Looking at a new system? Start here.

[ctjoyce]

Well gents it seems as many of us are upgradeing our systems, and many of you are doing so blindly and getting less than adequate parts. I decided to start this thread to let you know what the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM specs you should have in a computer for FS and just gameing in general.

Motherboards
Intel: Gigabyte GA-8I945P-PRO $125
AMD: Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 $83
Both are good boards, and have a PCI-E x16 lane. Also note that both have a passively cooled northbridge. I would have suggested ASUS boards, but ASUS seems to have a problem with their NBridge fans.

Processers
Intel: Pentium 4 Prescott 630 3.0Ghz $182
AMD: Athalon X64 3200+ 2.0Ghz $164
Both processers can hold their own pretty dang well in gameing. While the Athalons may beat out the Intel in game preformance, and heat output, the Prescott comes back at PC tasks. So figure out how you plan to use your computer and build accordingly.

RAM
1GB (2x 512) Corsair XMS, OCZ, and GeIL are three brands to look for. With timeings of 2-3-3-6 and prices around $100 its hard to pass these up. I personally use a Corsair kit in my computer, and am very impressed with the results.

Video Card
nVidia: 6600GT 256MB $175
ATI: Radeon X800GTO 256MB $160
While the radeon will beat out the nVidia in all aspects here, nVidia cards seem to work better with AMD setups (mainly because the north bridges are made by nVidia) Brands to look for~ ATI: Sapphire Tech (personal favorite), Connect 3D, Power Color. nVidia: eVGA (personal favorite), BFG Tech, ASUS.
Cards to avoide
ATI Radeon X300
                  X700
                  X1300
                  X1600
These cards are not deadacated cards and are ment for an all around PC expirence. They wouln't deliver half the quality or results that you want.



Hard Drives.
Anything 120GB or larger is good (their so cheap why wouldnt you). Western Digital drives have never failed on me, and with the 10,000RPM series raptors out their are my choice drive. SATA is the interface to look for. 120GB will run you about $90

Well I hope my little guide here has helped someone out. I wouln't take the time to write it unless I really felt that you all needed to be educated. The biggest problem I've seen on the forums is that people look for bargin hardware and not what they need. Then they think that they can just clock it to what the good stuff is. Well the reality is that you cant. Also I know that there are some people here saying that "my 2.8Ghz northwood preforms fine" or "my system runs just fine on 512 of RAM and a FX5500" but the reality is that it really dosn't. Get a copy of 3DMark05 from www.futuremark.com , run it and find out what your score it. If it is anything less than 3800 your system needs upgradeing. Usually its a inadequate processer bottolnecking on a faster GPU or vice versa. Any questions and you know where to find me.

Cheers
Cameron

PS. Not to be selfish or anything, but I think this should be stickied

[Saitek]

Very nice - but it would be out of date in three months. So you'd need to keep updating it.

[ctjoyce]

Thats not a big issue. I live on newegg.com anyway so just transfering data over isnt that big of an issue.

EDIT: Look at the video card section. Its been updated.

Cheers
Cameron

[congo]

PS. Not to be selfish or anything, but I think this should be stickied

I'm not meaning to rain on your party Cameron, but your views on specific hardware and subsequent purchase advice are just that, and no more.

Say I followed your advice and bought the board you specified for instance........ I would have no gameport riser for my old faithful Sidewinder joystick, I also would lack advanced overclocking options found on some other boards.

If you had specified the SLI version of that board, I would have to point out that the PCIe slots are so close to each other that it causes the inner card to overheat so much, that the SLI function is un-useable, hence some well heeled participant here might Blow $1000 on a card he can't use in the second slot.

It's difficult to say what is the "best" hardware for anyone, as the subject is so complex and each user aspires to his own specification and price range. Local availability of specific products is also a major consideration when specifying a particular product, this is truly an international forum.

While we may "suggest" specific hardware, a Sticky is usually only appropriate for subjects that will assist the general population over an indefinite timespan.

A more appropriate "Sticky" would be a tutorial on HOW to choose an appropriate chipset or how to research video cards so you don't go into the purchase blinded by corporate rhetoric and misinformation.

I admire you for your genuine concern and knowledgable recommendations. I would also like to see a few "Stickys" in the hardware section, but let's get it right if we do so.

Cheers

[ctjoyce]

I guess I should have thought about that. I was just thinking that those were good examples of boards, not nessassarly the ones to get.

As a note on gamesport, USB!!! Seriously saiteks arn't as bad as gunny makes them out to be.

Cheers
Cameron

[congo]

Ahh, but nothing surpasses the feather light touch of an unpowered MS FFB Sidewinder, thus allowing you to use your imagination to create those inflight forces within your mind, "Do you feel that young Jedi, yes, feeeeel the FORCE!"  

[legoalex2000]

I can vouch for more that half of what ctjoyce said

AMD 3000 series, go for the 939 socket. of if you have a few extra, get the 940 pin.

The 3200 939 pin is what i have, and so far im impressed, espically since this is my first AMD. it holds good while overclocking.

I own the Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9, so i know it's good and very reasonable. Fry's electronics(outpost.com) sells this board for $79

I prefer Kingston and Pioneer RAM, both i've tried and liked.

And ATI's new Radeon X1-- series is pretty good. I recently bought the Visiontek Radeon X1300 with  512mb Ram, and it works wonders for me, so thats where i differ. of course my reasoning is cause i need the all around graphics.

so don't necessiarly avoid the X1300 and X1600 series, but if your just gaming, and nothing else (video editing, hookup to TV via S-Video (I do both)) then Nvidia would be your choice.

so take Ctjoyce's recommendations cause he knows more about the variety of these products. but im getting there, so don't turn a stiff lip just yet.

ramos

[ctjoyce]

Well Ramous every card on the market has S-Video out on it so you can get a deadacated gameing card, and still be able to hook up a TV. The reason to skip the X7,X3,X13,X16 are the fact that they are made for the low end consumer that isnt going to need a 48 Pixel pipeline card with a 700Mhz core clock (cough x1900XTX cough).

Cheers
Cameron

PS. I finally found your video card, so I will stop hasseling you about it.

[legoalex2000]

Well Ramous every card on the market has S-Video out on it so you can get a deadacated gameing card, and still be able to hook up a TV. The reason to skip the X7,X3,X13,X16 are the fact that they are made for the low end consumer that isnt going to need a 48 Pixel pipeline card with a 700Mhz core clock (cough x1900XTX cough).

Cheers
Cameron

PS. I finally found your video card, so I will stop hasseling you about it.

well, sorry about that, this is the first video card 've ever bought. the only other addon video i had was an ATI radeon 7000, just to run a pentium II for simple gaming.

im actually going to use the Radeon 7000 for an extra video port so i can use fsnav. but i could use a monitor first. but where to put the monitor...

Ramos

PS: ctjoyce, I went from knowing next to nothing about computer internals 5 months ago, to building my own, so some stuff is still new to me. i still don't understand Front side bus...

[congo]

I can't vouch for more than half of what ctjoyce said.

Only a couple of Asus products had the inferior fan, and that should be rectified by now, with stockists of older boards now the only problem. The better Asus boards helped pioneer the passive heatpipe solutions on the northbridge chip.

I wouldn't recommend a P4 system at the moment as they are too expensive and don't perform as well, in gaming or in general, they are second rate on almost every count.

2gb of ram will soon be the standard, though 1 gb is sufficent for most stuff at present.

A 7800GT will be the minimum spec for graphics and already is with most late releases. (Oh yes, lesser cards will run, but not like the game is meant to be played!)

I was being polite by not saying all this in an earlier post above, but I can't abide a "second affirmation" to such mis-information.



Ramos,

As for a socket 940 in preference to a socket 939, Why? The compatible components for socket 940 are so expensive, you would put yourself in the cost bracket of an Intel system or higher. Socket 940 is for server applications where absolute stability is required such as banking or medical applications. (and any application where near perfect operation is required)


I like Kingston RAM, it served me well, but SO many people report problems with it and Pioneer RAM has no reputation as a high end product.

ATI's offerings are second rate in today's graphics choices and barely rate a mention until they pull their finger out and release a competitive solution.

Video card choice between ATI and nVidia has nothing to do with the nVidia northbridge supporting the nVidia cards as far as I'm aware.

The fact that some of the "X1" series ATI cards have multiple interfaces isn't a prerequisite for their purchase, in fact, that is a foolhardy assumption.

The better gaming cards (whatever genre they are) also have such interface options on several models and do the job even better, so just bite the bullet and accept the fact that you are going to have to upgrade yet again soon.

Avoid the X1300 and X1600 series.

So take Ctjoyce's recommendations with a grain of salt,  because he knows a lot about modern PC hardware, but there is SO MUCH to learn!

You are getting there Ramos, there is no doubt about it. It's a long road that never ends. Keep driving!

See, I didn't turn a stiff lip, did I ?

[Gunny04]

ah I dont make saiteks out to sound bad or change people from buying them, I keep my opinion that I dont like em, everyone is a bit 'different' on what they prefer, and this is just my opinion, as for a sticky, a great idea but hardware changes so fast..... I agree, a good sticky on how to choose cards chipsets fans etc could be helpful, I'm not 'new' to hardware, been dreaming of building my own computer for 2-3 years now but just not the funding, its a daily learning expierence, I remember when 2.6Ghz Pentium 4s were new, or when AMD 64 bits just came out..... man technology changes fast! I remember also when the Nvidia FX5900 was top of the line! was planning on getting one, ha! a good sticky for hardware selection would be nice and very helpful to everyone, I choose my stuff based on future of it, how good it is for what I do, and recomendations from others! Cheers, Gunny and good evening!

[legoalex2000]

Ramos,

As for a socket 940 in preference to a socket 939, Why?

I was only told on a recent thread that 939 will soon be replaced by 940, just forwarding the rumor.

I like Kingston RAM, it served me well, but SO many people report problems with it and Pioneer RAM has no reputation as a high end product.

I may have fallen into the trap, but i've heard from several sources who would recomend Pioneer

Avoid the X1300 and X1600 series.

well too late for that

So take Ctjoyce's recommendations with a grain of salt,  because he knows a lot about modern PC hardware, but there is SO MUCH to learn!

You are getting there Ramos, there is no doubt about it. It's a long road that never ends. Keep driving!

See, I didn't turn a stiff lip, did I ?

no you didn't . I take in a lot of what CTjoyce has said. after i got the components, i sorta looked to him for getting good performance out of my system. the reason why i may go cheap here and there is that im ony a student, and i have a LOT, A LOT to learn.

I still plan on that power supply he has... shoot forgot it's name...

another reason to get this card, besides this being my first performance card, well my first card in general, is it gives me something to comapre now when i do upgrade to a better model.

Ramos

[congo]

Sorry guys, I'm just frustrated because I could never get this router working right and it was SO expensive and I just had to order another one. Also my joystick is not working in CFS2, always a bummer.

I shouldn't have taken it out on you guys,    :-[

[legoalex2000]

Sorry guys, I'm just frustrated because I could never get this router working right and it was SO expensive and I just had to order another one. Also my joystick is not working in CFS2, always a bummer.

I shouldn't have taken it out on you guys,    :-[

well i do deal with network up the wazoo... i deal with $5000 cisco routers at school for class and a Dlink wireless and a Linksys at home. whats your prob?(actually this could be another thread...)

and trust me... it's not hurting, it's helping, so dont feel bad

ramos

[congo]

Hehe, okaly dokaly!