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Pro Gaming PC Buyer’s Guide -- Updated Prices and Parts For October 2008

Benson Hong — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:00:00 -0500

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

2x BFG Tech Geforce GTX280
$750, www.bfgtech.com

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.

Motherboard

EVGA eForce 790i SLI Ultra
$330, www.evga.com

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.

CPU

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz
$165 (Retail), www.intel.com

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.

Memory

OCZ 4GB Reaper HPC DDR3/1600
$250, www.ocztechnology.com

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.

Case

NZXT Tempest
$110, www.nxzt.com

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.

Power Supply

OCZ EliteXStream 1000W
$195, www.ocztechnology.com

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.

Operating System

Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium
$100 (OEM), www.microsoft.com

Hard Drives

2x Western Digital Velociraptor 150GB 10000RPM
$360, www.wdc.com

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.

Samsung F1 HD103UJ 1TB
$120, www.samsung.com

We just had to keep the beloved terabyte drive in this rig; it just wouldn't be complete without it.

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S223F DVD Burner
$26, www.samsung.com

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.

Sound Card

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
$86, www.creative.com

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.

CPU Cooler

Zalman CNPS-9300AT SuperFlo
$40, www.zalman.com

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.

Total: $2,532

Pro Gaming PC Buyer’s Guide – Updated Prices and Parts for July 2008

Norman Chan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:15:10 -0500

Last week, we showed you which parts you would want to buy to construct a killer $2500 PC. The purpose of that machine was power computing – serious audio/video editing and high-bitrate media transcoding. We got a lot of flak about a few of our choices (most noticeably the CPU), but we stand by our picks. That PC configuration was meant for Power Users, and not hardcore gamers (though we recognize that those aren’t mutually-exclusive groups). For someone who primarily uses their PC for gaming, and won’t accept framerate dips in 120Hz games, we have different recommendations. The following components make up our ideal $2500 hardcore gaming rig (prices as listed on Newegg). If it’s not what you’d buy, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Videocard

2x Asus GeForce GTX280
$980, www.asus.com

Motherboard

EVGA 790i SLI Ultra
$350, www.evga.com

CPU

Intel E8400 3GHz Core 2 Duo
$175, www.intel.com

Memory

OCZ 4GB Reaper HPC DDR3/1600
$240, www.ocz.com

Case

NZXT Tempest
$110, www.nzxt.com

Power Supply

PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Watt
$140, www.pcpower.com

Operating System

Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium
$110 (OEM), www.microsoft.com

Hard Drive

Samsung F1 HD103UJ 1TB
$175, www.samsung.com

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S203 DVDR
$29, www.samsung.com

Sound Card

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
$91, www.creative.com

CPU Cooler

Zalman CNPS-9300AT
$50, www.zalman.com

Price Breakdowns

Videocards       $980
Motherboard    $350
CPU                   $175
Memory             $240
Case                 $110
Power Supply $140
OS                     $110
Hard Drive       $175
Optical               $29
Soundcard        $91
CPU Cooler     $50

Total:               $2450

Five Ways to Save the PC Gaming Alliance

<a href="/david_murphy">David Murphy<br /></a> — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:48:03 -0600

Right now, the PC gaming environment cannot compete with those--dare I say--heathen console machines and their sack-fulls of fresh, original, and damned-fun content. And I'm not the only one who thinks, and fears, this growing problem.

It's a sad state that the industry is desperately trying to correct. You've surely heard the news about the PC Gaming Alliance--that big consortium of top-notch manufacturers, developers, bigwigs, and Microsoft, who are all trying to jump-start PC Gaming with a heavy pair of electric paddles and a handful of promises and dreams. I find it curious, albeit obvious, that Microsoft's taking part in this grand scheme. You could consider them the Judas of the bunch--perfectly willing to play along whilst, at the same time, destroying the industry from the inside under the guise of Games for Windows.

But I digress. The PC Gaming Alliance is doomed from the get-go. It'll never work, because I think the various talking heads will be too busy trying to squeeze their own initiatives into the picture to realize what's really needed in the modern-day PC gaming industry. And I'm not talking about some epic secret, the gaming industry's Tree of Life that's going to forever raise the PC as the champion platform. The decentralized PC community knows what's up. It's just grasping at the roots of solutions that the consoles have already figured out.

1) Multi-platform releases

Does World of Warcraft's 10-million-strong user base promote PC gaming goodness or pull away players that might invest in different genres and titles?

There's a good reason why I buy awesome games for my Xbox 360: because I can't get them on my computer. I'm not going to wait 8 months to play Gears of War, or God-knows-when to play Assassin's Creed. When I see a game, and it looks sweet, I buy it. The end.

So why don't developers recognize this fact and release all their "A++ would-play-again" titles across both platforms simultaneously? I'm way better at most games on the PC than the console, and I'd like to think that my home rig is superior to my Xbox 360. Give me the option to play killer titles on my PC--like The Orange Box--and it'll be a strong factor when I'm standing around in Best Buy, wondering if I should head to the console or the PC aisle in the ol' video game section.

And for the love of all that is holy, stop releasing ancient games on the PC. I'm talking to you, Microsoft. If it's retro, brand it as such. Stop giving us games that the Xbox has had for years, and worse yet, stop making these up to be awesome representations of the new "Games for Windows" initiative. I laugh at you.

2) Achievements

Shadowrun's achievements are perfect: you get the same accolades regardless of what platform you're playing on. Done and done.

I like achievements. I like them a lot. I don't care about putting my gamerscore/Valve name/whatever into six-digit territory, but I do like the ability for my friends to know exactly where I am and what I'm doing with the titles I play. The surest way for PCs to compete with consoles is to promote the notion of achievements--viewable by anyone who connects to a centralized platform--across all titles. Period. None of this "you do it one way, I'll do it another way" crap.

I hate seeing games with built-in achievements/accolades/marketingbuzzwordhere that are all proprietary. Valve has tapped the nail with this one, but I would hope that the PCGA can hammer this one into the ground. Otherwise, I'm going to buy all of my B-list titles (like Overlord) for my console, because even if the games are sub-par, at least my friends will be able to see what I'm up to.

Achievements are a free value proposition that invariably get gamers even more hooked on the games they're playing. At the same time, they give each and every game a level of competition that it might not otherwise exist given the game's format. For example, I like Peggle. But comparing my Peggle progress around Maximum PC's water cooler spurs me to play the game even when I don't really want to. Achievements let me do this on a far grander scale.

3) Cross-Platform Synchronicity

Why can't I play Gears of War PC against Xbox users? Why is this not built into the port of a game that came out a year after the original version hit consoles?

Jumping off #1, if a game comes out for the Xbox or the PS3 at the same time as its PC version, there's no reason the game shouldn't offer some kind of cross-platform experience. What better way to compete with the consoles than to allow gamers to, you know, compete with the consoles. Directly. Mano-a-Mouse. Why did I play Shadowrun so much? Not because it was a terribly immersive game at its core; I played it because I could play it against all my "noob" friends who refuse to acknowledge the PC as a gaming platform. Shadowrun was the whole new world that Games for Windows was alluding to, a welcome relief for those of us who swallowed the hype at the time.

But this idea doesn't have to die. Developers and platform-creators need to standardize (and dare I say, speed up) the method for updating cross-platform content: as I understand it, this is one of the reasons you don't see cross-platform gameplay on Unreal Tournament 3 right now. The game itself was rather feh, but I know I would have jumped on the PC version for quite awhile longer had I the ability to introduce my Xbox friends to a flak cannon. Unite the PC with the consoles and you'll build your audience. You'll build a ton of gamer respect as well. And the day a cross-platform MMO hits? Son, it's over.

4) Make Better Games

Instead of releasing a bevy of patches for The Witcher, its developers are coming out with an "Enhanced" edition. Thanks, but I like my polish with the original game, not as a ~$40 upgrade.

I realize this sounds a lot like a fourth-grader criticizing an Iron Chef because the little tyke doesn't like the taste of lunch, but hear me out. There are not enough high-quality, PC-exclusive titles on the market right now. There's no compelling reason keeping me on my PC, unlike the consoles, which have plenty of exclusive (or exclusive-for-a-number-of-months) titles.

Why is this the case? I fear it's because developers would rather sink $40 million dollars into a crappy game than sit back and understand the current gaming market. Right now, gamers want gameplay. They don't want sequels, nor should they be expected to buy sequels sans gameplay. A fun game will always be king, and you don't need to empty the vault to do it. Look at Sins of a Solar Empire--not a hugely hyped title, and not even the most innovative per se. That said, Stardock made a title that was pure fun, and that's it.

Right now, the PC gaming market suffers from a lack of good original titles. We're seeing too many high-in-promise, crap-in-production products flooding the airwaves right now. And it's a shame, because these titles had just as much hype and excitement going into development as any console game: Hellgate: London, Unreal Tournament 3, SimCity Societies, Tabula Rasa, et cetera. Ironically, the few quality titles I can think of to name (again, absent the "World" and "Warcraft" bits) are all cross-platform to begin with: The Orange Box, BioShock, etc.

Do consoles have crappy games? By the truckload. Do certain PC games make me question life, the universe, and everything? Absolutely. But blow-for-blow, the console is winning the war. Developers need to realize that a game has to be fun, and making a "fun" game isn't an equation that you can just sink a ton of money into and call it a day. They need focus more on what gamers truly want to play. And here's a hint: great gameplay will win out over next-generation graphics or pop-culture gimmicks every single time.

Consider Crysis: typical first-person shooter, right? To an extent, that's correct. Crysis ratchets up the "looks factor" pretty high, which is compelling reason number one for gamers to pick it up: the best graphical experience on a PC to date. But is that enough to make a game? Nope. So enter reason two: customizable gameplay that lets you alternate between any Dungeons and Dragons-style classes on a whim. The Fancysuit (whatever it's called) takes the "play it your way" concepts of more open-ended shooters and kicks it up a notch. Feel like being a sneaky thief? Want to punch tanks? How about absorbing damage like Ahh-nold? With but a cursory mouse movement, you're within the reach of three different playing styles.

I'm not going to belabor the point. But there's a reason Crysis is a blockbuster while Unreal Tournament 3... well... is a fine representation of the fourth anniversary of Unreal Tournament 2004. Gamers want original, fun experiences: while it's certainly possible for a sequel to work, it's not going to be a hit if it's just a reimaged version of the same ol' same ol'. The PC can be a cheaper, better gaming platform. Developers just have to stop thinking with their bank accounts and start thinking with their hearts--the kinds of experiences that made them turn to PC games when they were growing up. Hey, TIE Fighter didn't cost millions to make, but there's a reason it's still the greatest game ever created.*

*Disagree, and I will fight you.

5) Swallow Thy Pride

How many gamers, when faced with the draconian copy protection of 2K Games' BioShock, just stopped trying? How many stopped buying?

For this gaming alliance to have any chance of working, the various companies involved will need to approach the situation like it truly is: a gathering of visions, united on a common front. This can't be just another method for Microsoft injecting its marketing via another platform. Nor can this be any way for AMD to somehow leverage the playing field with Intel and Nvidia. Each company is going to have to take the high road on this one. It's a pill of poison for marketing departments, but it's exactly the kind of level-headed approach that's going to be required for this alliance to have any impact whatsoever.

Just imagine the possibilities! Instead of scrapping over copy protection schemes, perhaps these companies could use Microsoft's experience to leverage some sort of huge, open marketplace-type situation. Each member of the alliance would be free to set their own prices and such, with chunks of "featured content" dolled out according to a common calendar cycle. Obviously, it'd be a Steam knock-off. But the beauty of the service is that it eliminates the need for copy protection outright. Sign up, buy the game, and you can access it across any medium you want.

The PC Gaming Alliance could ensure that this service extends to box copies as well. Buy a copy at retail, and you'd be given the opportunity to register the game into this giant, online collective. It'd be your copy protection, and would also give you the ability to download and play the game in the same manner as before: across any medium you want.

These are all just brief thoughts. The PC Gaming Alliance has a long road ahead of itself, in terms of making the beloved ol' computer as important a platform as the consoles. And it needs more weight as well: where's EA? Where's Take-Two? Where are all the other publishers? Where are the industry heavyweights?

And what are the hardware vendors exactly hoping to accomplish? Graphics cards and fancy processors do not a gamer make; they're the means to an end. Gamers want better games, gamers want innovative games, and gamers want a compelling reason to choose a far-more-expensive, souped-up PC over that little $400 console machine in their living room. Hardware isn't the problem. In the end, it's all about the games.

How To: Become a Gaming God

David Murphy — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:22:49 -0600

All right, newblet. You’ve eaten your dog food in Wolfenstein 3D, done your spirit quest in Prey, and even managed to set up a bomb or two in Counter-Strike. If first-person shooters were massively multiplayer role-playing games, that might qualify you to step out of the kindergarten zone. Maybe. The big leagues of head shots, m-m-m-monster kills, and first-person-shooter fragfests have no room for subpar playing performance.

Top players—including PC Gamer’s very own Norm the Intern—all seem to have an innate talent for running-and-gunning. At least, that’s the nice way to put it when you’re on the receiving end of one of their rockets. But being awesome at shooters isn’t just luck; follow our guide to becoming a better gamer, and you’ll be on top of the leader board before you can say “pwnd.”

1. Know Your Maps

The best first-person-shooter gamers spend just as much time researching as they do button-clicking. For even the twitchiest of reflexes is worthless on an unfamiliar map; you’ll be riddled by railguns from every direction as you struggle to find even the most minimal of upgrades to your starting weapon. And in games like Quake, your opponents having quad-damage plus a knowledge of common spawning points equals you minus your body parts—plus an explosion of fire and guts. What fun!

You don’t have to get served up and down the battlefield to begin your most important of research tasks. After all, most multiplayer-themed shooters come with single-player bot modes. Fire up a one-on-one, set the computer to “bunny rabbit” difficulty, and resist the urge to spawn-camp your frustrations away on such an easy opponent. You’re here to research, not eradicate.

The world's top TF2 players (conveniently found on the official Maximum PC server) memorize their maps: it turns the routes, choke-points, and strategies into a chess game... with flamethrowers.

So what are you trying to learn? Start by sauntering through the level to find the spawning points for the map’s many weapons. You’ll want to be able to get to your weapon of choice—newb-cannon rocket launcher, sniper rifle, or some other ingenious combination of death and destruction—from any position on the map (especially the spawn points).
That’s just the beginning. In theory, you’ll work your way up to creating actual routes. You’ll be able to count the seconds between each power-up or weapon spawn. And you’ll be constantly running a loop around all the major power-ups—health, armor, ammunition. Even if your game doesn’t feature these goodies, you’ll want to know all the possible chokepoints, so you can mount the best offensive with each spawn.

2. Know When to Wuss Out

If you’re playing in a professional gaming setting, this tip is undoubtedly worthless. The second your opponent spots you, consider yourself three seconds away from corpsedom. But if you’re playing an everyday match on the Interwebs, or even a match against some of your more talented friends, then you’ll need to suck it up so you don’t suck it down. Humility is an important part of the FPS experience.

What does that mean? Don’t go charging off into battle with your starting weapon, even if your most hated of opponents just ran past the spawn point. You will die. If you’re obviously outgunned in a firefight, don’t keep shooting. You will die. If you’re facing off against a sniper who just head-shot two of your buddies in the face, don’t run toward him. You will die.

When trying to trap an opponent, make sure you’re using a weapon that’s going to get the job done. You’re in for a ride on the pain train if you don’t get the one shot, one kill.

Play smart. Turn tail. Run away, and perhaps you’ll hit a teleporter and confuse your opponent. Or better yet, pull a Macaulay Culkin and set a trap—run through a doorway and immediately hug the wall on the right. Stay put, and if your opponent is stupid enough to just run straight ahead, you might be able to catch him with a quick shotgun blast to the face. Advantage: you.

3. Gear Up

It’s important to customize your hardware for the kind of gamer you are. That includes redoing your keyboard’s keybindings to best facilitate your fragging experience. It’ll add about 10 minutes to your prematch startup time, but the payoff is worth it. Swap the weapons you frequently use to buttons more accessible to your WSAD-style controls. And if you indeed rock with a gaming keyboard, then make sure you’re using its extra input keys to their fullest potential.

Some keyboards come with fancy applications and feature a number of preset hotkeys. Use them as a base to save yourself some tweaking time!

If you can pick up a fancy gaming mouse, do it—you might not see an increase in overall accuracy from higher DPIs, but you’ll likely be able to switch your sensitivity on the fly. Need a little more machine-gun spray action? Kick the mouse up to a high sensitivity and let ’er rip. Camping spawn points in Facing Worlds? Lower your sensitivity and buzz the eyebrows off your opponents. Remember, reacting to an enemy is akin to raising the white flag; you want to anticipate your opponent’s movements at all times.

How2Mini: Waiting for a Respawn?

Here are some quick tips for your next few rounds of gunplay.

300 Pick on the weak. That’s right. We said it. If you’re in a 15-player deathmatch and getting rocked by three or four people you can’t compete against, stop fighting them. Find the guys you can utterly stomp on and hunt them mercilessly. They’ll call you names and hate your very existence, but hey, you’re on the top of the kill boards. They’re just jealous.

Be a Planeteer We might be speaking to deaf ears with this one, but hear us out. In team-based shooters like Counter-Strike and Shadowrun, you need to do just that: act like a team. Fun as it may be to entertain your dreams of becoming a virtual Rambo, it just isn’t going to work. Like wolves, you need to hunt in groups—use each person’s strengths to your advantage. And get on your headset!

Dance, Monkey! Standing still and shooting never works, but neither does jumping around like a chinchilla on speed. Create a dance—a few standard strafing/jumping moves that you’re familiar with, so you can always keep your mouse targeting trained on a player while you’re moving in-game. Otherwise, you’ll spend half the gunfight trying to react to your own dodging attempts instead of your opponent’s.

Talk Like You Mean It Psychological warfare is every bit as important as good accuracy. So the next time you get that sweet head shot, feel free to let your fellow players know just how newb they are in your favorite combination of obscenities, epithets, and physical gestures. It works in every cartoon; it’ll work in your first-person shooter.

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Pro Gaming PC Buyer’s Guide -- Updated Prices and Parts For October 2008

Videocard

2x BFG Tech Geforce GTX280$750, www.bfgtech.com

Motherboard

EVGA eForce 790i SLI Ultra$330, www.evga.com

CPU

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz$165 (Retail), www.intel.com

Memory

OCZ 4GB Reaper HPC DDR3/1600$250, www.ocztechnology.com

Case

NZXT Tempest$110, www.nxzt.com

Power Supply

OCZ EliteXStream 1000W$195, www.ocztechnology.com

Operating System

Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium$100 (OEM), www.microsoft.com

Hard Drives

2x Western Digital Velociraptor 150GB 10000RPM$360, www.wdc.com

Samsung F1 HD103UJ 1TB$120, www.samsung.com

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S223F DVD Burner$26, www.samsung.com

Sound Card

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer$86, www.creative.com

CPU Cooler

Zalman CNPS-9300AT SuperFlo$40, www.zalman.com

Total: $2,532

Pro Gaming PC Buyer’s Guide – Updated Prices and Parts for July 2008

Videocard

2x Asus GeForce GTX280$980, www.asus.com

Motherboard

EVGA 790i SLI Ultra$350, www.evga.com

CPU

Intel E8400 3GHz Core 2 Duo$175, www.intel.com

Memory

OCZ 4GB Reaper HPC DDR3/1600$240, www.ocz.com

Case

NZXT Tempest$110, www.nzxt.com

Power Supply

PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Watt$140, www.pcpower.com

Operating System

Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium$110 (OEM), www.microsoft.com

Hard Drive

Samsung F1 HD103UJ 1TB$175, www.samsung.com

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S203 DVDR$29, www.samsung.com

Sound Card

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer$91, www.creative.com

CPU Cooler

Zalman CNPS-9300AT$50, www.zalman.com

Price Breakdowns

Videocards $980Motherboard $350CPU $175Memory $240Case $110Power Supply $140OS $110Hard Drive $175Optical $29Soundcard $91CPU Cooler $50 Total: $2450

Five Ways to Save the PC Gaming Alliance

1) Multi-platform releases

2) Achievements

3) Cross-Platform Synchronicity

4) Make Better Games

5) Swallow Thy Pride

How To: Become a Gaming God

1. Know Your Maps

2. Know When to Wuss Out

3. Gear Up

How2Mini: Waiting for a Respawn?

2x BFG Tech Geforce GTX280
$750, www.bfgtech.com

EVGA eForce 790i SLI Ultra
$330, www.evga.com

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz
$165 (Retail), www.intel.com

OCZ 4GB Reaper HPC DDR3/1600
$250, www.ocztechnology.com

NZXT Tempest
$110, www.nxzt.com

OCZ EliteXStream 1000W
$195, www.ocztechnology.com

Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium
$100 (OEM), www.microsoft.com

2x Western Digital Velociraptor 150GB 10000RPM
$360, www.wdc.com

Samsung F1 HD103UJ 1TB
$120, www.samsung.com

Samsung SH-S223F DVD Burner
$26, www.samsung.com

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
$86, www.creative.com

Zalman CNPS-9300AT SuperFlo
$40, www.zalman.com

2x Asus GeForce GTX280
$980, www.asus.com

EVGA 790i SLI Ultra
$350, www.evga.com

Intel E8400 3GHz Core 2 Duo
$175, www.intel.com

OCZ 4GB Reaper HPC DDR3/1600
$240, www.ocz.com

NZXT Tempest
$110, www.nzxt.com

PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Watt
$140, www.pcpower.com

Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium
$110 (OEM), www.microsoft.com

Samsung F1 HD103UJ 1TB
$175, www.samsung.com

Samsung SH-S203 DVDR
$29, www.samsung.com

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
$91, www.creative.com

Zalman CNPS-9300AT
$50, www.zalman.com

Videocards $980
Motherboard $350
CPU $175
Memory $240
Case $110
Power Supply $140
OS $110
Hard Drive $175
Optical $29
Soundcard $91
CPU Cooler $50

Total: $2450