Whats are the most important components for a gaming computer?

[Jimmy White]

I think its the Processor, Ram and Video card
which is most important?

[yellohut]

Video Card, then RAM, then processor speed.

[PMich]

IMO, RAM and vid card of pretty much of equal importance. Processor comes in somewhere down the line.

[Jimmy White]

Im getting crucial 512DDR 333 pc 2700 XMS
and a Radeon 9800pro
XP2500+ "barton" 333fsb

[Nuclear Krusader]

I am sorry guys, but the motherboard is the MOST important component for a gaming system, or for any system for that matter. What good will it do you to have a 3.06 GHz HT Pentium 4 and a Radeon 9800XT in a PC Chips mobo?

Components in order of importance for a gaming rig:

1. Motherboard
2. Video card
3. PSU
4. RAM
5. Hard drive
6. CPU

[Jimmy White]

Thanks crusader
what chipset support should i look for in a motherboard is the nforce2 good?

[Nuclear Krusader]

I think so, but don't quote me as I don't build AMDs, so I don't know for sure.

One thing I do know: stay away from VIA.

[Propain]

Originally posted by Nuclear Krusader
I think so, but don't quote me as I don't build AMDs, so I don't know for sure.

One thing I do know: stay away from VIA.

Youve been living to close to Hal9000 there Nuk. :D

Yes go for the Asus A7N8X-DLX NFORCE2 rev 2 Motherboard if ya can afford it. also try to get the pc3200 (the pc2700 will limite your overclocking capabilities) and youll be all set. :)

[Blakhart]

psu
mem
agp
mb
cpu
os

[tomster2300]

Hey, I have 512 mb of pc2700 ram. Is it a bottleneck, or is it just a bottleneck when you're trying to overclock?


The Asus boards are very good. I'm very happy with mine.





Specs:

ASUS a7n8x-x mobo
AMD 2500
512 mb Buffalo pc2700
Geforce 4 Ti4800 se
40 gig western digital 8 mb cache 7200 rpm

[morriswindgate]

Hard Drive with 8MB Cache @7200 RPM
Video Card with at least 128MB DDR RAM
512MB or more of RAM on a MOBO with Dual Channel Capability
CPU with high FSB speed

and of course you will want quality in all of the other parts.

Other things;

You want a large capacity hard drive, but you want a small partition for the C Drive. ON this partition you only want the bare minimum of software, such as the OS, Anti-Virus, Burning Software, Firewall, or other programs need to run the computer hardware/Input-output Devices/communication/security. Install all the other software to the D partition.
Reduce the number of TSRs' (Temporary Stay Resisdent) that you have. These are reflected in the task bar and in the startup tab on MSCONFIG. These are programs which partially start up and include Adobe Programs, MS Office/Works, Real Player, Quicktime and many others.

[spyder003]

get yourself one of those 10,000 rpm raptor drives from WD. then your games will load lightning fast :)

[icallmedan]

Yes I agree! The most important part of a gaming system is the hard drive! Yes! Eureka! Just Kidding!

[spyder003]

Originally posted by icallmedan
Yes I agree! The most important part of a gaming system is the hard drive! Yes! Eureka! Just Kidding!

...

[Jimmy White]

AMD ATHLON XP2500+ 333MHZ FSB 512 L2 Cache Barton CPU - OEM
Sapphire Radeon 128MB 9600XT DDR DVI-i TV-Out Retail Box
Asus A7N8X-X SKT A Nforce2 AGP X8 Sound USB 2.0 Motherboard Retail Box
Western Digital Caviar SE 40Gb UIDE 100 7200rpm 8mb Cache Disk Drive - OEM
Corsair (CMX512-2700C2PT) 512MB DDR333 Memory Module

for a gaming rig should i get 1024mb of ram?
i hope 40gb is suffiecient (all its going to have on it is the OS XP home and my Antivirus and my games about 7ish)
I want this to be able to play games like Battlefield on HIGH detail
Halflife 2
world of warcraft

should i spend extra money on the CMX ram? im not planning to O/c should i get 1024 of normal ram from kingston or crucial?

[PMich]

origninal posted by Nuclear Krusader
I am sorry guys, but the motherboard is the MOST important component for a gaming system, or for any system for that matter. What good will it do you to have a 3.06 GHz HT Pentium 4 and a Radeon 9800XT in a PC Chips mobo?
Sorry nuke but I am going to have to disagree with you and/or clear a few things up. The mobo is the most important component of any system, not just a gaming system. I was under the assumption that an appropriate mobo had been chosen and we were looking at the three other components in the original thread. It stick by my choice for the original three but if we are talking all components then I whole-heartedly agree with you.

[Alfie]

After a while,one grows tired of "stay away from Via"
The Via chipsets have matured and when coupled with an OS like XP that has native support built in,the chipsets perform quite well.
The Nvidia 2 chipset is the chipset of choice for AMD systems,but I'm using a Soltek board with the Via600 chipset,with it's improved memory controller and native support for SATA raid,it's a chipset worth considering.
The overall performance gain from the sata raid configured in 0 is quite impressive.
Side by side(Nvidia 2 and Via 600) there is no noticeable difference, benchmarks would show the Nvidia2 is slightly faster.

[Nuclear Krusader]

PMich, I understood he was building the puter from scratch, hence my opinion. If he already has a very good mobo, then your list is the way to go. Thanks for clearing it up. :)

As for the VIA part, well, another member resurrected a thread about eMachines in another forum and it's being said there that eMachines is not the crap it used to be. Well, the same is true for VIA, perhaps it has improved, but still I am not willing to give it a shot, risking my hard earned money to see if they really did. My previous experiences with them, both personal and on machines I built for clients, are enough to stay clear from VIA. I will build another AMD system when Intel makes chipsets for AMD CPUs.

[Jimmy White]

Ok for my build i have scrounged up some more money what component should i put it towards?

[Bushtree]

i have to say:

1. Motherboard
2. Video card
3. RAM
4. CPU
5. Sound Card
6. Hard drive

[Hi Ho]

Motherboard, video card, RAM,.... The CPU comes in quite a ways down the line. My Athlon 1800+ will play any game without a problem when coupled with a good video card like my GeForce 4ti 4800. Though my K6 - 500MHZ machine has trouble with games.