New Gaming Rig

[NeoHC421]

Hey guys,

I used to be up to date on all computer hardware (back when I played more PC games) but have been out of the loop for awhile.
However, after playing BF2 on my friend's rig, I find myself back with the itch...

question is, what's the cheapest rig I can build that will get me good BF2 performance?
Is there a shot at all that the $600 (or a lil more) I couldn't spend on a PS3 could be used to make a respectable BF2 rig? (let's say at least 1280x768 with almost all options on at ~60FPS)

Other random question is... I might end up buying the new core2duo macbook pro (comes with a 256MB x1600). In that case, does anyone have any experience running BF2 on one of those? Or would I be better off with a seperate machine?

Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Is there an Xbox360 version? GameStop has Xbox360 with Call of Duty and 1 year warranty for $399. Edit: yes there is an Xbox360 version.

For a complete PC and only $600 you'll need to buy some $300-400 after rebate AMD system from the Sunday paper and upgrade the graphics card, or try to find a Dell deal at GottaDeal.com

Or from Newegg:
$100 - Sonata II -or- SLK3000 & Fortron FSP 450 -or- ??
$170 - socket 939 3700+ and motherboartd
$100 - 1 GB DDR
$110 - 7600GT (though a 7900GS would be better)
$ 60 - hard drive
$ 30 - DVD burner
$ 90 - XP Home
= $660 + shipping

 

[Corpun]

Do you have any of the components at all? If not you might be best off buying one of the ~$400 Black Friday machines and swapping in a decent vid card.

 

[golgotha]

For a small budget today, rolling your own Socket 939 is the way to go. You won't have many upgrade options in the future, but for a system that would be good now and last a few years, Socket 939.

 

[bob4432]

for 1280x1024 on a pc have a look at the different rigs in my "BF2 Ram Usage" link in sig - it has been my history w/ bf2 and the rigs I have gamed it on and the attempt to keep ram usage under 1GB

but what DaveSimmons suggest would work - but you could go down a bit in the m/b / cpu dept - basically a 3000-3200 will fit your needs (or opteron 144/146) and a basic nf4 pci-e m/b

do you have anything atm? even an old P4 @ 2.4-2.8 or xp 2800-3200? even that setup with a x800xtpe or x850xt would do the trick for at least medium settings.

the area you need to be most concerned with is texture quality - keep it at medium or you will more than likely go over 1GB thus hitting the pagefile and have stutters

 

[NeoHC421]

thanks for the advice so far...

lol, i wish i had something close... although I have built several machines for other people, my current rig is a piece of junk
(athlon 1.0 which at one point i o'clocked to 1.5 with an ORIGINAL Asus GeForce 256 DDR and tons of worthless SDRAM)

The only thing I have that might be useful is:
7200 IDE HDD
and a stick of 512MB 3200 c2.5 ram (400MHz 5-4-4-8)

Also, I have like 4 unused winXP pro CD keys so I don't have to worry about software

 

[NeoHC421]

ATM i'm thinkin a good fry's CPU/mobo combo fitted with a good GPU would do the trick (and at least another stick of ram)

The vibe I'm getting is just to buy the best friggin graphics card I can afford... is this the case? when does the CPU become a bottleneck? for these newer games?
Thanks

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: NeoHC421
ATM i'm thinkin a good fry's CPU/mobo combo fitted with a good GPU would do the trick (and at least another stick of ram)

The vibe I'm getting is just to buy the best friggin graphics card I can afford... is this the case? when does the CPU become a bottleneck? for these newer games?
Thanks

with the newer gpus & cpus, the cpu is actually the bottlneck at the lower resolutions since the gpu can't flex its muscle. higher resolutions are gpu limited, but even with a 3000 and decent gpu you won't really have an issue at the resolutions you are talking about.

a frys combo would be a good deal for you but just make sure it is skt939 and uses pc3200 ram, since the new format is ddr2.

you will also need a new psu but probably buying a antec case with a ~350W psu would be the the best, most cost effective setup.

you would be better of to get a lower end cpu and higer end gpu, hands down

 

[Blues X]

Dell has had some good deals lately on Core 2 Duo systems.

Through their small business website, I had one priced at approx. $750 for the 6300 core 2 duo cpu, 965 mobo, 1g ram, 160gb hd, 7900GS video card, 16x dvd & integrated sound (I have an Audigy from my current comp that I'd use). No monitor.

 

[NeoHC421]

what about if i want to possibly game at full res on my 22" 1680x1056 and high settings? what kind of processor/gpu combo would I be looking at?

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: NeoHC421
what about if i want to possibly game at full res on my 22" 1680x1056 and high settings? what kind of processor/gpu combo would I be looking at?

i would do a 7900gtx or x1950xt and then whatever cpu you want that is faster than a a64 3200 w/ 2GB of ram

this is assuming you are not playing oblivion and if you are then get a 8800gtx

 

[NeoHC421]

Ok, so over the weekend I got:

AMD x2 4200
Gigabyte m51gm-s2g (micro ATX board)
2GB 5400 DDR2 OCZ
Geforce 7900GS
x-Fi xtreme Music
160GB 7200 SATA
Master Power 350W PSU

Since its been awhile since I've made a gaming rig, how'd I do? (all < 600)

Also, what do you think the weak spots/ bottlenecks might be?

Finally, and most importantly, what do you think BF2 will run at with this setup (and still get ~40FPS at both 1280 and 1680)?
(kind of a dumb question, but how do I check the FPS in game?)

Only problem is that (and this has never happened to me before, even with cheapo ram) I keep getting faulty RAM (I thought OCZ was supposed to be good)! So I will make yet another trip to FRY's and make them test the RAM in their friggin store this time.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: NeoHC421
kind of a dumb question, but how do I check the FPS in game?

fraps