Essentials for a new gaming rig

[dmendenjr]

I have just about talked myself out of the AMD already and am once leaning toward the Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 on a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P. I am building this for gaming, and nearly every benchmark test I have seen is telling me this is the processor that should be in my new box.

 

[Gib4500]

Yea that may be a good idea about the cpu. Right now intel is know to be the better gamer cpu at the moment from what i have read. If your going to keep the computer for several years it might be worthwhile to go with a intel quad core cpu as future games may support quad core. I don't think many do now but in the future that could change

AS for the video card i would suggest going at least with a radeon 4850. For about 30 dollars more than the card you have listed you can get a sapphire radeon 4850. It is only 512 mb of memory though. To be honest from what i have read on the internet i don't think the extra memory will help on the 4670. If you were to get a 4870 then yea i would say go ahead and get 1gb because it would probably help in a faster card like that at higher resolutions.

Another good site to check out is mwave.com They have some descent deals on stuff too. Hope this helps. Let us know what you decide on. I just built my computer this last january. It's a q6600 with radeon 4850 that i added recently. coolermaster 750 watt power supply. vista home premium 64 bit.

 

[cparker]

LGA 775 is not tricky at all. I install into LGA775 sockets regularly. And the push-pin stock Intelcoolers are not too bad, but I boxed mine up and replaced it with a Zalman. Make sure you get a big enough power supply with multiple 12v rails. Preferably modular cabling. Get rid of your old IDE drives or make them external storage and put SATA drives in the new rig. Modular power supply cabling and sata drives really cleans up the inside of a case for airflow. Speaking of airflow, find a case that takes multiple 120mm fans. Big, slower-speed fans move a lot of air and keep the noise level way down. Look for a case with the USB and multimedia jacks up high instead of down low. If your case sits on the floor, why reach all the way down to plug stuff in. Oh... and high speed, low-latency memory. It's not expensive... newegg regularly has huge rebates and I'd rather drop one step in processor speed and go bigger and faster in the memory department to get that "bang for the buck".

Find the "sweet spot" in processors. Where does that big jump in price happen? Take the one on the low side of that jump. The bleeding edge just gets you bloody.

For nVidia.... no GTS cards.... 8800GT or better, and SLI if you can afford it and your motherboard supports it.

Oh and I believe you can reactivate that Vista. Call MS and tell them your computer died and you are reinstalling on a fresh hard drive. They'll give you a new activation code, but you have to get to that point in the install where it asks you for the code and fails... a phone number will come up to activate by phone. I have a copy of Vista Ultimate sitting here I'll probably never use, but I keep it because I can use that license to install XP
Find a Mac-using-college-student who attends a university with a Microsoft Campus Agreement. Students at our campus get Vista Business for $7.95 and Ultimate for $14.95.

 

[JamesJ]

alright right now I have a amd athlon 3400+ with a nvidia 8800 Gt card (512) I only run games at 1440 x 900 (20" lcd) should I just stick with that processor as my resoloution isnt that high, or should i up the processor and motherboard to this

Amazon.com: Intel Core 2 Duo Retail Boxed E7200 Processor - 2.53GHz, 3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB, 45nm Wolfdale: Electronics

also I have built computers but I should be able to fit just about any motherboard in my current case right? just swap out powersupplies when I do it?

Meant to add, I can run all games I Have played on the highest settings no problem no lag ( think bioshock)

 

[cparker]

If you have a standard case and it's relatively recent, you should be able to reuse the case. However, mind what I said earlier about airflow. You want to keep that case as cool as possible and big fans are much quieter than little fans. You can get a really nice case for under $100... sometimes significantly under that.

The processor won't care about your screen resolution. I have a 22" lcd and I run it at 1680x1050. The graphics card handles the resolution. The 8800GT card with 512 will be pretty sweet. I have a 512meg nvidia card in here and I can play World of Warcraft with no lag while inside the major cities. My son was amazed. So I put the same card in his machine when I built him a new machine.

Swap out power supplies = yes. Multiple 12v rails and probably 600W minimum. Your graphics card will love you for it. Don't wimp out on the power supply.
I have the 620W version of this:
Be cool! Be Aerocool! but you have a lot of choices.

Have fun!

 

[mike123abc]

Of course I7 comes out on the 17th... Probably more bang for the buck.

 

[JamesJ]

what is I7?

 

[dmendenjr]

I7 is the Intel's newest CPU, it is not an LGA775 processor (the new socket is called "Socket B" or LGA1366) So, either ante up for their new technology or grab soon to be reduced prices on the current gen. One of the main reasons why I keep dragging my feet; but with a lot of really good games for windows coming out now.... it is really hard to want to wait.

From the wikipedia article:

Core i7 Features: Nehalem represents the largest architectural change in the Intel x86 family since the Pentium Pro in 1995. The Nehalem architecture has many new features. The ones that represent significant changes from the Core 2 include:

• The FSB is replaced by a QuickPath interface.This means that motherboards must use a chipset that supports QuickPath. As of October 2008[update], only the Intel X58 does this.
• The memory controller is on the processor, not in a separate chip, so the memory is directly connected to the processor.
• The memory controller supports three channels of memory, and each channel can support one or two DDR3 DIMMs. This means that motherboards for the Core i7 have three or six DIMM slots instead of two or four, and that DIMMs should be installed in sets of three, not two.
• The Core i7 only supports DDR3.
• Core i7 is a single-die device: all four cores, the memory controller, and all cache are on a single die.
• Core i7 cores re-implement Hyper-threading. Each of the four cores can process two threads simulaneously, so the processor appears to the OS as eight CPUs. This feature was present in the older Netburst architecure but was dropped in Core.
• Core i7 has an on-die shared 8MB L3 cache.
• Core i7 is not intended for multi-processor motherboards, so it has only one QuickPath interface.

 

[Ramy]

Dang that is one nice new chip.

 

[vurbano]

That DDR3 memory is gonna cost you.