Feedback on a new Gaming System

[TimmiT]

What do you guys think of the following system shown here

Do you see anything too overboard or nort good enough in relation to the rest? Any feedback on the boards, ram, or Proc would be great. I plan on sticking with an Intel based system though.

[mike_w]

Why don't you want to use AMD? They are generally faster for gaming and cheaper from every review I've seen on the internet.

[TimmiT]

Just more familiar with them. It is one of those things, as you allways see, personal preference. I guess I would not be totaly against it.

[BenW]

You need to get that out of your head if you want value for money

Theres no being more familiar with intel because the pc looks exactly the same but performs better

[TimmiT]

As I said, I would not be totally against it. But it is a personal preference, as some like Nvidia, and others ATI. If it was only about price, I wouldn't look at a $220 mobo.

Perhaps it would be more benificial if you could help point out at what lvl of AMD would out perform the chip I have indicated, and I could see the value. TBH I don't know much of the AMD line, that is why it is easier for me to pick out an Intel based board and chip.

As I recall a couple years back when I built my last system (P4 2.53 GHz), I got much more constructive feedback.

BTW, dogs are better than cats. More value for the money!!!

[Merlin4458]

get a 3700 san diego. cheaper and faster Or venice if clocking . nice gfx card, i will be buying one of those next month.

[RoGuE|SaBeR]

Check out all the Hexus reviews for the low down on chip performance!

[ed^chigliak]

Here is an AMD spec system which would be a reasonable substitute for your Intel spec system.

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=44000

It's actually very simple for the AMD system just choose
NF4 board (Asus, MSI, DFI, Abit all popular atm)
Socket 939 CPU (San diego or Venice)
2 sticks of DDR RAM (Corsair, Crucial etc)

Entirely up to you if you go for premium or budget RAM. Standard or deluxe motherboard.

[Grey M@a]

Yet another fan boy argument of AMD this and that If the guy likes Intel leave him be

If you are going the intel route I would advise you try and find one of the older 3.2+Ghz Northwood 800mhz chips instead of the Prescotts as they generally run slower than their Northwood counterparts.

With the AMD route, if you want the best you will get the same prices as the Intel best, to save the money its probably going for the older version of the chips. I have been doing this for a while now, stay one step behind the tech and watch the prices drop and you still get a system worthy of a killer gaming rig.

[YorkieBen]

for a good comparison for the gaming performance of the Pentium 4s and the AMD 64 find it here

also remember the new AMDs run alot cooler than the P4s, which allows for quieter cooling as well.

Also if you switch to AMD you can save money as high end DDR ram is alot cheaper than high end DDR2 ram at them moment (AFAIK)

The DFI AMD board is very fast but can be unstable/tricky to set up

P.S. What that graph also shows is that CPU speed/type doesnt make a monster difference to gaming speed compared to graphics cards.

[TimmiT]

P.S. What that graph also shows is that CPU speed/type doesnt make a monster difference to gaming speed compared to graphics cards.

I see that as true. I could save about $70 usd and increase about 15fps in Doom 3. Not reall much of a diff since it well above what the eye detects anyway. Obvoiusly tho get the to the upper area of those charts,with an Intel, it would cost substantially more, but I think the fairly substantial gfx card woul also help in this area.

From my understanding as well, the P4 3.2GHz chip is often OCed to around 3.8 GHz on air. I would probably not push it that far, since I now have my comps im my main living area, and would like to stay somewhat quiet.

[Grey M@a]

To give you an idea, my P4 3.2 Northwood clocks from 3.2 to 3.65 with a quiet 92mm fan and the xp90 heatsink. As for the cooling remark, yes its true if you go prescott route, with the northwoods mine never jumps above 33c after several hours of gaming. If you only have a choice of a prescott as I know the northwoods are hard to come across these days go with amd as the prescotts are a lot slower than the northwoods due to the new instruction sets on the chip. If its only an all out gaming rig slap an AMD in there, with prices the way they are if you go with the latest gear there isn't a big saving to be had due to AMD near enough the Intel prices anyway.

If you are like me and play games but do a lot of work with graphics, and video editing etc etc the intel is the best all rounder for the crunching and gaming, you may lose a few fps but doesnt really matter when its pushing games at 60fps+