New computer build

Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:35 am

Ok, my wife's giving me the green light to build another computer for my gaming pleasure. What I'm asking for is some help in picking out components. I'm going completely from scratch here, I'm not canabalizing anything from my recently built system (which is about to become the guts of my arcade). What would you pick for a motherboard, CPU, case, video card, sound card, etc? Go wild (even though I'll probably have to back off on the price a bit). Also, suggestions on setting up the hard drives, OS (WME? or XP?). This system will be primarily used for gaming and some movie watching.

Thanks in advance.

Thu Jul 27, 2006 12:37 pm

Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:52 pm

Rotoman:

My wife gave me the green light too... or should I say, I told her I was going to buy one and she said okay.

I don't see how you could go wrong with either AMD or Intel since both have slashed prices on their CPUs. Both companies make good chips and I'm sure if you looked around a bit you could find a good breakdown of price/performance. So in the end, it all depends on your budget.

I don't have time to ramble on about all the diferent parts, so let me just talk about the case. I bought the Antec P180 about 2 months ago and absolutely love it! The case is sooooo quite, and that's with 4 - 120 MM fans running in it. The air from the vents is not hot at all (something I couldn't say about my last case).

One downside.. you need long cords on the power supply. I had to buy another PS (Antec 550 W) to reach the MB.

Gotta run, but I'm buying the Intel Core 2 Duo.. still haven't decided on the speed. I've heard the 6300 and 6400 are amazing overclockers... something I've never tried before.

Let us know what you finally decide.

Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:55 pm

I think I'm going AMD as I've had good luck so far. Now I just need to decide on the rest.

Thu Jul 27, 2006 3:13 pm

I'm planning on going with XP Pro and 4 Gb or RAM. XP Home only supports 2 Gb. I'm not sure what MCE will support. I work with a lot of large files and 2 Gb is okay, but I think 4 will be better. Most people will not see any benefit from the additional RAM.

I would like to hear from anyone that has MCE. What do you think about it?

Rotoman, If you're just gaming and watching movies, MCE might be perfect for you, but then again I don't know.

Thu Jul 27, 2006 3:24 pm

Yeah that's what I'm wondering. It may make more sense to just set this one up for gaming, use XP pro and go with MCE for a strictly tv/movie HTPC.

Thu Jul 27, 2006 4:39 pm

Intel Core2 Duo can't be beat right now, even with AMD's price cuts--the only catch is you have to find one!
The new Core2 E6600 for $316 holds it's own against AMD FX-62, and blows away all the AMD 64 X2 Dual cores, up to and including X2 5000+
That's *if* you can find one. They're coming out today, tough to say how well Intel will do supplying them.

If you're sticking with AMD, I found the AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ for $355, and the 4600+ for $260 on zipzoomfly.com.

I'm waiting for Newegg's price to drop, as I've never dealt with zipzoomfly.

As Sonar said, you can't go wrong these days.

Fri Jul 28, 2006 8:03 am

Any thoughts from you guys on video cards? I'm running an old 9800 pro AGP card now and definitely need an upgrade.

Fri Jul 28, 2006 8:22 am

What's your budget?

For high end, I like the ATI X1900XT (not XTX) or the Nvidia 7900GTX (or 7950 GTX2 - Two graphics chips on one card!).

So.. what's your budget for a video card?

Fri Jul 28, 2006 8:45 am

well I'm willing to splurge more on the video card than anything else.

Fri Jul 28, 2006 8:54 am

These days the video card is almost as important as the CPU. Sometimes the GPU (video card) is limited by the CPU, but more and more frequently it's the GPU that limits the FPS.

I am planning on buying the best video card I can (7950 GTX2), but that' about $550. That's a lot of money for a video card. Since I mainly play FPS AND because I want to run games at the native resolution of my monitor (1900 x 1200), I need a high end card to run games at that resolution.

If you are going to run games at low resolutions you don't need that high end of a card. Only when you run games at high resolutions with AA, HDR, etc, will you need a high end card (or SLI) configuration. If you primarily run games at 1024x768, a low to mid-range card should be fine.

Fri Jul 28, 2006 8:59 am

Good point. You bring up monitor. I'm going to go to a flat screen LCD as the CRT I've been using is going into the stationary bike/workout room as a spin scan monitor. What are you using and do you like it?

Fri Jul 28, 2006 9:05 am

Anyone do liquid cooling?

Fri Jul 28, 2006 9:06 am

read this rotoman

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2797

Fri Jul 28, 2006 9:09 am

I have the Dell 2405. 24" Wide screen LCD. It's been replaced with the 2407 (I think that's the number). While it is supposed to be a good monitor, the refresh is not as low as the 2405. To be honest I haven't read up on the 2407 too much.

That being said, the refresh is fine. Would I buy a widescreen again... hmm, that's tough, I think I probably would, but only because I can use it for my work and the extra wide screen is nice. However, if all I did was play games... then I would have to think about it. Many games do not support WS in a native resolution (BF2 does not support it). I can play games and compensate for the WS, but sometimes the text gets screwed up and is difficult to read. IMHO, it's 50-50 on the WS.

I replaced my Cornerstone 21" monitor and the difference is not that great... maybe 2"-3" wider. It's nice, but not that big of a difference.

Whatever you do.. buy a big monitor (get a nice one). You won't be sorry.