Bare Minimum

[Dillgaar]

Fozz (or anyone else who would care to answer),

Throughout the posts here I have been checking out the prices on different items and, well, there is just no way I could put together a machine on that kind of cash... so I thought for a while...

What I came up with is the following question...

What system could I build that would have the bare minimum to create an entire machine and yet still be fully upgradable at a later date when the money isn't so hard to come by?

So far while making a list I came up with the following...

- 2X PCI-E slots (SLI compatable - what card would be the bare minimum until I could get two decent ones, or a single card that I could get a second later to improve performance)
- Expandable to a minimum of 2GB of RAM (preferably 4GB)
- Athalon 64 compatable (which would be the bare minimum?)
- Hard drive (unknown, SATA I am guessing)
- Motherboard FSB (is this a big issue these days or do the boards that support the athalon 64 pretty much have this covered?)

I know there is more but my brain hurts just thinking about how much I will be spending on this. Also is it even worth it to build small and upgrade once the later beta stages come around?

[Fozzik]

Dude, just tell me what you want the machine to cost (either here or in a PM if you would feel more comfortable), and I'll recommend a machine that will play Vanguard and be as upgradeable as possible.

I completely understand that not everyone is going to have the money to buy ridiculously overpriced bleeding edge computers. In fact, most people don't... so it's not like you're strange just because you might have other things you want to spend money on.

I had planned to set up three different recommended configs to keep updated... one will be under $1000, another for roughly $1600, and a third for $2000+. All of them will be balanced, upgradeable, and will play Vanguard well. (at least I hope ;) )