GeekLimit vs. ExtremeTech: $800 Gaming Machine

Posted by The Technocrat | Filed under Geeky, Hardware

I love a good challenge. I wrote up how to shop for a sub-$1000 gaming machine a few days ago, and was pretty happy with the results. While reading my feeds this morning, an article by ExtremeTech came through on my del.icio.us popular feed that was similar to mine, except with an $800 price tag. Let’s see if we can use some of the methods I talked about with my $1000 rig to beat theirs

Time for the cage, er, case-match. Here are the rules, as they laid them out in their article :

  • The final price was $805, with an OS, mouse, keyboard and DVD drive.
  • “The stuff we recommend has to be readily available, in stock, at online vendors we would trust with our own money. We don’t just go with the lowest price we can find anywhere in the wild land of online commerce. Prices tend to fluctuate and we’re sure that you can find a better deal if you dig around enough—we’d rather err on the side of “you can actually find these prices” than promise a less expensive system you could never build yourself.” OK.
  • “do-it-yourselfers looking to build a computer under $1,000 are recycling monitors and speakers from other machines, so you don’t see them on that list.” Agreed.

First of all, let’s see what they’re bringing to the party. Here are their components, and some pertinent information about each, my notes in brackets:

  • Athlon 64 3000+ (Socket 939) [1000mhz ht fsb (200mhzx5), 512 L2, 1.8Ghz]
  • eVGA nForce4 SLI (133-K8-NF41) [SLI, 1000mhz ht fsb, ddr400, 2xPCIe16, 8-channel audio, Gbit NIC, 24-pin]
  • Corsair ValueSelect DDR400 (2×512) [cas 2.5, 200mhzx2]
  • eVGA GeForce 7600 GT CO [580/1500mhz, 12 pipelines, PCIe16, 256MB, 128-bit]
  • Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value
  • Seagate 7200.7 160GB [SATA, no NCQ]
  • Pioneer DVR-111DBK [40x/16x/8x CD/DVD/DVD-R burner]
  • Antec Sonata II (includes 450W power supply) [1x120mm, link ]
  • Windows XP Home [ouch. They were sold out of WinME?]
  • Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000
  • Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical

I don’t claim to be an expert, but let’s see if we can improve on this machine. Let’s address the obvious stuff first:

  • The processor and the northbridge are matched up well bus-speed wise, and the nVidia nForce4 rocks, so no money wasted there.
  • The processor has 512KB L2, ok, but not ideal
  • The Athlon 64 has an integrated memory controller that is good for an extra 120ms or so, compared to previous athlons and the P4. Good.
  • If you’re going to assume that someone is re-using their monitor, you can assume they’re going to re-use the keyboard. Some people still have a ball-mouse, so I’ll upgrade to an optical…
  • A budget gaming machine doesn’t need a burner or a fancy case. It needs a DVD reader and airflow.

In addition, HyperTransport isn’t needed in a gaming machine. Even lowering it down to 20% (200mhz) of its speed has near-zero impact on game frame rates. In fact, this transport bus isn’t very busy at all in a budget gaming machine, unless the channel gets flooded simultaneously by a dual-graphics-card SLI setup, maxed-out gigabit ethernet and RAID.

Along these lines, we can rule out the need for a sound card on a HyperTransport system, since the onboard audio won’t be stressed by bandwidth problems. If the motherboard is made by any quality manufacturer, the on-board 8-channel audio should be more than enough. While you’re at it, you can’t assume someone will have 4 speakers laying around…2, maybe. To use that surround sound, you could pick up the speakers, but I’ve used and highly recommend surround-sound headphones. Nothing makes you jump more than when you hear that CounterStrike sniper rifle from your rear-right, and hear the ricochet from the sparks in front of you. (bunny-hop, bunny-hop!)

OK, so going with my new best friend, the overclocked Pentium D 805, let’s see what we come up with…

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Comments (14) | May 17th, 2006

14 Responses to “GeekLimit vs. ExtremeTech: $800 Gaming Machine”

  1. AtariBoy Says:
    May 17, 2006 at 1:30 pm

    Great article, shows what you can get if you shop around an know your stuff, I personally wouldnt like to put a strick limit on my buying of a gaming machine. I tend to go for quality.

    Cant beat a G5, Raid0 and a good set of headphones for a gaming PC

  2. iiq374 Says:
    May 18, 2006 at 7:07 pm

    Hmmm – I suppose you set the terms of the comparison but I think going with an overclocked processor might be cheating somewhat. If the audience is DIY computer hobbyist rather than computer enthusiast then the comparison is probably flawed.

    At the very least your downside should include: processor has warranty voided…

  3. The Technocrat Says:
    May 18, 2006 at 10:18 pm

    the way I look at it is the same as my college days on a budget:

    can’t afford real food, eat ramen
    can’t afford internet, borrow the school’s wifi
    can’t afford furniture, modify some milk crates
    can’t afford high performance, overclock it…

    as with most things, you have two choices, buy your way out or sweat your way out. The rules for the contest were laid out by them: $805 and from a retailer. I chose to sweat, they chose to buy. Not so much cheating as it is choosing what you’re willing to trade off… everyone has their own priorities…

  4. E@zyVG Says:
    May 19, 2006 at 6:14 am

    Interesting comparison.
    I am sorry Technocrat, but I am goign with AMD64 processor.

    OK here is what I think:
    1. I am quite sure that minimum I can get from AMD64 1.8Ghz when o/c is 2.6Ghz – aha, your CPU can’t beat that in gaming (maybe 1-3 games have support for multi-cores, and your extra L2 cache won’t help much. it actually never helped intel in last 2 years or so – beafing up L2)

    2. I don’t need SLI, nForce4 Ultra is enough – i save some $ here, for better CPU cooler

    3. CL2.5 on DDR400 is on par with CL4 DDR2-533 most of the time. Don’t compare DDR and DDR2 directly with Mhz! And with AMD’s memory controller – again plus for gaming

    4. Video – I agree with you. The only drawback is that there is no suppot for 3.0 pixels – again not much games use that, so cool.

    5. HDD – surely 16MB version
    6. Can I say I can get Windows for $3 – :)
    Ok, Ok …. I have one licensed from notebook, and since I don’t use it there and it’s removed, I can use the license on my box. Wow – I just saved another $100+

    If the step 6 is allowed, then I am changing my card from x850xt ro x1800GTO and by flashing and o/c I am getting somewhere close to x1800XT

    And Logitech Keyboard+Mouse with whatever money I am left with.
    Tthe rest I stick with you.

    So, what you say … :)

    P.S>> $800 is not enough actually, at least $1000 and on top of that I like to make decisions on hardware myself … so shut up both of you and ^%$## —————— joking joking

  5. GeekLimit vs. Tom's Hardware: $800 gaming machine at GeekLimit Says:
    June 13, 2006 at 12:08 pm

    [...] Yes, this is a lower price than my recent "GeekLimit vs. ExtremeTech: $800 Gaming Machine" article, but let's do a comparison between the box I built and the latest one from Toms, shall we? (GeekLimit still is dominating, IMHO) [...]

  6. rob Says:
    July 8, 2006 at 4:33 am

    no powersupply listed? does it come with the case? if so how many watts?

  7. The Technocrat Says:
    July 8, 2006 at 9:14 am

    check out the link to the case – 450W power supply included

  8. cardgames Says:
    September 9, 2006 at 2:18 am

    cardgames cardgames

  9. Grover Covelli Says:
    July 20, 2010 at 12:45 pm

    If the idiot above me wasnt such an idiot then they could have then they could have extended the life of their laptop by up to 50%. Better luck next time, go check out http://notebookcoolingpads.info they have all the info you could ever need and will probably end up saving you some money!

  10. Graphics Card Says:
    September 19, 2010 at 11:16 am

    I think that C64 is the best graphic card…

  11. car lemon law ky Says:
    September 24, 2010 at 3:29 am

    For you personally to obtain something you’ll have to have to show that the supplier knew that there was a dilemma aided by the motor vehicle.!!!…!..
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  12. Lorenza Murtaugh Says:
    October 22, 2010 at 9:07 am

    If you’re still on the fence: grab your favorite earphones, head down to a Very best Buy and ask to plug them into a Zune then an iPod and see which one particular sounds far better to you, and which interface makes you smile more. Then you’ll know which is right for you.

  13. Hosting Discount Says:
    October 30, 2010 at 3:09 am

    I would have to state, you plucked ur words well. The information you gave are well placed.

  14. Gerald Litchfield Says:
    December 12, 2010 at 5:18 am

    i genuinely do need to get a new one

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