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Gaming Build, Opinions Appreciated

Forum Homebuilt Systems : New System Build - Gaming Build, Opinions Appreciated

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Hello. I’m building my first PC, and have done extensive research to come up with a preliminary build, and I would greatly appreciate your opinion on it. Mainly, I’m looking for a system that will be able to play Age of Conan and similar games at a minimum of 40-50 fps on high-medium settings.

It’s a gaming PC, and my budget is at around $1300.00 excluding shipping costs and monitor. I want to get the best out of this budget so I will probably overclock.

My upgrade cycle is usually 2 years, in which time Nehalem will probably be accessible and cheap too, which will force me to buy new memory and a new motherboard. But meanwhile, this new PC will have to satisfy my gaming needs.

Configuration:
Total Price: $1413.00

• Core 2 Duo E8400
• Asus P5Q (P45) Deluxe
• GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB
• Corsair 4GB 240-DIMM Non-ECC DDR2 800
• Corsair 750W TX750W ATX12V Power Supply
• Zalman CNPS9700LED CPU Cooler
• Antec Twelve Hundred Case
• Antec TriCool Case Fan
• Western Digital Caviar 500 GB 7200 RPM
• Pioneer DVR-115DBK DVD Drive
• Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit

This configuration goes over the limit budget but if I don’t buy the $60.00 CPU cooler it should get there. I plan to overclock the CPU at around 3.6 GHz and I’ve heard that’s safe with the stock cooler. I could also change the case to a Thermaltake Armor VA8003BWS for $50.00 less.

The first tough decision I am in is the GPU. Now I know the GTX200 nVidia cards are coming out in a couple of weeks, but I can’t even dish out $450.00+ to get the cheap one. On the other hand, if the Radeon 4800 cards are good, please tell me as I can’t find much information about them. If they aren’t, I’m between a 9800GTX for $270.00 or a 8800GTS for $210.00. I heard SLI helps in Age of Conan, but it’s too expensive as even with dual 8800 GT cards it would go for $340.00.

The second issue is motherboard. I can either get the new P45 chipset Asus P5Q Deluxe, which has excellent reviews so far though it’s not overly tested, or I can get one of the nForce chipset motherboards for future SLI. They say the latter runs hot compared to the P5Q.

I hear all the time that SLI isn’t truly worth it, and a single powerful GPU is much better. That’s why I’m leaning towards the P5Q Deluxe configuration. What do you think?

Also, do you think I´ll be able to moderately overclock the GPU, CPU, and memory easily?

Message edited by Hans D on 06-10-2008 at 06:32:49 AM

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well all in all a pretty good system there, i would wait on the new generation GPU's which ever way you go as even if they are out of your price range you should find that the price's 'should' drop on the older generation cards, i also believe that the 9800GTX is not worth the extra money for the marginal performance increase you get over the 512mb 8800GTS so i would go for the GTS (depending on the prices of the new cards ofc)

as for SLI dont bother, not worth it at the moment, as the gains you get are usually not much and in some instances games have been found to run slower with SLI!

for HSF get the arctic cooler pro 7, dirt cheap and a great cooler, i dont think its worth not having one if you are planning on doing any form of OC'ing when you are spending that sort of money on a system,

also have you thought that if you are not planning on a mad OC's it might be worth saving a little bit of money and getting a good p35 motherboard instead of the p45,

Reply to minimad127

I wanna say something but not to different as minimad127. So..+1 for minimad127'S opinion.
Just wanna add Zalman cnps9700 is much better, and x38 is also worth to consider.

------------------------------ Intel Q6600 @ 3.0GHz + ASUS P5E X38 +
4GB DDR2 1000 CL5 Mushkin + Coolermaster Dominator Xcalade 690 + Corsair VX 450W + HIS HD 3850 512MB Turbo + Seagate 500GB 7200rpm 32MB + Zalman CNPS 9700 LED + Logitec EX110 + ASUS VW198S.
Reply to guanyu210379

That's some great advice, thanks to both of you. The only thing that makes me wanna build the system sooner rather than later is to play Age of Conan as my current system, with a P4 and 6800 GTS, can't play it well at all.

That aside, I might wait for prices to drop like you recommended, better be smart after all.

The thing that drove me away from cheap P35 boards is all the consumer reviews that say how the card came bad. I don't live in the US, so if something comes bad to me, I loose the money. Shipping it back is too expensive.

I'll start researching X38 motherboards, see what I can find. I guess I'll also abandon SLI, so an Intel motherboard is better than an nvidia one, or so I've heard.

Again, thanks for the great advice!

Reply to Hans D

I can't make any suggestions because you made great choices on your hardware. Good Job!!. The new Nvidia and ATI cards come out probably this month or next Month for sure so you MIGHT want to wait.

Reply to joelg88

I know the 9800 GTX gets bashed quite a bit on the boards, but honestly, I love it so far (just a few days of ownership). I bought it from a place with a 30 day return policy, therefore I'm going to either SLI it or get the new cards that come out in a few weeks (and return, craigslit or ebay the 9800). I'm playing Age of Conan in near max settings, and the 9800 GTX handles it fine.

Reply to natedawg

About your video card, what kind of monitor/display are you pairing it with and what size? Sometimes even an 8800gt is good enough and you can' t tell the difference. But of course, it depends on what kind of display you're using

Reply to nhanandmel

Thanks for the great advice again. Now the monitor is kind of an issue. You see, I'm a lazy person, and this PC was meant to help me do exercise, as strange as it sounds. My parents recently bought a 54" LCD HDTV for our living room, and also placed a static bicycle in front. The plan is to play while doing exercise.

I think the native resolution of the TV is 1900x1080, and I know this is going to be stressful for the card. Based on the recommendations I might wait for the new cards after all. It's just that they're so expensive.

Again, thanks!

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to Hans D

Hans D wrote :

Grab an xbox 360 and a couple games for that HDTV while you make up your mind on the computer video card..

Reply to y2kgtp

Haha, you might be right I'll do that while the new GPUs come out.

Reply to Hans D

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