Choosing a new PC

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darthvaderkenneth

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How much would a PC with intel core 2 duo E8500 and an ATI radeon HD3870x2 will cost? Also how good would it be at playing games like Crysis and CoD4.
 
Also, do you want to build it yourself or buy off the shelf? :)
 
I'm not sure about the chipset or motherboard but I would like 2-4 gigs of ram. Price about $1000-2000USD. Yeah i'm planning on buying it off the shelf.
 
Ok, this lot comes to $1478 and does not include Monitor; Speakers; keyboard; Mouse; Operating System.

Also note I couldn't find any USA suppliers stocking the 3.2Ghz E8500 so I've included the 3Ghz E8400 to give you a rough idea, Add a bit more for the E8500,

This is assuming you're building it yourself.

Prices from Newegg and there were mail-in cash rebates available on some items.

That would make a good gaming machine but you could economise and still have a very good machine.

I'd personally ditch the 2 x ATI cards in crossfire and go for an Nvidia 8800GT 512Mb or even an Ultra for that budget.

Here's specs:

E8400:…………………………………………………………$225
Asus P5K SE Motherboard: (with Crossfire)………$150
2 x ATI HD3870:……………………………………………..$500
2Gb Corsair XMS2 DDR2 memory PC6400……………$74
Samsung SATA 500Gb Hard drive:…………………………$110
OCZ 700 watt Power Supply:…………………………………$135
Antec 900 Gamer’s case:………………………………………$120
Pioneer SATA DVDRW:………………………………………..$32
Creative X-Fi Xtrene Gamer Sound card:…………………$81
Zalman CNPS9500 CPU Cooler:………………………………$45
Arctic Silver Thermal paste:……………………………………$6
 
Actually the HD3870x2 is one card not two HD3870 cards in cross fire so its about $100 cheaper It has 1024mb of memory which is more than the 8800ultra . I think i can spend it bit more for 4gb memory and the E8500 instead of the E8400.
 
well lets get this out of the way first...
having a Gig of memory on your graphics card will do you no good. Even at extreme resoulutions.
stick with a card that offers 512mb.

3870 is a great card otherwise.
 
Before you throw money away read the reviews and test reports om the 8800 GT's here ,

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/forum-56.php

happywave.gif
 
well to be fair, the 8800GT is still quite a bit more powerful than the 3870 is.
 
Ok, I might consider the 8800gt and gtx and the 3870x2 but what about the CPU? SHould I get a new wolfdale dual core or the yorkfield quadcores at 2.8ghz.(E8500 or Q9550)or should i w8 for the e8600 and q9650 which comes out about half a year latter
 
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I am planning to use the PC for playing less demanding games than crysis like vegas 2 and far cry 2, so should I get 2gb of memory instead of 4gb and is a 3.16ghz c2d better than a 2.8ghz c2q.
 
right now im sure the Duo is better, but as apps become more and more multi threaded, the quad will last you much longer.
 
What motherboard would support the quad and is 4gb of ram good enough for vista? The quakd q9550 costs about $500 and the video card $400, the ram $100-200 how much would the mobo, cooling systems, psu, sound card and a 20-22inchmonitor cost?
 
im not going to name some specs, cause frankly i dont know much on the Intel side of things but i figure....
Mobo - $200
Heatsinks - $50
PSU - $150-200
Sound - X-Fi fatality $140

right now a few people here recomend a certain LCD, but right now the name excapse me (Pebble somethingorother)
 
Alf said:
only if you dont play games at max detail
then yes
Click to expand...
Well how long would it last if I were to play at full detail. I know it won't handle crysis at max but wat about less demanding games like CoD4, BF2142 or future games like vegas 2 and Far Cry 2
 
it would be able to play anything out right now at max detail (except crysis). as for the future? i doubt it
thats the bad thing about computer gaming, the fastest card out right now may not be able to play a game maxxed out 4 months from now.
 
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