Gaming Computer Specs - whats best?

[TheRod]

Check my new signature...

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A7N8X / <font color=green><b>Athlon XP 1800+</font color=green> o/c to <font color=green>Sempron 2800+</b></font color=green>
Kingston DDR333 2x256Megs
<font color=red>Radeon 8500 128Megs</font color=red> @ C:275/M:290 <- <i>It's enough for WoW!</i>

 

[mozzartusm]

I liked "Is this affecting my crediblity?"

To save us both time, assume I know EVERYTHING :tongue:

 

[street_racer5]

Alright well lets c, i just bought and built my first and new rig about a few weeks agoa nd i must say it is quite impressive. ASUS 18N-2LI MOBO, yes the PCI-E NF4 one. The best AMD cpu for the preformance/price is the AMD 64 3200+ / 3500+ i got 3500+. My video card is amazing, The Nvidia 6800 gt 256 Mb pci-e. and 1 gb of cosair 2-2-2 ram. I run half lfie 2 beautifuly, but half life 2 isnt realy demanding on the comp, Far cry IS ACTUALLY more demandin that half lfie by 5 fold. I would reccoment waiting for a bit, get the ati x800xl, and by then, u will see a few more nforce 4 mobo's. Also try to get an 90nm 3500+. Gaming wise, intel just doesnt cut it. not even on the lg scoket. Oh and i highly recommend a s-ata hard drvie, my 250gb one starts my comp in 18 seconds with bios and xp login.

ASUS NF4 A8N-SLI-DELUX, AMD 3500+, MSI 256 6800GT PIC-E (NO SLI), COSAIR TWINX 1024MB 2-2-2, CM STACKER BLACK, 250WD HD S-ATA, AUDIGY 2ZS,

 

[pauldh]

Sounds nice. Did you get a good buy on the GF6800GT PCI-e?


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[Clob]

Not to mention that the DD2 ram is soooo slow! Geeze!

Amd for games most definatly.

"If youre paddling upstream in a canoe and a
wheel falls off, how many pancakes fit in a doghouse? None! Icecream doesn't have bones!!!"

"Battling Gimps and Dimbulbs HERE at THGC"

 

[pauldh]

Wusy, why on earth are you recommending option 1 over option 2? If strictly for gaming, you'd recommend the Prescott?

I think the A64 3500+ and an AGP X800XT would be better than a 3.4GHz prescott and X850XT. Besides the heat issue, I just think the P4 is going to hold that X850XT back to where the other option would outperform it. Both are nice rigs, but I'd never do option 1. Only Option 2 or your option 3. If it is strictly for gaming, I'd go the A64 route, either NF3U & AGP or NF4U and PCI-e.



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[pauldh]

1. Intel Pentium 4 550 "LGA775 Prescott" 3.4GHz (800FSB)
North bridge:Intel 915, South bridge:ICH6-R
ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB DDR3 (PCI-Express)


2. AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester 90nm (Socket 939), 2000MHz HyperTransport technology
North bridge NVDIA nForce 3 Ultra Chipset
ATI Radeon X800 XT 256MB DDR3 (AGP)

If you're going for gaming only then the 1st option would be the choice.

Right there. :lol:


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[pauldh]

Yeah, that's why I questioned it like that, as I saw your third option was what you considered best, just wondered why option 2 wasn't next best. So you saw X850XT and basically couldn't think straight.

Looking at that <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2330&p=6" target="_new">Anand cpu scaling chart</A>, as well as their <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2330&p=2" target="_new">HL2 cpu performance</A>. I would say that on a P4 3.4GHz, at least in HL2, their would be no difference in performance between the X850XT and X800XT. And this is interesting (to me anyway). The P4 3.4GHz is behind the (my) 1.8GHz Winchester A64 3000+ in every single chart. So it is safe to assume that P4 3.4GHz < A64 1.8GHz. Now move to the scaling charts and look at the A64 @ 1.8GHz. Notice that the X850XT<b>pe</b> and the plain X800XT (non-pe) perform almost identical with the A64 at these speeds. As they say in the review, it takes 2.2GHz or above on an A64 to see a difference between the X800XT and the X850XTpe in HL2. Anyway, this is just explaining why I think option 1 was the worst, even though it has the best video card. It would seem that the X800XT is able to max out what the current P4's are able to take advantage of, in HL2 anyway.

Anyway yes, A64 3500+ - 4000+, NF4U, and X850XTpe....ooohh baby!


Side note, look at Coast_05 timedemo chart. It is amazing that with the same video card, a Athlon FX55 manages 140fps, while a P4 3.2 extreme edition only manages 88 fps. Wow what a difference.



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[pauldh]

HL2, MOHPA, Joint Ops, Farcry, and a few older racing favorites are about all I play. As well as try a few demos here and there. I am looking to buy that Flatout retail game once I find it over here for under $35. The demo was a blast.


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[pauldh]

Oh, and no problem, LOL. I actually had to stop and skim all the posts, thinking wait, Wusy just recommended that P4 system for gaming, and knobody has said anything...what am I missing. I guess everyone was blinded by the X850XT. If they made it in AGP right now, I'd be blinded by it too. I desperately WANT to upgrade this 9800 pro to a 16-piper.



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[mattburklund]

Why would anyone say intel is better for games? Everything I have read says the opposite.


[http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx? i=2330&p=2]

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by mattburklund on 01/31/05 05:15 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[shaido7]

i have a pentium 3.2 proc and my brothers amd athlon 2700 xp is just as fast if not faster and seems to play games better.I am a gamer and i will probably never buy a pentium processor ever again nothing is definite but at this point amd from here on out. the best proc is amd fx 55 but its wicked expensive the best value or money performance ratio is athlon 64 3500 90 nano. there is nothing a pentium can do the amd cant plus the amd is 64 bit capable which is the direction computers are going i have an amd xp 2100 which is old so i have been able to try both amd and intel they both can do the same things except amd is the best processor for gamming period!! if your going to stay with agp motherboard and video card i would suggest a mobo with an nvida chipset you will have less problems than with via i would go with asus if possible but either msi,gigabyte,abit will all do you good.and for a video card theres not a whole lot of difference performance wise i personally would go with ati they have single slot solutions, hi definiton tv, and you can turn up the aa/af without affecting your fps too badly.i ve had both and the picture qualitiy and performance seems to be better for ati plus they have been leading the industry for the past couple years with the 9700 and the 9800 vide cards.this is just my opinon hope it helps

pentium 4 3.2
oczpc3500 el ddr platinum matched ddr433
western digital raptor 74 gig 10k rpm
8knxp gigabyte
geforce 4 titanium 4600(i know get a faster card)soon!

 

[Vapor]

Man, don't you just hate those broken shift and CAPS keys? Oh yeah, intermittent punctuation keys are almost as lovely. I honestly lost you after "pentium processor ever again", maybe you said something really important, too bad lots of people won't bother reading it. I followed a bit of the rest, and it was full of innaccuracies...

Overall, a great post. 😱

<pre>maybe it's just me, but n00bs posts get crappier every damn day</pre><p>Maxtor disgraces the six letters that make Matrox.

 

[pauldh]

You sound like a bit of a collector yourself. I always seem to sell off what I have multiples of and keep one sample for my collection. Not wise as a few cards in the collection can't do much now. But I just like having them for the fun of running benchies or comparing generations.


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[mozzartusm]

LMAO :lol:

To save us both time, assume I know EVERYTHING :tongue:

 

[mozzartusm]

Here is a parital list of my collection.

(1) 4 Compaq desktop with the Intel P3 550
(2) 3-5 Compaq desktops with Intel P2 450
(3) 3-4 Compaq desktops with an assortment of Intel P2's
(4) 2 Compaq Notebooks with Intel P2's
(5) 8-13 working monitors (CRT's) most are 17" some 15"
(6) A pile of old generic PSU's most of which are in the 150-250W range.
(7) My 2 new rigs.

There are alot of other spare parts also quite a few sticks of old SDRAM for those P2 and P3's. Im not sure if this makes me a collector or a pak rat.

To save us both time, assume I know EVERYTHING :tongue: