new gaming pc suggestions

[jriding]

I am looking to build a new gaming pc. What I am trying to find out is some suggestions on what mobo and cpu I should go with. Should I go with pci express ? sli? agp? sata I believe is a good choice. I am not big on overclocking and don't want to spend TOP $ for my rig just maybe a step down from top $.
Should I go with AMD or AMD64? or Pent?
Any suggestions with this would be greatly appricated.
also any graphics card ideas would be good as well.
Thanks

 

[TheRod]

First things first...

GAMES = AMD
SocketA is nearly dead, so forget about Athlon XP or Sempron.
Socket754 is not bad, but it's not the smartest choice, unless you want to keep your HIGH-ENG AGP card.

So, you should get a Socket939 based with PCI-EXPRESS for future upgrade.

SLI is mostly a budget oriented decision. If you really thinks that your budget will permit you 2 SLI-READY gpu (now or in a near future), go for it and pay the extra. But, the actual performance benefits is not very good, when you check price/performance ratio. If you buy 2 card at 200$, you will not get more FPS than getting 1 card 400$. But, if you buy 1 cars at 200$ today, and get the other for 100$ in a year, you will boost your performance for a bargain, but don't forget to offset that price with the added cost of a SLI enabled mobo, you must consider this in your decision too!

Since all new mobo supports SATA and SATA HDD are affordable, go for SATA if you need to buy a new HDD.

The minimum setup would be something like that :
- Athlon 64 3000+ S939 (you can overclock it easily)
- nForce4 motherboard
- GeForce 6600GT 128Megs PCI-EXPRESS
- DDR400 2 x 512 Megs

A kick-ass rig would look like this :
- Athlon 64 3500+
- nForce4 SLI motherboard
- GeForce 6800GT PCI-EXPRESS (SLI READY)
- DDR400 2 x 512 Megs

-
A7N8X / <font color=green><b>Athlon XP 1800+</font color=green> o/c to <font color=green>Sempron 2800+</b></font color=green>
Kingston DDR333 2x256Megs
<font color=red>Radeon 8500 128Megs</font color=red> @ C:275/M:290 <- <i>It's enough for WoW!</i>

 

[sparky853]

What you should do is read some of the other posts in this forum and get a good idea of what people recommend for a decent almost-high-end gaming system, do a little research yourself, and come back with some possible system configurations, THEN we can make alternate suggestions or praise you for putting together an UBER system all by yourself.

XP2800+, Abit NF7, 1GB Dual-Channel DDR333, ATI R9800PRO 128MB, TT PurePower 420W, LG DVD+-R/RW

 

[jriding]

ok so here goes.. lol
So from what I have read the amd 754 is better for the money. but I see you stated go with the 939, is this due to pciE?
ok so looking at this go with
Athlon64 3500+ (Winchester, 2.2 GHz)

mobo
GIGABYTE "GA-K8NU-SLI" NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU -RETAIL
- Specifications -
Supported CPU: Socket 939 supports AMD Athlon64/64 FX
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce4 SLI MCPs
RAM: 4x 184-pin DIMM for Dual-Channel DDR 400/333/266 (Max. 4GB)
IDE: 2x UDMA ATA 133 up to 4 Devices
Slots: 2x PCI-Ex16, 2x PCI-Ex1, 2x PCI
Ports: 2x PS/2, 1x COM, 1x LPT, 10x USB2.0(Rear 4), 2x LAN, Audio Ports, Coaxial S/PDIF input/ output
Onboard Audio: 8 Channel Audio
Onboard LAN: Dual Gigabi Ethernet
Onboard SATA/RAID: 4x SATA300, 4x SATA150
Onboard 1394: 2x IEEE 1394b connectors (supports 3 ports)
Form Factor: ATX
Model#: GA-K8NU-SLI
Item#: N82E16813128279

memory
corsair TWINX1024-3200XL DDR-400 (PC-3200) 2-2-2-5

psu

Ultra /500-Watt / ATX / Dual 80mm Fan / Modular Power Supply
(do you think this is a good one. I like the idea of module power supply.

Now I need some advice on the graphics card. do I have to use 2 cards just because I have the SLI mobo? or can I get a really good PCI-E card that will work with my sli slot? (still confused on the pci-e and sli stuff)

or should I switch up and just get a non sli mobo and high end pci-e card?

How is my setup so far? any suggestions comments very welcome. and thanks for getting me started TheRod
and thanks for putting me in action Sparky


You also stated OC'ing is easy.. I have read some of the boards but my prob seems to be stability. I tried changing some settings on the mobo but am never sure if my complete setup is unstable of if my "playing" with oc'ing is. so if I was to oc I would need a basic do this and you will get 2% upgrade on performance... etc... so I am trying to stay away from oc'ing and work on fast and stable.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by jriding on 02/08/05 02:01 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[TheRod]

So from what I have read the amd 754 is better for the money. but I see you stated go with the 939, is this due to pciE?
ok so looking at this go with
Athlon64 3500+ (Winchester, 2.2 GHz)

Effectively the Socket754 is good, but you don't have PCI-EXPRESS support and high-end CPU supports. So Socket754 is less upgradable.

PCI-EXPRESS will replace AGP, I doubt that the next-gen GPU will be easily available in AGP. The GPU market will slowly, but surely, switch to PCI-EXPRESS.

Now I need some advice on the graphics card. do I have to use 2 cards just because I have the SLI mobo? or can I get a really good PCI-E card that will work with my sli slot? (still confused on the pci-e and sli stuff)

or should I switch up and just get a non sli mobo and high end pci-e card?

SLI mobo don't require 2 GPU. You can buy one today, and get a second in the future for SLI setup. The SLI motherboards comes with 2 16x PCI-EXPRESS slot, that can be put in a 8x/8x mode for SLI compatibility, that's it!

As I mentionned in my last post, you can buy a GeForce 6800GT SLI-READY now and buy the other one in months to enable SLI. Actually, onle GeForce can run in SLI. ATI will probably come out with something equivalent, but no one knows exactly when... There is speculation that ATI "SLI" would permit any GPU dual-mode. nVidia SLI require 2 identical video card to work.

-
A7N8X / <font color=green><b>Athlon XP 1800+</font color=green> o/c to <font color=green>Sempron 2800+</b></font color=green>
Kingston DDR333 2x256Megs
<font color=red>Radeon 8500 128Megs</font color=red> @ C:275/M:290 <- <i>It's enough for WoW!</i>

 

[jriding]

so as of now should I stay away from sli and focus on pci-e ?
also looking at the total price I am looking at 1485.00$
I think maybe I went a tad over kill. ;-)
so looking at what I have put together is the mother board a good choice? what can I tone down a little and still get a almost top of the line gaming pc?
also do I have a good matchup here? is the memory over kill could I go with a lower or non corsair memory and still be solid with good performance?
thanks for your help on this.
Trying to get this closer to 900$ or 1000$


PS I am playing WoW as of now (would like to be able to use all thegraphics settings for good graphics, never had a system that could handle that) as well as for future games in simular *sp theme<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by jriding on 02/08/05 03:42 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Rugger]

Read these:
This is a recent thread
<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=570009#570009" target="_new">http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=570009#570009</A>
SLI info
<A HREF="http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041122/index.html" target="_new">http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041122/index.html</A>

Read the siggy - you need to read the FAQ, some recent articles and review recent posts. A lot of basic questions are easily answered this way.


Have you read the FAQ? Looked for previous posts on this topic?

 

[pat]

Take the Asus SLI, or the MSI, whichever cost the more. Then make sure you get 2 gforce 6800Ultra.. Get the brand that cost the more. Then get an killer PSU. You dont want to spen less than 150$ for it. You'll want to get an AMD fx-55 CPU... And DDR500 memory too. Get a pair of Raptor too, and RAID0 them. Dont go loose on component.. get the best and you'll have a nice futureproof computer.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[Rugger]

What's your budget? Do you plan on OCing? Will you be upgrading the components in this sytem (CPU, vid card or mobo) within the next 18-24 months?

__________________________________________________
Have you read the FAQ? Looked for previous posts on this topic?

 

[jriding]

What's your budget? Do you plan on OCing? Will you be upgrading the components in this sytem (CPU, vid card or mobo) within the next 18-24 months?

Budget is 800-1000$ if I do any oc'ing it will be very basic (don't know it that well and I am never sure if I have done soemthing incorrect with OC'ing or just an issue with my hardware.) Most likely won't be upgrading anything on this system except maybe cpu or graphics card. Depending on the what I have to work with I either up grade like mad after 2 years or start over. Would rather upgrade but sometimes its hard to do that agp4x doesn't upgrade that well ;-)