Advise on Gaming System.

[Overdose84]

I'm looking for a pretty sweet Gaming system, but i'm not QUITE sure on some of the parts i'm going to go with... I'm looking for something that will handel any MMORPG that is in production like World of Warcraft or Ultima X Odyssey, something to that effect... Or Doom 3 would be a great game to base my specs on, but i have no idea what the game requirements will be, seeing how they're not released.

I've talked to a few ppl, and i'm informed that ATI and Nivida (??) are releasing some Uber Video cards that are going to put the ATI 9800 pro 256 meg cards to shame in a few months... so i'll be going with the 9800 pro after the price drop... for sure.

I'm also probably going to go with the AMD Athlon 64 3400 processor over say the P4 or the Athlon 3200, i'm going to have the money, why not go the extra distance? but there are a few 64 3400s and i dont' know the diff from one to the next.

Memory, Not sure the exact time i should get, but i'm looking for a gig of it, a nice solid amount for all games.

Sound card... i have no clue.... I was told i should go with Audigy sound card... but... w/e?

Mother board, i've been told i should go with an Nforce 2 mobo, but i'm not sure if exactly which one makes a differance in performance.... and price.

Tower, whats it matter? I'm hoping for something black with a window and neon lighting... you can't sink all this cash into a PC and not have it look the part... now can I.

And a 80 gig hard drive would be nice, i don't see myself realisticly needing any more then that. But is there a specific kind of HD i should get? "Sata raptor 15k rpm hardrive for games" was what i was told i should get, but it SOUNDS rather expecive... and i didn't know a HD was all that special... i mean, recomend something that isn't uber, but is good for my system.

If you guys could fill in any major holes in my plan that i may of left out... or not know of... fill me in please, and give me some suggestions to the exact parts along the lines of the specs i'm looking for. That would be Fantastic! Thanks in advance ppl.

Just to clear things up, I'm looking for a good-great Gaming system... not the Ultra Uber system 2005 or something like that (although that would be nice to refure to my PC as that...*Drools*) which would cost me like 3 grand.

I live in Canada, and i'm prepared to spend upwards of 2 grand... but would LIKE to stay close to or below if possible.... if not, i'll drop a few hundred more for my dream machine.

 

[jcwagers]

First of all, welcome to the forums! Ok....I'll give this a shot. It sounds like a 9800 Pro will be a good choice for your system. Now, the Athlon 64 3400+ will be an awesome processor but be aware that the socket platform that it's on is short-lived. They will be introducing socket 939 soon which will be the main platform for Athlon 64 processors. If you aren't in a tremendous hurry, I'd advise you to wait until the new socket is out before dropping a load of cash. By then the prices on some of the other components may go down and you might get a better deal.

As for your memory, Kingston, Mushkin, and Corsair all make great RAM. If you intend on trying any overclocking, I hear that you would want to go with PC3500 or higher so you'll have more headroom.

The popular sound card right now is the Audigy 2. If you can get one of those, that's great but I think the regular model has been discontinued for the ZS model so you might end up getting one of those. As far as motherboards go, you can't use and Nforce 2 mobo with an A64 setup. Nforce 2 is designed for the Athlon XP processors. You might want to wait and see how the NForce 3 250 motherboards will be priced as these seem to be the boards that everybody are waiting on. If you have to get it now, the VIA chipset seems to perform a bit better than the NF3 150 platform.

If you're looking for a case, check some place like newegg to look at the pictures and see if you can find the case that you like. Then perhaps do a google search and find a vendor that carries it. Just make sure that you do NOT skimp on the power supply for the system. I would recommend at least a 400 watt quality power supply from some trusted company such as Antec, Fortron, Sparkle, or Enermax.

As far as hard drives go, there is no such thing as too much space. You can invest in a raptor(which is a Western Digital 10k drive) if you are really that dependent on speed. If you just want a good quality hard drive, Sata offers no performance increase over IDE at this point or if there is a difference, it is quite neglegible. Try to find a good deal on a 160gb or 200gb drive from WD, Maxtor, or Seagate. Make sure you get the 7200 rpm and get one with an 8mb cache. It may not fly but it will be fast enough and it will give you lots of storage space for all of those games.

What kind of optical drives are you looking at? If you are interested, I'd recommend the NEC 2500A DVD burner as it will double as a CD-RW drive and will do for a DVD-Rom drive as well. If you can spring for it, you might also look into a dedicated DVD-Rom drive as it will most likely rip movies and such faster than the burner drive will. If you're keeping your current monitor, you'll be good to go. If not, look at the Anandtech price guides as they list a Samsung 19 inch monitor and an NEC 19 inch monitor that will do a great job of keeping you gaming for a long time. If you have anymore questions, just post away. Someone is sure to answer you. Good luck with your system!

jc

 

[Abydos]

IMHO I think you should hold out for technology like PCI-Express and the newer GPU's (around summer/fall timeframe), unless you want to build it right now. In that case, I'd prioritize my shopping list in order of importance like this:
1) Video Card
2) Processor
3) Quality Memory
4) Fast HD (anything 7200RPM+ with 8MB cache) Raptors if you can afford them.
4) Stable motherboard with Gigabyte Ethernet
And unless you are an audiophile, onboard sound works great and will let you use that money towards a more beneficial part than a soundblaster. Also, if portability isn't that big of an issue and you want a monitor, stick with the CRT's (they possess higher refresh rates and are a lot cheaper) Hope that helps you.

 

[Overdose84]

Oh, sorry ppl, i started to read your replies and realized i didn't exactly mention my time frame...

I'm not EXACTLY in possession of this... money... but will be about a month into the summer holidays, July...ish.

So i'm not going to be buying anything untill then.

 

[MithShrike]

jcwagers said rightly. Although, if nVidia does reinstitute the SoundStorm on the nF3 250 then don't bother with an Audigy because SoundStorm is quite nice. Also, last I heard multisampling antialiasing techniques did not work with Half-Life 2 although there is probably an update that I haven't seen which has resolved this issue. What the antialiasing problem means is: you can't get AA on nVidia cards. If you are planning to do a good deal of 2D work I would suggest ATI over nVidia because there is a marked difference in ATI's favor. Hope I've helped.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Overdose84
Oh, sorry ppl, i started to read your replies and realized i didn't exactly mention my time frame...

I'm not EXACTLY in possession of this... money... but will be about a month into the summer holidays, July...ish.

So i'm not going to be buying anything untill then.

Then you should consider the system components, not now. In the computer industry changes happen so quickly. For instance by then socket 939 for Athlon 64 will be introduced and new set of videocards, making your choices much different.

One recommendation I can make is to get an Athlon 64 CPU for gaming and Raptor hard drives or 2 ATA drives in Raid 0 for faster loading in games. Otherwise, time changes the other choices and it's hard to predict what will be the best component in the future until that time comes especially since no benchmarks about the new videocards are available.

 

[Overdose84]

First off, thanks for all the advice guys, your helping alot.

I'm definitely going with the ATI Radeon 9800 pro 256meg, its a great card and will be alot cheaper after the new cards come out.

But your talking about the implementation of the new socket 939 in the coming months, so i shouldn't really drop like 400+ bucks on the Athlon 64 3400+ CPU and wait for this new socket... I'm not QUITE sure what that means, Is that a new CPU that will out perform the 3400+, but at the cost of like 600 bucks? Is it worth it to go the extra mile for the new socket 939, rather then having to upgrade sooner in the future with the 3400+.

And the mobo, i'm glad you told me the Nforce 2s arn't compatable with the processor i WAS going to go with. But that i should go with the Nforce 3 250, (when out) which will have SoundStorm and i won't need a soundcard because it will act as a rather decent one in itself?

When i go to get my system in the summer... and the price of the 9800 pros have dropped.. but the Nf3 250s arn't out yet (as you said most are waiting for them) What mobo should i go with that will support my vid card and processor?
And would that mean that i would have to get a sound card because this alternate mobo won't have "SoundStorm".

Monitors, i was hoping for a 21' er... just sounds so lovely.. but is it worth the added cost? And if so, which should i go with. I'm not looking for LCD, that is more pricey, and i'm not that interested in LCD.


I'd love to proof read this, to make sure i asked everything i wanted too, clearly.... but.. Pizza is here.. and i have to get some of that before its gone... thanks for the help again guys.

 

[wetcat007]

Originally posted by: Overdose84
Oh, sorry ppl, i started to read your replies and realized i didn't exactly mention my time frame...

I'm not EXACTLY in possession of this... money... but will be about a month into the summer holidays, July...ish.

So i'm not going to be buying anything untill then.

Then maybe ask again in July? We'll have a whole new line up of vid cards then..

 

[Rukkian]

Since you have time, I would hang around these forums some and by the time you get to the point of buying, you will probably know everything you need. You have the time and this is a great place to learn.

Welcome to the Forums

 

[Overdose84]

Thats the plan, read anything that catchs me eye... just wanted another opinions for the general specs that i'm looking for... thanks ppl.