$500-600 Gaming System?

[tapir]

I agree, get the 965P if you can -- I was just saying if you didn't think you could afford C2D in the first place, using a 945P mobo is a good way to save $30-50 and you will still get a solid overclock to ~~2.7ghz.

But grab an S3 (965) or an MSI 650i if you can make it work; it might even be better to get one of those boards and DDR2 667 than what I have with DDR2 800.

 

[happy medium]

It's a little over budget but will smoke all those systems for games and future upgrades.

830.00$ Prices have dropped since ..... Just add case,


e4300 cpu 170.00$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...13&ATT=19-115-013&CMP=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r

2 gigs of cheap ram that should let the e4300 clock to 2.9 or so. 115.00$
Heres the thread on the ram in hot deals.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=2003479&enterthread=y

Gigabyte ds3 for 125.00$ here

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA4830994

EVGA 8800gts 640mb for 349.00$ here

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A9602826&cmp=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r

This 500 watt enhance psu should be fine for this set up. 69.00$

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=PS-E5150GH

I'll be gaming at 1600x1200.

Total 830.00$

If theres something better/cheaper thats higher performance let me know.

 

[CapnKill]

 

[CapnKill]

So it seems like Intel is the better way to go right now?

 

[CapnKill]

Originally posted by: happy medium
It's a little over budget but will smoke all those systems for games and future upgrades.

830.00$ Prices have dropped since ..... Just add case,


e4300 cpu 170.00$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...13&ATT=19-115-013&CMP=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r

2 gigs of cheap ram that should let the e4300 clock to 2.9 or so. 115.00$
Heres the thread on the ram in hot deals.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=2003479&enterthread=y

Gigabyte ds3 for 125.00$ here

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA4830994

EVGA 8800gts 640mb for 349.00$ here

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A9602826&cmp=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r

This 500 watt enhance psu should be fine for this set up. 69.00$

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=PS-E5150GH

I'll be gaming at 1600x1200.

Total 830.00$

If theres something better/cheaper thats higher performance let me know.

I probably don't need a $350 video card... wow, thats spendy.

 

[CapnKill]

I never overclocked before... mainly because I allways would have to add extra cooling, but it seemst aht w/ the e4300 you can go pretty high with stock cooling, is this true?

 

[happy medium]

yes ,you should get 2.8 /2.9

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: CapnKill

Originally posted by: happy medium
It's a little over budget but will smoke all those systems for games and future upgrades.

830.00$ Prices have dropped since ..... Just add case,


e4300 cpu 170.00$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...13&ATT=19-115-013&CMP=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r

2 gigs of cheap ram that should let the e4300 clock to 2.9 or so. 115.00$
Heres the thread on the ram in hot deals.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=2003479&enterthread=y

Gigabyte ds3 for 125.00$ here

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA4830994

EVGA 8800gts 640mb for 349.00$ here

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A9602826&cmp=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r

This 500 watt enhance psu should be fine for this set up. 69.00$

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=PS-E5150GH

I'll be gaming at 1600x1200.

Total 830.00$

If theres something better/cheaper thats higher performance let me know.

I probably don't need a $350 video card... wow, thats spendy.

but sadly necessary if you want to game @1600x1200 or higher, and there are already games out that will bring it to its knees - rb6??? sadly, this is why i picked up a 360...

 

[CapnKill]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: CapnKill

Originally posted by: happy medium
It's a little over budget but will smoke all those systems for games and future upgrades.

830.00$ Prices have dropped since ..... Just add case,


e4300 cpu 170.00$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...13&ATT=19-115-013&CMP=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r

2 gigs of cheap ram that should let the e4300 clock to 2.9 or so. 115.00$
Heres the thread on the ram in hot deals.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=2003479&enterthread=y

Gigabyte ds3 for 125.00$ here

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA4830994

EVGA 8800gts 640mb for 349.00$ here

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A9602826&cmp=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r

This 500 watt enhance psu should be fine for this set up. 69.00$

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=PS-E5150GH

I'll be gaming at 1600x1200.

Total 830.00$

If theres something better/cheaper thats higher performance let me know.

I probably don't need a $350 video card... wow, thats spendy.

but sadly necessary if you want to game @1600x1200 or higher, and there are already games out that will bring it to its knees - rb6??? sadly, this is why i picked up a 360...

So is this the ****** card? I mean.. is there an ATI equivalent that will work w/ DX10? I've read some reviews and such and it seems that if I want to consider the future this a great card to buy...

 

[bob4432]

actually the best current card is the 8800gtx, but they still crazy expensive. atm i don't think ati has a dx10 card out. this 8800gts 320 card is a good card, but if you don't need dx10, a x1950xt 256MB card is a tough competitor, they can ususally be had for ~$200

this review is very good - about the 8800gts compard to other top end cards - http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2926 just so you know, i am pretty sure the x1950xtx is a 512MB card and they are not testing with a x1950xt 256, which imo they should as it is a high end card in a middle class price 🙂

 

[CapnKill]

Originally posted by: bob4432
actually the best current card is the 8800gtx, but they still crazy expensive. atm i don't think ati has a dx10 card out. this 8800gts 320 card is a good card, but if you don't need dx10, a x1950xt 256MB card is a tough competitor, they can ususally be had for ~$200

this review is very good - about the 8800gts compard to other top end cards - http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2926 just so you know, i am pretty sure the x1950xtx is a 512MB card and they are not testing with a x1950xt 256, which imo they should as it is a high end card in a middle class price 🙂

So if a card is not DX10 it's never going to be right? It's not a matter of drivers, its more of an architecture thing? And I do understand that there are very few if any DX10 games currently, but I do want this system to last a while.

 

[CapnKill]

Oh and I don't see myslef geting anything bigger than a 19" flat panel any time soon... so my max resolution will be in that range for a long time...

 

[jpeyton]

Sadly, no matter what you buy, it'll be out of date in 6 months.

If you want to dance around your purchase for 6 months, it will only delay the inevitable.

Thats why you should spend the least amount to get the performance you need, and be happy you saved your money for upgrades down the road.

 

[CapnKill]

Man I hope a $350 video card is not going to be obsolite in 6 mo. I can make it work.. I don't really play games on super high resolutions..... I would like everything to look pretty though. BF2 on 800x600 with everything on Low is probably not very attractive, fortunatly I don't have anything to compare it to so I don't know any better 🙂

 

[JJ7575]

If you really want a DX 10 card and dont want to spend that much i woud suggest waiting on your build a few weeks as the ATi cards and the lower Nvidia cards will be out.

I read somewhere today that the Geforce 7 series cards are to stop production on or around april 16th,(or some companies are at least) so i would expect to see the 8400 and 8600 around that time

 

[bob4432]

you can get bf2 to play @ 1280x1024 or 1440x900 on less gpu than the 8800gts 320, but it isn't dx10. hell, my x1800xt plays it butter smooth with everything except shadows on (i just don't like them) high @ 1280x1024, and probably 1680x1050 if f i turned it down to medium

i just don't know dx10 is going to be mainstream and when it will really be needed for the majority. sure the people who are on the cutting edge and shell out the serious $$$ will have, along vista and the dx10 games, but i don't go that way anymore since hardware prices fall faster than other item i can think of.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: CapnKill
Oh and I don't see myslef geting anything bigger than a 19" flat panel any time soon... so my max resolution will be in that range for a long time...

If this is going to be your monitor get the 8800gts with 320mb of memory. They go for about 270.00$ If you get a EVGA brand you can upgrade it within 90 days for a better card. So if a better card comes out for 300.00$ you just trade it in and pay 30 bucks for your upgrade. These cards will match or beat a x1950xtx(ATI's fastest card) at your resolutions.

 

[alimoalem]

i like happy medium's recommendations. but if you can, wait til ATI releases its DX10 cards

 

[CapnKill]

How far away are these ATI DX10 cards?

 

[happy medium]

I think a month or two

 

[CapnKill]

Damn, I don't know if I can wait that long... I can only assume their price range will be somewhat the same

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: CapnKill
Damn, I don't know if I can wait that long... I can only assume their price range will be somewhat the same

with competition, hopefully the prices will go down....

 

[CapnKill]

Thats a good point... but I've waited soooo long! I've had my current build for 4 years... I'm amazed I can actually play BF2 on it.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: CapnKill
Thats a good point... but I've waited soooo long! I've had my current build for 4 years... I'm amazed I can actually play BF2 on it.

i understanc completely, but if you have waited 4yrs, if you waited until the ati/amd came out just to see if it made a difference the only thing that is going to happen is you will benefit - as you probably know the longer you wait the faster/cheaper the rig will be. you could start getting parts now, like ram since it has dropped nicely and cpu too, but since you are on a pretty strict budget i would at least try to wait until the competition comes out to see what it does to prices. look at what competition did to the x2 lines - one day they x2 3800 was ~$300, the next $150...i don't know if this will be anything like how the gpu stuff will be, but there is a possiblity of a decent price dropping since nvidia will no longer have the only dx10 cards

just my thoughts

 

[CapnKill]

So my understanding is that I can overclock the 4300 to about 3Ghz... with no cooling modifications? Are there any cases that you guys recomend that would be better for this? I have no interest in adding extra fans and stuff just to overclock, but I'm geting the impression that this thing can overclock without the need of extra cooling... is that correct?