Hey Guys,

Well here is my weapon/problem…my Toshiba Satellite X200 laptop, its a snail. The graphics card is an 8700GTM, 2 gig ram rarar the rest is standard crap. The best she can do is everything on the best performance and 1024 x 786. Even then when I play, I see FRAPS telling me your graphics card is awesome dropping to 15fps from time to time lol.

I want to know what graphics card will play Crysis Wars on high full AA and full res. Yeah I know I don’t want much, but it would be nice to see mint graphics for a change. In hand with that what would be the best company online for gaming desktops??

Budget $1500


Cheers Whitedevil.

ps. hope the graphics card isn't $1500.

firstly, dont use fraps to find your fps, it runs at half the framerate with fraps on. type r_displayinfo 1 in the console

there is no point running full aa, its a massive fps killer and you only need 4x or 8xq at the most, above that and you cant tell the difference
also, you need to have postprocessing quality set to high to run any aa at all

im assuming you are trying to run wars on very high. for that you need a gtx260 or above (my 260 gives 45fps at max settings with 4xaa)

the 260 is around $350-$400 depending on what manufacturer you get

anyway its best to assemble your own pc from individual parts. If you do that i suggest buying the parts from MSY or somewhere similar

To add to your post clerk

The current top range card (Recently released) is the GTX 295 (Which is basically 2 hybrid GTX260/280 in a single PCIE slot)

For this you are looking around $870

Next you're looking at a GTX 280 @ around $580

PSU - You will need at a minimum ~650 WATT psu to run the gear you are asking about (SLI - 750 - 800Watt)

Then your motherboard, i'm sure some other guys can recommend a decent intel/amd variant. but dont cut costs here if you're after performance ie bus transfer speeds etc. ~$300

CPU - Spend as much as you can, Core 17 or Phenom II or Quad - For crysis it is one of the most important parts. expect to pay $300 - $500

RAM - Lots is better, especially as it's cheap. This wont affect frames really, so get value ram NOT GENERIC - keep in mind that you will need a 64bit OS if you plan to go over 4GB as 32 bit windows cannot address more than about 3.5GB.

HDD - Run a pair of SATA II drives in Striped RAID for best read/write performance. this will increase data transfer from hdd to memory/cpu etc and will improve load times etc.

NOTE: Crysis is a whore and you still need to shell out the bucks to get it to run sweet. $1500 may not cut it if you're building a new system or upgrading the guts in another.

Don't bother too much with buying a prebuilt system as you won't necessarily get what you're after and thereis cost cutting that go into these. I suggest building your PC yourself or asking a friend who is capable

This is only my opinion so dont take it as purchasing advice , just to get a perspective

adding on to my original post, if you want good value/performance cpu you cant go wrong with an intel q9400.

For ram, dont bother getting hyper fast ram but you do need 4gb or youll have sound errors and crashes constantly.

For the case, i recommend the antec 900

Get a top range mobo but stay away from the striker series. They are great if you can get them to run, but they can be full of bugs and i had to have mine removed because it caused major stuttering, half the fps as my current gb ep45 extreme, and crashes every half an hour.

Thermalake toughpower 650 watt should be a fine psu if you are planning on not overcloking or running SLI, otherwise get a 750-850w one

dont bother with anything above a 280 if you are only looking at running crysis at mak settings

@daemon the gpu is what crysis needs the most, a fast cpu will help but it is not needed at all - pushing my cpu up from 2.66ghz to 4ghz only gives a 4fps boost on the crysis benchmark

if you use raid harddrives consider getting raid 10 (4 hard drives with striping and mirroring) will double the life of the hard drives. Hdds are cheap (around $50 for 500gb) so it is a good way to speed up your pc

and MSY assembles your pc for $70 and gives a 1 year warranty, but building it yourelf is still the best option.

lol im using a notebook also, 8600gt m 3gig ram, it does me fine, but then again you would like something like quacks

Lads,

Cheers for all the help hey!! tiptop!! I’m gonna look around and compare and see if I can come up with a system that’s both better than the one I have (easy part) and around 1500 dollar mark (hard part).

Daemon, thanks for giving me a break down of all the components within a desktop. I knew it was going to be better to make it myself. Although I can’t build it myself, I’ll get a company to do it for me. Saves me screwing it up with compatibility and all!! I have started to educate myself with meanings and so on......Bit of a noob when it comes to computer component meanings. The info that you have provide will help a me guild my way to victory. I may need to save more tho. Thanx

ClerkWithKnife thanks for sharing your knowledge. Ill gather all of these ideas and components, compare price and performance and with a bit of luck the system I come up with should be a winner The gtx260 looks like a good graphics card!!!! and yeah good price to!!! I was looking at the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 but my budget will suffer when I found out how much it was lol.


Lastly but not least, wounded by what you have told me I think that if it’s barely noticeable graphically between great and awesome comp. Then I guess it’s silly in a way for me to spend extra $$$$ just only for a little improvement visually.

When I have decided on all of the parts ill post it ASAP Guys thanks again for your help, it helps immensely when you don’t even know where to start. Only ever had a laptops.


thanks from, whitedevil

hoping this may do the job.


MOTHERBOARD

ASUS P5KPL-1600, Intel G31/LGA775/ATX
Intel Core2 processors in LGA775 package
FSB 1600(O.C.)/1333/1066/800
DDR2 1066*/800/667 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory Dual
Channel memory architecture (max. 4GB)

$119





CPU

Intel Core2 Duo E8500 -
3.16GHz/6MB/1333FSB/LGA775
E8500 - INTEL CORE 2 DUO PROCESSOR
3.16GHZ, 6MB CACHE, 1333MHZ FSB, LGA775

$315



DISK DRIVE:

LG Blu-Ray/HD DVD Reader SATA [GGC-H20L-OEM] -
16xDVD+-R, Light Scribe
READ BLUERAY,HDDVD,16XDVD+-R,5XDVD-RAM,4XDVD+-
R,BULK PACK

$177





HARD DRIVE:

500GB Seagate 'Barracuda ES' [ST3500620SS],
7200.2/16M/SAS
* I/FACE : SAS 3Gb/s
* EXTERNAL TRANSFER RATE : 3.0 Gb/s
* TRANSFER RATE: Max Int: 1287 Mb/s, Max Sustained
: 105 MB/s
* SEEK TIME (ms) : Average : 8.5/9.5 msec
(Read/Write), Track-to-Track: 0.8/1.0 msec
(Read/Write)
* AVERAGE LATENCY: 4.16 ms
* SPINDLE SPEED : 7200 RPM
CACHE : 16MB

$249




RAM:

4GB KIT(2x XMS3 2GB) Corsair 'XMS3-DHX' XMP
[TW3X4G1333C9DHX], DDR3/PC10600/1333MHz
Corsair TW3X4G1333C9DHX 4GB (2x XMS3 2GB) PC-10600
(1333MHz) DDR3 RAM, 2x240-pin DIMMs, Non ECC,
Unbuffered, 9-9-9-24, Dual-path Heat Exchange (DHX)
Technology, Lifetime Warranty

$209




CARD:

Galaxy 9800GTX+ 512MB DDR3 [GXY-9800GTX+HDMI], PCIe
PCI-E 2.0 512MB DDR3 256-bit
Core clock: 738MHz
Memory clock: 2200MHz
Dual Dual-Link DVI, HDTV, HDMI Ready

$277




POWER:

550W Seasonic Power Supplier [S12+550]
88% Efficency, 3% Stable Voltage, Smart and Silent.
For ATX, EPS AND BTX
Multiple +12V Outputs
Super High Efficiency [up to 85%]
Active Power Factor Correction [99% PF]

$150




CASE:

SIMPLE INSTALLATION THROUGH SCREWLESS RAIL DESIGN
* LIGHT 1.0 MM ALUMINUM CHASSIS
* CUSTOMIZABLE "NEMESIS EYE" 7 COLOR LED (BLUE, RED, GREEN, WHITE, PURPLE, TEAL, YELLOW)
* THREE 1800 RPM 12CM BLUE LED FANS FOR EFFICIENT SILENT COOLING AND VENTILATION
* LUXURY THERMAL METER
* EXTERNAL PORTS: USB 2.0, IEEE 1394/FIREWIRE
* HEADPHONE/MIC CONNECTION
* 9 DRIVE BAYS
* MAGNETIC CLOSING DOOR

http://www.computeronline.com.au/images/products/200808/20603_2.jpg

$214



Here is what I consider to be a good gaming computer for Crysis Please let me know if any of this gear is not compatible with the other or if the combo is plan $hit .....Grand total $1710. So I went over the budget lol.

All components from:

http://www.computeronline.com.au

So what you think lads? criticism welcome!!




Cheers Whitedevil

Well i havent read through the whole thing but the harddrive should only cost around $60 for a decent sata hard drive (im using W.D. 500gb which cost $53). It is much faster and more reliable to get four of those harddrives and configure them with raid10 than one fast, but very expensive hard drive.

You may need a more powerful PSU, and the card you have is fine

mate for ur mo bo i will say put a few more $$ and get 1 a lil better so u dont regret getting a cheap 1

for ur cpu for $300 u can get the q6600 2.4ghx quad core 9x multiply instead of the duo

ur ram is good i got the same

for ur card put in a extra $50 and get the xfx version they are better cards, galaxy is a cheap version

power suply get 850w or over for about $230 http://www.shopbot.com.au/pp-antec-signature-850w-price-96919-2716570.html

as for the case very nice

cheer
sgtkiller

Here's an idea I put together for you, based on an Intel platform, and loosly based on the setup I currently have in my PC which seems just fine for Crysis, except for my GFX card which is also an 8600GT 512Mb, the shader clocks are just too slow to putout decent frames for Crysis,
I've also included aproximate prices you should be able to order up most of the gear up for, which I got off the pricespy.com.au website. not including the freight costs though, hopefully this will give you a good idea of what you are getting yourself into, the assembly is the easy part, making sure all the parts are going to work together is another story, have fun researching your new toy.

MOBO - Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6-V2 GA-N680SLI-DQ6 M/b nForce 680i 1.33GHz FSB ( slightly more expensive but much more recently released i think, and with a lot more expansion space for later ) - $330.00 +/-
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, 2.4GHz, LGA775, quad core ( just get a bloody quad core, dual cores are for noobs. ) - $295 +/-
RAM - Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C4DHX 4GB - 240Pin ( faster and cheaper than the stuff you've chosen, look into it, the CL rating is about half that of the other one ) {5-5-5-12} - $135+/-
GFX card - GeForce 9800 GTX+ 1GB PCI-express ( why not spend a little extra and double the available memory on the card for basically the same beast ) - $295 +/-
PSU - 750W+ ( it wont hurt to go a little overpowered here but a little underpowered will be a major problem ) - $170 -> $250+/- ($250)

So far the core components come to about $1300 and you'll still need a few more bits to finish it off.

STANDARD CASE - ( $215 you seem to have a case you already like ) - $100 -> $250 +/-
HDD - (you should be able to get one much cheaper than that, you could have a Seagate 1.5 TB 7200rpm SATA-2 NCQ 32MB Cache Barracuda 7200.11 Model ST31500341AS for around that price) $90 ->$250 +/- ( $120 )
DVD - ( you can pick up a standard dual layer DVD burner much cheaper if you upgrade to a blueray drive later down the track) - $40 -> $200 +/- ($50)
3 1/2 inch FLOPPY - $20 +/- ($20)
KEYBOARD+MOUSE $50+ ($50)
SPEAKERS - (Logitech X540 or better/personal preference) - $80 ->$160+ ($100)

So now you're looking at about $1900 ->$2200 for a near complete system build, I know that blows the budget a little but considering your upgrading from a laptop you'll need to consider all of these things as your current gear wont be able to be used in the new build, also there is the small issue of the screen ....

MONITOR - $$$ obvoiusly this will depend on size, type and quality.

After market CPU cooler, The stock standard Intel ones can be a real bugger to fit sometimes.

OMG Sgt, you so obviously got ripped off with your RAM mate if you paid anywhere near those prices WhiteDevil quoted for it, they must have been rubbing their grubby little hands together when you left the shop.

WhiteDevil you'll probably find as I did, that it will work out about $1000+ cheaper to order the stuff online, and freight it, rather than try to get it from the local retailers up here,.

imo stay with the duo.. u can clock way higher with that model and games wont be using al 4 cores for another year or 2 at LEAST.... i got a e8400 pumpd up to 4ghz and games still using the one core majority... unless ur using alot of various software programs u shouldnt need 4 cores

if you use a notebook/laptop for gaming, best kill youself. you havent experienced crysis yet

LilbootsFTW wrote:

if you use a notebook/laptop for gaming, best kill youself. you havent experienced crysis yet

lol

Gazz in case you havent noticed ... crysis does use all 4 cores ... mine uses 30% on all 4 cores.
People saying stuff like that only give the game makers an excuse to not optimise their games for Quads for another few years, holding back the gaming industry even further than it already is.
and what happens to all the people who follow this advice ... they wish they had a quad so they can play!

LilbootsFTW wrote:

if you use a notebook/laptop for gaming, best kill youself. you havent experienced crysis yet

rofl

exactly 30 on all cores... or probs up on two and low on the others virtually useless... my oc'ed dual core optimises crysis so i dont have any idea wat ur talking about cause the only bottleneck i have now is in the graphics... so imo my dual core is optimising the whole game... plenty of people have dual cores and optimises the game perfectly... crysis is alot of eye candy unlike other games u can max out any game easy with a good dual core...

LilbootsFTW wrote:

if you use a notebook/laptop for gaming, best kill youself. you havent experienced crysis yet

This is why I wanted to join FTW so much, the great support you guys have here I know m8 it’s a joke that’s why I’m doing this!!

By the sounds of things, it looks like ill need to get this and that from all over the shop, instead of just the one shop. But at the end of the day if it going to work out cheaper then I’m all for it. I’ll do my research with regards to that, and I can’t imagine it getting to expensive hey.

My decision as it stands for my new computer components are:

MOBO - Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6-V2 GA-N680SLI-DQ6 M/b nForce 680i 1.33GHz FSB, Ill go with that mo bo then cheers troppo

CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, 2.4GHz as you said, if I go any higher with Ghz its gonna get pricey.

RAM - Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C4DHX 4GB - 240Pin, cheap and fast sounds good to me

Now the Heart of her :
Inno3D Geforce 9800 GX2 1GB PCI-E just wanted a bit better looks like a card for me.

PSU - 750W+

That’s the guts for now. I went to cut price computers...no wait cut throat computers. What a mark up like you said troppo 1000 grand would easily be wacked on the top in total. The net all the way!!

When I figure out total cost ill post the figure including freight.

What do you guys think of buying from the US ??

whitedevil

lol about the comment with the laptop boots, well i running crysis in my laptop as well but i got a 2600hd 512mb video card on my so i can run some of the settings on high like, and it looks great in dx10 i get a framerate average of 30fps.
ps: went i brought me laptop cost me around 3k

Devil, some comments by Cos.....the Q6600 is a good choice, a have 1 running at 3.6 on air nicely, they are great to OC. The fan cost me under $100 also. The mobo, u cant go wrong with the nForce, my 790 has been awesome, with the GPU I have two 9800GX2's and i dont recommend you get 1. As a matter of fact i think they dont make them anymore, you may get 1 second hand though. The GX2 is a G92 chip and is outdated, I would go with a GTX 200 series, the trouble with the GX2 is that it is 2x512MB being a dual core card, not 1GB so if you run really high resolution or crank up the AA you may run out of frame buffer, at which point the card is forced to access system RAM and performance is reduced. Saying that I get a 3D Mark Vantage score of 22000 with my Q6600 and GX2's, it just depends on each game! If you are after a couple of cheap GX2's give me a PM ROFL
Cos.
p.s Good luck with the system.

nice adjustment devil looks better mate and dont listen to any1 that tells u duo is better.

cheers

o and mate dont buy from the US. u might get it for the same price as here almost and for warranty purposes.

try these guys

www.cpl.net.au

www.digitalyes.com.au - these guys are excelent on delivery and good service. how ever they are only a online store

buckethead121 wrote:

lol about the comment with the laptop boots, well i running crysis in my laptop as well but i got a 2600hd 512mb video card on my so i can run some of the settings on high like, and it looks great in dx10 i get a framerate average of 30fps.
ps: went i brought me laptop cost me around 3k

laptops a crap, unless you have a business or schooling which requires to travel around with one its a waste of money, it might say 512mb of memory but the the speed of the baby card might be 250mh/z which is crappppppp. if you had a 256m/b card with 2100mh/z you will destroy. hence the reason i hate laptop's. thats a biggy on the ram.

oh and you should really have a look at umart

luv you all peace

sgtkillerFTW wrote:

nice adjustment devil looks better mate and dont listen to any1 that tells u duo is better.

cheers

well you can't really think that every quad overpowers dual not that simple

I tried to keep my suggestions as close to your budget as possible while still being able to get a half decent, not too shabby Crysis rig. that will make the game look and feel a little better than it does on your little laptop.

Depending on how much you are able to stretch your budget there are certainly newer, better, faster components available to you,
Take for example the CPU, while the Q6600 is a great little unit, a Q9650 or similar would no doubt prove to be a better option if you were willing to part with another $250-$300
The same goes for the GFX card, shell out an extra $150-$300 and go with a GTX260, GTX280 or GTX285.
I think the extra money for one of the newer GFX cards would be money well spent as this is where you'll gain the biggest performance increase for Crysis and any other games you happen to play.

You really need to asses exactly what you want to get out of your new system over the next couple of years, and research the best options for your requirements.
It all really depends on just how much more money you are able to spend.

Don't just buy the components because someone said they are good or good enough on your current budget, Put in the time to do your own research and find out whether there is a more suitable product available.
Visit the manufacturers websites and make sure all the components you've chosen are 100% compatible with each other, Read some PC tech forums to see if there are any major problems or known issues reported with the parts you've chosen, another good place to look is the overclocking forums, even if you are not going to overclock the PC, there are usually a lot of combinations of different components and their bench marks to help you decide whether a part is going to work in your setup if it is not specifically listed on the manufactures website that it is a recommended product.

You may find that it will pay off in the long run to save a little more money and buy the better product so you don't end up having to upgrade again in a few months to keep up with the advances in technology.

Ordering your parts online is definitely a much cheaper option in Darwin to get the newer / better components, I found in most cases that I was able to get the parts buying retail including freight cheaper than the local PC shops can buy them from their suppliers, it's a bloody bad joke and we consumers are the unsuspecting fools at the butt of that joke lining their pockets with our hard earned cash...
Also you may find that you can cut down on freight costs and the general overall cost by paying a little more for a couple of things and ordering from the one supplier, and getting them to ship the parts to you in the one consignment.

ROFLMAO @ cut throat computers, at first they were very interested in helping me out when I listed the components I wanted, but the poor guy there was totally shattered when I eventually showed him my list and the prices I was able to buy them for retail including freight, and he really didn't want to waste any more of his time dealing with me after that.
Pretty much the same thing happened at all the other local shops I visited too, even though I said I wanted to support the local businesses and was happy to pay a little extra to have them order the parts and assemble the system for me as I had never built a PC before, obviously they have to make some money out of it, but once they realise that you know just how much they are trying to rip you off, and that you have spent enough time to actually know more about the components and their real value than they do, they very quickly lose all interest in helping you out, with regard to making sure everything is going to check out OK and work properly, because they know they aren't going to make any money from you anyway.

Who in their right mind would pay $1500 to $2500 more for the exact same system just to support the local businesses...not me that's for sure.
$200 or $300 and getting a 6 or 12 month warranty I could accept but paying nearly double you got to be F 'n kidding me.

Once you have a final list post up the details so we can all have a bit of a look see and tell you what we think, you may even find that a few people here will be able to sell you a few second hand components in good working order that they no longer have use for much cheaper than you'll get them new / retail.

I really don't think you will have any problems putting together a system, it's pretty easy these days even for anyone who has no idea what they are doing, as long as they can read the instructions and use a bit of common sense.
If you end up getting all the parts and decide that it is all too hard, I'm sure I can come around and give you a hand, or there is always the option of taking it into one of the shops and paying them a little extra to do it for you, not sure of their current prices but it should be around $100-$150 max. though it is much more fun and rewarding to do it yourself.

karma wrote:

sgtkillerFTW wrote:

nice adjustment devil looks better mate and dont listen to any1 that tells u duo is better.

cheers

well you can't really think that every quad overpowers dual not that simple

thankyou karma and fuck u sgt u naive prick

hmmm mr i am never wrong ask anyway that knows there cpu and have a quad core and they will say quad is better u fuck. even tho some games dont use all 4 cores in the long run a quad is wats needed. if u get a duo now in a year u will b updating to a quad. quads will run like a duo when needed not using all 4 cores only 2 then when all 4 cores a needed they are there. what happens when duo start dying out o i know time to upgrade to a quad, waste of money getting a duo now then getting a quad later u stupid stubben fuck.

sgtkillerFTW wrote:

hmmm mr i am never wrong ask anyway that knows there cpu and have a quad core and they will say quad is better u fuck. even tho some games dont use all 4 cores in the long run a quad is wats needed. if u get a duo now in a year u will b updating to a quad. quads will run like a duo when needed not using all 4 cores only 2 then when all 4 cores a needed they are there. what happens when duo start dying out o i know time to upgrade to a quad, waste of money getting a duo now then getting a quad later u stupid stubben fuck.

So what your saying is that if you buy a dual core now, that dual is pointless in a year because the quad will overpower the dual? wow really technology can be updateded?

When i said not all quad core's are better than dual's, is that the high priced top dual cores can still own a quad. Now a year from now yes most likely the NEW quad will be better but quad is still coming into the market and with that comes the question "will consumer like it" if so than you know its better but if not then......
And the people who now buy it because it is "quad" will then in a year reliese that a better version of the new quad kills their old quad and that a year ago they didn't really need those two extra cores and could of goten the better dual for their $$$.

edit: Yeah i think troppo is completely right

If your not actually posting in relation to helping WhiteDevil in building his new PC then further off topic posts will be removed,
If you want to have a dual vs quad discussion I suggest you start a new thread with that title.

Here are the components that I have found. I tell you what the more you look into this computer building game the harder it becomes to make choices. Well here are the parts that will make up my 1st ever desktop computer......and what a mission!!
Let me know if you disagree again

-Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU, 2.40 GHz, FSB 1066MHz, 2x4MB L2 Cache, Socket LGA775 $298 from

http://www.megaware.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=72551

-NVIDIA GEFORCE 9800GTX+ 512MB, $299

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NVIDIA-GEFORCE-9800GTX-512MB-PCIE-DDR3-VIDEO-CARD-9800_W0QQitemZ370147613754QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Components?hash=item370147613754&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A3%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

-Kingston HyperX 4GB $115

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Kingston-HyperX-4GB-Kits-1066-DDR2-RAM-KHX8500D2K2-4G_W0QQitemZ180321287709QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Components?hash=item180321287709&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A3%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

-SAMSUNG 250GB SATA II INTERNAL $70

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/SAMSUNG-250GB-SATA-II-INTERNAL-HARD-DISK-DRIVE-8MB-3Yr_W0QQitemZ110341262931QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Components?hash=item110341262931&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

-WideTech 650 WATT 14CM FAN POWER SUPPLY $80

http://www.shoppingsquare.com.au/p_6537_WideTech_650_WATT_14CM_FAN_POWER_SUPPLY

- ASUS P5Q SE INTEL P45 ATX 1600 FSB Core 2 Duo LGA775 $170

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ASUS-P5Q-SE-INTEL-P45-ATX-1600-FSB-Core-2-Duo-LGA775_W0QQitemZ330303170597QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Components?hash=item330303170597&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A3%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

or is it worth getting this one still ???

Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6-V2 GA-N680SLI-DQ6 M/b nForce 680i 1.33GHz FSB for around $300

Total $735 for these just these components.

Remember this is a budget computer build so the missus isn’t going to like me spending up big....dam. But I can always upgrade later on o yeah. This is mainly just to get my foot in the door for the real Crysis experience.

CPU well I’m gonna stick with Q6600. Not knowing a great deal about how to get them to 3.2 or 3.6 as cosmic stated. That sounds good and I think that would be a great Ghz to get to if its real possible

So many hours have gone into deciding what I should do and what path I should go down. As for the GTX 200 series, I can always get one later when they’re going to be a bit cheaper.(real tough choice!!!) I’m happy to settle with the NVIDIA GEFORCE 9800GTX+ for now.

The Kingston HyperX 4GB looks like it has a good speed 5-5-5-18 plus its cheap and hopefully not crap.

The last component I wanna talk about is the MO BO. Everything else is straight forward to a degree. This gave me the shits trying to find one that was going to suit my needs. But I found ASUS P5Q SE INTEL P45 ATX 1600 FSB Core 2 Duo LGA775 looks like it has it all but I would be lying if I said I knew lol, and Cosmic you rich dude, nForce 790 is around 600 bucks well in time I would love to build a monster right now I’m gonna build a budget one just to see how I go.(I’m gonna wack it together myself...like that wack it

As for the rest of the bit and pieces it real doesn’t concern me as much as the above(mainly the MO BO). Once I get the case, freight the rest of the stuff it will be up round the $1500 mark.

Cheers once again for all your thoughts on this subject. I just can’t wait to get it happing!!!!!!


Ps, sorry local businesses im with Troppo all the way!! You gotta feel sorry for the blokes that walk in there not knowing shit and just get raped for like you said $1000+ for their system.(alot of AJ's...not me tho)

I also have the Q6600 and 9600GT, but i have the P5QL-E P43.

My system only cost me $1485 and it has:
That above plus 4gb ram and 500gb hard drive.

Its a great for playing crysis, and i havent overclocked.

I just got it done by a local computer shop, we have brought computers from them when i was younger and my old one died suddenly it was easier doing it that way than trying to build my own (and dad prob wouldnt let me)

personally WHITEDEViL. i would stick with crysis on your craptop, cough cough i mean laptop for a couple more monthes. youve done crysis so far on it, so a few shouldnt hurt. you should wait till the Nehalem products drop, and while they drop you can save abit more. the basic pro i7 920 is around $600 and i have read somewhere they will drop 50% with in the next couple monthes. and the X class mobo's that support i7 are already average price for example the X-58. no use buying dead mainstream eqiupment like the q6600 and if you wait a few monthes you can buy nehalem for the same price. think ahead, thats where i fucked up

cheers boots

Just to be a pain in the asse Ill give you another opinion

For crysis specificaly, quad core isnt really needed. You can overclock dual cores significantly faster, while using less power and heat than quads. In terms of future proofing, the quad core argument is stupid because it is already outdated with as boots said, the Nehalem. Which if you dont know is a new Cpu by Intel which requires a new motherboard to fit the new Cpu.

So if your after a budget rig for Crysis in mind, and cant be assed learning to Overclock (you should as its easy), and dont want to future proof for the Nehalem.

Cpu - E8400, the difference to E8500 is minimal and not worth the expense

Motherboard - Gigabyte GAP45 - DS4 or similar. (you dont need an Sli motherboard unless you have two graphics cards.)

Graphics - Ati 4870 (Dont know why no one is recommending it, as its better than 9800gtx+ which I have)

NOTE: For the two above graphics cards you only need a 550W PSU of decent quality like a cooolermaster etc.

Case - I would recommend a coolermaster RC690, as its cheap, rather large and has decent cooling/fans, very good value)

RAM - Get what you said before, only Windows XP 2gb is sufficient, if vista get 4Gb

Harddrive - As before.


Just my opinion mate, so good luck, if the above rig has left over cash i would put it into graphics card.

If you wanted to future proof, I would do what boots said and wait a few months then get a nehalem cpu and motherboard.

with the gaep45 mobo, be warned that if you have a large gpu like the gtx260 or the 4870 you will only be able to use 2 of the SATA ports; the other two will be blocked by the gpu. I want to run raid 10 on my ep45-extreme but I need to buy a $200 pci-e SATA card to provide the 4 sata ports needed for the hard drives

bob wrote:

RAM - Get what you said before, only Windows XP 2gb is sufficient, if vista get 4Gb
b]

sorry bob but for vista u need more then 4 gb trust me.

i have 4 gigs but need more.

and for those that dont kow u can get up to 8 gigs of ram on vista x64

Good point Clerk,

Also, if you can it's better to get a more powerful, single GPU card. Since the GX2 is basically sli-in-one some games can still have issues that don't yet support sli ie you wont get all the performance benefits. IMO stick with say a 9800GTX/GTX260.

Yea lol, I'm running an 8800 GT, AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 3.2Ghz, 4 GB of ram and it'll do the job just fine lol

sgtkillerFTW wrote:

bob wrote:

RAM - Get what you said before, only Windows XP 2gb is sufficient, if vista get 4Gb
b]

sorry bob but for vista u need more then 4 gb trust me.

i have 4 gigs but need more.

and for those that dont kow u can get up to 8 gigs of ram on vista x64

Another reason to avoid vista

But I agree about only getting one graphics card. Save money, power and heat. Unless you have huge resolution or cash to throw around.

Clerk can you not use the other pci slot for the Gpu, freeing up the sata ports? And the DS4 has 6 sata ports which are in a different spot to the extreme model.

Well i guess the ds4 is fine then, but the extreme has only one pciex16 (blue) slot, so if I want to get the best gpu performance i have to stick with that one.

Hmmm yeah I see thats anoying, the other pci is at x8. I thought the new chipsets were all at x16.

I though i might also add

www.centrecom.com.au

this is where i buy all my computer gear, as i find it is relatively cheap, for both the components and shipping.

I have put over $10k through these guys (Buying for other people as well) and i will continue to do so.

Their order status screen keeps you up to date with what parts of the order have been filled and what is back ordered, they also use TNT, which deliver to your door.

I thought you might like to check it out and i'm sure the rest of you guys would also have a list of places to recommend.

I would go to MSY except they don't ship and aren't in Tassie.

DaemonFTW wrote:

Good point Clerk,

Also, if you can it's better to get a more powerful, single GPU card. Since the GX2 is basically sli-in-one some games can still have issues that don't yet support sli ie you won’t get all the performance benefits. IMO stick with say a 9800GTX/GTX260.

ATi are now in the picture and making my decision making so much harder!!! It sure dose look like a good card for the price and performance!!!

http://www.insidehw.com/Reviews/Graphics-cards/nVIDIA-GTX260-vs.-ATI-HD-4870.html

Looks like ATI mite just win me over!!!! Crysis the GTX260 is just a bit better. research research research thats all I have been doing

Guys thanks for your inputs!!! I’m slowly placing this fun puzzle together.

I recommend an nvidia card over and ATI. in crysis the GTX260/280 rules supreme, plus its cheaper, drivers come out more often and much more userfriendly than ATI cards, and crysis is optimized for nvidia cards.

also check this out:

http://www.guru3d.com/category/vga_charts_crysis/

ClerkWithKnife wrote:

I recommend an nvidia card over and ATI. in crysis the GTX260/280 rules supreme, plus its cheaper, drivers come out more often and much more userfriendly than ATI cards, and crysis is optimized for nvidia cards.

also check this out:

http://www.guru3d.com/category/vga_charts_crysis/

Hey Clerk, great chart you found there that’s what I was after!!! I’m building this system based around Crysis anyway. Ati looked ok at 1st.... but no-one is 100% backing them and from whats been said I can lay that one to bed!
FYI going to order 2x 9800 GTX+ tomorrow I have finally decided after all that! here http://www.stonebridgecomputing.com.au/catalog/-p-21159.html The GTX 260 wont match that set up. By that VGA Crysis Chart anyway.

Dose anyone believe I’m making one big wrong move deciding to go with the sli setup? It dose look like it will dominate over a single 260 for Crysis.

if cost vs performance weighs in favour of sli and you are 'mainly' planning for crysis, then that should be fine. but keep in mind that some games may not support SLI and you will lose out on the benefit of sli there.

Saying that i'm running sli, because it was way cheaper to buy a second 8800GTS than go to a GTX260/280

Oh and another thing to point out if you chose to go down the path that i did. If you intend to run multiple monitors. Only in vista can you use both monitors in SLI mode. whereas in XP one of the monitors is disabled in sli mode.

Just an update from whitedevil and where im at. There has been some last minute changes to my set up. Im now going for the single card soluation.....gtx260 216 OC. Ordered the rest and waiting now HD, optical, psu and gpu.
Ps: disreguard the shit in the background .

MOBO + RAM + CPU + ASUS HEATSINK



Will look heaps better when done.



Like I said just FYI the next post on the update will be the complete system.

Which NZXT is that one

l gots the Lexa

And nice comp

Jarhead wrote:

Which NZXT is that one

l gots the Lexa

And nice comp

Its the apollo. It looks good at night! Just an all round good case to work with, noob friendly to. lol

The finished result, after a long wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I must say, there have been some late nites gaming After all this all I can say is wow .... I have been missing out. Guys also let me know if I have a good 3dmark score? Cheers.

Specs:
MOBO Asus, P5QL PRO
RAM Kingston Hyper x 4 gigs
CPU Q6600
COOLING Arctic Square (Asus)
GPU GTX260 216
PSU Cosair HX620w
HD 500
DISK sony blueray

oooooo nice

beat mine by about 3500+

lol

Did you get the Cyborg keyboard? Whats it like?