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Need to build a new computer......... Edited with new Parts.
I started playing EQ2 about a week ago and Im not happy with how my computer is running the game. I have a 3ghz P4, 1gig of ram and a x800gto AGP. Yeah IM old school. lol
But Ive finally made the decision to make the jump to the land of pci-e and dual core. I have a basic Idea of what im going for. Here what Im thinking of getting.
GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail
Im trying not to spend more than $500 on this upgrade and Im thinking I'll have to buy a new PSU too I only have a 500w right now. But Im just trying get into newer hardware with the best bang for the buck. Any suggestions would be great.
Comments
id go with a 4850 because on average it scored as high as the 9800gtx (some games it scored a little higher and in other games it scored a little lower)
also that processor may not run eq2 as you would like it as eq2 cannot use dual/quad core so it will just be like having a single core 2.53 ghz processor.
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
Yeah I heard that EQ2 wasnt dual core compatible but dosent the core 2' do more clocks per cycle than the p4? I may have to jump up to the bigger Wolf then.
1. why a micro ATX board (though in 90% of cases it wont matter).
2. ati (much as it breaks my heart to say it) has not stood up to intel cards since they merged with amd (though i used to live via both companies). so get the 8800, if they werent such good cards people would not be buying them (kinda like the ati's).
a 500w psu SHOULD be fine so upgrade that last and only if you need to (unless you have like 8 hard drives going on or something crazy). if you can save the $ on the psu use it for 2x512 meg ram sticks to top out @ 3 gigs dual channel
(unless you are going vista 64 in which case it should be 2x1g). i am using a 500w in this machine with 3 hard drives, 2 dvd drives every usb port in use and an 8800 ultra and 7 fans 2 on my gigabyte rocket2, 120mm in back +4 80mm's. (and its 1 of those "green" psu's which i think in my head are really weaker than the 500w rating.)
Yeah it is small but it was just cheap lol. But I think I might change that Maybe get a mobo that has more ram slots. But yeah I was thinking of going for 3 gigs of ram on xp.
Wow you got a lot of things running on that 500w PSU.....
Thanks for the help guys.
looking good on the new parts. the only thing left to consider is (besides having vista 64 to justify that kind of firepower) if the possibility of sli is in your future or not. if it is you may want to get a board that supports it now for the extra 20$ or w/e. if not by the time you pimp the 3 gigs of ram you should be able to run any game under dx9 flawlessly.
Its not a micro ATX board btw, but yes dont get ATI at the moment. 8800 GT;s are cool cards but if you want to future proof maybe go 9800 as the new GX280 are out soon the prices will drop alot.
the board that was there originally was, notice the title says "edited with new parts"?
I really have no need to get vista right now until some really bad ass MMO comes out with DX10..... Not interested in AOC anymore and I already have LOTRO and got bored with that. But yeah I want to get the 3 gigs but in NEWEGG they didnt have anything less than a 1 gig stick that that was recomended for the mobo. I used the memory configure thing cuz I want to make sure everything works well.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=85026-1
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2235719&CatId=2531
buy the gig in a set of 2 512 sticks. i can see how it would be confusing though. so that would be 2x 1 gig sticks and 2x 512 sticks (using all 4 slots). if you get 3 sticks you lose dual channel, or get an extra gig stick just to keep the dual channel.
hellgate london also uses dx10, im sure there's many that do really but if you dont need it you dont need it (i dont see anything on the horizon either personally..and am also bored to DEATH with lotro, though it DID look great in dx10).
-edited link
Its not a micro ATX board btw, but yes dont get ATI at the moment. 8800 GT;s are cool cards but if you want to future proof maybe go 9800 as the new GX280 are out soon the prices will drop alot.
actually right now id say ATI has a better shot then Nvidia , if i remember correctly the new cards the yare coming out with are simple rehashes for 50$ more. I would suggest investing in the 4850 plus 10.1 compat (when ever companies are gonna use it, you will be ready)
On a extra side note i would go with vista , first off XP 64 is crap and has alot of buggies and if your going to get a processor with 64bit you might as well use it (especialy if ya want more ram upgrades)
The pc you are going for is trying to be low in price and i can understand that, but when making pc's like that you have to make a threshhold jump so you have pletny of upgradability.
Its not a micro ATX board btw, but yes dont get ATI at the moment. 8800 GT;s are cool cards but if you want to future proof maybe go 9800 as the new GX280 are out soon the prices will drop alot.
actually right now id say ATI has a better shot then Nvidia , if i remember correctly the new cards the yare coming out with are simple rehashes for 50$ more. I would suggest investing in the 4850 plus 10.1 compat (when ever companies are gonna use it, you will be ready)
On a extra side note i would go with vista , first off XP 64 is crap and has alot of buggies and if your going to get a processor with 64bit you might as well use it (especialy if ya want more ram upgrades)
The pc you are going for is trying to be low in price and i can understand that, but when making pc's like that you have to make a threshhold jump so you have pletny of upgradability.
i kind of agree about the cards, but who wants to pay 4-600$ for a card with 0 games in mind to even play it on (i went from oblivion build to unreal build, kinda stuck now though)?
if it was about saving $ just go with onboard video ::chuckle:: but if its for gaming, it is about performance and the 64 bit o/s can outperform 32 bit any day of the week . since xp 64 IS in fact a pain in the ass that leaves the logical step up to vista, and once broken you can make vista behave just like xp anyways.
personally i dont even see the point in getting a GPU that supports dx10 if you arent going to make use of that, i mean the objective is to increase performance. shall we compare?
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/398
and what im lookin at:
if you can make the machine do tripple backflips why go with the belly flop?
Yeah I knew to get the 2 512 sicks for dual channel. Its just that Newegg didnt have any that were compatible with those in 512 or something. And im very parinoid about buying ram cuz I messed up on the voltage once and friend my mobo....
I thought 32bit games run slower in 64bit O/S's. I beta tested vista in 64 bit and it was ok I played DDO ok on it but I turned off all the flashy graphics and stuff so it looked like plain old windows 98. But IDK what Decent MMO's are going that have DX10 I just want to have it just in case there is something coming out worth a try.
Plus I really dont want to spend almost 300 bones on Vista Ultimate. I can still use a dx10 card in xp but It will be in dx9 mode right? If it works I might as well go with it cuz arnt the dx10 cards better than the dx9?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116204
you dont need ultimate, TRUST me. ultimate is just bullshit, check it out:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx
a couple minor features extra make it the ultimate (features i most likely would turn off anyways i might add)?!
you are already looking @ dx 10 cards btw. and i dont see how 64 bit os can really run any slower than 32, if you REALLY need to know (its a heady chunk of reading):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit
i do the same thing with vista btw, i call it breaking it (like a wild animal, not like a toy train). thats where the "user" vs "owner" thing originates, people will buy a pc loaded with vista and just let it be vista (those are owners), and then theres those of us that buy vista and make it do what we want (we USE the machine in ways owners are afraid of).
the only real diff. i see performance wise is dependant on wether i am using a wide screen monitor or not, that drops frame rates. i can draw a stick figure faster than i can paint a landscape- the stick figure is not seen as a performance advantage.
[you saw the links i put up 2 posts ago i hope]
good luck.
I have to agree on getting Windows Vista. After reading up on working with DX10, its alot more powerful then DX9 when it comes to whats important in quality graphics. Most games now don't actually utilize DX10 for what it can do because they backwards compatible with DX9. However, now that Vista has been out for some time, we will start to see DX10 exclusive games and games that actually utilize it well.
Like has been said, 64-bit will run applications better. It will actually utilize your processor. Its kinda wierd the slow adaption to 64-bit and multi-core, but I am sure many software publishers have realized the benefits of it. 64-bit is also the only way to utilize more then 3GB ram. There is a noticable difference in performance between 3GB and 4GB.
I know why people wouldn't have wanted to go Vista when it was released, but its been a while and most of its fixed. You also shouldn't worry about the next iteration of windows since it will surely have the "Commercial Beta" period Vista had, if not longer due to the complexities of Touch Screen. Right now not using the newer OS is like being the old guy saying they won't upgrade to CDs, cause thier cassettes work just fine.
I was looking at the System builders versions of Vista but I thought those were for companies and stuff. But for under 100 bones I think it wil be worth it. So then with Vista in Mind now I guess im going to have to re-think this over again. Get atleast 4 gigs of ram, and a mobo that can support 8 gigs and SLI support. Oh and I use the black viper tweak for xp do you know if there are any for vista...... If not I guess I can just experiment with the services and processes and find which ones I dont have to have running.
Yeah I see the point.... I did Beta Test VIsta and I thought It was actually Decent. It does make sense to upgrade the os if im upgrading everything else. I did read something a long time ago about 32bit programs running slower sometimes because they had to emulate them on the 64bit processor..... But that could have been total bs..... But Ive been wanting to make the jump to 64bit and vista just been waiting for it to get better and hardware to get cheaper. I think a lot of people have been doing the same as me and I think developers have just been stuck in there ways. I was reading yesterday that 64 bit chips have been around for over a decade not to the consumer of course but in servers and stuff.
The problem with the OEM version is that they cannot be re-installed on other computers. If you change your motherboard, you have to change your OS. Also they don't come with both the 32-bit and 64-bit version like the retail versions.
Yeah I dont think that would be to big of a problem for me atleast I tend to reformat my hard drive a lot cuz I do music stuff also. But I back up all the stuff I want then get a fresh start and It keeps it nice and speedy.
the oem is the way to go if you are actually planning, if you are impulse buyer forget it because in 3 months you will decide the board needs to have quad sli or some silly thing. oem is bound to the board, so aslong as you choose a suitable board you are good to go. 8 gigs, sli, sata3 (screw quad, the fsb aint there to justify it...not with 8800+'s atleast). i heard next win release will be about 2009 and that is for the beta (was mentioned in last pc magazine somewhere).
so what im looking at is the fact that right now we have all the (supposed) vista certified stuff floating around and the prices just keep dropping and dropping, so it is not a huge deal to get the parts (though the first time you see your 350$ processor for like 60$ on new egg it does catch ya in the balls) its kinda nice! leaves extra $ around for things like Killer nic's, snazzy cases, or physx cards... anything really by the time the next windoze iteration is actually upto service pack 1 (because only a fool judges the o/s before the first sp) im thinking late 2010-mid 2011, at THAT point the whole thing will have to be reevaluated. and then we can see the video cards we are paying 4-600$ for for 120$, but still! it isnt like they are going to spring another unreal on us next month, no dx10 oblivion version that i have heard of just a bunch of games that were developed in the past (since developing in the future tense would be problematic to say the least) couple years, and if you leave that crossfire/sli spot open IF it comes up you can easily deal with it. ditto on 8 gigs of ram, the only practical use for that would be if you were in an emergency room and had to render like 6 mri's at once.
I skipped the last page or so of this.
A few things initially if you are trying to shave some money off of this.
1. wait until about mid july to buy. That E8400 will drop from 190ish to about 160 then.
2. A 9600gt only performs about 4fps behind an 8800gt and is about $30 dollars cheaper.
3. If you don't plan on overclocking you might wanna look at some good gskill ram, you may save as much as $20 or $30 dollars there.
As for the mobo...I would go with a p45 board over a p35 board for future upgradability. You can find some p45 boards (single pcie slot for video) for under $100. The crossfire versions are starting at about $150.
Take everyone's advice here with a grain of salt. Half of them really don't know what they are talking about, and the other half forget that you are trying to keep the price way down and will spout off flavor of the month video cards, ram and power supplies.
Cool thanks, yeah I planned on building this rig around the end of August , sweet on the price drop