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2006-02-01 01:23:39
harleyds
Member
+0|6906
OK, I've given up on my old system and am about to take the plunge and jump out of the AGP realm and move in to the world of PCIe. Since I haven't built a PC in LONG while, I'm asking for some help before I start ordering parts!

http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wis … for+BF2%21


This is a system I am about to put together for just about $1,500. I can't go much higher than that as I have other things I still need to pay for so please don't tell me to buy a $1,000 graphics card or CPU!

I'm tired of all the video lag and slow refresh rates. I'm sure this will solve my problem.

Things I looked at...
I made sure the memory speed matches the MB.
I made sure the Power supply can power my PCIe card.
The CPU is the faster speed for the price range.
I'm going with everything new from one dealer since I haven't built a system in a while and don't want to deal with unknowns.
The 7800GT seems to be the fastest for the price and will allow for me to get another one in a few months to run SLI if I feel I want a bump in speed.

Please give me any thoughts or opinions that are constructive.

Thanks

Oh Yeah, I already have a:
Logitech G5 Laser Mouse
NEC 16X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner
Creative Labs X-Fi Sound card
19inch ViewSonic LCD

Everything else I need should be on the Wish List.
Please let me know if I missed anything.
2006-02-01 03:41:30
.ACB|_Cutthroat1
No place like 127.0.0.1
+76|6924|Gold Coast,QLD,Australia
1.If it is for mostly gaming or any video encoding/editing, go with an amd or amd x2, o and the mobo you ordered is out of stock
2006-02-01 12:36:00
sixshot
Decepticon Geek
+50|6904|Planet Seibertron ;)
I suggest this nice find if you're getting a 7800GT.  It's the same one I ordered not too long ago.  The vendor is good and it's one of the handful I trust.  Many people have ordered from them and it's a very very rare chance that anyone got any problem from them.

I'll understand if you wanna bunch up everything... but I do would like to point out the price differences as well as ZZF's free 2-day shipping, which is handy when you're spanning orders across two vendors.

Like Cutthroat1 said, if you're gaming, then you're better off with AMD.  It's been noted time and time again that games perform so much better with AMD processors than Intel's own.  Newegg has an X2 processor selling for a mere $300 and there's a good list of SLI boards to choose from for any price range.  A lot of the boards you end up looking at may even save you a few dollars overall by going AMD and you'll get additional gaming performance benefits.

However, perhaps the only drawback is the use of older DDR memory which, at last check, is becoming unstable due to the massive move/shift to DDR2.  But you can still get a decent kit of RAM and it'll perform just as well as the others, because RAM timings make such little difference that the price you pay for it may not be worth it in the end.

Is this a system you plan on keeping around for more than a year or for a long, long time?
2006-02-01 12:53:16
wayneakagod
Member
+17|6976
If I were you I would go for this processor and this motherboard.

Click here to see why AMD is a better choice.

Last edited by wayneakagod (2006-02-01 12:53:29)

2006-02-01 15:40:49
Cyberwolf
Banned
+14|6921

wayneakagod wrote:

If I were you I would go for this processor and this motherboard.

Click here to see why AMD is a better choice.
Word of warning however...Depending on how soon you want to have this system...Socket 939 is being discontinued by AMD, to be replaced with M2 platform come Quater 2 of this year. By purchasing a board supporting Socket 939, you are limiting yourself to the FX-57 or FX-60 (dual core) as a top processor down the road. It may be wiser to wait a little and ensure the next time you upgrade, you will have left the door open rather than closed. AMD is definitely the way to go. Intel is great at production/advances in nanotech, but performance hasn't been there thing for a while now.

"Most of what we know is that the M2 platform is a 940 pin socket that is incompatible with Opteron platforms. The dual-channel memory controller will be upgraded to support DDR2-667. AMD's virtualization technology, called Pacifica, as well as the security instruction set Presidio will be added. The processor portfolio will be very complete, and per-unit prices will range from $100 to $ 1,000. What's still unknown is whether they will all be 65 nm parts and what their clock speeds will be."

If you need more convincing on AMD, read this http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10442_7-63 … l?tag=lnav

Last edited by Cyberwolf (2006-02-01 15:44:19)

2006-02-01 17:24:33
Rofl_My_Waffle
Member
+11|6920
Well if he gets a 940 pin processor, he has to pay a lots of money for a top processor so it would be more wise to go with 939 pin. also dual core is useless for video games since only one core can run one application at one time, so single core will save you money if you can live with closing all your other applications while playing games.
2006-02-02 01:03:30
-101-InvaderZim
Member
+42|7072|Waikato, Aotearoa
Yep i agree with Waffle. For games definately take the single core processor. Also not sure about the following (overheard it fleetingly in a conversation SO PLEASE DONT FLAME ME), the performance gain in bridging 2 video cards (like 7800GTs) is only about 5% in benchmark tests. Dont know the tests so dont ask
2006-02-02 09:45:36
sixshot
Decepticon Geek
+50|6904|Planet Seibertron ;)
People, remember that the O.P. has listed a dual-core processor.  Whether or not it'll be useful in gaming is not up for debate but rather let the user decide if dual-core is to be part of the specs or not.
2006-02-04 19:51:07
harleyds
Member
+0|6906

sixshot wrote:

I suggest this nice find if you're getting a 7800GT.  It's the same one I ordered not too long ago.  The vendor is good and it's one of the handful I trust.  Many people have ordered from them and it's a very very rare chance that anyone got any problem from them.
The model you listed is N516.  The one on my wish list is the n517.  Its got a better heatsink on it.

wayneakagod wrote:

If I were you I would go for this processor and this motherboard.

Click here to see why AMD is a better choice.
Wayneakagod, this MB CPU combo was what someone else suggested.  Seems the MB is the AMD equilivent of the one I chose for the Intel board.  The CPU you picked is also within my price range.

Going with 939 socket is not a big deal for me even if its going to the wayside. The best 939 socket CPU right now would be the AMD 64 FX57 which is about $1,000.  I guess in a year or so, the price would drop to the point that if I needed to upgrade, I could.  Plus, going with this board, I can use my old memory from my current setup.  This would save me about $200.


sixshot wrote:

People, remember that the O.P. has listed a dual-core processor.  Whether or not it'll be useful in gaming is not up for debate but rather let the user decide if dual-core is to be part of the specs or not.
sixshot, I picked that CPU since it seemed to be the fastest Intel CPU within my price range with the best performance.  Having a dual core just sounded cool.  Right now, my focus is to get BF2 to play faster.  I do however use my computer for MS Office, PhotoShop8,  SonyVegas Video Editing, DVD compiling amoung many other tasks.


I updated my WishList.  Oh another thing, I know some items may be out of stock or cheaper on other sites like ZZF, but my main goal was to get all the components listed on one site for easy refernence.  I'll buy from whatever vendor is reputable and has the best price + shipping.

Last edited by harleyds (2006-02-04 20:48:52)

2006-02-04 22:02:42
sixshot
Decepticon Geek
+50|6904|Planet Seibertron ;)

harleyds wrote:

sixshot wrote:

I suggest this nice find if you're getting a 7800GT.  It's the same one I ordered not too long ago.  The vendor is good and it's one of the handful I trust.  Many people have ordered from them and it's a very very rare chance that anyone got any problem from them.
The model you listed is N516.  The one on my wish list is the n517.  Its got a better heatsink on it.
It does?  Looks the same to me.  The only difference between the 517 and 516 is the clock speed.  It also comes with a copper heatsink.  So I cannot see any other difference besides that.  A 10MHz difference kinda makes it difficult to justify paying that much more.  Plus, the NV drivers report that it's running at 470MHz core speed as well??? *scratches head*

harleyds wrote:

sixshot wrote:

People, remember that the O.P. has listed a dual-core processor.  Whether or not it'll be useful in gaming is not up for debate but rather let the user decide if dual-core is to be part of the specs or not.
sixshot, I picked that CPU since it seemed to be the fastest Intel CPU within my price range with the best performance.  Having a dual core just sounded cool.  Right now, my focus is to get BF2 to play faster.  I do however use my computer for MS Office, PhotoShop8,  SonyVegas Video Editing, DVD compiling amoung many other tasks.

I updated my WishList.  Oh another thing, I know some items may be out of stock or cheaper on other sites like ZZF, but my main goal was to get all the components listed on one site for easy refernence.  I'll buy from whatever vendor is reputable and has the best price + shipping.
I can speak on performance but the subject is rather debatable at the moment.  If you desire to have BF2 run fast, it's simply better to go with AMD's line of processor.  It has been noted many times by various review sites that they perform better than Intel when it comes to games.  I run a dual-core processor (Athlon64 X2 3800+) and running various games has been phenomenal (note to others: don't you dare start on the core argument).  For what you're intending to do, a dual-core system is going to come in handy, especially for media editing.  Photoshop is known to be thread-aware.  I'm not sure if the video software you use can do multi-threading.  Here's a list of AMD dual-cores if you wish to take a look.  As a footnote to viewing, Toledo and Manchester are core codenames from AMD when they were developing their dual-core processors.  Toledo are cores with 1MB of L2 cache per core while Manchester features 512K of L2 cache per core.

I still believe that an X2 processor is what you'll end up needing.  But as always, the choice is yours.  My system specs can be viewed on a different thread if you wish to take a glimpse and I can also PM you my performance numbers and experiences in BF2.

Last edited by sixshot (2006-02-04 22:05:48)

2006-02-06 14:16:20
harleyds
Member
+0|6906
I updated my Wish list and am going with and AMD X2 3800 instead of the Intel CPU.  Everyone told me to go this way and a thoughtful user also posted a link to a Showdown with Intel D CPU's vs AMD X2 chips.  AMD won hands down.  I'm going with Dual Core to see if I can start running multiple applications on my computer without it bogging down.  Being able to copy a DVD and also edit Video would save me so much time.

I'm really excited about this purchase and am probably going to order everything either tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks for all your help
2006-02-06 14:25:21
.ACB|_Cutthroat1
No place like 127.0.0.1
+76|6924|Gold Coast,QLD,Australia
nice shoice, hope you enjoy it, i bought a +4000 single core, d'oh so i just ordered a x2 4800, screw waitin for socket m2
2006-02-07 00:15:10
sixshot
Decepticon Geek
+50|6904|Planet Seibertron ;)
As a final note, be sure to keep this page handy or download the processor driver.  This ought to be one of the first things you install once you get the basic windows system up and running.  Let us know of your experience when the system is up.

And you're welcome.  Just happy to help guide anyone on their way to their next system.

 

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