I’ve been out of the bleeding edge geek loop for few years now as to the fastest and bestest hardware. My son is enamored of the DOOM 3 game (based on reading the creation documentary in Barnes & Noble) and I thought a new PC it might make a nice birthday gift for him.
What does he need to have a good DOOM 3 experience?
I’ve already got the monitor end covered so I only need to know about the box and video hardware. I can appreciate that putting a box together form discrete components might afford the maximum flexibility, but do not want to build this box from a bunch of components (my days of doing that are long past) . I want to buy a unit from a reliable manufacturer that’s ready to run the game, or at most add a video card and some RAM if necessary to an existing box. What I really want is for some bright and shiny gaming doper to point to a computer and say “that one will do it nicely!”
I’m trying to keep pricing between $800 - $1500 max (without monitor). What are some good choices?
Building a PC from components is stupid simple these days, and you’ll save a lot of money doing it. Just a vote towards that. Doom3 won’t take too much, really. I ran it just fine on my older rig, and that’s only got an Athlon XP 2100+, 512MB of 2100 RAM and a Radeon 9600XT. That’s all pretty much four generations old. I played Half-Life 2 just fine on it as well.
I wouldn’t build a new PC just for the one game. If Doom 3 is all he wants, buy an xbox and a copy of the game for that. Cost you $200. Less if you buy used.
The sweet spot of PC gaming seems to be a AMD 64 3200, A gig of RAM and a nVidia 6600 GT. At least, that was the sweet spot as of five months ago when I was activly shopping. I couldn’t say off hand what it is now, but that platform will play newer games like FEAR and Oblivion just fine.
No, no, kids need to have this and this, get with the program! It’s the only proper way to grow up with computers! (well, if you were growing up in the early 90s, anyways)
In a more serious response to the OP, for the price range you specified, you will be able to put an fairly impressive system together if you build it yourself; if you go through someone like Dell, you’ll still be able to do alright enough, I s’pose. As Titus says, though, it’s really easy these days. If you decide to do it yourself, just search the forums for some of the (many) recent “I’m upgrading my computer, help me!” threads; otherwise, Dell is as good a bet as anyone for the price range you’re looking at, and you should probably check SlickDeals and elsewhere to see if you can get any shiny rebates.
If you don’t feel like building a computer yourself, Monarch Computer can configure some nice machines for not too much money. I just configure one of their Furia systems, with an Athlon 64 3200+, Asus nForce 410 mobo, 1 GB Ram, DVD-Burner, Geforce 7600GT video card, 250GB HD, for $1050. That machine would run any game out there quite nicely.
This depends on what you consider “a lot of money.” About the most I’ve ever been able to save is $200-$300. For me, the convenience of not having to build one and the added benefit of tech support is worth that much.
I just ordered a system from Falcon Northwest, and have been incredibly happy so far. Don’t have the system yet but their pre-sales support and professionalism have been great. I’m just giddy over being able to talk to real people with real names who are all obviously knowledgable and qualified at what they do, and have that service be a simple phone call or email away.
I realize you’re being facetious, AHunter, but just for the record: An intel mac with a monitor comparable to what Astro linked to above, sufficient system and video ram, and a copy of Windows XP will run you a good bit over your price range ($1874, by my calculation). That’s not to say it’s not a good idea …
