Ok here is what I'm thinking. Let's have a competition to see who can "build" the best PC. There will be several categories with different price limits. Budget PC- $500 Sound/Multimedia- $1600 Gaming- $2000 Crazy special-$3000 All computers need the following to count: Monitor Keyboard & mouse Mobo CPU RAM Printer OS Cables(if needed) Heatsink and Fan Case Video Card Sound Card Speakers Optical Drive Hard drive(s) Case Fans Powesupply Network card with cables(or if wireless a router) Thats all the basics I can think of for now Heres the rules All parts have to be sited No Prebuilt systems No Refurbished parts No OCing No overspending Reason why your system is good 1 system per category for each person Put all this in an Excel or Open Office spreadsheet.(except for reason, put that in the post) People will be able to vote on who creates the best for each category. Remember this is supposed to be fun.....
also the no overclocking rule is gay. OEMs like alienware, voodoo, hp, gateway, dell, hp, falcoln northwest all offer overclocked systems. If they can do it and still offer up to a 5 year warranty, why can't you? Regardless, I will go with it. I still reserve the right to tweak memory timings and motherboard straps though. on another note depending on the purpose of the system things should vary a true media freak would more than likely allready have their peripherals, speakers dont'e xactly become obsolete and if you're dropping 1.6k on a PC you're likely to have dropped a fair amount on a Large HD TV before hand. 500$ system with actually reasonable requirements. 2GB DDR2 RAM $80 A64 x2 3800+ board combo (~$100) http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...5503&CatId=2774 harddrive seagate baracuda w/ PRM 72200.10 250GB $80 Enhance ENP 500W PSU $67 DVD burner $30 7600GT $90 COOLER MASTER RC-330-KKN1-GP case $30 Ubuntu Linux have fun. It's ~$500, has 2GB RAM a midrange graphics card a good OS(assuming you have the expertise to set it up correctly and get openGL games and some apps running and it has a better GUI than vista or OSX) $1600 media system c2d q6600 $535 Asus P5ne-SLI i650 $130 four 250GB 7200.10s in RAID 0 $320 4GB RAM $250 Windows XP --- x64 $130 8600GT $120 Corsair 620W PSU $140 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.as...d+Card+-+Retail Thermalright ultra-120 $50 HT OMEGA CLARO 7.1 $140 DVD burner $30 Vista doesn't have Creative drivers yet, not really a gaming rig but has all the things a typical media enthusiast would want. no monitor included because a media center PC it's intent is to be hooked up to a $3-5k HD TV anyway so a monitor would be redundant.
