The Official Budget-Conscious Dream Machine!

Lol, did he not take you up on the offer? He's a cretin if he didn't.
1300W power supply, for pete's sake. I could run five of my PC off that, and I'm not joking either. Five of my PCs all playing FEAR would leave 50 watts to spare. Now consider that in the vast majority of the games which are a year or more old (which is where I spend most of my playtime anyway, you can't beat the classics!) my PC will get the same performance as his, and the money I saved on my PC earns me a 30" monitor, so I can play games at an even higher resolution than he can!
Slap Slap!

 

Im going around his house with a few of my old pc's in bits to let him learn about building , explain how a few things work, so he learns a bit about specing a system. he is worried about being future proof, i said to him there isnt such a thing lol.

as with that system when better graphics cards come out it would be sickening to get rid off over half the cost of the pc so you can fit newer cards lol.

all he realy wants is hd gaming, so i expect ill get the build down to around 600+vat. maybe quite abit less if he will wait til feb.

 

Well, with PCs it's pretty much a relative. How long do you 'put up' with old technology before you update it? The rich enthusiast will pass through every breakthrough component that comes out. The casual PC user may keep the same system intact for three or more years.

 

more like 5 years...but new technology just keep coming out...its forcing us to keep it for 2 - 3 years...

ANYONE kind enough to give a socket 939 AMD Athlon64 x2 cpu for FREE!

 

Lol hoff off, they're still worth a reasonable amount of money!

 

try looking on a site like freecycle, you might just find someone giving away a whole system.
http://www.freecycle.org/

 

lol...i can't find any socket 939 cpu's anymore in SA...that sucks...

ok how much is x2 3800+ and x2 4200+?...

@sammorris i'll pay for the CPU but can you pay and organize for the shipping to SA?...please...

yea i know its not allowed to talk about selling and dealing of Stuff...

PM me...please...

 

While I'd happily send a CPU off to you, you would have to pay the shipping as well. Internationally shipping something like that would cost tonnes, and it just isn't doable. Besides, it would be far cheaper for you to get someone from the US to do it for you. Their component prices are far cheaper than ours in the UK.

 

oh...you know anyone thats from USA?

thnx...

oh how do you identify if the graphics card is AGP or PCI-E?...

 

the top one's AGP, the bottom one's PCIe.
As for the US, a lot people on the aD forum are from the US really. I won't mention specific names because I don't want to rope people into this if they don't want to do it. Ask around, without making too much of a pest of yourself!

 

ok...it's been a while since i last post here...

i'm been searching for AM2+ mobo...this one is the best one i could find...well, theres only few thats out...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128070

 

I love Gigabyte boards. If that's the one you like, I'd say you made a good choice. You won't be sorry if you get that one

 

isnt the crosshair AM2+?

 

I couldn't tell you. It might support the Phenom CPUs but it doesn't state that anywhere in its specs. I wouldn't bet on it, but it's possible.

 

i heard crosshair mobo's are really good...hope they made one...but it won't be cheap that what i know...oh well god products are expensive...

Finally Nvidia 9-series is coming out in Feb 2008...hope it's true...

anyone know when Ati will release a new card?

 

Doubt it's any time soon, but if they do, it'll probably be a top end series card, and so out of the realms of this thread anyway. The best thing about ATI's graphics card range right now is that the HD3870 is usable in a budget-conscious machine, and it's a stunning performer. Pound / dollar / euro per frame per second, it's on par with the 8800GT, but with an overall better image quality, and no tweaked drivers to give better frame rates in certain games (at the further expense of image quality).

 

Another game that will work well for the Budget-Conscious Gamer:

Call of Duty 4

It runs all settings High at 1024 x 768 on the 7600GT

Indoor FPS = min average high 30s, max average high 90s

Outdoor FPS = min average low 20s, max average high 30s occasional lag in high action

Plays fairly smooth and remains consistent.

On the X1800XT it runs all high at 1280 x 1024

Indoor FPS = min average low 40s, max average high 90s

Outdoor FPS = min average low 30s, max average low 50s, very seldom lags in high action

Plays VERY smooth and remains consistent.

Looks like a solid performer. Anybody with a 7600GT will be happy. Anybody with an X1800XT will think twice before an upgrade.

 

COD4 runs at 1920x1200 all maxed on my PC, and will run alright at 2560x1600 as long as you don't use a sniper! lol
However, COD4 is by no means the most demanding of games. UT3 runs at half the frame rate of COD4, and as for Crysis, well. Forget about it, really.

 

Also, remember that UT3 is considered a very well optimized game in its own right. So the frame rates achieved in CoD4 with the relative graphics are insane.

Crysis taxes systems to their limits. Mine runs it okayish at 1920 x 1200 MAXed but it gets a bit choppy. I run it at 1680 x 1050 to keep it comfortable...

Methinks it's time for a video upgrade... the performance bothers me... so much for "high-end"

On the other hand, all the other new games out run beautifully maxed at 1920 x 1200. This could just be the "Oblivion" of its day; The game no system will run well.

 

Trouble is, there's nothing you can really upgrade to. SLI doesn't really have much of an effect with Crysis, you'll just have to live with it until a faster card comes out. You're correct about Crysis being 2007's 'oblivion' game. Just wait for a bit!