Dad's Vanguard PC

[milhouse11]

Hey guys,

I'm in the process of building a new machine for my dad to use for Vanguard. It's been about 8 yrs since my last build, so the technology has passed me up a bit.

Below is what I have picked out, but I'm not sure what do do about the GPU. I've heard ATI is the best option for Vanguard, but everything else I read points to mobos with the nForce4 chipset for gaming.

My question is, should I go with this setup, and give up any Crossfire ability down the road? Should I go with this setup, but get an SLI capable GPU? Should I go with a Crossfire capable mobo such as the Asus A8R-MVP? If I use the MVP, will the Corsair memory be compatible with the ATI chipset, or should I go with another brand?

He's giving me about a $3000 budget for this system, so I'm not too worried about skimping. I'm at around $2400 right now, but I still need to include a monitor, speakers, etc. Also, I plan to overclock to about 2.4GHz.

I'd appreciate any advice you all have.

? Case: Lian Li PC-6070BPLUS Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
? Mobo: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard
? GPU: ATI 100-435705 Radeon X1800XT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
? PSU: Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply
? CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA4400CDBOX
? RAM: CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 433 (PC 3500) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model Twinx2048-3500LLPRO
? DVD: NEC Black IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner Model ND-3550A
? SC: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface Sound Card
? HD: WD Raptor 74GB
? Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
? ZALMAN CNPS7000B-Cu LED 2 Ball Blue LED Light Cooling Fan

 

[Malladine]

He has the cash, plan for crossfire/sli.

I've heard ATI is the best option for Vanguard

I wouldn't put much into the ati/nvidia performance differences in a game that hasn't been released yet.

Corsair should be fine with any chipset.

 

[Aoleleb]

You should wait untill the end of the month on the video cards. Both ATI and Nvidia will be bringout out there new cards at the last week of jan or first week in Feb. It would be worth to wait that long since its not like vanguard will be coming out anytime soon anyway.

 

[milhouse11]

Thanks guys. I guess why I'm asking now is because he's a beta tester, and really doesn't have a setup to play it well at all. So, with that in mind, any advice on if I should go with a cheaper card for the time being and upgrade when the game launches, or go with the X1800XT which should hold up for a while?

 

[zagood]

Go with something like the x850xt pe for now, and wait for the next cards to come out. Unless they have requirements for beta testers that should be fine for now.

Also spend a little extra on the heatsink. Zalman 7000 is a decent HSF but you can get better cooling than that for your budget.

-z

 

[milhouse11]

Thanks zagood. In that case, would which mobo would you go with? The A8N-SLI Premium, or the A8R-MVP, or else?

 

[xenocyd3]

i would get a different psu... antec is starting to get shady lately...


and corsair is pretty expensive for the performance...

you could switch brands and save money for better cooling.