Thinking of upgrading...soon!

py2006

Hi All,

My pc needs to be upgraded soon as its starting to strain to play the latest games. I wont be upgrading yet but I thought I would get some ideas from you guys as to what to get and not get etc. I tend to do alot of research etc before purchasing.

I currently have:

p4 3.2
Asus P4C800
1gb Ram
X800 Pro

I also have a dell 19" crt which is grand for games but takes up alot of space. I have always assumed LCD are usless for games because of ghosting etc. Is this still the case?

I also wont need keyboard, mouse, speakers etc as I have decent ones. Although I could be persuaded! :P

I would be grateful for suggestions and advice.

Cheers

8T8

LCD's (the good ones) are about on par with CRT's now though if you really aren't that pushed about it I would keep the CRT.

Well you could just update the graphics card to an X1950Pro and get 2GB of RAM and leave it at there (300 bucks). That you should keep you ticking over nicely without completely gutting the system.

A partial replacement system could be something like this (500 bucks);
Core 2 Duo E6550 (plenty of overclocking room if interested).
MSI P35 motherboard latest Intel chipset.
2GB of DDR-2 800 RAM.
GeForce 8600GTS GPU (performance wise about on par with the X1950Pro but with the Core 2 it would perform better than the P4/X1950pro.)

py2006

8T8 wrote:

LCD's (the good ones) are about on par with CRT's now though if you really aren't that pushed about it I would keep the CRT.

Well you could just update the graphics card to an X1950Pro and get 2GB of RAM and leave it at there (300 bucks). That you should keep you ticking over nicely without completely gutting the system.

A partial replacement system could be something like this (500 bucks);
Core 2 Duo E6550 (plenty of overclocking room if interested).
MSI P35 motherboard latest Intel chipset.
2GB of DDR-2 800 RAM.
GeForce 8600GTS GPU (performance wise about on par with the X1950Pro but with the Core 2 it would perform better than the P4/X1950pro.)

Thanks for that! The extra ram would definitely help but I am thinking about getting Crysis and Bioshock etc. I am not sure how well they would run on that card?

nibble

py2006 wrote:

Thanks for that! The extra ram would definitely help but I am thinking about getting Crysis and Bioshock etc. I am not sure how well they would run on that card?

Not amazingly really, a budget would really help. Expect to fill it:D .

StRiKeR

if you want to run Crysis and Bioshock nicely, you want to spend a bit more to go Core2 and a 8 series gfx card.

8T8

Well Crysis no-one can say really how it will fair, you can always tone down details/resolution but forced to take a guess it should run okay at a minimum.

Bioshock should be fine with it at 1024x768, the X1950Pro comes with 512MB over the normal 256MB so it will help for both titles .

py2006

nibble wrote:

Not amazingly really, a budget would really help. Expect to fill it:D .

Well I am not sure what budget will be yet so I guess it depends on what I need.

I will want a direct x 10 card I think?? Plenty of RAM and probably a new processor which will mean a new motherboard.

py2006

Ok, I did a quick scan through Komplett and came up with this lot. It is probably a bit pricier (€1,004.91)than I am probably willing to spend but ya never know.

• Asus P5B, P965, Socket-775, ATX, GbLAN, 6xSATAII, PCI-Ex16
• Crucial DDR2 BallistiX PC6400 2048MB CL4 ,Kit w/two BallistiX 1024MB's, E.P.P
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0GHz 1333Mhz Socket LGA775, 4MB, BOXED w/fan
• XFX GeForce 8800GTX 570M 768MB GDDR3, PCI-Express, 2xDVI/HDTV/HDCP, 384-bit

I'd probably need to dumb it down a bit.

white_falcon

py2006 wrote:

Ok, I did a quick scan through Komplett and came up with this lot. It is probably a bit pricier (€1,004.91)than I am probably willing to spend but ya never know.

• Asus P5B, P965, Socket-775, ATX, GbLAN, 6xSATAII, PCI-Ex16
• Crucial DDR2 BallistiX PC6400 2048MB CL4 ,Kit w/two BallistiX 1024MB's, E.P.P
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0GHz 1333Mhz Socket LGA775, 4MB, BOXED w/fan
• XFX GeForce 8800GTX 570M 768MB GDDR3, PCI-Express, 2xDVI/HDTV/HDCP, 384-bit

jaysus that graphics card is overkill dude. for 200 less u can get this and its just as good - ud hardly notice the difference

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=327331

white_falcon

Heres my list im about to order now this week for a great gaming PC/music+video editing/home recording PC:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=316737 (raptor HD)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=333974 (4gigs nice ram)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=330169 (quad core)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=327672 (PSU)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=114450 (2 x 500gig HDs)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338806 (22" Monitor)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=326306 (Big case)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=327331 (640mb gfx)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=325859 (gaming mouse)

All of that comes to about 1300-1400 i think, but its totally worth it in my opinion

py2006

white_falcon wrote:

jaysus that graphics card is overkill dude. for 200 less u can get this and its just as good - ud hardly notice the difference

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=327331

You sure? Its it Direct x 10?

py2006

white_falcon wrote:

Heres my list im about to order now this week for a great gaming PC/music+video editing/home recording PC:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=316737 (raptor HD)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=333974 (4gigs nice ram)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=330169 (quad core)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=327672 (PSU)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=114450 (2 x 500gig HDs)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338806 (22" Monitor)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=326306 (Big case)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=327331 (640mb gfx)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=325859 (gaming mouse)

All of that comes to about 1300-1400 i think, but its totally worth it in my opinion

Looks sweet. I could get all that minus the raptor, monitor, case and mouse.

Although I was thinking of changing my monitor but I would leave that till last as I am not sure I trust lcds for games.

Have you got a nice motherboard for all that?

py2006

Hiya,

I am back again. I am still undecided and still reading reviews etc. Currently I am looking at:

Asus P5K, P35, Socket-775, DDR2, ATX, GbLAN, PCI-Ex16

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 8MB, BOXED w/fan

OCZ Gold XTC DDR2 PC6400 4096MB KIT, w/two 2048MB PC6400 XTC, CL5-5-5-15

EVGA GeForce 8800GTS KO ACS3 320MB GDDR3 , HDCP, PCI-Express, 2xDVI-I, 320bit

Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM



Also, I read somewhere that 4gig of ram will not work on XP so I might have to get Vista? However, I also read that Vista has caused problems with some games.

I was thinking of getting the Home Premium OEM version from komplett but I am not sure should I go for the 32bit version or 64bit version.

py2006

white_falcon wrote:

Heres my list im about to order now this week for a great gaming PC/music+video editing/home recording PC:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=316737 (raptor HD)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=333974 (4gigs nice ram)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=330169 (quad core)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=327672 (PSU)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=114450 (2 x 500gig HDs)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338806 (22" Monitor)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=326306 (Big case)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=327331 (640mb gfx)

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=325859 (gaming mouse)

All of that comes to about 1300-1400 i think, but its totally worth it in my opinion

Hi White Falcon. Have you recieved your new pc and set it up yet? How is it working?

Anti

py2006 wrote:

Hiya,

I am back again. I am still undecided and still reading reviews etc. Currently I am looking at:

Asus P5K, P35, Socket-775, DDR2, ATX, GbLAN, PCI-Ex16

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 8MB, BOXED w/fan

OCZ Gold XTC DDR2 PC6400 4096MB KIT, w/two 2048MB PC6400 XTC, CL5-5-5-15

EVGA GeForce 8800GTS KO ACS3 320MB GDDR3 , HDCP, PCI-Express, 2xDVI-I, 320bit

Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM



Also, I read somewhere that 4gig of ram will not work on XP so I might have to get Vista? However, I also read that Vista has caused problems with some games.

I was thinking of getting the Home Premium OEM version from komplett but I am not sure should I go for the 32bit version or 64bit version.

That build looks pretty good to me, the only thing i would change is the hdd, get the 500gb samsung spinpoint. Its much quieter and faster. Also for 4gb you will need vista 64bit. There are no problems with vista 64bit and games that are not easy to sort out. And by easy i mean its as simple as this.

Right click the game.exe file, click compatibility and choose winxp sp2. And blam, it works.

py2006

Anti wrote:

That build looks pretty good to me, the only thing i would change is the hdd, get the 500gb samsung spinpoint. Its much quieter and faster. Also for 4gb you will need vista 64bit. There are no problems with vista 64bit and games that are not easy to sort out. And by easy i mean its as simple as this.

Right click the game.exe file, click compatibility and choose winxp sp2. And blam, it works.

Oh thats interesting. I have an Antec TruePower 550 watt psu. Do you think that would be ok?

nibble

py2006 wrote:

Hiya,

I am back again. I am still undecided and still reading reviews etc. Currently I am looking at:

Asus P5K, P35, Socket-775, DDR2, ATX, GbLAN, PCI-Ex16

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 8MB, BOXED w/fan

OCZ Gold XTC DDR2 PC6400 4096MB KIT, w/two 2048MB PC6400 XTC, CL5-5-5-15

EVGA GeForce 8800GTS KO ACS3 320MB GDDR3 , HDCP, PCI-Express, 2xDVI-I, 320bit

Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM



Also, I read somewhere that 4gig of ram will not work on XP so I might have to get Vista? However, I also read that Vista has caused problems with some games.

I was thinking of getting the Home Premium OEM version from komplett but I am not sure should I go for the 32bit version or 64bit version.

Looks pretty good, I might change the Hitachi for a Samsung drive, just a bit cooler and quieter, your ears will thank you:D . I'd also stick with 2GB of ram atm for gaming/desktop use, the ballistix would be perfect.

py2006

nibble wrote:

Looks pretty good, I might change the Hitachi for a Samsung drive, just a bit cooler and quieter, your ears will thank you:D . I'd also stick with 2GB of ram atm for gaming/desktop use, the ballistix would be perfect.

Well I was thinking of getting a 150g raptor now. I am not sure Samsung do them? Is the 2gb of Ram enough for the latest games?

jonny72

I think if you want to try to save some money.. go ankermann-pc.com
experiment with the builds.. perhaps choose the mega-gaming pc and upgrade +1gb ram, processor and motherboard.. hdd too..

py2006

I have revised my selection to bring down the price plus I added a monitor:

Samsung 20" LCD Syncmaster 206BW TCO03, 1680x1050, 2ms, 3000:1

Asus P5K SE, P35, Socket-775, DDR2, ATX, GbLAN, PCI-Ex16

EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB GDDR3, HDCP, PCI-Express, 2xDVI-I, 320bit

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 8MB, BOXED w/fan

Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM

Crucial DDR2 BallistiX PC6400 2048MB CL4 ,Kit w/two BallistiX 1024MB's, E.P.P

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Eng OEM DVD 64bit


I decided to bring the RAM down to 2048mb as from a bit of research 4gb isn't recognised on Vista. People are only getting 2.5 - 3.5 on on even the 64bit version.

I was going to get a raptor drive but I will do that at a later stage.

And I downgraded the graphics card also.

I am not sure about motherboards at all. I just choose the one above at random.

Skittle

Ok on the RAM thing, people are really getting the wrong end of the stick here.
Any 32-bit OS (XP or Vista) when installed on a machine with 4GB of RAM will only show 3.1~3.5GB of system RAM. This is because the max addressable memory is 4GB but that address space has to also handle video memory.

Any 64-bit OS (XP or Vista) will see the full 4GB of RAM, where ever you read that a 64bit OS can't see the full 4GB of RAM isn't worth the paper it's written on (providing all the RAM was working ok).

Another misconception about 64-bit OSes is that the driver support is crap or non-existent. This simply isn't true any more. I switched over to Vista 64 bit at the weekend and I have 64-bit drivers, for my graphics card, sound card, mouse and joystick.

Anti

Skittle wrote:

Ok on the RAM thing, people are really getting the wrong end of the stick here.
Any 32-bit OS (XP or Vista) when installed on a machine with 4GB of RAM will only show 3.1~3.5GB of system RAM. This is because the max addressable memory is 4GB but that address space has to also handle video memory.

Any 64-bit OS (XP or Vista) will see the full 4GB of RAM, where ever you read that a 64bit OS can't see the full 4GB of RAM isn't worth the paper it's written on (providing all the RAM was working ok).

Another misconception about 64-bit OSes is that the driver support is crap or non-existent. This simply isn't true any more. I switched over to Vista 64 bit at the weekend and I have 64-bit drivers, for my graphics card, sound card, mouse and joystick.

QFT!

py2006

Skittle wrote:

Ok on the RAM thing, people are really getting the wrong end of the stick here.
Any 32-bit OS (XP or Vista) when installed on a machine with 4GB of RAM will only show 3.1~3.5GB of system RAM. This is because the max addressable memory is 4GB but that address space has to also handle video memory.

Any 64-bit OS (XP or Vista) will see the full 4GB of RAM, where ever you read that a 64bit OS can't see the full 4GB of RAM isn't worth the paper it's written on (providing all the RAM was working ok).

Another misconception about 64-bit OSes is that the driver support is crap or non-existent. This simply isn't true any more. I switched over to Vista 64 bit at the weekend and I have 64-bit drivers, for my graphics card, sound card, mouse and joystick.

Oh really? I bow to your superior knowledge on this as I really don't have a clue about this kind of stuff.

I spent a couple hours last night reading through forums and articles and alot of people are claiming that they are not getting the full 4gb.

Anti

I did say the same thing on the last page

py2006

Anti wrote:

I did say the same thing on the last page

Oh yea.

I was up till 2am last night reading through various forums. My head is melted!

I am now considering getting a raptor drive as my main drive and perhaps getting a samsung sinpoint as a secondary drive.

Anti

Yeah its a good option. The raptor 150 is very very very loud though. So if you plan on leaving the pc on in the room you sleep in , invest in some good earplugs. Or valium, as it will drive you insane. To be honest, the samsung spinpoint is just as quick, and quicker in some tests then the raptor 150, especially in game loading.

If you really want a raptor drive get a 36gb version just for windows. But dont install anything else on that drive, apart from drivers. Because windows will take up over 20gb its self ( vista )

py2006

Anti wrote:

Yeah its a good option. The raptor 150 is very very very loud though. So if you plan on leaving the pc on in the room you sleep in , invest in some good earplugs. Or valium, as it will drive you insane. To be honest, the samsung spinpoint is just as quick, and quicker in some tests then the raptor 150, especially in game loading.

If you really want a raptor drive get a 36gb version just for windows. But dont install anything else on that drive, apart from drivers. Because windows will take up over 20gb its self ( vista )

Oh the confusion! I have people telling me to get raptor and others telling me not too! arghh!

Well I wont be having the pc on while on I am sleeping so I guess the noise wont be a bad thing!

py2006

Ok this is where I am at now


That link should show my shopping cart! I have now included a sound card.

nibble

Looks perfect imo , get it from hardwareversand.de you'll save money.

py2006

nibble wrote:

Looks perfect imo , get it from hardwareversand.de you'll save money.

Really? The site looks a bit dodgy! Are they reliable? Delivery costs?

py2006

Hmmm, just been browsing through them. They dont have the hard drives and they dont do RAM but the other stuff is slightly cheaper.

If I got the other stuff from them I would be saving €170. My only doubt would be their reputation and if I had to return a product etc