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I want to buy upgrades but need help from the Gurus please
Ok, i was going to buy a computer but i think i am just going to update some components instead. I want a computer that will be able to play AOC on High but since we dont know what that is yet, lets say something that will play Vanguard high (but not necessarily on max)
My problem is i dont know who makes the best components so this is what i need help/suggestions with:
Motherboard- I am looking at AMD because the processor is a ton cheaper then Intel, i know it is slower but im not that worried about that. I would like it to support Phenom and X2 for upgradablity. Must support 4GB 800mhz ram at least, 8 would be great. Sli would be ok but i think i will only be buying 1 video card so probably doenst matter.
Video Card- Im looking that the 8800GT but i dont know if i want to spend 250. Suggestions on the next best cards would be great.
Processor- I am looking at a X2 6000+ or 6400+. But im not sure if the difference between those and the 5400/5200 makes it worth the decent jump in price. Thoughts on this would be great.
Ram- Im getting 4GB of 800Mhz, but my question is, who makes the best RAM? I dont need the best but i dont want junk either.
PS- Im guessing with these components im looking at a 550W at least. True?
I was planning on using my existing HD and case. HD is only like 250G at 5300, will that slow things down. Also i heard that 8800 cards dont fit in alot of cases. is this a worry if i have a full size case?
Thanks for any help.
Comments
Confused as to what you want to know. You said update your existing PC components then mention AMD processors because they are cheaper then Intel. That confused me because if your upgrading components to the same motherboard you can't use both types of processors anyway. Also Phenom to future upgrade? LOL, seriously if you want to spend that kind of money on a CPU go intel core 2 duo, it is cheaper then AMD for price/performance right now.
Also 4gb of ram you need Vista to utilize all of that. If your doing component upgrades to an existing system you do not change out every part, basically your building a new PC with what you want.
OK, i see that i have confused you, which is very possible since i dont really know what im talking about.
I will try to clarify. I was going to buy a whole new system but after talking to others i think i am going to basically build one. By basically i mean that i plan on keeping my existing case, HD, CD/DVD Rom. What i am planning on replacing is the MB, Video Card, and Processor. My current setup is a bit outdated. The MB does not support PCI, can only support a AMD 2.8G Sempron, can only support 1GB of 667 RAM, so it is junk.
You are right, i am pretty much building a whole new one because i am only upgrading the things that are expensive. My main question about it components is im not sure who makes good ones. I will break down.
Motherboard- As i said, i want a AMD MB that can support a 64 X2 Dual Core Processor. It would be great if it could support Phenom but im not getting a Phenom processor so it isnt that important. I want it to support at least 8GB 800MHZ Ram. Dont care that much if it has more then one PCI X16 slot. So i know what i want on the MB i just dont know what brands are good, except ASUS. I guess i just dont want to buy a cheap MB thinking im getting a deal when really it is junk. So what i was hoping is someone who has the knowledge could say " The MSI K9AG Neo2-Digital AM2 AMD 690G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard is a great board for a great price". (i just pulled that one off Newegg)
For Ram my question is, "Who makes good Ram, who makes Junk"? I see Patriot, Corsiar, OCZ, Crucial, etc etc. So who is good and who should i stay away from.
For video cards. If i decide im not willing to spend 250 on a 8800GT what are the best cards below that? I hear 7900 is good but i dont know. Also, what company makes the good ones, who should i stay away from?
And for Processors, is there a huge difference (noticable difference, not just spec difference) between a AMD 64 X2 6400+, 6000+, 5400+ and 5200+. Will i the casual gamer be able to tell the difference when playing a game?
Dont know if this clears up anything but i gave it a shot. As you can see i am not that computer hardware savy.
The first decision you have to make is how much youre willing to spend. I just bought the 8800GT and it handled Crysis quite well. You can always overclock your CPU if you know what youre doing and have proper cooling on it. Its a little more work but you save more money that way. As for ram, as long as its compatable with your computer it doesnt really matter. And the PSU should be 550W+. The card should fit easily into a full tower. Just do a bit of research on what you buy, there are tons of user reviews for most products out there.
If you are only going to run 1 say 8800gt then a good psu of 450-500 will do that fine with nps all this talk of at least 550w for a single card running 1 hard drive and other basic components is nonsense as is the you need 700w to run sli,Your best bet is to get a price what you want to spend then ask again,If you want a pure gamming system you could get 1 easy for around 1000 euro,That will keep you playing for sometime.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
Probably better off posting this on a Computer Hardware forum, or the like. Likely to be of much more help, and stop you buying all the wrong shit.
I would say depending if dx10 is improtant to you that is and you are on a budget,Then maybe get a nice intel duo e6750,a 450w+ psu maybe 2gb ram and then With a modest priced,though still a nice gamming card like the 7600gt until you can upgrade your gamming card to maybe the 8800gt,Atleast this way if you can get a nice base for your system and dont know that much about computers you can easily upgrade with a new card.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
Looks like you are just doing a complete revamp on your systems. Based on all the upgrades you want to make I would check out iBuypower.com and check out some of their deals. You might find that if you have a copy of windows already that their base systems with a little tweaking might have everything you want for a decent price. Also, I would suggest getting SLI with it, just incase you want to upgrade video later. By this you can get the same speed with SLI at a lower overall cost (SLI boards are only 20-30 dollars more).
Also, defiantly go AMD, I know others like INTEL better, but I have run AMD overclocked with no problems and they have a hassle free return system. As for your board stick with AM2 socket, that will be good for a long time, and get the X2 dual core, quad core is just overpriced and overclocked. Last make sure you have enough cooling equipement for overclocking. Add in your 4 gigs and you should be flying, brand wise they all have lifetime warrenties, but try to get heat sinks on your memory.
Last make sure your mobo specks meet all your other combonent requirements.
"You dont win a war by dieing for your country, you win a war by getting the other poor bastards to die for theirs!"
-General Patton
Safwd,
I just upgraded my PC and bought the 8800gt card after reading multiple reviews. Basically it kicks anything else out there and is on almost on par and still on some occassion passes the 8800GTS. The good news is since I have installed it I have played every game on max and even Crisis on high settings. Still getting amazing frame rates. The bad news is I had to upgrade my power supply to a corsair 750 as my 500 watt power supply squealed like a badly. I checked some calculations and I needed 650 watts as a minimum with the 8800gt. Asus make great game boards and you can probably get an SLi regardless. Just make sure you get good Ram. Don't get sucked into buying the cheap stuff since it runs pretty slow. Check out reviews and pay that little bit more. I have a 4400 dual core amd for the record but with the 8800GT everything is running beautifully.
Hope this helps.
I have to ask mate what were you running that you needed 650w just to run a 8800gt card?
I mean even running sli 2x8800gt would be under 650w,I think you read it wrong somewhere mate tbh.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
My current system is the following...
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, 2GB 533 ddr2 memory, 2x 120GB WD 7200RPM SATA drives, Intel DG965WH(I think) board, and a Nvidia 7950GT OC, also I use onboard sound, with a 600W p/s.
I bought this last year in about January, and the system is now showing its age a bit, so I just purchased a new Mother board and processor, going with the Intel Q6600, with all of my old hardware but the Main board is changeing and this upgrade I got for a smoking deal. My next upgrade will be memory then Video Card to the 8800GT since they have come down so dramatically.
So my advice is let others do your testing like toms hardware, then build a machine that you can afford that will give you the results you want, and don't pull out a ruler and start asking, "Mine p3ni$ is...whats yours again?"
I have to ask mate what were you running that you needed 650w just to run a 8800gt card?
I mean even running sli 2x8800gt would be under 650w,I think you read it wrong somewhere mate tbh.
it's not only the graphics card that draws power, there's the amount of hard drives, optical drives, cpu, fans and cooling units, usb devices, ect.personally, on a new computer that i plan on keeping a while, i wouldn't get anything less than a 750w PSU
____________________________
TheCore
The AMD 5200+ Brisbane will be good enough. Anything cheaper than a 8800gt would be under $200 price range and the ATI 3850 which is around $170 would be the only card worth getting. Also I would stay away from the 7900gs and other old DX9 cards, they have a hard time coping with newer games.
I have to ask mate what were you running that you needed 650w just to run a 8800gt card?
I mean even running sli 2x8800gt would be under 650w,I think you read it wrong somewhere mate tbh.
it's not only the graphics card that draws power, there's the amount of hard drives, optical drives, cpu, fans and cooling units, usb devices, ect.personally, on a new computer that i plan on keeping a while, i wouldn't get anything less than a 750w PSU
Note that is why I asked"What are you running that you needed 650w just to run 1 8800gt card"If you read his post about what he read then answer mate,That would be useful.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
For any card over $100, read up on the ATI 3850, be it the 256 or 512 version, and use it as a base and compare everything else to that. I'd look at the 3850 (hopefully 512mb) for around $150-$170, if you want to spend more than that get an 8800GT of some kind with 512mb. The ATI 3870 is so close in price to 8800GT's now (the average good deal on an 8800GT is now more like $230, and some as low as $202) that there's little point in getting a 3870 over an 8800GT unless the 3870 price drops.
Bottom line and keeping things simple: the 3850 is the card to beat between $100 and $200. Compare everything else to that card to see if their price/performance is worth it to you. It's hard to go wrong getting one of those.
I was about to type something about cards closer to $100, but they may have trouble running those games you want on high. Most current MMOs can almost max out on a 7600GT, (ok, without anti-aliasing), so if you can get one or an 8600gt or whatever cheap, great, maybe it will be enough for what you intend, but otherwise I'd look at what the 3850 can do and go from there.
AAAh! Must...run..away...too...many...expert...opinions...
Heh. Judging from the two pages of posts here...you have plenty of answers. I'm not even gonna read this one.
Don't let the AMD vs. Intel guys and Nvidia vs. ATI guys jack your thread.
D.
I have to ask mate what were you running that you needed 650w just to run a 8800gt card?
I mean even running sli 2x8800gt would be under 650w,I think you read it wrong somewhere mate tbh.
it's not only the graphics card that draws power, there's the amount of hard drives, optical drives, cpu, fans and cooling units, usb devices, ect.personally, on a new computer that i plan on keeping a while, i wouldn't get anything less than a 750w PSU
That is incredibly wrong. 1 8800GT and a case with tons of lights and 4 HD and 2 DVD drives with other accesories will only pull 460-480 watts max with everything going. A popular PC tech site has shown this countless times. With a system with 2 SLI 8800GTS and all the other stuff the WATT meter was showing just over 660 WATTS, thats with a SLI setup and a overclocked intel QX9650!! There is no way your using all 750 Watts of power on a single card and normal PC system. All that extra power is wasted into heat and your paying for it. Good luck on your electricity bill.
This is a problem,For some reason people seem to think they need 700w+ to run cards basically as they dont do any research,if they did they would see to run 1 HD and all the usuall stuff,1 8800gt would only take at the very very most 400w,If you want to run 2x8800gt you could do this with a good 500w psu(although maybe a 550w is better to be safe)
The problem is you get better types of psu and a 650w could indeed not be as good as a 500w so you have to research it.You are right though as you see in this thread,people shouting they have "been told"you need at least 650w to run 1 8800gt card is unreal and not just a waste of cash upfront but also on electricity bills in the future,Though as long as they are happy I guess...
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
I have to ask mate what were you running that you needed 650w just to run a 8800gt card?
I mean even running sli 2x8800gt would be under 650w,I think you read it wrong somewhere mate tbh.
it's not only the graphics card that draws power, there's the amount of hard drives, optical drives, cpu, fans and cooling units, usb devices, ect.personally, on a new computer that i plan on keeping a while, i wouldn't get anything less than a 750w PSU
That is incredibly wrong. 1 8800GT and a case with tons of lights and 4 HD and 2 DVD drives with other accesories will only pull 460-480 watts max with everything going. A popular PC tech site has shown this countless times. With a system with 2 SLI 8800GTS and all the other stuff the WATT meter was showing just over 660 WATTS, thats with a SLI setup and a overclocked intel QX9650!! There is no way your using all 750 Watts of power on a single card and normal PC system. All that extra power is wasted into heat and your paying for it. Good luck on your electricity bill.
http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.htmlX6800 @ 3.66ghz
680i motherboard
2 x 8800GTS
2 gb ddr2
2 x optical
3 x 10,000k rpm hard drives
720w
dispute the source if you want, i'm covered.
____________________________
TheCore
I have to ask mate what were you running that you needed 650w just to run a 8800gt card?
I mean even running sli 2x8800gt would be under 650w,I think you read it wrong somewhere mate tbh.
it's not only the graphics card that draws power, there's the amount of hard drives, optical drives, cpu, fans and cooling units, usb devices, ect.personally, on a new computer that i plan on keeping a while, i wouldn't get anything less than a 750w PSU
That is incredibly wrong. 1 8800GT and a case with tons of lights and 4 HD and 2 DVD drives with other accesories will only pull 460-480 watts max with everything going. A popular PC tech site has shown this countless times. With a system with 2 SLI 8800GTS and all the other stuff the WATT meter was showing just over 660 WATTS, thats with a SLI setup and a overclocked intel QX9650!! There is no way your using all 750 Watts of power on a single card and normal PC system. All that extra power is wasted into heat and your paying for it. Good luck on your electricity bill.
http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.htmlX6800 @ 3.66ghz
680i motherboard
2 x 8800GTS
2 gb ddr2
2 x optical
3 x 10,000k rpm hard drives
720w
dispute the source if you want, i'm covered.
OMFG are you kidding me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dude you obviously know nothing about computers then. Neweggs little calculator does not show real world test results. That thing just takes the recomended WATTS needed for each part and adds them up, the truth is those parts all have a max end recommended watts. The real world measurments are done with a watt meter pluged between the PC power cord and the wall socket that measures the watts the machine is pulling .
Newegg makes more money certainly showing the max rated watts per hardware item to get users to buy the more expensive items. What they should of done was take the minimum of each hardware piece. Again if you look at the specifications the manufacture overates each item for maximum recomended watts.
If you believe neweggs calculator then you got to do some research to get the facts.
You need a Guru in your computer, it works fine with just one CPU(Some even have multiple cores)
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