What would you do?

[Malikhan]

Originally posted by: Noubourne
He has a $1300 budget and you guys are telling him to wait for PS3?

Is there some silly promotion by Sony that pays AT posters to recommend a PS3 crap console over a PC?

You must be joking. I've never seen any other person wanting to build a gaming rig told to buy a PS3 instead. This is unreal. What is this, Tom's forums?

I was kind of wondering that myself.
Anyhow, I use my machine for mostly gaming but, I like having it for many other things. Just because the guy says he's using it as primarily a gaming machine means nothing in reality. Most people use their computers for more than just gaming even if they says it.
I think the OP was shooting for suggestions for a gaming machine, probably sure if it can run Oblivion or Prey or Fear nicely he won't have to worry about his "FPS" in his email or his memory bandwidth on a flash heavy webpage.

To the OP. I think the previous suggestions of getting a Conroe (C2D) are very good ideas. It's very fast, has future expandibility and will be affordable. Also, nVidia will have their nForce intel 590 chipset out so you'll be able to have actual SLi if you don't care for ATi xfire.
One suggestion though. Do NOT skimp on a powersupply. Someone suggested getting a PSU with the case. Eek, for the love of god don't do that. If you're going to get all this decent equipment, get a decent PSU. Seasonic, OCZ, Tagan, Silverstone, PC power & cooling, at the minimum get a nice antec (non-modular. The NOE's have some serious issues. Not sure if Antec has addressed those yet).
Minimum dual rail support of atleast a combine amperage of 38 amps.

Anyhow good luck!

 

[Just4Ever]

I was kind of wondering that myself.
Anyhow, I use my machine for mostly gaming but, I like having it for many other things. Just because the guy says he's using it as primarily a gaming machine means nothing in reality. Most people use their computers for more than just gaming even if they says it.
I think the OP was shooting for suggestions for a gaming machine, probably sure if it can run Oblivion or Prey or Fear nicely he won't have to worry about his "FPS" in his email or his memory bandwidth on a flash heavy webpage.

To the OP. I think the previous suggestions of getting a Conroe (C2D) are very good ideas. It's very fast, has future expandibility and will be affordable. Also, nVidia will have their nForce intel 590 chipset out so you'll be able to have actual SLi if you don't care for ATi xfire.
One suggestion though. Do NOT skimp on a powersupply. Someone suggested getting a PSU with the case. Eek, for the love of god don't do that. If you're going to get all this decent equipment, get a decent PSU. Seasonic, OCZ, Tagan, Silverstone, PC power & cooling, at the minimum get a nice antec (non-modular. The NOE's have some serious issues. Not sure if Antec has addressed those yet).
Minimum dual rail support of atleast a combine amperage of 38 amps.

Anyhow good luck!

Thank you for finally addressing my question.

I should probably explain my situation a little more clearly so everyone can understand what I'm looking for. First of all, I will not be using this new computer explicitly for gaming. As a matter of fact, much of my time is spent designing web applications or coding programs. In addition, I spend a great deal of my time surfing the web and watching videos.

My current computer is about 3 years old and is an XP 2800+ with an FX5200 video card and 1 GB of RAM.

Malikhan, you are correct in saying that I'm looking for a computer that will be capable of running Oblivion, Fear, and other up and coming games.

So with this in mind, what type of Conroe will give me a good price/performace ratio assuming I have a $1,500 budget?
Keep in mind that I plan to do moderate overclocking with the CPU as well as RAM and GPU.

Also, how much money should I lay down on a video card given my current budget? Do you guys usually use a percentage for each component or what?

Thanks guy!

 

[Just4Ever]

Originally posted by: Noubourne
...nVidia will have their nForce intel 590 chipset out so you'll be able to have actual SLi if you don't care for ATi xfire.

What do you mean by "actual" SLI?

 

[Just4Ever]

bump

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: Duvie

I have 8 games and have paid n average 30shipped by buying them used...all are in immaculate condition with no scratches...

So the people who sold you the used games were the ones that lined MS's pockets *P Smart shopping nonetheless. You can get some pretty good used titles off eBay and Amazon (I did when I got my daughter an old Dreamcast plus five games for around $80 two years ago).

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: Just4Ever

So with this in mind, what type of Conroe will give me a good price/performace ratio assuming I have a $1,500 budget?
Keep in mind that I plan to do moderate overclocking with the CPU as well as RAM and GPU.

As I said in the first reply of the thread, get the E6600. Pair it up with the Tuniq Tower 120 and overclock to your hearts delight. If all else fails, get a $200-$250 Bad Axe board. There should be some good nForce 590 boards in the $100-$150 range as well.

Duvie is also speccing out a Conroe machine, and you can probably get some hints on RAM from him.

Also, how much money should I lay down on a video card given my current budget? Do you guys usually use a percentage for each component or what?

Thanks guy!

I dunno, depends . . . do you need a monitor or not?

 

[Just4Ever]

I already have a monitor.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: Just4Ever
I already have a monitor.

You should be able to get an E6600 + Tuniq Tower and a good OCing board for around $600-$650. That leaves you around $900.

2 Gigs of the RAM that Duvie is getting (it's some Gskill stuff I think) will run you $200, so that leaves you with $700.

A good case + PSU will run you $200-$250 at most, depending on how you spend your money, so you can probably commit $450-$500 on your vid card. If you want more to spend on your video card, you can probably cut corners on your case a bit, but I wouldn't cut corners on the PSU. If you manage to get a board for $100-$150 you can also get some extra cash for your video card.

Keep your eyes peeled for bargains and spend accordingly. But, in a worst-case scenario, you still have around $450-$500 for your video card which ain't bad.

 

[Just4Ever]

Great. That was exactly what I was looking for.

Do you have any recommendations for decent cases? Should I go mid or full?
I have been looking at the Antec P180B as well as many others but I'm not sure.

Also, I hear that the OCZ Powerstream PSUs are good quality, but what about the Antec TruePower II? Is that any good? Any other ones?

 

[DrMrLordX]

As far as cases go, well, you might want to check the cases n' cooling forum. I use an old Apex TU-124 which is pretty roomy and has good airflow for the lowball price, but it has no noise suppression, bells, whistles, or other fun things. It's not great for a large number of drives either unless you can mount them in 5 1/4 bays, and if you need active cooling on your RAM, I don't think it really has any accomodations for that either. It has no cable management features either (that I could notice).

I've heard some good things about the P180 so if all else fails, a case like that should work out okay. There's always Lian-Li too.

As far as PSUs go, I highly recommend you look at Seasonic. They make some great PSUs. I don't know what to think about OCZ, but I'd rather get a Seasonic or PC P&C unit. Antec is overrated these days, at least until they get their reputation back in line (they had a run of units with bad caps, and they may still have that problem, who knows?). Fortron is okay too if you're looking to save money and need a no-frills unit.

 

[DidlySquat]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost

Originally posted by: akshayt
4GB DDR 2 667/800 ram : maybe 300-400$ or up
r better GPU

What ever you do don't get less than a 1900xt and don't buy less than 2gb ram that too ddr 2 667 or up

4GB of RAM? Utter waste of money.

true except for very specialized applications which only apply to .01% of users.

Also if GPU I would get a single high end card like X1900XT or possibly wait for the next gen cards coming out around october.