Stop me making a big mistake

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Hi all,

Wonder if any of you clever bods can help me out. I'm looking to buy a new PC, and I've got a really good price on the machine below. Using it for heavy duty gaming mostly. Thinking about upgrading it to the 64 bit 3000 processor. What do you you guys think as i'm rubbish at this sort of thing!

TMW


AMD Athlon Barton XP3200+ 400Mhz FSB

Cooler Master XP3300+ CPU Heatink/Fan

ASRock K7S8XE 400Mhz FSB, DDR333/400 Support, 8XAGP, 5 PCI Slots

1GB DDR400 RAM Latest DDR400 Matching CPU

120GB Hard Drive Major Brand, Featuring 7,200 RPM

8x DVD+/-RW Dual Format Inc CDRW & DVD-ROM

6 x USB2 Ports, LAN Port & 5.1 Sound Plenty Of Ports

ATI Radeon9200 With 128MB DDR Memory, 8x and TV-Out
 
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For heavy-duty gaming, you will want a WAY better graphics card than that... the Ati 9800XT has come down in price a bit, or go whole hog and get an X800. But they VERY expensive!
 

muckshifter

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Get a decent motherboard on your list ... :rolleyes:
 
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There are 2 things that immediatly hit me when i look at that - Motherboard and Graphics. Personally i would get a board from someone like Asus or Abit or Gigabyte maybe - will give you better performance in games...

...speaking of which the 9200 is NOT a card that can handle todays games!! you need at LEAST a 9800pro to have any chance of playing recent games with decent resolution and eye candy turned on. The fact that it is AGP 8x will not make it good - its still a 9200.

See the picture attached for a comparison of all the different cards. It should help you alot.

You want a Serial ATA hard drive preferably with that system. You don't say whether it is or not but also a drive with 8mb of Cache will make a difference. If you can afford it, get 2x 80Gb Serial ATA and have them in a Raid0 array. Helps gaming. Alot.

I dont know if you are planning on overclocking at all - you don't say. But if you are, you will need to change that memory to to at least PC3500 DDR533 (i think) memory to be able to overclock ok. Though the memory you have chosen is fine, as long as you dont overclock and is not generic.

I dont know if the board you have chosen supports it, but you want to be able to dual channel your memory. gives more bandwidth.

If i think of anything else, i will say.

Regards, Chris
 

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Looks like we were all replying at the same time hehe...

you may want a decent power supply with that too perhaps?

you can pick up a Radeon 9800 pro for £134 including VAT. You can also get the recent nVidia 6800GT 256Mb for a shade under £300 and thats got a 1GHz GPU and dual 400MHz Ramdacs. that with a gig of ram, nice motherboard and SATA hard drive(s) should have you an aWeSoMe gaming rig.

edit:

that file i included, you will have to resize it - IE likes to resize pictures so you can read the text lol. Make your window full screen then click the expand icon should do the trick.

I know the test system isnt the same but it gives you an idea of how all the different cards on the market perform against each other. The fact that the computers would make no difference between the 2 cards (if you see what i mean). I know what i mean. Ok - i got it...

A higher spec card will always perform better than a lower spec card in identical machines

rambling again. will stop. Chris
 
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just though of something else...

...if im not mistaken, the 9200 is not direct X 9 compatible either so it really isnt that great...

edit: dont get a 9800XT - not when you can get one of the new generation card for exactly the same price.
 
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at least we`re all on the same lines... the 9800 is the same price as.... the X800? which new-gen card were u thinking of? (am curious) my new (well, almost) graphics card took a total pounding in some benchmarks- was very miffed.

So, after we`ve all had our say, how much of this poor guys machine have we left un-criticised?
the processor.... ah well
 

muckshifter

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... the 9200 is not direct X 9 compatible
It is dx9 compatable (well the ones I buy are) ... however, for a "gamer" you really could use a better card
 
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the 9800 is the same price as.... the X800? which new-gen card were u thinking of? (am curious) my new (well, almost) graphics card took a total pounding in some benchmarks- was very miffed.
See prices below to see what i am on about...

Club3D ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI - Retail £305.44
XFX GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 Dual DVI/TV-Out - Retail £293.69

Or......

Asus ATi Radeon 9800XT 256MB - Retail £292.58


so you can see you get more for your money getting one of the next generation cards either the nVidia 6800 OR the Radeon X800 pro

It is dx9 compatable (well the ones I buy are) ... however, for a "gamer" you really could use a better card
Mucks: I cant seem to find a DX9 version of the 9200 on OCUK - maybe its a non standard version? the regular versions all seem to be 8.1 only.

Regards,
Chris
 
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wow! I didnt know 9800`s were still that high. Oh.. to have £300....
 

muckshifter

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christopher ... I don't "shop" at OCUK :D

XFX GeForce FX 5200 including the Key Technologies:

CineFX Engine
Powers cinematic effects beyond imagination. With advanced vertex and pixel shader capabilities, stunning and complex special effects are possible. In addition, increased horsepower delivers faster and smoother gameplay.
AGP 8X
Provides double the bandwidth of AGP 4X—2.1GB/sec. vs. 1.1BG/sec. AGP 8X enables more complex models and detailed textures, creating richer and more lifelike environments. Uninterrupted data flow allows for smoother video streaming and faster, more seamless gameplay.
nView Multi-display Technology
The nView hardware and software technology combination delivers maximum flexibility for multi-display options, and provides unprecedented end-user control of the desktop experience. NVIDIA GPUs are enabled to support multi-displays, but graphics cards vary.
Digital Vibrance Control (DVC)
Allows the user to adjust color controls digitally to compensate for the lighting conditions of their workspace, in order to achieve accurate, bright colors in all conditions.
Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
Guarantees forward and backward compatibility with software drivers. Simplifies upgrading to a new NVIDIA product because all NVIDIA products work with the same driver software.
Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Optimizations and Support
Ensures the best performance and application compatibility for all DirectX 9 applications.

OpenGL® 1.4 Optimizations and Support
Ensures the best performance and application compatibility for all OpenGL applications.
Integrated TV Encoder
Provides best-of-class TV-out functionality for resolutions up to 1024x768.
Integrated Full Hardware MPEG-2 Decoder
Delivers full-frame, full-screen MPEG-2 video on your desktop.
New 64-phase Video Scaler
Highest quality for scaling DVD and other video to full-screen HDTV resolutions.
DVI Support
Able to drive the industry's largest and highest resolution flat-panel displays with up to 1600x1200 resolution.
350MHz RAMDACs
Supports QXGA displays with ergonomic refresh rates.
Architected for Cg
Ensures that the newest, cutting-edge special effects in applications will run flawlessly. Speeds up content creation so game developers can get their new games out to PC users faster than ever before.
 
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dude... i was talking about the Radeon 9200's NOT geForce FX 5200's

the 5200 is just a DX9 version of the MX440 really.
 
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floppybootstomp

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My opinion, FWIW:

Only weakness as far as I can see is the graphics card.

Bottom line should be a 9600XT, but that will struggle with Far Cry and possibly with Doom III. However, it will handle most other current games, with the possible exclusion of Halo, just fine.

Best choice for vid card at the moment, price & performance wise, is the 9800 Pro. It currently costs a little less than £140.00 if you shop around.

If you're a dedicated gamer, the video card will be one of your prime considerations.

Pay attention to Power Supply recommendations made here, it makes sense.

I will voice an opposite opinion here and actually recommend that Asrock board. It really is quite good and incredible value for money. I've built several systems around that board, it's solid as a rock and handles games and all applications really well.

In fact, I think it's one of the best kept secrets right now, it really is rock solid. I've also built my daughter's computer round an Asrock board (the one you've listed's predecessor, with a VIA chipset) and it's been extremely reliable for 10 months now, no problems at all.

I would recommend Asrock, don't be put off by the low price.
 
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Fair play there Flops.

9600XT is good - have it in the parents PC but its £110 when you can get a 9800PRO for £134.
 

floppybootstomp

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christopherpostill said:
Fair play there Flops.

9600XT is good - have it in the parents PC but its £110 when you can get a 9800PRO for £134.
And fair play to you sah :D

Yes, agreed, a little more money gets you a whole lot more card.
 
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iyo, the Asrock board may be good but does it support dual channeling memory and SATA as those 2 things will contribute greatlty to the overall performance of the system - especially of gaming systems. the plus side also is the freeing up of an oh so important IDE channel also.
 

floppybootstomp

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christopherpostill said:
iyo, the Asrock board may be good but does it support dual channeling memory and SATA as those 2 things will contribute greatly to the overall performance of the system - especially of gaming systems. the plus side also is the freeing up of an oh so important IDE channel also.
Two versions of this board, with or without SATA. £33.00 & £30.00 respectively.

No dual memory mode available though, but for that price it's a feature I'd gladly live without.
 
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Then 'TheMightyW' should definatly go for the SATA version with 1 or 2 sata hard drives.

The Gigabyte GA-7VT600 is not THAT much more - a tenner at a push and it has all the goodies AND a bios saviour chip. Personally i would still take a more fancy motherboard because although the Assrock may be very stable, i would put my money on a "better" motherboard giving an overall faster system.

tis just my opinion Flops.
Chris
 

Reefsmoka

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Well if you want a good graphics card there is no doubt that the 9800pro is your best option, with a gig of memory and either the 3200xp barton or the 3000+ 64 processor it will eat nearly every PC game in the world for breakfast. Personally i wouldnt buy a X800 for around the £300 mark, because by christmas time they will be around £150, and theres no game out yet that need a X800 to play!

So if i were you i would try and save for a Ati Radeon 9800pro for about £140 inc delivery from a place like www.overclockers.co.uk.

As for you motherboard, i know absolutly, possitivly VERY LITTLE about motherboards, so if i were you i would use a magazine or a couple of the old gits in ere should help :p. (i mean wise experienced gods)

The most important thing is to have fun when your done though! :)
 

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