New Gaming Computer (screen shots pg5)

[Event]

Well this is what I was thinking for my gaming comp (hopefully purchasing next year...with updated parts as they come out )

Prices are in AUD, all I need is some advice on RAM really (like many others). Oh and I need advice for a nice case.

VIDEO CARD
GeCube Radeon X1800 XT 256MB
$719 < http://www.tigerdirect.com.au/product_info.php?cPath=37_42&products_id=180 >

MOTHERBOARD
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
$190 < http://shop.pc.net.au/A.i.TECH_2909_/MSI_K8N_Neo4_Platinum_ATX_AMD_S-939_Motherboard.html >

CPU
AMD Athlon64 4000+ 2.4GHz 1MB Cache - Socket 939
$499 < http://www.ticomputers.com.au/ >

MOUSE + KEYBOARD
Logitech G7 Cordless Mouse
$120 < http://www.nintek.com.au/x/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=2732 >
Logitech G15 Keyboard
$94 < http://www.minidigital.com.au/largerDesc.aspx?productid=229517&catid=451&brandid=26 >

RAM
OCZ Gold PC3200 C2 EL DC CL2 DDR 1GB Kit
$198 < http://www.nintek.com.au/x/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=2059 >

HARD DRIVE
Western Digital 200GB Caviar SE SATA II/8MB/7200RPM (WD2000JS)
$136 < http://www.i-store.com.au/product/?CategoryID=0&productid=6210 >

SPEAKERS
Logitech Z-2300 THX
$176 < http://umart.net/au/product_info.php?cPath=96_192&products_id=100742 >

DVD BURNERS
Pioneer DVR-110DBK Black
$66 < http://www.umart.com.au/newindex2.phtml?bid=2 >

LG GSA-4167BBK Dual Layer 16x All Format Burner
$67 < http://www.qcgo.com.au/productdetails.php?productcode=DVLGDVD16XBK416 >

CASE
Thermaltake Tsunami Black VA3000BNA (NO PSU)
$140 < Assumed, as a Thermaltake 430W PSU is $60 >

SOUND CARD
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
$138 < http://www.umart.com.au/newindex2.phtml?bid=2 >

HDTV CARD
Dvico Fusion HDTV DVB-T Plus PCI + Remote
$169 < http://www.nintek.com.au/x/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=2587 >

POWER SUPPLY
Antec TruePower ATX 550W Power Supply
$143 < http://www.umart.com.au/newindex2.phtml?bid=5 >

TOTAL
$2855

You should definately consider going for the X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card. 👍 It's great.

 

[donbenni]

I agree with the above statement, i got (well am getting tomorrow) an X-Fi card in my new PC and apparently they are the new Audigys 👍

Only other thing i could say is that you might want to try and get a HDD with 16MB of cache instead of the 8 yours has got. Doesn't make a drastic difference, but if money is quite lose (as it seems to be) then imo you should try to go for the little things too

Otherwise, nice setup 👍

VIPFREAK: Don't you dare descend to the dark side! What the clerk said is technically true, but it doesn't really make a hole load of difference. You'll notice a bigger difference playing games on an AMD than you would doing 2d stuff on an Intel - ergo go with t3h b3st which is AMD.

 

[emad]

VIPFREAK: Don't you dare descend to the dark side! What the clerk said is technically true, but it doesn't really make a hole load of difference. You'll notice a bigger difference playing games on an AMD than you would doing 2d stuff on an Intel - ergo go with t3h b3st which is AMD.

You clearly have never tried working on a 200mb photoshop file on a single-threaded CPU. High level CAD stuff is an even bigger strain. The performance benefit of going with a hyperthreaded p4 is more than noticeable and if graphics design is the primary use for the PC, then editing performance shouldn't be sacrificed for a bit of gaming fun.

[rant]
I can't believe the extreme level of fanboyism towards specific equipment in this board. These components are tools, not toys or comic books. Choose the best one for the task. Neither is automatically 'superior' in everything (well, the high end dual core AMDs come pretty close but they hit your wallet pretty hard). Biases aren't going to get you anywhere if you plan on becoming a technician for some company.
[/rant]

 

[Event]

VIPFREAK: Don't you dare descend to the dark side! What the clerk said is technically true, but it doesn't really make a hole load of difference. You'll notice a bigger difference playing games on an AMD than you would doing 2d stuff on an Intel - ergo go with t3h b3st which is AMD.

I told him that. Personally, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I gave my money to that inherently evil company for such an inferior architecture that is a Pentium 4. The only architecture I would buy from Intel is a P3 based one, snice that is a quality architecture.

 

[emad]

I told him that. Personally, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I gave my money to that inherently evil company for such an inferior architecture that is a Pentium 4. The only architecture I would buy from Intel is a P3 based one, snice that is a quality architecture.

High temperatures? Inefficiently built? So effing what? They do the job they're built for. He's specifically mentioned CAD and photoshop countless times now. The Intel CPUs are quite clearly better suited in that department. Their gaming performance also isn't going to be disgustingly low compared to AMD.

Where does this anti-company x sentiment come from anyways?

--
Dode The Viper
You've got a primo quality setup going there, but I'd advise that you get a DFI mobo over the MSI and ditch the Audigy 2 entirely in favor of the X:FI sound cards. Frankly, the quality of most onboard sound cards is high enough that you're pretty much throwing your money away unless you've got an EXTREMELY high end sound setup going. Those Logitech speakers are damn good (I have a set), but not good enough to need a sound card like that.

Oh, and for your tv tuner card, I'd strongly reccomend Hauppauge - they're like the best of the best 👍

 

[donbenni]

You clearly have never tried working on a 200mb photoshop file on a single-threaded CPU. High level CAD stuff is an even bigger strain. The performance benefit of going with a hyperthreaded p4 is more than noticeable and if graphics design is the primary use for the PC, then editing performance shouldn't be sacrificed for a bit of gaming fun.

[rant]
I can't believe the extreme level of fanboyism towards specific equipment in this board. These components are tools, not toys or comic books. Choose the best one for the task. Neither is automatically 'superior' in everything (well, the high end dual core AMDs come pretty close but they hit your wallet pretty hard). Biases aren't going to get you anywhere if you plan on becoming a technician for some company.
[/rant]

A beautifully biased comment, well played. Seriously, arguing about fanboyism is purely fabnoyism based, i.e. biased. Everyone does it, it's called preference, so quit complaining.

 

[Omnis]

doesn't 64-bit > 32-bit regardless of HT?

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

doesn't 64-bit > 32-bit regardless of HT?

But the Intel is 64 bit.

 

[emad]

doesn't 64-bit > 32-bit regardless of HT?

Not really. Most programs aren't 64-bit optimised yet, and even if they are, they won't take full advantage of the chip without the 64 bit version of Windows XP. 64 bit is a step in the right direction, but you won't see the full benefit until Vista is out and programs are made just for Vista.

 

[emad]

A beautifully biased comment, well played. Seriously, arguing about fanboyism is purely fabnoyism based, i.e. biased. Everyone does it, it's called preference, so quit complaining.

I don't quite understand. The graphics workstation I built for my brother is an Athlon64 x2 4200+. It's dual core and therefore multi-threading capable... I'd reccomend the X2 for vipfreak as well, but even the cheapest X2 chip is well outside his budget.

 

[Flame-returns]

The main argument against Intel is value for money. The most powerful Pentium 4s cost a good deal more than the most powerful Athlons (not X2s) and are outclassed by the Athlons in almost all cases (see THG's Mother of All CPU Charts.) In the small amount of cases where the Pentium 4 EE (3.72ghz) outclasses the Athlon 64 4000+ the difference is marginal (44 seconds extra on the conversion of a 182mb file from VOB to XVID) and certainly not enough to justify the price difference (the P4 is a massive £491.15 more expensive than the Athlon, prices from overclockers.co.uk).

 

[Raghavan]

VIPFREAK: Don't you dare descend to the dark side! What the clerk said is technically true, but it doesn't really make a hole load of difference. You'll notice a bigger difference playing games on an AMD than you would doing 2d stuff on an Intel - ergo go with t3h b3st which is AMD.

Nice one troll.
Even though i'm an AMD fan, it doesn't mean that Intel is bad. Don't you think you're going a bit far with this AMD vs. Intel crap? They're just chips for crying out loud. Don't be a troll.

 

[Vasco]

Dode The Viper
You've got a primo quality setup going there, but I'd advise that you get a DFI mobo over the MSI and ditch the Audigy 2 entirely in favor of the X:FI sound cards. Frankly, the quality of most onboard sound cards is high enough that you're pretty much throwing your money away unless you've got an EXTREMELY high end sound setup going. Those Logitech speakers are damn good (I have a set), but not good enough to need a sound card like that.

Oh, and for your tv tuner card, I'd strongly reccomend Hauppauge - they're like the best of the best 👍

What Hauppauge would you recommend? I need one that receives HDTV and works with Australian TV (not sure how to find this out).

The X-Fi soundcard looks nice...I've added it to my list after having a quick glance at the product page.

 

[donbenni]

Nice one troll.
Even though i'm an AMD fan, it doesn't mean that Intel is bad. Don't you think you're going a bit far with this AMD vs. Intel crap? They're just chips for crying out loud. Don't be a troll.

There's no need to get offensive, believe me i'm far from a troll. Yes i'm an AMD fanboy, but for a very good reason - they rock. I've never had a bad experience with my AMD PC and my next pc (which i'm getting in about 12 hours) is a 4800+X2 for another good reason - it is one of the best chips around. No, AMD is not better than Intel and visa versa. I'm not going to say that it's any otherwise without reason. However i do prefer AMD over Intel, it's called preference. You try and invalidate my preference and it is you who is the troll. My comment was meant in jest, as a fanboy i can laugh at being so, I laugh harder at the people who take it seriously. Don't take it seriously, please, i don't fight the AMD battle, i just prefer them to Intel. And if they are just chips, why are you getting all offensed over it anyway?

And please tell me, what the hell does being a troll have to do with liking a brand? I don't hide under bridges and beat people with knobbly clubs

 

[Raghavan]

There's no need to get offensive, believe me i'm far from a troll. Yes i'm an AMD fanboy, but for a very good reason - they rock. I've never had a bad experience with my AMD PC and my next pc (which i'm getting in about 12 hours) is a 4800+X2 for another good reason - it is one of the best chips around. No, AMD is not better than Intel and visa versa. I'm not going to say that it's any otherwise without reason. However i do prefer AMD over Intel, it's called preference. You try and invalidate my preference and it is you who is the troll. My comment was meant in jest, as a fanboy i can laugh at being so, I laugh harder at the people who take it seriously. Don't take it seriously, please, i don't fight the AMD battle, i just prefer them to Intel. And if they are just chips, why are you getting all offensed over it anyway?

And please tell me, what the hell does being a troll have to do with liking a brand? I don't hide under bridges and beat people with knobbly clubs

Just because you like a brand (which is fine, I like AMD too), does it mean that the competition is the 'dark side'? Stupid fanboys. I prefer AMD over Intel, but that doesn't mean i think Intel is 'the dark side'. You, on the other hand, are a blind fanboy, and you call other processer companies "the dark side".

 

[VIPFREAK]

There's no need to get offensive, believe me i'm far from a troll. Yes i'm an AMD fanboy, but for a very good reason - they rock. I've never had a bad experience with my AMD PC and my next pc (which i'm getting in about 12 hours) is a 4800+X2 for another good reason - it is one of the best chips around. No, AMD is not better than Intel and visa versa. I'm not going to say that it's any otherwise without reason. However i do prefer AMD over Intel, it's called preference. You try and invalidate my preference and it is you who is the troll. My comment was meant in jest, as a fanboy i can laugh at being so, I laugh harder at the people who take it seriously. Don't take it seriously, please, i don't fight the AMD battle, i just prefer them to Intel. And if they are just chips, why are you getting all offensed over it anyway?

And please tell me, what the hell does being a troll have to do with liking a brand? I don't hide under bridges and beat people with knobbly clubs

Gee... that's funny... I feel the same way about the PS2 vs. xBOX and people call me a fanboy. Although, I do see very clear FACTS why the PS2 is better. Anyway, yeah I still feel compelled to go with Intel.

 

[Raghavan]

Gee... that's funny... I feel the same way about the PS2 vs. xBOX and people call me a fanboy. Although, I do see very clear FACTS why the PS2 is better. Anyway, yeah I still feel compelled to go with Intel.

Actually, the Xbox pwnz the PS2 in every way.

 

[VIPFREAK]

Preference...

please drop...

 

[donbenni]

Just because you like a brand (which is fine, I like AMD too), does it mean that the competition is the 'dark side'? Stupid fanboys. I prefer AMD over Intel, but that doesn't mean i think Intel is 'the dark side'. You, on the other hand, are a blind fanboy, and you call other processer companies "the dark side".

Again like i said, you idiot, the 'dark side' comment was meant in jest. So again, i laugh in your general direction for getting so worked up about it. As i admit being a fanboiy, continuously calling me so has no effect whatsoever. Please drop the subject, your whining is boring me.

 

[F1GTR]

So how's your new PC Don?

 

[donbenni]

Hahah it's flipping awesome thanks I'm currently transfering all my data across from my old PC, but last night i installed Farcry on it and it ran at Very High/Ultra settings at 1280x1024 with setting 7 HDR lighting on and looks fantastic! My mum was so interested in it that she shoved me off the computer and got me to teach her how to play Farcry It's quite a sight watching my mum walking around, trying to jump over boulders and making an effort not to shoot the nice fellas running around with machine guns

Gonna install BF2 later and try out the joystick. Will eventually get some benchmarks ran and screenshots posted up, gotta get all this data scross first though, it's taking hours!

 

[Omnis]

Just because you like a brand (which is fine, I like AMD too), does it mean that the competition is the 'dark side'? Stupid fanboys. I prefer AMD over Intel, but that doesn't mean i think Intel is 'the dark side'. You, on the other hand, are a blind fanboy, and you call other processer companies "the dark side".

He was JOKING.

 

[donbenni]

Ok well i've finally got around to installing all my old games so i've been able to play through FarCry, HalfLife2, BF2 and Need For Speed Most Wanted.

For those who don't know, the computer spec is Athlon X2 4800+, 2Gb RAM, 7800GTX.

Got some screen shots below. Just note that the images are all 1280x1024 and roughly 1/2 Meg each, so may take a while to download.

FarCry



NFSMW



BF2 Special Forces



Lost Coast

 

[Vasco]

Jesus. I think I just died inside. That is AWESOME. How much did it cost all up? (If you know)

 

[Evolution.]

Oh god...I need to go change my pants.

That's beautiful. Care to trade? 2.2 GHz AMD Athlon, 512 MB RAM, ATi Radeon 9550 256 MB

 

[RSCosworth]

Very very nice shots there! Especially the Lost Coast ones! Too bad they didn't include HDR with the original HL2.

Have you run any benchmarks yet?

 

[donbenni]

Still no benchmarks yet, can't be arsed with downloading the files today. Even with a stupidly powerful PC i still have to live with a 1Meg connection

[edit]Ran 3DMark03 and got a score of 16113. Sounds a little low, so will take a look at my graphics card settings and try again[/]

This is the full spec.:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4800+ with HT Tech.
Brushed Aluminium ATX Midi Tower +550W PSU- Silver
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe PCI-Express Mainboard
2048MB DDR400 Memory - PC3200 (2x1024)
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
16x DVD-ROM Drive (40x CD-ROM)
SONY 16x Dual Layer DVD-Re-Writable +R/-R/RW
256MB nVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX - TV-Out + DVI - PCI-Express
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Sound Card
Creative Labs T6060 - 5.1 Surround with Subwoofer
Logitech Desktop Keyboard & Optical Mouse
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Suite - 7 titles (oem)
Saitek - Cyborg Evo Joystick
ASUS WL 138G 802.11G/B Wi-Fi PCI Card
1.44MB - 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive
Internal 15-in-1 Memory Card Reader

I got it from Mesh Computers for £1800 roughly. It's just a joy to use. For instance earlier today whilst i was taking all those screenshots i was installing Half Life 2 Lost Coast (well downloading it and installing it in one process), running Photoshop and playing each game in turn all at the same time. The computer just carried on running while i loaded each game, played for a bit, took a screenshot, alt+tab back to windows, paste the SS into Photoshop, go back to the game and take more SSs etc. Usually on my old PC the alt+tab switch out of games takes ages and slows the computer right down, but nothing slowed at all, it all happened instantaniously.

When Lost Coast finished downloading/installing i was running Battlefield 2, the screen went black and i thought i'd finally defeated it, but really it was just Lost Coast loading in the background. The game loaded very quickly and i was running BF2 and Lost Coast at the same time, without slow down. Amazing. Very happy

Those 6060 speakers are surprisingly good, i was a little worried they'd be rubbish considering how cheap they are. But twinned with the XFi soundcard, they produce lovely effects in games and my music sounds great. The sub is especially cool, properly shakes the house!

 

[Event]

Man, the X2 4800+ should be da,n fast and let you play two games at once, it's freaking 2 4000+'s!! I'm jealous. I was going to go X2 3800+, but the 2x512KB Cache's really turned me off, and the Toledo cores were too damn expensive!

Run 3DMark05 please

 

[Evolution.]

Man, the X2 4800+ should be da,n fast and let you play two games at once, it's freaking 2 4000+'s!! I'm jealous. I was going to go X2 3800+, but the 2x512KB Cache's really turned me off, and the Toledo cores were too damn expensive!

Run 3DMark05 please

3DMark05 murdered my Radeon 9550 (I would get a max of 4 FPS every test). I need to try out '03.

 

[VIPFREAK]

well, I feel better already about my insigificant new obsolete puter.

his system still couldn't save NFS.