Computer Specs

Pesmerga

ugh
Adventurer
Joined
Dec 6, 2004
Messages
804
Age
41
Main Job
WhiteMage-Male
FFXIV
Pesmerga
welp i didn't get much response to my request in my other thread, and thats fine since it is my job too find the parts. this is what i found on Newegg, a little more then i wanted to spend with vista(might just stay with XP based on response). basically just asking if everything will work together here. i'm pretty sure they will but as i said i'm a little rusty with building. would i be okay with my old power supply of 350 watt with


Board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131013
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103771
Heat Sink: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185125
Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102709

and my sound card?
http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=14065

Vista home 32bit would be the OS if i bought it but have XP home right now though

how compatible is this board with XP?

learned the videocard might not be the best choice..ill keep looking on that
 
Last edited:
Vista phails. Don't use it if you're a gamer...please for the love of God.
 
that video card is gross, get a 8800gt
 
that video card is gross, get a 8800gt

alittle pricey im on a limited budget kinda. it would be nice too have quality though..im debating :)

any specific brand though? and is everything okay?
 
alittle pricey im on a limited budget kinda. it would be nice too have quality though..im debating :)

any specific brand though? and is everything okay?

GeForce/Nvidia
 
If you get an nvidia i'd stick with Xfx/EVGA and maybe BFG. I have a 7600GT made by EVGA and its beastly for an older card. I don't like asus cause i had some problems with a previous one i had but thats just me. Also for 10 bucks more you can get an overclocked XFX one if it isn't sold out which would run even better.
 
I'd stick w/ EVGA and BFG. They have some of the better cards and usually have product lifetime warranties. XFX I'm iffy about because I remember them selling cards with less pipelines before to reduce costs but still advertised w/o really telling that.
 
well i was thinking last night that i didnt really want to spend 240 on a video card so i looked around and ended up with

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130286 seems like a decent choice and seeing other uses prefer evga just made me feel alittle better about it. its an upgrade non the less and with the other things i think my computer will be running pretty well when i order it
 
Honestly man if youre gonna spend that much on a card youre better off saving up the extra 60 bucks and getting an 8800. The difference from the 86 to the 88 is really quite a bit. Just taking a look at toms hardware here: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=1058&model2=1057&chart=277 on BF2142 max settings the 8800 gets 92 frames where as the 8600 only gets 31. If youre gonna spend that much money on a vid card you might as well spend the little more for the quite a bit more boost in graphics. Plus with the 8800 you shouldn't have to worry about updating again for quite some time.
 
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound for the Heatsink
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007

Heatsink, stick with Zalman, they are pretty much the best. Big, but worth it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223

I'm going to assume you want AMD, then this is THE BEST processor for a budget build, highly overclockable.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103194

An updated version of the motherboard you chose with better SLi version if you decide to go SLi, which in your case wouldn't be to bad to SLi two 7600GT's. If you use a single card, there is a deal with the processor and the motherboard you chose.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131011

In case you need memory.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098

And lastly, you really, really, should drop the money to get an 8800GT, it is completely worth it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130319

The 8800GT is cheap and is almost as good as the way more expensive 8800GTX. It also uses less power and produces less heat.
 
They're supposed to be releasing an 8800GS pretty soon, that will be in the $150 price range (supposedly)... but for right now, the 8800GT is the best bang for the buck.

If you absolutely cannot spend the money on that, I'd look at the Geforce 7800, 7900, or 8600. Nothing less than that, though.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150230

The 8800 is twice as fast as that card, but the 8600 will play pretty much everything out there. But.... you just gotta get the 8800GT!! You will, however, have to get a bigger PSU (a 500watt Enermax would work just fine) for the bigger video card.

Also, I wouldn't worry about buying the custom heatsinks and thermal compound. If you're going to be doing some overclocking and really tweaking the system, then go for it, but if you're just going to install the parts and leave them as is (I typically do this), then just buy the retail CPU that comes with the heatsink.

The CPU Pastry recommended is pretty nice.

You can also just get a motherboard that has onboard sound (most will) and not even worry about a sound card. If you're an audiophile or will be doing a lot of recording through the line-in ports, then you might want to invest in a soundcard with some gold plated inputs, otherwise, just stick with onboard. I've got the X-Fi Platinum, and while it's nice, I never use the remote at all. It's a nice card, though.

I'm sporting:

Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (socket 939, they don't make them anymore)
Asus A8N-SLI Premium (motherboard)
8800GT OC
520w Enermax PSU
X-Fi Platinum

Both of my harddrives (500gb, 320gb) are SATA, as well as my DVD burner.

Even though my CPU isn't super high end, I can still play every game out there pretty well, including Crysis on Medium/High settings.

I've built a lot of computers in the past, and I repair them for a living, and I seem to really like Asus motherboards now (Gigabyte, Asus, DFI, Sanyo, and BFG put out good boards) and Nvidia video cards (BFG, Evga, XFX are all excellent brands).

Usually what I do is check out hardware sites to see reviews or look at other people's builds to see what they're buying.

http:///www.hardocp.com/ is good for new hardware reviews, but their forums are the best part.

http://www.hardforum.com/ is their forum site. Check out the For Sale/Trade, Hot Deals, and General Hardware sections.
 
Last edited:
Euphacent said:
They're supposed to be releasing an 8800GS pretty soon, that will be in the $150 price range (supposedly)... but for right now, the 8800GT is the best bang for the buck.

If you absolutely cannot spend the money on that, I'd look at the Geforce 7800, 7900, or 8600. Nothing less than that, though.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150230

The 8800 is twice as fast as that card, but the 8600 will play pretty much everything out there. But.... you just gotta get the 8800GT!! You will, however, have to get a bigger PSU (a 500watt Enermax would work just fine) for the bigger video card.

Also, I wouldn't worry about buying the custom heatsinks and thermal compound. If you're going to be doing some overclocking and really tweaking the system, then go for it, but if you're just going to install the parts and leave them as is (I typically do this), then just buy the retail CPU that comes with the heatsink.

The CPU Pastry recommended is pretty nice.

You can also just get a motherboard that has onboard sound (most will) and not even worry about a sound card. If you're an audiophile or will be doing a lot of recording through the line-in ports, then you might want to invest in a soundcard with some gold plated inputs, otherwise, just stick with onboard. I've got the X-Fi Platinum, and while it's nice, I never use the remote at all. It's a nice card, though.

I'm sporting:

Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (socket 939, they don't make them anymore)
Asus A8N-SLI Premium (motherboard)
8800GT OC
520w Enermax PSU
X-Fi Platinum

Both of my harddrives (500gb, 320gb) are SATA, as well as my DVD burner.

Even though my CPU isn't super high end, I can still play every game out there pretty well, including Crysis on Medium/High settings.

I've built a lot of computers in the past, and I repair them for a living, and I seem to really like Asus motherboards now (Gigabyte, Asus, DFI, Sanyo, and BFG put out good boards) and Nvidia video cards (BFG, Evga, XFX are all excellent brands).

Usually what I do is check out hardware sites to see reviews or look at other people's builds to see what they're buying.

http:///www.hardocp.com/ is good for new hardware reviews, but their forums are the best part.

http://www.hardforum.com/ is their forum site. Check out the For Sale/Trade, Hot Deals, and General Hardware sections.

This is true about the thermal compound and heatsink, although you don't have to use them unless you plan to tweak, they can keep your overall heat in your case down, thus extending your parts life time.

If you do get the 5000+ Black Edition, you will require your own heatsink and thermal compound though, as the Black Edition does not include one. The Black Edition is extremely overclockable though, up to 3.4 GHz on good air cooling I think it was.
 
thanks for the replies, really starting too get some details here and alot of options it seems. I have no intention of overclocking anything, id prefer too keep the system as it comes since i dont know enough about computers. lots of options!
 
By the way, you can game with Vista. You can find a 1000 tweak guides online. Plus you can run any game in compatability mode which disables alot of the Vista options when you start the game anyway. 2 GB of ram is good, but if you had 3, you wouldn't have any problems with Vista at all. Vista is a very very good OS once you get it down pat. Great Eye Candy too.

When XP came, people were screaming about it. Trust me, within the year, Vista will be it. It's no Window's ME, so people don't compare them lol.
 
i really wanted to get vista for the reason that it will become the main in the future and it does infact look spiffy..i game but only really FFXI on the PC and maybe Diablo II for a few hours a year

maybe ill just pick up Vista when i pick up more ram. id like to get this done semi quickly because i cant play ffxi right now..and my xbox is out for repairs :(
 
i really wanted to get vista for the reason that it will become the main in the future and it does infact look spiffy..i game but only really FFXI on the PC and maybe Diablo II for a few hours a year

maybe ill just pick up Vista when i pick up more ram. id like to get this done semi quickly because i cant play ffxi right now..and my xbox is out for repairs :(


If all you play is FFXI and Diablo II the 2 GB of ram is completely fine for Vista. You'll see no difference. That way you'll have your spiffy OS (I love Vista) and not worry about lag problems.


Let me put it to you this way. I have Vista on my laptop. It has 2gb ram (about to go 4gb though, laptop memory is cheap lol). It has a Core 2 duo 1.5 ghz, and Geforce 8600M. I play FFXI on high settings, NWN 2 on medium settings.

On the desktop, same setup but with Intel Core 2 duo E6600, Geforce 7900GT, Vista, and I can play Witcher on High Settings. Trust me, you're ok with Vista. Get it, it's the future lol.
 
There's nothing really bad about gaming with Vista, it's just a bit taxing working around most of the settings. Once you've gone through that, it's pretty bitchin'.
 
Back
Top