Wanting to buy a gaming comp, so on ibuypower i attempted to make a decent gaming comp... please tell me if its any good for running Doom3/FEAR/Quake4/etc. on high 1024x768... i basically just took my current comp and upgraded everything i currently have...

Raidmax Ninja-918 ATX Mid-tower Case w/450W Power Supply

[Socket-775] Intel® Pentium-D Processor 820 [2.8GHz, Dual-Core, 2x1MB Cache, 800MHz FSB, 64-Bit]

[DDR2] Asus P5ND2-SLI nForce4 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB

1024MB (512MB x2) DDR2-667 PC5300 Memory

[PCI-Express 16x]ATI Radeon x850-XT 256MB w/DVI + TV Out Video

[S-ATA] Western Digital 160 GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Hard Drive

16x DVD-ROM Drive

16X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive

3D Surround Premium High Definition 7.1 Sound Onboard

600W PMPO 3 PCS Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System

ViewSonic 17" Q7B TFT LCD Monitor [Black]

well please tell me what u think, ive really never made a computer so dont know what half the stuff means, thanks

Dual core CPUs are not better for gaming. I suggest you go with the Athlon64 over the P4...either the 3200+ Venice or 3700+ San Diego. That would obviously change your motherboard & RAM choices. And if you have no intentions of ever using the SLi feature, whay pay for it?

Dump the DVD-ROM drive...it's unnecessary. The DVD burner can do it all.

Choose a better speaker system...that one is crap.

Check the response time on that monitor. Make sure it's 12ms or less or it won't work well for gaming.

This space for rent

k, ill see if i cant whip up a new one lol, so the AMDs are better than the Pentium-Ds? got both dvd and dvd-rom b/c my current comp has both and some game discs tend to not work in one or the other

ok here it is, once again no idea what i was doing lol, if this doesnt work i'd be nice if someone could throw one together thats around $1000-1600...

[939-pin] AMD® Athlon-64 X2 3800+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology (im guessing its better than the 3700?)

eVGA nForce-4 SLI Chipset Dual DDR w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, Dual PCI-E MB

(next are the only others w/o the SLI)
Asus A8N5X nForce4 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0 PCI-E Motherboard
&
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Dual Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 PCI-E MB

maybe u know which one is better

dont really need better speakers already have a Logitech X-530 5.1 Surround Speakers + Subwoofer set to use w/ it

well if thats not any better, please help me, im desperate lol

i also think im gonna upgrade to the X850XT PE, but is it really worth 200 extra?

Why not Radeon X1800-XL rather than X850XT PE?

TMP-Man

Asus A7V classic rev 1.05
Athlon XP 2100+ @ 129x17 = 2195Mhz 1.81v
768MB PC133 RAM @ 129Mhz 2-2-2
10GB 720RPM + 120GB 7200RPM HD
128MB Geforce FX5200 128bit 276/515

at ibuypower, none of the choices are that... not sure why, there anymore good sites that have it as a choice? i would appretiate it,is the x1800 XL top of the line in radeon? i dont have whole bunch to spend so if its around the same price of the X850 XT PE ill get it, but if its more its unlikely

You should be able to easily throw one together with your target price, you just have to configure it right. Use the A64 configurator, not the A64 X2 configurator. There's no point in buying the X2 dual core CPU unless you truly have a need for one. It will not help your gaming performance. Go with either of the two I suggested above.

I just looked at ibuy & I'm surprised that the Ultra boards are more expensive that SLi boards. I found a review of the eVGA SLi board:

http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/evga_nforce4_sli_edition_mainboard/index.shtml

And I still say you should dump the DVD-ROM in favor of the single DVD burner.

If you don't need the speakers, why get them at all? Just select "none". It's only a $4 difference, but that should give you some idea of how good they are. Or maybe you could sell em for $10...lol

Try something like this:

- [939-pin] AMD® Athlon-64 3200+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology

- eVGA nForce-4 SLI Chipset Dual DDR w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, Dual PCI-E MB

- 1024 MB [512MB X2] DDR-400 PC3200 Memory Module Corsair-Value or Major Brand

- video card choice is always tough. Have a look at this latest Tom's Hardware article, & since you wanna play FEAR, pay particular attention to those benchtest results:

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20051202/index.html

One thought here...you could go with a 1/2 way decent lower end video choice (X550 for example) that doesn't add much to the system cost, then immediately replace it with a decent gaming card purchased from a place like Newegg.com. You can get sommething like the 6800GS for about $225 & *should* be able to sell the X550 for about $60-75

- that monitor you chose isn't a good one for gaming. Actually, I didn't see any LCD that had very good specs in that bunch. You may wanna go with "none", then buy a decent one separately. Look for one with 600:1 contrast ratio or higher, 12ms response time or lower.

- I don't know what you're doing about keyboard/mouse but I wouldn't go with the defaults. If you don't need em, select "none" or pay a few bucks more for either the Logitech or Microsoft.

My configuration is $631 w/o monitor or operating system (formatted HDD only), plus the changes I suggested above. You'd need to buy a better video card, decent LCD monitor & install your own OS...this will put your final cost well within $1000-1600

This space for rent

"Dual core CPUs are not better for gaming."

Some are, but it's still not worth the money. Get a single core, and with an Nforce4 Ultra or SLI board, you can upgrade to a dual core when more games run better with them, and the price is of course cheaper. ;-)

"You can get sommething like the 6800GS for about $225..."

$209 actually...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130258

"And I still say you should dump the DVD-ROM in favor of the single DVD burner."

Well, disc copying is faster, and I've found DVD-ROM's are faster at reading CD's and DVD's than a burner, but this is obviously an option, and you could add a good DVD drive for $20 later.

"Actually, I didn't see any LCD that had very good specs in that bunch."

Samsung and Viewsonic with those recommended specs are probably your best bet.

Please help survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

www.redcross.org

found a monitor on newegg- ($240)
ViewEra V174SD-B Black 17" 8ms 600:1 LCD Monitor

getting the better speakers-
Logitech X-530 5.1 Surround Speakers + Subwoofer (im gonna leave my other set hooked up to my console systems)

bumping the graphics up- ($550)
ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB

Motherboard-
eVGA nForce-4 SLI Chipset Dual DDR w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, Dual PCI-E MB

Processor-
[939-pin] AMD® Athlon-64 3200+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology

overall prices is ~$1650

"bumping the graphics up- ($550)
ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB"

Well, I'm not a hardcore gamer & admittedly, I'm "frugal"...but $550 for a graphics card? I've owned cars that have cost me less than that...lol! I don't know if you have any intention of ever using the SLi feature, but I don't think it works with ATI cards, so keep that in mind

This space for rent

It doesn't. ATI cards must have ATI Crossfire supporting chipsets.

Yeah, I'm looking to upgrade my 6600GT so I can put my 6600GT in my Media Center PC I'm building, and judging from benchmarks, I don't see much of a point to go higher than an NVidia 7800GT.

Please help survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

www.redcross.org

so i should get an Ultra rather than a SLI right?

like a
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Dual Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 PCI-E MB?

It doesn't hurt to get an SLI motherboard other than your wallet if it costs more. If the boards are the same price, get SLI. Why not?

But if there is a price difference, ask what it's worth to you for a feature you most likely will never use. Personally, I'd pay $20 more for the same feature set and brand motherboard to go SLI (who knows, I might luck out on a second identical card?), but any more than that, it's a waste for me. In your case, since it looks like you're buying an ATI card, $10 sounds closer. ;-)

Please help survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

www.redcross.org

well im skippin out on the SLI chipset, no need for it, im a ATI fanboy >=D lol, i think im set tho thanks guys im prolly gonna order it this weekend