I'm a big PC gamer and I have a respectable computer right now, but the other day, I noticed it was struggling in Battlefield 2, so I said to myself "Well, time to upgrade." I started searching on newegg.com and I noticed that AMD's X2 dual core line of processors were WAY cheaper than the last time I looked (even the new AM2 socket versions). I quickly found out why: Intel's new line of CPUs, the Core 2 Duos, are about to wipe the floor with pricing and performance over AMD. Not only are the Core 2 Duos just as cheap as their direct AMD X2 competition, they perform better than AMD's higher end CPUs. So finally, I'm in the right place at the right time! I'm on a very tight budget, but I want something to last a long time and give me very good performance. I think I've done just that. Here are the specs of my current setup and my soon-to-be setup:
Current specs:
AMD Athlon XP 2800+ 2.08GHz
1GB (2x512, Dual Channel) DDR400 (PC3200) RAM
eVGA 6600GT AGP 8x
120GB 5400RPM hard drive
500w power supply (I bought this beefy PSU with the plan of using it in my next build, which I still plan on doing)
Soon to be specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1.83GHz
2GB (2x1GB, Dual Channel) DDR2 667 (PC5400) RAM
eVGA 7900GT KO
250GB 7200RPM hard drive
As for the price of my new computer, you guys might be surprised to find out that it won't even crack $900 (that includes everything except the power supply). The exact total should be around $860-$880. Not bad for a close-to-top-of-the-line PC.
Here is the case I'm getting:
(http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/11-196-019-02.JPG)
And just to show how good the new Core 2 Duos are, here are some tests:
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2795
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2duo-e6300.html
I can't wait to get my new comp together :) . It'll be my first scratch build for myself.
why not just spend the little bit extra for a new psu and then have 2 pcs?
Do you really intend to cut your processing speed to 1.8GHz? You could save some money and just buy a new motherboard and processor combo from newegg or tigerdirect that will give you a FSB speed of 400 (the same as your current RAM) and that would increase your speed quite a bit. Matching the frequency of your MB, RAM, and CPU does more for performance than you might think.
I have an AMD XP 3200+ and that has a FSB of 400 Hz, along with my Gigabyte MB (400 FSB also) and the DC DDR400 that I used to have (I killed it, it got too hot) my machine was killer enough to handle BF2 just fine. After I had to stick my old RAM back in to replace the fried stuff the perfromance dropped off quite a bit.
Right now with a 2800 CPU you are running at a core frequency of only 166 Hz. Youre missing out on a lot of your RAMs potential. That and newegg and Tigerdirect have combos that cost anywhere from $100 to $200, nowhere near that $900 mark. ;)
About "cutting my processing speed to 1.8GHz," yes, it's a slower clock speed, but take a quick peek at those benchmarks I posted. Remember how when AMD's Athlon series came out and they were whooping Intels with lower clock speeds? Well, thats what Intels are doing to AMDs now. That "slow" $199 1.83GHz dual core CPU is outperforming AMD's $329 2.4GHz dual core CPU, the X2 4600+, which is a pretty top-of-the-line CPU. So yes, at first glance, it may seem like I'm going down a notch, but in fact, I'm upgrading performance greatly, since even the X2 4600+, with its dual core and 64 bit capabilities, blows away my little single core, 32 bit Athlon XP. It's not even in the same ballpark. That's like comparing the size of earth to the size of Jupiter when it comes down to it. You also might want to know that I plan to keep the comp I'm about to build for at least 2-3 years; the comp I have now is only AGP, low end single core, 32 bit, 1GB regular DDR RAM, mid/low range 128MB graphics card. The comp I'm getting is PCI-Express, high end dual core, 64 bit, 2GB DDR2 RAM, high end 256MB graphics card.
And I know about my RAM; there's actually a good reason behind it. When I was buying the RAM, I had originally planned on getting PC2700 RAM to match my CPU and motherboard, but it turned out that the PC3200 RAM of the same company and make was a few dollars cheaper for some reason, so I got that. When you put RAM that's faster than the motherboard supports, it automatically lowers to that speed, so it is basically PC2700 RAM right now. And since this comp doesnt support OCing ( Hewlett Packard), I can't help it at all.
On another note, if anyone is wondering why I'm getting top-of-the-line stuff, here is one big reason why:
(http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/705/705664/crysis-20060508022308296.jpg)
That is a real time, ingame screenshot of Crysis, made by the same studio that did Far Cry. And yes, that is motion blur you see in there. And yes, it will need a beast of a PC to look like that, hence the reason I'm upgrading :D . The game is due out fall 2006.
Also, about having 2 PCs, well I can still do that without buying another PSU. I just take my 6600GT out of this comp, put it back to the old onboard Geforce 4MX, hook up the original PSU, and there's another comp for me. Buying another high end PSU is out of the question; the one I have now was $100 and I got a good rebate on it. But there are already 3 computers in the house (one for me, one for my sis, and one for my parents), so I'm just going to sell off my 6600GT and PC (I'm only a 17 almost 18 year old making 5.50 an hour, after all). If anyone here is interested, it's a very good, working PC. I'm probably going to take out the hard drive (or wipe it or somethin), depending on what I feel like. My 6600GT AGP is also in great working condition.
At first i guessed you were in the jungle.....That game must need a BIG COMPUTER ! I think the Pc that you want would do the job very well...
That screen shot makes me want to upgrade!
Yeah, Crysis definately makes jaws drop. You can mow down anything in the forest: trees, barns, etc. And yes, it is possible to kill enemies with a falling tree. There are so many awesome things in this game, I can't explain them all. For more screenshots, videos, and info try these links:
http://pc.ign.com/objects/694/694190.html
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/crysis/index.html?q=crysis
http://incrysis.com/crysis/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
It's also one of the first games to support DirectX10, which will be introduced when Windows Vista releases (somewhere from December - March, I expect). Currently there are no video cards with DX10 support (ATi's R600 chip and NVidia's G80 chip will be the first, and will release Q4 of ths year). If anyone is wondering "Why aren't you waitingfor DX10 then?" The answer is: I'm not getting Windows Vista for a while, so there's no point to wait when the market is perfect for consumers right now. So anyways, the shots and videos you see are still running on current DX9 hardware (although I hear that they have "forced" DX10 effects, which explains why two top of the line cards struggle in the videos).
As for my build, I plan to order my CPU tomorrow or Thurs from ZipZoomFly (I get my paycheck tomorrow), and after hearing some things about the case I had chosen, I've chosen a different one (but for the same price):
(http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/11-133-142-01.JPG)
The two s you see on the top control the speeds of the front and rear fans (very awesome) and the small screen in between the s tells you your CPU temperature, also very cool. The power/reset button, audio jacks, etc are set on top of the case, which is perfect for me since the computer sits on the floor next to my desk.
Good luck with it, even if you're using hardware I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. :p
hahahahaha
Computers are actually A LOT easier to work with than most people think. In fact, working on a car is much more complicated than building a PC. Building a PC would be equivalent to building a car if the wheels, chassis, body, and interior were all one piece each and you just had to snap them together. Even my dad has learned rather quickly how to work on computers.
And thanks; I'm really excited to get this beast built :) . Too bad it'll still be several weeks before I get to :( .
I got my first job in a computer store in 1995.. I'm familiar with putting computers together. :p
I went through the build-my-own phase some time ago. Now I just buy cheap pre-built systems and modify them to suit my needs. The roll-your-own snobs would laugh at my main PC, but it serves me well. The one before it served me well for two and a half years.
eh, fast computers are cool, but I seem to get better performance out of 5+ year old run of the mill computers with 96 megs of ram and windows 98 for my web browsing experiance. You just down need that much computer unless your playing games, and I hardly ever do that anymore.
Bird351: There's nothing wrong with prebuilts for general use. Hell, thats how my current PC started out. It's a HP a320n (3 tears old now) that I upgraded with an Nvidia 6600GT graphics card, 1GB RAM, and a 500W power supply.
Haystack: Yeah, I used to think that. Until my parents actually used a Pentium II, 384MB RAM, TNT 2 machine. Compared to my well kept, 3 year old PC, it was SLOOOOOOOOOOOW (and it ran Windows 98). Keeping a PC well optimized goes a long way towards having very few problems and getting stuff done quickly. Thats when you can really see the difference between computers.
Nothing wrong with modified pre-builts for gaming, either. I have an Athlon64 3200+, 2 gigs of RAM, 380 gigs worth of hard drives, 400w power supply, ASUS X850XT mildly overclocked, and a far more decent MSI motherboard than you would expect in an eMachines. (4 DIMM slots, 4 SATA, etc.) Next upgrade is probably a dual-core chip.
Well you're in luck! With Intel's new line of dual cores kickin AMD's butt, AMD has dropped the prices on their dual cores big time!
I'm guessing you have socket 939:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103562
$153! Whatta steal!
Btw, your comp is better than mine :( . But not for long! :D
I'd buy an AMD chip whether or not Intel's latest trash was faster. I refuse to ever buy another Intel CPU again. The Pentium 4 was an insult to the intelligence of computer users.. a chip solely designed to ramp up clock speeds and fool idiot consumers into buying based on a MHz number. That they've had to abandon that and go back to designing honest CPUs again is just proof that it was foolish and misguided. I'd probably get out of computing altogether before I'd buy another Intel chip. It's also one reason why I don't want to go back to the computer business.. I would not be willing to build Intel machines for customers like I used to do in the days of the P2 and P3. Hell, I'd probably own a Chevy before I'd own another Intel CPU. :p
And yes, I am very familiar with Newegg.. been ordering from them for a few years now.
Here's the one I'm watching for price drops. It briefly went down to $250 yesterday but is now back up to $265:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103546
Well, if you have a Socket 939 motherboard (if it's Socket 754, I think youre out of luck) and want a dual core, the X2 3800+ at $153 is a great deal. You can also step up to the 4200+ for $195 or even a 4400+ for $265. Also, are you lookin for a good heatsink for your computer? I've got a really nice Socket 754/939 heatsink I want to get rid of.
As for Intel, yeah, they really messed up with the whole P4 line. But now they're doing the exact opposite. A $220 Intel E6300 at 1.86GHz beats out a ~$400 AMD X2 at 2.4GHz. Thats a very impressive turn around from the lackluster P4s imo. Their new chips also overclock like mofookies to add even more of an advantage.
I believe the 4400+ comes with a good heat pipe-based heat sink. I'll be using what's on the machine for now until I can get that chip.
As far as performance between the two.. I'm sure it'll change in time. Intel led for awhile, then AMD led for a couple years, now Intel may lead for a little while, then AMD will get it back eventually. Not that it really matters since I don't buy top of the line components anymore.. the last time I did that was a 9700 Pro back when it was the king of the hill. I just can't justify spending $400+ on one piece of computer hardware when this whole base system cost that much.. and when I'd much rather be spending money on my cars or truck.
Eventually I'll have a 4400+ in this, and that'll last me for a year or two more.. I'll probably toss in a couple cheap Seagate SATA drives with 16 megs of cache each.. and that'll be it until the next time to upgrade. It would be more important to me to have the ability to host all the TV shows and what not that I've downloaded on one main drive shared across the network than it would be to have raw speed. (one show alone took up something like 30 gigs) I've had this main 300 gig drive for a couple months now and I've already had to do housecleaning on it several times. (and no, it's not porn.. hah)
I'd actually rather focus a little more attention on this Linux box I'm using as a second PC. It's an XP 2200+ with 768 megs of RAM and a 40 gig hard drive, and a truly pathetic old video card.. I think like a Radeon 9200 or something. I'm giving serious consideration to running my own forum for all Fox bodies, and I am going to try to run it on the Linux box. I'm hoping my connection is fast enough to support a small forum.
Yeah, I hear that AMD's factory HSFs are pretty good, but if you want something a bit better for OCing or something, I can hook ya up ;) .
I agree about paying $400+ for a single part. My best friend is about to buy and build a 100% top of the line PC ($1,000 Intel X6800 CPU, which alone costs more than my whole build) and I tried talkin him out of the crazy stuff like that, but he wouldn't listen. Oh well, he did work his tail off all summer (a construction job in the morning and busing tables in the evening 6 days a week, all summer long), so he deserves it. But the difference performance wise between his $3000 machine and my $1000 will be hardly noticable.
As for my Tbird, my dad and I have a whole HO conversion waiting for it once the Chevelle is done (if we can ever get it finished...), so I figured it's time to give my PC some lovin. I try to take turns. Do something for the computer, do something for the car. Get a PC part, get a car part, etc etc.
And I dont know if you want a forum for ALL fox bodies; do you know how many 5.0 Stang guys will be there? It'll bring that computer to its knees haha. :flame:
Well I'm not going to tell Stang people they can't join.. but I'll make it clear that the site is for the "other" Fox bodies.. the less popular stuff. (Fairmonts, Zephyrs, the Fox Granada, the box-bird and box-cat, Fairmont Durango, Capri, etc.)
The Stang has tons of sites, I'm sure.. the T-bird and Cougar have this place, CougarNuts, and I think TCCOA and stuff like that, right? Marks and Fox Contis have Lincolns Online and perhaps another forum I think LoL is sort of at odds with. (I don't recall very well) The rest of the Fox bodies have ford-fox.org, but that place is INSANELY slow to load, and seems to go entire days without a post.. if the guy can even be bothered to run it at all. (it was down for a few months because the guy forgot about it or something) Of course it's assumed at places like this that the other Fox guys can hang around, but I'd like to see a little more said about the other Foxes. Out of the 15 cars I've owned since I started driving, 7 have been Fox bodies. (1 Mont engine donor, 2 Capris, 2 T-birds, 2 LSCs) I think it's safe to say I'm a fan of the platform as a whole. :p
Back closer to the topic: I may have my X850XT overclocked a little bit, but I don't really do the heavy overclocking thing anymore. It used to be that I had plenty of spare CPUs in case I burned one up, but now this is the only Socket 939 chip I have.. and even if I get that 4400+ anytime soon, it's likely that this 3200+ would get its own SFF to go into for my fiance or my mother to use.. so I wouldn't exactly have a spare. For comparison, there are at least half a dozen Socket A chips in this room alone.. from one of the first Durons ever made. (a 650 I bought the week they came out) to an XP 2300+ OEM-only chip. I could toss them around like toys if I wanted to.
I cant tell the diffrence between the 3500+ with 1 gig of ram, and my 350 mhz with 64 megs when it come to looking at the forums. There is just no reason to have a fast computer unless you do alot of video or graphics editing or nothing but games. Where I almost never play games on the computer anymore, it means that $400 is too much for a computer. I buy computers for $50 or there abouts and peice together old parts from others.
In my opinion its the only way, but I am like that with all the fords littered around the yard too.
I can respect a fast computer. There cool, but I wont be owning one for quite some time.
That's cool that you have good luck with old computers. I personally havent, nor has anyone I know, but if you can salvage a good running PC from s parts (which my best friend and I did throughout an afternoon so my parents had a temporary computer to use), then thats awesome. I love doing stuff like that.
******Budget PC build update******
After a little searching around, I found an ATi X1800XT for $229, which will save me $40 and still perform just as well. With that extra money, I will be able to step up to the next Core 2 Duo CPU on the ladder, the E6400, which comes stock at 2.13GHz and has a higher multiplier than the E6300. I'll still have $15 left over in savings, too! I plan to preorder the CPU within the next couple of days.
Nice! AMD Prices are down? I might have to score myself a dual-core for this bitch. Right now I'm rocking a lowly Athlon 64 3000+ with a decent 1G of Ballistix RAM. It does ok on certain games, but other it's a poop.
Tell me about it, I'm still stuck with a 32bit CPU haha. It actually runs new games surprisingly well (like FEAR at maxed out CPU settings).
And yeah, if you want a Socket 939 dual core, or if you want to upgrade to the new AM2 socket, now is the perfect time.
***Another budget build update***
After finding my motherboard for $20 less, I am going to get some better RAM. Something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146107
MMMM, look at those timings! Anyways, I might get that stick of RAM now, and get a 2nd stick after I sell off my current PC. That is going to run REALLY nice.
Another update:
My processor has been shipped out and should be here Tuesday. For my birthday (which was on the 8th), I'm getting an aftermarket CPU heatsink, UV reactive cables, and two 4in UV cathodes. I plan to have all of my other parts ordered around the first week of September.
If anyone has looked, almost all stores have raised the price significantly of their Core 2 Duos (due to low supply), and now the E6400 I ordered for $245 sells for $290. Phew, glad I got it early.
tell me you got a 10,000 RPM SATA drive for the little bit in price diffence.
Your paging it going to be through the roof with a slower hard drive.
especially for gaming when you will need the data retrieval for texture mapping.
I didn't read it all, been away from the boards for a bit.
also, make sure your psu is a stable one (ie, antec or something else good) the core duo's freak out if they don't have a steady voltage signal.
I'm getting a Core 2 Duo. They use less power than their predecessors :) (and are much much much faster). And my current PSU has been stable for the 10 months I've had it, so I'm good there.
As for the HDD, there is actually a big price difference to a 10k rpm. A 150GB, 10k rpm, 16MB cache HDD costs about double of the 250 GB, 7200rpm, 16MB cache drive I'm getting. A 7200 rpm drive with 16mb of cache works great with gaming. 10k rpm drives are only for those with plenty of extra money; unfortunatley, I'm not one of those people. :(
Since I was at the DMV this morning, I wasnt home to recieve and sign for the processor delievery, so now I gotta wait till 6:00pm and take a 20min drive to pick it up :mad: .
Also, here's a video of a stock E6400 C2D doin it's job: Running two games and browsing the internet without any slowdown :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEKLCvJfDjs
****BIG UPDATE****
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/E6400smallsharp.jpg)
Hell yeah.
i still live and breath amd/nforce... can't help it, they have never done me wrong.
I have about 6 machines I have put together and have been keeping going buy using the s from work. it is amazing what a large company will just get rid off. off lease shiznit that is a few years old does them no good, but makes a great video or domain server if you are crafty enough!!!
I've got 3 AMD powered PCs in my house right now, and they're all great. My 3 year old XP 2800+ still runs awesome; just the other night, I tested it out by running Counter Strike Source, iTunes, AIM, MSN, and firefox at the same time. No problems or slowdown. Not bad for such an aging piece of hardware.
I also think it's funny to note that I'll be going from an AMD/nVidia machine to an Intel/ATi machine.
As for an update, I got some nice news: I'll be ordering some more stuff tomorrow! My case, hard drive, heatsink, and UV reactive cables. My UV Cathodes are already on their way too. It's gettin there!
haha. i am on a 1600+ with a gefore mx 440
Ah man, my current comp had an INTEGRATED Geforce 4MX 64MB. I love how those cards have 0 pixel shaders...
In other news, my cathodes arrived today and if UPS delivers on Saturday, I'll have my case, hard drive, aftermarket heatsink, and my extra cables. If not, I'll have to dreadfully wait till Monday :( .
Also, there has been a tweak made to my system:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820220095
I'll be ordering the RAM after my next paycheck (which will be on the 31st). That just leaves my motherboard and graphics card, and I'm done.
Glad to see a computer enthusiast base here. Kinda mixes my two favorite things together. Ive been a member at http://www.hardcoreware.net for over 4 years now. They have some decent hardware reviews and forum.
Im long overdue for a new rig. Its just not in my budget right now. Oh well, the longer i take to get new stuff, the better the new stuff will be than what I have now. An abit nf7-s motherboard with a mobile athon 2500+ (mobile = lower voltage = lower temps + better overclocking), half a gig of pc3200, and a radeon 9600xt. it doesnt really play anything new decently, which is why i havent been into gaming much lately.
I did download the original doom games a few days ago, which has kept me mildly content. Reminds me of when I was like 8, playing it over a 14.4k modem.
This (http://"http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820148009") is what I got for RAM.
I have another couple sticks sitting around worth a Gig, but I'm not sure if they'd create a bottleneck next to these Ballistix things or not.
If they're slower than that Ballistix RAM, all the RAM will downclock to the speed of the slowest stick(s). If they're the same, then it will be fine. Although if the slower sticks are DDR 400 or better, you'd probably benefit from a 2nd Gig of RAM in newer games, especially Battlefield 2 and Oblivion.
@bhazard: Yeah, I'm upgrading because the market seems right. CPU price/performance ratios rising, graphics cards comin down (7900GT @ $265, X1800XT $199, etc). I'm not even spending $1G on this comp...just around $950 I think (although I'm not buying a new PSU).
same with me. time for a new box, but no money.
my 1600+ with my mx440 can't play oblivion, been playing on my wifes. 64bit 3400+ with a gig ram, and 6600GT.
only thing hers needs really is a sata drive.
***NEW UPDATE***
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/moreparts2.jpg)
Ohhhhh yeeeeeaaaahh :D
Still to go:
-Motherboard
-RAM
-Graphics card
It's gettin there!
I'm still rocking the amd 2100+ or *gasp* the PIII 450
okay...i think i may have found my winter project. ive been thinking about picking up a new computer alot. the one i have is old and while it has hiccups here ant there it has been relitivally reliable. its a mess, but it continues to work. its just tired and time to upgrade. my woman wanted to use a new pc as incentive. she wanted to see if we could get all the cards, bills and cars paid off by tax time we would buy a new pc. ive flirted with the idea of building one but im somewhat triggershy with it. i get some of the basic components. im sure i could buy the hardware and assemble it but i wouldnt know what to do with it from there. plus id have to get all new software as well. i wouldnt want to pick out get the wrong stuff either.
currently i have:
1.8 ghz pent4
256ddr sdram (i expanded that but i forget what it is)
300 gig HD (expanded from the 80 gig that was in there)
looks like you have a sweet project going there. ill be following it even though im clueless.....lol
I have an
AMD 2100+
512 pc266 ddr
Gigabyte kt400 board
120gb ide drive
and a 56k Modem!
Its amazing that when I put this together it was FAST and powerful, it was pre barton cores and everything....
I still try to keep up with what's going on in the computer world, but I think I've done my last upgrade for some time. I was using a Dell Inspiron 1100 P4/2.4 laptop and decided I needed a newer, faster machine around about March of this year, so I bought a Gateway with a 17" widescreen, AMD 64 4000, a gig of RAM, a 100 gig hard drive, and 256MB X600 Mobility Radeon graphics. Aside from the widescreen and integrated DVD burner I wasted my money. The only games I play are 1980's arcade games (MAME32 anyone?) that don't exactly need state-of-the-art, I don't edit video, and the very rudimentary photo editing I do could probably be done on a 286. Aside from that I surf the internet (on dialup, no less) and use Mitchell OnDemand (would run fine on a 1200Mhz Duron). The Dell was perfectly fine for what I do. The 64-bit aspect of the Athlon chip is useless as the machine came with 32-bit Windows (the useless-on-a-laptop Media Center edition at that) and all my software is 32-bit. I spent $1600 for a new laptop, and that money would have been much better spent on car parts. That $1600 would have bought a T-5 swap and a paint job.
My desktop is a Dell P4 3.0 that I don't even play MAME games on - it's used solely for internet. No need to upgrade that in the near (or long tem) future either. Both machines are like fishing with hand grenades - too much tool for the job.
My point? I guess I don't have one. I just need to convince myself to not go out and build/buy a new computer, especially now that the 'Bird is finally getting some lovin' :D
To be honest, I didn't notice that much of a difference between my XP 2200+ w/ 1 gig of RAM and this 3200+ with 2 gigs of RAM, when I did this upgrade last year. Now I think I'd get more out of going with a couple of really fast hard drives in RAID 0.. with a third, even bigger drive as a backup for the array. This lone 300 gig drive is nice, but I keep filling it up with downloads.. (no, NOT porn.. hah) and I know there are faster drives out there.
Hmmm.. if only I could find a SAS controller for regular PCI, and a pair of Cheetah 15ks.. :p
@shame302 - If you want, I'll help you choose the parts of the system.
@Bird - Yeah, but I'm pretty sure my upgrade will be quite noticable, especially in games like Battlefield 2 in which my current PC kinda struggles; the new comp will cut through games with ease.
As for the parts I have left (graphics card, motherboard, and RAM), I'm kinda undecided on which of those I'm getting and when. Here's the predicament I'm in:
1) The RAM I'm getting has a $20 rebate that ends on the 31st (which is when I'll be able to get my next piece).
2) I just got an email from monarchcomputers this morning showcasing some deals they had on refurbs, including an X1900XT 512MB for $139!!!! I might want to wait for that deal to come around again, but who knows if it will (and if it does, when?).
3) NVidia is about to release the 7900GS; performs about as good as a 7800GT and early OEM versions are selling for $139. It'll save me money, but it will perform a bit less too.
Whatta you guys think?
Well, I decided. I orded this beauty this morning at 7am before I went off to school :D :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130050
It's only $3 than the other card I was looking at (X1800XT) and performs better. Also, I feel more confortable dealing with eVGA and newegg instead of some guy over ebay. My current graphics card is an eVGA and has been running strong for 10 months. No problems with the $1,000+ worth of stuff I've bought from newegg so far, either, so I'd rather deal with them. Woo hoo, cant wait to see how this beautiful system runs :D .
It's gonna give you a floating point error. That's just the way things go. :D
YOU!!!
:tg:
When its up and running while pushing out awesome graphics, I'll show you!!
Yeah I bet that blue screen will look really purdy now! :flip:
[SIZE="1"](Secretly I'm just jealous...)[/SIZE]
Hahahaha.
Anyways, my graphics card will be here tomorrow. Then I'll be ordering my RAM and a few other small odds and ends on Thursday. Then 2 Thursdays from now (not including this Thurs), I'll be ordering the final piece: the motherboard.
And for those who don't feel like reading the whole thread, here is the full rundown of my system specs (which have slightly changed from the ones on the front page):
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz (well...2.13GHz for now anyways... :evilgrin: )
Patriot 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 667 PC2 5300 4-4-4-12 RAM (only 1.8V!!)
eVGA e-Geforce 7900GT
Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200RPM 16MB cache (Perpendicular recording) hard drive
Ultra X-Connect 500W 34a@12V PSU with Flex Force cable upgrade kit
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro CPU heatsink and fan
It's gonna be a beast, I tell ya! A BEAST!!! :bowdown:
******UPDATE******
Ordered the last piece of the puzzle yesterday: the motherboard. I should have it Monday, which means BUILD TIME!!! Woooooo :shakeass:
Well, the motherboard came yesterday so my friend and I immediately got to work on building the computer. 2 and a half hours later, it was time to boot up and she booted perfectly on the first try. And my Lord, this computer is FAAAST. Runnin all my games (FEAR, BF2, GRAW, GT Legends, etc) at max settings with plenty of AA/AF mixed in without ANY lag. NONE. ZERO. ZILCH. And load times are faster than a hobo jumpin on a ham sandwich. In the next couple of days, I'll be cleanin up the wiring and ironing out a couple of things, then I'll have some pics for yas. On my first benchmark run, I got 4482 in 3DMark06 (with high quality pic settings and no OCing). Compare that to the 654 score my old comp got :D . I've been drooling all day. This thing is sweet. :cool: Stay tuned for pics.
Ok here are a few pics (please excuse the messy wiring; it's still a WIP):
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/computer1cropped.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/computer2cropped.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/computer3.jpg)
And for those of you who know about benchmarking, here's the compare URL for my highest score so far, a 4601 in 3DMArk06. And I haven't even OCed yet :D . http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=505563
Not only does this PC look cool, it runs nice and cool too. Just checked out my temps for the first time: 35C CPU, 32C HDD, 45C GPU, 25C case. Plenty of room to OC with :D .
Very cool man....
nice. i'm jealous.
I just sped together a 1.6 gig xeon with a gig of rambus and an old 5800 gt. still is whopping what I was using though.. and still not as good as my wifes!
I just got a radeon x800 256mb DDR2.... to replace the *gasp* 64mb sdr geForce 4 mx.
now build me one ;)
I will; just give me the money for the parts and I'll build it for ya. You're lookin at around $1100 + labor. ;)
@CougarSE - Ha, yeah, 1 year ago I was gaming on an integrated Geforce 4MX; trying to play FEAR or Battlefield 2 would redirect me back to the desktop. Now I play them at max settings :grinno: . NFS: Most Wanted is really fun too.
I cleaned up my wiring yesterday, so today I started overclocking. My CPU, which comes stock at 2.13GHz, is now at 3.2GHz. :cool:
http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=129199
My graphics card, which comes stock at 450MHz core, 1320MHz memory, is now at 525MHz core, 1400MHz memory.
I havent found the max of either of them yet, but I'm happy with where I'm at for now. My 3DMark06 score went from 4624 to 5485. Almost 1,000 marks. :grinno: