WilliamWatts said:
You contradict yourself a little at one step which is "the Cell is faster than all but server-grade i7s" vs "In the PS3's case, you'd need more horsepower than a 7800 GTX, because the Cell can assist the GPU on a separate bus" So no you don't need a CPU as fast as a server grade i7 because your GPU is taking up that slack. You double dipped a little there, but its ok. Okie heres a basic build for a smart shopper using quality components, everything is 4.5-5 eggs: Apevia X-Infinity $60 with 350W PSU Raidmax Smilodon ATX with 500W PSU $90 Now depending on whether you want a more basic or more powerful build determines which level of case you want. 5 star rating again and comes with onboard graphics and realtek sound so its about the best you can find for this price. AMD Propus Athlon II X4 2.6 Ghz (~same transistor count as Cell) $99 AMD Phenon II X4 925 2.8GHz $140 HD 5670 512MB $99 HD 5750 1GB $140 Corsair 4GB $99 Western Digital Caviar Blue $55 Total $520 + tax/shipping (Not including rebates) Total 2 $630 and same deal.
Windows tax: $105 Final total if Windows needed: $625 + s/t $735 + s/t However the final result is > 2-3* overall performance along with 16* memory, 4* video ram, 4* HDD space, uses less power idle, and can be used for more than just games. So the price delta is justified by the performance difference. Oh yeah and the above systems can play PS2 games emulated, can the PS3?
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So I played Killzone 2 yesterday at my friends... thought I would post my thoughts here. Killzone 2 is an embarassement to the FPS genre and I dont even hold a high standard for fps's. Sorry but the game is almost unplayable due to controls and framerate which I believe are related in this case. The graphics... are horrible. Up close the textures are basically 5 year old technology. Crisis looks 100x better and that is older. The art style is cool but I simply wouldnt want to play it due to controls. It feels like im driving a tank not playing a FPS.
The game masks the textures with darkness, excessive shadowings and that horrid blur effect that degrades textures while moveing to keep framerates constant. If this is your case for best graphics then you are sorrily mistaken. My friend, the PS3 fan, also agrees and is not able to play the game because it gives him motion sickness because of how slow the character turns which we believe is done on purpose to keep the game from regressing to slide show. What we got from our analysis is that anyone can make a slideshows with high quality graphics but we have to question the wisdom in making a game practically unplayable in doing so.
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As for the PC price argument. Why are you guys spending so much for a mobo+cpu? An Athlon dual core 5000 and up is more than enough to play games like crysis on full. Your limiting factor is gpu not cpu. Futhermore, most mobos are just reference boards anyway, so no point in paying more than $50. Granted some manyfacturers use better electronic parts but in general I have had just as many problem with boards by Asus and Intel as I have had with ECS and Gigabyte.
Furthermore we are just trying to match the PS3 price not blow it out of the water.
MOBO+CPU = $79 = Phenom II 550 w/Gigbyte Mobo (overkill from Frys)
2 GB memory = $40 (pricewatch)
GPU = $60 = Radeon 3850 512mb ddr3 (pricewatch or amazon)
PS = $30-$35 = 600w (amazon)
Case = $20 = any cheapo will do
HD = $28 = 160GB (Pricewatch)
DVD = $10 (pricewatch)
Wireless KB+M = $20 (frys or pricewatch) I paid $5 for my set
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$292
The cool part is those prices havent changed a whole lot since 4-5 years ago. You could have gotten an Athlon x2 with mobo for about the same price. The GPU was only about $100 back then. Memory hasnt changed much. The rest is the same.
