New Computer (Specs Needed)

paul2-0-0-2

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Wana Bulid a Computer just to Play Games really since HL2 come out and cant play it lol but dont know what to get got about £600/700 Maybe More so can some post a Good Machine please

Only thing is Maxtor H/D'd

Thx
 
Athlon 64 3500+ 90nm
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR DRAM
Geforce 6800 GT

that should do you.
 
Thx but been thnking and gona make a Cheap Kinda PC then make anther one Next year

XP Home - £57.47 inc VAT
AMD (Newcastle) Athlon 64bit 3200+ £100.00 inc VAT
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...oduct_uid=58431
MaxtorDiamondmax 10 200Gb H/d - £71.30 inc VAT
1 1/2 Gig DDR Ram
Sapphire Radeon 9800SE 128MB DDR AGP8x DVI-I TV-Out Lite £91.91 inc VAT
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...oduct_uid=56695
NEC ND-3500 Double Layer Dual 16x DVD R/RW £45.00 inc VAT

Motherboard - Can get one with the AMD in a Deal but dunno if its any good??
Gigabyte GA-k8VNXP SKT 754 VIAK8T800 Sound Gig lAN 1394 USB 2.0 FSB800 SATA
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...oduct_uid=54502


So is this any good??

Been told about getting the Winchester instead of Newcastle and the GFX wont be much good for new games what are comein out
 
i'd trash the idea of moving to a 64-bit cpu. there are no 64-bit apps/games right now, so you're blowing $.

if your goal is to play games (hl2, d3, etc.), you should be dumping most of your cash into a solid video card. i'd highly recommend the gf 6800 gt 256mb - with that card, i'm getting 107.33fps in the hl2 video stress test, and i haven't messed with the settings on my card or in the game - those are default for now!

you might want to look into getting an amd 2500+ mobile barton ($88 from newegg). you can use one of those in a desktop and really push it. the cpu starts out at 1.45v and 1.83ghz. i'm running my mobile barton at 2.52ghz now and it's rock solid.

lastly, stay far away from maxtor - they have a terrible reputation and make crap hdds. stick with western digital or seagate. i just picked up a seagate 200gb 8mb cache, 7200rpm hdd for $109.
 
LordOfLA said:
Athlon 64 3500+ 90nm
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR DRAM
Geforce 6800 GT

that should do you.
I'm opting for same CPU, but with Corsair Twin1024-3200XL Pro and Gigabyte K8NXP-9. oh, and Geforce 6600... dun fink it's GT though.
 
koko said:
i'd trash the idea of moving to a 64-bit cpu. there are no 64-bit apps/games right now, so you're blowing $.
Go for the AthlonXP 3200+ then... cheap and beats an Intel equivalent in gaming. :) OR get a Pentium M, But that's just blowing $ :p
 
koko said:
i'd trash the idea of moving to a 64-bit cpu. there are no 64-bit apps/games right now, so you're blowing $.

Ok, that statement is outrageous. If he wants to play games, he or she SHOULD go with AMD64. It doesn't matter if there are no programs in 64bit mode. All there is is Windows for that. The 64 bit processors run in 32bit mode beautifully. They dominate for games. So it's not a waste if that's his intention.

Ok to the thread starter now.

I've got an AMD64 3200 939 I like it, but I'm planning on overclocking it soon to get some more out of it.
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum boad. It's a great board, stable, and nice looking.
I wouldn't go with the Crucial Ballistix if you went with the MSI. Something more like the OCZ EL Platinum Rev.2 are VERY nice.
And spending money on the 9800SE is a waste, it overclocks fairly well to become a 9800Pro, but for $80 more, you'll be able to get a 6600GT card which will beat a 9800Pro. And yes, they are coming out with a 6600GT AGP flavor soon.

If you want to cut back on cost, You could change the ram to something else. Maybe some HyperX or something. The Processor could go down to a 3000+ and overclock it. I'd keep the board though. The MSI is a great board.
The Gigabyte board that has the Nforce3 is the best way to go but it's still around $200. It's Via version isn't that great.

But of course, this is coming from an Overclockers standpoint.
 
obviously, you don't understand what 32-bit and 64-bit truly means. if you want to spend tons of $, then sure, those 64-bit chips are backwards compatible, but it's not like you'll be getting double the performance - that's not what it means at all.

and btw, the version of windows he'll be running is not a 64-bit application. i think there's an enterprise edition of xp pro and longhorn may be a 64-bit os, but i'm sure he's not running either one of those. there are a couple of distros of linux that are 64-bit also.

so, in the end, is the performance gain (minimal at best) you'll get from using a 64-bit cpu on 32-bit applications worth the cost, versus a 32-bit cpu? answer: no.

do your homework before calling one of my statements outrageous.
 
koko said:
obviously, you don't understand what 32-bit and 64-bit truly means. if you want to spend tons of $, then sure, those 64-bit chips are backwards compatible, but it's not like you'll be getting double the performance - that's not what it means at all.

and btw, the version of windows he'll be running is not a 64-bit application. i think there's an enterprise edition of xp pro and longhorn may be a 64-bit os, but i'm sure he's not running either one of those. there are a couple of distros of linux that are 64-bit also.

so, in the end, is the performance gain (minimal at best) you'll get from using a 64-bit cpu on 32-bit applications worth the cost, versus a 32-bit cpu? answer: no.

do your homework before calling one of my statements outrageous.
Price Source Overclockers UK:
Intel P4 LGA775 3.4GHz £223.19
Intel P4 LGA775 3.6GHz £281.94
Intel P4 LGA775 3.8GHz £469.94

Intel P4 Northwood 3.2GHz £146.82
Intel P4 Northwood 3.4GHz £211.44

AMD Athlon64 3200+ £125.14
AMD Athlon64 3400+ £155.69
AMD Athlon64 3800+ £434.69

AMD AthlonXP 3200+ £99.88

TELL ME that AMD64 3600+ and 3800+ is MORE EXPENSIVE than the Intel equivalent... i.e the 3.6GHz and 3.8GHz!!

EDIT: all prices have VAT (tax) included.
 
Can't say 64-bit (AMD) is expensive if you or others are willing to pay to build an Intel machine. :p
 
i wasn't necessarily arguing prices, but 64-bit vs 32-bit. if you want prices, here's pricewatch 1 minute ago:

pentium 4 560 3.6ghz lga775..............$436
athlon 64 fx 55................................$842
my cpu (mobile barton 2500+)............$85

now, if you're on a budget (like paul said he was in the first post!), and playing games is paramount, which is the wisest choice?

if he buys a 64-bit cpu, he'll have zero $ left!

as i stated in my first post, i'd dump most of the $ into a video card.
 
Ok any mid range to low high end from AMD or Intel would work, 64bit or not. Video either a GeForce 6 series or ATi X800 are good but again matter of which company you like better or gives you better value for your money. The Maxtor hard drive would not be my first choice but if it what you then by all means get it. Ram to a point the more the better but again get as much as you can afford though I would not go less then 512MB most major brands would be good but I know that some motherboard companies recommend different brands as they tend to work the best with said companies board. Big thing you can do is research then you can make a informed choice more then listening to what others have to say as what works for them may not work for you
 
koko said:
obviously, you don't understand what 32-bit and 64-bit truly means. if you want to spend tons of $, then sure, those 64-bit chips are backwards compatible, but it's not like you'll be getting double the performance - that's not what it means at all.

and btw, the version of windows he'll be running is not a 64-bit application. i think there's an enterprise edition of xp pro and longhorn may be a 64-bit os, but i'm sure he's not running either one of those. there are a couple of distros of linux that are 64-bit also.

so, in the end, is the performance gain (minimal at best) you'll get from using a 64-bit cpu on 32-bit applications worth the cost, versus a 32-bit cpu? answer: no.

do your homework before calling one of my statements outrageous.

while you make a valid point, your logic is seriously flawed regarding this particular thread..

the a64's smack the pants of the p4's when it comes to gaming, and since this setup will be used primarily for gaming the pro's and con's of 64 bit v/s 32 bit computing because that has absolutely no bearing on this discussion...


if you can compare and find, for hl2 and others, a CPU which performs at the same level as an a64 processor at the same price point or better, please let us know because to my knowledge there is not one single product from Intel that comes close the performance/price ratio the a64's present...
 
koko said:
i wasn't necessarily arguing prices, but 64-bit vs 32-bit. if you want prices, here's pricewatch 1 minute ago:

pentium 4 560 3.6ghz lga775..............$436
athlon 64 fx 55................................$842
my cpu (mobile barton 2500+)............$85

now, if you're on a budget (like paul said he was in the first post!), and playing games is paramount, which is the wisest choice?

if he buys a 64-bit cpu, he'll have zero $ left!

as i stated in my first post, i'd dump most of the $ into a video card.

again your logic is flawed... if you want to compare apples to apples, consider pricing the P4 3.46EE v/s the FX 55, and keep in mind the FX 55 is still beating the p4 3.46 in benches, even where the intel processors generally are better, while being at a lower price point...

a64 processors start at a far lower price point than you are insinuating...

if you want to start a thread about how bad the a64's are, please feel free to do so...

try not to falsley effect the decision of a person based on erroneous or obviously skewed comparisons that do nothing to assisting the person in making a decision...

thanks... :cool:
 
Sazar said:
again your logic is flawed... if you want to compare apples to apples, consider pricing the P4 3.46EE v/s the FX 55, and keep in mind the FX 55 is still beating the p4 3.46 in benches, even where the intel processors generally are better, while being at a lower price point...
I wanted to state this earlier, but gave up on it. :p
The FX53/55 came on to the market in order to compete against Intel's P4EE. ArhlonXP was the original contender for P4, then came Athlon64.

While you (koko) managed to get a 2500+ cpu OC'd to 2.5GHz~ and costs under $100, maybe paul wants one that he doesn't need to OC in order to get some decent juice to play his games.
 
a base a64 will outperform a 3200+ rated AXP in gaming pretty much any day...

going base, including a decent cpu/gpu... might be best to go with a base a64 939 based cpu and perhaps a 6800 base... non ultra or GT for best price/performance ratio...

the other components are going to eat into the budget a little though...
 
Koko, I have done my homework, as Sazar pointed out, he is looking to do gaming. An AMD64 and a mid range 939 motherboard would do him very well with some money to spare for a 6600GT.

The 32bit and 64bit was not even a factor in this decision. I'm not instructing him to purchase it for 64bit purposes. I'm saying he should get a 64bit instruction processor because it dominates the industry for gaming.

I do know about 64bit processors and their current use, operating systems available and the limited number of programs that are even out for them. BUT he will get a longer life span out of a 64bit processor. Even if it's a lower level one to keep in cost.

Oh and he'd be stupid to pay $85 for a barton. He'd be better off going for a Mobile Barton 2600 and overclocking it well beyond 3200 speeds. BUT the best route I'd say is a 939 3000 or 3200 processor.
 

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