AoC/CoD4/Crysis PC

[Gamblor]

Originally Posted by Clericnon2boxed

As far as I understand things you need a nvidia chipset (780i?) to run SLI. with the x38 you can only do ATI crossfire, your monster PSU might only be used properly if you get 2x R700 (they are each 2xRV770) later this year. I doubt a single GTX280 will need such a big PSU.

The GT280 has a thermal envelope of 236 watts.

And THIS is the bad ass monitor you want.

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG T220 Rose-Black 22" 2ms Touch of Color series Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 20,000:1 - LCD Monitors

If you want to go bigger the 24 and 26" in the same line are comming soon.
05-30-2008 07:33 PM

Twisted Nematic Film LCD's are giant piles of shit and anyone with a pair of eyes can see the difference between them and a good LCD. They are popular solely because they are cheap to manufacture. Shitty viewing angles, crap contrast, bad black levels. Get a samsung PVA paneled monitor or a nice IPS. The Doublesight 26" is a quite nice IPS panel with good response times for 700 bones.

As to the original build, I'll skip the obvious things like not getting AMD processors, and go straight to business. You want a Corsair Powersupply, Corsair/Crucial/Kingston RAM, Asus Motherboard (P5k-E is an excellent board), Antec P182 case (quiet and excellent cooling, no faggy leds and banks of fans like the idiotic 900), and if you must buy it before the late june get an EVGA video card so you can use their 90 day step up program when the new cards come out.

Keep in mind however that the GT280 has 24 pentium 4's (1.4 BILLION) worth of transistors and is still a 65nm part so you can expect the 240 watt rumors to hold true. And the rumored price is 650 bucks, so you have to keep that in mind when selecting your power supply and the case. 250 watts is a shitload of a thermal load for a case to deal with. The P180/182 had no problem with the 220 watt radeon 2900, so this should be no problem. The bare minimum power supply is probably going to be a corsair HX620, but there is a big hole in the HX series between 620 and 1000.

[Gaige]

Originally Posted by Gamblor

The bare minimum power supply is probably going to be a corsair HX620, but there is a big hole in the HX series between 620 and 1000.

Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, CB, TUV, FCC, CCC - Power Supplies

Not modular though.

OCZ psus = overrated, I highly suggest you go with a Corsair.

[Soldaris]

As an alternative since im sure im one of the few who still use ATI for gaming, i just built this setup about 2 weeks ago, minus the LCD which ive had for a while now. No ram listed but i run on 8gigs of corsair. Velociraptor went in today and I still have 2 Raptor X 150gb.



I see a lot prefer the Antec case, but I am just not a fan, as well as i ditched creative for sound since they failed as far as vista drivers for the Audigy 2 i was still sporting.

[egoslicer]

Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick - Power Supplies
Corsair 520W modular. Better than OCZ, half the price, and gives you more than enough power.

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards
Gigabyte P35 Chipset. Probably the best selling Intel Motherboard set, for a reason. Has everything you need, plenty of tweak accessibility and best of all, under $100. Only thing, no SLI.

No one needs SLI if you're only playing MMOs, and really it's more of e-peen thing than anything else. Who care if you can run Crysis at 16AA vs 4AA, you'll never stop to notice.

The 900 is an ok case, I personally have used and prefer the p18X series, better cable management and a overall better case design in my opinion. The 900 has a good following, but I found it lacking in keeping things tidy.

One last thing, if you're buying the 8800GT as a throwaway/temp until the 280 - you may want to checkout a ATI 3870HD. I just built three PCs with them, shaving off $40 per in comparison to the 8800GT and they all play AOC @ maxxed settings 16AA/8AF/1680x1050 with nearly the same components as listed above and in your build.

Those changes pretty much put you at $1k even. Quite a bit of money saved since you first started this thread. Don't forget to grab a $5 bag of zip ties if you don't have any at home. Helps keeps things organized and managed in your case. About AMD vs Intel, Intel right now is putting out more performance for the buck above $150 procs, if you go under that - then AMD is still king, imo. Processors are the least of your worries starting at about 1600xx1200 resolution, thats about the point when your GPU seriously takes over from your CPU in most games. However, any computer I build today and in the foreseeable future I usually spend more than $150, and so do most people. So yes, Intel is better but AMD is definitely not a bad way to go, you'll notice a very modest difference in real world situations.

[Wilfan]

Originally Posted by Zoomi3

I know I need to stop bumping this sorry, but fogive my ignorance.. Why all the AMD hate? Not too long ago it was the god core for gaming wasn't it?

That was over 2 years ago.

[Gamblor]

Originally Posted by egoslicer

Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick - Power Supplies
Corsair 520W modular. Better than OCZ, half the price, and gives you more than enough power.

One last thing, if you're buying the 8800GT as a throwaway/temp until the 280 - you may want to checkout a ATI 3870HD. I just built three PCs with them, shaving off $40 per in comparison to the 8800GT and they all play AOC @ maxxed settings 16AA/8AF/1680x1050 with nearly the same components as listed above and in your build.

I would not recommend an HX520 for someone who may be buying a GT280 (236W power draw, ALL 12V) in the near future. And the reason people are recommending an 8800GT from EVGA as a "throwawy" card is because it is not throwing it away. If you buy an EVGA video card you have 90 days to step up to a different card. You mail in your old card and the invoice, you get that amnount in credit toward the card of your choice from the evga store. Meaning you can get the GT280 for the same price as waiting with a card to use in the meantime. There is downtime associated with the stepup since they wont cross ship, however.

I personally run the 3870 and will likely buy a 4870 because I care about heat and noise, and the 3870 has been a top notch card in that regard, with the 4870 having a power draw of ~150 watts and faster than 9800GTX performance, it should have no problems and better drivers than what Nvidia has been forcing upon vista64 users.

[Desidero]

In addition to the other comments here (evga 8800gt, lower wattage PSU), I'd say that:
1) Getting a fancy mobo makes no sense unless you are pushing for true bleeding edge performance. You can get fantastic performance out of a $90 mobo. Some people like SLI - personally, I don't because 1 new generation card pretty much always trumps 2 old generation cards and most people don't upgrade every generation anyway. That one's up to you.
2) Are you going to be overclocking? If not (which seems to be the most likely answer), you don't need to spend $55 on a heatsink. The fancy stuff won't really matter at the end of the day unless you're planning on pushing your PC. If you decide to push it later, you can always drop in a better heatsink and the Gigabyte mobo overclocks pretty well. You can get cheaper RAM (save $50) if you're not planning on OCing either. ddr2 800 and ddr2 1000 perform pretty much the same - the 1000 is useful if you need to push your FSB nice and high while overclocking. It's an easy way to save $50.

I realize that you said your budget is ~$2500, but it doesn't sound like you have a need for the things that make a PC cost $2500. If you really want the best build money can buy for about $2500, it's a whole different story and I hope you have an interest in overclocking or it'll be a massive waste on your part. A Q6600 (or dual core if you prefer) + 8800GT + vista 64 with 4 gigs of RAM runs all the games listed very well. I play Crysis (DX10, 1680x1050, no AA) on very high settings. AoC and COD4 are both set to the maximum settings and I get great framerates.

[Gamblor]

Originally Posted by Desidero

In addition to the other comments here (evga 8800gt, lower wattage PSU), I'd say that:
1) Getting a fancy mobo makes no sense unless you are pushing for true bleeding edge performance. You can get fantastic performance out of a $90 mobo. Some people like SLI - personally, I don't because 1 new generation card pretty much always trumps 2 old generation cards and most people don't upgrade every generation anyway. That one's up to you.
2) Are you going to be overclocking? If not (which seems to be the most likely answer), you don't need to spend $55 on a heatsink.

1: The reason to buy an Asus P5K-E is you get a rock solid board with analog devices onboard audio. this serves two purposes. You get a board with 6 instead of four power planes to make overclocking much more stable, and you get top notch onboard audio eliminating the need for a shitty creative labs soundcard that is a glorified paperweight with bad drivers in vista. Nothing uses EAX and nothing will in the future. Hardware acceleration is dead and Creative labs killed it. 36.5% of ALL reported windows XP crashes were audio stack related. No more kernel mode audio drivers, n o more shitty creative labs drivers bringing your system down, no more hardware acceleration and no more EAX. Games use miles 3d audio because it uses a miniscule fraction of cpu to calculate and you dont have to deal with those cocksuckers at Creative Labs. If you think their driver team sucks, they are even worse at developer relations.

2: The retail heatsink is a loud pile of shit. My Scythe Ninja was 40 bucks, took my Q6600 to 3.0GHz on stock voltage etc, and runs cooler AND quieter than the stock heatsink did at 2.4GHz. With a corsair PS and Antec P180 I can't hear my system over ambient noise whatsoever unless the DVD is being read or there is heavy HD usage.

[Desidero]

Your second point is fair enough. Intel heatsinks are loud. However, I will disagree on needing a $225 mobo for "good onboard sound". Most people don't have a ridiculously fancy sound system set up for their computers. If he does, then I guess that's fine. Unless you have a very high quality system or are an audiophile, regular onboard sound on a quality mobo is absolutely fine. I listen to music, watch movies, and play games with the standard GA-P35-DS3L sound and it's great. I have a basic Altec Lansing speaker system with a subwoofer - sometimes I use pretty decent headphones. The sound quality (and ability to determine the direction from which sounds are supposed to be coming) is very much sufficient.

[Hachima]

A good sound card will increase the number of concurrent sounds that can be played at any given time. You don't need to be an audiophile to notice the extra birds chirping in the background, grass moving sounds or whatever that get added.

[Zoomi3]

Ok.. I have Samsung - 52" 1080p 120Hz Flat-Panel LCD HDTV with a Bose - Acoustimass® 10 Series IV Home Entertainment Speaker System.. The TV is the monitor, and you guessed it, the computer will be hooked up to it 24x7. From what I know.. I need a rather facinating graphics setup to run the HDTV compatable port and get all I can from the TV as a monitor.. Not to mention.. it "can" run at 1680x1050 but for some reason I couldn't run most FPS games on it befor with the previous computer.

I fully agree, a 3rd party sound card is usually ass. Besides.. ASUS has been offering one with their mobos that's pretty much on par with most sound blasters anyhow. I plan to dick around with overclocking more around the time the new cards are released by NVidia and ATI. But I will most likely wait for 2nd gen 280's because most review so far are saying it's a mess and a waste of money while the 4 series from ATI is fantastic, cheaper, and more competitive.

I'm an MMo player, but I like my blow shit up games. Nothing is more frustrating than running a game at 30 FPS anyhow. I want to see the TV at and have full use of the 120 hz. I want a computer capable of 200 FPS or better. OCZ is my friend, I won't use anything else anymore for RAM; Never used one of their PSU but I'm sure it's just as Savvy as the RAM, so I'll give it a shot..

I watch movies, porn, and cartoons on the computer. So naturally I don't even have TiVO or OnDemand horse shit anymore.. I finally pulled my head out of my ass and I think this is the setup I'm getting for sure. It seems solid from the advice given. This is something I do not plan to upgrade for another few years anyhow.. so..

The one thing I'm still not seeing much difference on even though most people swear by it.. the 10k RPM Raptor HD. How does the HP 15k RPM hold to it? 7200 and 10k It's big, but I can't see it being life changing.. the 7200 to 15k though..

[krinkled]

Originally Posted by Zoomi3

Ok.. I have Samsung - 52" 1080p 120Hz Flat-Panel LCD HDTV with a Bose - Acoustimass® 10 Series IV Home Entertainment Speaker System.. The TV is the monitor, and you guessed it, the computer will be hooked up to it 24x7. From what I know.. I need a rather facinating graphics setup to run the HDTV compatable port and get all I can from the TV as a monitor.. Not to mention.. it "can" run at 1680x1050 but for some reason I couldn't run most FPS games on it befor with the previous computer.

I fully agree, a 3rd party sound card is usually ass. Besides.. ASUS has been offering one with their mobos that's pretty much on par with most sound blasters anyhow. I plan to dick around with overclocking more around the time the new cards are released by NVidia and ATI. But I will most likely wait for 2nd gen 280's because most review so far are saying it's a mess and a waste of money while the 4 series from ATI is fantastic, cheaper, and more competitive.

I'm an MMo player, but I like my blow shit up games. Nothing is more frustrating than running a game at 30 FPS anyhow. I want to see the TV at and have full use of the 120 hz. I want a computer capable of 200 FPS or better. OCZ is my friend, I won't use anything else anymore for RAM; Never used one of their PSU but I'm sure it's just as Savvy as the RAM, so I'll give it a shot..

I watch movies, porn, and cartoons on the computer. So naturally I don't even have TiVO or OnDemand horse shit anymore.. I finally pulled my head out of my ass and I think this is the setup I'm getting for sure. It seems solid from the advice given. This is something I do not plan to upgrade for another few years anyhow.. so..

The one thing I'm still not seeing much difference on even though most people swear by it.. the 10k RPM Raptor HD. How does the HP 15k RPM hold to it? 7200 and 10k It's big, but I can't see it being life changing.. the 7200 to 15k though..

That PC will kick ass. Just make sure you know what you are doing with the SCSI drive.

Also: just order something amd stop perseverating.

[Gamblor]

Originally Posted by Desidero

Your second point is fair enough. Intel heatsinks are loud. However, I will disagree on needing a $225 mobo for "good onboard sound". Most people don't have a ridiculously fancy sound system set up for their computers. If he does, then I guess that's fine. Unless you have a very high quality system or are an audiophile, regular onboard sound on a quality mobo is absolutely fine. I listen to music, watch movies, and play games with the standard GA-P35-DS3L sound and it's great. I have a basic Altec Lansing speaker system with a subwoofer - sometimes I use pretty decent headphones. The sound quality (and ability to determine the direction from which sounds are supposed to be coming) is very much sufficient.

It's a 135 dollar motherboard.

Originally Posted by Hachima

A good sound card will increase the number of concurrent sounds that can be played at any given time. You don't need to be an audiophile to notice the extra birds chirping in the background, grass moving sounds or whatever that get added.

No, there is no difference between a good sound card and onboard in vista. The ADI1988b I run has no problem with 64 audio streams, and neither should anything else.

[Galgor]

Get a WD Velociraptor. 35% Performance increase from current stock drives. That's huge.

[Gaige]

SCSI and a 780i... uh lol.