I have $300 dollars to spend for a CPU, motherboard and RAM. Here's my lineup: AMD "Barton" 2500+ Soltek 75FRN2-RL Kingston 256MB PC3200 DDR400Mhz x2 Could I do any better than this for around $300? It's all about gaming for me BTW.
Ok, thanks. I'm just a little nervous when it comes to uprgrading because the last time I upgraded was when I bought my first the video card; the GeForce FX5200 for $99 at BestBuy in about mid-June, and found out that I could've gotten the Ti4200 for $20 more that kicks its @$$ by 2x as much. Well, now that I will have the AIW9800Pro, AMD 2500+, Soltek, and Kingston RAM by about Xmas, I think that there will be no reason for upgrading in at least a few years. Maybe if there's a huge price drop in the 400MHz FSB AMD I will upgrade my CPU. However, my 40GB HDD has not failed me yet and over 3 years I have never seen it more than 25gigs full. I also am a bit neverous about the PSU though, and hope that it will power my new mostrosity(300W.) Oh, and how do I set up my PC when the parts arrive? I thought it was a plug-and-play installation, but my friend said that I needed to do all the settings in the BIOS! Huh??! I have the faintest idea on how to set the BIOS up, and enable features like dual channel and junk to optimize my PC in the best way possible. Thx for all the help.
300W might do it if you're not OCing and don't have a stacked config. I'd read something over at Dan's Data about SFF systems running 220W PSU's with a high-end CPU and graphics card. If it's a decent PSU, it should work. Dual-channel should automatically kick in if you have a DIMM in both channels. You may have to a few minor things in BIOS, but anymore most you just set it up and go. I would suggest putting the CPU and heatsink, memory and a video card in outside the case and powering it up before hand in the event something happens to be screwy. You'll also need to have that PSU hooked up. You'll need to short the power button pins to do it this way (you could hook up the case power lead, but it's more of a pain, IMO), and I just use a flat head screwdriver here.
You mean it's possible to power on you're motherboard alone ? Hmm...seens a little bit advanced for me. Will the whole thing fry if its a bad MoBo b/c I didn't do the diagnostic you suggested?
Yup. Though having a few components will make it less likely to bark at you. Really, this is a good way to make sure there isn't a problem with a minimal setup. Personally, I'd still install the CPU, heatsink and RAM in there, as many motherboards have the CPU socket oriented as such that you need to remove the PSU or motherboard to install or unistall the CPU heatsink and processor. It won't kill you not to do it, but you know the bare config like that works or doesn't before installing it in the case and finding out something's screwy. Sometimes you might accidentally put a mounting post in the case and it's shorting out the motherboard. If you know the system worked fine outside, then you have less to diagnose in the problems department.
Yeah well this guy over @ FilePlanet(I won't point fingers) said I'd be lucky to see my machine even start. I will bew gettinh the Antec True 480W P/S though. I think I may be getting the 9800XT instead of the AIW9800PRO now. Is this a wise decision? If I were to get a card this expensive, would it last for a few years, since it has 256MB of memory? Or buy the time Half-Life 2 comes out will there already be a video card that it later and greater than this beast? Because if there will be, I'm all for the future one. But the XT looks awfully tempting with its HS&F, OverDrive feature, and voucher for a FREE game of Half-Life 2. I don't want to buy a 9600 PRO like everyone else, because then my card would be really outdated in the times to come. I havn't really played any graphically demanding games lately (except for Halo which single player plays like crap, and DE: IW demo is just ugly). Should I wait until Half-Life 2 comes out to get the best card? Remember, it's supposed to last me 'til I start rakin' in the cash(a few years or so).
You can always keep waiting for a better card. It is likely that ATi and nVidia will have a new GPU line out roughly around the same timefram HL2 might come out (April 04), but 04/04 has not been declared the month that we'll see HL2. Both ATi and nVidia operate on a pretty tight 6 month product cycle. HL2's release date has not been finalized, so we may very well not see it in April. We might not see it for a year. I don't have the fastest blazin stuff available, but my Radeon 8500LE is still a pretty good card. I can still do decent res with eye candy in stuff like UT2003, and this is at 1280x1024 @ 32-bit color depth. You play even lower.
Yes I know you can do just fine in low-detail games such as CS and UT2003, but just wait until the whole new surge of games keeps coming out. It's all over now. I have a GeForce FX5200 and Halo can get pretty ugly on it. I'm just wondering if the next gfx card would have like 16 pipelines or something and super clock speeds. And they make 'em every six months right? Shouldn't there be oe due out in January then? The R350 came out in June.
Well like Big B said, if you keep waiting for the next card, you'll never buy one. As for the XT versus the AIW, they're not comparable imo. One is the fastest card, pure and simple, and the other as all the bells and whistles, as well as being very fast. Since you're considering those two, I think we can fairly say you don't really need the AIW functions. that, plus the 9800 XT is not extremely faster than the 9800 Pro, so I'd just get that and be happy with it. It's a very fast card, believe me. Of course the best deal is a flashable 9800 non-pro but luck is involved so if you're on a budget, forget that route altogether. In any case, if the price difference between the 9800 Pro and the 9800 XT is bigger than the price of HL2 ($40 ?), then go for the 9800 Pro, else, go for the 9800 XT. As for the future, look at the 9700 Pro. It's been around for more than a year right ? And it's still one of the fastest cards out there. I'd take it over a 5900 Ultra anytime. It's not as fast but it's very fast and doesn't have all the problems the other has.
I've already searched for a Sapphire flashable non-pro for days, but never had I come up with anything. @NewEgg the AIW is $376, $10 more than the PRO, so I said what the hey. There is a Visiontek Radeon 9800XT for $443 @ PRICE WATCH . I've read the reviews and benchmarks and the XT ONLY GETS 2 OR 3 more fps! LOL. But you do get the $50 Half-Life 2. So is this enough to justify the $67 price difference b/w the XT and the AIW9800PRO? I think it is, but anything more than $443 for the XT is just absurd. Do you think I'm better off getting the regular 9800 Pro? Any reccomeded sites to buy this junk from?
NVM, the XT for $443 is OEM. Maybe I'll just buy the Pro for $349.99 at BestBuy. Will the Pro let me hook my comp up to the TV so I can play games on the TV?
