2008-12-19 10:41:18 A gaming platform with the coming year in mind

The new year is almost upon us and seeing some of my favorite games coming out for the PC at the beginning of this year I'm in desperate need for a new PC.
The PC I have now is a Dinosaur and it has problems even running Counter Strike source at a constant 40fps...

Since I've been away of the "hardware" scene for a while I'm willing to admit I need some help/advise on the hardware choices I'm gonna make.

The following list resembles what I'm interested in.

OCZ Alchemy Elixir - Keyboard
Logitech MX518 - Mouse

Cooler Master Centurion 690 - Chassis
Corsair Powersupply CMPSU-750TXEU 750W - Powersupply
Creative X-Fi Titanium - Audiocard

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 - Motherboard -
OCZ 3x2GB DDR3 SDRAM PC12800 CL7.0 Platinum - 6Gb Memory
Intel Core i7 920 - CPU
Sapphire HD 4870 X2 2G GDDR5 PCI-E - Graphics card

Samsung DVD-Writer 20x Super-WriteMaster - DVD drive/writer
Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ - 1 TB HDD

Acer P241W - Monitor

Now I'm not talking about the price of it all. Cause as it stand now it's around 1500 to 1700 euro's for this hardware. I just need some advice on this equipment and suggestions for other hardware.

Note: I don't need Audio output equipment (speakers or headset) seeing as I have it already.

---
"Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for I am the evilest motherf*cker in the valley"

2008-12-19 12:01:05

Damn I had good benchmark from that X2 card with lots of others in it too but I can't find it... I'll post it later if I can get my hands on it again. . I am kinda wondering if the multi GPU cards actually work now and are worth the extra price.

CPU I know that it's one of the new 4 core version with some improvements over C2Q processors. I remember seeing some benchmarks and those looked really great for it. I am not sure how good it's to overclock but I think you won't need to worry about that right away :p

I'll check out the other parts later.

---
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
War, war never changes...
Demigod -.|.. -_- ..|.-

2008-12-19 12:09:12 In reply to Isomac (2008-12-19 12:01:05)

Thing is that CPU is pretty good as it is and it still do-able for the price of it: around 250 euro.
If I want a better version of that cpu the price gets sky rocketed;



And those prices will go down, so if I ever need to upgrade I can even opt to go for the "faster" versions

---
"Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for I am the evilest motherf*cker in the valley"

2008-12-19 12:10:31

Yeah I know the performance/money is great for those new CPU's.

Oh the next model costs around 2x more money for 0.3ghz. I wonder who would buy that CPU.

I didn't meant to say that the CPU is bad (for what I remember it performed around the same/better as much expensive older model CPU's), I was just wondering if it's good at OC.

---
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
War, war never changes...
Demigod -.|.. -_- ..|.-

2009-01-02 15:59:09

I can say that Samsung HDD's are good. The one I have is quiet and has had no problems so far. Unlike some others I have had...

I have 1 Logitech mouse and I really didn't like it. Then again my friend says the Logitech mouses are greatness. So I guess it's best to go to store and see if you can try out the mouses and keyboards there.

I can't really say anything about MB. I have never had Gigabyte one myself. I have usually some cheap MB heh.

---
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
War, war never changes...
Demigod -.|.. -_- ..|.-

2009-01-02 16:34:24

Yeah I've had some Logitech mouses before and I just prefer those above the rest!

Good to hear that the HDD is a good buy. I'm always kind of skeptical when it isn't Western Digital or Maxtor.

I don't know much about the Gigbyte motherboard either but I've looked on some sites and they've got good performance versus good price...

---
"Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for I am the evilest motherf*cker in the valley"

2009-01-02 17:09:55

Gigabyte makes some of the best budget minded motherboards. They're relatively low end, no-frills outings, but they're quality products. They're cheap, but still not bad. I used one of their P35 boards in a build last year for a buddy and it cost under $100. That said, when I went to do my own build I opted to go a little more spendy on an Asus board and I love the shit out of it.

So far as mice are concerned--I've owned dozens of Logietch mice including the MX518. It was a fantastic mouse while it lasted, but mine bugged out about three years into its life. I'm not blaming Logitech for that, shit happens after all. When I went to replace it I decided to try the Razer Death Adder though... and it's currently my favorite mouse ever. It just owns.

2009-01-03 12:29:44

Thanks for the advice, will snoop around for some other mice as well...
That Razer Diamondback mouse looks sweet

---
"Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for I am the evilest motherf*cker in the valley"

2009-01-03 16:23:05

Razer's are great mouses. I needed a bit time to get used to mine but now I like it really much.

---
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
War, war never changes...
Demigod -.|.. -_- ..|.-

2009-01-04 05:34:29

I didn't find the Death Adder took much time at all to adapt to. It actually acts a lot like the MX518 in terms of its buttons and shape. It's the only Razer mouse that's designed for right-handed only use. All of their other mice are ambidextrous.. which has always been a bit of a turnoff for me. There are plenty of mice out there that exceed the MX518 and Death Adder's 1800 dpi.. but 1800 dpi is plenty. If you do get a Death Adder make sure to enable the 1000hz polling. For some reason it defaults to a slower refresh.

2009-01-04 13:11:16

I have the MX518 and love it. Fits my hand perfectly. I have mine on the mid setting and find it to be the perfect speed. The two buttons at your thumb come in very handy in most games as well.

---
Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Has it been five years? Six? It seems like a lifetime.

2009-01-04 17:34:08

Most of the mice I'd seriously consider owning have two thumb buttons, including the Death Adder. I always run @ 1800dpi and just adjust my sensitivity in game. The MX518 is a great mouse though.. had mine not broke I would have continued to use it for a while.

2009-01-05 14:23:51

I'm definitely getting the Intel Core 7 and that Sapphire HD 4870 X2 2G GDDR5 PCI-E graphics card:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/core-i7-overclock,re...

Looks like the Core I7 itself is a very good buy but combining it with the sapphire will make it a power house...

---
"Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for I am the evilest motherf*cker in the valley"

2009-01-05 20:37:47

I love my Sapphire HD4870 1GB, and it's not even an X2. I'm sure that thing will scream. I'm not surprised that the i7 is overclocking well. Intel's CPU's have great ROI (return on investment). I'm not sure why there's even a market for "Extreme" edition processors.

2009-01-06 18:30:57

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/12/09/samsun...

Best harddrive you can buy atm..

---
http://www.cyberwarriors.nl
http://home.xmsnet.nl/bigbear/mycar.jpg

2009-01-07 04:56:17

And it's $99? Shit. I think I need one.

2009-01-07 12:07:20 In reply to Inflatable (2009-01-06 18:30:57)

Thanks for that! Now I definitely will get it. Cause I was thinking about getting 2 disks and letting them run RAID 0 but I don't know if it is worth it

---
"Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for I am the evilest motherf*cker in the valley"

2009-01-09 10:01:36

I'm still not sure about the memory btw. While I'm at it I could also go for 8Gb but I have been reading around and there's not much that utilizes that kind of memory at the moment. Maybe it is an investment for the future but then again, upgrading it after a year might be cheaper on the long run....

---
"Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for I am the evilest motherf*cker in the valley"

2009-01-09 16:53:59

8Gb is too little, you need at least 32Gb :P I have 4GB and I am not even sure if that is used fully while playing. Sure video editing and 3D rendering applications can use that amount easily but games?

BTW did the new Intel core i7 MB use 3 channel memory architecture or the old 2 channel? If it's the 3 channel I think 3x2GB is better than 2x2GB+4GB configuration.

Also one thing to remember is what OS you have. If it's 64bit you should be able to use the extra memory when in 32bit OS you can only use maximum of ~3.10GB.

---
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
War, war never changes...
Demigod -.|.. -_- ..|.-

2009-01-10 00:15:06

What Isomac said regarding memory is pretty accurate. I have four, and I'm currently considering downgrading to 32bit XP, because it seems as if Canon has no intention of ever releasing 64bit drivers for my scanner. Shitty.

PS. I want Win7

2009-01-11 16:39:07 In reply to Inflatable (2009-01-06 18:30:57)

Wow that is cheap :O

---
Marumaro for the WIN !!

2009-01-11 19:00:21 In reply to Jollipop (2009-01-11 16:39:07)

Or maybe a more normal price?

It shows how ludicrously overpriced the Xbox 360 harddrives are, they offer 60-120GB for the same price Samsung offers 1TB, LOLOL... I really hope MS gets it act together and puts in at least a 512GB harddrive in their next-gen Xbox.. Or 1TB for that matter (I don't care if the box needs to get a bit bigger to fit a cheaper desktop drive, infact a bigger box would have less heat issues aswell), then the whole DVD -> Blu-ray issue is a thing of the past aswell, just install all your games on the harddrive like we've done on the PC since forever, problem solved.. I can fit 2 games max now on my current 20GB Xbox 360 harddrive, leaving 0 room for anything else, so in reality I can only install 1 game on it, which is simply a joke anno 2009..

---
http://www.cyberwarriors.nl
http://home.xmsnet.nl/bigbear/mycar.jpg

2009-01-11 23:55:06

Well, it is cheap when you compare the ROI versus the 150gb Raptor.

2009-01-12 07:52:27

Well when I look in the test Inflatable supplied, it kind of kicks the raptor's ass...

---
"Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for I am the evilest motherf*cker in the valley"

2009-01-13 14:06:10

The Raptor is obsolete aswell now.. I read that Western Digital was working on their own new gen harddrive, that was gonna be faster then the Samsung again.. But it will most likely also be more expensive again..

---
http://www.cyberwarriors.nl
http://home.xmsnet.nl/bigbear/mycar.jpg