What PC package would you buy with a $3K budget?

[Noob]

Hi Guys

I've just started looking at buying a PC and want to know what you would buy if you had a budget limit of say, $3,000 ($3K Oz dollars that is).

Last time I upgraded I got a mobo who's compatible memory became redundant a few months later. Pain in the butt looking for memory that isn't made anymore and then paying more for it than better memory. Anyhoo... I don't understand anything about the hyper... what ever it is.

is on the Oz ebay site. What do you reckon?

I mainly play games myself which rely heavily on graphics and the wife uses it for work but that's just outlook etc so no real power requirements there. I also do a fair bit of video capturing and converting home vids to DVDs.

Thanks in advance

[Gecko]

The GeForce 6200 video card is on the low end for a gamer's needs I think you would be disappointed with it.

Have you considered building you own system?

[Dave_Lethal]

LCD monitors are also a no-go if you're planning on gaming. Stick with CRT.

If I had 3 grand to blow (and I'm not sure what Oz dollars are) I'd buy an Alienware. www.alienware.com

Building your own would be another option. You could build a high end budget gaming system for just under 1000 US dollars.

[freelobotomy]

I agree with Gecko regarding that video card. It's low end by today's standards. One of Nvidia's best cards is the 7900GTX but dual GPU cards are on the way. You definitely need a better video card for that package price.

As far as the LCD Monitor, I have 2 Samsung LCD's and I'm a heavy gamer that demands excellent graphics. My 19" 910T is great (1280 x 1024, 1000:1 contrast ratio & 8ms response time) but my 20.1" 204B is outta this world (1600 x 1200, 800:1 contrast & 5ms response time). The specs on that Monitor are "acceptable" for gaming but I'd look for something better.

I just built a virtual AlienWare at their web site with one of the best video cards out there (1024MB 7950 GX2L) and the same 204B 20.1" Samsung Monitor I have, for $2828.00. If you've got $3K to spend and don't want to build it yourself, that'd be the way to go.

[Psymon]