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07-22-2006, 08:14 PM
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#1 |
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Member (7 bit)
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 80
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New Gaming Build Suggestions please...
Hi, this will be my first build, I was planning on this last year and came here for suggestions and recieved good advice but never got around to purchasing the computer as I had other plans to do with my money. Anyhow, I would like to build a computer now for gaming and nothing else as I have a laptop to handle other things. Any suggestions on the parts I should buy would be well appreciated as I need to browse around about the parts because I haven't kept up on anything recently. I am going to pick out some components and will post them as soon as I can but would like to recieve any suggestions. Budget is between $1000-1300, using AMD because it is better for gaming...unless that has changed recently, and plan to go SLI now if I can budget it, if not then I will in the future. I do not need a monitor, and I will pick up a keyboard and mouse seperately.
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07-22-2006, 11:32 PM
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#2 |
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Member (4 bit)
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Illinois
Posts: 14
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I'm working on a new build too, and most of the parts already came in. My build was intended to be an all-around build with more capability in the gaming department, so my video card might not be as powerful as what you'd like.
The one thing I can positively recommend to you is my case. It's a full tower, which is great for me since I need it sitting on the floor, with the ports on the top of the case. It's big and very versatile as far as [hard disk and optical] drive placement goes. Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Aluminum/Steel ATX Full Tower http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16811133154 If you want to take a look at the rest of my build, it's another thread in this forum. http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=161699 The whole set up cost me about $1500 though. Good luck and have fun. |
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07-23-2006, 12:06 AM
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#3 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: tfp
Posts: 1,923
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From what I've recently heard (from glc and others on these forums) SLI is not a very cost effective system. You'd do better to save money and get one top top generation video card than to get two slightly lower-ranked ones. You'll also save money on the mobo and psu by skipping sli.
That said, I just bought parts totaling a little more than $1300 with sli, but I only bought one vid card.
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System: ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe AMD Opteron Denmark 165 Sapphire Radeon 4850x2 2X1GB G.Skill DDR400 Ram Corsair 850W PSU Thermaltake Soprano case Seagate 7200.10 320GB |
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07-23-2006, 01:31 AM
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#4 |
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Member (12 bit)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,509
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Yup. It has changed.
Intel's new Core 2 Dou processors are beating up on AMD pretty badly in just about every benchmark there is. They hit the market later this week. I would wait a couple weeks to see whuch motherboards are working best with them.
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07-23-2006, 06:41 PM
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#5 |
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Member (7 bit)
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 80
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Thanks for the replies. I compiled a list of parts that I think would work pretty well and would like some feedback on any quality issues, I'm pretty sure everything is compatible. I decided to go with AMD because if the Core 2 duo is the only thing that Intel offers that will beat AMD at a reasonable price, then AMD is my only option because Core 2 duo would be out of my price range I believe.
Case: Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Aluminum/Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133154 Power Supply: Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply 115/230 V UL, TUV, CB, FCC CLASS B, CUL - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817103931 Motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131540 Processor: AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego 2000MHz HT 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103529 Memory: CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145486 Video Card: eVGA 256-P2-N584-AR Geforce 7900GT KO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130033 Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3808110AS 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148107 DVD-Rom Drive: LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM ATAPI/E-IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model SHD-16P1S - OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106028 Total Price after shipping= $1203.02 Keep in mind that I do not need a monitor, a DVD-Burner because my laptop has one, or a keyboard and mouse. |
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07-23-2006, 07:12 PM
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#6 |
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Member (12 bit)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,509
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A Conroe E6400 2.13 Ghz is running about about $250 on the preorders that I have seen.
Sli is mainly a gimmick to get people to spend more cash. A lot of people think that 2 cards in SLI will double the performance, but the increase is nowhere near that. The XMS ram is not needed unless you are overclocking it. Otherwise the performance increase from the regular value select line is minimal. Good vid card. Switch the hard drive to the 16Mb cache version for a little better performance. You might need a floppy drive at some point in the setup. Download the motherboard manual and check that. They are handy to have for troubleshooting anyway. Don't forget the OS. OEM Windows XP w/SP2 is about 85-90 bucks at newegg and will be fine unless you need some specific feature of XP Pro or want the Media Center Edition. Stay away from the 64 bit version, it is still pretty buggy. Solid power supply.
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07-23-2006, 07:56 PM
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#7 |
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Member (7 bit)
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 80
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Thanks. I will look for another hard drive. As far as the ram goes, the XMS ram is only $9 more than the value select, and I would like to stick with Corsair.
I am only getting one video card for now because 2 would be overkill right now, but I still want to get an SLI motherboard in case I decide to get another video card in the near future. |
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07-23-2006, 08:15 PM
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#8 |
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Wx geek
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Indiana
Posts: 6,638
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You might consider a dual core 3800+ X2 - it's about the same price...I would hold tight a couple days - AMD is supposed to slash prices tomorrow I think, so I would wait and see what that does to prices.
__________________
"It is the way of man to make monsters and it is the nature of monsters to destroy their makers." |
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07-23-2006, 09:11 PM
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#9 |
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Member (7 bit)
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 80
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I was just reading up about the new Conroe and it seems like it will be a very good processor. Would I be better off waiting until it releases, find one that I think I may like and can afford, and seeing how well they actually hold up or is the performance difference really worth the trouble?
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07-23-2006, 11:27 PM
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#10 | |
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Member (9 bit)
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 418
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Quote:
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07-24-2006, 02:13 AM
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#11 |
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V12
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Houston, T.E.X.A.S
Posts: 3,488
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Yes but he can get much much better performance for the same price.
Thats why conroe is so worth waiting for. Btw its down to 3 days before official release.
__________________
“We must not let ourselves get driven off course, no matter what happens we must stick to our natural game” -Zenedine Zidane |
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07-25-2006, 04:45 PM
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#12 |
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Forum Administrator
Staff
Premium Member
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Joplin MO
Posts: 37,743
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Revisit the Core 2 Duo vs. AMD price comparisons next week - let's see what plays out. AMD just did a major price drop, let's see what the Core 2's come out of the gate at. The only issue is SLI support - Nvidia doesn't have their Core 2 compatible chipset ready yet.
This week is just not the time to buy a processor and motherboard, too much happening. |
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