So it's that magical time again - once every few years I get to build myself a new computer. Last time I did it, I was really keeping tabs on the market and current tech, but now it's been a while and I've fallen out of the loop. I'm seeing all these new specs with all sorts of names and numbers I'd never seen before. I've assembled a list of parts I'm planning to get, but I'd like to get a second opinion (preferably from people who HAVE been keeping tabs on the market).

Budget is < 1000$ canadian (but that includes a fresh monitor), so yes I know you can find better parts out there, that's not what I'm looking for. I want a balance of performance and cost. I'm probably gonna be shopping from tigerdirect so that's where I got my prices from. I'll be running XP. Main uses will include everyday stuff, a little bit of sound processing and of course gaming. Specs need to run most current games smoothly. Use UT3 as a benchmark - it should run that smoothly at average resolutions, assuming that'll be the standard for the next few years. I'm looking for a 19' monitor for practical reasons, so I can probably squeeze in more framerate than most if I keep the resolution down.

So here it is:

POWER: Coolmax CX-550B 550 watt ATX /w 120mm fan SATA power supply $54.99

RAM: Corsair Dual Channel TWINX 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz $99.97

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0GHz socket AM2 $94.99

BOARD: MSI K9N4 Ultra-F NVIDIA Socket AM2 ATX $93.99

HD: Seagate 160gb (SATA cable) @ 7200 $79.99

GPU: either: 1- ATI Radeon X1650 Pro 512MB GDDR2 PCIe @ $164.99*
2- NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 512MB PCIe @ $152.99

*: The main reason I'm putting the X1650 in there is because I know practically nothing of the current geforce series, and my last computer was running a 9200 and I've been hugely satisfied with it, so since the x1600 is essentially the continuation of the old 9000 series, I thought I'd stick with something familiar, unless someone can convince me GeForce is better

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When bread becomes toast, it can never go back to being bread again.

Hmm, You might want to upgrade the CPU. A lot of the newest games will require Dual Core CPUs running at about 2.4Ghz.

System Requirements for UT3

Minimum System Requirements

• Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista
• 2.0+ GHZ Single Core Processor
• 512 Mbytes of System RAM
• NVIDIA 6200+ or ATI Radeon 9600+ Video Card
• 8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space

Recommended System Requirements

• 2.4+ GHZ Dual Core Processor
• 1 GBytes of System RAM
• NVIDIA 7800GTX+ or ATI x1300+ Video Card
• 8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space

System Requirements for Crysis

Minimum Requirements

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista), Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista), AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or better
RAM: 1GB (1.5GB on Windows Vista)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Radeon X800 Pro for Vista) or better
VRAM: 256MB of Graphics Memory
Storage: 12GB
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible
ODD: DVD-ROM
OS: Microsoft Windows XP or Vista
DirectX: DX9.0c or DX10


Recommended Requirements

CPU: Core 2 Duo/Athlon X2 or better
RAM: 1.5GB
Video Card: NVIDIA 7800 Series, ATI Radeon 1800 Series or better
VRAM: 512MB of Graphics Memory
Storage: 12GB
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible
ODD: DVD-ROM
OS: Microsoft Windows XP or Vista
DirectX: DX9.0c or DX10

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MarkusSchulz.com Party107.com 160k 32k

quote:

Originally posted by TigerClaw System Requirements for Crysis Minimum Requirements [...] AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or better

See? Only 2800+, mine is a 3800+

You can't really compare a 2.0 intel with a 2.0 athlon, they don't work the same, that's why athlons have those numbers next to them.

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When bread becomes toast, it can never go back to being bread again.

quote:

Originally posted by Project-K See? Only 2800+, mine is a 3800+ You can't really compare a 2.0 intel with a 2.0 athlon, they don't work the same, that's why athlons have those numbers next to them.

But if you wanted to play the game with all the settings turned up, You'll need a faster CPU thats a dual core and a better graphics card. Instead of getting the Geforce 8600, Get the Geforce 8800 GT.

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MarkusSchulz.com Party107.com 160k 32k

quote:

Originally posted by TigerClaw But if you wanted to play the game with all the settings turned up, You'll need a faster CPU thats a dual core and a better graphics card. Instead of getting the Geforce 8600, Get the Geforce 8800 GT.

Althlon 64 X2 is a dual core. I'm gonna look into the 8800GT. Is there a significant difference between the 8600 and the 8800? And what's the difference between the GS/GT/GTX I see on geforce cards?

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When bread becomes toast, it can never go back to being bread again.

Is it just me or is every variant of the 8800 over 300$? Some ranging up to 700$. That's way over budget :/

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When bread becomes toast, it can never go back to being bread again.

quote:

Originally posted by Project-K Is it just me or is every variant of the 8800 over 300$? Some ranging up to 700$. That's way over budget :/

The 8800 GT is faster then the GTS version, You can read about the benchmarks of it right here. As for the pricing, You can get it for $269.99 at Newegg.com right here.

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MarkusSchulz.com Party107.com 160k 32k

If you are going to run 2 8600GT's then you might want to get a better power supply as well
Coolmax CX-550B 550 watt ATX /w 120mm fan SATA power supply $54.99
only has 2 18amp +12v rails. You might want something more like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16817371010

It cost a little bit more, but it is my professional opinion if you start doing stuff that requires a heavy load from your video cards they are going to fail on you. Nothing serious they will just quit. Then you have to restart your computer. This new power supply will have 57 amps on the +12 rails and will be able to handle those two cards with ease and in the long run save you money.

I'm only getting 1 GPU.. will the 550 be enough? I was told the 8600 drains somewhat less power than similar cards.

Oh and I've switched the CPU to a 4800+ 2.5GHz. For the price difference, it seemed to make sense. I'm gonna stick with the 8600GT for the video card for now (I don't really have the budget for the high end stuff), I can always gauge it's perfomance and change it later.

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When bread becomes toast, it can never go back to being bread again.

1 8600 GT will use around 19 amps, at full load it will peak at around 24. Taken everything else into account the power supply will be sufficient for running 1 gpu.

If I were you the set up I would get would be.
I have had previous experience with all these parts at least once some more than three times and I can vouch for them all.

Processor: $160
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16819103773

Motherboard: $165
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI MCP ATX AMD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16813131593

Ram: $100
OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16820227231

Hard-Drive: $190
Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16822136011

Optical-Drive: $40
LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner with LightScribe
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16827106072

Video Card: $170
GeForce 8600GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16814133204

Case: $60
NZXT Alpha Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16811146042

Power Supply: $110
550W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16817104018

I would like to see you beat that system for the price

$1,016.24 total with shipping and you can knock off $60 if you use your old case. The only other thing I would take down if I had to is the processor down to the 4800 that will give you another $50 to work with. Other than that if you want to make sure you get the best performance for the longest amount of time for the price this is it. You can also shop around for these similar parts on pricewatch.com and get the same parts maybe $10 less maybe more. Also 99% of the time I find newegg to be cheaper than tiger direct.

Last edited by DJ UD on Nov-05-2007 at 06:29

Except newegg doesn't ship to canada :/

And tigerdirect.ca has a pretty limited section of psus. I guess I could shop elsewhere, I just prefer to order the whole shipement from the same store, it's gonna save me alot of trouble.

I'm gonna look into the stuff you listed.

(PS, I'm keeping my old case, sound card and optical drives)

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When bread becomes toast, it can never go back to being bread again.

It's better to get one powerful single card then two less powerful cards in SLI or Crossfire. The reason? It's a better value for your money and if you ever could afford it, you would have a really nice system with two cards in SLI (but you really don't need it). I think if you play games at high resolutions (above 1600 x 1200), then the GTX or Ultra are what you should look into (but they are beyond your budget).

If you play below 1600 x 1200, you probably want to look into the GT. Don't go for the 8600 or 1650 if you want something that will last you. They are designed more for HD movie watching than gaming. The GT is almost the same speed as the GTX at 1280 x 1024 and close at 1600 x 1200. It only costs $269 - $299 on Newegg. And for CPUs, look into the AMD FX 62 if you want to go AMD or better yet wait for their new quad core CPUs (you can an FX 62 for $169 on Newegg). If you go Intel, you can get a Q6600 for $299 (dunno how much Canadian). You might not need Quad Core now, but like Dual Core is now, Quad Core will be next year. And for ATI...go with the 2900XT (512mb) and you can get Crossfire on that....but Nvidia still beats ATI for graphics.

Last edited by Spirit5 on Nov-05-2007 at 17:53