New Budget Gaming System - Advice needed

[cryptonx]

Hello mates ,

I have an old rusty system , but It was pretty ok for the last couple of months .. but now with the new games hitting , I don't think it will last .

Athlon 3000+ 2.0ghz
MSi K8Neo3-F
1GB Rams
OCd 7300GT 256 GDDR3 Zalman ( 700 / 1600 ) .

so I have 2 plans , either get a complete budget system with a mid-range gfx card
or upgrade essentials and collect money for a good gfx card later .

here's
plan 1 :

Athlon X2 4800 / 5200
2Gigs of Ram ( Only Kingston and Apogee are here ) .
8600GTS 256 GDDR3
250 Gigs Hard Disk
19" LCD Monitor
etc etc

Would that be a good system for today ? I play games mainly on 1024x768 with no or 4xAA when possible ( I only have a 17" crt now ) .

and would playing on 1024 HURT the quality on LCD ( Native resolution stuff ) ??


plan 2 :

a Fast Core 2 Duo / 1 GB ram / Decent Mobo
and plug all the cards/hds/optical in for now ( the 7300gt )
Would that give any more life to the 7300gt ? and is this or the complete system above better ?


Thanks in advance people ! you helped buying 4 PCs and 2 GFX cards lets do it again .

 

[cryptonx]

PLEASE !

 

[p3matty]

what is your upgrade budget?

 

[lunyone]

Get a x1950pro or wait for the 2950 pro's coming out next month. Stick with the 2gigs of ram and the x2. Not sure what your prices are for the items listed, but AMD would be cheaper and still have good performance w/out OC'ing. If you like to OC, then Intel would be the way to go. I'd use a e2160 and Gigabyte DS3L or DS3R or Abit IP35 for budget mobo's based on the P35 chipset. The better the GPU you can get, will make a better gaming rig. If your PSU can handle the x1950pro or 8600gts than I would get the x1950pro. It'll do generally better than the 8600gts.

 

[cryptonx]

p3matty " what is your upgrade budget? "

- Well even If I told you , it will still be useless , since prices here are 30-55% more than anywhere else ( in the US )

for example a MSi Geforce 6800GTS costs $265 .
__________________________________________________

Lunyone ,
Thanks for the advice .

I think I want a DX10 card , the X1950pro is out of stock here , I am not very fan or not really up to date with ATi . Alyways been a geforce for me , so I am propabbly thinking of the 8600GTS or the GT ( As I've read that GT can OC near GTS levels )

I don't like to OC the processor or at least when its still brand new , and I love amd , SO i think i will stick with AMD , theier prices are super LOW Now .. but I am not sure which one I should get ...

4800 - 5000 - 5200 .. , I mean which is the best bang for the buck ??

the diffrence between the 4800 and 5200 is about $80

as for PSU , I have a chinese brand called HEC 550W , but I saw some better ones from " Anitech ?? "" and thinking of getting one .

I will go down today check the latest prices .

but I will ask for both systems , so Which board do you recommend for the AMD ? ( I dont usa Raid / have 2 drives ( dvd+hd ) / never used any of the super duper nforce4 features i have ) .

Thanks alot people !

 

[spentshells]

Athlon X2 4800 / 5200
2Gigs of Ram ( Only Kingston and Apogee are here ) .
8600GTS 256 GDDR3
250 Gigs Hard Disk

this works .... 2gigs of ram minimum

 

[lordszone]

do this that apart from getting one fast c2d, get an E4300 or something and fit in another gig of ram. the rest will go for a little while as 7300 isnt a good gpu. so u would have to upgrade soon then. hope i helped.

 

[cryptonx]

# quick update

Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 ( 2.0GHZ - 800 FSB ) > 700 LE = $122
XFX Geforce 8600GT 256 GDDR3 > 1000 LE = $175
XFX Geforce 8600GT 256 GDDR3 FATALITY > 1250 LE = $219
XFX Geforce 8600GTS 256 GDDR3 > 1450 = $254
PowerColor ATi Radeon X1950XT 512 GDDR3 = 1400 = $245

waiting for some AMD prices now
But from TOMs charts , a 4800+ easily EATS the E4300 alive , so do you think a 4800X2 is better than a E4400 ?

lordszone , Thanks , thats also an option , a fast cheap upgrade to go for now and increase it later .

 

[pous]

The 4800 x 2 is a good choice, however the E4300/4400 have great overclock potential... not sure if that's something you want to get into or not.

As for your memory ideas, go with kingston 2gb.

Video, I'd say get the x1950xt if it was for me, just because I've heard so many bad things about the 8 series cards if it's not an 8800 it's not worth it.

As for PSU not sure about the one you have, but you may want to look into a new one if yours is old and has been used a lot... nothing worse than getting a nice new system and having it die because of an old PSU.

Good luck with your build.

 

[cryptonx]

Thanks POUS , I am kinda convinced with the E4400 but only because I have no idea on the 4800 - 5000 X2 price , if its cheaper , to hell with the core 2 duo , I am not an overclocker and temp. here are Hot by nature ( its 39 C now )

As for the X1950XT well i love the fact that this one belongs to a cateogry I never purcahsed before ( High-end ) Although its a generation old but still the number 9 makes you kinda lol , this is lame .

I saw the X1950XT 256GDDR3 against the 8600GTS in the Toms VGA charts , it beats it in every single test .

But the problem is , DX10 !! I know That dx10 games are not much by now but they are all going to next year , and Although most of them will work ( i think ) on a dx9 with disabled features ... some of them will eventualy be DX10 or SM4.0 only , like the case with DX9 games now

And I don't really like the idea of throwing that hot X1950XT for $245 and these things dont even re-sell well here

( I used to have a 6600GT 256 , bought it for almost $300 , sold it 2 years later for $30 ) .

On the other hand , the X1950XT has more raw power than the 8600GTS , which if we supposed that I will be able to paly new games with DX10 features turned off , It will be more future proof than a 8600GTS ? FPS wise i mean ?

maan i am going crazy ....
as for PSU , I will get a 600W one I saw today called ACEpower . anygood ?

 

[cryptonx]

Ok , last bunch of questions
As I was thinking of getting a 8600GTS or the cheapher GT

I found some DX10 reviews ( mainly lost planet and call of juarez ) testing DX10 with 8800GTS / GTX and ATis offerings , and seriously the results suck !

a 8800GTS manages only 44 fps in tight area in lost planet

so if a 8800GTS can hardly achieve 40 fps in 1024 for a dx10 title
I suppose the 8600GTS/GT and lower cards will drop to the sub 25 - 20 fps bar !! which is TOTALLY useless if you ask me !

But what about two 8600GT in SLi ?? I am thinking of going the cheap way and get an OCed 8600GT then in a couple of months buy another one and put them in SLi i think it will be the 8600GTS easily no ?

but still that damned X1950XT 512GDDR3 is playing tricks on my mind

 

[plguzman]

Two 8600GT in SLi won't match a single 8800, GTS or GTX. And you are right, a 8600 is a waste if you want to play. You have to take into consideration that low budget and gaming are not compatible.

You can use your money in a smart way, that's good and that's what I try to do, but you have to spend more in a card if you want to play. At least get a 8800GTS 320 or a Ati 2900PRO.

 

[cryptonx]

Thanks Plguzman ,

Well I think I will do it like this :

- E4400 or a X2 5000+ ( price dependant )
- 2GB Kingston Rams
- Decent Suitable Mobo ( P35 for intel / Nforce for amd )
- 250 GB Sata Drive
- Decent Case and PSU .

I will plug my current 7300GT temp. it won't be able to do anything but atleast I can play my current games ( which it does a good job at ) .
I will also plug my old HDs / DVD and CDRW .

That should be a good pc upgrade ( not gpu wise tho , for now ) .

I will save the 8600GTS money .. a few weeks later or a month or two who knows and i I will get the 8800GTS hopefully .

I think this is the best thing to do with the limited resources I have , right ?

 

[plguzman]

I would get the E4400, a P35-DS3L mobo ($100), 2Gb PC 667 Rams, 250Gb HD Western Digital or Seagate (price dependant), a 550-600W PSU and a decent case.

The 7300, well, if works for you with your actual games, then you are good to go. It is indeed slower than the 8600, but it's better to wait a couple months and get the card that will allow you to play today's games decently.

 

[ethel]

You should be considering either replacing the whole lot (mobo, ram, cpu, gfx card) or just the gfx card.

Forget the idea of doing everything except the gfx card. It's pointless as that is your main bottleneck

 

[cryptonx]

Well ok I found another workarround ,
]
I will get the E4400, a P35-DS3L mobo ($100), 2Gb PC 667 Rams, 250Gb HD Western Digital or Seagate (price dependant), a 550-600W

Just like plguzman advice , yet
I will buy the 8800GTS 320MB which costs $390 here , using my Credit/Debit card from Citibank , and I can use thier ShopLite Installement programme which can let me pay for that $390 on 12 - 24 or even 36 months with only , 8% interest rate annualy .

What you guys think ?

 

[pous]

Sounds like a good plan, as long as you can afford to pay off the 8800.

With that set-up you should be very happy.

 

[cryptonx]

Great ! I need to be happy

Thanks alot people ! I will post pics and stuff when I finally get it