I put together a lower end machine that would run VG fine at like 1600x1200 or below and also took out gamepc.com assembly and burn in. I don't think you can get under $2k for a Vanguard machine without, like I had mentioned, using egghead or some such and buying all the components yourself. You can probably save $300-$500 bucks doing that. So maybe $1500 or so if you like to shop a lot, $2k if you don't, and then under $2.5k if you want them to burn it in and want a higher end machine. I put in slower memory, although it's still not *that* slow. The CPU should be fine. I found a cheaper motherboard, put in a smaller hard drive but still a fast one, assuming this would be primarily a gaming machine and not one also used to store a lot of other data. Lastly, I configured it with a lesser power supply, but one that I'm sure is sufficient. The only question I have is the video card -- I'd still splurge for an x1950 (or even 8800) if you can afford it because you get a lot of payoff for having a faster video card with VG. I took out the xfi card, which will make it a bit slower but save some money, and I used 32 bit XP to save a bit, which again will make it slightly slower but not a ton slower. Also, using 32 bit XP you have much better compatibility with drivers.

1 x Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.13 GHz) Dual Core Retail - $278.00
1 x Zalman CNPS8000 Cooler for Socket-775 / AM2 - $58.00
1 x Asus P5B Intel P965 Retail - $185.00
1 x Kingston DDR2-667 2 GB - $505.00
1 x Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000 RPM OEM - $228.00
1 x Sony AW-Q170AB Black Dual Layer DVD ± RW / CD-RW OEM - $85.00
2 x Sapphire Radeon X1650 Pro PCIe 256MB Retail - $320.00
1 x I-Star S-10000LB Black EATX Full-Tower - $135.00
1 x Seasonic S12 500W Power Supply - $130.00
1 x Microsoft Windows XP Home OEM with Vista Upgrade - $125.00
1 x 1 Year Parts and Labor Standard Warranty Included Free - $0.00
1 x Self-Assembly Of System (Install Performed By You) - $0.00



Subtotal Price (Excludes Discounts, Taxes or Shipping) - $2,049.00


Here's the same box but with an x1950 which I think is worth the extra money IMHO:

1 x Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.13 GHz) Dual Core Retail - $278.00
1 x Zalman CNPS8000 Cooler for Socket-775 / AM2 - $58.00
1 x Asus P5B Intel P965 Retail - $185.00
1 x Kingston DDR2-667 2 GB - $505.00
1 x Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000 RPM OEM - $228.00
1 x Sony AW-Q170AB Black Dual Layer DVD ± RW / CD-RW OEM - $85.00
2 x Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro PCIe 256 MB Retail - $530.00
1 x I-Star S-10000LB Black EATX Full-Tower - $135.00
1 x Seasonic S12 500W Power Supply - $130.00
1 x Microsoft Windows XP Home OEM with Vista Upgrade - $125.00
1 x 1 Year Parts and Labor Standard Warranty Included Free - $0.00
1 x Self-Assembly Of System (Install Performed By You) - $0.00



Subtotal Price (Excludes Discounts, Taxes or Shipping) - $2,259.00


and then a more uber machine that will give you screaming fps. Included an SLI motherboard, but only one GPU because VG doesn't fully support SLI yet, but when it does, you could add another 8800. I left the memory speed at ddr2-800 because I didn't see an Nvidia motherboard that supported faster memory. I also put it back to XP 64 and made it 4gb which does help a bit and will help more in the future.

1 x Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.67 GHz) Dual Core Retail - $638.00
1 x Zalman CNPS8000 Cooler for Socket-775 / AM2 - $58.00
1 x Asus P5N32-E SLI Nvidia nForce 680i SLI Retail - $398.00
2 x Corsair XMS DDR2-800 2 GB EPP TwinX Pack - $676.00
1 x Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 7,200 RPM OEM - $262.00
1 x Sony AW-Q170AB Black Dual Layer DVD ± RW / CD-RW OEM - $85.00
2 x XFX GeForce 8800 GTX XXX Edition 768 MB Retail - $1,776.00
1 x Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio OEM - $90.00
1 x Lian Li V1200B Plus II Black EATX Full-Tower - $298.00
1 x Silverstone ST75F 750W Power Supply - $198.00
1 x Microsoft Windows XP Professional (64-bit) OEM with Vista Upgrade - $198.00
1 x 1 Year Parts and Labor Standard Warranty Included Free - $0.00
1 x Self-Assembly Of System (Install Performed By You) - $0.00



Subtotal Price (Excludes Discounts, Taxes or Shipping) - $4,677.00

and then my total dream machine which is really looking towards the future. Quad core won't help much now, but will in the future. Same with SLI. Kept the memory at 800 because I still don't see an nvidia motherboard that supports faster. Bigger hard drive, not as fast rpm wise, but more cache. Pimped out the case some and upped the horsepower of the power supply just because I like plenty of power.

1 x Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4 GHz) Quad Core Retail - $1,085.00
1 x Zalman CNPS8000 Cooler for Socket-775 / AM2 - $58.00
1 x Asus Striker Extreme Nvidia nForce 680i SLI Retail - $495.00
2 x Corsair XMS DDR2-800 2 GB EPP TwinX Pack - $676.00
1 x Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 7,200 RPM OEM - $262.00
1 x Sony AW-Q170AB Black Dual Layer DVD ± RW / CD-RW OEM - $85.00
2 x XFX GeForce 8800 GTX XXX Edition 768 MB Retail - $1,776.00
1 x Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio OEM - $90.00
1 x Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ07 Black EATX Full-Tower - $375.00
1 x Seasonic S12-HT 650W Power Supply - $198.00
1 x Microsoft Windows XP Professional (64-bit) OEM with Vista Upgrade - $198.00
1 x 1 Year Parts and Labor Standard Warranty Included Free - $0.00
1 x Self-Assembly Of System (Install Performed By You) - $0.00



Subtotal Price (Excludes Discounts, Taxes or Shipping) - $5,298.00


Then the uber ATI machine. Granted it will be a bit slower because ATI I don't think is shipping their next gen dx10 cards yet (right now Nvidia has them beat). But you can put faster memory in, etc. The motherboard says it will only support ddr2-800 but searching on the net people have said they've put 1066 memory in it, so I did here. I went quad core just to be extreme 4 gigs of RAM although I think you can go more. But again having an 8 gig machine that I'm typing on right now, there just aren't enough 64 bit apps to use it all. You'd think there's be a 64bit Adobe Primiere for editing HD video, but there's not yet -- I couldn't find any significant software that was 64bit and therefore could access more than 2gb of memory, although I'm sure we will soon with Vista 64 out.

1 x Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4 GHz) Quad Core Retail - $1,085.00
1 x Zalman CNPS8000 Cooler for Socket-775 / AM2 - $58.00
1 x Asus P5B Deluxe Intel P965 Retail - $268.00
2 x Corsair XMS DDR2-1066 2 GB EPP TwinX Pack - $970.00
1 x Western Digital Raptor X 150GB 10,000 RPM OEM - $374.00
1 x Sony AW-Q170AB Black Dual Layer DVD ± RW / CD-RW OEM - $85.00
1 x Sapphire Radeon X1950 XT 256 MB Retail - $312.00
1 x Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Retail - $120.00
1 x Coolermaster Stacker 832 Black EATX Full-Tower - $338.00
1 x Enermax Galaxy 850W Power Supply - $320.00
1 x Microsoft Windows XP Professional (64-bit) OEM with Vista Upgrade - $198.00
1 x 1 Year Parts and Labor Standard Warranty Included Free - $0.00
1 x Self-Assembly Of System (Install Performed By You) - $0.00



Subtotal Price (Excludes Discounts, Taxes or Shipping) - $4,128.00

Again, I'm sure one could save a lot on any of these systems by using newegg or some other site and buying all of the components seperately and then building the machine oneself.</div> <div class="smallfont"> Last edited by Aradune Mithara : 03-20-2007 at 07:39 PM.

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