Just Bought Kick A$$ Gaming Pc, What Games To Get?

[25GTT]

With all this talk now for sometime on the new pc's and giving my advice wherever i could in my somewhat limited knowledge after clocking my old pent 4 2.8 to 2.96ghz there is only so mutch clocking an old AGP gfx card and clocked CPU can do.

So yesterday at 10am I order my new PC, it arrives on Thursday. I am so excited here is the run down.

Dual ... yes dual not quad conroe E8400

Gigabyte mboard

4gb 800mhz ram

DUAL raid 0 500GB HDD so 1000GB in total (over kill but it was only a saving of $15 over a total of 500GB)

9800GTX 512MB Gfx card

22inch asus screen

5.1 speakers

Coolermaster centurion case

on Vista

etc

for $1900

my question is.... what games MUST i play. With such graphic capabilities what game do you guys recommend me as a MUST have

So far I am looking at buying:

Call of duty 4

Crysis

Supreme commander

War in conflict

So hit me with it, what are the games really think would graphically blow me away!

Also does anyone know what the Physx card is that i have briefly seen in an add? does it help gfx??

Thanks all looking forward to your input for my gaming shopping spree on thursday :-)

[jivlah]

hey man, nice comp. need to build myself one soon ,

um ive seen this awesome drift game recenty released. ill try find out wat its called. looks mental. and new battlefield looks good too.

edit: the games called Grid.

Edited June 14, 2008 by jivlah

[25GTT]

Ahh yes there is a thread here on the game GRID will look through it.

Got the whole setup from netplus, still definately the cheapest i could find for high end gear. Link below, i got the extreme version.

http://www.netplus.com.au/systems.asp

Very cheap stuff! but check out some of the netpro stuff at the bottom of the page! $5000 system looks nice :-)

[AZN25T]

COD 4 is the best $70 i've ever spent on a pc game... EVER!

If you like MMORPG's Age of Conan is the WoW killer, if you can get your hands on a copy.

Crysis is essentially crap, only bother if you want to test your system's abilities. Best benchmark ever

[25GTT]

Cheers AZN25T

Yeah i managed to get about 5 mins into call of duty 4 with my old setup and it looked awesome! even the first training bit you do was realistic!

I am reading about Conan now, never really got into WOW so it couldbe a good start but I am also reading that warhammer is going to be out soon. I am a big fan of the previous warhammers I have dark crusade which i have finished twice, to get me started on how many times i have completed Age of empires, i like my strategy games :-)

Can anyone tell me about some sort of device called (sp?) AGEIA PHYSX? Is it a secondary support card or anything worth getting??

[PREISS]

you cant beat COD4 at all. its the best game ive played.

anyone play online here ? pm, .

crysis looks real nice but the game play aint that special really.

[LBR33]

Have a look at assassins creed its really good

[Zoggy]

duke nuken 3d

[bnr#@]

Phys X is a dedicated card for phisics processing. Phisics in games is prety much how everything arround you reacts in the game world, such as boxes falling etc, normaly the cpu does all the work for this. Some games take advantage of a hardware physics card like Unreal 3 and a few others. It is supose to take load away from the cpu. I would defenitley not worry about it at this early stage of dedicated phisix procesing cards...

Edited June 16, 2008 by bnr#@

[25GTT]

Thanks for that BNR#@

Cool then wont worry about it, I am alreadythinking of what to get in my next bi annual upgrade on this beast :-)

I was tossing up between the 24 inch or a 22inch but the asus 22 looks so dam nice, prob willl wait until the same tech (2ms refresh) hits 24 inches at a reasonable price.

Yep I will put a big tick next to Assasins Creed, although i have not seen any demos or pics I have heard its meant to be a good one, another one added to my list :-)

Is duke nukem 3d out yet?

Might see if "playasia" does pc games on the cheap

[Mayuri Krab]

With all this talk now for sometime on the new pc's and giving my advice wherever i could in my somewhat limited knowledge after clocking my old pent 4 2.8 to 2.96ghz there is only so mutch clocking an old AGP gfx card and clocked CPU can do.

So yesterday at 10am I order my new PC, it arrives on Thursday. I am so excited here is the run down.

Dual ... yes dual not quad conroe E8400

Gigabyte mboard

4gb 800mhz ram

DUAL raid 0 500GB HDD so 1000GB in total (over kill but it was only a saving of $15 over a total of 500GB)

9800GTX 512MB Gfx card

22inch asus screen

5.1 speakers

Coolermaster centurion case

on Vista

etc

for $1900

Nice system, & you made the right choice going to Dual instead of a Quad, considering pretty much no game benfits that much from more than 2 cores (crysis included) anyway.

Quick question, much Gigabyte mobo did u get? the P35 DS series?

& 1TB of space , I'm not the only one with a 1TB setup XD

my question is.... what games MUST i play. With such graphic capabilities what game do you guys recommend me as a MUST have

So far I am looking at buying:

Call of duty 4

Crysis

Supreme commander

War in conflict

So hit me with it, what are the games really think would graphically blow me away!

Assian Creed

Bio shock

UT3

Stranglehold (this is the only game besides surpme commander that I found actually uses all 4 cores of my Quad )

...

Also does anyone know what the Physx card is that i have briefly seen in an add? does it help gfx??

Thanks all looking forward to your input for my gaming shopping spree on thursday :-)

The Phsx card is pretty much next to useless at this stage, and currently Nvida & AMD (bought out ATI) are working on using a secondary video card to do hardware physics processing, ATI have already showed using their demo that a cheap ATI X1600 video card is already about ~2-3x more powerful than that physics anyway.

Cool then wont worry about it, I am alreadythinking of what to get in my next bi annual upgrade on this beast :-)

I was tossing up between the 24 inch or a 22inch but the asus 22 looks so dam nice, prob willl wait until the same tech (2ms refresh) hits 24 inches at a reasonable price.

Yep I will put a big tick next to Assasins Creed, although i have not seen any demos or pics I have heard its meant to be a good one, another one added to my list :-)

Is duke nukem 3d out yet?

If you are going to watch true HD (1920x1080) movies on the com, then go with the 24" as their native res can support HD without shrinking it, as the native res of most 22" are 1680x1050, however I doubt It would really matter that much.

& no Duke Nukem 3d is not out, by a long shot

Edited June 16, 2008 by Mayuri Krab

[25GTT]

Thanks for the info Mayuri, i see a few good posts you have put up in the games thread here, good work!

Yeah my plan is to stick with dual for say 1 - 2 years when costs of high end quads cheapen and when games utilise them.

Yep the Mobo is: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 1333Mhz FSB Mainboard

Apparently its mean to be a pretty good mboard?? hopefully can handle some Oclocking in a year or two before i go the quad. Also have been looking at www.pccasegear.com.au they have some nice fan controllers there to add a bit of bling to my case, might grab one and speed up the fans.

AHAH yeah with the 1TB i think for me it is a bit overkill, but i asked them if i can reduce the 500GB raids down to 2 x 250GB raid, and they said yes, that will be a saving of $12 - $16, so i thought i may aswell pay the extra :-)

OK it seems that the Physx card is out, alienware seems to be still using these in a lot of there high end gaming systems, maybe there is a new improved model on the way, if so will keep my eyes open if there are any progressions with them, but for now as you all mentioned I wont worry.

Nice list of games now, Ahh yes i nearly forgot Bioshock, does anyone ever watch that show on ABC called "Good Game" i have become a true nerd over the last few months watching that show and they really like bioshock a lot, each time they refer to it they use it as a benchmark for other 1st person shooters...... just to show you how much i like gaming, whilst on holiday in Thailand you wouldnt beleive what was on tv....... World Gaming championships! I gave up elephant riding to stay in the hotel one day to watch it!!! ahahahhah!!

[Mayuri Krab]

Ah, the P35 DS3, thats a fine board you got there. This combined with the E8400's excellent OC ability, people have being getting easy 3.6 to 3.8ghz speed using stock cooling alone & zoom past 4ghz using after market coolers.

& yes I watch Good game, I happened to tumbled on it once while I was testing all the channels on my USB TV tuner, and I have since set a recording schedule for it. I think its taking a break right now?

Also I just noticed from one of your earlier posts, you mentioned of waiting for a 2ms 24", with current generation of LCD monitors the LCD pixel response time have mainly became a marketing term (kinda like the watt rating on speakers, the mega pixel myth of digital cameras just to name a few). The pixel response time only mattered very much in the early generations of LCD panels where you get a response time of ~25ms or more which would result in noticeable blur during fast motion scenes.

Due to the fact that there is not set standard where manufacturers make their ms rating. Most (if not all) of the 2ms LCDs are rated from the gtg (Gray to Gray) time while some good 8ms are rating from the black to black time, and to add more confusion to the equation, others claim their LCD's response time based on white to white, & theres also a black to white time I believe. I personally have not seen a 2ms LCD that is measured using anything BUT gtg.

Since its easier for a LCD pixels to change from gray to gray, compared to black to black or white to white it will get a faster response time (kinda of like how you can get 1000w+ PMPO rated $10 speakers compared to 400w RMS rated $1000+ speakers).

Truth is, anything 8ms & under should be good for 99% of the applications you throw at it.

Other LCD stats that have become more marketing than real indication of performance is the contrast ratio, with most insanely high contrast ratio LCD reporting the "Dynamic Contrast range", & you will often find LCD with lower claimed contrast ratios getting a better result than those insanely high claimed contrast ratios of other LCDs.

The best way to pick an LCD is still go to the shop & have a look yourself, play a various of high motion videos through it, let your eyes be the judge as its the only thing that matters.

Edited June 16, 2008 by Mayuri Krab

[Skyline34]

now thats a comp!

games i would start with:

FM2008

Call of Duty 4

Hitman Blood Money

NFS Pro Street

[25GTT]

Thanks Skyline34, what is FM2008?

Cheers Mayuri Krab, I understand now, bit dodgey kinda as you can easily fudge the figures from g to g as you said from white to white etc. So then would you pay an extra $200 right now to go from the Asus 22inch to a 24inch? I have until tomorrow to notify them of any changes as i grab it on wednesday.

Or would you wait still 1 - 2 years when i upgrade and start overclocking that nice gigabyte motherboard and cpu :-)

[Mayuri Krab]

^^^

Thats really up to you, the obvious question is, do you find your 22" LCD big enough? From where you are sitting & stuff.

Theres usually very little technical differences that is very noticeable (stuff like pixel response time, contrast etc etc) between 22" & 24" inch besides the screen size (obviously) and the screen resolution (1680x1050 vs 1920x1200), except if you go into the very high end ones (designed for pro photo editors) where some of LCDs uses a full 8bit panel instead of the 6bit found in most consumer levels (basically it can display more shades of colour).

I guess the only 'technical' reason I would go for a 24" over 22" (other than its bigger) is for the native resolution, if you plan on watching 1080p HD movies (like blue ray) then 24" native res allows you to display full 1920x1080 res of HD without shrinking it. But then again, I doubt you will see the extra detail of 1080p compared to 720p. You only really start to notice the extra details when you are watching it side by side on a 42" or larger LCD/plasma TV

If it were me though, I probably stick with the 22" for now as they are the best size for $ at the moment, & get a 24" until they dropped down in price more

Or I would get another 22" later on down the track & use them in dual screen (if your desk can fit that is...)

Hope this helps.

Oh btw is your LCD the Asus VW222U?

[25GTT]

Cool thanks again, yeah will take your advice, do a reupgrade in a couple of years on the PC and get the 24inch monitor then

Yes its the Asus VW222U apparently they are meant to be good, your thoughts or anyones advice on them?

Cheers again all, the countdown continues, 48 hours to go till i pick it up:-)

[Mayuri Krab]

Yes its the Asus VW222U apparently they are meant to be good, your thoughts or anyones advice on them?

I don't have any personal experiences with that model (I'm still using the 1st LCD I bought 3 years ago, a standard 19" Samsung ), but from the reviews I have read, it got a pretty decent score, my friend who recently bulit a new com, bought that monitor & his pretty happy with it.

Asus in general is a pretty decent brand, so you should be pretty safe going with them.

[25GTT]

Well the new system is now in my hot little hands :-)

Crysis is running quite comfortably at high settings and 2x anti aliasing on the highest resolution 1650 x 1200 i think it was. Awesome game to watch and hear on the 5.1 sound system :-) anyone who is considering getting a new computer please take setup i have and use it as so far I am extremely happy with it :-)

Now to bring on the games, now have crysis .... just got to now get the rest of your suggestion ticked off on my "to buy" list

THanks all for your help, My mrs is not going to see me now for about 4 days, work throughout the day, gaming throughout the night!

[MADGT4]

I just picked up a System similar to yours.

Intel Core 2 E8400

Gigabyte S775 Mobo

8800GT 512mb

4GB RAM DDR2 800

WD 250, 320 and 640HDD

22" Samsung 2253LW

Vista Home Premium

Razer DeathAdder Mouse

Razer Lycosa Keyboard.

I'll be looking to hop into MAYBE some Age of Conan, Test Drive and COD4. COD4 and Grid are so different on PC compared to PS3 though!

Crysis is a total wow factor but as mentioned the game itself isnt too exciting.

Played UT3 the other night on my brothers computer. ALOT of fun!

Also the normal TF2 and CSS is a must!

Edited June 24, 2008 by MADGT4