Need help to build my new system

[mechanty]

What I have in my rig right now:

Athlon 64 3500+, Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, 4 GB RAM, 2 PNY GeForce 6600 in SLI mode and Windows XP.

It's time to upgrade and I have to 2 setups in my mind and I would like your opinion about which one would be the best.

First choice: Core 2 Duo E8400, GeForce 8600GT and MSI P7N for about $575

Second choice: Phenom X3 8450, ATI HD4850 and Gigabyte GA-MA790X-DS4

This whole setup would be for playing games of course! In the past, I have owned Intel and AMD setup and I have no preference. I know that a system built with the right components will perform as well.

Thanks for your help.

 

[outlw6669]

Both choices are bad.
Look into an Intel based P45 or X38/48 based motherboard from either ASUS or Gigabyte.
Do NOT buy a POS MSI board or a **** nVidia based motherboard.
Also, the 8600GT is a very slow card.
I would highly recommend against it.

Try an E8400, ASUS P5Q-E and a 4850.
It will give you plenty of power and some good options to upgrade in the future.

Keep in mind that you will also need to purchase new memory and probably a new PSU.

I would recommend 4Gb of DDR2 800 with 4-4-4-x timings.
Anything faster will just be a waste of cash.

For the PSU, you will need a minimum of a 450w PSU from a quality manufacturer like Corsair, PCP&C, Enermax, Seasonic or the Antec Earthwatts line.

 

[auscanzukus]

^ +1

 

[mechanty]

I have a Antec Trio 650W PSU so that should be enough. But I made a mistake with my choice of video card. I wrote 8600GT but I meant 8800GT. Is it much faster than the 8600?

Also, I heard that the HD4850 had a cooling problem. Is that still the case?

 

[dirtmountain]

There are now good aftermarket coolers available with the 4850 at very good prices.

 

[Onus]

+1 @outlw6669, except possibly on the RAM. Make sure whatever you get will run at its advertised timings on the JEDEC standard 1.8V.

 

[OMGiTzzFATAL]

Hey all.
I have a concern regarding me gaming PC. I have recently purchased a expertvision Radeon HD4870 sonic Dual edition video card so that i could run my games at decent settings, but take COD4 for example, i have to put most of the settings on medium/high at 1024x768 to get just 20-60 FPS when playing online (this is in an outside enviroment. Inside a building i get much higher FPS e.g 80+)
I was hoping to be able to have all settings on max at 1650x1080.

I dont know all that much about computers, but im wondering if my CPU is holding my performance back.
I have a intel pentium D 950(i think) 2x3.40ghz at 800Mhz FSB.
2x2Gigs of OCZ 1066mhz at 5-5-5-15
Asus P5KC mobo
CoolerMaster Realpower 700W modular PSU
160GB maxtor SATA 2 harddrive

I have noticed a big performance increase over my old ATI x1600XT
Old 3Dmark06 score(with x1600xt) 2400 lol.
New 3Dmark06 score (with OC'd 4870) 7500 Better, but not Good

Can anyone help me please, is it my CPU? Thanks in advance for any advice or tips.

 

[Onus]

Perhaps if you start your own thread instead of trying to hijack this one, you will get some suggestions.

 

[OMGiTzzFATAL]

Sorry.
This is the first time ive used this, so i dont really know what im doing.
peace

 

[outlw6669]

I have a Antec Trio 650W PSU so that should be enough. But I made a mistake with my choice of video card. I wrote 8600GT but I meant 8800GT. Is it much faster than the 8600?

Also, I heard that the HD4850 had a cooling problem. Is that still the case?

Yes, the Antec Trio 650w will be more than enough for your rig.

Yes the 8800GT is more than twice as fast as the 8600GT, lol!
It is a much better choice although I would still recommend spending a little more for a 4850.
And, no, the stock cooling on the 4850 is not the best (neither is the cooling on the 8800GT for that matter).
If you manually bump the fan speed, however, the cards can be kept cool enough.
It would be much preferable to look into a 4850 with aftermarket cooling, the HIS IceQ much perferd.

As for the RAM, I only mention it because your current A8N-SLI only supports standard DDR memory.
Your new motherboard will support only DDR2 (possibly DDR3 but I would advise against it).
RAM that keeps to the JEDEC 1.8v standard will be the easiest to work with as you should not need to change anything in the BIOS. Most of the tightened latency kits will require you to manually set the speed, timings and voltage in the BIOS. As there is a minimal performance difference between the faster and slower kits, you should get what ever is the cheapest from a quality manufacturer.

 

[mechanty]

Thanks for all the help outlw6669. I will look for these parts.