Mainstream Gaming Rig - Home Brewed

MAINSTREAM GAMING RIG - $2,000 Budget


Motherboard

Asus A8N-E Socket 939 Retail - $100 - ZipZoomFly
Asus P5ND2-SLI Socket 775 Retail - $99 - ZipZoomFly

Processor

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2.0 GHz) Socket 939 64-Bit Retail - $162 - ZipZoomFly
Intel Pentium 4 631 (3.0 GHz) Socket 775 64-Bit Retail - $185 + $2 SH - NewEgg

Heatsink and Fan

All Thermatalke CL-P0114 Big Typhoon 4 in 1 Heatpipe Cooler w/Heatpipe Cooling Tech Retail - $50 - ZipZoomFly

Memory

CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) PC3200 (TWINX2048-3200C2PT) - Retail - $91 - NewEgg
Crucial 1GB (2 x 512MB) PC24200 (CT2KIT6464AA53E) - OEM - $88 + $5 SH - NewEgg

Hard Drive

Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250GB SATA II 7200RPM w/8MB Buffer - $93 - ZipZoomFly

Optical Drive

Plextor PX-740A 16X Internal Dual Layer DVD+/- R/RW CD-R/RW Drive Retail (Black) - $90 - ZipZoomFly

Floppy Drive

NEC 1.44MB 3.5in Internal Floppy Disk Drive (Black) - $13 - ZipZoomFly

Network

Asus WL-138g Wireless 54Mbps PCI Network Adapter Retail - $35 - ZipZoomFly

Audio

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS PCI Sound Card Retail - $100 - ZipZoomFly

Video

Asus EN6800GT-2DT256 GeForce 6800 GT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 Retail - $240 - ZipZoomFly

Case and Power Supply

Thermaltake Shark Series VA7000BWA Full Tower Case (Black) Retail - $149 + $15 SH - ZipZoomFly
Antec NeoHE 550 Watt ATX Retail - $100 - ZipZoomFly

Keyboard and Mouse

Logitech Premium Desktop Optical Keyboard & Mouse Combo (Black) - $30 - ZipZoomFly

Operating System

Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition (Full Version) Single-Pack OEM -$140 - ZipZoomFly

OR

Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (Full Version) Single-Pack OEM - $140 - ZipZoomFly


TOTAL COST:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2.0GHz) Single Core Desktop - $1,392 + $15 SH = $1,407
Intel Pentium 4 631 (3.0GHz) Single Core Desktop - $1,412 + $22 SH = $1,434

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MAINSTREAM GAMING PERIPHERAL PACKAGE


Display

Dell UltraSharp 1905FP 19-inch Flat Panel Monitor w/HAS - $349 - Dell
OR
Viewsonic VX922 19in LCD Monitor Retail - $359 + $20 SH - ZipZoomFly

Speakers

Creative Labs Inspire P7800 7.1 Retail - $83 + $21 SH - ZipZoomFly


TOTAL COST:

Display and Speaker Package - $442 + $40 SH = $482

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FINAL THOUGHTS...

I really don't care about having a 24" display, as a 19" or 20" is fine for gaming in general if you get a model with a low enough ms rating. This is all about preference anyways. As you can see, I chose an NVIDIA based card in these two configurations and included both an AMD and Intel Based solution. The pricing difference is less than $30 between the two setups which is quite interesting. I'm considering using this configuration for a suggested gaming rig for a few friends of mine that have outdated machines. Any input?

-- MaSoP

Agreed, though either machine can do other functions. To each their own. I originally chose the 6800GT because of the price break. I meant to change that to a better model (7800GT or 7900 GT) due to the recent introduction of the 7900 series and price drops on previous models. but as the topic states, this is a Mainstream box for the most part. Thanks for the input.

-- MaSoP