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.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
70 Comments
View All Comments
benk - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
The Dell 2001FP is listed at 799 and is often on sale for well below 700.Swaid - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
Illissius -I was just about to suggest that. The Epox motherboard is a much better "buy" then the Chaintech now.
Illissius - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
I agree with nearly all the choices, which can't be said for most other buying guides I've read :)My one suggestion is that the EPoX 8KDA3J costs nearly the same as the Chaintech VNF3-250, and has more functionality -- namely, it uses the 250Gb chipset.
kherman - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
AGP:Anyone wondering aobut when it will be phased out, just look back to old PCI video cards. Took about 1-2 years for manufacturers to drop AGP support altogether. It's a supply demand issue.
As for mobo's I'd expect to see new mobo's w/AGP for atleast a year more. Some people iwll be using those older video cards after all. Also, multiple PCI-X slots are the goal and if I understand correctly, PCI altogether will be dropped, menaing network and sound cards will also need a PCI-X home.
Anyways...my 2 cents.
kherman - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
How about RAID 5 for the "fully employed" system? Would be redundant and should give slightly faster load times ;)kherman - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
"Budget Gaming System, Part Two"IMHO: Keep the 2800+ part and spend that extra $50 on a better video card. That will give better frame rates, IMO of course.
JarredWalton - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
I've heard conflicting reports about the quality of gaming on the Dell 2001FP. Some people love it, and others think it's good but perhaps not great. The price on it is also subject to quite a bit of variation. Right now, I believe it's on sale for about the same as the Viewsonic, while "normally" it might be $1000 plus shipping. I have not actually used one in person, so I can't really comment on interpolation quality, but of the LCDs that I have used, I have yet to see one that offers interpolation of such a quality that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. Opinions on that, of course, differ.The same goes for the wireless mouse. Some people swear by the MX510. I've tried it, and I simply did not like it. The Microsoft wireless mice I've tried were even worse, however. Anyway, the choice of mouse is very personal. I really like the standard MS Optical five button. It's light and accurate enough that I don't have any complaints. Even with an unlimited budget, I would still buy that same mouse for my own use. I *could* go out and try numerous other mice, but I'm just not that concerned with that one peripheral. If you are, more power to you! :)
MiLLeRBoY - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
Also, for the High-End Gaming, check out the new the Logitech Z-5500 Digital speakers. It's just a revamped version of the Z-680's design as well as adding more power. The subwoofer is noticeably larger than the former though. The retail price is $400.MiLLeRBoY - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
DEMO24 - I have the 20.1" Dell 2001FP and it only has a 16ms response time. However, I don't see ghosting when playing games. I also play my games at 1024x768 with 4xAA when the LCD's native resolution is 1600x1200. The image interpolation is great, it doesn't look horrible even at 1280x1024 or 1024x768. And the price is around the same as the ViewSonic VP912B. However, I probably wouldn't mind using any of those two LCDs, they're both great.xsilver - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
?? min 18A on 12v rail -- crap my PSU doesn't have that... will it not run a AMDs939? (15A -- enhance brand, respectable, heavy)