$900 Gaming Build- Please Help, again...

[fedz]

Sounds good. I'd just keep with speeddude's build with a X600.

fedz

[Amirsan]

Ah, well better know know then after I buy it, thanks for the info Timbit...

well... I have two choices again...

go with a normal non-pcie mobo and take a very good card.

OR

go with pcie mobo and take an x600...

any suggestions? How long do you think until a regular AGP mobo becomes obsolete? A month? Year? Two years? Maybe I can last long with an AGP board...

[Amirsan]

I am soo confused, and I am breaking myself over it...
I know I can get a much more powerful system with AMD... but I dont know about its future, its plans or nothing, I am more familiar with Intel...


but if I go with Intel I will get a less powerful system for now but know I can upgrade in a couple years...

I DONT KNOW. I hate this dilemna....

[GForce64]

Your probably not gonna be able to upgrade, as Intel is moving to 1066FSB soon, and only the 925x chipset supports that(right?). So just go with AMD and when the times comes to upgrade, sell the old rig off and buy a new one. I'll post an AMD build, if you like.

[fedz]

-ignore this-

[fedz]

Go with the PCI-E and X600. The X600 will play anything out now. As I said, if you're more familiar with intel keep with speeddude's build. It's really good and very upgradeable.
When 800FSB came out on 478, did they phase out the 533's? I think not...
You'll be safe with that.

fedz

[GForce64]

Just giving you an AMD build to think about...

Enlight ATX MID-TOWER CASE with 360Watt POWER SUPPLY: 67.49$
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...116-152&depa=1

AMD Athlon 64 2800+: 148$
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...103-452&depa=1

ABIT "KV8 Pro": 106$
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...127-178&depa=1

Corsair Value Select 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200: 75.99$
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...145-026&depa=1

POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON 9800PRO EZ Video Card: 159$
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...131-279&depa=1

Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive: 69.50$
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...135-106&depa=1

Sony Beige 52X32X52X16 Combo Drive: 41.99$
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...106-818&depa=1

SONY Beige 1.44MB 3.5Inch Floppy Disk Drive: 9.99$
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...103-109&depa=0

Windows XP OEM: 90$
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...102-141&DEPA=0

Total before monitor: 767.96$

[fedz]

Nice component choice.

1. Not as upgradeable as the pentium build
2. If you prefer intel because you're more familiar with it, go for it. Better start with a build that you're familiar with, then work your way onto greater things.

Both suggested builds will be about as fast, except that GForce64's is marginally better graphicswise.

Your choice!!!

fedz

[timbit]

hmmmm... not liking the graphics pick in gforce's build. that 9800 is one of the crippled ones -- the bus is only 128 bits. its cheap, yes, but it's not much better than a 9600xt or 9700... i'm thinking you probably want something like this. it costs just under $40 more though...

[KoMoDo]

if u choose an AMD build check mine out too, its not bad :-P
hes missing keyboard+mouse and the gfx card i picked out is better. the mobo i chose is cheaper, and not necessaraly worse, it has nforce3 chipset which is said to be better than via chipsets, not sure about these 2 models though.

besides that i think his build looks similar to mine, so thats cool. :-P

KoMoDo

[cooldude90876]

even if your not as familar with AMD do it any ways cause youll need to leearn someday. Its more bang for your buckk who doensent want that

[fedz]

I'd stick with intel, and I've built both AMD and intel.

fedz

[Amirsan]

Well, I am going with intel, my uncle says so, my other uncle says so, and I say so. Intel is for me.

[speeddude2000]

also, intels new socket CPU type is really easy to install(or at least impossible to break) because it doesnt have any external pins....even the ZIF was supposed to be flawless in the 478, i still bent a few pins when i opened the container(got a little excited and it popped up and the heatsink hit the CPU and bent a few pins, but its all fixed now. socket T is a good type for 1st time builders.

[imbest123]

Originally Posted by timbit hmmmm... not liking the graphics pick in gforce's build. that 9800 is one of the crippled ones -- the bus is only 128 bits. its cheap, yes, but it's not much better than a 9600xt or 9700... i'm thinking you probably want something like this. it costs just under $40 more though...

Ya the 9800 Pro is a very very good choice. If you do end up buying one of these cards make sure its not the 128-bit version. BTW the 9700 non-pro is much better than the 128-bit 9800 Pro. Having the 128-bit 9800 Pro is like buying a 9600XT with 4 more pipelines. Im glad you are sticking with Intel lol.

[fedz]

nice choice. Good luck with your build (make sure that you post your final specs here) and don't hesitate to come back and ask if you have any problems/questions/issues whatsoever

fedz

[Amirsan]

yeah, ima try once more in making my build, based on what I learned from the thread and from other people's builds. You guys helped me alot, I realy appreciate the help I get when I come to these forums, its truly one of the best communities if not the best out there.

[fedz]

Stop press! Nvidia has released its 6600 range, and they way outpace the 9800 pro, 5950 and in some cases the X800 pro.
$150 to $200. That OK?

fedz

[timbit]

yeah, it should outperform the 9600xt, i think, but i don't see any in the retail channels yet... and who knows how long it will be before they are out there. could still be a month. still, if you can wait, this would be interesting to look at.

[fedz]

See my thread in audio/video. They'll be out in mid september (albatron have already started releasing some)

fedz

[Amirsan]

its a new "budget" card? w00t

[speeddude2000]

not budget. almost everything ATi does, nvidia copies, or the other way around sometimes. in this case, ATi has the X300 series, X600 series, and X800 series.....nvidia has a 6800(equal to x800) and now they are releasing a 6600(which will probably be equal to the x600, but im not sure)

however, it will probably be better than the x600 because it is being released later than the x600.

[ric449]

It is better than the X600XT, usually by a wide margin. ATI are releasing a X700 to keep up.

[KoMoDo]

the 6600gt is sometimes even better than the x800, its just amazing how nvidia is outpacing ati right now, im so proud of my 2 companies, AMD and nvidia, takin over the board once again :-P

KoMoDo

[speeddude2000]

lol 2 companies eh? my 2 are intel and ATi(i used to be nvidia though)

[KoMoDo]

ya, dont wanna start the flame wars but this is how i think of it
cheap(u cant argue about that) and good vs expensive and a little worse.

:-P

KoMoDo

[Moose on the Loose]

Actually Komodo I'd like to see where you read that. Every benchmark I see tells me the same thing: the x800 is still the king of the vid cards when you start turning the details on like AA AF. The 6800 GT kan keep up with it at some points, but in general the x800 just does better. There is no way the 6600 could benchmark better _in general_ than the x800. Better than the x600XT, probably yes, the x800, no.

Besides, there is no such thing as "a company taking over the board". AMD and Intel are both good, they both excel at different aspects. ATi and nVidia are both good, and they also excel in different aspects.

[KoMoDo]

yes, i agree with that, im not saying its taken over the board, well at least i didnt mean that :-P i mean that all the statistics and diagrams show that amd is selling more cpu's than intel, and it said that the forecast for AMD to dominate the desktop side of things will be 2017 :-P
and umm, didnt u see all the latest games' benchmarks? like doom 3 and HL2, u could definetely see the 6800 dominate the x800 in fps's. and about the 6600gt better than the x800, if u haven't noticed, i only said that what was in "some" cases, not all, of course.

[speeddude2000]

the 6800 dominates because Doom3 was made on nvidia cards, so the performance is fine tuned. if you get the new ati drivers(4.8) then it should be fine.

[ric449]

Originally Posted by KoMoDo i mean that all the statistics and diagrams show that amd is selling more cpu's than intel

Would you mind showing me where you read that? I always hear that Intel own 90% of the CPU business.