Computer Builds
Dream Machine
| Component | Recommended Model | Link |
Review |
Why? |
| Case | Thermaltake aluminum gamer's case | Thermaltake | Awesome-looking gaming machine! Black, clear side-panel, temperature read-out for overclockers! | |
| Motherboard | MSI K8T Neo2-FIR | MSI | 1 GHz FSB, firewire, 4 Serial ATA RAID ports, PATA RAID, Gigabit NIC, K8T800 Pro, 8-channel audio, dual channel support (Socket 939) - it's loaded! | |
| Processor | Athlon64 FX-53 | AMD | Currently the top of the heap! Faster and cheaper than Intel's Extreme Edition. | |
| RAM | 2 GB PC-3200 DDR (2x1024 dual channel) | N/A | Kingston memory | |
| Video card | ATI Radeon X800 Pro | ATI | It's the fastest card available! It doesn't need as much room or power as the nVidia 6800 (but we'll see what the SLI option does for nVidia) | |
| Hard Drive | TWO Western Digital 10,000 RPM Raptor Drives (74 GB) | WesternDigital | Get TWO of the fastest drives (10,000 rpm) available (RAID 0? The jury's still out). Half the price of SCSI drives! Add a second 250 GB drive (or two) for pure disk space. | |
| CD/DVD Drive | LG 16X DVD (black) | LG | Nothing special here - but you need a good source drive for burning copies of CD's/DVD's | |
| Burner | Plextor 12x DVD burner (dual layer) | Plextor | One of the few 12X burners out there. | |
| Sound Card | SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Platinum | Creative Labs | Pure digital, Dolby decoder, MP3 encoder, EAX surround sound, firewire - what more could you ask for? | |
| Speakers | Logitech Z680 | Logitech | 500W of impressive surround sound and booming bass, hardware digital decoding, DTS, THX, 5.1 sound! | |
| Keyboard | Logitech Elite (black) | Logitech | It's not cordless (run out of batteries in a deathmatch?) - but it's a great keyboard! | |
| Mouse | Logitech MX 700 | Logitech | All kinds of buttons for frag matches! Cordless/rechargeable! | |
| TOTAL COST |
GST included |
It ain't cheap, but it rocks! | ||
| OPTIONS: | ||||
| Monitor | NEC 1920NX 19" LCD panel | NEC | Okay...I have to admit it's time for an LCD panel now...this one's big, fast (for LCD monitors) and priced almost reasonably! | |
| Flight Simulators | ||||
| Joystick | Logitech Wingman StrikeForce
3D
MS Sidewinder ForceFeedback 2 |
Logitech | It's a toss-up - Logitech or Microsoft - similarly priced, similar features - pick one! | |
| Driving simulations | Logitech Wingman Formula Force | Logitech | Proven reliability, good brand-name, good price, great feedback performance - what more could you ask for? (USB/Serial) | |
| All-purpose | MS Sidewinder Freestyle Pro | Microsoft | It's good for driving games, arcade games, flight simulators, both with the D-Pad or with the built-in gyro that lets you move the whole joystick as your control. (USB/gameport) |