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building a new computer after living in a cave for year and a half
spacerat100
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Registered User regular
I spent the last 450 days or so living in a cave and sneaking around mountains in Afghanistan blowing shit up so i'm not exactly up to par with the latest tech (I can cook a mean goat though). i was planning on buying the latest PCGAMER and building "the dream system" but I figured I'd ask here first. What should I buy for a game system to last the next 5 years or so. (assume 1 graphics card upgrade in there around year 4).
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You should probably get at least 2 gigs of ram *many news games need 1 gig for the minimal settings anways* so 2 should last for awhile. Plus if you need more you can always just put in new ram. OS wise, I only know about windows. If you want Vista, go for Home Premium, Basic doesn't seem to have enough going for it to be worth it. If you don't want to shell out for it, stick to XP then. If you got Vista, get a 64 instead of a 32 bit processor. As far as I can tell it's better/faster, only was $19 more, and avoids the 4 gig limit. *If you have 4 gigs of ram with 32 bit, it will run like it's 3 or so gigs. Dunno if this is new for Vista or if it's old news, but I'd figure I say it anyways just in case." Video Card wise, you should probably get at least some sort of NVIDIA GeForce 8600 series card, or whatever it's ATI equal is.
Most things really depend on how much money you're willing to spend on it. Most things you can upgrade from the average model to a good one that should last for about 40-50 bucks.
Mine ended up running up to $1,394; 4 gigs, home premium, 2 dvd drives, nvidia 8600 gt xfx, a whole bunch of extra bells and whistles, plus a mostly free bundle with vista for a wireless modem, 80 gig harddrive, and pc transfer thing. Which seems a really good to deal to me, something like that from alienware and co was a few hundred more was the same thing. The only thing I can think of that might need an upgrade down the line would be the video card. I'm hoping this will last me at least 5 or so years. Of course this is my first custom pc so all this advice might be worth a grain of salt.
Of course if you got a couple grand to burn there's always those super systems like the HP Blackbird
3DS Code: 5043-2172-1361
Xbone Tag: Salal al Din
Bare in mind that 8800GTs might be hard to come buy, newegg is still the best place to deal with, Intel are releasing new processors in the middle of January (not a huge performance increase), and Nvidia will be releasing new GPUs sometime soon after that that are suppsoed to vastly outperform what is available now.
More than 1k and you only got a 8600 and a 80 gig HD? That place is a rip-off.
To OP, Generally, your best best it an Intel Core2Duo, a 6600 has the best cost/power ratio, at least 2 gigs or RAM, and either the 8800GT (best power/cost again) or one of ATI's new cards if you're on a budget. Could give you better advice if you tell us if you already have a HDs/monitor/case and the budget you're looking at
EDIT: yeah, a lot of the good stuff is just around the corner if you can wait a few months
Nah I got an 80 gig portable hd in addition to my normal one. Could have gotten a better video card, but the graphics really don't matter to me as much as the rest of the game. I'm fine with no eye-candy. *gasp!*
3DS Code: 5043-2172-1361
Xbone Tag: Salal al Din
Depends on budget. ~$130 and below, I'd say go for AMD. Above? Probably want to go with an Intel. Though processors aren't exactly struggling at the moment. If I were to build a new computer now, personally, I'd buy an AMD x2 5000+ Black Box edition, pretty much regardless of my budget. It overclocks like a dream, its cheap($110 I think), and it will do pretty much anything you need, gaming wise at least.
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
AMD 64 x2 6000
500 Gig HD
3 Gig Ram
Geforce 8500 Video Card with 512 Ram.
That brings up my next question, am I going to see a marked improvement in graphics quality between a 8500 GT with 512 RAM and an 8800 GT with 512 RAM?
I'm thinking about getting this tonight and I can always pick up the extra video card and sell the other one on Craigslist or something.
Yes, to the extent you can't even possibly comprehend.
I'm not even kidding. Don't just look at the Vram, you will be horribly gimping yourself with that card(relative to your other specs).
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
Also, is there a huge difference between the 8800 GT and the 8800 GTS?
The new 512MB GTS (G92 variant) is better than all of those 3 and likely the GTX/Ultra
Ehh, I'd suggest going for an HD 3850 over an 8800gts. You aren't really getting your money's worth out of an 8800gts at ~260.
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
whats the story on running 2 cards SLI?
like, is it better for me to run two 8500s or just one 8800?
8600GT completely dominated by the 3850's:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3151&p=8
Little to none on most games. A few games are a good improvement, and a few games actually go down in performance.
Either way, an 8800gt will always outperform two 8500's.
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
Also those who are buying a computer for the next 3 or more years should definitely get a quad core CPU or be ready to upgrade their CPU later. In a few years most applications are going to make use of multiple cores.
One more thing about video card memory. Most cards are built so that they have enough memory to run everything perfectly fine in most situations and usually same cards with more memory have no noticable advantage in most situations. This also means that if a card is of a lower series it can have all the memory in the world and it would still be slower than a card with a faster GPU and memory and other stuff.
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
fixed?
Except for the whole part where the 1950pro is cheaper than the 8600
Anyone got any reccomendations as far as cases go?
Apparently the top GTX 9 series card will blow away SLI'd 8800GTX's.
My main suggesting is to spend half of it, and save the other half of that for 2-4 years in the future. You will get way, way more out of your money.
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
neat site but i'd have to kick my own ass if I spent 14k on a computer
the 8800GT is an excellent buy right now
same with 3870.
if you're a gamer dont buy anything else unless you're getting some kind of super deal (like used).
waiting till february for some very expensive high end parts aitn worth it. you could sell the card you get now then anyways.
there's nothing else worth waiting for that's "just around the corner" that isnt always just around the corner. now is a good time to buy.
you COULD wait for yorkfield and wolfdale as that should be this month or the next, but supplies could be tight of it.
Gigabyte P35 Mobo
2x1GB Crucial RAM
Intel Core 2 Duo E6650 2.66 GHZ
Coolermaster Centurion Case and 500W power supply
HIS ATI Raedon X1650 Pro 512MB VGU
My dad gifted me a 320 GB HDD that he had bought for his computer but didn't realize ran SATA (which wasn't compatible for him), and I jacked the CD-ROM from my old compy that fried, but otherwise I got a pretty good system for great prices.
Intel Q6700 CPU
4 gb DDR2-800 RAM. Maybe DDR2-1066, its a bit more expensive, but should help performance.
A gigabyte/asus board based on the intel P35 chipset (If your really fanatical about SLI get an x38 board, but I've never found SLI to be appealing. When it even works, it tends to be disappointing. Set aside $300 from your current budget to buy a new card in 1-2 years)
1 8800gt video card. Manufacturer isn't really important, you won't have many options in stock.
2 500gb drives in a raid 1 array. You never know when your gonna start having kids and taking pictures, and theres a good chance of a hard drive failure over 5 years.
1 pioneer/plextor optical drive. They make good stuff.
A good case (Antec is my preference. The Nine Hundred is a nice one)
A good 600w power supply. Look to spend ~$70 on one, if its ~$20, its crap.
Vista premium 64bit. Basic is crap, and ultimate just doesn't offer anything compelling.
I'm not gonna figure out exactly what this would cost, but it'll probably be about $2k. Plan to buy a new card about $300 every 2 years (if your gaming, that should be the minimum upgrade cycle) leaving you just about $2.6k over time.
Pretty good, but I opted for an x2 4600+ and an X1950pro. My video card is even now becoming outdated quicker than my CPU.
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
Previous to this I always swore by ATI cards and I think I may do that again. What's the ATI card that most closely matches the Nvidia 8800?
Dollar per performance their similiar, but the 3870 is the best ATI card atm. About ~$225-250, you should be happy with it.
www.tomshardware.com
www.newegg.com
That is all you will ever need.
http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=7051928