STi-owns-evo

iTrader: (4)

Them and www.anandtech.com

For prices look at www.Pricewatch.com

I built my computer a year ago, and got most of my parts from www.MonarchComputer.com Pretty reasonable prices, though I did get my vid card through another site.

As for nVidia vs ATi, right now, nVidia hasn't been pumping out better technology. All they've been doing is basically making their older cards run hotter and consume more power. Most nVidia cards can't rely only on mobo power, but they need a direct line to the ps because they suck up so much. ATi, even though their cards aren't performing as well are still upping their technology. Don't get me wrong, I'm a nVidia fanboy, but when they just aren't producing, I can't really go for them.

My setup which just cost me ~ $900 was a 3700+, MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum, 1 gig Corsair 3200 ram, ATi X800 PCIe vid card, and I forgot what kind of PS I got. Everything else like HD and monitor came from my old computer.

HongKongBeef

go to the anandtech "hot deals" forums. there are several threads about cheap dual core opteron processors. cheaper than the a64 x2's.

anandtech and www.techbargains.com are your friends.

everyone is telling you to get cards built for gaming. you might want to look into nvidia quadro fx videocards which are built for 3d CAD modeling. i know you mentioned you want to both do CAD and gaming. i'm not sure how the quadro cards are at gaming tho. personally, i'm an ATi fan. my last 2 cards have been All in wonders and i LOVE them. the newer ati cards will have hardware video transcoding to the h.234 (or whatever codec it is. always forget the numbers. the future standard for blu-ray/hd-dvd video) thats supposed to be pretty impressive.

Nose Nuggets

dont buy a pre built system if you know how to build one yourself. With your budget I would do the following

AMD FX57

Asus SLI board with Nvidia chipset (pick one that has the extras you want, like integrated wireless, firewire, integrated sound if you want)

Two 1GB PC3200 dimms and Two 512mb PC3200 dimms all set to run in duel channel (like dims share same colored slots. I wouldn’t get 4gb of ram because windows XP only uses 3. you can get 4 if you plan to upgrade to vista when it comes out.)

Geforce 7800GTX (I have an XFX, but the eVga one is slightly faster and has a really nice warrenty. Get one that has a clock speed you like, as long as it has a lifetime warranty at the least)

Get a sound card if you want, Creative Sound Blaster cards are still the best. I have an audigy 2 and it sounds good, they have audigy 4 now. The platinum pagackages have a 5 ¼ bay tray usually with a remote control for volume and DVD controls.

Power supply is going to be a big deal. That graphics card alone can suck 200 watts under load. And the reason your getting and SLI board is so you can run 2 7800gtx’s when you need a little boost 6 months down the road. I like Antec, and neopower make a couple good ones. I have heard there is a 1KW PSU on the market now. Check newegg, but READ THE REVIEWS!

Cases are cases, get what ever you think looks cool. If your big on cooling, I like the Asus case. Make sure the case is formed for an ATX motherboard, because that is most likely what you have.

With hard drives you can go many different ways. I like using a small, 80GB 10KRPM raptor drive for my main drive. It has my OS, and games and the high end apps I use often. Then I have a large storage drive, you can get up to 500gigs on a single drive now. Make sure any drives you get are SATA not IDE. If you want to go a little more advanced and have the extra dough, you could setup a raid. You can setup a stripe raid for performance, or a mirror raid if you want data integrity. I can explain the raids in a little more detail if you want.

For optical drives, I really like Pioneers 1 drives. I think there on 110, I have a 109. it’s a very fast internal DVD burner and its very reliable.

Get a floppy drive, you might need it for installing SATA drivers for windows.

One thing you do not want is an aftermarket CPU heatsink and fan assembly, all AMD cpus come with a 3 year warranty that is instantly voided if a 3rd party cooler is mounted too it. Fans and such are extra, and usually not needed. If you keep your case clean, with ll your cables tucked and zip tied aside you shouldn’t have any cooling issues. Try to keep your computer on a desk as aposed to on the ground, they get really dusty really quick on the floor. Also try to avoid enclosed cabnites and cubbies. This thing will run at around 80 degrees ambient.

Hope this helps. Post or pm if you have any other questions

Nose Nuggets

oh, i saw someone mention qudro. the ONLY diference between a quadro card and a normal geforce card is the firmware and the drivers. its ALL software, the hardware on the card is IDENTICLE. so MAKE SURE the extra $2K your going to drop on a vid card is being put to use, check your rendering and cad software to see if it uses those drivers, otherwise its pointless.

scustoms

dang thanks fo the info. that is what is was looking for RAID to me is ant killer help me out on that one.

STi-owns-evo

iTrader: (4)

About 4 months ago, those were going for $600. Now they're only going for $450. I could never justify putting out that much for a vid card. Hell, that card basically costs as much as my entire computer setup.

Oh, and if you're looking into gaming, if you want a real life benchmark. My computer basically always is hitting 60fps (which I believe is the max in WoW) unless I'm in Orgrimmar near the bank or where there's hundreds of other people gathered in a small space.

One thing I definately should bring up, is a good mobo can make a huge difference considering how little price difference they have. I'd recommend either MSI or Asus and anandtech has great benchmarks and tests on both. If you're planning to keep this computer for a long time, definately get SLI or Xfire compatibility because i'm sure that's where technology is going to end up.

psoper

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RAID.html

Nose Nuggets

STi-owns-evo: even when they first came out, there where some in the $620 range and some as low as $490ish. The reason for this is different manufactures have different warranty policies, different range of materials used in construction, as well as difference in core speed and memory speed/type. With today’s gaming, a graphics card is more important then processor capabilities. Considering the usage this guy has planned, as well as his budget, I think th best 256mb 7800gtx would be perfectly suited for his rig. I would advise against the 512 model. The price difference in no way is worth the performance increase (I think its 7%)

WoW is probably the worst game to benchmark a computer or even a graphics card specifically. The reason WoW can run on incredibly low end systems is because the game is EXTREMLE low polygon. That’s why it has a borderline cartoonish look to it. All the building use very broad sides and very straight cut angles. You don’t see many rounded or spherical objects in the world. The reason it looks descient is because there are very high resolution textures on those low polygon models to make up for it, as well as some basic lighting and reflection shaders. Games like battlefield 2 on the other hand are very high polygon as well as high rez textures. Things like water have a geometrical path, trees and foliage are models as apposed to sprites (2D). I am very happy with my 7800gtx, and have gotten more then the $579 bucks I spent out of it.


That raid link breaks it all down nicely.

ish

iTrader: (7)

[thread hijack]
I hate trying to build a new computer. Not because it's difficult to do, but because it is a PITA trying to piece everything together. My system is about 5 years old now and completly outdated. In order to play bf2, I pretty much have to upgrade everything to even get it to run.

Anyone got any tips for me on what type of parts to go with to build a budget gamer? Particularily for playing bf2. I just don't have the time to sit there and do the research on parts to figure out what is best for the money. Ideally, the less I spend the better.

[/thread hijack]

Nose Nuggets

well. if you keep your extras, like your HD your optical drives, your case, your floppy drive, you could get away with a new top of the line system for just over $1000

amd athlon 64 3800+ X2 (deul core)

1gb pc3200 ram (i would suggest minimum 2 gb)

Nvidia 7800gtx

Asus mobo

should be somewhere in the grand area.

STi-owns-evo

iTrader: (4)

The thing is, nVidia distributes their own chipsets so they all basically run the exact same. The only difference is who made the board that the card is used on. On the other hand, ATi doesn't distribute their own chipsets so which manufacturer you buy from makes a HUGE difference in quality.

As for WoW, I was only giving an example of my system and how it can play most games very smoothly. I was just explaining FPS and processing power, not textures, AA, and other stuff like that.

I'm sure you're very happy with the 7800GTX since only a few months ago it was one of, if not, the best card out. Like I said, I could just never justify myself to spend as much money on a vid card, as I did on the rest of my computer setup.

verc

iTrader: (12)

Nvidia kicks ***. They are one of the highest paying jobs for only an undergraduate degree - they starting salary varies a lot depending on school and ability but I've heard up to 80k!

Nose Nuggets

the diference between the SIS, VIA, and Nforce chipsets with a ATI chipset graphics card is minimal. i would in no way say its HUGE.

mattsn0w

iTrader: (23)

uhmm, I can tell you from personal experience VIA chipsets are total crap when it comes to large bandwidth consumption on the PCI bus.

SiS chipsets are just cheap from what I've read, they work OK, but are nothing to be excited about.

nForce chips are really good for AMD based systems.

My suggestion:
If you get an Intel CPU, get a mobo with Intel chipset.
If you get an AMD CPU, get a mobo with an Nvidia chipset.

STi-owns-evo

iTrader: (4)

I've got a AMD 3700+ On a Nforce4 board, and I've had no problems whatsoever.