Hool's spankin new gaming monster!

[hool10]

Ok I'm going to get my new pc before Left 4 Dead comes out. I have a keyboard, mouse, monitor, and some old Creative 5.1 speakers still in its box. The budget on this monster pc is $1,500 max. :cheese: I was thinking of buying a soundcard because I hate dealing with AC'97 audio. Also it increases performance in games by having a dedicated sound card. I'm also thinking of getting a DX10 card so that I don't have to worry about the video card for some time. I will keep XP until they sort Vista out or Crysis comes and gets good reviews. A major thing I'm debating is the quad core/dual core. It seems like even a dual core is'nt enough anymore. I never want to upgrade my CPU again so I just figure that I will get a quad core and that will be that. I'm also wondering about fanless coolers to sit on my CPU. Zalman makes some high quality products and my dad recently bought a computer with a fanless setup. Also if I find that Raptor HDs are worth the money, I will invest in them and make my current HD a seconday. While my dad has not ran anything crazy except for 3DMark, it has run very cool. I realize prices will change in the coming months, but the hardware won't have a major change. My current pc is:

Manufacturer:
Shuttle
Processor:
Pentium 4 2.80 GHZ
Memory:
1 GB
Hard Drive:
127 GB
Video Card:
ATI X800XL 256 MB
Monitor:
Sceptre 22" HD Widescreen gaming edition
Sound Card:
Realtek AC'97 Audio
Speakers/Headphones:
Platronics Gamecom Pro 1
Keyboard:
HP Wired Office Keyboard
Mouse:
Logitech Marble Mouse
Mouse Surface:
Glass desk
Operating System:
Windows XP Home Edition (Service Pack 2)

 

[staticprimer]

If you're willing to front the money, get a quad-core, there's no good reason not to. As for fanless cpu cooling, from my understanding they just don't work very well. You'll probably be better off getting a Zalman 9700 or whatever the model is and set it to low speed. You'll get cool temps and probably won't be able to hear it over the other fans in your case.

As for Raptors - and this is purely my opinion - they just don't seem to be worth it. Many people swear by them, but their price per gig is still very high, their sizes are still very small, and from reviews, they only give you a few seconds difference in loading. Personally, I prefer a higher capacity over a small boost of speed.

 

[giant384]

x800xl might struggle at 1680x1050 but its a shuttle pc so you can only put so much.

 

[Dekstar]

With Raptors you're payingm ainly for the branding if I understand correctly from my recent computer buying spree. There are cheaper and larger drives out there that, while being slightly slower, are pretty unnoticable real-world style.

I *would* suggest you get a great card with lots of Vram, since the textures coming out will be insane (why can't they optimise their games anymore), but only the top-end of the next-gen bunch have a huge amount of vram, and they cost about $700 on their own AFAIK. I'd suggest either getting an 8600, and then 4gb of system RAM, or getting a 320mb 8800 if you think you can stretch that far.

 

[The Brick]

Just throwing in that the q6600 (quad) will half in price july 22nd. IMO worth waiting for.

I don't know what you see in the raptor drives, but in my eyes they're just hot and noisy and aren't much faster (if at all) than a good 7200rpm drive for half the price. In doesn't matter much in games anyway.

 

[Ravioli]

check out my thread called "last check before buying my new computer" or something like that, its around 1300 dollars and is somewhat what you want.

 

[hool10]

I was looking at the hardware on newgg. DX10 cards are insanely expensive! Almost $600 for the darn thing. :frown: Will the prices come down a lot for those soon? Also should I get 4GB of RAM or 2GB? What about the sound card thing too? I'm kinda upset on what to decide upon because everything is so expensive right now and they are getting bad reviews. Like the 680i motherboards I hear arn't good while magazines like Maximum PC are saying they are great. Idk what to get lol.

 

[Icarusintel]

Just throwing in that the q6600 (quad) will half in price july 22nd. IMO worth waiting for.

That is some crucial info. Thx.

 

[hool10]

Yeah is'nt it supposed to be a very affordable $220 something?

 

[The Brick]

$266

And I don't know why you think you have to spend $600 on a videocard, you can get an awesomely fast DX10 card for $300 (less even), the 8800gts 320mb.

4gb is considerable since the ram prices went down, but (depending on the mobo) you'll have to get a 2x2gb kit If you want to overclock. There are very little mainboards that can clock high with 4 ram modules.

 

[giant384]

dude there is so much stuff that is cheaper. its only insanely priced because your looking at the most expensive hardware. you need to research products before you buy.

 

[Stigmata]

Like everyone said so far:

Wait until the quad-core prices come down
Get at LEAST 2GB RAM, though 4GB (2x2 modules) would be better
Get a mid-range DX10 card for now, until DX10 becomes standard

 

[Gray Fox]

Ram has got me confused.
There is so much ****ing to choose from and the info usually provided on online stores doesn't tell me enough.
I see 2x1gb pc6400 stick ranging from 80,- to 180,-. Often from the same manufacturer. Anyone know what a good price is for 2gb of ram, which brand and series is a good buy. Everyone says ram is inexpensive, but I see more then enough very expensive ram, and the inexpensive seem really low quality.
I also read that the difference between pc5300 and 6400, and so on is minimal, so size of the ram and latencies should matter much more then the frequency?

 

[The Brick]

Well 6 months ago I payed 350 euro for a 2x1gb pc6400 c4 set, and now you can get them for under 100 euro. Hope that makes sense.

 

[ricera10]

I would say go mATX! I leik small computers...plus they have more expandability than a shuttle.

And to emphasize the wait for July 22nd-price-cut-2.66ghz Q6600-quad-core thing. And there will be more 3x series intel mobos for better overclocking and better memory controller and stuff, and hopefully DDR3 RAM that's better than current DDR2 RAM.

 

[giant384]

mATX doesnt have expandability really either....slot wise

 

[Asus]

mATX doesnt have expandability really either....slot wise

Well, shuttles have like 2 slots right? Micro ATX boards usually have 4 slots. And full ATX boards add 2 more slots than that (6).

 

[hungryduck]

x800xl might struggle at 1680x1050 but its a shuttle pc so you can only put so much.

no, thats what he has already, no what he's getting

 

[hool10]

Jee what do I do right now?! If you buy the CPU now from TigerDirect you get the XFX nForce 680i motherboard for free! http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...-details.asp?EdpNo=3189364&Sku=MBM-680I-Q6600
I calculated the price after July 22nd and the price right now for the CPU price and newegg price of the motherboard, and there is $5 difference. I don't know how long the offer will last either. I'm thinking I should wait on this. Ideas?