Looking for critique of my potential new setup

D

DemisE

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 21, 2004
Messages
164
Not sure if this is the place to post this so if it is not I apologize in advance. Basically after 3 years I am ready to build my wife and I new gaming rigs. We are wanting to have machines that will play our current games as well as new ones like Crysis very well. Currently we are running AMD 3200's 3GB of RAM with BFG 6800GT's. I have pieced together what I "think" will be a good setup for a decent price and wanted some input. Here is what I am looking at getting.

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail - $199.00

Motherboard - ABIT IP35 Pro LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $169.99

Power Supply - PC Power & Cooling S610EPS EPS12V 610W Continuous @ 40°C Power Supply - Retail - $109.99

Video Card - BFG Tech BFGE88512GTSE GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail - $259.99

Memory - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail - $119.99
 
What OS are you planning to run and what ver (32 or 64), Because if you run XP or vista 32bit, You wont be able to see the full 4gigs of ram. You need a 64bit OS to see the full ram.
 
What's your overall budget -- for both rigs?

Are both rigs going to be identical in parts?

What else will you and your wife be using each other's computers for?

Which monitor(s) are you (planning on) using?

Which games (in addition to Crysis) are you (planning on) playing?

Do you need other components, besides the ones that you've listed?
 
tiraides said:
What's your overall budget -- for both rigs?

Are both rigs going to be identical in parts?

What else will you and your wife be using each other's computers for?

Which monitor(s) are you (planning on) using?

Which games (in addition to Crysis) are you (planning on) playing?

Do you need other components, besides the ones that you've listed?
Click to expand...

I am wanting to stay in the $2,000 for both rigs budget. The OS will be Vista or XP 64bit.

I do VB programming on mine as well as gaming but my wife's will be gaming / internet browsing.

Yes both rigs will be identical in parts, the monitors are 20" Apple Cinema Displays. The games we play are WoW, CS:S, Far Cry, Bioshock, C&C.

The other components like HDD's are already existing SATA drives as well as sound cards.
 
Where are you planning on buying things from? The price that you've listed for RAM seems pretty high?
 
You might consider an E7200 instead of the E8400. The E7200 can likely be overclocked to the speed of an E8400 or higher and is quite a bit cheaper. 3MB cache instead of 6MB isn't likely to make a noticeable difference in everyday usage.

If you don't need all of the extra features of the IP35 Pro (Dual LAN, RAID), you could save a few bucks and get a Gigabyte DS3L which is a popular board.

The 8800 GTS 512MB is a good choice, but you could probably get a cheaper card from another brand, like MSI.

The cheaper RAM suggested above would also be a good choice, or maybe the NewEgg Memory Deals are still active.
 
dhc014 said:
You might consider an E7200 instead of the E8400. The E7200 can likely be overclocked to the speed of an E8400 or higher and is quite a bit cheaper. 3MB cache instead of 6MB isn't likely to make a noticeable difference in everyday usage.

If you don't need all of the extra features of the IP35 Pro (Dual LAN, RAID), you could save a few bucks and get a Gigabyte DS3L which is a popular board.

The 8800 GTS 512MB is a good choice, but you could probably get a cheaper card from another brand, like MSI.

The cheaper RAM suggested above would also be a good choice, or maybe the NewEgg Memory Deals are still active.
Click to expand...


Good idea's. I don't want to OC either of these systems as my past history with doing so has always been bad. I will try to find a supplier other than newegg so I don't have to pay sales tax.
 
There's a list of online retailers available in the GenHard FAQ. ZipZoomFly, Mwave, and ClubIT are some popular alternatives to NewEgg.
 
DemisE said:
I am wanting to stay in the $2,000 for both rigs budget. The OS will be Vista or XP 64bit.
Click to expand...

So $1000 per rig, correct?

Oh, I highly highly recommend jumping on this deal for a great quality 750W PSU:
Corsair 750TX 750W PSU - $99

It's a bit more than you need but this is a deal that shouldn't be passed up.
 
I agree with Danny... get that PSU.

What does the rest of the rig(s) look like?
 
If you can wait, ATI and Nvidia are both launching their new next gen in the week of June 15-22. Nvidias GT200 to be marketed as the GTX280 (previously named 9900GTX) and GTX260 (previously named 9900GT). ATI is going to release the HD4850 as a hard launch on the 16th and will soft-launch (meaning really only the people spicifically looking for and willing to be on backorder for) the HD4870 one week later. Both the HD4k and GTX200 cards will be twice as powerful as current gen, (and, finally, ATI and Nvidia cards should be comprable).

People who look-up my post history will see when I give advice about buying now its wait till next gen, but when I give advice about buying in general its draw the line somewhere. Truth is, you should draw the line somewhere and wherever you draw it there will be something 2000X as awesome the next day. But, in the case of video cards, after a 2 year drought, I'm stead-fast in my wait-till-next-gen viewpoint. One year after release, Crysis is still not playable on a rig us mortals can afford. The HD4850 looks to change that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top