So in another thread price of a gaming PC was brought up as it always is and it got me to thinking: how much would a decent gaming machine cost 3, 4, and 5 years ago?  What would the specs be?

Squilliam made this post in that other thread:

So to all you PC gaming people, price me out the following computers and give the specs (doesn't have to be exact since we're talking some time ago):

• Gaming machine for $900 4 years ago
• Gaming machine for $500 4 years ago

• Gaming machine for $900 3 years ago
• Gaming machine for $500 3 years ago

• Gaming machine for $900 2 years ago
• Gaming machine for $500 2 years ago

• Gaming machine for $900 1 year ago
• Gaming machine for $500 1 year ago

Just pretend at 1, 2, 3, and 4 years ago I approach you to build me a gaming machine with a budget of $500-900 and I just want to know the low and high ends.  While this doesn't include the monitor and software like Office or whatever, it will include Windows (since I'm a Windows user, just whatever the most current is as long as it isn't Windows ME or Windows XP Home, it should be whatever version you actually reccomend) and a case (nothing too fancy, but something that is nice and including it since it is a necessary expense).

Also, lets just assume I'm in NA since that is in fact where I am and I want to do everything legally.

Hmm, well my box I built in 2004 for Everquest 2 goes something like this:

P4 2.4 GHZ
1 GB PC3200 RAM
ATI Radeon 9500 128 MB Ram
ATX Mid Tower 400 Watt PS
Lite On DVD RW

I think my setup cost in the $400 range. Ironically its the same box Im using right now, but the vid card situation will be improved shortly (my old radeon 9500 cant run our engine tools for development lol)

Hmmm ...

4 years ago the GPU would have been a Radeon 9800 or a Geforce 5 (of some kind) with a single core Pentium 4 or Athlon processor and 256MB to 512MB of memory

3 years ago the GPU would have been a Radeon X600 or a Geforce 6600 with a higher speed single core Pentium 4 or a lower speed Athlon X2 processor, and 512MB to 1GB of memory

2 years ago the GPU would have been a radeon X1600 or a Geforce 7600 with a core 2 duo and 1GB to 2GB of memory

Last year the GPU would have been a Geforce 8600 with a core 2 duo

There are some Microcenters in NY, here's some prices for what I'd probably build on that budget (save for the fact that I'd be ordering from newegg or directron)

Processor $119.99
AMD® Boxed Sempron Processor 3400+
http://www.microcenter.com/byos/byos...duct_id=234228

motherboard $84.99
K8N Neo3-F nForce4-4X Socket 754 ATX Motherboard
http://www.microcenter.com/byos/byos...duct_id=224900

Memory $119.99
Value Select 1.0GB Dual Channel PC-3200 DDR SDRAM Memory Kit
http://www.microcenter.com/byos/byos...duct_id=209012

graphics $219.99
e-GeForce 7600 GT CO 256MB GDDR3 PCI-E x16 Video Card
http://www.microcenter.com/byos/byos...duct_id=237020

hard drive $129.99
Caviar SE16 250GB SATA 2 Hard Drive
http://www.microcenter.com/byos/byos...duct_id=229382

which leaves you about $100 for a case and powersupply. you'll have to use onboard sound. and you'd have to provide the OS yourself...

Total : 775 (Add Xp Pro OEM and its a flat 900.

Date: April 2006.

Edit: An Xbox 360 absolutely kerbstomps this machine. (even counting for the lack of games at the time)

Equivelent PC specs to an Xbox 360.

• Athlon X2 2.8ghz (just a rough guess)
• 1gb Ram
• Geforce 7900gtx

November 2005 (The do I buy a gaming PC or the new fangled Xbox 360 edition)

Budget $500 box.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Retail (Socket 939) - Dead upgrade path.

Two sticks 256MB PC3200 DDR

NVIDIA Geforce 6600 - Pretty slow.... (Previous generation mid range vs next gen high end)

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 80GB

Plus the Usual suspects

$500

High end $1100 box.

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Retail - Still pretty slow.

Two 512MB sticks PC3200 DDR SDRAM - Matches Xbox 360 totals (IIRC System ram must hold a copy of GPU ram at all times - for alt/tab)

eVGA GeForce 7800GT - A little slower than the Xbox 360 GPU (It was closer to a 1950XT at the time)

Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 250GB

$1086 with the usual suspects.