The Gaming PC is Back ON!!!!

[Professor S]

Ahhhh, well it looks like I don't need a new car all that soon, so I'm still shopping for that ultimate gaming PC for the best price. I recently visited a reputable internet company that gave me this build:

CASE: CoolerMaster Stacker 830 Mid-Tower Case W/ Side-panel Window

CPU: (939-pin) AMD Athlon™64 FX 60 Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology REG $4999

MOTHERBOARD: (Sckt939)ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE MB w/GbLAN, USB2.0, IEEE-1394, &7.1Audio

MEMORY: 2048 MB (1GBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Corsair Value Select)

VIDEO CARD: NEW! Quad NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology Featuring Four GeForce® 7900 GPUs Totaling 2GB Memory Video

LCD Monitor: ViewSonic VA1912WB WideScreen 19" Color TFT Active Matrix SXGA LCD Display Monitor

HARD DRIVE: Gaming Hard Drive (10, 000RPM SATA150) (SATA150 - Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10, 000RPM 16MB Cache WD1500ADFD)
Hard Drive 2: Gaming Hard Drive (10, 000RPM SATA150) (SATA150 - Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10, 000RPM 8MB Cache WD740GD)

Optical Drive: (Special Price) LG GWA-4161 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2: SONY 16X DVD-ROM (BLACK COLOR)

SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

3 year warrantee

All this for $4,783 with free shipping and AoE 3 included. I think this is an amazing price (correct me if I'm wrong) but I do have a concern. It comes with a liquid cooled heat sink, but it only covers the processor and not those 4 cards. Otherwise it does have two other cooling fans plus the fans on the cards. How much will heat be an issue if the Quad SLI is only air cooled?

Also, I want to upgrade to 4 gigs of RAM, but they don't have that option. Can I upgrade myself?

Also, what about the Physics card? Is it worth it?

[Null]

Correct me if im wrong, but they arent really technically 4 cards. its kinda 2 cards, with 2 cpu's on each in sli mode to make quad. the motherboard has 2 pcie slots. so im pretty sure it is.

ANYWHO, there shoudlnt be a problem at all because the cards are meant to run with air cooled. they wouldnt make em with fans if they couldnt be cooled by such. so it would be normal, minus the heat from the processor fan. i see no problems with it.

and the motherboard also maxes out at 4gb ram, so yes you can add more, (make sure its the same kind for best performance)

Also, that list is a little missleading or old. because that processor you can buy for $1011.00. it costs no where near $4999.

and i added up that whole list from parts you can buy, it comes to around roughly a little under $4000 to put together yourself. But thats with an esitmate on the gfx cards because it doesnt say what exactly its talking about for thoes. like a brand or model number.
But obviously your paying something extra to have it premade and all, so no surprise there.

Also, a note on that Monitor, its the exact monitor im using. i - LOVE - IT!!!! of course some games *cough BF2* dont support widescreen, but pretty much every game from now on should. but thats a minor issue, because for the games that do have support for it it looks beautiful in widescreen. i'd never go back to a fullscreen monitor.

[Professor S]

So do you think this is a good buy? Every other pre-made gaming PC maker was at least $2,000 more for the same stuff. I know it would be cheaper to make it myself, but I am a dullard in this area (not really a dullard, but I've never made one and thats a lot of investment for a first timer)

One more thing, and I would like your opinion on this:

Should I wait for Vista?

[Null]

for a premade one, yea its in a decent price range away from building one on your own, you defiently save by making it your self. but its not marked up so much that i'd say your getting ripped off or anything. plus you get a warrenty and customer service that you dont get making it yourself.
i do find it funny they tell you the processor is 5k reg. tho to make you think your saving like a couple thousand. hehe.



as for vista... im really looking foward to it. it is going to be one of the best things to happen to PC gaming in a long time. its going to let games do a lot of very cool things and run much smoother at at less CPU power. (this is because of DX10 which wont be released on XP)

but the OS could end up being buggy or come out pretty solid. no way to really tell on that. since they delayed it a couple times i tend to think they're working the bugs out of it.

i mean you could get what you want now and when Vista comes out, wipe out the HD and install vista. or you could wait and buy the computer next year when vista comes out. i dunno..

[Jonbo298]

Its a decent price for it being built and sent to ya. I personally won't be doing 4 video cards since I'm gonna try and hold out until AMD releases its Socket AM2 and starts taking advantage of DDR2 Ram and wait hopefully for the DX10 cards to be shown and released soon enough. But thats just because I currently dont have anywhere close to nearly $5k to upgrade.

[Null]

yea see, thats another thing about vista and DX10, you'll need a DX10 card.
But if you wait on it till vista, theres no saying you'll find this deal again.