Spring RTS Engine

If you have 2300 bucks to spare screw the computer, quit your job and go travelling somewhere random on your own, then go somewhere else random, then somewhere else even more random and repeat for a total of 2 years, return home with a huge debt but safe in the knowledge that you did something amazing you can look back on while you were in your prime.

I did, it was the best decision I ever made. ^^

Wait wait wait? 8800?

Wait you fool! the R600 is rumoured to be one and a half times as good as it, and thats when its unfinished!

There will always be a better grapichs card in a 2-3 months.

OK, so I switched out the mobo for a much sexier SLI-ready one by EVGA. Replaced the CPU with a Core 2 Due E6700 2.66GHz processor. Got a better CPU cooler, and some thermal compound (oversight in first component list). Switched out one of the Caviar hard drives for a Raptor 36.7GB one, left the other 250GB Caviar there.

The resulting computer is better, and ironically is over $300 cheaper.

OK, so I switched out the mobo for a much sexier SLI-ready one by EVGA. Replaced the CPU with a Core 2 Due E6700 2.66GHz processor. Got a better CPU cooler, and some thermal compound (oversight in first component list). Switched out one of the Caviar hard drives for a Raptor 36.7GB one, left the other 250GB Caviar there.

The resulting computer is better, and ironically is over $300 cheaper.

I think I have a spare Win XP disc, but if not I'll have to shell out some bucks for Micro$oft's shitty OS. (Don't tell me to get Linux, ain't gonna happen if I'm building a gaming machine.)

When do you plan to buy this computer? If you can wait a while you will be rewarded greatly, however this is always the case. Still I recommend waiting till the r600 comes out with nvidias awnser to it, by the time this happens the current cards will be very cheap.

Also, I would highly recommend getting a gruntier powersupply. If you ever plan to go sli or to use a r600/8800gtx you will want a decent power supply 750watts+ thats also a decent brand. This will hurt your budget but will be worth it.

On another note if you dont mind overclocking go for the e6600, especially if you are going to put a new cpu cooler on it anyway as this will overclock to preform the same as even an overclocked e6800 extreme. This will save a little mulla for ya.

If you plan on waiting for the RD600 mother board. You might think
about getting a ATI 1950 or a video card from them thats coming out
in Feb. too ..

You get 1 high end ATI card or you can call them DAMMIT ..


Afew months later you can upgrade to a second graphics card
an config it for crossfire mode ...

I have had nothing but bad experiences with ATI and do not plan to buy their products again.

Also, as a previous poster said, it will always be the case that something new and awesome is coming out in a couple of months. I posted a similar thread about two months ago and was advised to wait until Intel came out with its Conroe CPUs... I plan to get the most power I can for my budget at the time I want to build or buy a computer; I'm not going to wait for the best technology to come out because the best technology is always a month or two from now.

That's true, but Core2 was really really worth waiting for, so was the NV80 (GFs 8800 series.) This combo just powers by almost everything.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/11/29/ ... stest_cpu/

Get a 21" widescreen. Something with a res of 1600 by 1050.

I don't have unlimited funds...

Felix the Cat wrote:Any suggestions?

I would say to go with a different powersupply. Your spending nearly $2400 on parts, yet your spending $21.00 on a brand ive never heard of before, which looks like it uses a small 80mm fan for cooling. It may be a reliable PSU, it may not be. But I can certianly garuntee that if you want a quiet pc, the smaller fan is going to make quite a bit more racket.

You may want to go with more ram depending on what your doing, but aside from those two things... Looks good.

I couldn't give two shits about quietness, but I will consider getting a heftier power supply. The one I selected did get good customer reviews on Newegg, though. I'm mainly concerned about spending $100 too much on a power supply that is far beyond what I need to power the thing.

Good power supply means you can upgrade later in life. If you get a not so top power supply now and plan to upgrade your PC's specs alot in the future you will have to upgrade you power supply aswell. I think the 8800gtx requires 2 6pin power connectors and I arent sure about the 8800gts, maybe just one?. I dont want to know what the r600 will need but for good upgradibility and reliability go for a decent powersupply from a decent brand.

Felix the Cat wrote:I don't have unlimited funds...

If your willing to spend 1000 dollars on a proc, 500+ on a GPU. A couple hundred more a moniter ( which is what you will be LOOKING at ) is nothing..

Keithus wrote:Good power supply means you can upgrade later in life. If you get a not so top power supply now and plan to upgrade your PC's specs alot in the future you will have to upgrade you power supply aswell. I think the 8800gtx requires 2 6pin power connectors and I arent sure about the 8800gts, maybe just one?. I dont want to know what the r600 will need but for good upgradibility and reliability go for a decent powersupply from a decent brand.

So you're supposed to spend 5 times as much for a PSU so it will last twice as long?

Why have you picked out an sli motherboard when your getting an 8800? The 8800 is already years ahead of the most demanding games out there.

Also ATI is crap at OpenGL, which means 8800+ spring > r600 with spring (70-80% chance given the AMD administration(ATI isnt crap solely because of Open GL performance, but rather they dont even implement parts of the OenGL standard)).

I'd also say they're right about power supplies, too low and you'll get brown outs and crashes and other anomalies.

I cant stress the importance of accessories though. Your internal components may be out of date in 6 months but your monitor keyboard and mouse will last a lot longer if you take care. I bought an LCD widescreen 21" monitor, and I could never go back to my 17" CRT.

Any gains with an r600 you get will be indistinguishable from a nvidia 8800, your only going to notice any improved major performance in 2-3 years time by which I'd expect geforce 9's.

Also be aware that my 1.4Ghz Duron outperformed a friends 3.2Ghz Pentium 4 at benchmarks because I took care of my windows install and optimized it and he didnt. Superfast hardware does not always result in superfast performance, especially for those who believe it hands them the right to be ignorant about settings, malware, and optimization.

If you have more than 60 processes running at any one time then you dont take care of your PC and have the potential to double its performance and stability. A well kept PC runs 19-22 processes once logged in and idle including firewalls and antivirus.

AF wrote:If you have more than 60 processes running at any one time then you dont take care of your PC and have the potential to double its performance and stability. A well kept PC runs 19-22 processes once logged in and idle including firewalls and antivirus.

Simple

Windows Cleanup - Tweak 3D

SwiftSpear wrote:So you're supposed to spend 5 times as much for a PSU so it will last twice as long?

No, but I would be a little nervous with a $21.00 unheard of brand PSU providing electricity to $2400 bucks worth of computer parts. If that PSU breaks, you now have a $2400.00 magic-smoke generator.

It may not have any problems, but a PSU that low in price would make me nervous.

Never skimp on the power supply. While I would be the first to admit price does not guarantee quality, I would go with an expensive proven supply over a tenuously rated one that happened to be cheap - of course, my ideal scenario would be one in which I can test it myself without risk - no experience is as important to an individual as his or her own, ans it is the same with opinions.