YaWhateva

ok so I am in the market for a new computer. I am going to be spending some pretty good money on this because I want it to be a good computer that will last me a long time. So here is what I have been looking at on NewEgg:

processor:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - $532.90
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16819115017

Motherboard:
ASUS Striker Extreme LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX The Ultimate Gaming Motherboard - $329.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813131074

Video card:
EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - $379.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16814130071

Ram:
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400 - x2 (4 gigs total) - $232.00
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820145590

Monitor:
SAMSUNG 244t-BK Black 24" 6ms (GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor with Height & Pivot Adjustments - $699.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16824001222

Power Supply (comes bundled with the motherboard):
COOLMAX CUG-700B ATX 12V( V.2.2) 700W Power Supply 115/230 V - $139.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817159058

OS:
Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Ultimate for System Builders Single Pack DVD - $189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116213

Case:
Antec Performance One P180 Silver cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $129.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16811129154

With all discounts and rebates and bundles it comes to a grand total of $2,589.84. What do you guys think? Anything I should add or change?

The only reason I went with that power supply is because it comes bundled with the motherboard on new eggs site. I have always had Antecs before that, so I may just have to get an Antec again.

Do you think it would be worth waiting for a new chipset to come out though? The quad cores seem like the shit, though. Also, do you think a higher end version of the Geforce 8800 would be worth it? Since it is SLi, I could add another 8800 in the future to make this thing a beast.

Also, I may be adding the monitor in at a later time, not quite sure.

Finally, I was thinking of maybe adding this but I don't know if it's worth it:

PHYSX card:
BFG Tech BFGRPHYSX128P PhysX Processing Unit 128MB GDDR3 PCI Physics Card - $143.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16814143055

__________________
“If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again.” - Bill O'Reilly

"This is my United States of Whateva!"

Plaid13

No hard drives?
Personaly i think your spending way too much money. Unless you plan to overclock the hell out of your ram.... Corsair valueram would do you just fine and you would save a crapload of money and never notice the diffrence. go down a step on the video card as well. save some more money there. Spending over $300 on a motherboard is just absurd. no reason to spend over $200. Asus is a good brand but thats just crazy. Same with the processor. take it down a step. save a lot of money. The case is just your taste.. but i dont like the idea of spending more then $60 on a case. but that being said its something you should be able to reuse for a long time so get one you think you will be happy with for a long time.
Forget the physics card. just a waste of money.

After doing all that... take all the money you saved and throw it in the bank for a year or so. Then upgrade your computer as needed or build a new one long before you would be able to with the system you have picked out here.

I would suggest getting a microsoft egronomic 4000 keyboard like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823109148
Its what i use and i love it.
And maybe a nice logitech gaming mouse. changing the mouse sensitivity mid game is really nice =)

But honestly you can shave off a ton of money off that system and not notice the diffrence in performance. Paying all that extra money for the top of the line is a total waste of money because it will be outdated about 2 weeks after the stuff that costs half the price now will be. Always better to get the second or third best option for half the price and update the computer twice as often. will keep you up to date a lot more of the time in the long run and it will cost about the same.

YaWhateva

Thanks for the input. Oh, I didn't mention all the stuff that I already have/don't need to upgrade such as the harddrives, sound cards, keyboards, mice, etc.

I have decided against the quad cores, they just aren't necessary and are extremely expensive. It shaves off about $300 right there getting the 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duos. The same with the physx card, I just saw it and thought it would be cool but after looking into it more, its totally unnecessary. But from what I have been seeing, if I took the video card down a step, I would already be losing the ability to play some games at full capacity. And what good is that in future proofing if I already would be bottlenecking my computer? The same goes with the motherboard. The motherboard is expensive but it does have full 16x 16x PCIe in SLI mode, so if down the line I wanted to add another video card I could. Most others that I have seen have 8x 8x PCIe in SLI mode. Maybe I am just missing it though. I want to stick with Asus though, so if you have one in mind that would work for a lot cheaper, could you link it to me?

About the RAM, the ones I listed are super cheap. 4 Gigs of ram for $232 is a steal. Plus each of those has a $30 mail in rebate, making it 4 Gigs of ram for $172. I think that is cheap as hell. Plus, the video card has another $30 mail in rebate.

The main thing about the case is that it will last me a long, long time. Plus it's cold rolled steel with separate compartments for the PSU, motherboard, and harddrives, each compartment having a 120mm fan cooling it. That keeps it super cool and the construction makes it near silent even with all the fans going.

Also, remember I am getting a $700 monitor and a $200 OS. I also might not get those right away either, depending on how much money I have extra. That makes the total for the system without those including a new case and power supply about $1400 (if I get the Core 2 Duo) and even less with all of the mail in rebates. That's not all that bad really for a completely new (minus the harddrives) computer which is pretty close to top of the line.

__________________
“If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again.” - Bill O'Reilly

"This is my United States of Whateva!"

Lasereth

I'd "downgrade" to a Core 2 Duo E6600 or a 6700 (the fastest normal one they make) and upgrade the videocard to a 8800 GTX. 4 gigabytes of ram is an awesome idea as well, but only 3 GB of it will show up in Windows XP (all 4 will show up in Vista when we eventually go to it though). I'd get 2x 2 GB sticks if you can to prevent memory problems.

The motherboard is awesome but I wouldn't spend more than $150 on one. Get what you need, unless you have cash spilling out of your pockets.

I wouldn't trust the power supply that comes with the case. I'm currently using an Antec but I prefer Enermax if I have a choice. I recommend the Enermax Liberty series from newegg. They're modular and look like they're worth their weight in gold IRL.

If you're gonna be doing any gaming on this PC (which I'm guessing you are) then I can't recommend Vista. Video drivers simply aren't optimized for it yet (expect a 30% decrease in performance simply because of Vista instead of XP). I'd go with XP Pro.

I also can't recommend widescreen LCDs. They may be your preference, but I own a 20" widescreen LCD and fucking hate it. I want to play StarCraft. Too bad, doesn't support widescreen. I want to play BF 1942. Too bad. BF: Vietnam? Nope. BF2? Nope. BF2142? Nope. Hey, my webpages look like ass! Why? Widescreen LCD. It's fucking stupid that my widescreen massive LCD hinders my computer usage. If you're deadset on buying a huge LCD, PLEASE don't buy a widescreen unless you're 100% positive that EVERY game and application you're gonna run fully supports it.

You're definitely making the right choice by dumping money into the CPU, videocard, and ram. Now is the time to do it since the Core 2 Duo and GeForce 8 series have blown away the competition.

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

YaWhateva

Thanks for your input. I was totally thinking of doing the Core 2 Duo E6600 and upgrading to a 8800GTX. The question I have though is, a friend of mine has XP and 4 gigs of ram and it shows all 4. Is it just not utilizing the other gig?

Could you recommend a motherboard that is in that price range that has the full 16x 16x PCIe when in SLI? The ones I see are only 16x 8x PCIe in SLI mode. Unless I am reading this wrong (which it looks like I am) and that motherboard doesn't support dual 16x SLI. Do no boards support that?

The power supply doesn't come with the case, it's just a deal NewEgg has on when you buy the motherboard I believe that they give a discount on that power supply. I have only used Antec power supplies before though, so I probably should stick to that. I will look into that Enermax that you mentioned though. Also, what Wattage should I be looking at for a power supply?

I'm thinking Vista and the monitor will be a future purchase. I already have a 20" normal aspect monitor that I could use. I may just save the money on the monitor and buy an LCD HDTV in the future. Also, if I do get Vista, I am definitely dual booting using my copy of XP pro that I have.

__________________
“If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again.” - Bill O'Reilly

"This is my United States of Whateva!"

Lasereth

I won't believe that your friend's shows 4 GB in XP until I see a screenshot. It is widely known that in XP 32-bit, the OS can't see above 3 GB and doesn't use anything past that even if you have it. The 64-bit version does use past 3 GB though, so if he's running the 64-bit XP then it will definitely happen.

I'd fuck the police on SLI. SLI will never be worth it because of the limited games and apps that support it, and even if they do, you could buy a card a year from now that will be better than an SLI setup for the same price as the extra card. I simply can't recommend SLI. Trust me, one 8800 GTX is amazing enough.

An Enermax 500w+ will do the job, but going further certainly doesn't hurt anything if the price is right.

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

kofspades

BF1942 - http://www.widescreengamingforum.com...ghlight=bf1942 (about 5 comments down)
BF: Vietnam - http://www.widescreengamer.com/b/bat...d_vietnam.html
BF2 - http://www.widescreengamingforum.com...pic.php?t=1030
BF2142 - http://www.widescreengamer.com/b/battlefield_2142.html

Yes, your correct about Starcraft and many older games, though.

__________________
Even if you stop the clock, it gives the right time twice a day.
Once we get out of the eighties, the nineties are going to make the sixties look like the fifties.

Lasereth

I'm actually right about the BF games as well. Even if you do get the BF games running in the correct resolution (like those posts you linked allow), either the top 20% and bottom 20% or the left 20% and right 20% of the screen is chopped completely out of the game. The posts you linked actually mention that as well.....the resolution is definitely widescreen and the game isn't stretched, but 20% of the game is left off of the screen which is unacceptable.

On top of that, in BF2 and 2142 the menus don't accept the resolution so the game looks like utter ass if you're not in a map.

I've digged through the entirety of the widescreen forums and actually looked at the exact posts you've linked months ago when I bought my LCD...trust me, there is no native widescreen support for BF. If you want to play it period you can get it to work with the sides or bottom and top cut off but that's absurd.

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Plaid13

As far as not being able to play the latest games with the highest settings... i would like to know what games. I have a 7800gt 256mb card and a amd3700+ with 2 gig of ram and i still play everything at the highest settings and very nice framerates. Alot of the newer games the bottleneck seems to be the processor power for framerates not the video card. Just make sure you keep a eye on the performance to price ratio and you will be a lot happier in the long run.

Cynthetiq

yeah I'm playing WoW on a 7900GT and it's all dialed up. Playing Half Life 2 also...

as far as the widescreen, I never considered that. It is one of the reasons why I played consolses for many years because I did not want to keep upgrading and tweaking to play games. I have finite gaming time and I want to play not tweak and upgrade.

I did however opt for 2 19" screens on a nice mount so I have just as much screen real estate as some of the larger widescreens and I saved so much money that I bought 2 19" and a mount for the wife also.

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YaWhateva

Thanks again for the input guys. I have decided on a 8800 GTX, 4 gigs of ram, a core 2 duo.

I am talking about STALKER.

Lasereth, you may be right, he may have xp 64 bit but I know for sure that he has 4 gigs of ram and it shows up.

Half Life 2 and WoW aren't really new or top of the line graphcs.

__________________
“If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again.” - Bill O'Reilly

"This is my United States of Whateva!"

Plaid13

Stalker runs just fine on my older slower computer as well. While hardware is much faster now then when i put my system together about a year and a half ago the games coming out are not quite up to the pace that the hardware is. Not worth the extra money for the top of the line hardware for games that really dont improve that fast.

YaWhateva

Yes, Stalker may run on your older slower computer but not at full tilt. And with this set up, since like you said the games aren't keeping up with hardware, I won't have to upgrade in a long time.

And at $1400 for a full upgrade to really close to top of the line for processor, motherboard, ram, case and power supply , now seems to be the time to buy.

__________________
“If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again.” - Bill O'Reilly

"This is my United States of Whateva!"