What system specs do I need for a decent gaming rig?

[brigden]

I'm completely out of touch with computer hardware these days. (My last video card was a 9700 Pro.) After my little brother showed me some trailers for upcoming games like Call of Duty 4 and Battlefield: Bad Company, I started thinking about buying a gaming rig. I'll more than likely buy something pre-built, as I can't be arsed to build it myself, but I'd like to know what kind of specs I should look for.

I would appreciate it if you guys can offer any insight into what I need, minimum.

Cheers.

 

[myocardia]

Buy/build one with a Core 2 Duo, and 2GB of system RAM. If it's a pre-built, make sure that the motherboard has an open 16x PCI-E slot, if it doesn't come with a video card pre-installed.

 

[aCynic2]

I heard once, $1,200-1,500 will build a machine that will own 75-80% of all others.

 

[Laminator]

That is true, except it's more like 90%+ considering the computers that are sold on the mainstream.* Right after Core 2 Duo came out last year, I built the system in my signature (minus the VF900-Cu on my video card, so the clocks were 560MHz/1510MHz) from NewEgg for $1550 after taxes and shipping. You could very easily build a Core 2 system with 680i, 2GB of very fast DDR2 RAM (you can get DDR2-1000 for about $150, for example), an 8800GTS or 8800GTX, and an X-Fi for that much.

*That's a guess.

 

[MegaVovaN]

Let me see...
Core 2 Duo
2gb fast ram or 4gb slow/cheap ram if not OCing
8800GTX or GTS
_insert favorite chipset here_
X-Fi wont work in vista.

 

[Ruptga]

Buy a Dell with a C2D and overclock it

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=1968220

And like the others said, 2GB of memory, and a PCIe 16x slot so you can put in your own graphics card (prebuilders charge a premium whenever you add discrete graphics). Then go to newegg or some place like that and pick up a 1950pro, 8600GTS, or 8800GTS. Which card you want depends all on your budget.

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: Laminator
2GB of very fast DDR2 RAM (you can get DDR2-1000 for about $150, for example)

Waste of money. The Core 2 Duo will default and and all memory to DDR2-533 speeds so unless you're specifically overclocking and need the headroom there's no point in buying superfast memory.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN
Let me see...
Core 2 Duo
2gb fast ram or 4gb slow/cheap ram if not OCing
8800GTX or GTS
_insert favorite chipset here_
X-Fi wont work in vista.

Thats funny, my roomates x-fi works perfectly fine in Vista...

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: ADDAvenger
Buy a Dell with a C2D and overclock it

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=1968220

And like the others said, 2GB of memory, and a PCIe 16x slot so you can put in your own graphics card (prebuilders charge a premium whenever you add discrete graphics). Then go to newegg or some place like that and pick up a 1950pro, 8600GTS, or 8800GTS. Which card you want depends all on your budget.

you need to look at benches before you are suggesting a 1950pro or 8600gts for upcoming games - those cards are pretty bad w/ the 8600 series not much faster than the 7600 series.

op - i would probably wait until at least ati/amd puts out a new card do see what it does and hopefully drive the prices down on the upper end models. the nvidia line is basically high end and low end with no middle grownd.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Roguestar

Originally posted by: Laminator
2GB of very fast DDR2 RAM (you can get DDR2-1000 for about $150, for example)

Waste of money. The Core 2 Duo will default and and all memory to DDR2-533 speeds so unless you're specifically overclocking and need the headroom there's no point in buying superfast memory.

o/cing is what most people do on the c2d platform. with ther faster ram you can get a lower multiplier chip, like a 6300 and o/c it like mad

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: Roguestar

Originally posted by: Laminator
2GB of very fast DDR2 RAM (you can get DDR2-1000 for about $150, for example)

Waste of money. The Core 2 Duo will default and and all memory to DDR2-533 speeds so unless you're specifically overclocking and need the headroom there's no point in buying superfast memory.

o/cing is what most people do on the c2d platform. with ther faster ram you can get a lower multiplier chip, like a 6300 and o/c it like mad

I doubt most dell boards would be able to hit 400fsb+, so nothing over ddr2-800 would be needed

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: yh125d

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: Roguestar

Originally posted by: Laminator
2GB of very fast DDR2 RAM (you can get DDR2-1000 for about $150, for example)

Waste of money. The Core 2 Duo will default and and all memory to DDR2-533 speeds so unless you're specifically overclocking and need the headroom there's no point in buying superfast memory.

o/cing is what most people do on the c2d platform. with ther faster ram you can get a lower multiplier chip, like a 6300 and o/c it like mad

I doubt most dell boards would be able to hit 400fsb+, so nothing over ddr2-800 would be needed

at what point to i suggest a dell board? i would never suggest a dell setup for a good gaming rig unless the op can't do it himself and then at that time, good luck o/cing it....

 

[yh125d]

we're talking about him buying a dell w/ a C2D and buying a vid card seperate. he would be using the dell mobo, which I doubt would hit 400 fsb, unless he gets a top of the line one with a 965 or 975 chipset

 

[Ruptga]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: ADDAvenger
Buy a Dell with a C2D and overclock it

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=1968220

And like the others said, 2GB of memory, and a PCIe 16x slot so you can put in your own graphics card (prebuilders charge a premium whenever you add discrete graphics). Then go to newegg or some place like that and pick up a 1950pro, 8600GTS, or 8800GTS. Which card you want depends all on your budget.

you need to look at benches before you are suggesting a 1950pro or 8600gts for upcoming games - those cards are pretty bad w/ the 8600 series not much faster than the 7600 series.

op - i would probably wait until at least ati/amd puts out a new card do see what it does and hopefully drive the prices down on the upper end models. the nvidia line is basically high end and low end with no middle grownd.

In my defence, I did say that it depends on what his budget is But yeah, I didn't realize how lackluster the 8600GTS is for the price. OP, what is your budget?

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: ADDAvenger

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: ADDAvenger
Buy a Dell with a C2D and overclock it

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=1968220

And like the others said, 2GB of memory, and a PCIe 16x slot so you can put in your own graphics card (prebuilders charge a premium whenever you add discrete graphics). Then go to newegg or some place like that and pick up a 1950pro, 8600GTS, or 8800GTS. Which card you want depends all on your budget.

you need to look at benches before you are suggesting a 1950pro or 8600gts for upcoming games - those cards are pretty bad w/ the 8600 series not much faster than the 7600 series.

op - i would probably wait until at least ati/amd puts out a new card do see what it does and hopefully drive the prices down on the upper end models. the nvidia line is basically high end and low end with no middle grownd.

In my defence, I did say that it depends on what his budget is But yeah, I didn't realize how lackluster the 8600GTS is for the price. OP, what is your budget?

totally understand, one (myself included) assumed that new 8600 series would be at least around a x1950xt 256MB card, but nvidia dropped the ball on this release, so hopefully ati/amd takes advantage of this huge mistake and make a killer card @ the $200 mark. something like a dx10 and comparable to a 8800gts 320 for $200 would sell like hotcakes atm, but that is just my opinion. at least get some of the market share from the beating they are taking on the cpu side and also gpu since the x1950xt line is basically their top of the line