Here's my upgrade parts list - any advice?

[Domarius]

Yeah I'm definetly gonna upgrade. When working on darkmod, I reckon 75% of my time is spent waiting for my computer to do stuff!! This is an unnaceptable and insane waste of my time, so here comes the upgrade.

 

I'm just putting it out there to see if anyone has any comments. I think these days it's all a much of a muchness. Anything mainstream is gonna be good.

 

All I did was copy the specs from a pre-built game system from a reputable local PC store, and then remove the parts I didn't need, and downgraded the CPU from a 3gig duo to a 2gig duo.

 

Prices are $AU

 

HDD: Western Digital 400G SATA 7200 rpm HDD (16MB Cache) $115.00

RAM: DDR2 2Gig(2x1G) PC6400 800Mhz Dual Channel Geil $85.00

CPU: Intel ATX E4500 CORE 2 DUO /2.2GHz/2MB CACHE/800 FSB/LGA775 $148.00

CASE: Antec Sonata Designer Tower Case $175.00

VGA: Jetway GeForce 8800GT 512MB DDR3 PCIEx16 HDCP 2xDVI-I HDTV $265.00

LCD: Acer X223WB 22 Widescreen LCD Monitor Black DVI (HDCP) 5ms 2500:1 $315.00

MB: Gigabyte EP35-DS3P S775 P35 FSB1333 DDR2 PCIEx16 SATA2 RAID GbLAN 1394 $179.00

 

Total $1282.00

[jdude]

Right now at futureshop [at least in canada] you can get a xfx Geforce 9600 GT 512mb card for 200 bucks! I don't know how it compares to the Geforce 8000GT but you should check into it

 

link:

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetai...=&langid=EN

I think it's a good deal

[Domarius]

Ah... while that converts to $218 AU, which is "bloody good, mate", it seems they don't ship outside Canada or the USA. Much appreciated though

[oDDity]

I'd say get two smaller WD 10k raptors and set up a RAID 0. You get much better read write performance. 7200 is pretty lame, and an unnecessary choke point.

With two 10k's in RAID you don't quite get 20k speed, but you certainly get more than 15k, which is at least twice as fast as the disk you're going to buy.

[Baddcog]

I got 1 wd raptor 10K, it's fast

 

Also got a 8600 GTS OC 512, fast too. Since new cards on on their way I'd just save the cash on one of these instead of 8800. Upgrade to new stuff later if needed. This cards fine for DM

 

I went with the Antec 900 like oDDity has, runs REALLY cool, quiet too. Kindof big.

[Domarius]

Hm I'm going to give that serious thought. I do put a higher value on speed over storage space at this point in time. I honestly don't know what I'd do with 400gig.

 

I don't know if I can afford to go all out into a RAID setup, what about just this one drive;

Western Digital 74G SATA Raptor 10000 rpm HDD(16Mb Cache)

[Baddcog]

That's what I got

 

Sounds like a bullfrog sometimes:)

 

2 partitions: Windows on one with 20 gigs I think (about 10 gigs to spare)

 

2nd partition for programs, it'll take awhile to fill up. I have a backup 7500 40 gig that I just haven't got working yet. I figure an old hd backup just for space not speed, good for music,ect...

[oDDity]

IF you are going to install windows XP with the sata drive you will either need a floppy drive or you will have to integrate the sata drivers onto the XP CD.

At least I think so, though maybe that's only if you want to do a RAID setup on the sata drives, but I don't think windows xp install will recognise sata drives.

I recently installed XP 64bit on my second partition and had to make my own XP CD with the drivers on it.

[squill]

it's only for raid config. I didn't have to install any sata drivers just for installing XP (SP2).

 

besides 2 hdd also 2 monitors are very comfortable

[Domarius]

Good, I hope I don't have to use a floppy drive, I was thinking about that,. I have an XP SP2 installation CD.

 

A bullfrog hey? Noise is probably the one thing I put above performance at the moment, if it can be helped. Is it constantly loud?

[Komag]

If you REALLY want a fast HD you can go pure Flash, but those are extremely expensive and not worth it yet (to me). They are promising for a couple years down the road though

[Baddcog]

That HD isn't too loud, deffinately makes some noise when it's working.

 

But it is now the loudest part of my system. My PSU fan makes some noise when I start it up, but runs silent after 5 minutes. My other 5 fans are completely silent 100% of the time, so the only noise I get is the hard drive. Maybe a little louder than the hard drive I had in my last machine, but that had a loud fan...

So maybe it's just because that's all I hear. I don't notice it when gaming.

[Domarius]

Ah ok that sounds pretty good.

[STiFU]

I don't know whether it's a fact or just an urban-myth, but it's said that the 8800 GT is working better on lower resolutions and since you are going to buy a 22'' widescreen the GTS would be more suitable. I can't imagine though, that this is true. Anyway, waiting for the 9800 GX2 would be the best way to go at the moment, because it's also going to be cheap and faster than the 8800 ultra (while remaining cheaper than that GPU).

[phide]

IF you are going to install windows XP with the sata drive you will either need a floppy drive or you will have to integrate the sata drivers onto the XP CD.

Depends on the board and what SATA controller the board uses. In some cases, Windows XP setup will load an appropriate SATA controller driver and get things going. Just make sure to slipstream SP2 into the installer, or use an official SP2 release of XP, or prepare to not be able to format the entire drive's capacity.

 

I don't know whether it's a fact or just an urban-myth, but it's said that the 8800 GT is working better on lower resolutions and since you are going to buy a 22'' widescreen the GTS would be more suitable.

The new GTS 512 should be faster than the 8800 GT in all cases, but the cost might not be justifiable despite that. The performance margins between the two cards are slim to nonexistent.

[Domarius]

Yeah I noticed the slim difference in the bench marks.

 

As for the 9800 GX2, I'm apprehensive... I make it a rule never to buy bleeding edge components, best waiting around till they become mainstream and we know there's no problems with them.

[Dram]

Yeah I noticed the slim difference in the bench marks.

 

As for the 9800 GX2, I'm apprehensive... I make it a rule never to buy bleeding edge components, best waiting around till they become mainstream and we know there's no problems with them.

 

I've heard reviews of the 9800s, pretty crap apparently. IMO going for the 8800GTX or Ultra is the way to go, or the GT for a cheaper price - AU$250

[STiFU]

WHUT?! That's totally new to me. From what I have read so far, the 9800 gx 2 will be 40 % faster than the 8800 ultra at much (!!!) lower costs. Please post some of those reviews, because I was going to buy that card as soon as it's released here. My GTS is way too slow. I was looking forward to crysis so much and I was really pissed that it didn't run properly, so I have to buy a new card...

 

Edit: Forgot to mention that there are also problems with the xp-driver for the GTS (vista drivers work though). The scaling does not work properly, so that I can only play in my screen's naturaly resolution, without stretching. So in the end, the GTS isn't that much of a runner...

Edited March 15, 2008 by STiFU

[oDDity]

The 8800GTS can't be that much slower than the GTX, and the Crysis demo ran smoothly for me. Then again, I have 4 processors as well, which crysis uses.

[Dram]

Just checked the review again, oops....I meant the 9800GT Sorry, the 9800GX2 is the best on the market...ehehe

[STiFU]

I am running a quadcore here myself (q6600 2,4GHz) and Crysis clocked at about 12 to 19 fps (+/- 5 fps in worst- and bestcase-szenarios) under Vista and full detail at a resolution of 1680x1050, so my GTS apears to be slower than your GTX. =)