GAMING PC HELP!!

[BIGRED]

I need some help building a decent gaming pc for under 1k. Any advice? Thanks! Should I get one lesser graphics card, but add a dedicated physics processing unit?

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/cfgam2.asp?v=d#configurator_top

$977.00
(before all applicable rebates)
CASE: Hot New! ASUS Vento 3600 Mid-Tower 420W Case (BLUE COLOR)
CPU: (Socket AM2) AMD Athlon™64 X2 4200+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
MOTHERBOARD: (Socket AM2)ABIT KN9 SLI nForce 570 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 SATA-II RAID 16x PCI-Express MBoard w/GbLAN, USB2.0, &7.1Audio
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)1GB (2x512MB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA Geforce 7300 GS 512MB 16X PCI EXPRESS VIDEO CARD
VIDEO CARD 2: NVIDIA Geforce 7300 GS 512MB 16X PCI EXPRESS VIDEO CARD
LCD Monitor: NONE
HARD DRIVE: 300GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive
Hard Drive 2: NONE
Optical Drive: (Special Price) 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2: NONE
SOUND: ESS 3D WAVETABLE SOUND PCI

[Sinco01]

Re: GAMING PC HELP!!

yes .. and add another USB port [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Rebycman]

Re: GAMING PC HELP!!

Ok a couple things first off most games cant take advantage of 2 processors so I tend to stick with single processor motherboards. 300gb hard drive is nice but do you really need that much space? You can probably get a few smaller drives cheaper with the same performance but less expensive. 1gb ram is fine but I'd suggest 1 ram stick instead of 2 512's. Lastly the video card you listed is ok but nothing fancy. It should run most games but some newer ones may have issues (ie Half Life 2). I still prefer GeForce video cards over ATI because their drivers seem to be better.

If you do go with a single large hard drive make sure to make a partition for the OS and then another for the data. This way if you ever have to reinstall the OS you don't have to lose all your data in a format.

-Reby

[j-kid]

Re: GAMING PC HELP!!

The only advice I can add is to kick up the memory a bit more, and get at least an LCD monitor with a 8m second response time. I also agree that you should add a physics processing unit. I have seen it in action and it does wonders to graphics rendering and speed. I think this is where the bulk of your money should be spent, on the graphic processing.

[BIGRED]

Re: GAMING PC HELP!!

Thanks guys. Couple more questions.

I can get this

"RAID 0 Striped Disk Array for Faster Performance - Requires 2 Identical Hard Drives"
What does that do. Does it make it more difficult if I have to reinstall the OS if I have a problem?


Can anyone recommend what graphics card to get? I guess I could get two smaller hdd's that runs at 10,000 rpm. I have a 32" widescreen lcd hdtv that I'm gonna use for a monitor and I'll install the xp media OS that came with my laptop.

Is there anything else I need to consider? Installing the OS, sound cards, cpu? I'm assuming Socket AM2 AMD Athlon64 cpu is decent.

If someone could build one here http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/cfgam2.asp?v=d and then post the specs here, it would help greatly. Or if you know a better place to order. Thanks again!

[Rebycman]

Re: GAMING PC HELP!!

A Raid array isnt something your average user will ever use. It will in fact complicate things and probably just end up confusing ya. Raid array is like taking 2 hard drives and running a mirror one drive on the other drive (so both drives are identical, same type, data, etc). Benefits include faster access times because the load can be split between the 2 drives, and because you have 2 copies of the same data you have a layer of data protection should one drive fail (you can install another drive and mirror the good drive onto the new and off ya go).

Video cards - What kind of games do you like? If you play the higher end games I would try to get a GeForce 5900 or better. That should run most of the newer games/titles. Just stick to vid cards under $250.00 and you should be ok, unless you want to break your budget [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img]

AMD vs Intel - Unless you are really beefing up a system then nit picking it there shouldnt be much of a difference between the two...at least nothing major enough that I've ever noticed.

What I do when I'm building a computer like this is spec out the machine I want then either buy the parts over the net or get them locally then I build the machine myself. You could order the parts and take them to a local computer store and have them build it for ya for a nominal fee (and probably get a warranty too). I've never been a fan of mail order computers...too many ways to get screwed (lol). If ya buy local like this and you have a problem you always have an easy place to take the machine for service...vs boxing it up and sending it off to god knows where.

Make sense?

-Reby

[BIGRED]

Re: GAMING PC HELP!!

Got it! Thanks for the help.