PCMag’s latest cheap homemade gaming PC

Posted January 22, 2007 at 01:42 PM by PJ Hruschak

Section: Computers, Desktops, Hardware

I’ve been having problems with my PC when it comes to playing new games. This might not be a huge deal for most people, but since I review games for several publications, it can be a very bad thing that bites into my income. As such, I don’t want to spend a fortune with a full-on gaming system; besides, most people won’t really spend $4K for a dedicated gaming system.

PCMag has had a few informational How To articles featuring gaming rigs, but this is one I’ll likely use right away to build my own. It starts with the premise that two cheapy graphics cards (in this case, two PNY 7900 GS 256MB cards) might work as well or better than one mega pricey card. It’s known as SLI, or Scalable Link Interface, where two or more cards are connected for single output. Of course, “expensive” is a relative term: The complete setup costs approximately $1800 without a monitor or OS, and about $200 of that is spent on a mouse, keyboard and headphones.

The nice thing about the article is that it includes various close-up photos of several parts being installed (see above) and goes through a bit of helpful information concerning overclocking. In the end, the dual card SLI setup either outperformed or tied performance with pricier overclocked graphics cards.

Read [PCMag]