- Dec 17, 2001
- 3,566
- 3
- 81
Years ago, I used to putter with computers all day and get all crazy about high-end hardware. These days, I have kids and mostly play boardgames anyway, but I'd still like to crank out a PC game from time to time. I'm tired of trying to coax my Linux box into running games well (possible, but my time is too valuable now), so I'm thinking of putting together a Windows-only, dedicated gaming box. Any considerations beyond gaming are irrelevant, as I have my regular box for that. As for games, like hardware, I'm totally out of the loop these days - I have no idea what the current hot games are beyond WoW. And while I wouldn't mind playing a new title or two, I'll probably also spend time playing old stuff like Oblivion and Civ4, maybe even some old Black Isle titles. All of this would be done on my massive 1280x1024 19" LCD which I have no interest in upgrading (barbaric, I know). Not surprisingly, OC'ing is of little interest to me.
In short, I'm not as hardcore as I used to be, so make recommendations accordingly. Here's what I put together...
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma Black - $65 - Looks like a nice proc for the money. For a pure gaming rig on a budget, I don't see a quad being worth the extra money. Perhaps I could even save a few bucks and get a lower-clocked version.
Cooling: Stock - This box probably won't run at all except when I'm playing games, so a little noise is not an issue. And without OC'ing I see no need for better cooling.
MB: Asus M4A78 Plus - $80 - I'm a confessed Asus fanboy and this looks OK, though I'm not too hip to current chipsets. But this looks like it will do the job, and it will also accomodate an AM3 proc if I want to go for an upgrade in another year or two.
RAM: Corsair XMS 2x 2GB DDR2 1066 - $56 - Asus's QVL doesn't list 1066 parts, but Corsair is on there for the lower clocked RAM. Again, given that I'm not concerned with OC's, I'm thinking this will be fine.
Video: Sapphire Radeon HD 4830 512MB - $90 - The 48xx's seem to be the preferred cheap eats at the moment. Given my lowly 19" screen, I'm hoping this can run current games at passable settings and framerates. I'd rather buy another $100 card 12-18 months from now than buy a $200 one right now.
PSU: Seasonic 500W - $78 - Seems to me like a lot of folks have irrational hard-ons for ludricrous PSU's - I probably would've chosen the 430W version except that this only cost $3 more. With 1 vidcard, 1 hard drive, no fancy cooling, and no OC'ing I don't see the need for more wattage than this. I've had good experience with Seasonic, but am open to other suggestions. edit: On further examination, I see the slightly cheaper Seasonic is the modular 430W, whereas this is a non-modular 500W. I think I'll take the modular 430W unless someone wants to convince me otherwise.
Hard Drive: Hitachi 7K1000.B 320GB - $50 - This is way more storage than I can imagine needing, but it's the smallest one with a 16MB cache. I see no need for higher-end storage on a pure gaming rig at this price point.
Case: Lian-Li PC-K7B - $86 - My old Lili has served me faithfully for almost 10 years now.
Audio: Onboard
Speakers: My old Klipsch 2.1 set
DVD Burner: the cheap LG one
KVM: Startech 2 Port USB/DVI KVM - $115 - If anyone's used this with Linux, I'd love to hear about it, as it's hard to find solid info there. But in general, Startech's seem to do better than the really cheapo switches with Linux. I'm hoping this one won't have worse than minor quirks, as the truly high-end switches cost more than I care to pay for a gaming project. Since this doesn't have a PS/2 port, I'll have to replace my old keyboard with...
Keyboard: ABS M1 Keyboard - $45 - These sound pretty nice. Not as nice as the IBM Model M I grew up with, but still pretty nice.
Mouse: Some cheap Logitech optical mouse. Damn kids with all their buttons and wireless... get off my lawn!
Total = ~$700, plus shipping. I don't really want to spend much more than this.
Comments appreciated. Thanks!
In short, I'm not as hardcore as I used to be, so make recommendations accordingly. Here's what I put together...
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma Black - $65 - Looks like a nice proc for the money. For a pure gaming rig on a budget, I don't see a quad being worth the extra money. Perhaps I could even save a few bucks and get a lower-clocked version.
Cooling: Stock - This box probably won't run at all except when I'm playing games, so a little noise is not an issue. And without OC'ing I see no need for better cooling.
MB: Asus M4A78 Plus - $80 - I'm a confessed Asus fanboy and this looks OK, though I'm not too hip to current chipsets. But this looks like it will do the job, and it will also accomodate an AM3 proc if I want to go for an upgrade in another year or two.
RAM: Corsair XMS 2x 2GB DDR2 1066 - $56 - Asus's QVL doesn't list 1066 parts, but Corsair is on there for the lower clocked RAM. Again, given that I'm not concerned with OC's, I'm thinking this will be fine.
Video: Sapphire Radeon HD 4830 512MB - $90 - The 48xx's seem to be the preferred cheap eats at the moment. Given my lowly 19" screen, I'm hoping this can run current games at passable settings and framerates. I'd rather buy another $100 card 12-18 months from now than buy a $200 one right now.
PSU: Seasonic 500W - $78 - Seems to me like a lot of folks have irrational hard-ons for ludricrous PSU's - I probably would've chosen the 430W version except that this only cost $3 more. With 1 vidcard, 1 hard drive, no fancy cooling, and no OC'ing I don't see the need for more wattage than this. I've had good experience with Seasonic, but am open to other suggestions. edit: On further examination, I see the slightly cheaper Seasonic is the modular 430W, whereas this is a non-modular 500W. I think I'll take the modular 430W unless someone wants to convince me otherwise.
Hard Drive: Hitachi 7K1000.B 320GB - $50 - This is way more storage than I can imagine needing, but it's the smallest one with a 16MB cache. I see no need for higher-end storage on a pure gaming rig at this price point.
Case: Lian-Li PC-K7B - $86 - My old Lili has served me faithfully for almost 10 years now.
Audio: Onboard
Speakers: My old Klipsch 2.1 set
DVD Burner: the cheap LG one
KVM: Startech 2 Port USB/DVI KVM - $115 - If anyone's used this with Linux, I'd love to hear about it, as it's hard to find solid info there. But in general, Startech's seem to do better than the really cheapo switches with Linux. I'm hoping this one won't have worse than minor quirks, as the truly high-end switches cost more than I care to pay for a gaming project. Since this doesn't have a PS/2 port, I'll have to replace my old keyboard with...
Keyboard: ABS M1 Keyboard - $45 - These sound pretty nice. Not as nice as the IBM Model M I grew up with, but still pretty nice.
Mouse: Some cheap Logitech optical mouse. Damn kids with all their buttons and wireless... get off my lawn!
Total = ~$700, plus shipping. I don't really want to spend much more than this.
Comments appreciated. Thanks!