Greetings One and All

ok - the day had to come.

My old cast-offs are no longer acceptable computing tools for the family.

#1 child is heavily into [online] gaming and his xmas pressie money is
burning a hole - I'd be grateful for spec guidance/recommendations.
Needless to say he already has k/v/m and will be connected to our printers
and net connection.  Box will almost certainly run XP-Pro assuming
suitable platform.

Cheers
--
William Tasso

William Tasso wrote:

> #1 child is heavily into [online] gaming and his xmas pressie money is
> burning a hole - I'd be grateful for spec guidance/recommendations.

Gaming is probably the most demanding (overall) task you can put a PC to.
You need a chunky CPU, a decent sound card, lashings of disk space, masses
of RAM and the best possible video card you can find.

I'd say - get the best of everything you can afford, with the graphics card
being the thing to skimp least upon.

--
David Dorward       <http://blog.dorward.me.uk/>   <http://dorward.me.uk/>
Home is where the ~/.bashrc is

And lo, William Tasso didst speak in alt.www.webmaster:

> Greetings One and All
>
> ok - the day had to come.
>
> My old cast-offs are no longer acceptable computing tools for the family.
>
> #1 child is heavily into [online] gaming and his xmas pressie money is
> burning a hole - I'd be grateful for spec guidance/recommendations.
> Needless to say he already has k/v/m and will be connected to our
> printers and net connection.  Box will almost certainly run XP-Pro
> assuming suitable platform.

Advice #1: Don't settle for less than 1GB of RAM; prefer 2GB or more if
the mobo can handle it.

Advice #2: Tom's Hardware does some pretty extensive hardware reviews.
It's a good idea to check them out if you want some nitty-gritty
comparision without the marketing hype.

Here's a monster article they did on CPUs:
<http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/11...ex.ht
ml>

Beware though that some of the CPUs tested were 64-bit; not all of today's
games will run on these.

Grey

--
The technical axiom that nothing is impossible sinisterly implies the
pitfall corollary that nothing is ridiculous.
- http://www.greywyvern.com/orca#sear - Orca Search: Full-featured spider
and site-search engine

"David Dorward" <dorward@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:doudp4$dp3$1$8302bc10@news.demon.co.uk
> William Tasso wrote:
> 
>
> Gaming is probably the most demanding (overall) task you can put a PC
> to. You need a chunky CPU, a decent sound card, lashings of disk
> space, masses of RAM and the best possible video card you can find.
>
> I'd say - get the best of everything you can afford, with the
> graphics card being the thing to skimp least upon.

I wouldn't go over $150 on the video card. Today's $350 video card will
only cost $150 or less, 6 months to a year from now. Likewise, today's
$150 video card was the hot $350 card 6 months to a year ago.

NVIDIA is the best brand. PCI Express is the new hot buss; make sure
your motherboard supports it. Get a card with 256 MB ram.

--
Red

On Wed, 28 Dec 2005 16:03:36 -0000, "William Tasso"
<SpamBlocked@tbdata.com> wrote:

> Greetings One and All
>
> ok - the day had to come.
>
> My old cast-offs are no longer acceptable computing tools for the family.
>
> #1 child is heavily into [online] gaming and his xmas pressie money is
> burning a hole - I'd be grateful for spec guidance/recommendations.
> Needless to say he already has k/v/m and will be connected to our printers
> and net connection.  Box will almost certainly run XP-Pro assuming
> suitable platform.
>

Computing is the spawn of the devil. Take his money and invest it
wisely in a collection of classic novels, and then lock him in his
bedroom until he has purged himself of this unnatural, decadent and
evil urge.

Matt


--
The Probert Encyclopaedia - Beyond Britannica
http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com

On Wed, 28 Dec 2005 18:27:09 GMT, "Red E. Kilowatt"
<kilowattREMOVE@aww-faq.org> wrote:

> I wouldn't go over $150 on the video card. Today's $350 video card will
> only cost $150 or less, 6 months to a year from now. Likewise, today's
> $150 video card was the hot $350 card 6 months to a year ago.


Wait long enough and today's $350 video card will be a laughing stock,
and then what will he say to you? Huh? Worse still, it will be given
away free in a box of breakfast cereal. Ya cheap skate!

Matt


--
The Probert Encyclopaedia - Beyond Britannica
http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com

Writing in news:alt.www.webmaster
From the safety of the The Probert Encyclopaedia cafeteria
Matt Probert <comments@probertencyclopaedia.com> said:

> On Wed, 28 Dec 2005 16:03:36 -0000, "William Tasso"
> <SpamBlocked@tbdata.com> wrote:
> 
>
> Computing is the spawn of the devil. Take his money and invest it
> wisely in a collection of classic novels, and then lock him in his
> bedroom until he has purged himself of this unnatural, decadent and
> evil urge.

hrmm - locking him in his bedroom would probably result in an altogether
different outcome.

In any event, this boy has no interest in fiction whatsoever - but will
read, digest and understand a well written technical manual in one pass.

Many thanks to all contributors for your insights.

--
William Tasso

Save the drama
for your Mama.

On 28 Dec 2005 Red E. Kilowatt wrote in alt.www.webmaster

> LOL  You've got a point there.
>
> Go for the $600 video card and you'll be a hero:
> http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...A0500041&cs=19&
> c=us&l=en
>

Better
http://www.pricewatch.com/prc.aspx?i=37&a=452013

--
D?

On Wed, 28 Dec 2005 18:27:09 +0000, Red E. Kilowatt shouted Hoy......

[putulin]

> NVIDIA is the best brand. PCI Express is the new hot buss; make sure
> your motherboard supports it. Get a card with 256 MB ram.

Not on Linux it's not (NVIDIA)

--
Dancin' in the ruins tonight
mail: echo onub-hgbg@pbyhzohf.ee.pbz | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
Tayo'y Mga Pinoy

"Baho Utot" <onub-hgbg@pbyhzohf.ee.pbz> wrote in message
news:pan.2005.12.29.13.06.57.184901@pbyhzohf.ee.pbz
> On Wed, 28 Dec 2005 18:27:09 +0000, Red E. Kilowatt shouted Hoy......
>
> [putulin]
> 
>
> Not on Linux it's not (NVIDIA)

Yeah, but how many gamers run Linux? 0.005% or so?   :-)
--
Red