Decent computer for gaming?????

[jammie]

Hi i was just wondering wether any1 could tell me how the pc i am
planning on building will be for gaming and i think it should be alryt
for a couple of years.
I am getting a
P4 3.2 or an amd 64 3700+ not sure which if i decide to go that way
Sapphire 9600xt 256 which i already have
2mb ram
a motherboard which supports agp which is the best i could find on
dabs which is bout £90
and a 650w power supplie

and recommendations would be aprietiated
thanks

Jamie

 

[Derek Baker]

Hi i was just wondering wether any1 could tell me how the pc i am
planning on building will be for gaming and i think it should be alryt
for a couple of years.
I am getting a
P4 3.2 or an amd 64 3700+ not sure which if i decide to go that way

The 3700+ definitely.

Sapphire 9600xt 256 which i already have

Weakest link.

2mb ram

Assuming that's 2GB then good.

a motherboard which supports agp which is the best i could find on
dabs which is bout £90

If you have plans to upgrade the graphics at the end of the two years, then
you'll be lucky to find a decent AGP card at that time. You'd be better off
with PCI-Express, but that would mean replacing the 9600. If you'll be
building a new machine or upgrading the CPU/motherboard, then okay.

and a 650w power supplie

If that's a Q-Tec then no, no, no.

and recommendations would be aprietiated
thanks

Jamie

If you want more, you'll have to give us models for the components you
haven't

 

[DaveW]

The 9600XT uses older technology and specs and will perform so-so with the
newest games.

 

[kony]

Hi i was just wondering wether any1 could tell me how the pc i am
planning on building will be for gaming and i think it should be alryt
for a couple of years.

It is unrealistic to expect anything bought to be
future-proof for a couple years worth of gaming.

I am getting a
P4 3.2 or an amd 64 3700+ not sure which if i decide to go that way

A64 runs cooler and will be faster over the long run.

Sapphire 9600xt 256 which i already have

It's not even good for today's games, merely "ok", and
certainly not good enough to plan on gaming use for the next
two years. If this were a general purpose system I might
suggest reuse but with "will be for gaming" as a primary
description, certainly it needs replaced.

With that in mind, I'd go ahead and get a board with PCI
Express video card, not trying to reuse AGP. You don't
mention what you have right now but upgrading the rest of
the system but leaving same 9600 video card might not even
result in much gain.

2mb ram

2GB is great, but the first 1-1.5GB is more important, I
suggest putting the $ into video card first.

a motherboard which supports agp which is the best i could find on
dabs which is bout £90
and a 650w power supplie

650W is not necessary, not for any single-video-card gaming
system, and especially not with a Radeon 9600 series card.
Further, if you buy a cheap "650W" PSU you're not even
getting a PSU as good as a name-brand 500W. Any good 400W
PSU would be find for the parts you describe.

There are lots of web articles itemizing gaming platforms
for different budgets... "ultimate", or "budget", etc. Find
a recent article and weight their parts selections against
your needs.

 

[Cuzman]

jammie wrote:

" I am getting a P4 3.2 or an amd 64 3700+ not sure which if i decide
to go that way "

Get a socket 939 Athlon 64.


" Sapphire 9600xt 256 which i already have "

Put it on eBay. Then buy a socket 939 PCI-E motherboard and a PCI-E card.


" 2mb ram "

2GB? Fair enough, but I wouldn't sacrifice having a crap graphics card
for 2GB RAM.


" a motherboard which supports agp which is the best i could find on
dabs which is bout £90 "

£90 is quite expensive, even for something like a socket 939 nForce4
PCI-E board. Use sites like www.dealtime.co.uk and www.kelkoo.co.uk to
find the best deals.


" and a 650w power supplie "

You don't need 650W, and anyway, a *quality* 650W PSU will cost you
£150+. You need to rate power supplies by the amperage levels on each
voltage rail, not on a single figure that budget manufacturers seem to
pull out of their arse. Remember, if it's cheap then it's crap. On
average, a more expensive 400W PSU will perform much much better than a
cheap 650W one.

An Athlon 64 3000+/6800GT/1GB system will absolutely whip a
3700+/9600XT/2GB system in games. My advice would be to buy a socket
939 Athlon 64 3000+ Venice, a PCI-E motherboard, a single 1GB stick of
PC3200 (with a view to buying another identical one in future), and then
spend £150+ on a graphics card.

Look up some graphics card comparisons at
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/vga_charts.html