Sorry, I haven't been keeping up with the new stuff, but I'm going to be building a new computer and I was hoping you guys could direct me in the right direction to start. Just wondering what some of the top of the line hardware is right now. It's main, and probably only purpose, is going to be for gaming, thanks in advance. Money is no isssue.
top of the line hardware..
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Well if you can wait for a little bit, there'll be some new stuff out for ya.
nforce 3 250 boards (currently 150 boards are out) for athlon 64's
also the new graphics cards are out at the end of the month
Here's what I'd offer:
Athlon 64 3400 (3200 is better value)/ or Athlon 64 FX-53 (kinda pricey for its advantage though)
nforce 3 250 board when they come out
nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra or Radeon X800, whichever is better
2X 74 GB Western Digital Raptor 10K RPM SATA-150
1GB OCZ/Mushkin level 2/Kingston HyperX/Corsair XMS PC3200 or better RAM
Audigy 2 ZS sound card
Creative Gigaworks 5.1/7.1 speakers
8X DVD burner
Alcohol 120/50 % or similar(software that allows you to dump games on your hard drive)
19-21" CRT or 20" LCD monitor
nforce 3 250 boards (currently 150 boards are out) for athlon 64's
also the new graphics cards are out at the end of the month
Here's what I'd offer:
Athlon 64 3400 (3200 is better value)/ or Athlon 64 FX-53 (kinda pricey for its advantage though)
nforce 3 250 board when they come out
nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra or Radeon X800, whichever is better
2X 74 GB Western Digital Raptor 10K RPM SATA-150
1GB OCZ/Mushkin level 2/Kingston HyperX/Corsair XMS PC3200 or better RAM
Audigy 2 ZS sound card
Creative Gigaworks 5.1/7.1 speakers
8X DVD burner
Alcohol 120/50 % or similar(software that allows you to dump games on your hard drive)
19-21" CRT or 20" LCD monitor
Its software that allows you to copy game cds to your hard drive (Alcohol 50%) and even make copies of them (Alcohol 120%). It can help load times since your hard drive can transfer data faster than even a DVD drive. Its $50 for the 120% which includes %50 (which I think is $35). I only use the hard drive copying really, although I can verify the copying works. You can even do this with PSone and PS2 games. I know there is other software that does the same thing, but I took a chance with this and I'm satisfied with it. I would recommend it if your wanting the extra edge and don't want to have to worry about CDs. Not sure how much of a performance gain it really offers, but Halo loads levels really quickly for me (combine this with a Raptor and it'd probably make quite a bit of difference in loading).
Oh and as for Intel's 64 bit CPU. I think I remember reading that it was supposed to debut later this fall in their Xeon's and then trickle down, but something about it might be pushed back. No telling really with Intel. They're probably gonna make sure they don't suffer another Prescott (Dell has even started putting Northwoods back into their higher end computers instead of Prescotts). Windows 64 should be out this fall, so maybe MS and Intel have some kind of a deal. I do know that Athlon 64s are known to be better at gaming than P4. The 64 bit Intel's pretty much just rip off most of AMD's design, but still have some pretty big differences (memory controller still off chip), but there's no real timeline for it, so I wouldn't wait for it.
If possible you might wait til midsummer (I believe this is right) when PCI-express and various other motherboard innovations come out. It'll offer even better gaming performance. Intel and AMD also are both set to release new socket types (775 for intel, 939 for AMD) sometime this year, so again if you can wait, it'd probably benefit you. Ideally this fall will be a great time to get a new system as the graphics will be on their first updates and 64 bit of windows will help AMD some.
Oh and as for Intel's 64 bit CPU. I think I remember reading that it was supposed to debut later this fall in their Xeon's and then trickle down, but something about it might be pushed back. No telling really with Intel. They're probably gonna make sure they don't suffer another Prescott (Dell has even started putting Northwoods back into their higher end computers instead of Prescotts). Windows 64 should be out this fall, so maybe MS and Intel have some kind of a deal. I do know that Athlon 64s are known to be better at gaming than P4. The 64 bit Intel's pretty much just rip off most of AMD's design, but still have some pretty big differences (memory controller still off chip), but there's no real timeline for it, so I wouldn't wait for it.
If possible you might wait til midsummer (I believe this is right) when PCI-express and various other motherboard innovations come out. It'll offer even better gaming performance. Intel and AMD also are both set to release new socket types (775 for intel, 939 for AMD) sometime this year, so again if you can wait, it'd probably benefit you. Ideally this fall will be a great time to get a new system as the graphics will be on their first updates and 64 bit of windows will help AMD some.
I wouldn't say it's a huge difference, but if you are a gamer as stated, the A64 is the chip for you. 
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