My payrise coincides with HL2 release...

[thescotster19]

So with £2000 to spend what should I buy to give me the finest Half-Life 2 experience? I want a beefy mother of a computer and I'm quite happy to build it myself. I already have a monitor and a hard disk, DVD rom and cd writer. I need advice on the nitty gritty!

Are the 64 bit athlons really that much better than the P4's? How can something with a clock speed of 2.4Ghz be better than a processor with 3.6GHz?

Graphics cards: I want the absolute best of the best please!

Advice please!

 

[Maxi]

There IS a hardware and software section. I can't belive how many threads i've seen in the wrong sections today!

 

[thescotster19]

oops sorry. noob!

 

[PlasmaBurnz]

I've got a P4 3Ghz at the minute but if i had 2k to drop it would be on an athlon.

P4s are pretty overclockable so you could tweak them for extra performance while the athlons aren't as overclockable. Out of the box I would go for an athlon 64 3500, or the FX 55 (when it arrives) if you want to be ripped off (i think there going to retail for around £550 over here in the UK).

RAM wise you want PC4000 (if your overclocking, otherwise it doesn't really matter). OCZ make good ram. A gig will probably do, but more is always better.

A Audigy 2 ZS soundcard is a must (DD7.1 and DTS decoding).

Whats your HDD's like? My SATA raid setup flys. you want at least a 7200rpm HDD.

Video wise, if it's only for HL 2 get an ATI X800 XT Platinum Edition (if you can get a hold of one, over here it's easier to get an audience with the queen).

If it's gaming alround, depends on the games you play, Nvidia are better at opengl while ATi are better at DirectX.

Nvidia wise you'll want either a 6800GT or Ultra. I recommend a GT, their slower out of the box but most are clockable to beyond Ultra speeds (thats the only difference between the two). And it's very easy to clock them (my GT is perfectly stable at 425/1200, which is great when you consider the Ultra is clocked at 400/1100).

PM me if you want any help.

EDIT: BTW don't skim on the motherboard or PSU. A good quality mobo and PSU can make the difference between a decent system and a great system.

 

[soccerdude21490]

I don't know about processers and things like that but for Video Cards I would recomend the new ATI card the Radenon X800 XT Platnium edition. Also I heard places that ATI is releasing new 512 RAm cards or something like that, can anyone confirm that?

 

[PlasmaBurnz]

Has the RAM situation been resolved? I know the reason we're not getting many XT PEs over in the UK is due mainly to DDR3 memory shortages (that and the GPU yield being crap).

If they haven't resolved this I can't see many 512 meg cards making it onto the market.

 

[KBharvester]

thats neat and all, but my retirement coincides with hl2 release...yup...i'm 34 and recently retired for life...now i can play all i want

 

[PlasmaBurnz]

thats neat and all, but my retirement coincides with hl2 release...yup...i'm 34 and recently retired for life...now i can play all i want

Share the wisdom old man. I'm 23 and sick of working already(god forbid another 42 years of this).

 

[KBharvester]

i got lucky...my wife got a job making 180k a year...i now get to stay home with the kids and play counterstike with them all the time

 

[SCoomby]

"Share the wisdom old man. I'm 23 and sick of working already(god forbid another 42 years of this)."

By the time we get there, retirement age will be 70. Prepare yourself for another 47 years of working pleasure!!! Working in the UK is so pleasurable ;(

 

[kaellinn18]

i got lucky...my wife got a job making 180k a year...i now get to stay home with the kids and play counterstike with them all the time

I will hopefully be in the same situation in the next couple of years. My wife is getting a PhD in pharmacology from Johns Hopkins. I just need to hold on for a bit more...

What was this thread about again? Oh yeah, the new PC. I just bought a brand new one from www.hypersonic-pc.com for just above two grand. You can get a pretty kickass system for pretty cheap, provided you have a decent monitor and an OS already. I'm now running a P4 3.4 on a PCI express motherboard, 1 GB RAM, and an X800XT Platinum.

 

[deathscent]

i got my diploma from a county fair. i wouldn't be so sure that she could get so far... *All facts are true to some extent. YES, I have tried to get a job with the shitty diploma, but never got anything. I am a doctor because I had majored in biology and chemistry.*
anyhow, he's talking about POUNDS, which is like 1.5x1AmericanDollar. so, the stuff he can get could run up to be slightly cheaper. think wisely, fellow members.

 

[CloSe2InSaNitY]

if i were you..

I'd try to get some alienware.. they are expensive but...


-they have a liquid coolingsystem built it.
-they have a nice design
-they are beasts.

i think you should try ; www.aliensware.com
you wont regret it.

what about 4Ghz , gigs of ram, and best of the best vga.

peace

 

[thescotster19]

Thanks for the replies!
I think I'll opt for the Nvidia Ultra, I'm not too keen on overclocking, I've never done it before, and I'd probably mess it up. Since I play all my games on 1024 * 768 anyhow, the ultra should be quite sufficient. The athlon fx 55 is very very tempting. For the first time in my life I have the money and independence to buy exactly what I want, so sod it, ill get the best cpu out there. A gig of ram will do me fine for the time being, I can always get some more later. As for the HD ill just go for a standard 120 gig 7200 methinks, as long as loading times are reasonable im not too bothered. If I don't break the bank on ram and hdd it means I can on my graph card and cpu. Thanks very much for the advice!