Possibly Building A New Gaming Comp

By DirtyLarry
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Grand Master

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Okay, I may or may not build myself a new comp for gaming, it has been a good almost 3 years, but I have been working a few side jobs lately, and I have the okay from my wife to spend up to $700.

Now thing is, I cannot get it under $700 without sacrificing performance, but I am only a $150 over budget, so shhh.

I have not followed hardware much at all the past two years, I really have not.

I know I am going Intel, and I know I am going Nvidia, so based on that, My two biggest questions are the following...

Question #1, I remember reading main news here a few weeks back about a new Nvidia card coming out really soon, or is the 9800 series it? If there is a new line coming out, when?

Question #2: Is there anything glaringly wrong with what I have chosen? Is there anywhere I can cut down on something to bring the price down?

I have to say this, I want to do this right the firs time around so I do not want to cut many corners if needed, and I also will probably think about getting a second card in December for Xmas to run in SLi.

So here are the components I am thinking of, and I really have not bargain shopped at all yet, so I will check New Egg, etc.

Seriously, if I can maybe get a lesser processor and not take a hit on performance all that much, please let me know.

BFG GeForce 9800 GTX OC2 Video Card - 512MB $239.99 - $20 Rebate Not Included In Price

Ultra X-Pro ULT40029 750-Watt Power Supply $139.99

Corsair Dual Channel TWINX 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz x2 4GB of Ram $117.98 - $25 Rebate (x2 for $50) Not Included In Price

MSI P7N SLI Platinum Motherboard see below

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Processor 3.0GHz Retail $379.99 For Mobo & CPU Bundle (They are same price individually)

So Total Price = $877.95 - $70 in Rebate for a total of $807.95

I have a kick ass Coolermaster Case, and I also have an Audigy XiFi Platinum or whatever it is called.

I also have plenty of hard Drives, etc., so I really only need the above unless I am forgetting something very obvious.

So let me know what you all feel, and being I have not followed hardware like I used to when I was actively building comps, etc.,

I am open to any suggestions on other combos, especially if I can get the price lower, I am also open to shopping anywhere, I just do prefer if it is all from one place, just to make life easy and cut down on overall shipping.

The reason I chose the above is I do have a great history with MSI motherboards although I do also like Asus (honestly I am open to any known brand).

I also know I want to go Intel, and I also want to go Nvidia.

I also have always used Corsair, and while it may not be the best Ram, it has always done me good.

Thanks In Advanced, and we will see what happens. Still have some thinking to do about it all, but some games just need to be played on a PC, and I want to play them that way.

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utdarkviper

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PSU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817139006

RAM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820145194

You would only be able to take advantage of ONE of the rebates for the ram you listed (if you read the fine print). I picked another corsair set in case you are set on that brand. The ones you picked would be ~$93 after the one rebate, vs $79 for the ones I found. Both of these choices successfully shaves off about $34 before you take into account the free shipping on both of the items I recommended. =D

Oh and the new Nvidia cards are the GTX260 and 280, which are way out of the price range =) I'd stick with your choice for that one.

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Grand Master

obiwong

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the new nvidia cards are out

the GTX 280 and 260

ati's new cards are also out the 4850 and 4870

the 4850 is just as good if not better than the 9800GTX and costs less!

if you go with ATI you could get a P45 chipset mobo like the P5Q-E and then crossfire 4850's (Y)

last thing, if you're going to be overclocking the E8400 i'd go with RAM fater than 800MHz

typical overclock for the E8400 is somewhere around 450-500MHz FSB so go with ram that will be able to run at 1033MHz to give you some more headroom

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Grand Master

DirtyLarry Veteran

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Thanks for the replies so far everyone...

And definitely thanks for the hook up utdarkviper, I did not see the fine print about the Ram, so thanks for catching that.

I usually go with New Egg, but the only thing is I get hit with tax by them since they have a factory I guess in New Jersey where I live, hence why I was on Tiger Direct, but if it saves me enough money, I will deal with the tax.

Obi, now you got me thinking about the ATi cards.

Also I do not plan to do any Overclocking at all. Last time I overclocked I got a bit obsessed with it all, and wound up spening more time tweaking my clocks than actually using my comp to game. :laugh:

Hmm, that is a definite possibility with the ATi cards sine they are a bit cheaper, but I really have not had much faith in ATi since the 9800 Pro. :unsure:

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Grand Master

DirtyLarry Veteran

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Actually, I prefer to go with New Egg now that I think about it.

I trust them more, and even with Tax, free shipping makes up for it, so if people want to start focusing on New Egg that is cool with me.

Also, lets say I do go ATi, what kind of PSU is needed for Crossfire? Do they consider it SLi based PSU's, or something completely different?

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Grand Master

gwai lo

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Get the TX 750 from provantage or buy.com instead, it's just around 100 dollars last time I checked.

We've also got a single review that shows that P45's 8x/8x may dish out a performance hit for CF. This isn't a definitive answer to the issue and we're still waiting for more reviews, but it's something you may need to consider.:

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1472/7/p...ysis/index.html

I'd still go with an Intel chipset though. :p

I also want to vouch for looking at the 4850's in that price range. The only thing that may compete with them is the 9800GTX+ and most of it is overclocking potential...however that's not out yet so I'd pretty much only look at the 4850.

Also look for the xigmatek S1283 (with the retention bracket) for an after market cooling solution.

As for a PSU for multiGPU setups, you just need something slightly heavy on the 12v rail and with sufficient wattage. Certification just checks for that stuff.

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Grand Master

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I don't see why anyone would buy a 9800GTX at 240$ right now with the HD 4850 beating it handily for cheaper.

The "9800GTX" itself's name makes it sound more powerful. :p

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StevoJD

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Also looking into a building a mid-top range gaming rig here....

GPU: (HD4850)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814129112

RAM: (G.Skill DDR2 1066)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231166

Motherboard: (P5K)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131277

CPU: (E8400)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115037

Building a similar rig to yours, so I thought I'd share. :)

Edited by Steven D.
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Grand Master

DirtyLarry Veteran

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I don't see why anyone would buy a 9800GTX at 240$ right now with the HD 4850 beating it handily for cheaper.

Well like I said, I really do not know a thing about components these days, and last I had kept on it, Nvidia was handily beating ATi. If the tides have changed, I will go wherever my money gets the best bang for the buck.

Have ATi made improvements to their drivers? Are they still called Catalyst these days? LOL I feel like an old man who knows nothing.

Also looking into a building a mid-top range gaming rig here....

GPU: (HD4850)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814129112

RAM: (G.Skill DDR2 1066)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231166

Motherboard: (P5K)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...82E16813131225E

CPU: (E8400)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115037

Building a similar rig to yours, so I thought I'd share. :)

Nice. Thanks for this list and the links. (Y)

Link to P5K is not working anymore, so is it just an Asus P5K or is there a deluxe model or something along those lines?

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Grand Master

obiwong

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if you're considering going crossfire in the future the P5K isn't the way to go

from what i've been reading, when linked the PCIe slots work at 16x/4x which isn't enough bandwidth for crossfire

the PCIe slots in the P5Q series work at 8x/8x and are PCIe 2.0 which will work better for the 4850 in crossfire

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jerzdawg

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if you're considering going crossfire in the future the P5K isn't the way to go

from what i've been reading, when linked the PCIe slots work at 16x/4x which isn't enough bandwidth for crossfire

the PCIe slots in the P5Q series work at 8x/8x and are PCIe 2.0 which will work better for the 4850 in crossfire

is crossfire similar to SLI where you will see no benefit unless running resolutions above 1920*1080?

Edited by jerzdawg
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Grand Master

DirtyLarry Veteran

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is crossfire similar to SLI where you will see no benefit unless running resolutions about 1920*1080?

Yeah, can someone answer this, because of that is the case with both SLi and Crossfire and you only see the benefit at super high resolutions, I have no need for it.

I just ultimately would prefer if certain things could run @ 1680x1050, which is a pretty high resolution is it not?

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Grand Master

jerzdawg

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Yeah, can someone answer this, because of that is the case with both SLi and Crossfire and you only see the benefit at super high resolutions, I have no need for it.

I just ultimately would prefer if certain things could run @ 1680x1050, which is a pretty high resolution is it not?

not anymore... based on the newest reviews thats the low end resolution they run, 1920x1200 being the high...

Review

ut3.png

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CY:G

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Go for the e8400(i have this one OC to 4GHz, super stable) and ATI 4850, get a x38 board and you will be ready to crossfire.

About crossfire and resolutions, let the benchmarks do the talking...

hd4850cf4ghz_g_09.gif

So yes, it starts to help when you go to extreme resolutions, on 1280 * 1024 it is only 8 frames faster than non-crossfire, so its just not worth it.

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StevoJD

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Yeah, can someone answer this, because of that is the case with both SLi and Crossfire and you only see the benefit at super high resolutions, I have no need for it.

I just ultimately would prefer if certain things could run @ 1680x1050, which is a pretty high resolution is it not?

No need for SLI or Crossfire at that res. HD4850 or a 9800GTX would do fine.

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Grand Master

DirtyLarry Veteran

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Thanks once again guys. (Y)

So it looks like Crossfire does indeed help at 1680x1050.

I really maybe should have kept my subscriptions to Computer Shopper and Games For Windows, then I would have probably known ATi has a good card. :blush:

So the next question is, what are people running these days as far as their OS for just gaming comps?

Is Vista the choice of gamers, or is XP still the forerunner?

Main reason I ask since I do know it is also a matter of what people prefer, is I only have XP, and if I have to go Vista, I need to factor that into the price equation as well.

Still not sure about this all to be honest, I own a 360 & PS3, and I hardly have time for those, but I really want to play some upcoming PC games, no doubt the old and new Crysis included, but games like Left 4 Dead, Far Cry 2, etc., on the PC, where they should be played.

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Grand Master

Brian M. Veteran

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Is Vista the choice of gamers, or is XP still the forerunner?

For me, the few lost FPS were worth losing for the improved features of Vista over XP. You will get a slightly higher framerate under XP in most games, however, if you're planning on using it as a general day to day PC as well, I'd say go with Vista.

At the end of the day, it's personal preference - everybody either loves of hates vista. With the specs of the PC you're building, the hit Vista will have will be minimal at best.

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Grand Master

+Mystic MVC

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For me, the few lost FPS were worth losing for the improved features of Vista over XP. You will get a slightly higher framerate under XP in most games, however, if you're planning on using it as a general day to day PC as well, I'd say go with Vista.

At the end of the day, it's personal preference - everybody either loves of hates vista. With the specs of the PC you're building, the hit Vista will have will be minimal at best.

Exactly, enough said right there. I cannot be convinced when people say they are building new systems with XP that the extra few FPS is worth it.

Dirty, go with Vista. The system you are building will handle Vista with no problem as well as the games you are playing. Have fun buddy!

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CY:G

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Vista x64, you need at least 4GB of ram for games though... i know 2GB is enough but for games like Crysis you need it.

BTW< check TF2 on PC, it leaps ahead the console version.

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Grand Master

DirtyLarry Veteran

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Vista x64, you need at least 4GB of ram for games though... i know 2GB is enough but for games like Crysis you need it.

BTW< check TF2 on PC, it leaps ahead the console version.

Literally the first game I would get for the PC is TF2. (Y)

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Grand Master

Brian M. Veteran

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Literally the first game I would get for the PC is TF2. (Y)

Playing TF2 on the PC is a completely different experience (The OB is one of the few games I own on both console and PC). It's well worth the ?10 or whatever it is.

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Grand Master

DirtyLarry Veteran

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Also looking into a building a mid-top range gaming rig here....

GPU: (HD4850)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814129112

RAM: (G.Skill DDR2 1066)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231166

Motherboard: (P5K)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131277

CPU: (E8400)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115037

Building a similar rig to yours, so I thought I'd share. :)

Okay guys.

Can any of you experts advise me in the direction of some cheaper Ram with the above config?

Like I said, I really never plan on overclocking this Rig, so I am thinking I can cut pack on the Ram some without to much of a performance hit.

I also definitely want to get 4GB of ram.

Am I stupid thinking I can cut back on the ram without taking a huge hit?

Also, what about a PSU?

http://www.hypermicro.com/product.asp?pf_i...;dept_id=12-003

I can't find specs in the above link, but this is it just the next model in the series on Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817151028

That top link, the price is definitely right, and I also really like the idea of a modular PSU that lets me add the cables as I need.

Anyone have any experiences with these kind of modular PSU's.

If I add that $49 PSU, and less expensive RAM, I am definitely in my original target area which would be sweet.

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