Long story short, I used to be into PC hardware pretty hardcore... managed a computer store; computers were my life. Well it's been 5+ years now and life has taken me down a different path, so I'm woefully out of touch with the latest PC hardware.
My primary gaming PC, which was once a beast, is now at the point where it will only play the latest games with cutting-edge graphics on the lowest settings. As a PC Gamer, this is not acceptable.
As such, I'd like to build a new PC and acquaint myself with some of the newer technologies.
* This computer will be used primarily for gaming. Other than that, just web-browsing, word processing, etc.
* My budget is flexible, but if I could keep everything under $800 that would be a plus. However, if I can squeeze out substantial performance by spending an additional $50, I'm going to do it. I'm looking for the point of diminishing returns here.
* I live in the US and plan to purchase everything online (I have purchased my personal computer parts almost exclusively from Newegg.com and will likely stick with them). I have a Frys nearby that I can go to as an alternative.
* I have no loyalty to any one manufacturer or company. AMD, Intel, nVidia, ATI, whatever... I want all the FPS I can get for my buck, regardless of the name printed on the box.
* I do intend to use a few items from my current system: Case, PSU, Monitor, OS, DVD-RW, mouse, keyboard. As such, my $800 budget does not include these items. I'm basically looking for the "guts" of the system.
* I'd like at least 6GB RAM and 1TB HDD.
* I've read similar threads here and on several other popular PC hardware websites. I've purchased every magazine I could find with info on the subject. I remembered finding very good advice here in the past, though, and will factor your thoughts in to my decisions very heavily. None of the other threads I came across covered a scenario quite like mine, so I opted to create a new thread for it.
* I likely won't overclock unless/until it becomes necessary to get a smooth 60 FPS out of my games down the line. But overclockability need not carry much weight.
* With the preceding point in mind, my plan was to buy a retail processor and simply use the stock fan/heatsink. This is one area where I certainly welcome your suggestions, however.
* I've been planning this for a couple months now and I'm ready to do this right away. That said, I won't pull the trigger until I know I've got it right.
* I currently plan to run games at my monitor's max resolution of 1680 x 1050. I will upgrade the monitor later, likely next year, and would like to be able to run higher resolutions when I do, without having to upgrade my video card.
I've played around with a couple configurations, one using an AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Ed. and the other with the Intel i7 920. The latter was the more expensive option. But does the performance advantage justify the premium on price at this point? Should I be looking at a different solution entirely?
Don't feel obligated to necessarily post ideas for the entire system. If you have experience with just one or more areas I'm covering, please reply. Regardless, thanks for your input!
My primary gaming PC, which was once a beast, is now at the point where it will only play the latest games with cutting-edge graphics on the lowest settings. As a PC Gamer, this is not acceptable.
As such, I'd like to build a new PC and acquaint myself with some of the newer technologies.
* This computer will be used primarily for gaming. Other than that, just web-browsing, word processing, etc.
* My budget is flexible, but if I could keep everything under $800 that would be a plus. However, if I can squeeze out substantial performance by spending an additional $50, I'm going to do it. I'm looking for the point of diminishing returns here.
* I live in the US and plan to purchase everything online (I have purchased my personal computer parts almost exclusively from Newegg.com and will likely stick with them). I have a Frys nearby that I can go to as an alternative.
* I have no loyalty to any one manufacturer or company. AMD, Intel, nVidia, ATI, whatever... I want all the FPS I can get for my buck, regardless of the name printed on the box.
* I do intend to use a few items from my current system: Case, PSU, Monitor, OS, DVD-RW, mouse, keyboard. As such, my $800 budget does not include these items. I'm basically looking for the "guts" of the system.
* I'd like at least 6GB RAM and 1TB HDD.
* I've read similar threads here and on several other popular PC hardware websites. I've purchased every magazine I could find with info on the subject. I remembered finding very good advice here in the past, though, and will factor your thoughts in to my decisions very heavily. None of the other threads I came across covered a scenario quite like mine, so I opted to create a new thread for it.
* I likely won't overclock unless/until it becomes necessary to get a smooth 60 FPS out of my games down the line. But overclockability need not carry much weight.
* With the preceding point in mind, my plan was to buy a retail processor and simply use the stock fan/heatsink. This is one area where I certainly welcome your suggestions, however.
* I've been planning this for a couple months now and I'm ready to do this right away. That said, I won't pull the trigger until I know I've got it right.
* I currently plan to run games at my monitor's max resolution of 1680 x 1050. I will upgrade the monitor later, likely next year, and would like to be able to run higher resolutions when I do, without having to upgrade my video card.
I've played around with a couple configurations, one using an AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Ed. and the other with the Intel i7 920. The latter was the more expensive option. But does the performance advantage justify the premium on price at this point? Should I be looking at a different solution entirely?
Don't feel obligated to necessarily post ideas for the entire system. If you have experience with just one or more areas I'm covering, please reply. Regardless, thanks for your input!
I smell a troll going around...
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