PC Advice

[Eddy01741]

No dual core processors are needed now. No games take advantage of them, and they probably won't for a couple of years, in which a new CPU like a dual core FX-63 or something will completely own any dual core processor now. That's just like 512mb video cards, you won't need them for at least 2-3 years, and by then, there will be some super graphics 512mb chip like a R680, planning for the future for a computer is not the best idea. So i agree, you could run a Sempron 2800+ for all i care and it will run a 7800GTX at most 2fps behind a system using a FX-57. Cpus aren't very important for gaming, VPUs are though. Guys, if you seriously want a system that will run BF2 on high and all other current games and games that will come out for the next year here's a solution:

CPU: 2.8ghz intel P4 or a AMD 2800+ or more (i suggest a AMD athlon 64.)
Hard Drive: Basically anything will do, i reccomend at least 80GB and 7200RPM
Memory: It doesn't really matter between a Corsair XMS and a Corsair Value Select, the quality of the stick doesn't beat raw MBs, at least a gig.
Mobo: anything that has PCI-e, or SLi if yu really want it
SOund Card: Doesn't matter, i run medium for sound settings with integrated, i don't give a **** for sound, but if you want nice sound quality, get a good sound card, or better get good speakers
Video Card: From nvidia a 6800GT will run at ultra high at highest res, and from Ati something like a X800 Pro
Mouse and Keyboard: Doesn't really matter, people say that getting a Razer Diamondback is much better, but i don't think it's that much better than another optical mouse, just get a optical mouse, keyboard, just get anyghing that works efficiantly.
Speakers: Anything that works, you don't need very good speakers, graphics are more important.
Monitor: for an LCD anything below 16ms response time is good enough, for CRT, basically anything will do, CRTs aremuch better for gaming, but put lots of strain on your eyes after a while.
Optical Drives: I recommend at least one DVD drive, if you want to write on dvd's and stuff you could get a DVD+-RW with Double Layer, but that's at least 70 bucks.
Floppy Disk Drive: I recommend getting one as we are still quite dependent on one.
Extras: A nice joystick if you fly planes, a card reader for everyday use, a card to connect to the internet if your mobo doesn't do that already.

This is only the Cheapest to run Ultra high at highest resolution, Don't flame me because you think this is inadequate, this is very adequate for all currant games, maybe it won't run games that were made in 2008, but that's just the cheapest way to get a machine that runs current games on max settings.

[Nitemare]

So i agree, you could run a Sempron 2800+ for all i care and it will run a 7800GTX at most 2fps behind a system using a FX-57. Cpus aren't very important for gaming, VPUs are though.

Thank freakin god somebody finally has some sense. I've been tryin to tell people this for the past few weeks but they can't seem to get it through their head.

OMG DOOD YOU NEED A 3800 OR HIGHER OR IT GONNA BOTTNECK YOUR 7800!!!

Lets go waste a couple extra hundred dollars that arent needed. Good job.

[Eddy01741]

Thank freakin god somebody finally has some sense. I've been tryin to tell people this for the past few weeks but they can't seem to get it through their head.

OMG DOOD YOU NEED A 3800 OR HIGHER OR IT GONNA BOTTNECK YOUR 7800!!!

Lets go waste a couple extra hundred dollars that arent needed. Good job.

You're welcome, I'm a geek at heart, to tell you the truth, i'm some asian dude that wears glasses and looks on the computer for like 7 hours a day. Just kidding, but i'm asian and i do have glasses, but i don't wear them, i have 20/40 eyesight, but my sister has like 20/350 eyesight, she wears contacts though. Anyways I ama a geek, i go online and i look at everything about hardware that matters to me, which is basically mainly VPUs, CPUs, cooling systems, joysticks etc. I'm a geek that plays games basically.

[imagenesis]

Look a stock 3800 will run better than a stock 3000. Period.

This guy wanted to buy a premade system and you guys are thinking hes going to overclock? He's probably not even going to go into BIOS.

[imagenesis]

Eddy you are an idiot. Have you heard of ram timings? Amd 64s are hungry for tight timings and 1t. Value select wont go lower than like 3-3-3-8. And that is terrible. ****, if this guy has money to burn let him get a system that will be good. Yah you can go buy a 3100 sempron and 6600 gt and run BF2 at high and you'de be getting a great deal but thats not what he wants.

[imagenesis]

Exaclty you dont give a **** for sound and apprently a lot of other things. If you knew the performance of the 7800 GTX, you would know it's minimum FPS is amazing.

CRTs are no longer better for gaming. An 8ms LCD kicks a CRTs ass considering the ammount of size a large CRT takes up. You guys are giving this guy dudget computer suggestions when apparently he wants a more expensive top of the line computer.

I wonder why Kingpin and all the other major overclockers dont use your magical 3000?

[Eddy01741]

Well, yes, he probably won't go to the bios, so if you don't oc, then don't buy a low end CPU. But anways, a 3800+ will do almost nothing in gaming benchmarks, I saw a thing on mobile Pc, it showed upgrades for high end laptops, CPU were the most insignificant, Memory was the most significant. If you want gaming performance, look at some VPU (aka graphics cards), think about it like this a 2800+sempron with a 6800Ultra could easily outperform a fx-57 with a 6600GT in gaming, but in other applications that don't need the vid card much, the FX-57 would pwn the 2800+. But you don't need that much speed. So, for gaming, get a good Video card, if you want multitasking and stuff like that, go for memory and CPU.

EDIT: and i'm not stupid, the 7800GTX will beat the 6800GT hands down. I'm just saying th minimum specs to run BF2 on high with aa at highest resolution, I'm not saying he should get that. And the sound stuff is just me, If i did give a sh*t for sound i would gt like 5:1 speakers and Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS. Sound doesn't matter to me. I unlike others have a money cap. I don't have unlimited money to spend, if i did, this would be what i would get.

CPU: FX-57 or 4800x2, depending on if i need better perfomance, or multitasking.
Mobo: A socket 939 SLi mobo, with all the features inside.
Hard Drive: Hmm, like 4 500GB hard drives in Raid 0+1, aka Raid 10, as well as an external 1 terabyte drive for backup.
Memory, since the mobo can only support 4 gbs, i would get the 4 Corsair XMS Expert 1GB sticks of memory.
Sound Card: Audigy 2 ZS
Video Card: 2 7800GTX in Sli
Speakers: I dunno, i don't research speakers and other worthless things, but at least a nice 5:1 audio system.
Keyboard, i dunno, like a Z-Board gaming keyboard or a Saitek Eclipse.
Mouse: Razer Diamondback, or n the future the Razer Copperhead or the Logitech G5.
And then a couple of nice Optical drives that can write on double layer disks.

Ok, you get the point, that would be my dream machine, but unfortunately not all peopple have like 5000 bucks to spend on a comp, i built my new rig for 934 bucks (us dollars) including tax and shipping, runs BF2 on high and with 6xAA at 1280x960. Thats good enough for me.

[Eddy01741]

Eddy you are an idiot. Have you heard of ram timings? Amd 64s are hungry for tight timings and 1t. Value select wont go lower than like 3-3-3-8. And that is terrible. ****, if this guy has money to burn let him get a system that will be good. Yah you can go buy a 3100 sempron and 6600 gt and run BF2 at high and you'de be getting a great deal but thats not what he wants.

No, i'm not the idiot, yes, he has money to burn, i'm just outlining how you could run BF2 at high ok, I kow what's good ram, COrsair XMS Expert, Crucial Ballistix Tracers etc. Ok, i'm a geek, i know everything i would care about with computers. SO this guy has money to burn, and i said not to flame me because i was just saying the minimums to run this game at max settings, not to run all games now and for like the next two years at max settings, ok calm down. Ok, i don't care about sound, but if you do, don't flame me because of it. And i believe there is no such thing as a 3100 sempron. Plus, look who has the experience at this forum, you're a wimpy specialist, i'm a warrant officer. I told you guys not to flame me, so what do you do, you flame me. And seriously, a machine with 4 gbs of value select memory will beat a machine with 1gb XMS Expert memory if all the settings were the same. And don't flame me again, flame wars don't prove anything, everybody gets pissed and the forum goes nowhere, and yes, i agree with you, an X2 processor will not do much, a FX series is much better.

[djstubbs]

Two 6800 GT's are better than one 6800 GTX. Right?

Sorry for the double-post.

No, the 7800 GTX is even better than two 6800 ultras.

[ChopperKill]

Exaclty you dont give a **** for sound and apprently a lot of other things. If you knew the performance of the 7800 GTX, you would know it's minimum FPS is amazing.

CRTs are no longer better for gaming. An 8ms LCD kicks a CRTs ass considering the ammount of size a large CRT takes up. You guys are giving this guy dudget computer suggestions when apparently he wants a more expensive top of the line computer.

I wonder why Kingpin and all the other major overclockers dont use your magical 3000?

Dude why are you getting all aggressive? Of course a stock 3800+ is faster than a 3000+ WTF was that comment for? So he might not know how to overclock. He might want to learn when he knows he can get the exact same speed for £150 less. Another guy a couple of weeks back did that exact thing. He didn't really know what the BIOS was but he spent time reading up and went and did it. Yeah it's not for everybody but give him the info and let hm judge.

Also RAM timings mean sweet f**k all in real world performance. Probably 5% at the very, very best. 5% is not noticable in game. It's a benchmark, enthusiasts and overclockers concern thats all. It does however depend how much more it will cost you for quicker timings. If it's negligable then it's always going to be better going for the faster timings obviously. If it's like £50 more it's just not worth it. But if you're gunna overclock you might as well get some good higher Mhz rated RAM and it will o/c in line with your CPU instead of having to run it asynchronously.

Also LCD's being better is a matter of opinion. Just because they have decent response times now doesn't make them automatically better. Yeah they usually have brightness on their side but they have sh1t and I do mean sh1t colour blending. Some of the standard XP wallpapers look like they are running in 16bit it's that bad when compared to a good CRT even the high priced ones. The size is only important if you are short on space. It aint giving you a better picture or experience.

[Prince]

Right then, I've been taking uf a few comments from everyone and I put this togeather.

Link

I've upgraded alot, and it's more powerful than the one I origionally picked out. Is that true? If anyone has any other suggestions about what would be best...

Put it this way, if you could make the best gaming PC for £2000 post it here. :)

[ChopperKill]

Right then, I've been taking uf a few comments from everyone and I put this togeather.

Link

I've upgraded alot, and it's more powerful than the one I origionally picked out. Is that true? If anyone has any other suggestions about what would be best...

Put it this way, if you could make the best gaming PC for £2000 post it here. :)

No that seems less powerful as you only now have 1 graphics card and it's an LE. You also only have 1GB RAM. Is £2000 your budget? I can build a total monster for that cash. Let me go take a look and post you some specs.

[Prince]

Ohhhh no, sorry the link was totoally wrong.

http://www.meshcomputers.com/updated..._2_1_order.htm

It's that with upgraded 20 " moniter, 2 GB RAM and the 256mb 7800GTX.

[ChopperKill]

Ohhhh no, sorry the link was totoally wrong.

http://www.meshcomputers.com/updated..._2_1_order.htm

It's that with upgraded 20 " moniter, 2 GB RAM and the 256mb 7800GTX.

Ok heres what I got

Athlon 4000+ £262 or Athlon 3000+ and o/c it to 3800+ £88
2GB Corsair XMS £211 or Crucial 2GB £175
7800GTX 256MB £334
Asus A8N SLI Deluxe £117 or Gigabyte K8N Pro SLi £88
2 x 74GB 1000RPM Western Digital Raptors £250 or 1x 200GB Seagate £75
Iiyama ProLite E481S-B 19" £281 or Samsung SM-913N 19" £211
Creative 7.1 T7900 THX £70
Audigy 2 ZS THX £70
Logitech MX518 Mouse £35
Logitech Media Keyboard £17
Pioneer 109 DVDRW £35
Case £50

Total £1732 or £1248

The left hand options is if you don't really care about cost. The right hand options will still give you a very fast PC that's probably only a small amount behind the first will but save you about £500.

The 4000+ is only a tiny bit behind an FX55 and costs a lot less. You really don't need dual core yet as no games support it yet and won't do for a while. Don't be fooled by the 4800+ rating. The raptor hard drives are only 74GB each giving you 148GB in total but they are 10,000RPM and are the fastest SATA drives out there by a long way. The best for loading games. If you wanted more space you could get 1 of them and 1 7200RPM 200GB drive and just run games from the Raptor. This would save you about another £50 as well. I wouldn't go for a 20" monitor. You end up paying about £200-300 more for 1 extra inch.

If you're feeling really flush you could even thrown in another 7800GTX and still come in just a shade over £2000. If you felt that way inclined.

[Prince]

If you could give me a link to a machine with those specs and another 7800GTX I'd buy it. It's just the hastle of building it part by part. I'd much rather get a built one.

Thanks alot man, you've ben a good help.