Solved Gaming Machine - what's the best?

[brady]

I am looking for the best gaming machine on the market... I'm getting older now and am wondering who sells the best gaming pc on the market.
No budget if that helps.

 

[pparks1]

If you want the best, build your own.

 

[brady]

I've been out of the building my own gaming pc for a while now. I wouldn't even know where to start

 

[AstaLaVista]

If money is no object, why don't you buy the best components out there (we can help you, we love to spend other people's money), contact a friend who knows (we all have one) and pay him to build it for you? You would be better off if you buy one from Alienware or the likes.

Pay me, I will build it for you.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Like others are saying we can help you through the whole process which for you would be like riding a bike. But if you have truly no budget and you want the best as well as bragging rights as well as a piece with which would be best suited to be place on a pedestal and proudly displayed then there is only one source imho!
murderbox
Have fun and don't hurt yourself ! We are here for you when you land !

 

[brady]

Alienware was dominant a few years ago, are they still the leading gaming pc provider? I think they're put together by Dell/Insight now.

Thruthfully, I only play world of warcraft, but would like the pc to be able to handle the new game coming out by Blizzard late next year. I've never been able to play on a max or ultra settings and would like the ability to do so.

 

[pparks1]

^ You won't require "the best" gaming box possible for what you want to do. In fact, I'd venture so far to say that buying "the best" is an absolute waste of money.....either way in a few years time, a $10,000 box will be outdated just like a $1,200 box. Perhaps not quite as much...but then again, you could have purchased 8 additional $1,200 boxes along the way.

If you want to play a game like WOW with all settings maxed, get a Core i7-2600k, any $400 video card from Nvidia or AMD, and 4GB of RAM and you can set the details on as high as they will go. No reason to spend more than $1500 for what you want to achieve. (Unless, you are doing 2-3 monitors and super high resolutions....and then you might need to go with a crossfire or SLI solution with multiple graphics cards). But if you want to play on 1 monitor and resolutions of 1920x1200...you only need a single video card to do that.

 

[pparks1]

I recon that this would do it

Intel Core i5-2500 3.3Ghz Quad Core $209
Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500

Asus P8H67-M LX (Rev 3.0) LGA 1166 Intel H67 SATA 6Gb/s mobo $88.99
Newegg.com - ASUS P8H67-M LX (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

G. Skill 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM kit: $29.99 (after $10 promo code)
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL8D-4GBHK

LG DVD Burner. SATA. $18.99
Newegg.com - LG CD/DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model GH22NS70 OEM - CD / DVD Burners

Antec One Hundred Black ATX Mid Tower. $39.99 (after MIR)
Newegg.com - Antec One Hundred Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Western Digital Caviar Black 32MB Cache 500GB SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard drive. $59.99
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

XFX Radeon 6850 1GB Video Card. $138.99 after rebate
Newegg.com - XFX HD-685X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

OCQ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular Power Supply. $49.99 (after MIR and $10 promo code)
Newegg.com - OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandybridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SP1 OEM. $99.99
Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - Operating Systems

Approx $10 shipping for video card and mobo combined.

Grand Total: $746.

I'm not saying that is "the best" computer, but it would pretty much max out the games out there now and the one that you mentioned.

So, as you can see, you can get quite a bit of computer for very little money.

 

[brady]

That is quite a difference from the 5k alienware they were trying to sell me, haha. Would the Nvidia GTX 590 be over kill at this point? I guess, I would need to up the PSU to 1000 watt at that point as well?

Would a SSD be over kill at this point? Prices are kinda crazy for the SSD at this point in time, I can only imaging them dropping substantially over the next year.

 

[stormy13]

Very nice.

Here's another reason to build your own. Similarly spec'ed Alienware,



Had to use the 17 2500K and HD 6950 as they didn't have the i7 2500 or HD 6850, but even with the price difference in those two components doesn't justify it being twice the price.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

I just built you a complete online Corsair 800D rig with 850 modular Corsair PSU, MSI 990 AM3 mobo, AMD 1100T 6 core processor, H70 sealed water cooled with 16 gb Corsair ddr3 1600 ram, noctua fans, fan controller, LG blu-ray reader, 4 tb's of WD black drives for raid or whatever, 230gb OCZ revo SSD, Gaming mouse and Illuminated keyboard, MSI R6970 and (3) 27" Samsung LED Monitors for Eyefinity. Add OS, cables and some time and I figure it all could be delivered to your door step in 3-5 days for under $4,000.00 and up-gradable to the bulldozer chip later. Add $200.00 - $700.00 for Intel i5 -i7. It should game fairly well !

 

[AstaLaVista]

I just think that buying something right now to be used a year from now is very or extremely dumb, because by next year, those items will be half the price of now. I know how you feel, believe me but, you need to learn to chill and get something for what you want to use with the option to upgrade down the road.

 

[brady]

I just think that buying something right now to be used a year from now is very or extremely dumb, because by next year, those items will be half the price of now. I know how you feel, believe me but, you need to learn to chill and get something for what you want to use with the option to upgrade down the road.

I think you're right... My wife will agree with you as well (which is law). I believe I'll probably wait for the game to come out then get the best when the time comes.

 

[Wishmaster]

That is quite a difference from the 5k alienware they were trying to sell me, haha. Would the Nvidia GTX 590 be over kill at this point? I guess, I would need to up the PSU to 1000 watt at that point as well?

Would a SSD be over kill at this point? Prices are kinda crazy for the SSD at this point in time, I can only imaging them dropping substantially over the next year.

For a single dispaly at 1920x1200 or lower ....
Yes, a 590 will be overkill.

These wont really show what they can do unless at very high res, or in a multi-display setup.


SSD, no. In fact I would highy recommend getting at least a 40-80GB SSD for the OS and Apps.
And a Spinner for all other DATA.
Maybe even a second spinner dedicated to games.

 

[pparks1]

Would the Nvidia GTX 590 be over kill at this point? I guess, I would need to up the PSU to 1000 watt at that point as well?

Well, the GTX 590 is a $750 video card...only you would be able to say whether it's overkill. Will it perform faster, yes. Will the extra framerates justify 5x the price of the 6850, that's your call. Either way, the GTX 590 says it requires a 700W power supply...so I don't really think a 1,000 watt is really going to be the starting point. But if you want to simply go all out on day 1, then sure, or maybe a 1500W.

Would a SSD be over kill at this point? Prices are kinda crazy for the SSD at this point in time, I can only imaging them dropping substantially over the next year.

No, an SSD is not a bad purchase. In fact, it really speeds up the booting of your machine and launching games. It won't really max the game play out any more, but you will get loaded and into the games faster.

Considering you were coming from "no budget", I'm not sure I would let an SSD stop you. You can get a 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 for about $220...which is 1/3 of the price of that video card you were looking at. I would just buy a video card no more expensive than $500, then put $200 or so into an SSD and have the same investment as the GTX 590 but more all around system performance.

I just built you a complete online Corsair 800D rig with 850 modular Corsair PSU, MSI 990 AM3 mobo, AMD 1100T 6 core processor, H70 sealed water cooled with 16 gb Corsair ddr3 1600 ram, noctua fans, fan controller, LG blu-ray reader, 4 tb's of WD black drives for raid or whatever, 230gb OCZ revo SSD, Gaming mouse and Illuminated keyboard, MSI R6970 and (3) 27" Samsung LED Monitors for Eyefinity. Add OS, cables and some time and I figure it all could be delivered to your door step in 3-5 days for under $4,000.00 and up-gradable to the bulldozer chip later. Add $200.00 - $700.00 for Intel i5 -i7. It should game fairly well !

That's quite a build. However, much of that isn't actually "needed" to max out games. For example, you don't need the water cooler, you won't need 16GB of RAM, you don't need 4TB's of drive space in a RAID configuration, you don't need an SSD. But if you were building simply to overspec the machine and go crazy, well then that would be fine. ( I do realize that is what the OP was actually looking for).

And $200-$700 more for an Intel i5-i7 is a bit wide. For less than about $50 you could probably move to a Core i5-2500k which will outperform the 1100t. For about $125 more you could move up to a core i7-2600k...which would perform better yet. The only way to approach 700 more would be if you went with a Core i7-990X. And honestly why would somebody go with a "budget arena" AMD 1100T when they are building to maximize their power and budget wasn't really a concern?

I just think that buying something right now to be used a year from now is very or extremely dumb, because by next year, those items will be half the price of now. I know how you feel, believe me but, you need to learn to chill and get something for what you want to use with the option to upgrade down the road.

Agreed. I don't recommending building for the future, but rather for the present. Things just change way too rapidly. Spending tons more today doesn't ensure that in 3 years you will have any more of a relevant machine 3 years from now...as we don't know what 3 years is going to bring us.