Gaming Computer

[grepin]

Hi all Computer wizards.

My desktop finally needs replacing.

So I have decided to go with something that can run games well.

After short research I am thinking of an Athlon 64 dual core 3800 (or 4000 single)

Asus A8N mother board SLi

Geforce 7800 GT PCI express and normal stuff (1g ram, Sata2 drive etc)

Things I am not sure of is dual core or not.

Or go cheaper 256 cards and run two (figure the better crads will drop in price later for this option).

Think dual core will be good for future games when written for it.

So thinking of spending $2000 there.

Next is I would like some opinions on LCD monitors.

Looking at 19 inch. Wide screen might be nice as I will probably have HDTV tuner card as well. So needs DVI inputs. I know 8ms and 700:1 ratio is all good stuff to have.

Keen to know what people have seen work well. Opinions are also good if well reasearched. There seems so many formats out there.

Thanks

In adavance.

[Ronin]

Get 2 gigs of ram, one isnt enought these days. Games like fear and BF2 use over a gig of ram when you have high detail on.

Samsung 19inch 4ms lcd moniors go for $550 these days. Lower the ms the better for games.

Dual core is the way to go, ive got one myself and a 7800gt will run any game nice and fast with all the goodies turned on.

[NJR 34GTT]

Don't bother going SLI with dual 7000 series cards, you will always be CPU bound. No current CPU can provide enough grunt to drive them.

Ronin is correct about the RAM.

Also there are no games currently that take advantage of dual core CPU. Synchronising the threads for a game is an absolute bitch and no-one has even attempted to yet. In light of this it would be more worthwhile to buy the fastest single core instead of going dual core.

[Eug]

i run 1gb of ram fine - how ever i have DDR2...

2gb would be even better again.

$2000 will put together a very very good computer.

i paid $1000 for the following:

prescott 3.2ghz p4

asus p5gd2-x

1gb 533mhz ddr2 ram

200gb hdd

256mb 6600gt eagle video card

the motherboard has a decent 7.1 built in sound, and a nice case will set you back a bit too (ie. thermaltank etc)

so for $2000 build a nice f**k off machine!

[R33_Beast]

I'd have to agree with NJR about the SLI. It's pointless going for it because new technology is released for each vid card revision ie Pixel Shader 3.0, DirectX10 [soon] etc so you may as well go the best single card you can. If you take a look around overclockers.com for reviews you'll see that a single 7800GTX beats two 6800Ultras so the cost difference doesn't justify buying two.

Also with the dual core, it really depends if your new comp is intended to be gaming specific. Dual core has shown promising results for video editing etc but again as NJR said, current games haven't generally taken advantage of the multiple cores. Reviews suggest that an X2 4800+ will out perform an FX55+ but as you're looking at the lower models you're probably better off going a single core [4000+] Personally I'd try to stretch my budget for an X2 4200 or 4400+ though.

Sorry for all the rambling lol hope you end up with a beasty pc - Come play css sometime!

[madbung]

I strongly recommend you go the 7800gtx and a 4ms lcd, I have both anything less is a fairly big comprimise for gaming.........you wont regret it, the rest looks ok for a non p4 rig

[BreathLess]

Go the dual core but buy a dfi crossire ready board and get the new X1800 when they come out in a few months as tests show the card out preforms 2 7800GTXs and u only have to buy 1

[TrentGTR]

For a monitor, get an LG, 19'' LG.....cant go wrong man they r leet.

Also if ur plannin on a new comp, live dangerously....(Dont get dual 256 cards - waste of time), go with the 7800.

If you wanto be really leet, im talking king of games.

Dual 7800gtx

Fx57

I think i just creamed

[aussie_tul]

1g is fine ,but 2g is greater than that one. It depends on your money

[Topaz]

These components from my system cost $3420 , check it out for an idea

DFI Lanparty nForce4 SLI-DR

AMD Athlon64 3700+ SAN DIEGO S939

OCZ PC3200 1024MB EL DC VX CL2

BFG 7800GTX OC PCI-E (probably one of the more expensive 7800's at $950)

Seagate 250G, 7200.7 NCQ

Western Digital 36G, 10k rpm

Enermax 600W Noisetaker

Lian Li PC60 Plus

Samsung 913N 19" 8ms

[aussie_tul]

That's great unit, dude.

[Topaz]

I'll be going for another Gig of ram and another 1 or 2 HDD's to pretty much top it off

and maybe a second 7800

[TracidTrax]

im suprised no one has mentioned the ATI radeon x850 cards. I bought a radeon x850 xt PE a month ago and it goes real well with these new games. Has faster core and memory speeds than the 7800 gtx card

im also running a 6800 in my notebook with details turned up high and still runs smooth

a question, how do u run 2 video cards in 1 pc?

[NJR 34GTT]

Using a SLI or Crossfire motherboard. Crossfire still has issues with certain motherboards, specifically DFI boards.

[Topaz]

If you want to get a dual ATI card setup you have to buy a newly revised motherboard with the RX200 chipset. No other boards will run ATI in crossfire mode.

I think the new DFI SLI-DR Expert has fixed the SLI problems as well as spacing the cards 1 slot further apart. My board is the older model and has the slots too close so 2x6800 Ultras don't fit too well

[Nozila]

are you planning on overclocking any of your computers components in the near future or just purchase as is?