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Hi !
I'm buying a new computer and since I don't know much about computers, I'd like to know what you guys think. I'm looking for a gaming computer and my maximum budget is 1000$, but the cheaper the better. I don't want (or can) to build it myself.
I've visited a lot of shops and this is what I found I think was best. Most vendors just offered me a quad-core with a crappy video card -_-
AMD Athlon 64 x2 4800 + / 2.5 GHz
Board Asus M3A AMD770
3 GIG KVR DDR2 667MHz Dual Kit
HD Western 500G 7200 Sata 2 16MB
CV Asus EN8600GT Silent 512MB PCI-E
DVD Burner LG 20x OEM
Integrated sound card
Network card 10/100/1000MBPS
Windows Vista Home Premium 32B
3 years warranty included
Before taxes : 730,95$
After taxes : 825,06$
I'm thinking of maybe changing to dual 3.2GHz ? I don't think a better video card would be any good on a dual 2.5GHz, would it?
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this will run anything fine dont even worry/.. get 4 gb ram though
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I believe that you could get a 250gb hard drive instead of a 500gb and to instead put a little bit more money on getting a GeForce 8800. Unless that you know or feel that you're going to use more than 250GB.
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Yun makes a good point. I mean, come on!?!?!?! 500 gigs of porn man? No one needs that much.
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Everything is fine except the RAM.
Try to find at least 800MHz freq. It works better with AMD 64X2s since the tact is synced with the cpu clock (at least that's what I remember, I haven't bought new shit in 2 years). So yeah, either get 2 Gb @ 800Mhz or 4Gb @ 800Mhz (since you're under $1000 anyway). My advice would be to get a better video card (8800 or so) and 2 gb of ram, and, if needed, get 2 more Gb later on. Windows 32bit won't read the full 4gb of ram anyway.
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It's true that Intel has been a bit stronger recently but I don't know if that's even true anymore, but as you say a quad-core is unnecessary. A better video card would definitely be a good idea even for that processor, the 8600 will likely not be able to handle SC2 on high setting if that's what your aiming for. If you want an NVidia card you should look at 9800GTX (which recently had a price drop to ~200$) or the in tests better-performing radeon HD 4850 (same price-range).
Also, since you're getting a 32B OS, don't listen to Hypnosis and get 4GB RAM. A 32B OS can handle 4 GB of RAM but that includes the RAM on the video card so you'll be sitting with a lot of it unusable.
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On July 08 2008 02:45 Showtime! wrote:
Yun makes a good point. I mean, come on!?!?!?! 500 gigs of porn man? No one needs that much.
My 1 terrabyte drive begs to differ.
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On July 08 2008 01:48 Taurent wrote:
Windows Vista Home Premium 32B
Looks really good, except for the OS.
Unless you are planning on playing games that only run on Vista, I would strongly urge you to stick with XP if at all possible. So many gamers that get Vista run into annoying problems, especially when trying to play older games.
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try to get an ATI radeon 4850
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Thanks a lot for the advices ! It's really, really, really appreciated. I'll be going there tomorrow and see what I can change w/o busting my budget.
On July 08 2008 07:20 TheDCninja wrote:Looks really good, except for the OS. Unless you are planning on playing games that only run on Vista, I would strongly urge you to stick with XP if at all possible. So many gamers that get Vista run into annoying problems, especially when trying to play older games.
Yeah, I heard a lot of bad things as well on Vista, but newer games will probably stop supporting XP in a couple of months/years
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On July 08 2008 09:17 Taurent wrote:
Yeah, I heard a lot of bad things as well on Vista, but newer games will probably stop supporting XP in a couple of months/years
That's not gonna happen. New games will support both, and offer DirectX 9 support for XP and maybe 10 for Vista (as a "bonus"). Or they'll just stick with DX9.
They can't ignore XP, everyone knows that Vista is by far the least successful MS operating system, and also the most criticized one (apart from ME... but let's just ignore that blatant re-release of Win98). If they ignore XP, they're shooting themselves in the foot. Or rather: in the head.
If you want to go 64bit I'd advise you to get Vista though, but apparently you want 32bit so I'd suggest sticking with XP.
The 8600 is really bad now. You should get a 8800, 9600 or, ideally, the new HD4850 from ATI. I'm not sure what the prices are but they have dropped quite a bit... should all be around 150 EUR now.
RAM: 800 MHz.
CPU: Phenom or C2D 8400, if it's still possible with your budget. The non-Phenom AMD CPUs are quite out-dated now
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i recommend "at least" 8800 gt 512 mb or 1000 mb graphic cards so that u will be ready for starcraft 2 and diablo 3.Better if you can get the 200 series info at nvidia.com and also u will need a more powerful power supply unit for your rig if you intend to do SLI later on which is combining 2 same graphic cards in a system. but its better to have 1 more powerful card than to have 2 weaker cards combining together. but 1 8800 gt is enough to get the job done.
and 1 more thing about your ram,, try to get at least 800mhz rams because 667mhz are really slow..and the price increment for 800mhz isnt that much. better if u could get 1066 mhz rams but that actually depends what ram speed your motherboard supports.
this is my computer 's spec for your reference
crosshair 2 formula asus mother board
amd phenom 9600 black edition 2.3 overclocked to 2.53
4gb ram
two 8800 gt 512 SLI-ed
samsung 20x dvd player + burner
gigabyte 800 watt power supply
gigabyte casing
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I'd recommend the Intel Q6600 over the athlon.
Intel is blowing AMD out of the water right now. Their core 2 cpus are amazing.
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United States22883 Posts
On July 08 2008 09:54 0xDEADBEEF wrote:Show nested quote +On July 08 2008 09:17 Taurent wrote:
Yeah, I heard a lot of bad things as well on Vista, but newer games will probably stop supporting XP in a couple of months/years That's not gonna happen. New games will support both, and offer DirectX 9 support for XP and maybe 10 for Vista (as a "bonus"). Or they'll just stick with DX9. They can't ignore XP, everyone knows that Vista is by far the least successful MS operating system, and also the most criticized one (apart from ME... but let's just ignore that blatant re-release of Win98). If they ignore XP, they're shooting themselves in the foot. Or rather: in the head. If you want to go 64bit I'd advise you to get Vista though, but apparently you want 32bit so I'd suggest sticking with XP.
Most of the criticisms are unwarranted. Get 2gig + of ram and Vista will be fine. SP1 vs SP3, Vista is the better operating system.
I'm running Vista 64 (the least compatible version) and I haven't had any issues yet. Old games installed are SC, HL2, GTA VC, Q3, CS 1.6, Prey, NFSU 2.
Also, get a ATI 4850 or 4870 for video card. Depending on when you'll be purchasing, ATI's "new" card will be out in August.
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EPT
