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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nghtdvl - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
Good guide, thanks.I'm still waiting to see some NF4 boards before getting a new system, though. I'm hoping the Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-939 will perform well.
Glassmaster - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
#7: The Gigabyte board isn't worth the trouble, if you really want an nForce 3 get the MSI K8N Neo2. There's a good reason why Anandtech isn't recommending the Gigabyte board.Jarred: Do you guys actually build and stress test these systems? Over at the offical AMD Athlon 64 troubleshooting forums, the most common problem we see is weak power supplys without enough amps on the 12V rail causing stability issues or even failing to POST. We generally recommend only PSUs with at least 18-20A on the 12V rail for the Athlon 64. I tried to look up the specs on that generic 350W PSU, but was unable to find them. Even the 350W Antec is difficult to find specs for. I know you are trying to save money, but what about the Antec True Power 380W (18A on 12V rail) for low end, and Antec True Power 430W (26A on the 12V rail) for the mid-range?
Glassmaster.
Brian23 - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
I like the fact that the guide reminds people that the price of SLI is too high for anyone but the most hardcore gamer.crazycarl - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
i like the new format for the buyer's guides!bsrealm - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
great guide, but i see there is no mention about RAIDing the SATA drives.. wouldnt that improve performance (atleast while installing and reading the game files)i am also a graphic designer and i guess while loading large files RAID would help..
and i agree with drpepper - video editors' guide please!!!
xsilver - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
thanks jarred -- im just laughing to see the same situation as pci video cards -- I still see tnt2 pci go for $50 on ebay! -- what a joke.... I don't want to be one of those stuck with something that is going to cost more in the long run :)drpepper1280 - Sunday, November 21, 2004 - link
Thank you,This was the way buyers guiders were meant to be done. Now for one on video editing!
ariafrost - Sunday, November 21, 2004 - link
One thing that bothers me... the keyboards and mice listed are "decent", but if you are wanting the bleeding edge in gaming, WHY would you buy an Intellimouse? Get something better... like an MX510 at least...DEMO24 - Sunday, November 21, 2004 - link
Im not sure why the VP912b was listed instead of a Dell 2001fp. the 2001 is larger and has a larger resolution. true it costs more but this is a all out system.drifter106 - Sunday, November 21, 2004 - link
as you indicated it does come off somewhat different from the norm that I have seen in previous guides...but neverless thanks for the time and effort... it makes me consider possible alternatives for my upcoming buildoh yea... i'll check back tommorrow and see how many winers come thru...hehe