Video game addicts...

[Jonnylotto]

Originally Posted by Off the grid

I've been an AMD fanboy for over 15 years, but the research I have done says that Intel CPUs run cooler, faster and are just as easy to OC as AMD chips. (which was previously a selling point of AMD chips)

Regarding RAID drives, overclocking, etc. It's just not my bag. I wont be doing much of that even through I have been running my AMD 1800 OCed to 2400 for the last 5 years. I'm just not all that confident with my hardware skills. I'd much rather have one main drive and another smaller drive for the OS. I like simplicity.

I'm mainly interested in a solid rig that will play the latest and greatest games for a few years and if need be, be easy to upgrade at that time.

Also, by "hardcore gamer" I mean that instead of watching TV 2-5 hrs a night, I am on the computer. FO2, Crysilis, Lost Planet, L4D, Gears of War, CoD4 are all games that I am highly interested in but cannot play.

I also play Dark Age of Camelot and City of Heroes/Villians online.

Thoughts?

I would love to get this bundle, but it will push me well over 1k. (The bundle alone is 760$)

This Bundle Includes

My latest desktop is built on the P6T Ver.2. It doesn't say in the ad if it's the original or V2 but from the specs it looks like V2(the picture is the original version, the original P6T had a SCA port) The V2 also has the advantage (imo) of fast booting into a linux session if you just want to do a quick Skype, mail check or web browser session and support for 24 Gigs of Ram. I also did the 6 Gig ram instead of 12. Anything more than 4 is wasted unless you're ready to jump to XP x64 or Vista x64.

Here's newegg's V2: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131365

[Off the grid]

Fellas I just cannot afford that type of top end stuff.

There has to be a build just below that I can procure for around 700-800.

Fall semester is here, brakes on the truck and bike, etc etc.

Would love to get the best of the best, but it's not happening.

[UnderNewOwnership]

Got to tomshardware and read their "build a PC on $600-650" articles. Do bear in mind that they're Intel (and a little bit NVidia too) fanboiz through and through.

[Jonnylotto]

Originally Posted by Off the grid

Fellas I just cannot afford that type of top end stuff.

There has to be a build just below that I can procure for around 700-800.

Fall semester is here, brakes on the truck and bike, etc etc.

Would love to get the best of the best, but it's not happening.

Just go for motherboard/cpu/memory and recycle everything else possible. The reason to do these three is just to match the "generation" of CPU. You don't even have to do "triple channel memory" right off if the memory you currently have is compatible with the new MB. It'll be slower than optimum but still faster than the old setup.

[ThePikeman]

Originally Posted by Off the grid

Fellas I just cannot afford that type of top end stuff.

There has to be a build just below that I can procure for around 700-800.

Fall semester is here, brakes on the truck and bike, etc etc.

Would love to get the best of the best, but it's not happening.

That's why I proposed the AMD route. You can add another graphics card when needed and the AM3 socket will probably be around for the next two years. Should be a solid and upgradable machine. Maybe a mainboard with DDR3 sockets would be a bit better.

Who needs a top end cpu if the graphics card cannot match it and the other way around. The i7 is overkill in my opinion.

[Dismount]

Ok we've got the budget lined out, 700$

What do you NEED? got a case/drives/monitor etc?

I'll go on the basis that you need a MB, processor, RAM, PSU, video card for now.

AMD build
MB:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128392
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820144266
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341016
Video: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814133279
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103649

440.45




Intel Build
MB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130227
RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820141498
PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341016
Videohttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133279
processor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115202

690.95


The amd build is good, cheap, and with the exception of the 9800 is what I run at home. I play cod4, cod world at war, crysis, hl2, red orchestra, fo3 etc etc.... Some of the newer stuff like the batman game you'll have to turn off some stuff. the physx processing kilt me. I may stick a 285 in it at some point. AM3 is the new amd socket. You can get the ddr3 with am2+, but I would think you'd want the new stuff for upgrades down the road. Black edition processor overclocks way way way easy. It won't stay good as long as the intel build.

The intel build is just going to be better at this point. The i7's are awesome. More expensive too. You could certainly shave that down a whole bunch by going to an older socket type and a core2***. The i7's give you that lovely triple channel and should take in the i9's when they come out. (they are sticking with the 1366 for the i9's aren't they O nerds of the forum?) i7's overclock way way way easy.

You could probably hunt around and find a deal or two on videocards as well. If you have a microcenter near you http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0302727 same processor for close to 100$ less on the intel build.

With the new dx11 cards coming out in the next few weeks I expect the video cards we're looking at now to drop in price.

[Dismount]

4850 for 104.99 with promo code EMCLXLM49 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...C5D-_-14150337

[Off the grid]

Thanks for the advice guys...looks like I have some more research ahead of me.

Why Newegg over Tigerdirect? The interface at Newegg blows.

[Jonnylotto]

Originally Posted by Off the grid

Thanks for the advice guys...looks like I have some more research ahead of me.

Why Newegg over Tigerdirect? The interface at Newegg blows.

Prices at Newegg are better overall. Tiger can win on one or two specific items.

[Jeffy]

Originally Posted by Jonnylotto

Just go for motherboard/cpu/memory and recycle everything else possible. The reason to do these three is just to match the "generation" of CPU. You don't even have to do "triple channel memory" right off if the memory you currently have is compatible with the new MB. It'll be slower than optimum but still faster than the old setup.

Yup, yup!

[KellyC]

Originally Posted by GISdood

Love the SkyNet reference...

Reminds me of a comment one of my fellow geek/coworkers made after hearing our employer ranting about annual maintenance fees:

"That much? Wow... I didn't think the Borg charged for assimilation. Harsh, man."

Its not that we think ESRI is evil... its more a question of whether the corporation has a conscience or not.

Hey it takes money to put the wood behind the arrow that is ArcGIS. But seriously, sometimes I wish the general public had a better view into ESRI. We could be a great model. Take it for what it's worth (coming from an employee you've never met telling you how great ESRI is in a video game thread on a motorcycle messageboard) but we have a pretty good balance of capitalism and conscience in this company. It's what keeps me coming back, that and all the access to cartographic data and mapping tools.

[Off the grid]

Originally Posted by Jonnylotto

Just go for motherboard/cpu/memory and recycle everything else possible. The reason to do these three is just to match the "generation" of CPU. You don't even have to do "triple channel memory" right off if the memory you currently have is compatible with the new MB. It'll be slower than optimum but still faster than the old setup.

The problem with that is that my 500g master 250g slave HDs are 4-pin and not compatible, my 500w PS might not be enough to power it, and my current AGP 6600 GT card will not work in anything remotely recent.

So I actually do NEED to upgrade 6 items brand new.

[ThePikeman]

Originally Posted by Off the grid

The problem with that is that my 500g master 250g slave HDs are 4-pin and not compatible, my 500w PS might not be enough to power it, and my current AGP 6600 GT card will not work in anything remotely recent.

So I actually do NEED to upgrade 6 items brand new.

You can get adapter cables for about any plug, 20 pin mainboard to 24 pin, 4 pin power to sata. If the wattage and amperes of the supply are in the limit it does not really matter. In the end it delivers 5 or 12 volt anyways, not concerned with the plug used.

Leistungsaufnahme

	Last:
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260	320
ATi Radeon HD 4870	333
Asus Radeon HD 4870 TOP	333
MSI Radeon HD 4870 OC	335
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 Toxic	339
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280	360

Angaben in Watt (W)

It's from a german online mag, I am too lazy to look for the data in english. These are the power figures (full system) under load with the respective card on the system below.

• Prozessor
  • Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 @4 Ghz, Quad-Core)
• Motherboard
  • Asus P5E3 Deluxe WiFi-AP (Intel X38, BIOS-Version: 1104) Haupt-Testplatine und für CrossFire-Systeme
• Arbeitsspeicher
  • 2x 1024 MB G.Skill DDR3-1600 (7-7-7-18)
  • 2x 1024 MB Patriot DDR3-1600 (7-7-7-18)
• Peripherie
  • Toshiba SD-H802A HD-DVD-Laufwerk
  • Pioneer BDC-202BK SATA Blu-ray-Laufwerk
  • Samsung SpinPoint F1 SATA2-HDD mit 750 GB und 32 MB Cache

[Jeffy]

Originally Posted by Off the grid

The problem with that is that my 500g master 250g slave HDs are 4-pin and not compatible, my 500w PS might not be enough to power it, and my current AGP 6600 GT card will not work in anything remotely recent.

So I actually do NEED to upgrade 6 items brand new.

Nope, you'll need to go with a PCI-E 16x video card on the new board. You might try looking for a used GeForce 8800 GTS or a faster GTX which is a few years old and out of production. Otherwise you could go with a GeForce 260 GTS or GTX for under $200. An 8800 will choke if it's a 320mb and not the 840mb on stuff like Crysis. The snow map was brutal on my old 8800 GTS 320mb but then I wanted everything on 'Very High', otherwise, it's a great card.

As for not having the right plugs, there are adapters. I've seen two 1x4 to one 2x3 and two 2x3 to one 3x4 adapters out there. 500W should be able to power a 260 series card or less.

I take it your HDD's are EIDE and not SATA which is what most new boards are requiring. It's going to be hard to find a transition board for that and be i7 compatible. They made transition boards for the Core-Duo's but now, everything is SATA these days and EIDE is disappearing. I think there are adapters to turn an EIDE drive into an SATA but that's more things to buy when it might just be better to buy a new drive.

[ThePikeman]

Ok, let me update my proposed system:

Qty.	Image	Product Description	Unit Price	Savings	Total Price
.	. Update14-150-394		XFX HD-487A-ZHFC Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail Model #:HD-487A-ZHFC Item #:N82E16814150394 Return Policy:Standard Return Policy In Stock	$149.99	-$5.00 Instant	$144.99
.	. Update19-103-649		AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor Model HDZ720WFGIBOX - Retail Model #:HDZ720WFGIBOX Item #:N82E16819103649 Return Policy:CPU Replacement Only Return Policy In Stock	$124.99	-$5.00 Instant	$119.99
.	. Update20-231-189		G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL8D-4GBHK - Retail Model #:F3-10666CL8D-4GBHK Item #:N82E16820231189 Return Policy:Memory Standard Return Policy In Stock	$79.99		$79.99
.	. Update13-153-141		JetWay JHA08-LF AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail Model #:JHA08-LF Item #:N82E16813153141 Return Policy:Standard Return Policy In Stock	$104.99	-$15.00 Instant	$89.99
Subtotal:						$434.96

Changed the board and Ram to one with DDR3.
You can keep your harddrives and power supply and it's very easy to upgrade. The processor is unlocked, so you can speed it up a bit.
Maybe you'll need a new DVD burner with SATA, because the PATA port on the board would be used by your hard drives, but that's only around 40$.
Should be a solid midclass gaming rig.