I'm building a system to play games on. I currently play Counter-Strike 1.6 a game thats been out for a while. I currently have a Dell, 1.8ghz p4, 512mb rambus, 9600. I get fps drops, lags, and things aren't as clear as they should be. With this new build I'd like to run 1.6 at 100fps in high settings w/ 1 or 2 smokes. Currently if I look at a smoke my fps will drop from 100 to 15. I may play some newer games in the future, but I don't need the highest settings on those. Really all I need atm is just a good computer to play 1.6 on. I have a few questions about the build.
1. Which case would be better? I believe antec has somewhat decent power supplies in their cases. The first one is 380watts while the second one is 480 I believe. Which would be best so if in the future I upgrade my CPU or graphics card I wont need to worry about my PSU?
2. I read the article here about the e2160 having the ability to be overclocked to 3.0ghz with stock cooler. What series of the core2duo would that overclock compare to? I was going for a cheap, but good build and I heard this processor can do the job. If it were overclocked to 3.0ghz does that mean each core is 3.0ghz or all together they are 3.0ghz? I don't know too much about all the new technology.
3. I have also read about bottlenecking performance. I was thinking with the overclocking of my CPU that the 8500 would be a good fit. Do you think this would last me a good while without upgrading?
I think the only upgrade I'd do on that computer in the next year or so would be a quad-core processor. Thanks in advance guys.
I would vote for the larger power supply. However, the the 380 will do for all but the highest end video cards. personally I prefer the all black case.
------------------------------I know what I know, and I don't know what I don't know.
Reply to tlmck
That particular 380 will be fine. It is not top of the line Antec, but good enough. I would be hesitant to run any of the high end cards on it though.(ie -Nvidia 8800 series, Radeon 2900-3800 series, etc...).
For gaming, I would not go below the 2600xt or 8600gts. Cards below those points are little better than integrated motherboard graphics for gaming.
------------------------------I know what I know, and I don't know what I don't know.
Reply to tlmck
I remember reading that some type of cable included w/ stock PSU's in cases dont have some type of rail needed for a PCI-e card. Anyone know if that case has the proper stuff?
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