How to Be a Hardcore PC Gamer for $1500

The most cost-effective way of attaining your dream computer is to build one. Granted, even though doing so is not terribly challenging, with plenty of reliable help on the Internet, not everyone is up to the task. You can still get some of the thrill without the hassle by custom ordering a new PC online. It beats going to a retail store and having to pick one off the shelf when it may not have all of the specs that you desire. So at GameDaily, the team decided to simplify things for you. They scoured the Internet, researched the components and compiled a list of everything you need to enter into the realm of PC gaming with enough horsepower to call yourself a hardcore PC gamer.

[DanB91]

It's funny how my $550 computer can run crysis on high fine.

people should go to newegg.com!!!

[DeadlyFire]

This Article is complete crap. ATI 2400 card ? for gaming? I don't think so. Going to Dell to setup a PC. That again is bad. If you want something cheap you have to assemble it yourself not goto somewhere like Dell.

[dexterwang]

agreed... wtf a 2400? for 1.5k? The rigs fails monstrously...
the 2400 won't be able to render anything on a 32in monitor.. ridiculous

Spare the expensive mouse and keyboard and grab a better video card

[wAtdaFck]

I agree. These people don't know what they're talking about.

[Tyrael]

So can anyone tell me what's the best bang for buck graphics card right now that can handle Crysis at high settings? I know it's not this ATI 2400...

[DanB91]

8800gt

newegg.com

[juandren]

4850 hands-down

[Charmers]

Well at the moment if you are on a budget the 9600gt isn't bad, you can find that for around $150. The best all rounder is probably the 8800gt that can be had for about $200 and will play nearly everything maxxed at 1680 x 1050. The ATI Radeon 4850 looks quite promising though and is beating the 8800gt in benchmarks from what I have seen and it should be the same price.

On the article, yeah it was a load of rubbish a 2400 card erm no thanks. If you want a decent PC that can play games you will need at least a 8800 series card or one of the new ATI 4800 series cards.

[DeadlyFire]

Most likely its the latest card out right now. The NVIDIA GTX 280 cards run Crysis faster than the new ATI 4850 card though. The 4850 however is the low-end solution for ATI while the 280 is NVIDIA's high end product. It does well though its roughly = to the 8800 GTX performance wise for Crysis and only a few frames below the 9800 and its only about $190-200 bucks. Likely with the 4870/4870X2 things will play out better for them performance wise. Possibly ATI getting the crown back. In a couple of months you might get something that can play Crysis at max settings with 30+ fps.

http://www.techpowerup.com/... < ATI 4850 performance. *There are two 4850 cards in the review.

[Fototherapist]

Mine runs Crysis on all High settings on a 24 inch monitor.

[Organic_Chemistry]

Dont spend the $1500 on a computer. Take teh $400 buy a PS3 or Xbox360. Take the additional $1100 and buy a 40'' Samsung LCD. There we go, you get an amazing TV next gen console, and you can enjoy it all the while in your nice comfy room on your bed avoiding the number one turn-off for girls when they come over: Them knowing youre a computer gamer geek

[Charmers]

Yeah but you see some of us want to play our games in High Definition resolutions, not the fake upscaled blurred resolutions that your so called Next Gen consoles do.

[NRG]

Bubbles to Charmers for having the nerve to say that on a console-oriented website.

[blueb00ger]

That leaves you no money for any games, or it's the preintalled demos on xbox360 that you want to play on a 40" LCD?

Some games are just better to play on a PC (ex. Team Fortress 2)

[BrotherNick]

Amen to that blueb00ger, TF2 is meant to play on pc.

[Bolts]

The "nextgen" consoles are great if you want play games in 640p resolution. But if I want to play games with such pathetically low res resolution I would've gone back in time to 2004 and get myself a CRT monitor.

[Pain]

$500 on a PS3
$500 on ack 360
$250~ Wii
and change for some games......and mabey a bluray Movie...

lolPCgaming

[Mikhal]

There is NO simple solution for finding a cheap and viable PC. If you are considering purchasing or building a gaming rig for PC games the primary question is what brand CPU fits your needs better. Then picking a motherboard that supports the cpu socket type, the speed ram that you are willing to pay for, and the right pci-express slots for whatever video card you choose. (pci-e 1.0, pci-e 1.1, pci-e 2.0, and you have to pay attention to electrical multiplier as a x4 electical pci-e slot will not run a x16 pci-e card, at least not properly, for very long.) If you are planning on running two video cards a la 'cross-fire' or 'sli' then you will need more than one pci-e slot. Get a water cooled case (koolance makes some really nice models) and a couple o' SATA HDDs (set up for RAID of course), a CD/DVD drive and your good to go. Input devices I would recommend would be a logitech mouse + keyboard, and a xbox 360 controller for a gamepad. Just use your hi-def tv for a monitor. I have my PC running through my 50' DLP, it looks great.
Over the years putting PCs together has gotten easier and easier. Pretty much everything is colorcoded now (sigh). The only thing that might give a novice some issue would be lapping the heatsink/cpu for a flat contact patch. (if even necessary) Even that is fairly straightforward as long as you take your time.
Don't go out and but a manufactured PC. Most likely you will recieve inferior spec'd parts. SE 'special edition' cards are usually special in the way that mentally handicapped people are special. Please don't give Dell, Gateway, etc. all your $$$, spend a lot less $$$ and a little more time and get much more PC.

[The Lazy One]

when they went to dell.

[Fototherapist]

when you consider that some might need to buy a new case, mobo, PSU, CPU, graphics card, ram, HDD, DVD drive, keyboard, mouse, and maybe even a monitor. $1500 is a bargain. I spent about $1400 on mine and saved about 6-800 dollars when compared to a comparable Alienware rig. I started from scratch (I've traditionally been a Mac guy). Here's what I have: Antec 900 case, Gigabyte eP35c mobo, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, 4 gb of Corsair RAM 800mhz, eVGA 8800gt card, 650 watt Corsair power supply, WD 500gb HDD, Pioneer 20x DVD drive, Logitech DiNovo wireless keyboard and mouse, 24" Samsung Monitor, and it's sweet! I can run Crysis on High settings across the board.

[ChrisGTR1]

whats up with that new card? that 200$ one that they showed off on this weeks on the spot(gamespot online video show) ati i think 1 teraflop of computing? i dunno but they just kept saying that.