PC Game/Normal/Budget advice

ID:183465
 
Jul 24 2007, 2:28 pm (Edited on Jul 24 2007, 2:41 pm)
Ok..My dad has some plans to buy a new PC for my little brother, but as usual, he has a big grin on his face as if he's going to buy new PC upgrades for the entire family.....so I planned a little ahead..

The goal for my own PC is to run Elder Scrolls IV on Medium-High with high FPS, as well as a decent FPS on Cellfactor, Lost Planet, and Shadowrun

Goal for my Dad's PC is to mainly work with autocad...and download stuff like music games and apps >_>

My little brother? He gets all crappy 2001 games like Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 and The Sims. (and he loves em) But he's currently using an old pentium 3

PS: Some of the words down there might be in dutch....
(zwart = black, zilver = silver, etc)

All these exclude Monitors, HDD and DVD-Players as I'm just using my plain old ones for those.

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This PC-upgrade would be mine...

Corsair 2x1GB PC8500 Dominator Twin2X DDR2 SDRAM *CAS 5-5-5* €181,00
Aopen AO700-12ALN 700W €116
Arctic Cooling ATI Accelero X2 *1800/1900 Serie* €23,00
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO (Socket 775) €21,00
Asus P5WDH Deluxe €146,00
Sapphire ATI X1950XT 512MB DDR3 SDRAM (PCI-E) €230.00
Coolermaster Centurion 5 Miditower zwart/zilver €58
Creative SoundBlaster X-FI Xtreme Gamer 7.1 €61.00
Intel Conroe X6800 Core2 Extreme (Socket 775, 2.93Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, 4MB) €868,00
Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard €72,00
Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical Mouse €45,00

total ~ €1821.00
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This PC-upgrade would be for my dad...

Corsair 2x1GB PC8500 Dominator Twin2X DDR2 SDRAM *CAS 5-5-5* €181,00
Aopen AO700-12ALN 700W €116
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO (Socket 775) €21,00
Asus P5WDH Deluxe €146,00
Sapphire ATI X1650Pro 512MB DDR2 SDRAM (PCI-E) €72
Coolermaster Centurion 5 Miditower zwart/zilver €58
Creative SoundBlaster X-FI Xtreme Audio 7.1 €59.00
Intel Conroe E6850 Core2Duo (Socket 775, 3.00Ghz, 1333Mhz FSB, 4MB ) €251
Logitech Media Keyboard Elite €22,00
Logitech Pilot Optical Mouse Zwart €18,00

total ~ €944.00
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This PC-upgrade would be for my lil brother..

Aopen QF50D Miditower 350W zwart/zilver €50.00
Asus P5GZ-MX *Conroe-support* €54.00
Intel Celeron D 356 (Socket 775, 3.33Ghz, 533Mhz, 512KB) €48,00
Kingston 1GB PC5300 DDR2 SDRAM €42,00
Western Digital 80GB (WD800JD, 7200RPM, SATA,8MB) €41,00
Sapphire ATI X1600PRO 256MB DDR3 SDRAM (PCI-E) €59,00
Creative SoundBlaster X-FI Xtreme Audio 7.1 €59.00
total ~ €353
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Jul 24 2007, 10:27 pm
Does your dad really need that maxed-out graphics card if he's going to be running music games and apps?
Only the most recent hardcore FPSes (and maybe if you work with lots of image/video editing programs, multiple monitors etc.) are gonna need that kind of power.


My friend and I recently built him (my friend, not your dad) a top of the range PC from scratch and it cost about £1000 in all, monitor included. VAT included in that price (adding about 15-20% from the raw price?).

Your PC is going to cost approx. £1,200, to put it in comparison. Mind you he has integrated sound, whereas you've got a nice soundcard and professional grade keyboard and mouse, which is what we skimped on too. I believe his processor wasn't quite as powerful as yours too (nice, btw :P). We didn't get any of those cooling slot things for him, either.

So uh, I think your PC price pretty much makes sense. If you wanted to you could skimp on a few of those extra bits, mind. Depends how loaded you are. =P
Jul 24 2007, 11:28 pm (Edited on Jul 24 2007, 11:40 pm)
gaming grade keyboards are pointless. Just get a cheap 10 dollar logitech basic keyboard. Spend more on the mouse. I personally like my diamondback razor, but I you might prefer wireless.

G SKILL 800 will do just fine, that ram is over priced and hardly adds any performance.

Make sure that X-FI sound card is the 64 bit version (the one with the on board ram).

Go with a Q6600 Intel Processor, best bang for the buck.

700W is kind of over kill, unless you'll be running two video cards.

Forget the Sapphire ATI 1950 XT. USeless to buy when you can get an 8800 GTS 320mb which runs way faster for only like 40 bucks more.

As far as cases go... I LOVE my ANTEC NINE HUNDRED case. Huge fans, lights up (not too bright) and when the summer gets hot it can take games o nhighest settings without over heating under full load. You'll have to buy an extension cable since the power supply is located on bottom of case, but that's not a big deal they cost like 5-10 dollars.

As far as that ASUS P5WDH goes... I really really like the EVGA board. http://204.14.213.185/Product/ Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188019

My friend has it and he hasn't had any problems with it. Ran smooth as a baby out of box.



For little brother:

Build him an athlon set up.

Ram

http://204.14.213.185/Product/ Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098 (88 bucks)

Athlon 64 x2 Brisbane 3800 (65 bucks or so)

http://204.14.213.185/product/ product.asp?item=N82E16811208008 (65 buck case with power supply)

I don't know if I'd expect the power supply to be any good, but for a little kid it's not like he needs super powerful machine...

http://204.14.213.185/Product/ Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102068 (94 dollar video card)
You can go higher and go with the radeon 1950 Pro which is just a top of the line card for any now day games for only 130 bucks.

http://204.14.213.185/product/ product.asp?item=N82E16829102002

Audigy will do fine. Doesn't really need x-fi for the sims.

http://204.14.213.185/product/ product.asp?item=N82E16823126017

basic keyboard 14 bucks

http://204.14.213.185/product/ product.asp?item=N82E16822148144

basic hard drive (more than enough space and it's fast). Seagates the best!

http://204.14.213.185/Product/ Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130048

Great MSI board. I love it. It comes with a great onboard sound as well, so you might be able to scratch the audigy if you don't care that much about sound for your little brother.





Jul 25 2007, 5:21 am (Edited on Jul 25 2007, 5:32 am)
In response to Elation
Ill make some adjustments with the processor and graphics card.. ill post it later on.

Cant find any info regarding a 64-bit onboard-ram Creative X-fi..

and would a 400W suffice?
Jul 25 2007, 7:55 pm
In response to Kazekage
Fatality series of X-fi cards should have 64 bit. I just hope you're not running vista ultimate... it's hardly compatible with anything yet.
Jul 26 2007, 3:51 am
In response to Jon Snow
the Fatality one is almost double the price of the regulars, but ill consider it..

I'm NOT running Vista..yet..because of the lack of drvers and support for now.

RAM I switched over to Gskill, Video a 8800GTS 320MB DDR3, and for the processor a Q6600 (a MAJOR pain relief in my budget)

Assuming 400W should be good enough for this comp, I think im staying with my current setup
Jul 26 2007, 6:50 am
In response to Kazekage
For your main computer I'd go with 550-600 watts. 400 watts for your bro though :P

Hope I helped.

Oh ya, the fatality isn't necessarily needed, you can go with the cheaper brotherin I just heard that in some of the latest most intensive online games it can help stop the "random lag" from fps.