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General discussion

Suggestions on new gaming computer

Jul 9, 2005 1:52AM PDT

I am in the market for a new computer and i do my fair share of gaming. I have a very tight budget for a gaming computer of about $1000 dollars but i don't need a monitor or speakers. I have been looking around and i found the companies ibuypower and cyberpower but have read horrible reviews about both. They seem to be the only companies with affordable gaming pcs but they also look like they are the same company. Does anybody have any suggestions on where i can get a decent gaming computer for the 1000 dollars? I am looking for at least an amd 3000+, 1 gig ram, 120gig hd, nvid 6600gt, 7.1 audio, nforce4 mobo. Or should i just build my own?

Discussion is locked

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i'd build it yourself
Jul 9, 2005 2:06AM PDT

as you have the rough specs you want in mind, it makes it rather easy

I can give you rough prices on most of those parts as well (this will suprise you)


AMD Athlon64 3000+ - $150~
nForce4 Motherboard (Abit ANCool - $160~
nVidia GeForce 6600GT (MSI 6600GT, includes VIVO) - $168~
120GB HDD (ATA-133 Maxtor) - $85~
1GB DDR (Corsair XMS 2x512) - $125~

all prices at www.newegg.com
7.1 audio is a different story, it can cost between $15 for a cheap add-in card all the way to $278 for the Audigy 4 Pro, i'd suggest an Audigy 2 ZS GAmer Edition (it's just a normal Audigy 2 ZS, but includes some decent games (unless you own them, in which case just grab the normal 2 ZS)


as for a PSU, i'd suggest the Fortron Source Blue Storm 500W or the OCZ PowerStream 520W

and for casing, i'd suggest the Antec P180 (honestly, I would, you can find it at zipzoomfly.com (their trustable) it's around $130-$140, and has excellent cooling)

given that you have monitor and speakers, your doing pretty good

you'll also need a copy of windows 2000 or XP
XP is cheaper to buy the home edition OEM
it's around $85 (with SP1, and you can get SP2 iirc (or just not get SP2 and use a 3rd party firewall (which is what i'd still advise, given all the issues SP2 caused/causes with people's systems))

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(NT) (NT) look around monarchcomputer.com i would buy from there
Jul 9, 2005 2:29AM PDT
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Well...
Jul 9, 2005 5:37AM PDT

You can either build or buy.
If you want to buy I have a suggestion.
There is reportedly a new Emachines T6522 that has:

-A socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 3500+ cpu
-1 gig of RAM
-200gb harddrive

All for $699 after a $50 rebate. A person in these forums picked up one of these computers at Circuitcity and he did open it up and confirm the specs. The computer is not on the Circuitcity website though.

T6522

And look in the Emachines steps back in time? discussion.

Another option is the T6520 which has:
-A socket 754 AMD Athlon 64 3400+
-1 gig of RAM
-200gb harddrive

You can get it at Bestbuy for $649.99

The T6522 is ''more'' upgradable with the Socket 939 compared to the Socket 754 with the ''T6520'' However both these computers have PCI-E for your graphics card. You can spend almost $300 on a top-notch card and still be within your budget of $1000 if you buy one of these computers. This would turn your computer into a great gaming machine.

If not 1 of the Emachines, I would suggest Monarch computers. They do great quality builds and are highly reccommended in these forums.