best bang for $3,500

I'm looking to buy a very good gaming computer that will last me for a very very long time. Mainly so that i wont have to worry about upgrading for a while. What i want is for it to be a gaming desktop obviously but i would also like it to be able to do normal daily things. I am looking to spend up to $3,500 whenever my savings reach that much. I was going to buy the Extreme 4 special discount pc but they are out of stock evidently :(. Help!!

if you don't wanna read all of it just get the main idea out of that and here is the info

budget: $3,000-3500
monitor size: my resolution i use is 1280 by 1024 pixels because i don't see any difference in gaming with bigger resolutions?
equipment: i will be reusing my keyboard, mouse, and speakers.... would like to also have a suround sound  sound card for my speakers so i can actually use all 4 speakers!!!

general use: mostly hardcore gaming, burning dvds/ cds for when me or my friend wants to have a game or music on cd. And some internet activities, hopefully i can get rid of some lag o.o!











for people who are curious about my current pc specs :D i use to think i had a beast pc 3 years ago i guess im wrong lol.

pentium 4, 3ghz, 1 9600 geforce oc graphics card, 80 gb hardrive < ya i know the one i had before that was 20gb  :( i never owned a big hardrive so i don't know any difference in experience.  2.5 gb ram, windows xp pro, and a pci express motherboard :D. beastly computer huh? lmfaoD:


Edited by shsredneck - 09 Sep 2009 at 12:07am

Check the deals page tomorrow ;)

I'd suggest the current Enthusiast 1 pre-build.

http://digitalstormonline.com/template_HAF922.asp?type=SD3

You don't have to upgrade your monitor, though if you are looking to upgrade I would suggest a 22" with 1680x1050 resolution or a 23" 1920x1080 resolution.


Edited by venom - 10 Sep 2009 at 12:06am

"A Lot".

But unless you upgrade your monitor, you probably wont be able to appreciate much of it.

When you put more graphics horsepower into a system, for gaming it really starts to come out in how much detail you can render at acceptable framerates without artifacts.

With an Extreme 5, you are using 2 GTX 295s which use 4 underclocked cores which are individually slower than a GTX275 part but work together within the SLI framework to provide massive parallelization for shader instructions.

The result? You can crank up the screen resolution to maximum settings with high detail and still achieve playable frame rates.

The impact of these changes in low-density screen sizes unfortunately is limited because your screen wont be able to take advantage of these super-high resolution. You wont be able to tell that 8x AF and 4x AA are minimizing the "jaggies" on a surface -- because your low-density of pixels will make it look "jaggie" anyway!

The extreme 5 is going to offer excellent performance for CUDA applications and high game resolutions, but in your case it sounds like you need to budget to buy 1 or more decent monitors to really take advantage of it!

You may be interested in tom's hardware original take on the GTX 295 in quad SLI.

Edited by Clocks - 10 Sep 2009 at 4:24pm

ok say i buy a 22inch monitor also. Which prebuild or w/e should i choose cause i want to play any game out there and future games with pretty much no lag and maximum settings. really like enthusiast 2 and extreeme 1. idk i needs more help D:

:o just curious whats the big dif between enthusiast 1 and 2? :|

The Enthusiast 1 can't really do SLI, well it can but one slot is 4x which is pretty useless.

Originally posted by DST4ME just he mobo, enthusiast 1 can only do dual sli while #2 can do tri sli, however you psu limits you to dual sli also on both.

hey Wouldn't it be better for me to pick the new extreme 3 over enthusiast 1? That is if i plan to buy a 24" lcd monitor with 1920x w/e resolution. Just curious because i honestly love the price difference for that big of a difference in power

ya but isnt the extreme 3 motherboard more upgradable then extreme 2? Thats the only difference i saw when i choosing 2 or 3 

right i could always add a 275 with my 295 right?  i just like how id be able to add more features later on in the road when things GET to far ahead

ahhh k i never did understand that part thx. Leanin torward the extreme 3 though. its such a great price =o perfect range for me if im going to buy another monitor.

Originally posted by shsredneck Ok i officially somewhat made my mind. I am prettty sure i am most likely going to get a extreme 3 prebuilt, and buy a 24" acer monitor and get an extra 295 graphics card later so i can have sli. If only DSO had financial payments like alienware. Now i just hope that extreme 3 will be there for 3 months. Because it will take me 3 months worth of paycheck to get almost enough money.  Unless anyone has any idea on any way to go about finding a way to get this thing in quicker and pay for it over time or so on.

You could always try a credit card

Revolving credit (and thier responsible use) allow you to get your PC now and pay it off over the next couple months.

Where did you get the idea that it will hurt your credit if you don't pay it off all in one month? thats not how it works, unless you got an amex.

I'm not sure who is giving you info but you are getting bad info.

what kind of a card do you have? I don't know any card that charges you a set $35 everymonth you carry a balance, the only thing you should be paying is the interest, I have many credit cards that I porpusly put stuff on to keep my credit score going higher, I pay $35 interenst on a card that has $4000 balance and a 9.99% apr.

as long as you pay atleast the minimum on your card every month, your credit score will not only go bad but it will improve.

Hope that bit of info helps you.

OH hell na, 25% is way too high, you need to get rid of that card and get one that is at least 14% or 12% if not 9.99%.

that apr of 25% is way too high, this is not a good deal for you, that card you want to pay off every month due to its extremely high apr.

Have your parents get a credit card with a $1000 and then put you down as an authorized user, and get you a card on that account.

this way they can monitor your spending and most important of all you will get a low apr and your parents credit will help build your credit this way.

best senario would be if you can be an authorized user on a card that they have had open for years, cause the standing on that account will show up and drive your credit score up real quick, you can build your credit up 3 times faster this way, then getting a new card with them.

Edited by DST4ME - 19 Sep 2009 at 12:13am

ya i know my parents told me it was uber high lol. And isnt 1,000 dollar to low? extreme 2 or 3 is like 1,900 and 2,100

lols aight. either way sooner or later im for sure going to buy a ds system. keep my word on that xD