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HL2 system with a budget

T

ThePiston

Senior member
Well it took me 3 hours to pull the trigger, but I think I'll be happy. I saved over $400 by not getting A64, 76GB Raptor, Radeon 9800Pro AIW, or awesome ram. This will get me by for now:

VGAATI|AIW RADEON 9600XT 128M 8X RT (Qty=1,Price=$139.00)
MB SHUTTLE|AN35N-ULTRA RETAIL (Qty=1,Price=$56.00)
CPU MOBLE AMD|2600+/266 ATHLON XP% (Qty=1,Price=$97.00)
DDRAM512MB|CORSAR64X64 VS512MB400 R (Qty=2,Price=$140.54)
S/W SIERRA|HALF LIFE 2 (Qty=1,Price=$49.99)
CPU FAN|ARCTIC-COOL CPRSLNT2M RTL (Qty=1,Price=$13.99)

rest of the parts are being taken from old PCs.


$400 will now go towards electronic drums. Budget will be very surprised🙂
 
get a 2500+barton isntead and overlock it to 3200+..easy as cake.

I recommend you get a 9800pro. I got mine for $179 awhile back, so it shouldn't be hard to find something better.
 
Originally posted by: Goosemaster
get a 2500+barton isntead and overlock it to 3200+..easy as cake.

I recommend you get a 9800pro. I got mine for $179 awhile back, so it shouldn't be hard to find something better.
Click to expand...

or OC the mobile to 2.6ghz or so. My barton never gets over 2.17ghz stable.

And go 9800 pro. Not a question about it.
 
not to be a fanboy or anything -- but if you can wait, I believe the 6600gt will be better and will be similarly priced..... AGP version should be available late this month?
 
Well considering what you originally intended to buy I think you put together a very well rounded alternative. I would also suggest a Barton 2500+ and o/c to 3200+. Pricewise I don't think it will be an issue. If you can splurge a little bit more, I think what miketheidiot recommended about a 9800pro instead of the 9600XT is a good idea.

A 6600GT vs. 9800Pro has been covered many times - you might want to check out those threads too.
 
xp mobile 2600+ default operating frequency: 2ghz, barton core 400fsb not overclocked (these are multipier unlocked) $98 shipped from newegg.

xp 2600+ default operating 1.9ghz barton core, 333fsb not overcocked, multpier locked $108 shipped from newegg.

Throw in the fact that the mobile will overclock much better than the regular barton, and there's really no reason at all to get the desktop model. They're cheaper, overclock better and have no multiper lock. The barton 2500+ was a sweet chip last year for the socket a platform, now its all about the mobiles.

Stick with the mobile xp 2600+.
 
"I like you guys, but you guys are crazy."

I always get an all-in-wonder so I can watch TV while I'm on the computer... the 9600XT AIW was $139 while the 9800Pro AIW was $239, $100 I can use somewhere else. Plus, the 9600XT was refurbished and if I don't like it, I can sell it on Egay for a profit of about $40-$50. I'll see what happens with HL2... I don't usually play at super high res. I looked at the prices of the 6800GT... out of the question for this project.
 
Originally posted by: ThePiston
"I like you guys, but you guys are crazy."

I always get an all-in-wonder so I can watch TV while I'm on the computer... the 9600XT AIW was $139 while the 9800Pro AIW was $239, $100 I can use somewhere else. Plus, the 9600XT was refurbished and if I don't like it, I can sell it on Egay for a profit of about $40-$50. I'll see what happens with HL2... I don't usually play at super high res. I looked at the prices of the 6800GT... out of the question for this project.
Click to expand...

Why don't you just get a TV Tuner PCI card, that way you won't have to keep fronting extra case for the AIW feature everytime you want to upgrade your 3d games?
 
have had bad experiences with separate tuner cards and they come with crappy software and tech support. I've come to know and be comfortable with the AIW. Trust me, if HL2 sucks on 9600XT, I'll get the 9800Pro in a heartbeat.
 
I don't know if you save yourself any $$ by doing that since you're going to have to upgrade sooner or later. ;-)





EDIT: Right looked at the price tag. Aaron's an idiot you = bargain shopper. NIce work
 
Originally posted by: xsilver
not to be a fanboy or anything -- but if you can wait, I believe the 6600gt will be better and will be similarly priced..... AGP version should be available late this month?
Click to expand...

Available now!

I'm picking one up (6600GT AGP) to replace my 9800 Pro 128MB.

 
Originally posted by: PingSpike
xp mobile 2600+ default operating frequency: 2ghz, barton core 400fsb not overclocked (these are multipier unlocked) $98 shipped from newegg.

xp 2600+ default operating 1.9ghz barton core, 333fsb not overcocked, multpier locked $108 shipped from newegg.

Throw in the fact that the mobile will overclock much better than the regular barton, and there's really no reason at all to get the desktop model. They're cheaper, overclock better and have no multiper lock. The barton 2500+ was a sweet chip last year for the socket a platform, now its all about the mobiles.

Stick with the mobile xp 2600+.
Click to expand...

Agreed!
 
ahhhhhh, but by buying it refurbished for $139 I can take a look at the performance and I can make money on Egay (selling for about $170) if I don't like it. Pretty smart, eh little chums?
 
Originally posted by: ThePiston
by "budget" I mean "wife"
Click to expand...
LOL... 😀 I know EXACTLY what you mean.

Your specified system is pretty much what I'm upgrading from, only I had a 9800 Pro. I really don't recommend that you buy any video card less than that.

And PingSpike's advice is dead on. I use a Leadtek TV tuner for that very reason.

 
the TV tuner card is about 50 bones anyway. I'll let you know how the 9600XT looks and plays I promise. I'm not going to keep a crappy card.... I should know by Saturday morning.
 
The 9600XT is an awesome buy. For the $150 price range, which 9800 Pro doesn't fall into, you can't go wrong.

Just find a few benchmarks/reviews and you will see that it plays the latest generation of games (UT2004, Farcry, Doom3, HL2) at modest-to-high settings. As long as you don't plan on running them at 1600xXYZ with full AA and AF, that card is the best mid range available right now.

9800 pros, 6600GT's, etc. are still very expensive for budget gaming.
 
Originally posted by: ThePiston
$400 will now go towards electronic drums. Budget will be very surprised🙂
Click to expand...

Surprising your "Budget" is dangerous to your ... ahhm ... health. 😉 Unless it's a good surprise for her. You might want to replace "electronic drums" with "gold necklace". Just a thought. 🙂
 
You'll struggle with the low settings at 800x600 with that card and processor. It'll run and it may be perfectly fine for your needs. For me that setup would make the game unplayable.
 
so one of you says you can play Far Cary with med-high res fine and one of you says it will be hardly playable at 800x600. I'll let you know who's FOS by the weekend.
 
Here's some HL2 benches on different cards.

Nothing below a X700 is tested, though, so I'm not sure where a 9600XT would fall. I'm guesstimating the 9800 Pro would be just a tad bit below the X700XT (so it ought to do around 50-60fps at 1280x1024), so a 9600XT would most likely come in around half that (around 30 fps). If you drop the resolution down to 1024x768 the 9600XT might be able to squeak by with an acceptable frame rate. You can probably forget about running AA/AF though.
 
Keep in mind that HL2 is quite processor based as well, so overclocking your processor would be definitely recommended...

And i would definitely agree with the above posts about both getting the 9800 pro and a separate TV card. my PCI tv wonder VE (Also by ATI) doesnt work too bad for my needs.

just seems kinda silly as the AIW cards are quite a bit more than their non AIW counterparts...
 
I would instead of getting a XP-M 2600+ get a 35Watt 2400+ OCs farther runs cooler.

Also for the RAM isn't that supposed to be 1gig for $140? If not just get Corsair Value select RAM 1gig for $140.

Women... ive just learned to stop arguing.

-Kevin
 
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