Jumping into the PC gaming world head first... - Page 3  

Glad you got it running.

Download Motherboard Monitor 5. Once you install it your system and cpu temps will be displayed in the system tray.

Hey, just the thread I was looking for. I've been poring over websites for the past couple weeks researching the same thing. As a mac user for many years, I'm in way over my head as far as pcs go, but it's time to build a gaming rig. It doesn't have to be the absolute fastest, but it may as well be fairly up to date, and I may eventually want to fool around with some overclocking. It must be fairly quiet. The fruits of my internet (and some local pc shops) labor so far:

Case: Coolermaster “Wavemaster†(reviewed at gamepc) or Antec Sonata case (reviewed at silent pc review and ars technica)


Power supply: I think the motherboards I’m looking at require 24 pin connectors, and some graphics cards need an extra 6 pin peripheral power connector, so the 20 pin TruePower 380W that comes with the Sonata case may need to be replaced. I’m looking at the Seasonic S12-500 reviewed here (actually the 430W version) at silent pc review.


Graphics card: PCI-E Radeon X800 XL, specifically the Gigabyte GV-RX80L256V SilentPipe or the MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E as compared in this 6 card showdown article at firingsquad.


Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI, comparo review of 5 nForce4 SLI boards at firingsquad. I appreciate the “legacy†serial port for programming my soon to be purchased MX-850 remote.

Still have to work out RAM, HD options, but those are things I actually am familiar with, even as a mac guy.

Comments appreciated, not too technical please, which is why I'm posting in this forum and not at some hard core gaming forum where I really can't follow half of what's posted. :)

Unless you're planning on getting another graphics card in the future to add on, the SLI boards are going to be overpriced for your application. They usually make a non-sli board that is pretty much identical except only one PCI-E x16 slot.

Thanks for reminding me of that point, I hadn't realized there was that much difference in price between the SLI boards and the almost identical Ultra versions - looks like it's $50 or so, worth considering. In the case of the MSI board however, the SLI version also has an onboard Creative Sound Blaster Live 24-bit H/W audio 7.1 CH audio chip, which seems like a good step up from the usual S/W audio (but obviously not as good as getting a separate card) for little extra cost.

Is it worth paying the extra bucks for the retail box (vs OEM versions)? I'm thinking it would be for a newbie like me.

Do you plan overclocking? How much do you want to spend on a chip?

Well, I'd like to keep my options open, and will certainly read up on overclocking, but have no intention on spending hours trying to wring the last potential ounce of juice out of the rig. I had read that the 3500+ with it's 90nm-based chip had quite a significant upside without having to get too carried away in tweaking, and the mobo was reasonably easy to tweak. How much to spend on a chip? I guess you mean the CPU, and I'm looking at $250 to $400 USD, depending on "bang for the buck" of course.

I would recommend a 3200+ or 3500+ with a Venice core. Venice core's should be available later this month. I ask about overclocking because it may determine your ram purchase. Ram that can overclock well is much more expensive than value ram (sometimes the price difference is $200). If you arent going to overclock then just get value ram. Corsair is on sale for $88 for 2x512MB this week at the egg.

Thanks, I see that the Venice is the second 90nm chip, and may be a slightly better choice than the Winchester 3500+ I've been considering. And I'm also just finding out those huge differences in RAM price, so I better make up my mind as to how likely I am to OC.

If you're interested in high performance memory, here's some good articles on some of the top contenders:

http://anandtech.com/memory/

Ozy

Thanks, there's lots of good info there. Quite the crash course I'm on!

What resolutions will you be gaming at? This will likely affect the garphics card you need to buy and also your cpu performance. If you look at ANandtech you will see that some of the newer games really get bottlenecked by cpu speed at high resolutions. Lastly, are you interested in your computer being relatively quiet?

Resolutions? As high as I can go, hopefully 1600 x 1200 or 1680 x 1050 when I get the WS monitor. When I check out the tables for HL2, Far Cry etc, in CPU or video card showdowns, I always look at the highest res, full detail etc. That's why I'm looking at a PC instead of trying to play Doom 3 on my mac. The 3500+ (possibly 3200+) with X800XL video card seems to hit acceptable framerates without costing an arm and a leg, or running too hot or noisy.

Quiet? Yes please. I've read almost everything at SilentPCReview, as well as other site's articles on building quiet rigs. Trying to compromise between good performance and relative silence. I will probably swap out most case, CPU, GPU, and whiny little northbridge chipset fans for a combo of passive cooling and large, slow (=quieter) fans (like a Nexus 120mm). That's the main reason I'm looking at the 90mm Athlons, SeaSonic PSUs, and Gigabyte "Silent Pipe" type of video card. Just have to make sure I can keep enough air moving so I don't overheat during heavy gaming (the computer, that is!)

I plan on putting together a very similar system in a couple of months or so, so I will be interested to see how your system turns out.

Keep us posted.

Ozy

You may want to look at SLI if you want high resolutions with all the eye-candy unless the ATi 520 turns out to be all its hyped up to be. The downside of SLI is not only the cost but the noise. You may want to consider some form of watercooling if you go with SLI.