First Time PC Build Question

[funguy]

Hi everyone,

Just want to first thank the community for all your help and information, I have read here for awhile and have finally decided to join.

My question is this I'm going to want to build a gaming computer, The game I will be playing is StarWars Galaxies some of you might have heard of it.

My Question is What would be the best processor,cpu,memory combo that I should go for. I have been doing my research here and on the net but I really can't decide which way to go intel and asus or amd and asus. I'm hoping you guys can put me in the right path. Thx in advance and I will let you guys know what I finally choose. I'm looking to be able to spend between $600-$800 dollars. But if I can get away cheaper I'm not affraid too.

 

[Mortallus]

I'm sorry dude, I misunderstood your question.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Mortallus on 05/21/03 12:38 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[funguy]

I'm sorry I wasn't clear in my earlier post i have 600-800 to spend on cpu,ram,mb. To play starwars galaxies. I will take care of all the other items. What is the best for a gaming machine with those 3 items

 

[The_MaguS]

Screw AMD. I'd pick up one of those 2.6ghz-C 800mhz FSB cpu's.

Get 512 mb of Dual channel DDR, a canterwood mobo, and the proc. Should be within 600-800.

<font color=blue> There's no such thing as hell, but you can make it if you try.</font color=blue>

 

[Crashman]

You could get an i875P board, a P4 2.8C, and a gig of PC3200 for that price.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[shadus]

Honestly, you are going to want three things in your pc, A) Fast cpu, B) Fast video, C) Plenty of Ram... I'd probally recommend a p4 2.4c, p4c800, and a 9500/5600 for video.

Lets see what we've got pricewise...
Proc -=- P4 2.4C -=- $193.99
Mobo -=- ABIT IC7 -=- $182.50
Video -=- GeForceFX 5600 128mb -=- $153.00
or
Video -=- ATI Radeon 9500 $140

516.49 (leaving 283.51) to 532.49 (leaving 267.51)

Make sure you have at least 512mb ram also...

Galaxies is going to be very very video intensive. Probally closest thing on market to compare to right now would be AC2... and it's not quite at the level galaxies is. The longer you wait to upgrade, the better off you'll be since your aiming at a specific game.

Shadus

 

[funguy]

Yea I'm going to wait to the very last minute to upgrade, I watch on price line everyday how the price goes down. Right now I am leading towards
CPU= Pentium 4 2.8GHz 800
MB= Asus P4C800
RAM = Corsair XMS PC3500

I'm still not sure if I should get 2x256 or 2x512 Is there going to really be that big of ingame difference? I know its a 50% increase in RAM but will I get a 50% increase or close to that in performance??

 

[FallOutBoyTonto]

You'll probably be able to save a few bucks by getting the Granite Bay chipset instead of the Canterwood, they both have pretty much the same <A HREF="http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030429/index.html" target="_new"> performance </A> And with the $$$ you save, you can get a faster CPU and/or more RAM. Those 875 chipsets are ever so expensive! I'd suggest the Corsair TWIN-X for RAM.