Gaming Machine Recommendations

mnosteele52 · Post by **mnosteele52** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 1:04 pm

OK guys, I've got a client who is also a good friend who wants a GOOD gaming machine. I prefer to to stick with an MSI motherboard, I will not even consider an ASUS. It doesn't matter whether or not it's an AMD or Intel, most likely I will go with an Intel Duo Core since right now it's the fastest out there. I definitely want SLI and an excellent video card, RAM will most likely be Corsair. Hard drives will definitely be Western Digital and DVDRW's will be LiteOn. I mainly need recommendations for motherboard, CPU and video cards. Also, Nvidia cards only I hate ATI.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 2:15 pm

look on the newegg public wish lists for gaming.

http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wis ... Order=DESC

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 3:37 pm

I'd go Quad core setup as the price is just about right... for video card just stick to a single BFG 8800Ultra since the drivers for SLI and 8 series cards are very screwed for the majority. As for HDD.... Raptor all the way baby!! And just make sure you a future proof Power supply... next one I'm going to get is the 1K PcPowerand cooling...its the best!

You don't like ASUS boards but that is the brand I would stick with at the moment or a BFG tech board.

I'm sure others will be critical of my choices but ohh well...

Shagster · Post by **Shagster** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 3:58 pm

Yes we will be.

8800 Ultra is the dumbest recommendation on the internet.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 4:53 pm

Shagster wrote:Yes we will be.

8800 Ultra is the dumbest recommendation on the internet.

whatever man.. this is what he said.

I definitely want SLI and an excellent video card

Shagster · Post by **Shagster** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 5:42 pm

I really don't know how to explain it to you Sava so I just won't.

8800gt 512Mb is coming out in the next few days, its more powerful than a 8800gts 640mb and slightly below a 8800gtx for <$250. I'd get two of those and put them in SLI. If he's blowing some trust fund then two gtx's in sli.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:13 pm

Shagster wrote:I really don't know how to explain it to you Sava so I just won't.

8800gt 512Mb is coming out in the next few days, its more powerful than a 8800gts 640mb and slightly below a 8800gtx for <$250. I'd get two of those and put them in SLI. If he's blowing some trust fund then two gtx's in sli.

Doesn't matter let em look at the differences and decide....if I were the buyer I'd get a Ultra cause for the money its the best.

Here is a small chart about the GT and GTS plus another GTS coming out.. then you have the GTX and the Ultra which isn't on here is obviously better.

loop2kil · Post by **loop2kil** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 9:05 pm

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... &Tpk=X3210

The quad core xeon would be my choice for the cpu

Izzo · Post by **Izzo** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:33 pm

Shagster wrote:I really don't know how to explain it to you Sava so I just won't.

8800gt 512Mb is coming out in the next few days, its more powerful than a 8800gts 640mb and slightly below a 8800gtx for <$250. I'd get two of those and put them in SLI. If he's blowing some trust fund then two gtx's in sli.

They're supposed to be out tomorrow ....I've read they run fairly hot but they are, dollar for dollar, the best buy out there.

Shagster · Post by **Shagster** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 1:20 am

Funny thing is it beats up the 8800gts 640mb...which I owned a week ago and sold off for $300. Now I can buy a brand new 8800gt that beats it out for $250.

BTW, the temps are higher because of the single stack heatsink.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 5:02 am

Well an 8800GTX ultra instead of SLI sounds good to me, hell even a solid GTX over SLI'd others I'd prefer. I'm not a big fan of Asus though I do recomend them as it seems I get all the dead ones, making them great for everyone else. I cant stand MSI boards lol

Look at the hitachi 1 terabit hard drives, FAST!

For the cpu im kinda tied up between a quad core or a higher clocked dual core one. Would be nice to hear some positive info about near future games definately using SMP.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 8:06 am

Just some notes...
Seasonic for power supply...wow are they quality stuff! Using them lately...impressed with them.
Careful on your selection of RAM, if you need RAM which requires more than the standard 1.8V...your RAM and motherboard choice can lead to some issues...they all don't always place nice together once your get outside the standard.
Honestly try to get them to reconsider SLI...it's more bragging rights than noticable performance gain.
Some hard drives out there now with 16 and 32 megs of cache..seek those...esp the newer models with 32 megs.

Shagster · Post by **Shagster** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 12:42 pm

I'll try to make this more clear...

The GTX is an ULTRA. Same card. With the factory overclocks on the GTX the core speed on the ultra is like 15mhz higher and the memory on the ultra is 100mhz faster. Same core, same number of stream processor, etc.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130079 $590.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130092 $680.00

...are pretty much the same. So why does the ultra even exist? Because nvidia released it to beat the 2900xt at a few application benchmarks the 8800gtx couldn't beat it at.

While SLI isn't the greatest, (I personally think its a waste of money), two 8800gt's would destroy either of the two cards linked above for a cheaper price.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:43 pm

Shagster wrote:While SLI isn't the greatest, (I personally think its a waste of money), two 8800gt's would destroy either of the two cards linked above for a cheaper price.

Only for games that have an SLI profile and no bugs with SLI, seems liek SLI is always a problem for games when they come out minus the huge titles people are waiting for.

Shagster · Post by **Shagster** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:53 pm

YARDofSTUF wrote:Only for games that have an SLI profile and no bugs with SLI, seems liek SLI is always a problem for games when they come out minus the huge titles people are waiting for.

If it works you will benefit. If not you can turn off sli and run a single 8800gt which is almost as good as a gtx.

mnosteele52 · Post by **mnosteele52** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:08 pm

OK, thanks for the recommendations guys. After speaking with him he said his budget is $2000 and he is not as concerned with it being the "ultimate" gamer, but a very good gamer and multitasking pc. Here is what I have come up with:

Motherboard: MSI P6N Diamond LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor

Memory: CORSAIR XMS2 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel

Video: BFG Tech BFGE86512GTOCFE GeForce 8600GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported

Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150

Optical Drive: LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write

Sound: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme HD Audio

Lan: 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet by NVIDIA

Case: COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKA1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case Real Power Pro 550W Power Supply

Monitor: ViewSonic X Series VX2240W Black-Silver 22" 2ms(GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1, 4000:1 (DC)

OS: Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Home Premium

Thoughts?

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:37 pm

mnosteele52 wrote:
Thoughts?

Good choice for primary hard drive. I recommend a second hard drive...for both storage, and moving the pagefile.sys to that drive. Having the virtual memory on a second spindle greatly increases performance for some of todays more demanding games. Map/level loading, etc. The price for adding a second hard drive, say just a 250 giger or so..is negligable for a 2K budget.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:56 pm

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822145166

Those drives, you dont even need the raptor, that and the 1TB drive from hitachi are raptor killers.

mnosteele52 · Post by **mnosteele52** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 5:47 pm

YARDofSTUF wrote:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822145166

Those drives, you dont even need the raptor, that and the 1TB drive from hitachi are raptor killers.

I've always been loyal to WD because of reliability, but that Hitachi has a 32mb cache and is 750GB for only $199, I think I will try it out, thanks for the link.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 6:18 pm

mnosteele52 wrote:I've always been loyal to WD because of reliability, but that Hitachi has a 32mb cache and is 750GB for only $199, I think I will try it out, thanks for the link.

I'm running raptors right now and hoping that by the time I need to buy another drive theres a raptor thats worth it cuz WD has been great to me as well.

But hitachi is on a roll right now, those drives in raid are just nasty!

KINGoFOOLS · Post by **KINGoFOOLS** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 1:11 pm

Shagster wrote:Funny thing is it beats up the 8800gts 640mb...which I owned a week ago and sold off for $300. Now I can buy a brand new 8800gt that beats it out for $250.

BTW, the temps are higher because of the single stack heatsink.

Source?

KINGoFOOLS · Post by **KINGoFOOLS** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 1:21 pm

oh snap 700MHZ gpu?!

http://www.evga.com/products/moreinfo.a ... P3-N806-A1

benchmark

http://forums.firingsquad.com/firingsqu ... .id=111214

Joel · Post by **Joel** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 2:40 pm

mnosteele52 wrote:OK, thanks for the recommendations guys. After speaking with him he said his budget is $2000 and he is not as concerned with it being the "ultimate" gamer, but a very good gamer and multitasking pc. Here is what I have come up with:

Motherboard: MSI P6N Diamond LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor

Memory: CORSAIR XMS2 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel

Video: BFG Tech BFGE86512GTOCFE GeForce 8600GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported

Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150

Optical Drive: LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write

Sound: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme HD Audio

Lan: 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet by NVIDIA

Case: COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKA1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case Real Power Pro 550W Power Supply

Monitor: ViewSonic X Series VX2240W Black-Silver 22" 2ms(GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1, 4000:1 (DC)

OS: Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Home Premium

Thoughts?

That 8600GT will get slapped around in games. Go for an 8800GT if you can fit it in the budget for sure.

Jamie_R · Post by **Jamie_R** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 3:41 pm

uh oh ... newegg is sold out of all the 8800gt cards except for one - a more expensive model - Leadtek I think ... but I'm on Auto-Notify ...

really excited about this card ....

mnosteele52 · Post by **mnosteele52** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 5:00 pm

The reason I was going with the 8600GT is because Brent's review at HardOcp says it's the best for the money, the 256MB version that is, so I figured the 512MB version would be even better and it's not that much more. The 8800 is double the price of the 8600.

Shagster · Post by **Shagster** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 8:16 am

I'd say the 8800gt is the best bang for the buck now. I mean, its a $250 video card meant to replace a $350 video card. Nvidia and ATI are correcting the 'no mainstream cards between 150 and 300 dollars' problem. 8600 is actually a low end card while the 8400 is simply a joke.

Jamie_R · Post by **Jamie_R** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:17 pm

newegg has a few 8800gt cards in stock right now.

go grab one - I just grabbed mine

pcuse5 · Post by **pcuse5** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 5:24 am

Hey you can have a look at the EVGA 512-P3-N802-A1 GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

phino · Post by **phino** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 12:25 pm

i have the e-GeForce 8800 GTS Superclocked, i'm getting confused reading all these feedbacks, wanted to know the word on this. =) So far everyone i've asked told me it's a great choice to go.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 12:32 pm

phino wrote:i have the e-GeForce 8800 GTS Superclocked, i'm getting confused reading all these feedbacks, wanted to know the word on this. =) So far everyone i've asked told me it's a great choice to go.

Its not a bad card, just with the release of the 8800 GT it isnt the best deal for the money right now.

phino · Post by **phino** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 12:47 pm

ahh ok. thanks =)