I understand nothing when it comes to hardware, and I'm in serious need of an upgrade. Right now I'm running on a system that sucked three years ago, and it's 2008. I don't want to not be able to play the latest games.
I need a PC that will last me 2 and a half years. It doesn't have to be the best, just able to run the newest games.
I don't plan on playing on a high resolution, probably just 1440x900.
Like already mentioned, I don't understand hardware. Please come up with something that doesn't exceed 800 euros, that's 1,257 USD. This build has to come with everything. Motherboard, optical drive, hard drive, cooling, powersupply.
There are a few things though. I want a quad core. I need 4GB RAM. I don't need a big HD, just 320 GB, nothing fancy. I'll pick the monitor myself, those I understand.
Thanks
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I'd suggest an solid midrange Asus/Gigabyte/Abit/DFI/etc. P45 motherboard, a Q6600 or Q9300/9450 or Xeon equivalent, 4GB of DDR2-800 (CAS 4) ram , and a ATI Radeon HD4870. For the HDD I'd go with a Western Digital, one of the new 320GB that has a single 320GB platter, such as mine, the WD3200AAKS-00B3A0.
With this setup you have the option to overclock the CPU if you need to down the road, as nearly all decent P45 motherboards are excellent at overclocking the Intel Quad Cores. And with the P45 or X38/X48 you have the option for Crossfire, so you can add a second HD4870 later on.
Adam Kolak Moderator - Hardware Analysis
Email: adam@hardwareanalysis.com
DFI LP DK P35-T2RS | Xeon Quad @ 3.2Ghz | 4GB DDR2-1000 | 8800GT 512MB | See Profile
If I were to double the price what kind of system would I get? I need something powerful.
You could probably step up to Dual ATI HD4870's in Crossfire. Also you could get a higherend X48 motherboard and a faster clocked CPU (though I personally would not, as even the cheapest Q6600 will easily overclock somewhere between 3Ghz and 3.6Ghz on a decent air cooler).
Adam Kolak Moderator - Hardware Analysis
Email: adam@hardwareanalysis.com
DFI LP DK P35-T2RS | Xeon Quad @ 3.2Ghz | 4GB DDR2-1000 | 8800GT 512MB | See Profile
If I were to double the price what kind of system would I get? I need something powerful.
Diablo III, Actually Super didn't quote a bad system, very reasonable power and good bang for the buck.
What do you need to power for? What is your primary use and secondary use for the computer. With a larger budget you do have a lot more flexability, but also more choices to be made. For instance, for certain needs spending a wad of cash on a NV280 may make some sense, but in other need scenarios getting a dual Opteron or Xeon based system may be the better bang for the buck.
Ad Astra Per Aspera
(A rough road leads to the Stars)
We all know what we know, and everyone else knows we are wrong.
System Specifications in BIO
ASUS P5Q-E Intel P45 Motherboard:$159.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131296
- Good motherboard with lots of USB ports, an eSATA port, an IEEE-1394 port, it has two PCIe x16 slots, and a good assortment of expansion slots. Being that it's equipped with the P45 chipset, it's got good all-around performance and stable drivers, as well as the capability to do CrossfireX, ATI's multi-GPU solution. It also has a good Gigabit LAN controller, and has superior onboard sound for positional 3D audio.
VisionTek Radeon HD 4850:$194.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129112
- Easily the best performance for your dollar, for $199 you can do 1920x1200 with 4x anti-aliasing and 16x anisotropic filtering in Call of Duty 4 with frame rates peaking 50 FPS average. Not too shabby -- and you get monthly driver updates that actually work in Windows Vista. VisionTek cards also feature a lifetime warranty.
Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev 2 VGA Cooler:$29.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186016
- The only drawback to ATI's new darling HD 4850 is that it runs hot. Very, very, very hot. Fortunately, the Accelero S1 by Arctic Cooling is an outstanding aftermarket video card cooler for the money, and it does fit the new 4000-series cards. Results show that the HD 4850 runs cooler with this HSF, PASSIVELY than it does with it's own cooler.
Arctic Cooling Turbo Module:$8.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186021
- This is a little, dual-80mm fan setup that fits onto the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 and S2 (don't get the S2, it has only 2 heatpipes vs the S1's 4). If you're not comfortable doing passive cooling, be sure and get this.
Arctic Cooling Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Grease:$5.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007
- A nice, mostly silver thermal compound used to bond hot components to their heatsinks in the most thermally effecient manner. Scores well against competing products in temperature benchmarks.
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit$174.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116215
- Put that 4 GB of RAM, plus 512 MB of VRAM to use. Be able to upgrade to 8 GB when it's necessary (that mobo I listed goes up to 16 GB). And be able to have an HD motion picture desktop background.
Total:$1,182.85
If you're an audiophile, willing to spend a little more, and want better surround sound than what onboard sound can offer, don't go with a Creative X-Fi, go with an ASUS Xonar. It's as good as, and in many reviews better than any X-Fi out there. It has good drivers for Windows Vista AND Windows XP, which are updated on a regular basis by ASUS, a luxury that Creative has not provided to it's customers. And, if you buy the ASUS card, you'll be helping break the Creative monopoly on sound cards, which can only be a good thing...
ASUS Xonar DX:$99.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132006
- If you're interested in having good quality sound without being subject to Creative Labs, and their lack of interest in their customers. The ASUS Xonar series cards sound good, and use higher quality components on their PCB's than does Creative with their X-Fi's. It can do 7.1 surround sound, and emulate EAX 3D positional audio effects, and has generally lower CPU utilization than the X-Fi. It also has a frontside audio case header, so that your ports in front of your case will work.
Total with ASUS Xonar:$1,282.84
I've saved this wish list on Newegg, if you'd like me to e-mail it to you, I will. Just PM me with your e-mail address if you're comfortable with that.
A_Pickle,
Again a good system, but you offered a OS when none was requested, and I think that in this day and age a 450W PSU may be a bit underpowered especially if expandibility and supportability is a factor.
You can publish your Newegg wish list by making them public, emailing them to yourself, then copy/pasting the resultant link here if you want, as opposed to 5-15 separate links.
I'm still wondering about the utilization of a high end system before offering a configuration myself.....If we get one, then you can nitpick my suggestion as well.
All in all a good configuration.
Ad Astra Per Aspera
(A rough road leads to the Stars)
We all know what we know, and everyone else knows we are wrong.
System Specifications in BIO
Gerritt
Again a good system, but you offered a OS when none was requested...
Whenever I build a PC, I include the OS just as surely as I include the motherboard or hard drive. Most of the time, especially for a gaming PC, it's going to be Windows of one sort or another. I just assumed that he needed one, and to be fair, he didn't indicate that he DIDN'T want one in his original post.
Gerritt
...and I think that in this day and age a 450W PSU may be a bit underpowered especially if expandibility and supportability is a factor.
I considered that -- and for a second HD 4850, it'd be fine. Of course, I somewhat conceitedly didn't think of other possibilities at all. I feel a little silly right about now, but I'll correct that, in a moment.
If I were to double the price what kind of system would I get? I need something powerful.
Oh, I was under the impression that you didn't want to spend too much but at the same time make sure the system lasts you for up to 2 years or so.
My suggestion still stands, but if you plan on doing some heavy OC'ing, take A_Pickles suggestion. It also sounds great, I would replace the HD 4850 with two HD 4870’s in a Crossfire X setup just as Adam Kolak said along with a good power supply. Never underestimate the great importance of a good power supply. You should look into getting at least 750W by Corsair, Enermax and/or OCZ, and better yet go for a 850W+ power supply just in case you plan on adding more HD drives and even faster graphics in the near future.
Or you can wait it out for a wile longer (Approx: Q4 2008) for the new Intel Nehalem Cores to hit the streets. They should be the fastest things on earth, but we will never know until we see them in action.
Don't rule out AMD so fast, they can't be the best all the time.
A 850W would give you plenty of headroom, but to be honest I think a high quality 750W like one of these two should give you plenty of power for a Quad Core, Dual HD4870s, and the whole nine yards as long as you don't plan on having like 20 HDDs or something.
A 850W would give you plenty of headroom, but to be honest I think a high quality 750W like one of these two should give you plenty of power for a Quad Core, Dual HD4870s, and the whole nine yards as long as you don't plan on having like 20 HDDs or something.
Both of these beasts have a single +12V rail pushing 60 amperes
Both are great but the Corsair power supply passed 10 power tests out of 10 where as the PC Power and Cooling version only passed 8 or of the 10. So I highly recommend the Corsair.
Don't rule out AMD so fast, they can't be the best all the time.
A_Pickle. I was on some overclocking forum and saw this thread where this guy asked for people to look over his build and people were saying that the Q9300 is a poor choice because it overclocks harder and has less cache. I don't overclock at all, i buy it an use it. Q6600 has 8MB and Q9300 has 6.
Should I go dual HD4850 or dual HD4870
And Pickle, adding Vista was good, because I wanted to get it. XP doesn't sell anymore and I've always wanted to try it ^^ I just won't go 64bit, nothing works for that. I know not all the memory (RAM) wont be read, but thats the price for working games.
Diablo III
A_Pickle. I was on some overclocking forum and saw this thread where this guy asked for people to look over his build and people were saying that the Q9300 is a poor choice because it overclocks harder and has less cache. I don't overclock at all, i buy it an use it. Q6600 has 8MB and Q9300 has 6
Well, if you're not into overclocking, then the Q9300's lackluster overclocking potential shouldn't be too much of an issue. And while it's true that the Q9300 has 2 MB less cache, let's be honest: 6 MB of cache is an effing TON of cache. Moreover, the Q9300 also has a faster frontside bus AND clockspeed, and it's built on a smaller process. Benchmarks show that the Q9300 performs a little bit better than the Q6600 in most cases.
Diablo III
Should I go dual HD4850 or dual HD4870
Honestly, I'd go with dual 4850's. Two of those in CrossfireX should take any game (but Crysis, but then, Crysis is retarded) at very high visual settings.
Diablo III
And Pickle, adding Vista was good, because I wanted to get it. XP doesn't sell anymore and I've always wanted to try it ^^ I just won't go 64bit, nothing works for that. I know not all the memory (RAM) wont be read, but thats the price for working games.
You know... that's... actually not so much the case with Vista 64-bit. Vista 64-bit is capable of emulating most 32-bit peripheral drivers, and most sound, video, and chipset drivers are available in native, 64-bit Vista builds. Then all you have to worry about is 64-bit programs, but there's a layer in Windows 64-bit called WoW, or Windows on Windows, where it emulates 32-bit Windows programs transparently. You, the user, don't interact with anything. It's pretty fancy, actually.
Honestly, I would really do 64-bit now, and get it over with.
I guess 2MB of cache won't kill me. It's not like I'm going to go all Microsoft and simulate software for other companies. You're right about Crysis, it sucks. The idea of running around in some space suite is weird. I just want to be sure about Vista 64bit. Does what you wrote mean I can play games and use software intended for 32bit?
It's coming together, that's good. After I choose the parts all I have to do is go to the store and buy them and find somebody to put it all together for me.
Side question: Could I play UT3 on max quality and high resolution (I'm not going higher than 1440x900 though, I have bad vision) with ease?
DDR memory is so cheap you can always go for a nice 8GB (2 x 4GB) setup anyday with Vista x64. The 4850's in Crossfire is also a fine choice.
If you are looking at both the Q9300 vs. the Q6600, why not drop them both, and spend another $50 to $80 and get yourself the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Quad-Core @ 2.66GHz. This thing as 12MB L2 cache along with a 1333 FSB speed. I am sure another 6MB of L2 cache is worth the small amount of extra money.
Don't rule out AMD so fast, they can't be the best all the time.
I'm willing to spend up to 1600 euros as long as the hardware is worth it. I don't mind spending another $80 for a better processor. The things I'm not willing to splurge on are those $600 graphics card.
I agree, go for the extra $80 on the better CPU. 12MB L2 cache is sick
Also the HD 4850 is well worth its low price with aggressive performance. You can always go for one HD 4850 for now, then later on add another HD 4850 or even a HD 4870 when the prices come down for a CrossfireX config.
But if you want the best graphics card for an awesome price, you can also add the new upcoming HD 4870 X2 w/ 2GB GDDR5 memory and the HD 4850 X2 w/ 1GB GDDR3 memory. (Should arrive in late August 2008) I am very sure 2GB of the fastest possible graphics card memory is future proof enough.
I also see you can't wait for the upcoming Diablo 3 game. I too can't wait for that game.
Don't rule out AMD so fast, they can't be the best all the time.
You're right about Crysis, it sucks. The idea of running around in some space suite is weird. I just want to be sure about Vista 64bit. Does what you wrote mean I can play games and use software intended for 32bit?
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