Gamers: would you buy this system?

[Reedimus]

I work for a very small computer store in town and the owner and I would like to start building niche machines specifically for gamers. I am picking out the parts and prices of these computers right now. I would really appreciate any input you gamers (or others) out there have. I hold a lot of respect for the opinions of those that frequent this board and input will be taken into account. Basically I'm interested in knowing if you would consider buying it, or have friends that would (pretend your local store is selling it). also if you think the price is too high, too low, or just right. I'm shooting for a low price for high initial sales to get the word out. this is the basic machine, and you pay extra for upgrades.

case: generic, possibly with a sparkle power supply (not sure yet)
mobo: soyo dragon+
cpu: athlon xp 1600+
memory: 256mb, probably kingston
hard drive: 20gb 7200rpm good brand
cd-rom: 52x decent brand
video card: msi geforce3 ti200
windows xp, some kind of warranty, and some floppy and the sigma box that comes with the dragon+

sticker: $649

here's your chance to let the little guy in on some free market research.

[DrZaius]

Hi Reedimus,

Here are my comments/suggestions:

First, I would go with a cheaper KT266A motherboard, like a Shuttle or EPoX. Performance is very close, and I don't think there is a big need for a SmartCard reader. I personally would prefer an Antec or Enlight case over a generic one, especially for a high-end gaming system. I would also up the hard drive space to 30 or 40 GB (make sure it's ATA-100) and consider using a regular GeForce3 rather than the Ti (the regular one is faster). Also, what sound card will you be using? tThe onboard sound is usually sub-par for gaming needs, perhaps a Sound Blaster Live! Value (~$30). Everything else looks good. Hope that helps.

[HAL9000]

No, not an attempt at an AMD/Intel war, but you should offer an Intel alternative as well. There are plenty of people out there that are in the marketing scheme of "Intel Inside" and will not purchase an AMD. Then, there are people like me that know about the chips, chipsets, RAM, etc, that would just prefer an Intel. Offering just an AMD solution is cutting out a fair amount of the market that you're trying to grab.

[Reedimus]

Thanks a lot for the comments! will take everything into consideration.

[Blakhart]

I try to "emulate" an Alienware/Falcon/VooDoo comp as far as mobo choice and vid card and cpu. Let them figgure out what werx and wat dont.
They are so nice to place specs where we can see em...
For a handmade game rig that price is waay reasonable to me.
This is my last AMD box for a while so yes an Intel would give many the option theyd want. Hope it goes well, and I have had the same idea about making special game type rigs. Mine would be on a very small scale and very finely tuned. Thats where the hard part is, tuning; what makes box Alien diff from box VooDoo. Do you want a NSX or a Z/28 with dual Holleys and a mechanical cam?

[Nuclear Krusader]

512 MB of RAM instead of 256. I have 256 and I'm running out of memory with Baldur's Gate 2: SoA. DDR memory of course.

Hal is right, offer an Intel alternative. I love AMD buy too many people are too fond of Intel. DDR memory or RAMBUS. Don't you ever insult a gamer by installing SDRAM on his system.

[Xayd]

Agreed on the 512 megs of RAM, that's all a kid will know about the machine (vid card, ram, cpu).

You're coming in about 500 bucks cheaper than Alienware, so figure 400 bucks cheaper with more RAM, which is a pretty good deal IMHO.

Good luck .