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☖ Forums → Discussion Forum → Building a new PC
Building a new PC
2008-11-07, 11:00 AM #1
I seriously need to build a new PC, and I figure with christmas approaching, it might not be a bad time to rally up some funding to do so.

There is only one thing for certain I know I am shooting for and that is a ATI Radeon HD 4870.

What I'd like to ask you guys is some suggestion on parts.
Ideally, I'd like to keep this budget friendly as possible without sacrificing too much performance, yet still have a system that wont be stone age in 2 years

I'm looking to build a fairly decent game machine that can handle most of the standards out today (GOW, UT3, far cry 2, bioshock, etc etc) and can handle older games no problem (doom 3, quake 4, etc). Looking for preferably a intel processor. Besides that I'm kind of clueless on whats optimal nowadays, so any help on mobos, processors, memory, etc would be great.
"They're everywhere, the little harlots."
-Martyn
2008-11-07, 11:05 AM #2
I'm behind the times a bit, but get 4Gb of RAM because it's cheap.
woot!
2008-11-07, 12:14 PM #3
Yea, you can get 4 gigs for like $20 now w/ rebates.

I don't have any specific recommendations but I would suggest checking SlickDeals (slickdeals.com) at some point to find the best prices - components are some of the more commonly posted-about deals there.
一个大西瓜
2008-11-07, 1:02 PM #4
There should be some really good deals now/soon as stores clear inventory for Intel's latest i7 offerings due out in ~ 2 weeks.

Optimal right now is the fastest dual core you can afford. Quad cores are still pretty underutilized when gaming, even the games I see that try to use more than 2 cores often only put like 30% load on cores 3 and 4. Everyone seems to love the price/performance of the E8400 right now.

In a motherboard I would look for a reliable brand, upgradable to quad, and usually I like to be able to upgrade ram eventually without replacing, so 4x240 ddr2 slots is always on my list.

4gb is a great place to start, just remember your going to want Vista X64 to make the best use of it.
My favorite JKDF2 h4x:
EAH XMAS v2
MANIPULATOR GUN
EAH SMOOTH SNIPER
2008-11-07, 1:11 PM #5
I'd rather have 2gigs of some high performance ram rather than 4 gigs of some cheap ****
"Nulla tenaci invia est via"
2008-11-07, 1:21 PM #6
Originally posted by Z@NARDI:
I'd rather have 2gigs of some high performance ram rather than 4 gigs of some cheap ****


I wouldn't.

You lose far more performance from swapping than you do timing/speed.
2008-11-07, 1:24 PM #7
Originally posted by Z@NARDI:
I'd rather have 2gigs of some high performance ram rather than 4 gigs of some cheap ****

Guess you were never lauded for your brilliance.

What CM said.
D E A T H
2008-11-07, 1:30 PM #8
Originally posted by Z@NARDI:
I'd rather have 2gigs of some high performance ram rather than 4 gigs of some cheap ****


You can have both.
2008-11-07, 1:41 PM #9
I prefer XP pro 64. Theres no way I'm touching vista. For several reasons, but mainly because alot of older games and programs I use are nowhere near vista compatible.
"They're everywhere, the little harlots."
-Martyn
2008-11-07, 1:45 PM #10
It might be hard to find a copy of XP (unless you already have one or you're doing naughty things) since it isn't sold anymore.


What do you have that isn't compatible with Vista? I was surprisingly able to run all of my really old games (like UT and Quake 3) no problem.
一个大西瓜
2008-11-07, 1:51 PM #11
Originally posted by Dj Yoshi:
Guess you were never lauded for your brilliance.

What CM said.


you guys are brutal..

And it still stands. **** that cheap ****
"Nulla tenaci invia est via"
2008-11-07, 1:52 PM #12
He doesn't want Vista because there are like 5 people on the internet that have never used it that told him never to get it.
2008-11-07, 1:58 PM #13
Originally posted by Z@NARDI:
you guys are brutal..

And it still stands. **** that cheap ****


Have you looked at DDR2 lately? Even the expensive stuff is ridiculously cheap nowadays.

Originally posted by Onimusha.:
I prefer XP pro 64. Theres no way I'm touching vista. For several reasons, but mainly because alot of older games and programs I use are nowhere near vista compatible.


Every game I can think of that has Vista compatibility issues has just as many XP compatibility issues.

XP 64-bit is absolutely terrible, and most companies have abandoned support for it altogether. Use Vista and stop being hurf durf. If you have problems with games, rattle the names off and we'll show you how to fix it.
2008-11-07, 1:59 PM #14
PS guys, this is kind of a pointless argument.

I'm pretty sure onimusha. can't put together a computer. He's probably a square peg in round hole kind of person.
2008-11-07, 2:05 PM #15
Originally posted by Cool Matty:
Have you looked at DDR2 lately? Even the expensive stuff is ridiculously cheap nowadays.


No I'm stuck in the stone age of DDR
"Nulla tenaci invia est via"
2008-11-07, 2:10 PM #16
Originally posted by Onimusha.:
I prefer XP pro 64. Theres no way I'm touching vista. For several reasons, but mainly because alot of older games and programs I use are nowhere near vista compatible.


Im using XP 64 right now, I haven't had any issues with compatibility.
[01:52] <~Nikumubeki> Because it's MBEGGAR BEGS LIKE A BEGONI.
2008-11-07, 3:38 PM #17
For what it's worth, Black & White works in Vista, but not XP.

Go figure.
the idiot is the person who follows the idiot and your not following me your insulting me your following the path of a idiot so that makes you the idiot - LC Tusken
2008-11-07, 4:09 PM #18
Originally posted by Onimusha.:
For several reasons, but mainly because alot of older games and programs I use are nowhere near vista compatible.

Which ones?
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2008-11-07, 5:50 PM #19
As far as I'm concerned, all of my programs and games work in Vista.

Except JK, you have to run it in window mode, or alt-tab when you first load the menu's (even after exiting a game). But 1 minor incompatibility is nothing to freak over.
2008-11-07, 6:10 PM #20
Originally posted by Z@NARDI:
No I'm stuck in the stone age of DDR


Sarcasm aside, my desktop still runs DDR.

:colbert:
nope.
2008-11-07, 6:20 PM #21
Originally posted by Baconfish:
Sarcasm aside, my desktop still runs DDR.

:colbert:

i prefer stepmania
D E A T H
2008-11-07, 6:30 PM #22
Weirdo.
nope.
2008-11-08, 8:38 AM #23
The games: JK, Thief, Soul Reaver, Omikron, Unreal (not UT), Urban Chaos, NFS High Stakes, Project 64 emulator (not sure on this one), and this ps2/n64 usb adaptor I have that pretty much says not vista compatible all over it in three languages.

As for some of the other comments.. :rolleyes: :master:
"They're everywhere, the little harlots."
-Martyn
2008-11-08, 11:46 AM #24
so...all you play is old games...and you want to build a new computer, even though I'm sure the one you have plays everything fine...and you've obviously never heard of dual booting...

masterstroke indeed
D E A T H
2008-11-08, 12:40 PM #25
rofl.
\(='_'=)/
2008-11-08, 1:46 PM #26
Originally posted by Onimusha.:
The games: JK, Thief, Soul Reaver, Omikron, Unreal (not UT), Urban Chaos, NFS High Stakes, Project 64 emulator (not sure on this one), and this ps2/n64 usb adaptor I have that pretty much says not vista compatible all over it in three languages.

As for some of the other comments.. :rolleyes: :master:


JK works in Vista.
Project 64 works in Vista perfectly.
Your PS2/N64 adapter sucks, but should work in vista anyway (it can use XP drivers for this)
Thief works.
Soul Reaver works.
Unreal works.
NFS High Stakes works

I couldn't find anything on Urban Chaos (probably because the game sucks horribly), but I doubt it has any more issues than it already has with XP.
2008-11-08, 2:23 PM #27
Wow..IIRC, NFS: High Stakes wouldn't even run on XP..
woot!
2008-11-08, 2:51 PM #28
I think Thief II and System Shock 2 have issues on Vista, but there are fan patches to fix this. Actually, it's not just Vista, it's XP, too.

Oh and yeah, I have had some old games that wouldn't work in XP but work in Vista. :huh:
Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.
2008-11-08, 7:42 PM #29
Actually, most of the incompatibilities with Thief/System Shock 2 are caused on the video card side of things, more then they are on the OS side.

Project 64 works perfectly, I just finished playing Perfect Dark around an hour ago. JK also runs just fine, if you have an ATI video card, then that's your problem.

ATI cards have issues with 16bit games these days (so does Nvidia, but it's not nearly as severe).

If you rule out the video card problems, then Vista is compatible with absolutely every game I've run on it.
2008-11-08, 8:24 PM #30
Just curious -- do you guys who use Project 64 use adapters and original N64 controllers? I find the prospect of playing an N64 game with anything other than an N64 controller to be very awkward >_<
一个大西瓜
2008-11-08, 8:35 PM #31
Motherboard: Asus P5Q-Pro
Processor: Intel E8600 Dual core 3.33ghz
Memory: Corsair DDR2 4gigs (2x2)
Video Card: Radeon 4870
Hard drive: Western Digital 500gb(I don't remember anything else about it)

Add in the tower, DVD drive, OS, power supply(750w, I think), etc, and it was around $1k. Totally worth it since it completely rapes any game in existence.
Democracy: rule by the stupid
2008-11-08, 9:12 PM #32
Quote:
Just curious -- do you guys who use Project 64 use adapters and original N64 controllers? I find the prospect of playing an N64 game with anything other than an N64 controller to be very awkward >_<


Yes. I find PS2 controllers to be incredibly akward. Call me crazy but I just prefer the N64 controller over others anyway. The adaptor I've got (which is the only I've seen thus far unfortunately) uses windows drivers which suck for calibrating it, and no force feedback if you got a rumble pack .(

On a side note, if anyones got a good place to buy analog stick replacements, let me know.

As for the other games I guess thats good to know, but the games said to have issues with XP run fine on my 32-bit xp pro right now. I am planning to get an ATI card though, so I guess I'll have to work my way around JK somehow.
"They're everywhere, the little harlots."
-Martyn
2008-11-08, 10:22 PM #33
Originally posted by Pommy:
Just curious -- do you guys who use Project 64 use adapters and original N64 controllers? I find the prospect of playing an N64 game with anything other than an N64 controller to be very awkward >_<


You think that's bad? I played Super Smash Bros on it using the SNES controller.
2008-11-08, 11:08 PM #34
I love the N64 controller. One of my favorites.

And yes. I use my Mouse and Keyboard to play my games, and it's truly horrible. I have to disable up/down look for Perfect dark to properly use my mouse.
2008-11-09, 12:29 AM #35
Originally posted by Onimusha.:

On a side note, if anyones got a good place to buy analog stick replacements, let me know.


Like ... ONLY the analog stick? :confused:


I got a Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2 so I could play on ZNES and ePSXe and it freakin rocks. I'm not going to bother with Project 64 though cuz I still have my N64 in the cabinet right under my TV with all of my games :awesome:
一个大西瓜
2008-11-09, 2:16 AM #36
I use my 360 controller with project 64. I have some sweet controller plugin and I have golden eye and perfect dark setup to properly use both sticks.
"Nulla tenaci invia est via"
2008-11-09, 9:55 AM #37
Quote:
Like ... ONLY the analog stick?


Yeah they sell "rebuilt" ones on ebay, but they seem really sketchy to me.
"They're everywhere, the little harlots."
-Martyn

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