Can I build a good Gaming PC for around $1,500? (Including a $600 Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTX Video Card)

Depends on the games you want to play. 1k-1.5k should buy you everything you need to run 95% of games flawlessly.

I read someone say earlier that radeon is coming out with a cheaper version of the 8800 pretty soon, you sure you want to blow the cash on an 8800?

Probably. It would depend, as foozy said, what games you are gonna run.

I agree right now id recomend the 8800GTX as its the only real option for future proofing, Radeon may not be as good but we will have to wait and see.......

I think 600 bucks for a video card is simply excessive though, how much are 7900s these days? 200? 300?

Thats a small step down and a huge decrease in price - prices go up exponentially as you reach the top of the line in a particular line of hardware.

*shrug* that's just me though

Yeah it is, basically the hardware manufacturers have got us over the barrel and have aimed for penetration with DX10 compliant hardware... until it goes mainstream/low end... they can charge what they like cause its future proofing your system. Get an 8800GTX now and I reckon your gonna be set for atleast the next 2 years with no need to upgrade and thats what they are goin for.

DX10 compliant hardware isn't going to be required for another 6 months i'd say, games will be written for DX9 as well until then. Use the money you save by downgrading now to buy an upgrade later would be my advice.

True but why invest in a dieing technology that if your a serious gamer your going to have to replace 6months - 1 year down the line, when if you invest in the premium now your good for maybe 2 or 3 years to come?

Thats just the thing, why would a piece of gaming equipment - especially if you're a serious gamer - last you 2 or 3 years? Hardware evolves so much faster than that, and software evolves to require its demands. I think an 8800 would last you a year tops, that is if you wanted to keep that same high end performance.

If you buy something thats running at 80-90% of top end for a third of the price, you can afford to buy an upgrade much, much sooner. If its a third of the price (or I should say value), then you can upgrade it twice using the same amount of cash as an 8800.

An 8800 or a 7900 and two future upgrades? I'd pick the latter - if I was on any kind of a budget, that is.

edit: take into account price fluctuations as well - how much is an 8800 going to be in 6 months time? if it really would last you 2 or 3 years, just buy a 7900 now and upgrade to an 8800 in 2 or 3 months if you really want to - same result, probably far cheaper.

I'd get an 8800GTS. It's still a very powerful card, but significantly cheaper.

Get an 8800, and look at my sig follow those gidelines . Why would you buy a dying tech like he said? Buy a 200$ card now, get 150 for it, then shell out 300 for an 8800 (If they go down that much). Thats 350$ vs. the 400$ you will pay now, and you will be stuck with the 7900 till the price drops to 300 (Which it wont do for a while)

Another good point there F1n3st.... not to mention as Foozy pointed out himself I think DX10 aint gonna be required for 6months atleast as far as the majority of games are concerned however the DX10 hardware is gonna basically smoke all of those titles in the mean time aswell! and all though its yet to be seen I believe its gonna munch its way through Crysis and the like too.

Like I keep saying, WAIT for the R600 cards. They are faster and are going to be priced in the exact same range as the NV cards. You're gonna regret shelling out 600$ on that, trust me.

I think it also depends heavily on how Robs gonna play games, if hes playing on 1280x1024 then an 8800 isint going to make much of a differnece at all over $250 cards, but if you plan on running at 2k resolutions then the 8800 blows everything out of the water.

as for future upgrading i dont think any of us should even speculate any more until Rob tell us more about his system like memory, cpu, and games he plays (but thats just me lawl)

I agree Kitch it would be nice to see he plans on throwing in there.....

On my computer now I have 1 GB of Ram, Intel Pentium D (3.00 GHz), and I play Battlefield 2142, Sims 2, and am planning to upgrade my geforce 6800 due to new games like Crysis and Halo 2 for the pc because of DX 10. Also I am planning to upgrade to vista also to get dx 10.

Cool, well if you want to build a new computer for vista and DX10 gaming id suggest reading the guide on how to build a core 2 duo system for under a $1000 dollars on the home page of the forum, http://www.techspot.com/article/34-c...ng-under-1000/

thats the link to save you looking, and just go from there. adding the 8800GTX or whatever takes your fancy....


From what I have read on vista though its gonna guzzle ram like an alcoholic at a bar so id go for atleast 2Gb of ram 4 if you can push your budget.

Ok cool ill check it out. Yes I am planning to get 2gb of ram or maybe even 4 gb. Thanks for the help.

No worries thats what we are all hear for

Ok for a cheap gaming machine arond $1500, you can make one easily. Do you have computer building expirence? Is this your fist time? Well, I do have a gaming machine for you that is cheap and looks really cool:

Processor
Motherboard
RAM
Video Card
Hard Drive
Optical Drive(x2)
Case and Power supply

I dont think im forgetting anything, but If I am please tell meand i will add a componet