Advice

[rajaton]

I am building a new computer, and I'm wondering if I will hit any sort of bottle necks. I'm getting a Quad 8200 2.33ghz processor, 4GB of ram, and the ATI 4890 by Powercolor. The only games I play are the usual ones from Steam(Portal, L4D, TF2, HL2), Fallout 3, and Fable Lost Chapters(Old I know, but I love being evil . Anything you would recommend upgrading? The reason I'm going with the 8200 is because it's a decent price and from what I've noticed on other people's computers it seems to perform quite well too.

 

[ares1214]

i would recommend getting one of these two combos:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.314266

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.313429

both are better, and probably a little cheaper.

 

[rajaton]

I don't really want to go with AMD, I've had lots of issues in the past and I would have to buy a new motherboard. If I went with the i5, then I would have to buy a new motherboard and more ram as well. I have the Maximus II Formula mobo which I am quite happy with, and 4 gigs of DDR memory. I already have a higher end computer, this is more for my friends that come over to game with me.

 

[ares1214]

yes, but it is such a waste to buy a slow 775 cpu, since it is already outdated and cant even come close to performing as well. this is a good combo though;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.310917

mobo, cpu, and video card all in one. you could sell your current gear and not spend more then you would for just the cpu and vid card. also get this ram if you do buy i5:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231318

 

[rajaton]

I won't ever go with gigabyte board, I see your point though. As I said, this is sort of a basic system, just adding in a few things to keep my friends happy. It will still play everything, I'm not going to overclock it, I'm not concerned about crazy performance, I'm just trying to figure out what issues there could be/how I would fix them. I may also just save up for a Q9550 and add that in. Thanks for the advice, I am probably just gonna upgrade a bit until I decide what I want to do.

 

[treefrog07]

If you go another $20, you could get the E8400. It has great reviews @newegg. I ran it for a year with two HD 4870s, and it did really well in flight simulator and tomb raider (underworld) games.

 

[rajaton]

Treefrog07, my friends and I also get together to work on school projects using things like CS4, which are better with a quad core.

 

[obsidian86]

right now for under the $900 market amd rules the roost in bang for buck terms any intel short of the i5 750 doesn make sense to reccomend

 

[ares1214]

once again, throwing any money into a 775 system is waste, its like life support, just prolonging its agony :lol: , and what is wrong with gigabyte and amd!? amd i can accept, just personal preference, but gigabyte makes great boards. if you refuse, then it will just cost probs a little more.

 

[obsidian86]

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2009/11/26/purchase-justification-syndrome/

 

[rajaton]

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2009/11/26/purchase-justification-syndrome/

I'll take the first step and admit it

and Ares1214, I don't like Gigabyte because I have bought three boards from them and each one has blown its caps within a year. First one was a P4 system, next one was an AMD, and then a Core 2 Duo. Maybe they have changed within the last...19 months...or maybe it's just my bad luck but thrice burned means no return

 

[ares1214]

fair enough, i hate seagate cuz 3 of their drives failed on me, but what about this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.315588

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.319731

the ram is ok, but i would rather the eco series, but that would be a better upgrade then wasting 200 on a dead tech.

 

[treefrog07]

Treefrog07, my friends and I also get together to work on school projects using things like CS4, which are better with a quad core.

Sorry, I only had the info in your original post. You can buy whatever you want to buy.