I was writing another article, and I had to make a hardware list of my PC inventory. I realized that I have refined my gaming machines down to a standard set of parts over the years, that I buy the same basic list now, and it all costs less than $700. Actually, about $680.
I buy all my hardware from NewEgg.com, and every part I select is usually from their Customer Choice Award Winners list. This list is rated by the buyers of the hardware,. My logic is that if everyone else likes the parts, they will work for me. This method of picking hardware has served me very well for almost 10 years now, and I now have few hardware issues. I can also choose my price point for each hardware item, and then choose the highest rated parts for that price on the newegg site, which made it easier to write this.
So here’s the list, and where necessary a few notes. I have posted this as a Public Wish List at NewEgg. Oh, and I don’t make any money from newegg, but I like their service and return policies. Great pricing too.
Gigbyte M61P AM2 Motherboard – $75 - Gigabyte makes solid motherboards and better AMD motherboards, reasonably priced ones.
4 Gigs of Gskill DDR2 800mhz memory – $90 – GSkill makes great gaming memory – cheap gaming memory too. 4 gigs will be enough for any game you play.
AMD Athlon 6000+x2 Processor – $160 – dual core 3.3 gig processors. low wattage, great series for gamers. Comparable Intel Processor -
eVGA 8600GTS 256 MB GDDR3 video card – $140 – This is a great, low price point, 256 MB Nvidia 8000 series card. It will run almost any game you can buy at the highest settings, runs DirectX 10, and is well under $200. Nice.
Rosewill RP550-2 ATX12V v2.01 550W Power Supply – $70 – This power supply delivers 550 watts, quietly and consistently, with a cool blue lighted fan.
Cooler Master case – $40 – This case has great ventilation, can be set up with almost no tools, and is pretty sharp. It is also roomy and will hold additional drives and equipment if you would like.
$30 SATA – DVD Burner of your choice (I picked a nice Samsung one on my list)
$75 250 Gig SATA 3.0 gig HD. These items are fairly easy to find if you want to add HD space or more drives. required case under $50.
You can mix this up a bit by adding a sound card, for better sound, or a better graphics card. The key here is that you can build a great gaming machine for under $700 – one with a nVidia 8000 series video card, 4 gig of RAM, and a dual core 3.3 gigahertz processor.
Let me know what you think, and if you have any questions drop me a line.
Good Luck.
February 9, 2008 at 3:17 am |
[...] a $20 DVD burner and $75 SATA hard drive, a $75 power supply of your choice, and you have… The Ultimate $600 Gaming Machine. That’s another article [...]
February 9, 2008 at 8:38 am |
Great Blog, keep up the good work!
April 5, 2008 at 6:44 am |
altho that is a quality build and will serve its purpose, it is not an ultimate gaming rig. most of the items are out dated , the purpose of building your own mean-pc-machine is to have the ability build an up to date pc, without the 3x mark-up price. a pc sold in department stores and from almost all manufacturers sell out dated hardware at a priemium price and is not very upgrade friendly.
ed. – the idea was NOT to build the ultimate gaming rig, it is to build the ultimate $600-700 gaming rig. Of course it is not built with bleeding edge, new components. The idea was to build a machine that would run almost any new game, at a modest cost. I could have spec’d out a machine that was far more superior, but it would have cost 3X as much. this machine is now available for under $600 on newegg.
June 8, 2008 at 11:54 pm |
Hey, nice set-up there. I was going for something like this, but I’m glad you put a wish list together. As of today (6-8-08) The price is actually only $630!!! Leaves room for a nice little graphics card upgrade, me thinks….