Here are some modifications I suggested to a friend. He plays games like Red Alert 3, Tiberium Wars, and possibly the upcoming Starcraft II...he doesn't play hard core games like Crysis of CoD4. CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184 MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131288 VIDEO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102770 These are all the modifications that he needs. Keep in mind that he wants the price to be as low as possible.
Incorrect. He will probably need a new power supply to run that lot as well - I'd recommend this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003 The rest of the components you chose are fine except for the motherboard. Asus' cheap boards tend not to have a very long life expectancy. For an extra 12 dollars I'd recommend this instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128356
if you are on a budget the antec earthwatts would probably be a better choice. high quality 500watt psu for $50. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371007
Well with what is selected right now, my friend could probably already play Crysis and CoD4 at a good rate...so which power supply would be better? I'm leaning towards the Antec earthwatts 500W.
Should I still stick with the TX650W, as the price they have is as equivalent as the VX450W with rebates and such? Even though it may not be necessary for the system, it could be futureproof...just in case he gets hooked up on some hard core game in the future.
i would reccomend a P43/P45 chipset for PCIE 2.0 and if he only plays RTS's he could easily drop to an 8800GT
The 8800GTs are no longer sold new in the US, so you get overpriced open box ones, the new cards if you want to scale back are the HD4830, HD4670 and 9800GT. Of these, the HD4830 is a great deal: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102803 The HD4670 is also incredible value for money, but is significantly stunted in performance by comparison.
Thank you for the advices about the motherboard and the video card, I think he'll be satisfied with a HD 4830, I was also wondering if it would be alright to go from an E8400 to a cheaper alternative like a E7200, would that be alright? My friend plays RTS games and not the up to date FPS games such as Crysis, Bioshock, or CoD4...he probably plays a bit of CS: Source or BF2142...you know...stuff that can be played without super expensive parts.
Well, Bioshock and COD4 aren't really any more demanding than C&C3 / RA3, it's mainly Crysis that kills. The only RTS game off the top of my head that is very demanding is Supreme Commander, so if he doesn't play that, that's fine. Even with an E7200 and HD4830, that's still a powerful enough PC to play Crysis and SC anyway, just not at absolute maximum settings.
Ok, so with an E7300 and a HD 4830, it should be able to run CoD4, Bioshock, or any game equivalent at high settings, am I right? So the final selections will be: CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115132 MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128356 VIDEO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102803 PSU: http://www.provantage.com/corsair-memory-cmpsu-650tx~7CSMC05F.htm RAM: (Same as the selection if first post) Btw, can the E7300 be overclocked to 3.0 Ghz with stock cooler? Or the FSB to 1333 Mhz? Can the motherboard be overclocked safely to 1600 Mhz?
I'm not sure how far you'd get with overclocking that board, I own one similar and haven't tried it myself (it's my server, I see little point), but yes, that system can play those games on high without needing to overclock.
Was following this thread for awhile and thinking of building one myself. So in addition to the five components listed in the final post, the only other things needed would be a monitor and case right? CASE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146047 MONITOR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254034 So the total cost of this PC would be: 120 65 95 95 55 120 90 TOTAL: $650 I've never built a PC before, but this looks like a good learning opportunity. $650 is not a bad price for a gaming PC.
The case is excellent, the monitor is OK, not great, but to get a quality one you'd be paying far more.
Ok, thanks for the inputs, my friend is looking forward to the new parts, but when I looked at his old motherboard, it was a "MSI AGP 8X" dates back to 2001, so what are the chances that his harddrive is SATA and not the old fashioned IDE? Is there anyway to tell? Can the new motherboard support IDE?
I didn't even know 8x AGP was out in 2001, I thought it was 4x back then. Suffice to say a PC I bought in 2004 with an 8x AGP slot still came with an IDE hard disk.
So assuming that he has an IDE harddrive, is it possible to have it connect to the motherboard you suggested? If im correct the motherboard runs on SATA 2
