A bit of advice anyone?

[Nyana]

Ok my crate is getting old, soundcard is messed up (killing all sounds for 2 seconds every like 15-40 seconds) and shooter games are going slower (when opening a door, the game goes on internaly, but on my screen I still see the door, and when my computer catches up with the 'lag' im already laying dead on the floor), so time to upgrade to an entirly new one. So i did some browsing around at a retailer and I came up with the following things:

Casing: Aopen H600B ATX Black, 350w, A-guide 1.1
Mobo: Asus P5WD2 Prem. (SK775, PCIX ATX, 955x, DDR2, SATA, RAID, etc etc)
CPU: Intel PIV 640 Skt 775 box, HT 800MHz, 2mb Cache, 3,2GHz
Mem: 2x Corsair 1024 DDR 128MX64 Value or Twinx not sure about that one also not sure to take 2x 1024 or 1x 2048
HDD: Maxtor 300gb 7200rpm, 16mb SATA Diamond Max 10.. no argueing here, Maxtor is the best!
Video: 2x Asus Nvidia EN6600GT, 128mb TV-out, DVI, 2xPCIX (SLI mode)

Demands:
- A system that lasts for at least 2 years, the future of hardware is very vague i know, hard to predict..
- A system that gives max. performance to ALL current games (Far Cry, HL2)
- A system that gives max. or near max. performance to all upcomming games (BF2, Quake Wars, Quake 4, Unreal 2007, CoD2 etc..)
- Price doesnt really matter up to 1500-2000 euro
- Must be able to stay online 24/7/365
- Must not consume shitloads of power :)

Other stuff;
- Might be getting a 21" HDTV along with it, my current Ilyama TFT 17" will do nicely, but I'd love to have dual screen to game on 1 and see mail, IRC on the other
- Got 1,5TB worth of HDD's in my current Raid setup
- Don't have background processes running like SETI-program, 64bit code cracking and whatever of that lame crap
- Gaming only and some musical producing/DJ'ing with it.


Any thoughts, comments, flame me how l33t I am? :D

[One Armed Scissor]

can i have you're old ram please :D:D:D:D:D

[Ludicrouse]

Looks a good kit m8....

Altho tbh if u really wanna future proof... get 6800s in SLI instead of 6600s...

[Derekian]

AMD ftw!!!

ATI MPV (SLI) system is almost out I would w8 a bit :p

And it's btter having 2 ram sticks instead of one so you can run them in dual-channel (try looking at the mobo manual to find which brand/model it supports for dual channel).

[Nyana]

Never ever im gonna put AMD in my crate, bad history with it all the patches and fixes needed in order to make a game work, no way AMD :) (yes, a long time ago, in a galaxy far far behind the phobos space station invaded by spawns from hell, there was a need to patch every game in order to make it work on AMD)

Im not a big fan of Nvidia as well, but sofar it's the only brand with good SLI cards/possibilites

Anway that's just like arguing about Mercedes and BMW.. both good cars, and both have their own fanboois :)

Thanks for the input, anyone have some experience with pre-fab systems like the ones from Alienware, is that a thing to consider or go for the home-made systen?

[Derekian]

I would go with home-made just cos you don't exactly know what they put in inthose bundles AND if you want to upgrade or repair something you have to take it to them or if you change stuff alone your warranty expires :(

[justinalot]

The Laien Ware systems are cool but looking at what you have kinda tells me you like to mess about with the PC.

I am also a INTEL nut and I wont buy AMD cause of exactly the same reasons.

To keep up with the games perhaps the Video card is the most important.

I think the INtel extreme Proc is far to expensive and I would wait for the 64bit chips to start selling.

At the moment there is no Anti Virus for 64bit Windows and the driver support is not the greatest.

For value for Money the Dell Game system is very good but with Dell you cant mess with it at all.

I would go for a PCI express board perhaps SLI as well but I have not seen many games comming that are going to make much use of them.

[Nyana]

What I understand and have been explained about SLI is, that it doesn't really need to be supported by games, but yes it would be nice to have SLI support to have full potential out of the 2 cards. One card takes the upper half of the screen render, the other card takes the lower half of the screen for rendering. Where old SLI in the Voodoo era one card rendereded the even lines, the other card the uneven lines.

I always thought that in unsupported SLI mode each card takes 50% of the rendering pie, and according to above explaination that is partially true then.

[GuardianAnge1]

Thanks for the input, anyone have some experience with pre-fab systems like the ones from Alienware, is that a thing to consider or go for the home-made systen?

I think that I can say, hands down, that I have the most experience with Alienware in this guild..

2 years ago, I bought their Area-51m 'mobile gaming machine'. Fair enough, it weighs a tonne and blows more hot air then a geizer, but it should at least work right? No. Playing planetside, in sanctuary with several people around I got an average of 5-10 frames a second. In battle, i'm down at 1. Obvisouly there is a problem. Then it starts overheating.

I send it back and they fix it and return it, but I'm still getting fps issues. Then it starts overheating again. This brings us to last summer where I talked to the senior members at the Alienware hq and pursuaded them to give me a free upgrade to their recently released systems. The finally agree and they send me a new system. Wow, 100+fps near a battle and around 40-70fps in a battle, nice. Then the memory starts having problems so I have to send them back one of the cards. They send me back a new one which works fine, but now there are graphical issues. This is the last chance Alienware, I tell them... THey send me a new laptop again. It works okay for the first month or two. Needless to say, I get better FPS playing WoW on my 64mb Mac graphics card...

Finally though, they have accepted my request to get my money back, and I"m now too, building a new computer...

But other then that, I've heard good things from them :)

[Hovis]

Looks a good kit m8....

Altho tbh if u really wanna future proof... get 6800s in SLI instead of 6600s...

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!

ABSOLUTELY DO NOT BUY ANY GRAPHICS CARDS FOR A WHILE

I'll add a more reasonable comment in a bit, but seriously, I have seen the future and it's not that far off. Hold your horses or you'll look a right monkey.

[Hovis]

To get back to the main point. Here is how to future proof a PC. You get what the Bread is getting.

1. An Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard. (about £100)
2. An AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+. (about £700)
3. Dual Geforce 7800 ultra chipset graphics cards (about £400 each)

Now lets get right to the heart of this thing.

That CPU is an absolute fucking monster and costs way more than any rational human being should be willing to pay. It's dual core, so effectively it is two CPUs, but being AMD it's still a socket 939 so it's not going to force you to buy some sort of wanky server mobo. Because I'm not rational, I'm Bread, I want one, but a sane man could go for an Athlon 64 3500 and it would rock the kasbah for surprisingly little money. I think that the 3500 CPU is probably the apex on the amount of bang you get for the buck right about now and that should be all you need for a while. Two years future proof? I'd say it should be. I'd certainly not want a 32bit CPU if I was shooting for that sort of lifespan.

The motherboard is very nice, quite cheap and provides all the good things, it'll even overclock a good way too. I've been running the previous version of that board for a while and it's been a peach, so I expect the next one along will be just fine.

The graphics cards are as big a leap forward over the 6800 series as the 6800 was over the 5900. That's some fucking leap as I'm sure all you are all aware. My 6800GT has served me very well since that chipset first appeared and I believe that the 7800GT or its equivolent will do as well, and if it doesn't I'll run two of the bastards. :cool:

The main thing to note is ATI. I'm not married to Nvidia and ATI could produce a better product this generation. If they do that all bets are off as to what card I end up using.

[Derekian]

Wtf.....you are fucking insane man o_0

700 just for the CPU?....800 for the graphics card?? i h8 rich ppl :(

[Vasquez]

That is an OMGWTFAMAZINGZORZ mobo...

[GuardianAnge1]

well, after reading the CPC review, i think that i might go for the X2 instead of the FX-55 mainly due to the increase in power.

Since i'm getting an SFF (SN25P [hovis: the one that cpc says is the best]) I wont be able to choose my mobo (comes with a nforce 4) but whocares, the one it comes with is perfectly fine for me.

THe only last decision really is graphics card. I have a big budget, so all i'm going for is the best, and it can be duel slot too. What is recommended? My main source (CPC) says that the new HIS x800xt card is very good, but what about an 850xt? Or what about nvidia? I was gonna get the 512mb gainward, but hearing that its a waste of money, I have decided not to get it.

[Hovis]

Wtf.....you are fucking insane man o_0

700 just for the CPU?....800 for the graphics card?? i h8 rich ppl :(

It's not richness, it's smart finance. Because I'm an freelance IT journalist my own PC is a legitimate tax deductable expense. In short I get a tax bill every year from which I can remove expenses related to my work. In this case a shitkicking PC.

[GuardianAnge1]

bump my post :D

[One Armed Scissor]

Wtf.....you are fucking insane man o_0

700 just for the CPU?....800 for the graphics card?? i h8 rich ppl :(

It's not richness, it's smart finance. Because I'm an freelance IT journalist my own PC is a legitimate tax deductable expense. In short I get a tax bill every year from which I can remove expenses related to my work. In this case a shitkicking PC.

computer for free!!!! cool... any chance you might need 2 pc's id mind one for you :D:p

[Mastacheif]

ALL i will say is wait 3 months for ATI's SLI board

Get over your AMD fear, its childish. INTEL ARE SHITE i could put it more clearly dont be foolish any serious gamer will agree with me.

If you must upgrade now then get the following
AMD 64 3500+
2gbs of 3200 and faster RAM (budget pending etc) (use 2 1 gb sticks)
The SLI Mboard that bread recommended i have almost the same board
IF you curent graphics card is <9800pro standards get your self a 6600GT(£120) to keep you on till the nex gen ATI SLI's arrive (u can then flog it for 60-70quid)
A single raptor HDD is nice
The above baring the graphics card would last 2years easy also the 3500 venice cores are very overclocking friendly. In 3-4months slap the new ATI sli cards in and in 2 years upgrade to a faster 939pin cpu.

For reference i have:
AMD 64 4000+
1GB of corsair pro (wish it was 2)
2 x 6800 (BFG)gt's in Sli
2 x 400gb Hitachis striped
21inch Sony trinitron CRT (i spit on your TFT's pah)

Intel p4 prescott 2.8
1gb 3200
6600gt

AMD XP barton 2500+ @ 3000+
1gb crucial 3200
6600gt

I have had AMD's since the k6 2 333mhz and Intels since the p90mhz believe me intel have lost there way.

[Nyana]

I still dont see the point in 64 bit, driver support is shait, game support is shait (only game that uses it is Far Cry), there's no 64bit virusscanner atm etc etc..

About the intel amd thing, i cant see the difference gaming wise, maybe a few fps's but what good is that if you already have shitloads of fps :) Intel never failed me anywhere, and to be honest i never tried amd anymore since like 8 years now or so :)

I'm very curious about the Ati SLI thing, i hope they can live up the dreams. I wonder why Ati is always a bit different with their cards, the 6800 had 32 pipelines and the x800 16 i think? But x800 kicked the shit out of nvidia fps wise in Far Cry..

Soo much choices, so much to come in the very close future :( When I bought my 9800pro 128 because my old GF2 was wank, like 2-3 weeks later the 256mb version came, and not very later the x800 came :( I always feel like running behind the facts when buying new hardware :)

Thanks for the advice everyone, im gonna try to scrape some fps here and there in the in-game settings and try to keep this crate running for a month or 2-3 :)

[Derekian]

There may be not much support for 64bit yet but u said u want a machine for 2 years m8, 64bit IS the future....

About the ATI thing it's gonna be quite different than the Nvidia system.

There will be specific mobos for them (as with the SLI), then you must have one card that's made for this SLI...so the name will be something like X850XT SLI (not SLI but the name Ati choses) and then you'll need a 2nd card that can be whatever.

So you'll have Mobo, x850xt SLi edition and x850xt normal edition.

And then you are a winnar :D


Oh and you can have different cards too...lets say x850xt sli edition and x700...doesn't matter at all :D

[Nyana]

also my S3 Trident I have somewhere covered in dust? :D

[Derekian]

Is it PCI-E? Nah didn't think so :p