Need help with a system under requirements

[n00ber]

So what is a chipset?

[Freedom_Tickler]

heh

chipset comprises the core logic chips on your mobo - there are many flavs out there, the 865 is a newer one for intel cpu’s

if I was building a new rig today, its the one I would get. if its not too late, you shld request it.

[n00ber]

Yeah, I cancelled it. I’m just gonna ask around for the best specs, and put em in. Thanks

[_O_SMYLER]

Good job really as if you had’ve put together that machine and that vid card you’d have shit yerself repeatedly for an hour it would be such a speed increase to your system.

[Freedom_Tickler]

if you have never built your own computer before n00b, there are vendors who sell gaming rigs - alienware - falcon northwest to name 2

you pay a premium, but they are waranteed and come completely pre configured. alienware PCs look funky, just a matter of taste.

theres alot to know about building your own these days - its easier to get components that dont like each other - ESP DDR RAM - so dont buy blind !!!

this increases the cost for DIY peeps - close to the point that a prebuilt gaming rig costs

Dell also makes a gaming rig now, but it is WAY over priced. Youd be better off geting a dell and chose a faster vid card - but when you buy prebuilt ones - it can make it harder to upgrade it in future - compared to the roll your own rigs

Ive built alot of AMD rigs and they all run great - but theres alot of pitfalls to know about first - or you can end up w/ endless headaches - you will have to assess your learning curve b4 making the plunge

GL

[_O_SMYLER]

If buying AMD gear for fucks sake have the cpu fitted and heatsink and fan fitted on top as well before it comes to you.

I wouldn’t wish the first machine build for anyone to be an Athlon that die on top of the chip is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to delicate for an inexperienced builder.

But yes definitely go AMD as they are much better value for money than the Intel.

Oh yeah please lets not do the AMD vs Intel thing. I have an AMD Athlon XP 3000+ and I love it and yes I would have the P4 3.06 any day, it’s a great chip too, but I’m not prepared to pay (here in the UK) double the price for basically the same performance.

[Dawg]

As long as we are throwing ideas on what to look for when building a new PC, why don’t we cover the whole system. Keep in mind that any advice profered here is just an opinion. Please, others, make your suggestions. I am in no way, shape or form an expert on hardware.

Cases, RAM, HDD, CDD, monitors, vidCards, etc…

Cases:
I have no clue. The case I have is relatively easy to take apart but I still have to manuever around the cables and cards when I need to do something in there. I have heard that there are cases that allow you to entirely disengage the motherboard from the case for easy access. Have money to burn? There are all kinds of cool looking cases with windows and colors and junk.

RAM:
Since I recently increased the amount of memory in my machine I have done a little reading in that subject. My impression is that Crucial is regarded as ‘the best’ with Corsair pretty much neck-and-neck. I was able to find Corsair memory that was much cheaper than anything available from Crucial, so that is what I got. I am very happy with it. Avoid ‘house’ brands and no-name memory.

I have also heard that you should avoid mixing manufacturers. Get your memory from one company (all Kingston, all Corsair, all Crucial, etc). I assume this may have to do with potential differences in latency.

HDD:
Speed is the key. You want a fast HDD. But some brands have a reputation of short lifespan (cough Maxtor cough). I’m not sure what IS considered a good buy. I have two HDD, one is an old 6gb Western Digital that has served me well for years. The other one is, ahem, a 40gb Maxtor. I don’t d/l lots of mp3 or stuff so it has still got alot of space on it. The Maxtor is 7200rpm, I’m not sure about the 6gb.

CDD:
Er, I have a simple Asus 50x CDD. I don’t have a burner or any of that kinda stuff. Someone else should make some sort of recommendation. Since it is really tangent to your gameplay its really to think more along the lines of what else you may use the system for (e.g. burning CDs, maybe DVDs). Most games seem to require only a 4x speed CDD - I don’t think anyone makes one that slow anymore.

Monitor:
Big debate potential on this. Standard CRTs vs. flat-screen CRT vs. flat-panel display. I have a 17" flat-screen Sony monitor. I like it. Its not the best thing on the market, but its frame is a silver color that reminds me of when I used to make model airplanes and the like.

VidCards:
I am pretty clueless on this. I used to have an nVidia GeForce2 MX 200/400 with 32mb by PNY. It was pretty damned weak but it met the minimum for ET. A friend of mine has loaned me an nVidiea GeForce3 with 64mb, also from PNY, and I noticed a big jump in video peformance. The differences between the best of the newest cards isn’t always the most important debate. I think its better to get the second tier of cards - yesterday’s best. The price drop from 1st tier to 2nd tier is usually quite significant while the difference in quality is less so.
So what is 1st tier and what is 2nd tier? I dunno. :???:

Motherboard/CPU:
I dunno. :???:

Dawg

[Freedom_Tickler]

dawg,

not sure you gave any useful advice : )

[Dawg]

Tickler]dawg,

not sure you gave any useful advice : )

I was setting up others… I don’t know much about hardware. My view was that people were just dropping little tidbits here and there. I thought it would be better to just look at each component and have people put forth their opinions in an organized way. FWIW, I did make some memory recommendations.

Dawg

[Freedom_Tickler]

: )

I thought about listing all the recommended hardware

but I dont want to be responsible for anothers purchases - it can be luck of the draw when you buy it yourself - fair amount of ‘duds’ out there

was just ribbin ya man : )

[TechnoNRGKid]

I can get you some get thoughts on the best graphics cards to get.
Deffinetly Get the Ti 4200 64 or 128mb card. I have that and it’s bad ass, good price too, although i payed $138 for mines.

ATI Radeon 9500 pro, it’s about $150 around in stores, and its one of the popular sellers out, the most, besides for the ti 4200’s.

You can get a 9700 radeon for bout $200 and THAT is the best you can get besides for the real expensive cards…

the radeon 9800 pro and the geforce fx 5900 ultra. these 2 are above $300s!

There was a post above where someone said they was gonna get a 9800pro for like $180? Thats a steal, you gettin it from a friend or something? cause in the US, that is not happening, check this guide out for a more thorough review…
http://oc3dmark.octeams.com/cardguide.html

I also seem to have a problem though with running ET.
At the beggining of the game, it loads for about a minute or longer and it’s impossible for me to jump right into the beggining of each map with out this load, each map this is. But once it loads, i can run the game at everything high detials, highest resolutions. These are my computer specs…

Athlon XP 1700@ 1800 speeds ( 1.56ghz )
266fsb supported Biostar M7VIW Motherboard on a KT266a chipset
Samsung PC2100 256mb’s cas 2.0 timings
Geforce 4 ti 4200 64mb’s 8x agp @300/610 ( almost ti 4600 speeds )
with a 2.5mb’s broadband download speed and 378kb’s upload ( so it’s nothing with the speeds of my connection ).

And i dont know why it’s doing this. On windows 2000 it does not do this.
xp it doesnt do it on a fresh install, but after a while, ya know things install and stuff, it then does it. anyone have any clues? my cpu is fastest enough for this game, everything is fast enough. Im bout to go back to windows 2000, but i like xp. even with themes and services disabled , alot of them, it still does it.

?