new rig

Urizen · Post by **Urizen** » Fri May 18, 2007 9:36 pm

i'll be getting my tax owings in a month or so, and i'm thinking about spending it on a new rig. i've never had any hardware skillz to talk about, and it's been a while since i thought about hardware at all, so i need your help. i'll be getting about 19000 NOK, which is about 3000 USD, and i'm going to spend all of it or allmost all of it on a gaming rig. my top priority is sound, and i've always loved everything that's come out of creative, but that's about as far as i've thought. so what should i get, what should i keep in mind, what should i beware of?

SuperH · Post by **SuperH** » Fri May 18, 2007 9:44 pm

You need something that'll haul a lot of cargo, do you have your trucker's permit?

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Fri May 18, 2007 10:02 pm

Wow. 3g's in tax returns? What the hell do you do, have fourteen kids and donate your entire check to charity?

At any rate go with a Core 2 Duo and DX10. Core 2 Duos are the best bang for your buck at this point.

Urizen · Post by **Urizen** » Fri May 18, 2007 10:06 pm

it's not so much in NOK, it's just that the dollar isn't worth squat right now. also, i suck at saving money, so i just pay more tax than i have to, since i know i'll get it back later. no kids, no charity

POOPERSCOOPER · Post by **POOPERSCOOPER** » Fri May 18, 2007 10:29 pm

You don't really need to spend 3000 bucks on a rig, unless you want to include like super surround sound speakers and a big screen.

The only thing you have to worry about now is buying a new DX10 card and finding out that its not that great at running the new DX10 games that come out later this year( i think?). Also if you buy a core duo you may later find out the Core QUAD is what everyone is using and you will shed a single tear. Seriously getting a new computer is a lot of bullshit and it's probably just easier to buy everything at random.

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Fri May 18, 2007 11:16 pm

I'm waiting until second-gen DX10 cards come out before I invest in a new rig. I would suggest doing the same.

NATIK · Post by **NATIK** » Fri May 18, 2007 11:16 pm

I just bought a new comp myself, I got what I wanted with a good sound system (creative X-FI) for 13.985,25 DKK or around 15400 NOK.

2GB RAM
X-FI soundcard
2,67 Ghz Core 2 Duo (6700, dont remember the letter in front of that)
320GB HDD
Dual Layer DVD writer
8800GTX

and then the usual (no monitors or any other extras though).

I think this is a pretty good value for money machine and it works perfectly at everything I have tried so far.

In regards to Jetbabys comment on price, you really need to use atleast $2000 to get a proper comp in Denmark, I expect Norway has approximatly the same prices.

TNP · Post by **TNP** » Fri May 18, 2007 11:16 pm

I'll probably never get a new top of the line rig again in my life. New horizens are showing itself and I am on the verge of retiring from geekism.

Pooper is right though, you don't need all the stupid itty bitty gadgets. As long as you have a DX10 card, a Core 2 Duo, and at 2 GB DDR 2 ram, you will be all set.

SuperH · Post by **SuperH** » Fri May 18, 2007 11:21 pm

Apparently Microsoft is done with 32 bit OSes after Vista too, so if you wanna really make it last, spring for 64?

NATIK · Post by **NATIK** » Fri May 18, 2007 11:23 pm

Unless microsoft becomes superfast at making a new and shiny OS I doubt 32 bit is going to be a problem.

Arent the Core 2 Duos 64bit anyways? I believe they are, you shouldnt buy anything but those atm anyways, unless you are a AMD fanboy ofc

.

Urizen · Post by **Urizen** » Sat May 19, 2007 12:00 am

NATIK wrote:I just bought a new comp myself, I got what I wanted with a good sound system (creative X-FI) for 13.985,25 DKK or around 15400 NOK.

2GB RAM
X-FI soundcard
2,67 Ghz Core 2 Duo (6700, dont remember the letter in front of that)
320GB HDD
Dual Layer DVD writer
8800GTX

and then the usual (no monitors or any other extras though).

I think this is a pretty good value for money machine and it works perfectly at everything I have tried so far.

In regards to Jetbabys comment on price, you really need to use atleast $2000 to get a proper comp in Denmark, I expect Norway has approximatly the same prices.

that config looks very nice, and it may come very close to what i'm gonna buy. i don't care about hard-drive space in the least, and i'll never be able to fill up a 320GB disk.
i keep hearing good things about the 8800GTX, and crappy things about the 8800 Ultra, so i'll probably go with the first of the two, but i may buy two of them

i'll prolly need 3GB of ram, because i'll have to upgrade to vista in a year or two anyway.
cpu speeds just make me confused. i have no idea what to look at to compare speeds anymore. the last time i bought a pc, all you cared about was the Mhz, but that seems to have changed completely.

atoga · Post by **atoga** » Sat May 19, 2007 12:01 am

don't know about the other shit, but sound card-wise i'd recommend an m-audio revolution 5/6/7.1, should run you about $100 or so. creatives (at least the soundblaster! series) are a bit rubbish by comparison.

Urizen · Post by **Urizen** » Sat May 19, 2007 12:04 am

i've always loved creative, though. the speakers, the soundcards, the mp3-players, they're always great value for money. but i'll take a look at your m-audio too, before i make up my mind.

Splatterpope · Post by **Splatterpope** » Sat May 19, 2007 12:19 am

Urizen wrote: i don't care about hard-drive space in the least, and i'll never be able to fill up a 320GB disk.

Hard disk space follows the "If you build it, they will come." line of operation.

I never thought that I could fill 750 gig either. Nowadays, I find myself deleting 50 meg files to squirrel away what space I can.

atoga · Post by **atoga** » Sat May 19, 2007 12:21 am

creative's stuff is still quite good. i've heard that their x-fi series is a bitchin' gaming soundcard, you might try that.

and yes, i agree with splatterpope about the hd space issue, though at the same time i'd say anything over 200 gb or so is overrated, you're only going to use the space over that for storage of things that have no practical value. so external drives are probably a better solution, just get them as you need them (unless 500gb harddrives are suddenly cheap now).

Urizen · Post by **Urizen** » Sat May 19, 2007 12:24 am

yes, i' ve heard a lot of people say that. but i've got 80GB now, and i'm sure i could manage with half of that. i watch something, delete it, play something, delete it. i don't like having a lot of stuff to clutter up my hd.

johnnygothisgun · Post by **johnnygothisgun** » Sat May 19, 2007 12:24 am

are you putting one together yourself or having one customized?

Urizen · Post by **Urizen** » Sat May 19, 2007 12:27 am

prolly having one customised, but i've got a month to think about it before the money comes in, so i may change my mind.

PiP · Post by **PiP** » Sat May 19, 2007 12:39 am

jetbaby wrote:At any rate go with a Core 2 Duo and DX10. Core 2 Duos are the best bang for your buck at this point.

I've heard a few times (@DAC) that Core2Duo is essential, and it sounded rather reasonable. However I did some reading a while back and it seems overrated, take a look:

("jakość" means 'quality', "średnie" means 'average', and the image comes from this article where you'll also find 3Dmark'06 results)

and now compare the prices. I might not have the whole picture, but for me Pentium D looks much better in a power-for-money comparison. Am I missing something?

Then again Core2D looks easier to cool than Pentium D (red stripe is temp after tests) -

but in this respect AMDs are even better, esp the '64nm' or '65W Energy Efficient' models.

Altogether, it looks like once you got a decent processor, it's not SO much important which particular type you got; graph. cards seem to play a much greater role in today's 3D gaming efficiency. And for tasks other than gaming, any modern processor will be more than enough - needless to say

So maybe just go with something not producing too much heat, so that your cooling system doesn't produce too much noise?

CPUs aside, get the best possible motherboard for your processor. I recommend Gigabyte and Asus (do a research on particular models once you decide about the CPU) and maybe try to get one with fanless cooling (less noise again).
Also, get a really reliable Power Supply - like Topower or something; preferably with a big 12cm fan to quietly suck out the warm air from inside the case (this way you may even avoid having extra case-cooling fans)
Oh and make sure that both the HDD and MB support the same version of SATA. If you want the HD to work a bit faster, also make sure that it supports NCQ, and that the MB also supports it. (or maybe all of them do now?)

Splatterpope · Post by **Splatterpope** » Sat May 19, 2007 12:48 am

PiP wrote:CPUs aside, get the best possible motherboard for your processor. I recommend Gigabyte and Asus...

I'd say go with Gigabyte. Their build quality is the best on the market, hands down.