OT: PC Gaming Hardware Thread

DivotMaker · Post by **DivotMaker** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 6:41 am

dbdynsty25 wrote:
TCrouch wrote:I can say without a doubt that a Core 2 Duo E6600 with 2GB of RAM and a 768MB GeForce8800GTX is THE SH*T for me personally...
Told ya. Glad you're happy with the rig. It's a mighty fine machine.

Great recommendation DB...kinda hard to go wrong with C2D and an 8800GTX these days....

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 8:49 am

I can say without a doubt that a Core 2 Duo E6600 with 2GB of RAM and a 768MB GeForce8800GTX is THE SH*T for me personally..

Is there an under the radar reputable company that puts together custom CPUs with these parts in them?

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:05 am

TCrouch wrote:I don't know about timing or price cuts or any of that crap.

All I do know is that my new system showed up today and I immediately fired up Lord of the Rings Online and cranked it up to 1600x1050, 16x AF, slid every slider as far up as I could and set everything to "Ultra High" and it absolutely plays butter-smooth. I've never in my life been this happy with a new rig. It's unbelievable. I can say without a doubt that a Core 2 Duo E6600 with 2GB of RAM and a 768MB GeForce8800GTX is THE SH*T for me personally...

So now you'll be able to run NR 2003 at 271 fps!

Congrats on the new machine.

Take care,
PK

bdunn13 · Post by **bdunn13** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:46 am

pk500 wrote:
So now you'll be able to run NR 2003 at 271 fps!

Congrats on the new machine.

Take care,
PK

With a monitor that only does 60hz

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:50 am

The advice in this thread has been really helpful, but I was wondering if somone could recommend me a machine from www.cyberpowerpc.com or just tell me if their prices are reasonable.

I want a machine with a C2D, 2 gigs of RAM, and a 320 MB 8800 GTS and I don't want to pay too much over $1,000. Is that realistic? Also, would I be better off getting XP or Vista as software?

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:52 am

fsquid wrote:
I can say without a doubt that a Core 2 Duo E6600 with 2GB of RAM and a 768MB GeForce8800GTX is THE SH*T for me personally..
Is there an under the radar reputable company that puts together custom CPUs with these parts in them?

http://www.pcusa.com/

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 10:26 am

Feanor wrote:The advice in this thread has been really helpful, but I was wondering if somone could recommend me a machine from www.cyberpowerpc.com or just tell me if their prices are reasonable.

I want a machine with a C2D, 2 gigs of RAM, and a 320 MB 8800 GTS and I don't want to pay too much over $1,000. Is that realistic? Also, would I be better off getting XP or Vista as software?

They are a little steep. I don't have any experience buying pre-built, or self-configured systems since I just build my own, so I don't have a good recommendation about a company to do it, but all of the components on that site are marked up about 25-30%, which is too much if you ask me.

And if you're going to do any type of gaming, it's still better to use XP. I've found a few games that do not run at all on Vista, so it's still a small problem. I'd definitely stick to XP for another year or so when it comes to gaming on a PC. But then again, if you have to play Shadowrun, you HAVE to run Vista. It's part of Microsofts' new Gaming for Windows campaign and they are trying to get people over to Vista sooner rather than later. But that's the only game with that requirement as far as I know.

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 10:30 am

dbdynsty25 wrote: They are a little steep. I don't have any experience buying pre-built, or self-configured systems since I just build my own, so I don't have a good recommendation about a company to do it, but all of the components on that site are marked up about 25-30%, which is too much if you ask me.

Feanor, give pcusa.com a try. Their prices seem lower than most to me and I have used them 3 times with no problems whatsover. They let you customize your machine any way you like and they carry name brand parts.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:19 am

This thread should be titled, "Ask DB"!!! What about this one mate:

KIT-457: Customizer: Intel, Core 2 Duo / Pentium / Celeron, PCI-E x16 VGA w/SLI Support
- Qty. 1, Intel Celeron D 326, LGA 775, 2.53GHz, 64-Bit, 256KB L2 Cache
- Qty. 1, Asus nForce 570 SLI, LGA 775 DualCore, SLI, RAID, w/Audio, w/GbLAN. [ P5NSLI ]
- Qty. 1, DDR2: 1024MB 667MHz / PC5400
- Qty. 1, DDR2: 1024MB 667MHz / PC5400
- Qty. 1, 320GB SATA-II 7200RPM w/8MB Buffer
- Qty. 1, ROM:DVDRW: 20x Dual-Format/Dual-Layer w/LightScribe, Black Color
- Qty. 1, PCI-E16: Geforce 8800GTS: 320MB w/SLI.
- Qty. 1, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE Audigy SE, 5.1 Channels 24-bit, PCI
- Qty. 1, 3com 3C905CX-TXM, 1xPort(s), 10/100, PCI Interface
- Qty. 1, Thermaltake mTower ATX: Soprano [ VB1430BWS ], Black w/ 430W PSU
- Qty. 1, Power my PC with a 750W Power Supply - PSU [ NSP-750V2.2BF14PFC ]
- Qty. 1, Windows XP Professional - 64 Bit Edition - w/ CD set
- Qty. 1, Fully Assembled w/ 1-Year Part & Labor Warranty & Lifetime Tech Support.

It's $1,000

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:21 am

"Intel Celeron D 326, LGA 775, 2.53GHz, 64-Bit, 256KB L2 Cache "

Not sure you want to go to Celeron for a gaming rig...

DivotMaker · Post by **DivotMaker** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:28 am

James_E wrote:"Intel Celeron D 326, LGA 775, 2.53GHz, 64-Bit, 256KB L2 Cache "

Not sure you want to go to Celeron for a gaming rig...

Could not agree more....

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:30 am

whoops, I meant to flip that one! SHITE!!! I meant to go with the EE6600 that people posted about. What about all the other items?

James_E · Post by **James_E** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:36 am

Seems to me the rest of the stuff is great for gaming.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:43 am

fsquid wrote:This thread should be titled, "Ask DB"!!! What about this one mate:

KIT-457: Customizer: Intel, Core 2 Duo / Pentium / Celeron, PCI-E x16 VGA w/SLI Support
- Qty. 1, Intel Celeron D 326, LGA 775, 2.53GHz, 64-Bit, 256KB L2 Cache
- Qty. 1, Asus nForce 570 SLI, LGA 775 DualCore, SLI, RAID, w/Audio, w/GbLAN. [ P5NSLI ]
- Qty. 1, DDR2: 1024MB 667MHz / PC5400
- Qty. 1, DDR2: 1024MB 667MHz / PC5400
- Qty. 1, 320GB SATA-II 7200RPM w/8MB Buffer
- Qty. 1, ROM:DVDRW: 20x Dual-Format/Dual-Layer w/LightScribe, Black Color
- Qty. 1, PCI-E16: Geforce 8800GTS: 320MB w/SLI.
- Qty. 1, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE Audigy SE, 5.1 Channels 24-bit, PCI
- Qty. 1, 3com 3C905CX-TXM, 1xPort(s), 10/100, PCI Interface
- Qty. 1, Thermaltake mTower ATX: Soprano [ VB1430BWS ], Black w/ 430W PSU
- Qty. 1, Power my PC with a 750W Power Supply - PSU [ NSP-750V2.2BF14PFC ]
- Qty. 1, Windows XP Professional - 64 Bit Edition - w/ CD set
- Qty. 1, Fully Assembled w/ 1-Year Part & Labor Warranty & Lifetime Tech Support.
It's $1,000

Two things other than the e6600 that was mentioned previously...

Don't get the XP 64 bit Edition, stay with 32 for now...if it is an option.

And I'd try to get 800mhz ram instead of 667. You probably won't notice the difference, but if it's a very small jump in price, it may be worth it.

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:45 am

For what it's worth, the rig I bought had Vista on it. I requested it, actually. The headaches it will cause me now will be evened out later on down the road, and Shadowrun was one of the games I wanted to try on PC. I know that a year down the line, many games will require Vista, plus the Conan MMO uses DirectX10, and the 8800GTX supports DX10, so it seemed like a no brainer to me, despite being a hardcore gamer.

The games I've tried so far have worked fine...it's the networking and security and configuration of Vista itself that had me pissed off last night.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:50 am

TCrouch wrote:The games I've tried so far have worked fine...it's the networking and security and configuration of Vista itself that had me pissed off last night.

Well...I had trouble with three games I play regularly...that's why I'm slightly jaded when it comes to playing on Vista vs. XP. IL2 Sturmovik runs like sh*t, Lock-On doesn't run at all, and Rainbow Six Vegas is a mess as well. If I can't play those games, I'm pissed off. So I'm back to XP. I'd like to try Shadowrun, but whatever...maybe I'll gamefly it for the 360.

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:55 am

Ah, see we're the opposite.

Lord of the Rings Online, GTR2, rFactor, NR2003 (seems to be hit or miss with that one with people), Stalker...everything I've tried so far that I play a lot works great.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:58 am

Oh yeah...I never had problems with GTR2. But if you dig flight sims, you're out of luck w/ Vista (unless you play the ridiculously coded Flight Sim X where you need the uber machine to play at 1024x768).

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 12:03 pm

I haven't played a flight sim since the Janes days with USAF, Longbow, etc.

I have this pack of IL2, Lock-On and Pacific Fighters or something that I've never even really installed before sitting on a shelf. Sounds like I won't do it anytime soon

DivotMaker · Post by **DivotMaker** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 12:20 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:
TCrouch wrote:The games I've tried so far have worked fine...it's the networking and security and configuration of Vista itself that had me pissed off last night.
Well...I had trouble with three games I play regularly...that's why I'm slightly jaded when it comes to playing on Vista vs. XP. IL2 Sturmovik runs like sh*t, Lock-On doesn't run at all, and Rainbow Six Vegas is a mess as well. If I can't play those games, I'm pissed off. So I'm back to XP. I'd like to try Shadowrun, but whatever...maybe I'll gamefly it for the 360.

TW07 has major issues with Vista and nVidia graphics cards as well....

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 12:27 pm

DivotMaker wrote:TW07 has major issues with Vista and nVidia graphics cards as well....

Tiger was one of the games that I DIDN'T have problems with in Vista. Wonder why.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 12:54 pm

A buddy of mine that has had a few computers built suggests Directron.com and they seem to be well priced.

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 1:24 pm

JackB1 wrote:Feanor, give pcusa.com a try. Their prices seem lower than most to me and I have used them 3 times with no problems whatsover. They let you customize your machine any way you like and they carry name brand parts.

I did look there, but the lack of pictures was a little off-putting. I will look again since it seems like Cyberpower is over priced.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 1:49 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:A buddy of mine that has had a few computers built suggests Directron.com and they seem to be well priced.

Looks like a good site DB. They have this one, which looks like the exact same one I customized on the other site.

http://directron.com/syscdh2.html

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 1:59 pm

fsquid wrote:
dbdynsty25 wrote:A buddy of mine that has had a few computers built suggests Directron.com and they seem to be well priced.
Looks like a good site DB. They have this one, which looks like the exact same one I customized on the other site.

http://directron.com/syscdh2.html

That's almost identical to my rig. Has 2gb of the 800mhz ram and a slightly faster video card (640mb compared to the 320mb). Pretty nice price too.