Gaming computer?

[sammyunltd]

At the beginning, I wanted to go to something cheap, like a P4 3.0 GHz LGA 775 - with a PCI-E GeForce 6600 GT. With a monitor (but without mouse, keyboard and speakers, cause I already have them), about 1230$ USD. That's my target price (1200-1300 with monitor --- 1100-1150$ w/o monitor).

Then, I began to think, to doubt about the P4's ''gaming-skills'' and now I'm as the same place as I was, five months ago: AMD or Intel? I know AMD is far better for gaming rigs but it's pretty damn expensive and there's no (except SLI, but I don't have $$$) PCI-E support. I'm attached to the 6600 GT cause it's good and affordable. Correct me, but I'm not sure there's an AGP card at that price that is that good.

Should I go with AMD (probably AMD 64 3200+ S939) ? Or Stay with Intel (P4 3.0 GHZ LGA 775)? And should I overclock my CPU (is it that necessary)? If yes, do I need better ram (like PC 3700-4000...)?

The rest of my specs are:

MoBo: InteL: ABIT AG8 ---- AMD : I don't know
Antec 1080 Performance Plus w/ 430 W Antec PSU
160 GB SATA (Maxtor)
MSI GeForce 6600 GT PCI-E
1X512 MB DDR 400 (Generic RAM)
Samsung 19'' 997DF (Monitor)
Onboard Network and Sound

Thank you a lot!

 

[Rip the Jacker]

Go with AMD.

1. I recommend Seagate INSTEAD of Maxtor. My maxtor died on me and I have seen others die as well.

2. I also suggest waiting until all the 939 motherboards come out so you have a good selection and Anandtech reviews them.

3. Your CPU is going to be so powerful you won't need to OC unless you're ... in my words "stupid" because I use a Celeron and it's fine and I couldn't imagine someone with an A64 NOT happy with the performance.

4. Just get Corsair/Crucial/Mushkin Value Ram. No big difference. Stay with DDR400 (PC3200)

 

[SLCentral]

I've never had a problem with Maxtor drives myself, but I have heard of them failing before.

I'd stick with AMD simply because performance is better. Wait out for the whole latter of the 939 motherboards to come out before necessarily purchasing, unless this is a rush buy.

 

[AwesomeJay]

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...1717&enterthread=y

 

[SrGuapo]

I don;t know what you mean about the price of the A64s. I see the 3000+ winchester for only $150. The comparable intels cost almost $200 and the AMD is a much better OCer.

 

[sammyunltd]

It depends. Here in Canada, Intels CPU are less expensive.

When will the mobos be available (for S939)? Because, it is a rush buy... not really rush... cause I can wait, but I can't more than 2 or 3 weeks... I've been waiting for so long, my patience has reached its limits

PS: Thanks for the link Awesome Jay

PS2: Concerning the case, with an AMD system, and a little bit of o/c, how many Watts do I need. I'm planning to buy the Antec 1080 Perf. Plus w/ 430 W PSU, but the case is a bit expensive, so I was looking for another one (Full-tower with a good PSU, just reliable). I saw the Raidmax Scorpio 668 w/ 420 W, but I heard its PSU is somewhat cheap.

PS3: Concerning the chipset and video card, should I wait a take a cheap nForce 4 (not now, it's too much for me...) that is PCI-E friendly (and keep my GeForce 6600 GT PCI-E) or go no with nForce 3 and look for a good AGP card (that is similar in term of price and performances to the 6600 GT PCI-E)?

 

[Alcoholik]

First off your better off not getting a p4 because they will burn themselves out after a short ammount of time.. Athalon(if you get one with a good amount Gigahertz) is way better... or maybe a p3.

 

[AwesomeJay]

ahh.. fellow canadian.. check this site out

http://www.pricenetwork.ca

you can search for stuff up at the top and it finds good prices on that part in canada.

doesnt the 6600GT come in an AGP flavour also? so you could go nforce3 socket 939 say the MSI K8n Neo Platinum 2 , athlon 64 3000+ , 1GB of value ram and you would be laughing

 

[sammyunltd]

Yeah, I forgot to mention it
Thank you for the website Jay!

Anyway, am I right if I say that PCI-E isn't really better than AGP, at least now?

PS: What's the better ''maker'' of nVidia video card (in term of package and performances)? Leadtek? MSI? XFX?... I saw a great deal (6600 GT AGP 8X) but it's a XFX so I'm not that sure :S

PS2: So, according to you, the MSI K8n Neo Plat. 2 is the best S939 mobo I can have outta here? When will the new PCI-E S939 mobos be available?

Thank you!

 

[AwesomeJay]

Originally posted by: sammyunltd
Yeah, I forgot to mention it
Thank you for the website Jay!

Anyway, am I right if I say that PCI-E isn't really better than AGP, at least now? Just for fun: Do you know when PCi-E and DDR2 will be better, I mean really better (clear advantage or DDR 1 and AGP 8X)? I was told that in 2006-2007, we would see DDR 2 and PCI-E emerging from the surface.

PS: What's the better ''maker'' of nVidia video card (in term of package and performances)? Leadtek? MSI? XFX?... I saw a great deal (6600 GT AGP 8X) but it's a XFX so I'm not that sure :S

PS2: So, according to you, the MSI K8n Neo Plat. 2 is the best S939 mobo I can have outta here? When will the new PCI-E S939 mobos be available?

Thank you!

well the MSI K8n Neo Plat. 2 may not be the BEST s939 motherboard.. its a popular one and seems to be good for overclocking. there are some threads in here about problems with that motherboard. if you arent stuck on nforce3 you could go with the Asus A8V Deluxe which uses the VIA K8T800 chipset.

from what i read now there is no real gain over pci-e and ddr2 over agp and ddr.. of course that will change.. i'm sure someone else can ring in with more info on that.

edit -- if you are in ottawa i can point you to some good local stores..

 

[sammyunltd]

Yeah... that's the point. When I was looking for an AMD rig... that was my 2 options, the MSI one and the Asus A8V Deluxe.

But, if I overclock a little bit, do I need better ram (like PC3500-3700-4000)?

As for the nVidia "maker"? Do you have an idea? XFX, MSI, ASUS, Leadtek?

EDIT: I'm in Quebec City, but my sister lives in Toronto so she can pick up orders at some good stores ;P

 

[AwesomeJay]

http://www.athlonxp.com/reviews.php?rev=xfx6600gt

review for the XFX 6600GT . i'm not sure which is better out of XFX, MSI , ASUS or LEADTEK. i've seen all their names tossed around on here.

check this out about needing better ram for overclocking

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...5190&enterthread=y

check out

http://www.shoprbc.com

they are a local store here in ottawa. i'm pretty sure they ship to quebec

also for cooling and case modding you can check out

http://www.bigfootcomputers.com
http://www.adpmods.com

 

[sammyunltd]

Thank you Jay! You're Awesome man!

I'll probably go with a Athlon 64 3200+ with a MSI K8N Neo 2 or an ASUS A8V Deluxe, with 512 MB DDR RAM PC3200 (I'll put another 512 later on), and a ?????? GeForce 6600 GT AGP8X. Except for the Videocard, everything else is the same price as the Intel counterpart... for much better performances.

Thanks!

PS: Like I said, is 400 Watts enough for this rig?

 

[ts3433]

Depends if the PSU is quality. "Watts" themselves mean nothing because the spec is so abused. A better idea is to check the amperage ratings on the individual rails to make sure the unit has what you need. If you get something in that 400W-450W range from a reputable manufacturer like Fortron, Antec, Enermax, or Seasonic, you should be in good shape. (OCZ and PCP&C are also great, but prices are a bit up there.) Stay away from generic crap.

 

[sammyunltd]

Okay. Thanks!

 

[DragonFire]

Originally posted by: ItmPls
Go with AMD.

1. I recommend Seagate INSTEAD of Maxtor. My maxtor died on me and I have seen others die as well.

I would almost say the same thing if it wasnt for the fact that I just noticed a black resister has burned itself out on my Seagate 80GB SATA drive. The stupid thing is just barely holding on....

 

[sammyunltd]

I heard that the Maxtor HD are more hot than the Seagate. Is that enough to spend more for a Seagate?

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

I'd take Seagate over Maxtor any day.

 

[sammyunltd]

Okay! That answers my question!

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: sammyunltd
At the beginning, I wanted to go to something cheap, like a P4 3.0 GHz LGA 775 - with a PCI-E GeForce 6600 GT. With a monitor (but without mouse, keyboard and speakers, cause I already have them), about 1230$ USD. That's my target price (1200-1300 with monitor --- 1100-1150$ w/o monitor).

Then, I began to think, to doubt about the P4's ''gaming-skills''

Pentium 4's do fairly well in gaming - especially if you can get a good deal. I worked the Dell deals and got the following system last Nov:
-Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz (LGA 775)
-1 Gb 533 Mhz DDR2
-Radeon X800SE 128 (a little faster than the Radeon 9800XT)
-160 Gb SATA hard drive
-16X DVD-RW dual layer burner
-19" LCD Flat Panel monitor 16 ms refresh 500:1 contrast

all for $1048 shipped... yeah - it's a prefab but I think I got a decent system for the price. I'm not a hard core FPS gamer, but this system should handle the latest games pretty well.

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: AwesomeJay
ahh.. fellow canadian.. check this site out

http://www.pricenetwork.ca

you can search for stuff up at the top and it finds good prices on that part in canada.

doesnt the 6600GT come in an AGP flavour also? so you could go nforce3 socket 939 say the MSI K8n Neo Platinum 2 , athlon 64 3000+ , 1GB of value ram and you would be laughing

hey, thanks for the link. very nice

 

[sammyunltd]

You are from the US? I mean DELL USA is way better than DELL CANADA..... and so far, on dell.ca I haven't seen the X800 SE.... I saw the X300 SE but not the X800SE.

Take a look at my config. Is it better now:

Antec 1080 Plus Performance w/ PSU Antec 430 W
MSI K8N Neo Platinum 2
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ S939
1X512 MB DDR Kingston PC3200
Seagate 160 GB SATA
MSI GeForce 6600 GT AGP 8X
LG DVD-ROM 16X
Samsung 19'' CRT 990DF 1920X1440

For around $1240 US w/ tax & shipping

 

[techwanabe]

Yeah, I'm in Syracuse NY - so I ordered from Dell US - probably shipped from Texas.

The X800SE is no longer offered, they are offering a 6800 flavor as the "mid" level card now. It would probably be better than the X800SE I got, but I'm ok with it since anything faster than a Radeon 9800XT would be a sigificant jump from my old GF4-Ti4200. Again, I'm not a big FPS gamer anyway... mostly Role Playing Games like Baldurs Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights and Sacred etc... the odd FPS game now and then.

 

[bluewall21]

Originally posted by: sammyunltd
It depends. Here in Canada, Intels CPU are less expensive.

When will the mobos be available (for S939)? Because, it is a rush buy... not really rush... cause I can wait, but I can't more than 2 or 3 weeks... I've been waiting for so long, my patience has reached its limits

PS: Thanks for the link Awesome Jay

PS2: Concerning the case, with an AMD system, and a little bit of o/c, how many Watts do I need. I'm planning to buy the Antec 1080 Perf. Plus w/ 430 W PSU, but the case is a bit expensive, so I was looking for another one (Full-tower with a good PSU, just reliable). I saw the Raidmax Scorpio 668 w/ 420 W, but I heard its PSU is somewhat cheap.

PS3: Concerning the chipset and video card, should I wait a take a cheap nForce 4 (not now, it's too much for me...) that is PCI-E friendly (and keep my GeForce 6600 GT PCI-E) or go no with nForce 3 and look for a good AGP card (that is similar in term of price and performances to the 6600 GT PCI-E)?

I have the same PSU in my case, a Raidmax Scorpio 868, and it works very well. I was going to buy a different power supply before my build, but the one supplied with the case has held up well, and I have been using it for 4 months so far.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Dear god we really need to clear some things up in this thread and we need to have a few questions answered.

First of all: OP: What do you plan on doing with this system? Purely gaming. Hardcore gaming casual??

Secondly: Right now Intel though they are still an awesome Processor manufacturer, there is no reason to buy them over an AMD. Intels run much hotter than AMDs and consume much more power.

Third: It is Athlon NOT Athalon.

Fourth: DO NOT. Under ANY circumstances get a Dell. They are great for entry level computers but for gaming PC's horrible as they use proprietary H/W and as a result do not OC.

Here is what i suggest. assuming you are a casual gamer that has a decent amount of money saved for this.

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester Core .... Or if you do not need that much speed a 2800+ Newcastle.
MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum
6600GT AGP video card
2x 512mb Corsair Value RAM
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 series drive or if noise is of no concern find a special on a Western Digital drive.
Your choice of the rest of the components, but i would advise staying away from thermaltake at all costs.

-Kevin