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X-dANGEr
Unknown Destiny
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 2383
Location: The X place |
quote:
Originally posted by Bartacus
Also don't believe X-dANGEr on this one. The latest Nvidia cards are just of the same quality and price as the latest ATI cards.
It is not only the GC, i also have 2 fans and one of them keeps getting broken every other day 
quote:
Originally posted by Gorath
I disagree. Not less than 1GB in such a PC. Everquest 2 is the first game which likes more than 1 GB. Others will follow in a year or 2. Now 1 GB is the right choice.
I agree with that, i have 256 MB Ram and it looks like RAM is the most important thing in gaminG???
Btw: You guys are Computers' experts...(there is a couple of things which i didn't understand, though, my brother told me what do they mean...)
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Thu Mar 10, 2005 4:06 pm |
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Toaster
Bread Alert
Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Posts: 5475
Location: Sweden |
This is what I would suggest for a new high-end silent system:
An Athlon 64 CPU, 3200+ or 3500+, WITH THE 90nm WINCHESTER CORE!
A Zalman CNPS7700-Cu CPU cooler, efficient and quiet
A MSI nForce4 PCI-Express motherboard
2*512 MB RAM, to gain access to the advantages of dual-channel memory
A HIS Excalibur Radeon X850XT IceQ2, this cooling solution is EXTREMELY good, and quiet
A >450W expensive PSU, they can handle higher currents, check some review to find a good silent one. I'd recommend an Antec NeoPower 480W PSU
Whatever pretty large miditower you want, I have a Antec P160, it's good
And don't forget a seperate sound card, it really makes difference. The only real option today is a Creative Audigy2
A small PATA HDD for the OS, so you won't have to install the SATA drivers from a floppy disk before you install the OS, and a large SATA HDD for storage. The Hitachi Deskstar 7K400 is a very good 400GB SATA disk
That's about all I think, and don't forget that if you don't plan to overclock, budget RAM is good enough, but don't go TOO budget
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Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:51 pm |
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Bartacus
Il Buono
Joined: 24 May 2003
Posts: 4706
Location: Belgium Flemmish part |
Gorath, I advised to get 1 GB of RAM, but today (as in today) it's not a real advantage. Tests came out proving that only for Doom3 there's a light advantage of 5 % while the others(Unreal, Half Life) only gave 2% advantage compared to 512MB RAM.
Btw, I'm not having any problems with my Nvidia cards (Aldi had a Nvidia 6610 in their former latest.) Gothic 2 (+NotR -subt) is running very smoothly on it.
Also about the empty stuff -> When I filled it in, I just coppied the link. I don't know why it comes up 'empty'.
Also about the sound cards. Think about it really good: either you want an incomparable sound experience with the Audigy 2 platium (you get all those nice little things in front) with a 5.1 THX certified soundspeakersystem or you want to use a very good sound on board with a 2.1 or just two speakers.
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Moderator and Council Magician of the RPGDot Shadows
member of the Sports Fans Forum
Leader's Right Hand at the Gothic Rogues
NFG member |
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Thu Mar 10, 2005 7:38 pm |
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Max Killen
Exalted Potentate
Joined: 04 Dec 2001
Posts: 1112
Location: Why not Minot? |
I am thinking about the following additions to the computer that I mentioned.
Does anyone see any conflicts with this:
X-Blade Mid-Tower 450 Watt with LCD Temperature Display and Fan Control
STANDARD CASE POWER SUPPLY
939-pin) AMD™ ATHLON™64 3200+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology ~ CAI307
(Sckt939)MSI K8N NEO4-F nForce4 Chipset SATA Raid PCI-E w/GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio
1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY
Kingston Hyper-X High Performance Memory w/ Heat Spreader
2x Seagate 80GB 7200RPM Serial ATA 150 8MB Cache
ATI RADEON X850 XT 256MB 16X PCI EXPRESS VIDEO CARD
Creative Labs SB AUDIGY 2 VALUE 7.1
This is weighing in at a little under 1600 bucks. Which is a few hundred more than I wanted to pay. But, I don't want to upgrade again for quite a while. Any comments? |
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Sat Mar 12, 2005 12:11 pm |
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Toaster
Bread Alert
Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Posts: 5475
Location: Sweden |
quote:
Originally posted by Max Killen
I am thinking about the following additions to the computer that I mentioned.
Does anyone see any conflicts with this:
X-Blade Mid-Tower 450 Watt with LCD Temperature Display and Fan Control
STANDARD CASE POWER SUPPLY
939-pin) AMD™ ATHLON™64 3200+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology ~ CAI307
(Sckt939)MSI K8N NEO4-F nForce4 Chipset SATA Raid PCI-E w/GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio
1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY
Kingston Hyper-X High Performance Memory w/ Heat Spreader
2x Seagate 80GB 7200RPM Serial ATA 150 8MB Cache
ATI RADEON X850 XT 256MB 16X PCI EXPRESS VIDEO CARD
Creative Labs SB AUDIGY 2 VALUE 7.1
This is weighing in at a little under 1600 bucks. Which is a few hundred more than I wanted to pay. But, I don't want to upgrade again for quite a while. Any comments?
That is really an excellent setup, I can't imagine that any game will stutter even at very high settings.
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Sat Mar 12, 2005 1:36 pm |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
Sounds good to me. I would still suggest a few tweaks:
-Buy the cheaper RAM. You won´t see a difference without overclocking. The ~115$ are better spent elsewhere.
-If you´re living in a hot area you should get the 3 additional ultra quiet fans in the CPU cooler section.
-Mention RAID 0 (striping) for the hard disks. I explained the (dis)advantages in another post.
-Only buy the SB Audigy if you have good speakers. Today´s onboard sound solutions are surprisingly good. You won´t notice much of a difference with cheap speakers.
-Consider upgrading the service. +3 years on site service for 80$ sounds like a fair deal.
Don´t overlook all the free stuff. HL2 or a printer are nice to have. 
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Sat Mar 12, 2005 1:37 pm |
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X-dANGEr
Unknown Destiny
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 2383
Location: The X place |
But isn't RAID 5 better?
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Sat Mar 12, 2005 1:48 pm |
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Bartacus
Il Buono
Joined: 24 May 2003
Posts: 4706
Location: Belgium Flemmish part |
True Gorath, certainly about the sound on board of the nforce cards.
@X-dANGEr: Raid 5 contains at least 3 Hard Disks. It works like this: x1+y1=z1
x1 is stored at HD1, y1 at HD 2 and z1 at HD 3. The next line of data will be stored as followed: x2 at HD2, y2 at HD3 and z2 at HD1. Now the advantage of Raid 5 is that when one HD fails, you can simply replace that one. The two others can easily be used now to recreate the data for the failed HD.
Understand that this is and expensive method and only used for valuable data. (servers!)
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Sun Mar 13, 2005 9:52 pm |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
RAID 5 is quite an expensive professional solution. RAID 0 or 1 controller are often for free on mainboards.
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Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:30 am |
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X-dANGEr
Unknown Destiny
Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 2383
Location: The X place |
@Bartacus: I know how does Raid 5 work , though, i didn't know it's price.
Btw: Aren't the info everyone of you has on his PC Valuable??? I mean, if one of the HDs in Raid 0 or 1 is ruined, then the other is, too!
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Mon Mar 14, 2005 12:27 pm |
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Toaster
Bread Alert
Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Posts: 5475
Location: Sweden |
Only in RAID 0, where you alternate data between the disks. In RAID 1 the same thing is written to both (or all if they're more than two, is that possible?) disks. That makes RAID 1 an incredibly safe HD setup, but you'll also have to pay twice as much for the space you want.
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Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:16 pm |
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Max Killen
Exalted Potentate
Joined: 04 Dec 2001
Posts: 1112
Location: Why not Minot? |
For whatever it's worth, I ordered this on Saturday:
2ND_USB: Add External USB 2.0 Hub (4x USB 2.0 Ports) (SILVER COLOR)
CABLE: Round Cable Upgrade for Hard Drive, Optical Drive & Floppy Drive
CASUPGRADE: NONE
CPU: (939-pin) AMD ATHLON 4 3200+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology ~ CAI307
CAS: X-BLADE Mid-Tower 450W W/ WINDOW & LCD Temperature Display + FAN CONTROL (SILVER COLOR)
CD: SONY 16X DVD-ROM [+3] (SILVER COLOR
CDRW: (Special Price) Samsung TS-H522B 16X DVD+/-R/+/-RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (SILVER COLOR
FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 6in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (SILVER COLOR
FAN: AMD ATHLON64 CERTIFIED CPU FAN & HEATSINK + 3 EXTRA CASE FANS
FLOPPY: 1.44 MB FLOPPY DRIVE (SILVER COLOR
HDD: Seagate 80GB 7200RPM Serial ATA 150 8MB Cache
HDD2: Seagate 80GB 7200RPM Serial ATA 150 8MB Cache
HALFLIFE2: Free "Half-Life 2 Bronze" Download Coupon
IEEE_CARD: NONE
KEYBOARD: Logitech Deluxe 104 PS/2 Keyboard (BLACK COLOR)
MOUSE: PS2 INTERNET MOUSE W/ WHEEL (SILVER COLOR
MODEM: 3COM US ROBOTIC PCI V.92 WINMODEM
MP3PLAYER: NONE
MOTHERBOARD: (Sckt939)MSI K8N NEO4-F nForce4 Chipset SATA Raid PCI-E w/GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio
MEMORY: 1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (GEIL VALUE RAM)
MONITOR: ViewSonic E90F+SB 19 INCH .22MM Ultra Bright Flat - Silver/Black 2 Tone
NAPSTER: Free Napster Download Coupon
NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition w/ Service Pack 2
PRINTER: EPSON Stylus C86 Color Inkjet Printer Free After Rebate
PRINTER_CABLE: 6-FT USB A/B Printer Cable]
POWERSUPPLY: STANDARD CASE POWER SUPPLY
RAID: RAID-0 (DATA STRIPPING)
RUSH: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS
SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY PLUS TWO-YEAR ONSITE SERVICE
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
SPEAKERS: Sicuro RW350XL 2.1 Gaming Speakers System (BLACK COLOR
SOFT1: Microsoft Works 7.0
TEMP: NONE (AS SHOWN)
UPS: None
VIDEO: ATI RADEON X850 XT 256MB 16X PCI EXPRESS VIDEO CARD]
VIDEO2: NONE
VIDEOCAMERA: NONE
WIRELESSPOINT: NONE
WIRELESSCARD: NONE
ZIP: NONE
It cost a little more than I had planned, but hopefully it will not be outdated too soon.
p.s. that x-blade case is sweeeeet |
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Tue Mar 15, 2005 9:44 pm |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
Looks good. You´ll have a lot of fun with it. 
I´m a bit surprised you ordered a CRT monitor, though. The Viewsonic has good technical features and is probably a very good monitor you can use for many years, but I thought nowadays people would rather invest in a TFT. Especially since their quality is good and still improves every few months.
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Wed Mar 16, 2005 5:24 pm |
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