PC buying help...

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I just built my brother a PC with the following specs:

Windows XP Pro

NEC Dual Layer DVD+-RW Drive

EVGA 7900 GT CO Superclock

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard

Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music Sound Card

OCZ DDR400 (2-3-2-5 1T) 2GB of RAM

Thermaltake 500 Watt SLI Power Supply

Logitech Cordless Keyboard and Mouse

2 300GB Maxtor Hard Drives

AMD Athlon 4000+ San Diego


All that was bought for just under $1700. Not quite as fast as my machine , but it certainly handles anything thrown at it.


You don't necessarily have to get a machine as powerful, but I recommend getting at least 2 GB of RAM, 3500+ Athlon processor and 7900 GT if you are serious about gaming.

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If you must buy from a vendor, I would go with a Dell. As for processor brand, AMDs are currently better for gaming but Dell only uses Intels. However, Intel processors will get the job done. A downside is that Dell's PC that is priced comparatively to the aforementioned PC I recently built will perform significantly worse in games.

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Sure they can play the newest games, but at medium settings if you don't want constant 1-2 second pauses. Even at low resolutions like 1360x768, 1 GB of RAM causes pauses in newest games when using high-res textures. The price difference between 1 GB and 2GB isn't that big anyway. BTW, a single 7900 GT can play any game with all features at a good frame rate, so long as the resolution isn't high like 1920x1080.

See I have that system and one above that more in your recommended specs. In the real-word or at my place the better system is just a wee bit better. A 3500+, 1Gig, 6800GS system isn't playing games with what games call medium settings, well above that. You still get the High Rez textures, 1280x1024, AA, AF, shadows (less soft) at almost nearly the same frames.


What starts to hit the frames in most games are HDR and Soft Shadows (HL2 Lost coast the exception that still runs great) but the 7800GT system chokes as well with those features, the 7900GT would be right in line predictably as well. I know we all like to think there are these huge gapping differences between video cards, but I feel that is always overblown, now maybe a $500 video card can get you more a noticeable difference but time on this earth tells me that gain isn't worth the extra jack and is meant for people where money simply isn't an object or a player is a little reckless with their wallet.


The system I mentioned sounds like what the OP is squarely after.

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I hear ya, but the video card and system RAM can make a world of difference, especially system RAM. When I had 1 GB of system RAM and a 256 MB video card, games like FEAR would pause constantly when loading textures for new areas. I had to scale the texture quality to medium in order to have a smooth gameplay experience. The same holds for Doom 3 and its expansion, Quake 4, Half-Life 2, etc. I can't even imagine how GRAW handles 1 GB of system RAM with a 256 MB video card at high quality textures. Your average framerate won't change when moving from 1 GB to 2 GB, but the gameplay experience is much smoother and more enjoyable.

My base processor at this time would be a AMD 3800 Dual Core. Not a have to have but that is where I would start, gives you a little something extra to look forward to when DC patches of games are released.


To Smith, I have no problems with the 7900GT or 2 Gig's of ram. But I'm just stating if budget becomes a problem there are $100 cheaper cards and that 1 gig of ram (~ another $100) can get you through looking just fine and dandy and well with Vista and DX10 coming you might be better off saving that $100 on the video card now and get a new one early next year. But hey if you got the $$$ what Smith is saying isn't a lie, both of those are better to have.


Personally I play everything at 1280x1024 and change options from there to satisfy my FPS. That goes for the 3700+ w/GS6800 and 3700+ w/7800GT. The AMD 2800+ w/9800Pro however attempts to satisfy at 1280x1024 but on the top-end games it many times has to settle for 1024x768 or 1152x8?? (can't recall second number). Why 1280x1024? Overall value, I get an immediate image quality bump by matching my LCD's fixed panel resolution of 1280x1024, if I don't do this I take a pretty noticeable quality hit. I've already mentioned the gfx features I favor and in which order I use them already.


IMO fixed panel monitors now play a key role in all of this, my next LCD will be a windscreen and I have to be considerate of it's resolution:


They have options for:

2560x1024

1920x1200

1280x768

1280x720

1366x768

1680x1050

1440x900


I'm considering either of the last two. What I do know whichever panel I pick that will be my new default resolution for everything, desktop and games. I for example do not consider 1920x1200 because I feel I'll be taxing my performance in games too much using that as my new standard. The last two are quality enough for me and with strong enough but reasonably priced hardware I will be able to push those pixels around without losing mucho frames per.



THAT DELL BACKUP THINGY:


You want to really be backed up? Buy Ghost and an External USB Hard Drive and just do it with class and total coverage. A CD or a DVD can’t ever bring it all back for you.