Think our ultimate gaming rig is over-the-top? Well it was meant to be since it was built to be the best for the most hardcore. For the casual, non-elitist gamers, you don't require the highest-end components or give up an arm and a leg to have an enjoyable gaming experience. You want to frag with peace of mind, not to obliterate your bank balance. Drawing a line between price and performance, we've come up with a more mainstream system that will still be able to undertake all the rigors of gaming today while packing enough next-generation technology to give you headroom in future titles.
We do away with much of the fats to leave a lean PC with its core components still packing a punch. A Pentium 4 processor is used instead of a Pentium D, though you notice that both are actually equal in raw clock speeds. We chose a Radeon X1600 XT graphics card for this system. As far as mainstream is concerned, this baby will probably be ATI's next price/performance sweet spot for the X1000 range. You will still get SM 3.0 and HDR capabilities and with ATI's AVIVO video technology onboard, you can take a break from gaming and watch HD videos without any worries.
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Thermaltake BigTyphoon SRP: US$47
Most technically savvy users would usually replace the stock CPU cooler with something better and this holds doubly true for gamers, casual or not. You would most probably be looking into tweaking or overclocking at some point and you need to make sure that the CPU is sufficiently cooled. The Thermaltake Big Typhoon has an alleviated six-heatpipe design that not only cools superbly, but extends that “insane rig” look that is most welcomed by gamers. |
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