Has anyone got a good grip of the latest hardware ?

I have been out the scene for a while and want to buy a new PC for gaming. I want a good machine that will cope with the latest games easily.

Any review/ideas welcome.

thanks

3Ghz
Ati card, i would suggest either 9600XT 256MB Ram or 9800 Pro 128 MB Ram
1GB ram atleast IMO

the reason i wouldnt suggest a x800 or another x series, is cuz games dont even fully utilize the 8x agp, u dont notice a big performance increase from the 4x to the 8x IMO so a 16x is just 2 far ahead really

can i play?
amd64
radeon 9800 pro (from a good brand... perhaps sapphire?)
1gb corsair/kingston/geil ddr400
160gb SATA maxtor or seagate f.e.
audigy2 player (it's better than any mobo integrated sound and it's not too expensive ~50/60$)
for mobo recommendations ...(at least 6usb 2.0, firewire, nforce chipset and most important sata connector)... google it's a really good friend

It depends a lot on your budget and preferences too... (mind you I'm no gamer)

I've been shocked when I say how easily and how much you can OC a Socket 754 Sempron 3100+ to like a equiv rating of over 4000+ (being faster than a Athlon 64 that costs leasily 4 or 5 times as much, and the socket 754 boards are cheaper than the 939 ones). A LOT of bang for the buck.

If I was buying a new PC right now (I might very soon too), here's what I'd pick:

-ASUS K8N-E DELUXE S754 NFORCE 250GB 175$ CDN (~135 USD)
it's got 6 SATA ports, dual RAID, 8 channel audio, firewire, 8 usb 2 ports, gbit ethernet...
-S754 Sempron 3100+ 170$ CDN (~140 USD)
-2x 512MB DDR400, 100$ CDN Each (~80 USD Each)
-2x 200GB SATA 8MB HD (Maxtor, WD, whatever's on the special-du-jour) 135$ CDN each (~107 USD each) - nice and cheap sataraid0 setup
-Pioneer DVR-108 (if you need a new fast DL DVD burner) 100$ CDN (~80 USD again)
-Radeon 9600XT 256MB 225$ cdn (~180 USD)
-A uh, something, ok case with decent PSU, 60$ cdn (~48 USD)

For 1200$'ish CDN (~950 USD), you get quite a nice rig. It'll do anything you try, and fast. Lots of CPU (OCs nicely), lots of fast storage, fast DL DVD burning, nice gfx card... I'm most likely going to buy this exact system very soon (other than with a cheaper vid card - most likely 9600 pro - as I don't play games) Try to come up with more value than that

[edit] (there's always someone submitting a post as I'm typing mine!) If I wanted to have a separate sound card, I'd definately pick a MAudio over anything made by creative, but I guess it's because I'm coming more from a HTPC background rahter than gaming...

Do you think SATA makes a big difference ? Has anyone got any info/detail on this..

Thanks for the help so far...

hail hail

It doesn't make a super huge difference, but why buy the old interface with the flat ribbon cables (and for sure no performance gain to PATA) when the price difference is so small now - and that all the boards are moving to SATA? Wheter we like it or not, it's the future, and generally speaking, it's cheaper to maintain the newer stuff down the road (as stuff isn't "mainstream" anymore the prices start to raise again)

talking about speed... ata133<ata150... talking about cpu use... about 30% less when copying files... the big difference is 2 ata133 slots free to add any other device

I'm about to buy winfast leadtek 256mb 6800 GT 8x AGP

i think this question is mostly hardware based to i'd move it

I'd buy an asus motherboard
I'd buy amd 64 (i know its not very common but i'd still get it)
also some stuff can be cpu specific, so some programs are utilitiesed for amd some for intel....

sata would be a nice choice. if u don't believe in the speed at least the cables look nice

get at least 1gb ram, i've seen pc 4400 get them

everyone is offering u 9600xt and look at tomshardware there is a huge gap between 9600xt's and x800's 6800's so if u have the budget and real hardcore gamer get 6800.

also if u get 6800 u don't have to get a motherboard with pci-x slot

thanks everyone.

I think I will go with the SATA to future proof a little and I might use the PC for burning DVD's so the speed might make a difference for me. I have lots of informationn now to go and get a PC now.

Hail Hail to a good help this afternoon

The Athlon 64 has hardly any advantages over that sempron 3100+ (which REALLY outperforms it if you OC it-simple OC with stock HSF, just changing a bios setting. It's pretty unreal how easy it was and how much you could push the chip)

the main 2 advantages of the Athlon 64:
-it's 64 bits. Oh wait, nothing uses it, it's not really an advantage, or not quite a significant one anywas
-about an extra 2% speed or so on the memory bus (...)

That sempron once OC'ed will definately outperform a Athlon 64 at 4 or 5x the price of it at least. I don't see why one would want to go that way, unless you got some major money to spend. Not like the average guy could afford a Athlon 64 that fast. And the much slower performing Athlon 64 still costs nearly twice as much... Peronsally, I'd much rather spend the difference on something else (more RAM, more storage or a faster vid card)

If your really looking to furture proof your machine you may want to consider going with the Intel 915 / 925x chipset.
This new chipset imploys a new 775 ziff LGA (lan grid array) And uses a PCX vid card slot.
The CPU and MOBO are about the same price (sometimes even cheaper) and have some obivious benifits, such as onboard sound that rivals the audigy 2 in quality, uses very little cpu, onboard raid IDE and SATA!
Apprently the chipset nativly also has the capablity of Wireless G, but they are determining if that feature will be unlocked.

The only downside to it is, the DDR2 is abit more expensive. Howver i belve its worth if if you are a hardcore user that plans to upgrade to the latest and greatest. The new 1066 gsb P4s and faster DDR2 will most likly be supported on the 925x, which should keep you pretty current for the next few years.

|Drew|

crahak, that sermpron is awesome. I am asking you for computer buying advice from now on .

Thanks again guys great info for me to chew over.

hail hail

AMD Athlon 64 3200 Winchester 90nm (Socket 939)

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (Socket 939) Motherboard or Asus A8V Rev.2 Deluxe (Socket 939) Motherboard

GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5
GeIL Value offers outstanding performance levels at a very low price point and is compatible with all systems whilst been reliable backed up by a lifetime warranty. GeIL Value also has good overclocking ability

Abit ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP)

Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache (for OS only super fast boot times)

Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 160GB 1600JD SATA 8MB (for storage and game installs)

ThermalRight XP-120 (Socket 754/939/478) Heatsink or ThermalRight XP-90 (Socket 754/939/478) Heatsink depending on motherboard and wether the XP-120 will fit does on the asus

would make a pretty **** uber PC that could run every game currently available with ease

if you go AMD make sure you get a socket 939 chip there replacing the 754 pin cpus.

Athlon 64 3200 & MSI K8N = ~100$ more the S754 sempron 3100+ setup I suggested, and is quite slower too. Whenever your sempron "4000+" won't cut it anymore, I don't think it'll really matter anymore wheter it's a S754 or 939. There will be newer better/faster chipsets, DDR2, most likely PCI Express, and other features, so you will want to change no matter what (I have yet to change the CPU on a computer - and not the board at the same time), and that 100$ you'll have saved by buying the faster sempron will basically pay for the new board (or most of it). Faster PC for cheaper, works for me Socket 939 now is hardly an advantage, and as for what you'll replace your PC with later, it doesn't really matter either... Unless you want to upgrade that board in a year to something like a Athlon 64 4000 - which performance you'd get *today* for that 100$ cheaper setup - and without having to pay for the new Athlon 64 4000 CPU down the road (so more than 100$ saved)... I just can't see why someone would want the Athlon 64 over the sempron at this point in time (unless money is really no problem and you can fork out the extra $$$ for the Athlon 64 4000 now)

sempron is a budget cpu.
939 chipsets have dual channel ddr 754 dont.
he said he wanted a gaming rig

semprons only have 256k l2 cache compared to the athlon 64's 512k or 1024k depending on wether you get a winchester or clawhammer
that extra l2 cache is going to make a massive difference in games.

btw amd 64 3200+ winchester core can do 2.5ghz on air if he ever plans on overclocking
if he is prepared to wait a month he could get an NForce 4 motherboard which are only going to be made in socket939 and will be PCI-Express

Ya if you plan to go the amd 64 route, id reccomend taking snoops advice, there is defenatly somthing to be said about the additional cache and the dual chan mem ...ie you can expect another 15-20% of performance where it counts.
I know every freakin overclocking Duron and Semperon nut job is gonna come out of the wood work here, but saving a 100 bucks or so is not worth the stability and versitilty of a top end CPU with the bonus in cache and the current technology of Dual chan memory.

If High end gaming and horsepower is what you want and need dont skimp when it comes to these features.

PS- Snoop is a Bacon and egg sandwitching eating n00b!


|Drew|

The cache and double memory bandwidth don't make anything near that much difference at all. Memory bandwidth is only about 3%, and cache wise, it doesn't affect the cpu much either, unlike it would on a P4. And the Sempron being clocked so much faster, that sempron will run today at almost the same speed as a Athlon 64 4000 will.

Stability wise, it is very stable they say (only the CPU runs faster, not the rest of the system-which is most of the problem usually). I'm not a overclocking fan by any means (at least when it comes to water cooling and stuff like that to save 20$ on a faster CPU) but this one is a killer. And again, Memory bandwidth and cache don't make such a big difference at all (it's a lot more about low latencies than memory bandwidth). It's more like 10% tops for both, nothing that will bring that Athlon 64 anywhere as fast as the sempron would run. The sempron 3100+ benches the same thing as a Athlon 64 2800 on most tests, OC'ed, it just slaughters it - also on memory bandwitdh benches even though the memory bandwidh is lower and that the L2 cache is smaller...

Athlon 64's don't overclock well at all (they're already clocked to the limit, and bigger die size won't help either), and socket 939 isn't good for that either from what most places say.

Of course, if you can afford the athlon 64 4000 now and get a nforce 4 board next week... The Athlon 64 is nicer, but I like the more for less idea. Socket 939 doesn't deliver more performance right now (even for more money), and as you'll need to upgrade, you'll be getting another board anyways... So I hardly see any benefit to it for now or later. If you really don't want to OC at all then I suppose the Athlon 64 might be a better pick for you.

the new 90nm core ones do.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2242&p=5

l2 cache means alot in games though

Cheers Snoop more info for me.

hail hail