Xbox D00M 3 Updates!

Like LIC said.. add a crappy monitor to that, cheap speakers/soundcard/mouse/keyboard and you\'ve built yourself a decent rig for around 1200 bucks.

Now upgrade to a monster rig - better CPU, GPU, Monitor, Case, Hdds, and peripherals, and you will easily double your costs.

For the hell of it why don\'t you do what I did and post monster specs just to show us an example?

The "decent" rig should be great for running Doom 3.

*the soundcard is included with the motherboard btw.  And don\'t try to say an outboard one will be better than the Soundstorm or Soully will get on your case

AMD64 3200+
Asus ASUS K8V
1gb of Corsair or OCZ platinum ram
Goof Quality PSU
160gb HD
Media Drive
M-Audio Revolution 7.1 (creative labs is still crap)
Monsoon PM14 (speakers)


There is an example of a decent system spec

the soundcard is included with the motherboard btw. And don\'t try to say an outboard one will be better than the Soundstorm or Soully will get on your case

First show me a AMD64 board that includes SS. For gaming the soundstrom is good, however for dvd and music playback the revo is of better sound quality. Better DAC\'s, better layout for cleaner sound, better quality componets used etc....

[Living-In-Clip]

$315 for Kingston HyperX 3700 DDR RAM - 1 gig of it. It has highly overclockable / and what not. You could go cheaper and get value RAM, but you\'d lose some of the function of the HyperX.

Here is my specs..


AMD Athlon 64 3400 - $ 414

Chaintech ZNF - 150 MOBO - $115

1 Gig Kingston Hyper X 3700 - $315.

Plextor 708A - $ 180

Antec SoHo File Server Case - $100

Antec 450 PSW -  (can\'t remember what I paid for that)

Seagate 160 gig Serial ATA drive - $150

Another Seagate 160

ATI or Nvidia High Performance Card - $500

Floppy Drive - $9.

Creative Labs Soundblaster Audigy Plantium ZS - $200

------ Note, I left out my two other Western Digtial 250 gig SATA drives, CRT Monitor, 5.1 Speaker setup, Wireless Mouse / Keyboard and all prices are apprx,  either way I remember paying for them or what I have got off Pricewatch / NewEgg.com . Granted, some of that stuff is overkill, but that is a "monster rig".  Not bashing Omen\'s rig, but it is merely decent and it will most likely not play DOOM 3 / Far Cry/ HL2 at the highest settings.  

but i guess xbox fans are used to being ripped off
 

I hate to say it - but think before you post. You should know I\'m not an Xbox fan and I\'ve supported your argument against DOOM 3, up and until the whole "budget gamers" comment.


I think some of you confused  budget rigs, with expensive high performance rigs.

Fair enough, a couple of examples of why I couldn\'t build a monster rig for 1200:

1) CPU -  AMD Athlon 64 FX-53, 1MB L2 Cache, 64-bit Processor - OEM  $733 (ouch), possibly I would save 40 bucks and go with the FX-51, but probably not.  If I were willing to compromise somwhere between your gen and cutting edge, I might go  
AMD Athlon 64 3400+, 1MB L2 Cache, 64-bit Processor - OEM  $404, but that\'s as low as I would be buying today.

2) Won\'t say anything about onboard sound, certainly nothing about an external soundcard.

3) Hard Drive... well, if I didn\'t go with a ramdrive for my OS drive, it would be a 37 gig raptor ($110) for the OS/cache and one or two of my most used applications.  I would then have a separate RAID setup, consisting of at least 200 gigs - but most likely more.. after all, my current rig has a total of 320 now, 200 of that in RAID.  So lets say two of the ($124) hard drives you bought.

4) GPU, gonna get a 256 meg card, to stay with your company, probably the 9800XT, OEM thats $400 bucks, but if we stayed with the 9800pro 256 meg version.. thats... $275.

5) Good monitor.. the monitor on my rig now was 1G CDN..  Samsung SyncMaster 192N... so we\'ll stay with that.....

6) Good accessories.. ie, current rig has the 4.1 THX approved Logitech Z-... somethings.. 580 was it?  I would probably be getting the Z-680 ($265) were I buying today, but that\'s neither here nor there.  Another $50-$80 bucks on a cordless optical rechargable mouse... (course, I already have one..)....

you get the idea.. right?

My definintion of monster rig is one (and of course, this will be different for different people) that runs todays most cutting edge software with EASE, and will still run things in a couple years, with minimal upgrading.  I buy a MONSTER rig every 2.5 years.. ie, my now .... close to 2 year old rig still runs Farcry at 1280x1024 with good/high everything at good framerates.  In another 9 months or so, I\'ll make this rig my bitch rig which goes in the corner to store stuff on, burn DVDs/CDs from, and just generally do nothing but run SETI.

Antec 450 PSW - (can\'t remember what I paid for that)

I just want to add that ANTEC, VANTEC, and ENERMAX are nothing more than average PSU. Everyone thinks theses are the top dogs, but they are junk.

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 FX-53, 1MB L2 Cache, 64-bit Processor - OEM $733 (ouch), possibly I would save 40 bucks and go with the FX-51, but probably not. If I were willing to compromise somwhere between your gen and cutting edge,

Dude wait for the 939 newcastle, forget the overpriced FX-53 or 51. Trust me!!

Don\'t worry.  Like I said I\'m not buying today.. in 9 months.. and when I do, that\'ll involve a good month of research into what\'s out there, and what\'s coming shortly.

I do think that enermax makes good powersupplies.  I got top of the line, and the monitors I\'ve got in my system have never showed any aberation from perfect that I\'ve seen.  Course, I have a nice power-setup before I even get to my computer, but that\'s something else all together

The system I posted is not a budget rig.  A budget rig would be something like an older Celeron with 256mb of ram.

upgrading the parts for "monster" title that is only needed for gaming would be:

SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON X800 PRO - $445

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ - $404

All the extras you posted won\'t help for gaming.  Didn\'t include the ram because  we have to assume not even half of PC gamers overclock.

I got $1500 with the 2 new components.  $3500 is crazy...

Originally posted by THX
The system I posted is not a budget rig.  A budget rig would be something like an older Celeron with 256mb of ram.

upgrading the parts for "monster" title that is only needed for gaming would be:

SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON X800 PRO - $445

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ - $404

All the extras you posted won\'t help for gaming.  Didn\'t include the ram because  we have to assume not even half of PC gamers overclock.

I got $1500 with the 2 new components.  $3500 is crazy...

1) I overclock
2) You\'re missing the same-level peripherals
3) You\'re missing storage capacity, and BTW, having a small/fast/dedicated OS drive does improve game performance, and overall performance.
4) You\'re missing a monitor (about to break the 2k mark anyone?)
5) Extras I posted will help for gaming in the near future - I don\'t buy just for today I buy for tomorow.

Your budget rig is not a budget rig, it\'s a POS.  If I knew anyone who was running a celeron today I would tell them to buy something else now.  If I knew someone who bought a celeron new today?!?  I might just have to beat them up.

I do think that enermax makes good powersupplies.

There average, like ANTEC.

you want clean, raw power

#1 PC Power & Cooling > everything else

if you can\'t afford that, then I highly recommend FORTON PSU

If you are an overclocker, the better the PSU(more stable the rails) the better overclock you will get.

here take a look at your ANTEC/ENERMAX http://www.pcpowercooling.com/pdf/Turbo-Cool_510_vs.pdf

Originally posted by NVIDIA256
There average, like ANTEC.

you want clean, raw power

#1 PC Power & Cooling > everything else

if you can\'t afford that, then I highly recommend FORTON PSU

If you are an overclocker, the better the PSU(more stable the rails) the better overclock you will get.

here take a look at your ANTEC/ENERMAX http://www.pcpowercooling.com/pdf/Turbo-Cool_510_vs.pdf

Like I said.. it may be my setup before I even get to the PS, but I took care setting it up, testing it when I got it... and my monitors have showed that it runs ROCK STEADY (expected variations) all the time, hot/cold, loaded/unloaded.

Never take a 1st party comparison for a gospel example.. look 3rd party.

You can buy 2.8Ghz Celerons you goon.  And many many people still go this route.  They also OC em like a biatch.

Also small & fast when it comes to HDs is an oxymoron.  The bigger it is the more density it sports meaning higher trasnfer rates at the same speed.

My 120gb Maxtor is faster than my 40gb Seagate, both 7200rpm.

But now the argument has gone to shit.  More expensive peripherals won\'t help in gaming so I guess we\'re not talking Doom 3 anymore.

Celerons, no matter their clock speed, run everything like shit.  Especially games.   You can call it opinion or bias, but that\'s the way I feel.

I\'m not talking a smaller drive of the same type, I\'m talking a smaller drive of a much better/faster type, and it\'s smaller cause I didin\'t want to throw a $200+ 70 gig raptor at you, that\'s all.

Peripherals are part of gaming.. especially FPS games.  

If you\'re not a headphone user, good surround is a must, and good headphones are expensive too.
A high end mouse is a must - after all, some jackass with a 3 dollar ball mouse just won\'t have the responsiveness that I will (dirty, not as responsive to fast movement or fine movement, slower refreshing).  And even my textured-made-for-optical mouse pad cost me some dough.
High end monitor?  Yup, more resolution and detail helps in games.. and is kind of the whole point....  Your rig might play games at an amazing 1600x1280 max everything 100 fps, but if you\'re playing on a 15" POS, then who cares?

[Living-In-Clip]

This whole thing started because MM popped off and said he could build a "monster rig" for $1,200 and I think we have all figured out, that you cannot build a monster rig for $1,200...  I have no doubts you can build a decent rig for that, but you are not goin\' to build a high performance rig that is ready to handle anything thrown at it. It simply is not going to happen.

Look at THX\'s - two components and he is already at the $800 dollar mark and that is just a CPU / Videocard.

And Fatal - one thing you failed to mention on your monster rig was that the FX series of CPU / motherboards required REGISTERED RAM, which raises the price even more.