Which is a better setup?

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blacklotus

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Apr 26, 2006
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Hi guys,

Im building a new mid-level rig for general and occasional gaming use. I play mostly RTS games like Comman and Conquer, Age of Empires, and Rise of Nations. I would use my computer mostly for internet browsing and light video editing.

Can you guys tell me which is the best setup and where to spend my money? Im trying to save as much money as i can for my next monitor purchase (Dell's 2407).

Option 1 : spend less on CPU and more for video card and ram
Option 2: spend more on CPU, ram and less for video card

What is the cheapest/decent enough video card i should buy to play these games on the 2407 monitor? Im not really picky on high settings as long as the game doesnt lag.

For the CPU i can go for the: cheapest CPU (Intel D 805) OR mid-end CPU (Athlon X2 3800+).

Thanks.
 
For the video card probably a 7900gt or maybe an x1800xt. Or maybe the cheapest x1800 series card or a 7600gt because those games aren't really that graphically challenging for most cards. But of course the newer games like Rise of Legends or some that haven't come out yet will need more power to run at those resolutions. For those resolutions and decent settings you'll need a pretty good video card especially if you wanna play some of the future RTS games. Go for the 805 those things are insane overclockers. You might wanna upgrade within a year anyway when Conroe is here and the new AM2 chips start to come out. Both of those chips are gonna be dated really fast when Conroe comes out so spend less and get the great overclocker for less money.
 
I'd go option 3: Spend more on the CPU/Vid card and less on RAM, as long as you're staying with the same amount of RAM.

If going cheaper on the RAM would require moving down a notch in amount (2GB to 1GB, for example), I'd go option 1, grab an 805, and OC the crap out of it.
 
I would spend the most on your cpu. Your games arent really that graphics intensive so you arent going to need a crazy gpu
 
Sounds like the the 805 and 7900GT is a good option. Im planning to upgrade to Conroe later on so i guess going with Intel and the DDR2 path will prepare me for the future upgrade. One more question guys, which DDR2 speed should i buy with the 805 and for the future Conroe chip? I am not overclocking by the way. Thanks much for all your replies.
 
If he's doing video editing wouldn't he want to spend most on the ram? As has been said, those arent very video intensive games.

Will the conroe boards support pentium D's or no? You may do better to wait for the intel price cuts too if you can (bout the same time as conroe comes out). If you plan to upgrade to conroe why not just wait for it now? If the conroe boards support pentium D's then at least wait for that so that you dont need to get a new mainboard when you upgrade to conroe.
 
For the games listed, a 7900/X1800 would be overkill and a waste of money. I'd go with a 7600GT for video. I usually upgrade my video card at least once per year, so futureproofing is not a huge concern for me. So, if you don't want to have to upgrade for a while, then maybe a more powerful card would be a better choice. For the cpu, I agree with Antheus, wait for Intel to drop prices. The Pentium D 805 that was mentioned will soon be dirt cheap, check this out. http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2771&p=6
 
The Dell xx07 monitors aren't completely problem-free, last I heard. Maybe they're fixing them now, but in the meantime, you should look into other monitors.
 
i would just go with like a vx2025 for the monitor. Only 350 $ and 20" big. Some of the dell monitors have been having some problems so if get the vx2025 you add 750 $ that you can put towards your cou, gpu, ram, bigger hd, etc.
 
Wow, this room is really very helpful. Thanks again guys. As far as upgrading to Conroe, that wouldn't be until next year until the CPU proves itself and besides I don't think they're gonna be cheap on the initial release. I just wanna go cheap right now for the system build and throw most of my money for the monitor. For the video card, someone mentioned that the 7900GT is overkill for my games and get the 7600GT instead. My concern is that can the 7600GT handle my games on a "24 monitor? I just want a system that can handle my needs (see original post) with a larger ("24) monitor. Anyways, thanks much of all you.
 
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