The $2K Gaming Rig

[deusex]

I have been configuring my new rig for some time, and have finally managed the courage to put it up on the forumz under critical eyes.

This new rig will be used for primarily gaming/surfing/programming, the games being graphics-intensive ones such as Oblivion, COD 2, BF2, FEAR, Quake 4, Far Cry, Age of Empires 3, and future Crysis/Dark Messiah.
I will game about 4-6 hours a week - much more during summer/winter breaks.

I will changing the GPU to a DX10 one next year, roughly 10-12 months, and might be running Vista depending on stability issues - SOME Overclocking for me, perhaps the E6600 to E6700 speeds, not much else.

Parts:

NZXT Apollo silver ATX mid-tower case

Antec Truepower II 550W PSU

Asus P5B Deluxe or Gigabyte DS3 (opinions?)

E6600 Core 2 Duo 2.40 GHz

7900 GT or X1900 XT (upgrade to a DX10 card in one year's time)
256 MB for GT and 512 for XT.....think I;ll save if i just get a X1900XT 256MB? - how far is it from the 512?

2 GB XMS corsair DDR2 800 PC6400, 5-5-5-12 lat - will 4 lat be much faster?

VX922 Viewsonic Gaming LCD, 2 ms response time OR 20.1 samsung...

NEC DVD burner and Sony DVD-Rom

250 GB Seagate Barracuda SATAII Perpendicular Recording 7200 RPM

X-530 Logitech 5.1 speakers

Do i need a sound card? - going to listen to music/play games at room level.

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS 7.1 if needed.


With sound card and more expensive options (excluding 4 lat ram), everything comes out to be $1890. of course tax/shipping will up it to $2000, but that's alright - at least nothing over $2000 will be good.

Critique please!!!

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2002778,00.asp
wish there was a newer one

 

[enforcerfx]

I am building a new gaming rig - mostly going to play games/program/web design on it. Games such as Oblivion, AOE III, Crysis when it comes out, HL2, Doom 3. Quake 4, and other intensive graphics games.

Parts:

NZXT Apollo silver ATX mid-tower case

Antec Truepower II 550W PSU

Asus P5B Deluxe or Gigabyte DS3 (opinions?)

E6600 Core 2 Duo 2.40 GHz

7900 GT or X1900 XT (upgrade to a DX10 card in one year's time)
256 MB for GT and 512 for XT.....think I;ll save if i just get a X1900XT 256MB? - how far is it from the 512?

2 GB XMS corsair DDR2 800 PC6400, 5-5-5-12 lat - will 4 lat be much faster?

VX922 Viewsonic Gaming LCD, 2 ms response time OR 20.1 samsung...

NEC DVD burner and Sony DVD-Rom

250 GB Seagate Barracuda SATAII Perpendicular Recording 7200 RPM

X-530 Logitech 5.1 speakers

Do i need a sound card? - going to listen to music/play games at room level.

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS 7.1 if needed.


With sound card and more expensive options (excluding 4 lat ram), everything comes out to be $1890. of course tax/shipping will up it to $2000, but that's alright - at least nothing over $2000 will be good.

Critique please!!!

Thats a pretty nice setup there man. I would go for that 256mb X1900xt. Its a bargain right now. I also have those speakers, and they sounded like garbage when i had integrated sound, so i bought the x-fi xtrememusic. Overall, nice system. I too have a NZXT case (I have the Nemesis Elite Edition case).

 

[deusex]

How much more performance can the X1900 XT 512 give over the 256?

-but are those speakers garbage, or only onboard sound?

 

[desidude006]

X1900XT 256 mb is excellent card under 240 bucks. But the 512 mb is a little better. However, you will only see the difference when you go over 1600 x 1200 or w/e. Get the 512 version if your gonna game it high resolutions and wanna run more then x4 AA.

 

[enforcerfx]

X1900XT 256 mb is excellent card under 240 bucks. But the 512 mb is a little better. However, you will only see the difference when you go over 1600 x 1200 or w/e. Get the 512 version if your gonna game it high resolutions and wanna run more then x4 AA.

Very true. And my speakers are NOT garbage A sound card would do nicely if you can shell out that cash.

 

[deusex]

So should I go with the 19" VX922, or the 20.1" Samsung?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116375

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001226

one is 1280 X 1024, the other 1600 X 1200.

 

[qwazzy]

I have been configuring my new rig for some time, and have finally managed the courage to put it up on the forumz under critical eyes.

This new rig will be used for primarily gaming/surfing/programming, the games being graphics-intensive ones such as Oblivion, COD 2, BF2, FEAR, Quake 4, Far Cry, Age of Empires 3, and future Crysis/Dark Messiah.
I will game about 4-6 hours a week - much more during summer/winter breaks.

I will changing the GPU to a DX10 one next year, roughly 10-12 months, and might be running Vista depending on stability issues - SOME Overclocking for me, perhaps the E6600 to E6700 speeds, not much else.

Parts:

NZXT Apollo silver ATX mid-tower case

Antec Truepower II 550W PSU

Asus P5B Deluxe or Gigabyte DS3 (opinions?)

E6600 Core 2 Duo 2.40 GHz

7900 GT or X1900 XT (upgrade to a DX10 card in one year's time)
256 MB for GT and 512 for XT.....think I;ll save if i just get a X1900XT 256MB? - how far is it from the 512?

2 GB XMS corsair DDR2 800 PC6400, 5-5-5-12 lat - will 4 lat be much faster?

VX922 Viewsonic Gaming LCD, 2 ms response time OR 20.1 samsung...

NEC DVD burner and Sony DVD-Rom

250 GB Seagate Barracuda SATAII Perpendicular Recording 7200 RPM

X-530 Logitech 5.1 speakers

Do i need a sound card? - going to listen to music/play games at room level.

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS 7.1 if needed.


With sound card and more expensive options (excluding 4 lat ram), everything comes out to be $1890. of course tax/shipping will up it to $2000, but that's alright - at least nothing over $2000 will be good.

Critique please!!!

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2002778,00.asp
wish there was a newer one

Hehe, nice system. IMHO, DON'T get the DS3. Very,very bad in my opinion. I got that board and then returned it. I now have the P5B Deluxe. So far, ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS. Teh sound card...kinda useless. I think the onboard is good enough. But hey, it's your money, your system. . I'll go for the Viewsonic. I bought one and it's great. But mine is the VG2021m which has a slow response time of 8 ms. Why two DVD drives? You can read and write everything on your DVD RW. As for the RAM, I got Kingston Value. Works great for less than $180 for 2 GB. But again, your choice, your money. I'm not sue on the PSU, but for your sys I think 500w will be plenty. Have a nice time building and paying taxes to Newegg.


qwazzy

 

[deusex]

An older friend says to use a 700W PSU (gameXstream specifically) for future-proofing the GPU....

BTW, the VX922 is a 1280 X 1024 Res, and the Samsung is 1600 X 1200...

 

[rwaritsdario]

Get the 16x12 monitor if you can afford it, definetly worth it.

The CL4 wont give you a performance boost by itself but it can be overclocked much much farther than CL5. You dont need to go with Corsair, go with any 4-4-4-12 DDR2-800 memory because it will have the same Micron chips, meaning that it will be broadly the same performance.

The OCZ GameXtream PSUs seem to be a very good choice, the 600w version should be more than enough.

Try going for the ASUS P5W DH. Its arguably the best Conroe mobo out there.

Try first going without a sound card. If you arent satisfied with the quality get an x-fi or and audigy 2zs.

 

[qwazzy]

An older friend says to use a 700W PSU (gameXstream specifically) for future-proofing the GPU....

BTW, the VX922 is a 1280 X 1024 Res, and the Samsung is 1600 X 1200...

Shoot, should have gotten a 1000w PSU to future proof my system. Damn it! Lol, IMO 500w-600w is enough. Plus, I think they are only rated for like 80,000 hours. If your comp runs 24/7, then..yea. Anyway, by your next upgrade you have no clue what is going to be available. I mean, today the paper came and I saw a Sony VAIO doe $1200. Core2 Duo processor, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB HD. WTF? Has to be a mistake, it can't be that cheap but I guess it is. I have seen some things skyrocket for less than 2 weeks and others plunge by more than $20. Lol, getting off topic.

 

[qwazzy]

Oh, forgot. I would get the Samsung JUST because of the 1600x1200. And yah, you don't need CAS 4 to get the best out of your Core2. Basically the exact same thing rwaritsdario said.

 

[deusex]

THink I should go with a X1900 XTX then if going to game at 16 X 12?

 

[qwazzy]

THink I should go with a X1900 XTX then if going to game at 16 X 12?

No, I think you should get a 7900GT or less and upgrade in a year to a nicer gfx card. That's what I think.

 

[deusex]

The difference between a 7900 GT and a X1900 XTX is 30-40$...