The (new) Official PC building thread!

Yeah, I believe thats what I meant.

@JMognett, I would highly recommend removing that link from your post before a mod finds it. Even though I do like the site it is against the rules. Talk to a mod or admin about advertising in on AD if you want.

 

Understood, thank you for the heads up, I'll change the post and speak to a moderator about it.

 

But going back on topic.

Earlier today I read quite a few pages of thread about the upcoming game Crysis. I want my computer to run it on near max settings (don't we all). But after reading alot of that thread, I feel like I'm a long way off from playing that game on high or max settings with minimal lag. I was looking into upgrading my computer anyway as some of you know. But I'm not sure if it was going to be that high end or not.

So if I was going to upgrade/build a computer to run Crysis on near or max settings. What would I need in terms of GPU, CPU, and amount of ram?

I don't really need exact parts but general specs of what I might need. This computer will be built using alot of the parts from my current computer so I have pretty much everything but the CPU, GPU, and maybe some more ram (I already have 2 gigs). As for the motherboard I'll look into that later. This won't be built anytime soon really, maybe sometime around October or November. I was hoping to spend $700, I might spend a little more.

I know the parts for this upgrade are not going to be cheap. But I figure if all I need to buy it a CPU, and GPU, and maybe a motherboard, and perhaps some more ram. $700 - $1000 should cover it.

Usually I would have just upgraded to a E6600 CPU, added 2 gigs of ram, and thrown in a 8800 GTS 320 MB. But I read earlier that Crysis will take even more than that to play on max settings with no lag.

Basiclly I just wondered how far I would have to go?

Thanks

 

Depends on the res you play at, but cutting edge games are usually designed such that no hardware available at tiem of release can play the game well at max, andtherefore the game's lifespan is increased when that hardware does arrive because "look how good it looks now!" and so on. If you want the best chance, GTX is the only way to go.

 

Alright, there are better computers out there, but recently I got to build myself a bitchin new computer. I started with a shuttle case as a base, they are extremely useful and I've used a few before. I'd just like to say they are very pleasing for those of you short on space or like to take your PCs to Lan parties (which thanks to online play are basically gone). Here are the specs:

*SN27P2 Shuttle case (NVIDIA nForce 570 MCP chipset)
*AMD 64 x2 Dual Core CPU clocking in at 2.81 ghz per core
*2 gig DDR2 800mhz ram (in two peices)
*e-GeForce 8800 GTS video card
*500 gig RAID 0 hdd

I'm very pleased with it, but I was just narrowly able to install the video card as its such a huge size and the case is so small. Everything else was easy to install though. Its nice and portable and I have it on my desk and switch between it and my old machine via KVM. I'm going to expand the ram to 4 gigs sometime. I got all of the hardware from Fry's Electronics (great store terrible customer service). Pretty damn sweet. I have XP pro sp2 on it. Under 1500$.

 

Not quite got the point of LAN parties have we? It's all about being able to communicate with the people you're playing with directly, online gaming is so much more detached. Yes you can use Skype/teamspeak or whatever, but it's not the same as them actually being there.
Shuttle cases are all well and good, but they're hot and noisy for high end parts.

 

I just looked at a 8800 GTX, and I don't think that will be in my budget, atleast for now anyway. It would be different if I was paying that much for a processor, but for a GPU, I feel like it could be outdated sooner, and that I will still want a new one 6 months after I buy it. I guess I'll just have to go with a really fast processor, a total of 4 gigs of ram, and a 8800 GTS 640 MB.

Even though I would love to play that game at max settings, I'm not willing to pour a ton of money into it. I can wait a few years until my computer can handle that game with no problem. For now I'll just shoot for medium/high with smooth gameplay.

I don't need to play at an extreamely high res though. 1440 x 900 or 1680 x 1050 if it will handle it.

 

At those resolutions you'll be fine with an 8800GTS, especially if you upgrade as often as you suggest. I've had my X1900XT for over a year, and that's run everything at 1920x1200 except for Stalker and Crysis which have to be played at 1680x1050 (however, regardless of res, the game's frame rate is capped at around 25-30 for me!)

 

How much more powerful is the X1900XT than the 7950 GT? Not that I would upgrade to it now since if I got anything new at this time it would be an 8800 series card. But I was just wondering how much power I missed out on my last upgrade to the 7950 GT?

 

battlefield 2142: X1900XT 18% faster
Dark messiah of Might and Magic: 7950GT 28% faster
Doom 3: X1900XT 4% faster
Flight Sim X: 7950GT 37% faster
Elder Scrolls Oblivion Outdoor: X1900XT 91% faster at unplayable resolution (1920x1200), 24.2% faster at playable resolution(1024x768)
Prey: X1900XT 4% faster
Warhammer Mark of Chaos: 7950GT 20% faster
3DMark06 SM2 Score: X1900XT 0.9% better score
3dMark06 SM3 Score: 7950GT 78.5% better score

Mixed bag really. Being able to play oblivion so much better when the going gets tough is a bonus for the XT, it has more high resolution grunt, and it runs BF2142 better, some games are very similar, but other than oblivion, when there are big wins, they're on nVidia side. What this shows is that for high resolutions and old games, the X1900XT has the edge, recent Shader Model 3 titles will see better results with the 7950GT, provided the resolution is kept at or below 1280x1024.

(Taking an average of the results listed above puts the 7950GT on average 1% faster than the X1900XT!)

 

Yeah, Oblivion seems to be the only game my card has trouble with. Other than that it's fine. So atleast now I know my money wasn't a waste on the 7950 GT compared to buying the X1900XT.

 

Nope, the X1900XT came earlier though, which is why I have one.

 

I had just heard that the ATI cards in that range were beating the 7950s and other cards in that range on the Nvidia side (but heard that after I bought my card). But then again, maybe I'm thinking of the X1950 Pro, or X1950XT, I don't know my ATI cards very well.

 

The case I got is very efficent actually. The noise is minimal and the heat, dispite all I have packed in it, is pretty consitantly low. But they arn't the best as far as top-notch parts go.

 

X1950 Pro is slower than the X1900XT, the X1950XT's a bit faster, the X1950XT-X is the only truly fast one.

 

Oh ok, thanks for clearing that up for me, I've always wondered about that.

So how does the X1950XT-X stack up against the 7950 GT price/performance wise?

 

Not well, the X1950XT-X is maybe 20-30% faster but twice the price.

 

So basiclly the 7950 GT was one of the best cards I could have gotten at the time and my money wasn't wasted? If so thats good to know, since I've wondered about that since I bought it.

But I know now the 8800 series is killing the 2900 series ATI cards right now. So if I get a new card I'm afraid it will have to be Nvidia too. I would kind of like to get an ATI card at least once.

 

The 7950GT was your best option then, and an 8800 is your best option now, that's just how it goes.

 

hey guys, i'm a noobie here. I am going to build my first computer and I just kind of want a second opinion to make sure everything is going to work ok. From what I have been able to see I have matched everything up to be compatible and everything is being purchased from newegg. So any responses to this will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

ATX Mini Tower Computer Case 350W Power Supply
Micro ATX Intel motherboard
SAPPHIRE 100197L Radeon X1650 256MB GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X Video Card
Intel Pentium D 805 2.66 ghz processor
G.SKILL 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory
EXCELSTOR Jupiter Series ESJ8160 160GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive
LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner
MASSCOOL 8WA741 92mm Ball CPU Cooler