Posted 10/22/08 at 09:00:00 AM by Benson Hong
For the past few weeks we have presented you with our $1500 Budget Badass and $2500 Power User PC. This week we’re bringing to the table our picks for a $2500 Pro Gaming PC. With significant price cuts since our last Pro Gaming PC build-it guide, we were able to give our gaming PC some extra juice so system lag can no longer be blamed for missing a crucial headshot. Many parts have not changed since the last update, but with new hardware technology coming soon to the computer industry, be prepared for some significant tweaks next month. But for now, here’s what we got.
Videocard
Since the last update back in July, the GTX 280 has stayed atop the GPU powerhouse list. As the fastest single-GPU solution out there, it would only make sense to have two of these running in SLI. Unlike our Power User PC, we're shifting our main focus to the GPU(s) and this is it.
There were some problems with Nvidia's 680i and 780i chipsets, but the 790i seems to have solved all of them. The board's native PCI-Express 2.0 and spacious layout will be a nice home for your SLI setup. Its price-to-performance ratio is just one reason why we gave this motherboard a kickass verdict.
While CPU performance is significant to a PC's ability to perform well in games, most current games (with the exception of a couple) are still not utilizing all four cores of a quad core thus leaving us with the option to choose a dual core over a quad. With the E8400, we save some extra money for an upgraded PSU and extra hard drives while keeping gaming performance at its peak.
As we've mentioned in our previous build-it guides, 4GB seems to be the new standard nowadays for any performance user. Obviously, gaming is no exception.
We've been featuring this case for every build-it guide so far and we still stand behind it 100%. With plenty of cooling and air flow, this case will house all your components nicely.
Some readers suggested in our previous Pro Gaming PC build-it guide that a 750W PC Power & Cooling PSU would not be enough juice for our SLI setup. While we feel the 750W would power the rig just fine, we decided to take the safe route and replace it with an OCZ EliteXStream 1000W as recommended by SLI Zone.
We had some extra cash to play with after some recent price cuts so what else is there to do but to add some more horsepower to our rig? We took two Velociraptors and stuck them in RAID 0 for some extra performance boost.
We just had to keep the beloved terabyte drive in this rig; it just wouldn't be complete without it.
Unlike our Power User rig, we don't see the need for a $300 blu-ray burner for the pro gamer. So we saved some major bucks and brought it down to the basics -- a DVD burner.
Quality sound is important for every gamer. Those subtle footsteps and gunshots from miles away can mean life or death in many scenarios. With the X-FI XtremeGamer, there's no need to worry anymore about those embarrassing behind-the-back stabbings.
Like the power user, gamers need their fair share of cooling, too. While the room may get a little heated from intense game play, your CPU will stay cool with this heatsink from Zalman.
© 2009 Future US, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Links:
[1] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/dreamreality
[2] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/budget_badass
[3] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/power_user_pc_buyer’s_guide?page=0,0
[4] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/pro_gaming_pc_buyer’s_guide_–_updated_prices_and_parts_july_2008
[5] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/bfg_geforce_gtx_280_oc_1gb
[6] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/evga_eforce_790i_ultra
[7] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/nzxt_tempest
[8] http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html
[9] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/western_digital_velociraptor
[10] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/samsung_hd103uj_terabyte_drive
[11] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/zalman_cnps9300_at
[12] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/power_user_pc_buyer’s_guide
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