A Gaming PC for $2000

Gizmania: Velocity Micro Gamers' Edge DualX T1300: "Velocity Micro Gamers' Edge DualX T1300

Would any self-respecting gamer buy off the shelf from a big-box retailer? The Gamer's Edge DualX T1300 represents Velocity Micro's entry into the electronics retail channel. Available in Best Buy retail outlets and online through BestBuy.com, the $1,991 T1300 is a serious gaming machine with an Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT video card and an AMD Athlon 64 3800+ CPU. It's one of three configurations offered by the retail giant (but the only one you'll see in stores), bringing boutique craftsmanship to off-the-shelf shoppers. Available only online are the more expensive T1400 model, with a dual-core Athlon 64 X2 4400+ processor, and the cheaper T1200, with an Athlon 64 3700+ CPU. The T1300 may appear pricey next to the mainstream systems sitting next to it on the shelf, but for a gaming PC, it's a smart configuration that gives you good bang for your gaming buck."


Maybe you've been a very good girl or boy this year. Look here to see what Santa could land on you.

My question is, if you already have a good machine, how do you tear yourself away from gaming long enough to pay for this toy?

And if you do, THEN how do you accomplish anything else but gaming? I couldn't even quit playing Tetris on a GameBoy until the battery ran out!

Mickey

A Nerd's Tips on Building Your Gaming PC

Tips From a Nerd: PC Buying Tips: "PC Buying Tips

For today's topic, I want to briefly address something I get asked about quite a bit from friends and family; what should you get when looking for a PC? I actually rewrote this article a few times, trying to get the right mix of information and suggestions, but they were all very lengthy. So I've decided to just give you my recommendations for a 'budget' PC and a 'gaming' PC. These are all just my opinions, but none of my clients have so far complained. ;)"


This self-named nerd wrote tips on building two pcs--a budget pc for normal use, and a gaming pc. For the gaming machine, he chose the same AMD Athlon 64 Tom's Hardware likes, and for the same reasons of good power and easy upgrade.

He goes on to recommend a gaming bliss monitor that breaks the budget, but oh well. Check it out.

Mickey

$500 Gaming Machine = Christmas!

Save Money On A Box For Quake 4: Tech Observer: "Save Money On A Box For Quake 4

Tom's Hardware Guide PCs & HowTo: The $500 Gaming Machine - The Budget Gaming PC Challenge

This is a review on building a system that looks like it has great spec's and saving a few bucks. I need to do this for Christmas, I didn't upgrade my desktop last year."


This guy's thinking Christmas present, same as me!

Mickey

Do-It-Yourself PC Gaming Machine

Affordable Geekery

"I built mine in June of 2004. It took me months of saving and shopping and researching to determine just what I needed to get, but the waiting was all worth it. Because in the end, I had not just a powerful machine, but one that I put together for much less than a new Dell with comparable specs. And frankly, it has given me less problems than any other factory-made machines I’ve used at work or at home. So naturally, when people ask me what they should buy for their next desktop PC, I tell them to do-it-themselves. The only problem is that most people don’t have the patience to sort through reviews and descriptions, searching for just the right component that won’t break the bank.

To make that part easier, Tom’s Hardware has compiled a guide to building a fully-functional gaming PC for under $500. After looking at the specs, I can see nothing wrong with it. My own machine is based on the same 64-bit AMD processor. The graphics card is especially great and will hold up to practically any game you’d want to throw at it. The EVGA 6600 GT lists for $249 on the company site, but NewEgg has it for under half that price."


Here's a guy who compares his own build with the $500 machine outlined in the Tom's Hardware article. He's pleased with both.

Mickey

Ever Buy A Computer On eBay?

Sue's Blog: "Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Finally, a fun to read essay about something i know a little something, something about. Ebay! I love Ebay...why? Because i have lots of junk, and as we all know someone's junk is someone else's treasure. I still have my original Nintendo and Sega genesis which i plan on unloading before i move, where will i do it? Ebay! I've been Ebaying on and off for years, mostly when i need to get some fundage. I've bought countless DVD's and CD's, and even my gaming PC on EBay. The PC was a very iffy transaction for me because i had never really spent more than $40 on an auction...my machine cost me $300...it had everything i needed except the Radeon graphics card i wanted (got that on ebay too $100). The company i was buying it from was new, and their ratings were quite low, but they were good. It was an act of faith, and i was biting my nails the entire time. My machine came and it was great! I still have it and loooooooove it!"


I did. This woman did. We did all right. A local computer store owner/operator/repair guy said he's forever being asked to repair something unrepairable someone bought on eBay.

Both this woman and I take care who we deal with--look for good feedback and lots of information about what you're getting. Or are we incredibly lucky?

Have you ever bought gaming gear on eBay?

Mickey

A Gaming System That Blows Your Hair Back!

The Rahul Sood Weblog - www.rahulsood.com: I setup a new Gaming PC today: "I've been playing Age of Empires III and I thought I'd give F.E.A.R. a chance. I setup a brand new Voodoo OMEN PC today with an AMD FX-57, NVIDIA GeForce 7800GTX SLI, and 1 terrabyte of storage. A bit extreme perhaps, but I've been getting into the new games, and I want to get an Apple 30' Cinemadisplay to see how well it functions in newer games. Anyways, F.E.A.R. scares the heck out of me, it is very well done - and if you dump one of the new Creative soundcards in your machine, it's pretty awesome. These days I rarely get a chance to play games, but when I do I want to maximize my experience, and this configuration is exactly what you need to make it happen."


Check out what he's got and be careful to keep the drool out of your keyboard. It's the opposite of budget, of course, but hey.

Mickey

A Disgruntled View Of The $500 Gaming PC

Tom's Hardware Builds $500 Gaming PC, Forgets Some Things - Damox's Technology Blog: "Tom's Hardware Builds $500 Gaming PC, Forgets Some Things
Here's an informative but flawed article from Tom's Hardware. They tried to build a gaming PC for $500, and they thought they accomplished the task successfully, but they forget some things. The following were never mentioned or bought for their build: case, keyboard, mouse, speakers, shipping charges, operating system. The operating system would almost have to be Windows for a gaming machine, as there are many games that are not compatible with other operating systems. I'm sure the people at Tom's Hardware can either get their Windows versions for free or they just download their 'free' pirated version off a file sharing network, but to the average user this will cost at least $70. If you add in all the costs that Tom's Hardware forgot or ignored, I would guess the final cost would end up being closer to $700. If you don't have another monitor that's another $200 or more if you want a good monitor for games (not some cheap 15' CRT). So realistic final cost, from scratch, is like $900 plus tax. So is it possible to build a complete gaming PC for $500? No.
Tom's Hardware Guide PCs"


Two bloggers pointed out the missing case, etc. This guy was more polite about it.

So I stand corrected. *Sigh* Got overexcited, didn't I, wanting it to be true.

Mickey

New Mac Versus World of Warcraft

jBlog: G5 Is Alive!: "Yay, I'm the proud new owner of a G5! I know previously I said I had ordered a PowerBook, but the more I thought about it I realized that a slightly faster laptop isn't what I really needed for work. So back went the brand new PowerBook and in it's place I bought one of the new dual Core PowerMacs.

Right off the bat, I was happy with my purchase. This is the fastest Mac I've ever used, and it makes my poor 12 inch PowerBook feel very sluggish by comparison. There's not a ton of difference in every day tasks like using the Finder or browsing the web, but once I fire up Eclipse the difference is day and night. Adding an extra 2 gigs of memory made it even faster: I can now work all day long without paging memory out to the hard drive at all. Pure bliss!

On a whim I decided to install World of Warcraft. Blizzard is nice enough to include both the PC and Mac versions on the same set of disks, so I figured I'd see how much better it played on my new PowerMac than my regular gaming PC. My gaming PC is an old Athlon XP 2800 machine with 1 gig of DDR ram and a GeForce 6800 video card. While my new PowerMac only has a GeForce 6600 video card, I expected it to be faster. Boy, was I wrong!"


Who'da thunk his new machine wouldn't play well with World of Warcraft? It's his work machine, so maybe it's a little uptight about playing games? Maybe he should dub the machine Church Lady or something.

Mickey

» Half Life 2: Lost Coast Now Available!

» Half Life 2: Lost Coast Now Available!: "October 27, 2005
Half Life 2: Lost Coast Now Available!

Surprise of the century right here folks. Basically out of nowhere, Valve has release the Lost Cost over Steam just moments ago.

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, a single-player level custom-created to showcase High-Dynamic Range lighting (HDR) in the Source engine, is available now to all owners of HL2. As a technology showcase, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast’s system requirements are very high. During installation, Steam will prompt you if your system does not meet the recommended configuration. We hope you enjoy it.

As usual, reload Steam and it will be available. Be warned, this is for high end PC’s only (3ghz, 1gig of ram, DX9 card)"


Those of you with lots of PC muscle, what do you think of this game?

Mickey

You Can Build a Really Good Gaming Machine for $500!

"Tom’s Hardware Guide PCs & HowTo: The $500 Gaming Machine - The Budget Gaming PC Challenge
Saturday October 29th 2005, 3:23 pm
Filed under: Cool, Vids, Grapevine, Tech, Amazing!, God-like

Tom’s Hardware Guide PCs & HowTo: The $500 Gaming Machine - The Budget Gaming PC Challenge

Cool!

If you are like this writer, your passion for the latest and greatest technology is bigger than your wallet. Let’s face it, most of us can afford to fork over the occasional $50 for the latest game title, but even the most hardcore gamer usually won’t pay more than $600 for the latest graphics card or processor. However, as we’ve reported many times over, benchmarks don’t lie - and they show that you’re often not going to notice much difference with games when investing in cutting edge technology."


I love this guy's site. He takes you step by step through the process of selecting what's powerful and suddenly cheap just as newer technology comes along. You see his reasoning and what he finds available for every component. Makes me itchy. Christmas is coming, you know.

What do you think?

Mickey

Welcome!

Hello Gamer,

Here you'll see news and information on dream PCs for playing games, reviews, customizing and more. Why cut into your game time? Let me scour the net for you. I would love to get to know you. Please feel free to click the comment button and introduce yourself.

Mickey