Needs some help with Gaming Experience

[JfOrTyOz]

Hello ,

I am an extreme gamer. I play more games than anything else, on my PC. I think I need to upgrade my gaming experience but not sure where to start. Can someone give me some suggestions on were to start. I am not rich, so it would have to be one piece at a time. This is what I am running now.

Windows Xp
AMD Athlon(tm) xp 1700+
1.47 ghz, 512 mb of ram
ATI Radeon 9600xt (AGP 8x/4x) 128mb ddr

Help PLease!!!

JfOrTyOz

 

[madmatt]

Please don't post threads in more than one sub forum. Thank you.

 

[JfOrTyOz]

No problem!

Thanks for helping me with my question though. I really appreciate your help!!

 

[lancer]

yeah you loser haha. just joking, ignore matt, his like a grumpy old bear at times.

We would need to know how much you want to spend.

 

[JfOrTyOz]

Thanks for replying.

I have around $400 to $600 to spend. But I would like to get it running better without spending alot.

 

[LordOfLA]

you're not an extreme gamer if you have budget limits

Ideally it seems the best gaming experience these days can be obtained with the following specs:

ATI Radeon X1900XT or Nvidia 7900GTX
Athlon 64 X2 4400
2GB Ram
Asus A8N-SLi Premium motherboard
Creative x-fi xtreme music sound card

and a couple of hitachi t7k250 hard disks

work towards that and you'll be set

 

[RickyC]

You would probably need to replace your MB, CPU and memory to get you started.

 

[JfOrTyOz]

You would probably need to replace your MB, CPU and memory to get you started.

What do you think is the most important one to start with?

 

[Hack*MMS]

I recently updated and I am also a gamer. I started with a Asus A8N-SLi Premium motherboard, went with a 9800gtx, and a Athlon 64 3800. I already had 1g ram. Runs as good as I could have ever dreamed. I also am almost aways the first one to spawn in a game. Don'tr by the mb unless you are ready to spend $$$'s on video card. Good luck and good gaming.

 

[ElementalDragon]

just after christmas, i bought the Asus A8N-SLi Premium motherboard, an Athlon 64 3700+, and an eVGA 7800GT for about $700 even. you could probably find it for about the same price today (cept a 7900GT instead of a 7800GT), or you could knock something down.... since the motherboard is about $160, the 7900GT is about $300, and the A64 3700+ is about $250 i think (not sure on the CPU price... haven't looked).... you could maybe get the A8N-SLI Deluxe if you don't necessarily need the premium (think that'll save you maybe $40).... and maybe a 7600GT (think they're what.... $165ish?)..... could probably stick with getting the A64 3700+ or something around that price range. might be a tad more than what you were planning on spending.... but i can guarantee that if you get the 7900GT and the A8N-SLI (probably premium or deluxe version... shouldn't matter), along with a decent Athlon 64.... you won't regret one penny spent (unless you get a part and it's DOA.... then you might be a bit mad till you get another one after the RMA). Haven't heard much about the 7600GT's.... don't know how well they perform...... guess it's up to you really..... the 7900GT is just my suggestion.

 

[lancer]

jf ignore their nonsense about a $130 mobo, total waste of money, as i bet you dont o/c much and just want it to work from the get go correct?

This is what i would suggest,

AMD 64 3700 san diago $235.00
ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 $79.99
eVGA 256-P2-N563-AX Geforce 7900GT CO 256MB $319

Total of $633.99

The v/card is what will get you, so you may have to go with a slower older one, but thats a bit of a waste of money.

I would also suggest another 1gb of memory as well. which ranges from $60 upwards.

Stay away from dual core, because if all you are doing is gaming you need a faster processor and one that is comparable to the 3700 in dual core is the 4800 which i believe is about $600.

 

[digerati]

I'm in the process of upgrading my system as well, and I'm also a devoted gamer, though without the budget or desire to become "extreme".

First thing I'd say is upgrade the ram, depending on the game, 512mb isn't really gonna cut it nowadays. Hell, I was running 1gb and thanks to BF2 and such, I'm going up to 2gb of ram.

512mb of ram is pretty cheap, around $40, and 1gb sticks are around $80. Though the rest of your system could definitely use an upgrade, doubling your ram alone would probably make a noticeable difference, again, depending on the games you play.

If you're really going budget on the upgrade, you could also check ebay for an athlonxp 2500+ for maybe $70, won't be a huge upgrade but would again make a difference.

Course, might be best to just go ahead and upgrade the whole thing and go for a new chip, mobo, and vidcard all together.

Like mentioned above the asus a8n5x is probably the best budget compromise of the nf4 boards. It will give you everything you need at a good price. You can get an athlon64 3000+ for only $117, though it's hardly the fastest out there, a 3700+ is about $235 and seems to be the best price point since the models after that start going up in price at a much higher rate.

As for vidcards, 7900gt is great for price/performance around $300, but if that's too high, a radeon x800xl is good at only $160, it's what I am currently using and it runs BF2 well at high settings though how long it will be able to perform relative to new releases is questionable.

 

[Not Bman]

your right, at the momeny dual core makes no differnce in gaming right now, hopefully soon but yea.

**off topic, I can't belive how many updgrade threads there are***

 

[ElementalDragon]

hmm.... didn't realize that the price of the 3700+ San Diego jumped that high..... glad i bought mine when i did. think it cost me around $210 when i bought it. and i was just making suggestions based on what i had and had experience with. if he would have asked about a cheaper motherboard...... such as the one you reffered him to..... then i would have to give him an opinion based on reviews, not personal experience.

as for the A64 3000+..... not sure...... but probably more worth it for the 3700+. just make sure that the CPU you get is socket 939.... or you could wait a bit, since i think they are now saying AMD's new socket AM2 is coming out in late May. the reason i say socket 939 or later is cause they have an on-die memory controller...... one less hop for the RAM requests and stuff to make, which is a nice plus.

 

[LordOfLA]

lancer - the higher priced boards come with better quality components and for that fact alone are worth the money regardless of whether or not you overclock. THe asus a8n-sli premium is probably the best athlon64 board you can get. if you are loking to go SLI though you may want the x32 edition however.

 

[ElementalDragon]

LA: the A8N32-SLi hasn't really proved itself yet to be worth the $2xx price tag that comes with it. yes... it may be a nice board..... and it may provide the glee of saying "i have this"..... but from what i've read, standard SLi systems aren't even using the full 8x PCI-Express lane that's dedicated to each card in SLi.

 

[madmatt]

Thanks for helping me with my question though. I really appreciate your help!!

You're welcome.

...ignore matt, his like a grumpy old bear at times...

Yes.

 

[VenomXt]

to be honest id just save up tell you can buy at least the mobo, cpu, and videocard. and 2 gigs ram is the way to go but if you could find a cheap peice of 512 to put you at a gig now.. it could be a option.

 

[JfOrTyOz]

I dont know what to do. sooo many options. Who is right and who is wrong.. This is what Lancer suggested to me.

AMD 64 3700 san diago CPU---- $235.00
ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Mother Board---- $79.99
eVGA 256-P2-N563-AX Geforce 7900GT CO 256MB Video Card--- $319
and to add 512mb to make 1024mb's

What do you think????

 

[ElementalDragon]

The video card and processor are a definite yes (unless you'd rather wait a month and a half until socket AM2 stuff starts popping up). as for the motherboard..... it's up to how much money you want to spend. i'm sure that the A8N5X is a good motherboard based on other people's opinions..... but in my opinion the A8N-SLi Premium is excellent..... and the A8N-SLi Deluxe probably is too. Think that'll be the one decision left up to you.