Hardware Revolution

This system was updated on Nov.6. See the latest update: Mainstream powerful gaming computer for the masses
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When I started planning what computer parts to use for this computer, I was worried. I wanted to go for a 4850’s Crossfire setup, but I thought that it would go over 1000$. I also thought that if I went with a single video card, this computer wouldn’t be worth the 250$ different over the Gaming computer for $750. So I took a look at the Ultimate Gaming Computer for $1500 and I asked myself: “Where can I cut down on costs and yet, offer the best video game performance(by using a 4850 Crossfire setup), with a $1000 budget?”

I like the E8400 and in my opinion, it wasn’t worth losing 333MHz for only a $15 drop with the E8200. However, there was no way I could keep the Radeon HD 4870’s Crossfire setup, so I went with a Radeon HD 4850’s Crossfire setup instead! That alone cuts down the price by $250. Then I took a look at the motherboard. Sure, the Quad-Gt is a great motherboard, but at $209.99, it’s too expensive for this build. So I’d found the ASRock motherboard, with all the features that I needed for this computer, for only $99.99. Down by $360, way to start!

Now, the RAM. Corsair is a good brand and at $86.50 for 2×2Gb sticks it’s a good deal already, tough to beat. Not impossible though, so I searched and found the Patriot dual-channel kit, with 4-4-4-12 timings (at 2.2v) for only $77.99. Alright! Do you really need 1000Gb of storage with RAID 0? Not really, and it was easy to cut down there, back to a single 500Gb hard drive. Another 75$ gone.

Finally, the cooling. It’s great for overclocking, but the stock heatsink and thermal compound does the job, so I went for that. Another 38$ down. So if you’ve been following all along, that’s $-481.50(rounded up). The rest comes from price reduction, on the E8400(Thanks Intel for the price cuts) that was at $189.99 and now is at $174.99 and the power supply, that was reduced by $10. There we go, that was easier than I thought, I’ve reached my objective, -$516.50. Now, it’s time to build that computer, with a blazing fast E8400 and a Crossfire of Radon HD 4850. Fun =)

I’ll explain to you my choices for each part of this computer and why I picked it up. My main goal is to offer to you the configuration for building a computer that offers the best performance in video games, within a budget of $1000. You’ll notice that I’m using as a reference the Ultimate Gaming Computer for $1500, cutting down on costs in order to fit a $1000 budget.

Do you want to finally be able to play Crysis with the max quality, details, AA, AF and with a high resolution on top of that? Are you frustrated when your computer cannot run the newest games and you want a new gaming computer?
Are you looking for kick ass gaming performance? Well, this is exactly what this gaming computer is for.

This system is designed for gamers, people who play video games on their computer. This computer is ready to handle nearly any video game, with high/maximum details, quality, high resolution, AA and AF, from WoW to Crysis!

So, let’s start with my recommendations for what hardware should be used to answer your needs. These are the parts that will answer your needs, for a gaming system, with mind-blowing performance of course. It is an excellent gaming computer, for a reasonable $1000 budget. For each part of the system, I will tell you my choice, the reason for it and give you a link to buy the item. Of course, I’m open to suggestions, comments, questions so please post them.

Cpu: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400: With its 3Ghz, dual-core, 1333Mhz fsb and 6MB of cache, the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 is a monster of performance and it will be perfect for your gaming needs, especially with the two Radeon HD 4850 in Crossfire, as this cpu will not bottleneck them. This cpu will also offer plently enough power to play video games, especially with multi-threaded games which take advantage of multiple cores. With the 2 cores, its speed of 3Ghz and the huge 6MB of cache, this cpu will definately answer your needs now and be future-proof for quite a few years. This Intel cpu is the one that offers the best bang for the buck in my opinion, considering the performance it offers, at only $174.99
Click here to buy the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz 65W Dual-Core Processor for only $174.99

Video card: 2X Radeon HD 4850, in Crossfire : Two 4850 offers excellent performance, especially for the price! Take the best video card for the value currently available, then choose to pair it with another one! This setup offers performance unheard of at this price range! It support HD content and offers 4 DVI output to support multiple screens. It will handle Crysis and literally any game that you’ll throw at it, at max settings. It will help with video decoding, with the majority of formats. This will offer breath taking performance!
Click here to buy two SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4850 Video Cards, for a Crossfire setup, for only $349.98

Motherboard: Now, the motherboard, the Quad-GT is a very nice motherboard, but at $209.99, it is too expensive for this build. So I looked for a good motherboard, with a good Crossfire support and a good price. Based on the P45 chipset, this ASRock motherboard is exactly what I was looking for. It offers dual-channel support, with 4 slots for DDR2 and 2 slots for DDR3, if you wish to use DDR3 in the future. It also offers 2x PCI-Express 2.0 slots, running at 8X in Crossfire.

Wait, don’t yell at me for suggestions 8X connections. If you pay attention, they are 2.0 PCI-X slots, and 2.0 offers twice the bandwidth over 1.0, so basically, a 8X 2.0 PCI-Express slot offers the same bandwidth as a 16X 1.0 PCI-Express slot.  Also comes with 6 SATA connections, 6 USB 2.0, 2 E-Sata, Gigabit LAN and integrated 8 channels audio.  Reliable, cheap and supports what you want.
Click here to buy the ASRock P45TURBOTWINS2000 ATX Intel Motherboard for only $99.99

Ram(Memory): Two sticks of 2GB of DDR2 800, running in dual channel, for a total of 4GB of RAM and all the bandwidth you need in your games. Enough memory for Vista, all your multi-tasking needs and just what you need to play video games as well.
Click here to buy the Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory for only $77.99

Hard Drive: A Samsung Spinpoint F1 hard drive, with 500GB of storage, with a SATA 3.0GB/s connection  Perfect to reduce games, programs and Windows loading times. 7200 rpm, a low price tag and a lot of space. I think that 500Gb is enough space for a gamer, but if you need more, feel free to add more hard drives!
Click here to buy the SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 500GB 3.5″ SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive for only $74.99

Dvd Burner: A Samsung 20X DVD Burner, with an IDE connection. Perfect to burn DVDs, CDs and to read any media you have over CDs or DVDs.

Click here to buy the SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model SH-S202J for only 22.99$

Case: I understand that some people have their preferences for a case, so consider this only a suggestion.
This is a nice mid-tower computer case from Cooler Master, with 2 120mm fans and a side air duct included for additional cooling , which is what you need to keep your computer cool and reliable, when you play those long gaming sessions. Comes with 2 USB 2.0 connection and a firewire connection in the front. It has 5 external bays for Dvd-Burner, CD-Rom and hard drives and 4 hard drive bays in the inside. I like the design of it and even more its cooling abilities.
Click here to buy the COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Computer Case for only 52.99$

Power Supply: In order to power up your computer in a safe and reliable way, you need a quality power supply. This is what this Corsair CMPSU - 750 Watts will do for you, with it’s 750W of power and it’s single 60A 12V line. With a dual-core processor, an hard drive, 4GB of RAM and two Radeon HD 4850 in Crossfire, this power supply will keep everything in order.  It also have some overhead, so you won’t have to worry if you add more hard drives, overclock or upgrade in the future. This is perfect to power up this powerful computer, to keep it stable under any condition.
Click here to buy the CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W Power Supply for only 119.99$

Sound Card: You’ll be using the Integrated sound card with support for 8-channel audio, which is located on the motherboard

Cooling:
Heatsink: In order to reduce costs, I recommend using the included Intel stock cooler. While it’s not the best nor the most silent heatsink/fan combo, it does its job at cooling the cpu and it’s free!

Thermal Compound: Once again, in order to reduce costs, I recommend to use the thermal compound that’s included with the cpu. It’s not the best, agreed, but it’s free!

Case fan: The case comes with two 120 mm fans, one on the back and one on the side. This extra case fan will be for the front. This will help with cooling the entire case, especially with the two Radeon HD 4850.
Click here to buy the COOLER MASTER R4-S2S-12AK-GP Case Fan for only 7.99$

Screen: Although I don’t include the screen in the budget, as the price is only for the computer itself and you may already have a screen, I still like to recommend a screen for the computer, depending on the needs. Since this is a gaming computer, with a 1000$ budget, I went with the Viewsonic VX2255wmb. 22″, 1680×1050 resolution and 5ms reaction time. While it’s not the fastest screen available, it’s still very fast and it’s the combinaison of an excellent stand, right colors and the price are why I recommend it.
Click here to buy the ViewSonic X Series VX2255wmb Black 22″ 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor w/Webcam for only $259.99

Kebyoard and Mouse: That is entirely up to you, as each gamer have his own preferences.

Operating system: For this system, I recommend Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit Service Pack 1. To fully access the 4GB of Ram, you will need a 64 bit operating system and Vista Ultimate is the best one. The OS is not included in the budget, as you may already own it, but here’s a link if you need it =)

Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit Service Pack 1: Click here to buy Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit English for only 179.99$


Total price, for the computer only: $981.90, taxs not included, as they vary depending on where you live.

Ratings -On a scale of 10- :
Gaming : 8/10 You will be able to play nearly every game with high/max quality and with some or max AA and AF in pretty much any games. You will be able to play on high resolutions without any problem. This system was designed with gaming in mind, so if you plan on playing Crysis or your favorite games, this is your answer, go for it, it will handle it all!
Office : 8/10 This system is based on a dual core processor; it will run any applications quickly, it will run several cpu intensive programs (Image/Video editing, media burning, programming, calculations) at once without latency(lag). Very quick on multi-threaded optimized applications, great at multi-tasking. The speed and the 2 cores will help you a lot.
Overclocking : 5/10 This system was not fitted with after-market cooling, designed to overclock, but considering the parts used, you can go ahead and give it a try on the cpu and ram. I don’t recommend overclocking the video cards, as they already run very hot and the stock cooler won’t be able to handle the extra heat from overclocking. However, have fun overclocking the cpu, as it’s a wolfdale core, which are known to be awesome overclockers! If you want to get higher speed, I suggest that you equip the video cards and the cpu with after-market coolers.
Power consumption : 4/10 With a dual-core processor, an hard drives and 2 powerful video cards in Crossfire , this system will consume a quite a lot of electricity. The video cards will be the parts which will consume the most energy.
Value for the money: 9/10 This system will offer you outstanding performance for a great price tag. One  of the fastest dual-core cpu, with 4GB of Ram, 500GB of storage and two Radeon HD 4850 in Crossfire, with the possibility of playing video games with high resolution, details and some/full AA/AF. It will also allow you to watch movies, including HD content, offer to you a lot of choices and options for a reasonable price tag.

Well, what do you think of this system? You’ll be able to do all the gaming you wish on it, with a huge improvement in speed compared to your actual system! I also think that you’ll be future proof and that you know that you will be able to upgrade your cpu, ram, hard drives and video cards in the future if you want to. Enjoy!