As always, let us know if we're doing the right thing or if you prefer more consistency in our Guide format. Of course, this is just our recommendation based on currently available parts, so feel free to include your own comments and suggestions if you disagree.
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Arkali - Tuesday, November 23, 2004 - link
For Intel gaming you should have picked the new AOPEN socket 479 855GME motherboard and a Dothan processor.Glassmaster - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
#30 Doesn't look like they are going to defend their PSU recommendations. I just want to know if they actually build and stress test these systems with the Generic PSUs to make sure their recommended systems really are reliable.Glassmaster.
Live - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
I like the format of this guide. I think the guides in general has been a great addition to Anandtech.To bad PCI-e motherboards is not out yet. Since the sli previews are not out in force yet I'm still not 100% sure if its something you want on your motherboard for more upgradability but it sure looks like it is not. Too expensive both in terms of motherboard and the 2 cards. But for a gamer, investing in anything else then PCI-e seems like a bad move. Unless you like to buy second-hand. I bet a lot of AGP cards will soon be available on the market as the high end crowd switches to the latest.
mldeveloper - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
i like the format of this guide, since i always jumped to the end to see the final price breakdown anyway.nurazlanshah - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
is the a big difference in fps between 128mb and 256mb for a same graphic card?deathwalker - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
Jarod...great writeup. Ignore all the sniping. It's a tough job doing a article like this and sometimes there just aren't any absolute rights and wrongs. Somepeople just like to pipe-off and be heard.AaronAxvig - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
#15 I think if you really wanted maximum performance for a LOT of money, you would go with RAIDed SCSI. Very fast, no?Momental - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
Fantastic article, Trog......I mean Jarrod. ;)I was considering going the SLI route with (2) two 6600GT's, but then realized that the performance is identical to that of one 6800GT. And who wants to take the chance of one of the GPU's defecating the bed? Additionally, the cost of the SLI-capable board ain't gonna be cheap. I will, however, wait for the VIA and nVidia PCI-e boards to become available before finally building a new system.
The only thing I might change from the mid-range system is to put in the lower latency RAM, such as the OCZ Plat Rev. 2 or the Ballistix. Pop on a good aftermarket HSF on the CPU and we're good to go!!
gilkman - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
Very nice article. It's been a few years since my last homebuilt but with the new games it's def time to upgrade. I like the format of this article. It gives me a few more options and insight compared to the similar guides they have over at sharkeyextreme.comI am def looking at high end parts to put together and I was very interested in the Dell 20 inch widescreen LCD - Does anyone have any comments on using a widescreen LCD for games? The Dell widescreen has 16MS refresh and high resolutions, and I know that HL2 will support widescreen play, but what about other modern games like RTS's and RPG's? Is it safer to stick with a 4:3 screen?
SDA - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
Looks good, but I object to using a cheap PSU for a lot of the systems. It's worth the small amount of extra money you pay to get a better PSU... a TON of the problems I've seen in DIY systems resulted from cheapo PSUs that couldn't deliver enough power or simply couldn't deliver clean enough power. Cheap PSU = false savings, IMHO. There are plenty of good PSUs out there for cheap (TTGI, CWT aka Antec).And yeah, sure, the budget rigs don't stress the PSU much. I still hold that you shouldn't go generic. Having looked inside a lot of generic PSUs, I can safely say that I wouldn't ever want to see one in ANY system I build.