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Guys, I'm in need of a new PC, everything but the case

O

ovs

Guest
I've always been an AMD guy, but I have NO idea what the new technology is nowadays. It's been 4 years since I've bought anything for my PC.

So I need the skinny on Vids, CPU's, Mobos, Memory... etc.

I've got a little change to spend, but I'm not the type to go crazy. I am also looking into a new 24" LCD. I had to give my 19" to my wife, so I currently have no PC.

Any help/advice would do...

Thanks guys.

OvS
 
That all depends on how much change is available. Being into hot rods, I'm sure you've heard the saying "How fast you can go all depends on how much money you have to spend!":icon_lol:

CJ
 
Hi OVS
check this out http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/processors,6.html
It might give you pretty good idea on processors. Im an AMD guy myself but thinking on going back to Intel for it seems that CFS3 needs a really good CPU.
What I have now is:
CPU AMD Athlon x2 6000
video EVGA nvidia gtx 260(can be overclocked to reach gtx280 speeds)
RAM 4 gigs Kingston
And Im not happy with it. Can't play OFF on 5's, can't play it on 4's(sliders i mean)

Good luck building your machine
 
You most definitely want to go with Intel anymore. Vid cards its hard to tell as the technology moves so fast its hard to keep up. Just remember that you want alot of Vid card memory but also remember that whatever size of vid card memory you get is how much your max system ram will be lowered. For instance; XP as most 32 bit OS has a max memory of 4GB. Most no one will ever get xp or any other OS to recognize that much because the OS allocates address space for other on board hardware. So if you have a graphics card that has 512MB of memory, your max system RAM will be 3.5GB and thats not including other hardware that takes up some address space. To get more max RAM you need to go into the 64 bit OS but those start having compatability issues with other things amongst those being games. There is a better explanation of this floating around right now on one of the SOH forums (maybe FSX or Newshawks). That's just my contribution. I am going to build a new PC myself and am itching to do it but am waiting for the release of SOW:BOB to do so, so I may be in for a long wait.

Hope I helped,

John
 
That's half my problem... I don't know what is good for the money nowadays. I used to check-out Tom's Hardware, and Computer Shopper, but all those aren't as good as they used to be.

So what is the better platform on today's standard? What socket size, and Motherboards are the rage?

I hate doing this, so I hope this to be the last time for a long time. It used to be every other year, now it's past 4 years, and I'm sure I'm at the end of my gaming life, now that I have 3 MAME cabinets, a Wii and have grown tired of PC games....other than WWII/Sci-Fi FPS's and OFF.

OvS
 
Have you looked at www.Newegg.com? That's where I buy the majority of my hardware. I got my E8500 for $169.99 plus my factory recertified 8800GTX for $129.99. They've got about the best selection and prices that I've seen.
My machine runs great, 40-60fps with settings at 5,4,4,5,1, it sometimes drops to the mid 20's in a heavy furball over an airfield. Without the airfield it'll run mid 40's in a heavy furball all day long. I've got around $700 in it.

CJ
 
Hi OVS
I was telling my son the other day that I was wanting to redo my pc I built a yr ago . My MOBO is a 680i and I was wanting to install a new MOBO so I could install a newer vid card than the 8800 GTS I have. He said wait, things are changing a lot this year. Something about some company, I cant say who:censored:, was going to start producing their own vid cards and also hard drives are changing, they wont have spining disks.

cheers
GB
 
I personally like Intel socket LGA 775. The most common by far, lot's of options. If you're thinking about an Nvidia graphics solution, I like Nvidia's chipsets. Mine's only a 680i but it kicks butt as far as I'm concerned. It may not be a top fueler, but I'd mix it up with the alcohol funny cars! I've read that the 78oi is a monster. I like Antec for a PSU. Got an EA650 that works just fine. You can find a PSU calculator here.....http://www.antec.outervision.com/
I use OCZ platinum memory, OCZ2O800R22GK DDR2800 2x1Gb
Hopefully this will give you some idea. Collecting parts to build a v8 is easier than a computer.

CJ
 
OVS, go here bro http://www.newegg.com/

You can get everything you need here for a good price. The AMD Phenoms are good from what I hear. My latest rig was my first Intel in 8 years but it is a hotrod, and as soon the price is better on the 260 or 280 Nvidia cards I'm going to go triple SLI.

If you can afford the newer DX58 boards that use Corei7 processor, that board is supposed to support both SLI and Crossfire. And I hear the 4850 vidcards give a good performance for the price. But you can get the 8800 and 9800 Nvidia cards for pretty decent prices right now.

The newer boards that support DDR3 ram, will let you use some really quick memory so that it helps reduce the ageold ram bottleneck.

If you can afford it, I wouldn't really go less than 750i to 780i board, or the AMD equivilent thereof. For the vidcard, at least a double SLI or Crossfore for the sheer horsepower, and a minimum of a 1000 watt psu. A good 5.1 or 7.1 sound system, unless you have some kickin' Kenwoods like my 200 watt cabinets with an amp that pumps 150 watts per side, so you can annoy the neighbors.

AMD Proccessor I would recommend http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103273

You could probably get away with this for an Intel on the cheap http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041

It really depends though on what you have or wish to spend on parts.

For a monitor, this is a great price for the image and crispness of picture
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254036

That's the monitor I have and for skinning and other things that require attention to detail, it has helped reduce eye fatigue, and or strain, or I'm just getting older now............

Hope this helps! Had the newer and better AMD quadcores been out last February, I would have opted for that direction as I've had good luck with them, but I was suprised by how open to tweaking Intel has become, and the ease of access to BIOS setup, and the user friendly aspect is much better than it was 10 years ago. Same for the ATI cards, but they weren't there for the competition, but one thing I've heard about the ATI cards is that they can tend to run hot. How true that is I don't know. The same was said about my 8800 GTS cards, but I decided to go with a case that has a top exhaust fan and it keeps thing nice and cool, and I've not had any issues with heat.

Just make sure to use good ram whether you use DDR2 or DDR3. Corsair or OCZ. Either one of those will work good.

And the choice of OS of course. I know the attitude some have about Vista, but I've had it for almost a year now, and can't say anything really bad about it, other than the the older programs that won't run since Vista like XP is based on Windows NT.

There's an article here you can read about it, and make a choice to stick with XP or go with Vista, but either way I would suggest a 64 bit version of the OS as you can pump up the ram and many boards support 8= gigs nowadays.

http://www.tweakguides.com/VA_1.html
 
Parky gave me a lot of good advice and help last year when I up graded everything and built my own system. It was easy and I saved a bunch with his help and leadership.
 
Guys, thanks for all the great advice. :)

I'm looking at a $1500 budget tops, including the monitor... so it's a little tight. I've used Newegg and like you've all found, it's certainly the best.

So with that in mind, it's best bang for the buck. I think I'll be staying with XP 32bit as I don't want ANY issues with old stuff I still like to run, I have 2 SATA drives I'll be using, do those are going to save a little dough. I'd just like to put it all into the guts... board, memory, CPU and video.

What is better now, AMD or Intel?

I've always been an AMD guy, but I hear Intel is really coming around now.

OvS
 
If you're planning on running older programs like me (I still fly Jane's WWII Fighters & RB3D) I'd go with the Core 2 Duo E 85 or 8600. The E8500 is 3.16Ghz 1333fsb 6Mb L2 cache LGA775. It has been o/c to 4.25Ghz on air cooling, and the E8600 is even faster (3.33gHz). I forget the exact test and review it was but they found that, in some areas, the o/c E8500 (4-4.25Ghz) had better benchmarks than the QX9770, and it's a LOT cheaper.

CJ
 
How about our recommended system OvS?

CPU Type: Intel Core 2 Duo 8400/8500 overclocked to 3.6Ghz or higher.
Memory Amount: 4 to 8GB (Vista 64) / 2GB to 3.5GB (XP)
Mem Type/Speed: PC2-8500
Video Card Make/Type: NVidia GTX 280 (1024MB) or ATI Radeon HD 4870 (1024MB) or higher
Video Memory: 1024MB

Intel 8400 is very cheap now, very recommended.
GTX 280 not bad, a 260 may do if it's too high on the budget.
Mobo Asus P5Q delux or similar.
 
Polovski said:
How about our recommended system OvS?

CPU Type: Intel Core 2 Duo 8400/8500 overclocked to 3.6Ghz or higher.
Memory Amount: 4 to 8GB (Vista 64) / 2GB to 3.5GB (XP)
Mem Type/Speed: PC2-8500
Video Card Make/Type: NVidia GTX 280 (1024MB) or ATI Radeon HD 4870 (1024MB) or higher
Video Memory: 1024MB

Intel 8400 is very cheap now, very recommended.
GTX 280 not bad, a 260 may do if it's too high on the budget.
Mobo Asus P5Q delux or similar.
Click to expand...

Hell, I hope we don't need those specs to run OFF3 at decent levels of detail & framerate! No way I'll be able to afford that, and the iMacs at work won't cope either if that's needed...

Stuck with an AthlonXP 3000+ or so (can't remember exactly), Radeon HD2600...

Edit: I don't like loud fans, either.
 
Here's my wishlist for now (each item links to Newegg):

CPU: E8500
GPU: GTX 260 core 216 (55nm)
Case: Antec 900
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R
 PSU: Corsair 620W (modular)
RAM: G.Skill 4 Gig (pc2 8000)
HD: WD 640 Gig
Cooler: Xigmatek 1283
Bracket: Xigmatek retention bracket

Total cost: $1,018.41 (leaving plenty left over for monitor under your $1500 budget, and minus a bit more if you reuse your case)

I'm reusing everything not listed. You might save a bit of money by not purchasing a modular PSU (550W would likely be fine), and I know the aforementioned ASUS mobo is popular.

Went with the E8500 instead of the 8600 because the 8600 is quite a bit more expensive for minimal gains. Plenty of people are overclocking their E8400 and E8500s from 3.6 to 4 ghz on air with little or no voltage increase.

If you do go for a non-stock cooler, you'll want to be sure your case is wide enough for it to fit as the coolers can be quite tall for an older case.

Some info can be found at Tomshardware, but most comes from the forums at Anandtech.com, which I personally think are more reliable. In fact, here's a great link to a 'system building' thread. Hasn't been updated since October, but has good info in it if you've been out of the loop for awhile.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=27&threadid=2194271&enterthread=y
 
Goodness,goodness,goodness.

ovs said:
and I'm sure I'm at the end of my gaming life, now that I have 3 MAME cabinets, a Wii and have grown tired of PC games....other than WWII/Sci-Fi FPS's and OFF.

OvS
Click to expand...

AT AGE 39 YOUR AT THE END OF YOUR GAMEING LIFE???????? GOODNESS GRACIOUS MAN,YEA,I GUESS YOUR OVER THE HILL NOW:costumes::costumes::costumes:.
THE LAST THING I DO WILL BE VOLENTAIRLY GIVEING UP MY GAMEING LIFE AND YOU HAD BEST BE THAT WAY TOO OV'S,ESPECIALLY A MAN OF YOUR TALLENT.
NOW,BUCK UP,STRETCH OUT THAT BUDGET,SPEND 1500.OO ON THE COMPUTOR AND 250.00 ON A MONITOR, GET IL-2 1946 AND SHOOT ME A PM OR TALK TO POL. WE'LL HELP YOU MOD THE HECK OUT OF IT.
THAT COMBINED WITH O.F.F. OLEG'S NEW B.O.B. AND THE OTHER SOON TO BE RELEASED WW-1 SIM WILL KEEP YOU HAPPY AND CONTENT FOR EON'S.
DONT FORGET THE ONLINE FUN YOU CAN HAVE TOO AND WHO KNOW'S WHERE IT MAY LEAD YOU.

BTW,SHOOT OUR MAN ON THE STREET ''PARKY'' A PM. HE WILL HAVE YOU GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION IN NO TIME. GREAT ADVICE FROM ''THE RIPPER''

PD
 
OvS,

I've got a suggestion for an array that may just rekindle your interest in PC gaming completely. I've kept it within your budget range, bearing in mind that you mentioned you already have suitable hard drives. Sounds like you're planning on using your existing case, but you may want to check and make sure it'll accommodate the suggested power supply. This thing is BIG, but you can disregard the spec that says it'll handle 2 8800GTX or lower. It'll run 2 GTX280's without skipping a beat......trust me. By far the best PSU on the market in it's price and spec range.

I've included the Antec 900 in the hardware list as I happen to know it's reasonably well suited to the suggested build. Cable management can be a bit tricky as it uses a bottom-mount psu design (Run the mobo power cable underneath the motherboard before seating the board). You can always opt for a case that allows for a top-mounted power supply if it becomes a concern. The other thing you need to consider is the dimensions of the newer video cards. The GTX260 is a big piece of hardware. I have my doubts that your current case would have room for it. Proceed with caution when considering the case's interior dimensions.

One thing I can tell you...with this setup you wouldn't have to worry about any upgrades for a long time to come. With that in mind, the suggested motherboard allows for both Crossfire or SLI arrangements and has "futureproof" written all over it. It truly does allow for significant future upgrades if the need should ever arise.

I'll do you a favour and leave out all the techno-babble based, bullshyt baffles brains, cache-this, volt-that, RAID-those, lap your silicon surfaces, and replace your mosfet heatsinks with miniature aftermarket Toyota radiator cores for better cooling nonsense that usually accompanies these types of hardware suggestions. (No need to thank me;)).

All depends on just how much you wanna' spend. If you're really trying to save a bundle, Pol's suggestion of the last generation stuff is certainly an option and would also serve you well...and save you some cash.

Case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021 =110
PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703009 =105
MOBO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131359 =250
CPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202 =295
RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145223 =159
GPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130428=285
LCD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236049 =290

Total Cost=$1494


Cheers,

Parky
 
OvS,
My locally owned Geek Store (NOT Best Buy/Circuit City) has a pretty sweet AMD system that they build on site and the price is about right for you ($1299.99). Of course, you might be able to build it yourself cheaper. They usually throw in a free copy of Crysis, FarCry2 or whatever highspeed game the videocard manufacturer is offering as a premium. Also, no crapware is installed, just the OS and drivers - you don't have the free trials of AOL, NAV, GoogleTools, etc. that you've got to delete. Here are the specs:

CPU: AM2 Phenom 9950 2.6GHz 4xCore
Memory:4GB DDR2 800
Video:Radeon HD4870 512MB PCIe
Sound:Integrated 7.1
LAN:10/100/1000
Hard Drive:640GB SATA 2
DVD:20x DVDRW
OS:MS Windows Vista Home Premium
Case/PS:Antec 900 Gamer Case w/ 650W PS

Add Ons:
Upgrade to 1TB HDD……….……+$35.00
Add a 22" LCD Monitor…..….…+$189.99
Add Logitech X-530 6 Piece Speaker Set………..….+$59.99
Add Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse..+$59.99
Add Logitech G15 Gaming KB….+$99.99
 
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