Maximum price : $3000. My old comp is a 6 year old POS. Help!

[weFall]

I have a 6 year old computer which can't even run UT3 at medium without sever lag.

Now, with that information, I'm looking for the best system out there without having to worry about upgrades for a good 3-4 years. Maximum price would be around $3000, running on a 24''. What GPU should I go with? GX2?

Many people said upgrading to a GX2 from the 8800 series was a problem, I'm at the 4300 series. No issue here.

Again, maximum price is $3000 not including monitor or speakers. Already have a nice 24'', so I'll be running 1900 x 1200.

Should I wait for this rumored "next-gen" card to come out, or should I buy now?

Thank you very much for your help, I appreciate it.

 

[megame255]

It'd be a waste of money to spend $3000 on any configuration and expect it to hold up for 3-4 years. Why not spend only $1000 now on a decent, entirely new setup? Then you can save the rest to upgrade a few things here and there for a year or two and you'll probably even have enough left over after a few years to build another computer that'd put any possible current system to shame.

Just a thought... considering how much money you have, and what you seem to want out of your computer.

 

[groo]

you'd be MUCH better off to get 2nd tier components and upgrading more often. such as the 9600gt, or a 3850. then get a new one in 9-18 months vs. GX2 and upgrading in 4-6 years

its not server lag if a better graphics card would help.

Get a good quality motherboard, its the backbone of your system

 

[yadge]

its not server lag if a better graphics card would help.

He meant severe.

 

[StevieD]

Having a Bleeding Edge computer is really wonderful. But in 3 years you will only have an OK computer.

Personally my computer life is 3-5 years, so I am willing to accept a bit of trade off in performance, but for the gamers on this forum such a compromise is not acceptable.

For most people I would recommend a rebuild or serious modification every two years. Based upon that recommendation, a smaller investment would make better sense.

 

[cisco]

How about:
QX9650-1,029.00
Asus Maximus Extreme-349.00
8gigs of OCZ Reaper PC8500-259.00
Evga 9800gx2-589.00
2x150 Raptor drives-340.00
Seagate 500gb 32mb-134.00
Liteon DVD Burner Sata-29.00
Vista Premium Home 64bit-100.00
PC Power 750w Quad- 159.00
Total 2,988.00
Of course you'll have to use your old case, or spring for a new one. This should be a pretty solid system for 3-4 years. You could go with an SLI mobo and go with 2xGTS 512 and save about $125.00. 3,000 you can build a pretty damn good system. I would probably opt for something a little less, like a Q6600 and overclock it, that would save another 750.00 bucks. I think you could spend about 2,000 and get virtually the same results. Unless your a complete benchmark junkie you will likely not be albe 00to tell the difference.
As f0or me:
Q6600------------------------253.00
EVGA 680i SLI mobo-----------179.00
8gigs OCZ Reaper PC8500------259.00
2x8800GTS 512mb SLI8458
2 Raptors 150-349.00
Creative XFI xtreme gamer-150.00
Razer Copperhead mouse-
PCPower 750w qaud 159.00
Tagan Monolith full case.


some build ohers others when I'm not so druck and tired...

 

[weFall]

Cisco-

I like that configuration, but you do need to know that I am not a benchmark junkie. I only want to play whatever is now and the next year at the highest possible settings with a smooth, precise frame rate. Would the 9800 gtx in SLI be better then the single GTX2? Would two GTX2's be stable?

 

[MrMeth]

I agree with everyone else I think you would be better off spending $1000-1500 now and upgrading overtime instead of dropping 3000k right now . You could get a pretty sick core 2 system with 2 8800 GT or GTS or even a quad core system for like $1500 and just save the money and upgrade as you like further on down the road .. that would be the smart money saving , staying one step in front of the game , way to go in my book . I personally upgrade something on my PC at least once a year but that's just me !!

 

[zenmaster]

It'd be a waste of money to spend $3000 on any configuration and expect it to hold up for 3-4 years. Why not spend only $1000 now on a decent, entirely new setup? Then you can save the rest to upgrade a few things here and there for a year or two and you'll probably even have enough left over after a few years to build another computer that'd put any possible current system to shame.

Just a thought... considering how much money you have, and what you seem to want out of your computer.

I Completely Agree.
You could easily build a very nice System for $1000-$1200 w/o an significant comprise.
You start getting into serious waste as you spend more.

Then upgrade as time goes by.
This time Next your there will be new CPUs out that put the best CPUs available now to shame.
There will be new GPUs that put todays current GPUs to shame.

If you blow you money now, you will be behind then.
Buy a "Good" system now and upgrade as needed.
You really start getting very little return as you spend more.

 

[weFall]

How about this?

MOTHERBOARD - eVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 nForce 780i SLI
Great overclocking and stability abilities
High-end board with many features, like Firewire, dual ethernet, and passively cooled heatsink system
Supports SLI if you plan on buying another video card in the future
PROCESSOR - Intel Core 2 Duo Q6600
Quad-core!
9x CPU multiplier means excellent overclockability
Native quad core stock speed of 2.4 Ghz is smoking
With price cuts, you get the Q6600 for a great price: under $300
VIDEO CARD - Gigabyte Geforce 9800GX2
The baddest video card in the entire valley
DX10 compliance means survivability in the long term
Plays anything on the market at maximum settings
Buy another and put it in SLI if you feel your graphics power is faltering
POWER SUPPLY - OCZ GameXStream 600W
Enough power and amps to support the 8800GTX, multiple hard drives/optical drives, and overclocked components
OCZ is well-known for its fantastic PSU customer service
Very long connectors, so you can get to hard-to-reach places at the corners of your case
Many cables, means lots of room to expand in the long-term
MEMORY - G.Skill 4GB PC6400 (DDR2-800) RAM
EXCELLENT memory clocks: 4-4-4-12
Very stable overclocker - go to 1066 Mhz with ease
Quite cheap for 4 GB RAM
G.Skill provides a lifetime warranty and is very, very dependable
HARD DRIVE - 2x Western Digital Caviar 500 GB 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache
Western Digital makes very dependable drives
Large capacity hard drive
Very stable hard drive in any RAID setup
CPU COOLER - Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme
One of the very best CPU coolers on the market
Overclock with no worries. The Q6600 will reach 3.0 Ghz easily. It's theoretically possible to push it to 3.6 Ghz on this cooler. Overclock at your own risk; don't forget Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound.
CASE - Antec P180
Great looking case for a great price
One of the best cooling solutions on the market (doesn't look like it from the outside, but its design gets the job done)
Comes with three high-speed 120mm fans, with mounting holes for 2 more
OPTICAL DRIVE - Lite-On DVD/CD/DVD-RAM Combo Burner/Reader
It's a Lite-On, so it's dependable
All-in-one drive read CDs, writes CDs, reads DVDs, and writes DVDs
Lightscribe technology for pretty CD/DVD covers
LCD MONITOR - Samsung 22" 2253BW (WSXGA+)
Response time of 2ms means no ghosting during gaming!
WSXGA+ (1680x1050) resolution is the best you can get on a 20" screen
Really pretty ... really, really pretty
DVI gives better picture quality than VGA
Total Price: $2000