gaming rig

[evulboo]

would this be a good spec for a gaming pc

p4 2.8prescott 800fsb
asus p4s800d
2x256mb twinMOS in dual (will get another 2x256 or 2x512)
ati 9800pro sapphire 128mb
2x Seagate's Barracuda 80Gb 8Mb Cache 7200rpm SATA HDD in raid0
creative audigy 2 platinum

i havent got the hdd's, processor or ram yet

i have a budget of about £280

 

[TheRod]

Humm.. Have you read any PC reviews in the last year? AMD Athlon 64 are the BEST CPU for gaming. Your Prescott system will get beat in most game compared to any Athlon 64.

Actually the Prescott 2.8GHz can be compared to an Athlon XP 2800+ which is half the price and performs as well in many games.

Check these graphs and see where the Prescott 2.8GHz stands :
<A HREF="http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20040601/socket_939-17.html" target="_new">http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20040601/socket_939-17.html</A>

If you already got the MB, keep your Prescott, but it's one one the owrst choice in today's CPU market for gaming. Period.

NOTE : If you overclock it, you will get a better price/performance ratio.

<b>NOTE 2 :</b> It might seems that AMD biased, but I'm not. NO one can argue that AMD Athlon XP/64 are better in gaming than Intel processor.

--
What's the <b><font color=green>AMD Mobile Athlon 64</font color=green></b> overclocking potential? <b>It's huge!</b> Humm... Maybe not that huge...<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by TheRod on 06/03/04 08:20 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[evulboo]

i understand where ur coming from m8 but the thing is i started with a intel way back and i keep upgrading it so i dont have to start out and buy a new rig altogether, i brought the mobo a few mths back now and i still got my p4 2ghz, 1024mb 266 ram and crappy hdd so im looking to upgrade what i have now to a half decent machine, like i stated my budget is £280 and im just looking for the 3 upgrades

 

[Mr_Nuke]

If you allredy bought the mobo, then that's bad. I'm sure every body here will suggest buying an A64 or A64FX on S939, but the price of 500$ for the 3500+ might not suit your budget. I don't know the currency, but I believe that is above what you have. If you want to upgrade your PC soon(1 year or less) get an AthlonXP, 2*512MB. I also suggest a 74GB Raptor HDD (10000 rpm, SATA).

 

[TheRod]

Like I said, Prescott is not the worst thing ever. It's better than Celeron!

If you want to keep budget low and get HIGH gamig performance, you should consider gettign a P4C 2.4GHz and overclock it like mad! This would give you the best price/perfromance in games. And P4C are easily overclockable on stock HSF (they are not too hot). You only need good memory.

--
What's the <b><font color=green>AMD Mobile Athlon 64</font color=green></b> overclocking potential? <b>It's huge!</b> Humm... Maybe not that huge...

 

[HardWareBoss]

Gateway has X800XT for $434.

 

[P4Man]

For the price of the second harddisk, you could get a A64 board (Gigabyte GA-K8VT800M), and for the price of the P4E, an A64 2800+. Same budget, much better gaming rig, at the expense of some HD capacity. Actually, if you sell the P4 +board, you'd even save some cash

SATA RAID 0 buys you nearly nothing according to this article: <A HREF="http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2004q2/chipset-raid/index.x?pg=1" target="_new"> link </A>

If you don't want to read all of it (though its a good read) fast forward to this page <A HREF="http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2004q2/chipset-raid/index.x?pg=27" target="_new"> link </A>

Gaming level load times and booting times are virtually identical (+- 0.5%) going from 1 drive to a 2 drive RAID 0.

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =