Building gaming com $1100 budget for now, suggestions?

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 5:47 pm

Why not mod a case of your own? As far as I know, that's the simpliest part of a computer to play with.

POOPERSCOOPER · Post by **POOPERSCOOPER** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 5:59 pm

Cause I know i'll fuck up

Spazmo · Post by **Spazmo** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 6:11 pm

And it's a waste of money. Better to just get a normal metal case without and lame mods on it.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 6:15 pm

Well, my brother built a wooden case just last week, for free, so I wouldn't say it's neccessarily a waste of money - real cases cost something like $40, 50 don't they? And it's not lame either, I think it looks a lot better than a metal case

Franz Schubert · Post by **Franz Schubert** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 6:30 pm

Actually, the Radeon was slightly better than the GeForce FX on the benchmarks, which were tested on Quake III. However, the GeForce FX has more sophisticated technology, which is going to make it run faster on newer games which utilize that technology. So the GeForce FX is better.

Spazmo · Post by **Spazmo** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 6:31 pm

Granted, but on a tight budget, I'd rather spend money on things that will increase performance of my computer and not take any risks making a case myself.

Mad props to your brudda, though.

Hammer · Post by **Hammer** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 6:33 pm

WOW nice but is it really worth the money.

What the hell makes you say that jumbles? I have a 3.06GHZ P4 with 1GIG RDRAMM, Radeon 9800PRO and one of the newest SoundBlaster cards. With all the other goodies I put on it like the bigass monitor, Those Klipsch GMX 5.1 Speakers, and some other crap I forgot to mention it was well worth the price I payed. ($3,500)

Alienware has some badass specials to, like I payed no tax or shipping on my computer so I saved a load of cash. If you're on a budget go with Alienware anyway, you can build a fairly cheap system on their that will preform better than generic brand Dells, Compaqs, or HPs.

swordinstone · Post by **swordinstone** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 6:37 pm

The FX cards are crap unless you get the 5900. Its just slightly better than the top ATI right now. Of course all that changes. And anyway, there really isnt much reason to get any of those top of the line cards right now, as no games take advantage of them yet. About all you going to get out of it is to be able to play all the 3D games on max res, with all the AA settings cranked. You can do that with $130 card i posted above too, just not at max res. you can crank everything at 1024, or maybe even 1280 (depending on the game) with the one i listed.

Hammer · Post by **Hammer** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 6:42 pm

I thought ATI was still king shit.

swordinstone · Post by **swordinstone** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 6:45 pm

Sorry if it seems like im plugging these guys, I just like them cos they are nice, quick, and dont try to screw with you on warranties.... anyway...

if you want a custom case, and dont want to do it yourself, check these out...

http://www.gameve.com/store/gameve_list ... ategory=31

specific example if you dont want to click around...
http://www.gameve.com/store/gameve_view ... roduct=438

Anyway, with a window in your case, it gives reason to buy coolers and fans with spinning lights n shit. You can get neons and stuff for inside too. I personally dont spend money on stuff like that, cos I got my neon phase over and done with in high school. (yes, i had a wired 84 olds cutlass).

If you want to do case mods yourself, they are pretty safe, so long as you take everything out first of course

I would buy an el' cheapo on for practice first though. You can prob find them for the price of dirt at a trade show. There are lots of tutorials online too.

Hammer wrote:I thought ATI was still king shit.

its so close right now it doesnt even matter really.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 7:03 pm

Well, in the end it doesn't really matter who's the king. At least I can't afford to buy the latest (biggest & baddest) hardware, so I have to wait 'till the prices come down. I ain't paying 500 bucks for a 3D-Accelerator, no way. My heart was crying blood when I bought a GF Ti 4200 for 250.

swordinstone · Post by **swordinstone** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 7:07 pm

Kashluk wrote:Well, in the end it doesn't really matter who's the king. At least I can't afford to buy the latest (biggest & baddest) hardware, so I have to wait 'till the prices come down. I ain't paying 500 bucks for a 3D-Accelerator, no way. My heart was crying blood when I bought a GF Ti 4200 for 250.

yeah, im not paying that kind of money either, especially since nothing can really use it yet anyway... unless you work in graphics anyway, which i do, but i still dont need it yet. The $250 shouldnt burn you too bad tho, that card will last you for a long while yet.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 7:26 pm

swordinstone wrote: The $250 shouldnt burn you too bad tho, that card will last you for a long while yet.

Well, yeah, I've noticed that I'm able to run most of the games I play (again, I'm a cheap ass, so I often browse through used games- catalogues and discount shelves) with highest settings on the graphical side. Morrowind, Aqua Nox... They all run smooth.

Raymondo · Post by **Raymondo** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 7:28 pm

What computer you got Kashluk?

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 7:46 pm

1,4 GHz AMD Athlon Thunderbird
512 Mb SDRAM (cheap, yeah, but does the trick)
GF TI 4200 128 Mb
40 Gb Harddrive

... that's the stuff inside, then I got a DVD-player, a CD-RW-recorder and a '17 monitor.

swordinstone · Post by **swordinstone** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 7:49 pm

sounds good enough, plus you can upgrade cheaply later, since all you'll need is the mboard, proc, and memory. everything else can be salvaged. I think im gonna frankestien my old parts lying around to build a fallout machine.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 7:54 pm

Yeah, well, I think I'm trying to survive with this one as long as possible. Then I'll save enough money to buy a new motherboard and think about future upgrades later

Raymondo · Post by **Raymondo** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 8:03 pm

Kashluk wrote:1,4 GHz AMD Athlon Thunderbird
512 Mb SDRAM (cheap, yeah, but does the trick)
GF TI 4200 128 Mb
40 Gb Harddrive

... that's the stuff inside, then I got a DVD-player, a CD-RW-recorder and a '17 monitor.

I must just have a lot of viruses or some shit because I have a computer just a little bit better then yours and I cant play morrowind, far to sloooow.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 8:10 pm

I had similar problems a while back as well! The best thing to do is to get some anti-spyware programs to clean up your comp. Then go see your windows/temp-directory and clean it up as well. I had several gigabits of useless shit in there and emptying it made my Windows run smoother than ever. It wouldn't hurt to have some good anti-virus software as well. Then you might want to check your windows register and (carefully) kick out the trash from there too.

Now Morrowind should run a LOT smoother... If you're still having trouble, put everything else on max EXCEPT shadows. The shadows slider can be on minimum, at least I've never missed 'em and it increases the frame rate considerably.

swordinstone · Post by **swordinstone** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 8:52 pm

If your running win XP, you can config your firewall so that it will block almost anyone from invading your computer. I couldnt believe how quickly my machine got infected VERY badly, back when i got broadband for the first time. I can post those config settings when i get home if anyone would like to see them. I cant remember them off the top of my head. (I'm at work right now)