[HD-5000]

Hey guys, please help me choose the best parts for my new computer.

It used for gaming, internet, email, Word, and Photoshop.

Currently I'm running an ancient computer with a Pentium 4 1.7Ghz, 256MB of SDRAM, and (drumroll please) the nvidia Geforce2 100MX with a whopping 32MB RAM.

Right now I have an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor, 1GB of DDR Ram, and misc. parts like case, DVD burner, motherboard, etc.

I'm not too sure which video card is the best for my use. I'm leaning towards the 7800GT for its speed and value ($300) but it may be huge overkill for my light gaming requirements (starcraft, counterstrike 1.6).

A part of me really wants to be blown away with the insane jump in performance going from Geforce2 MX100 to 7800GT, but a more rational side wants to save a few bucks by going with a cheaper card.

Either way, the leap in performance will be astronomical.

Budget is from $100-300.

 

[[AK]Zip]

If you aren't going to play anything above CS 1.6 then just pick up a 6600GT or X800 off of ebay for $120 or so.

Also, the motherboard you have does it support PCI-E or AGP?

 

[johnmatrix]

You could always justify the new card by buying some new games. Say Half-Life 2 or AOE III? Something else to consider is you can hold on to the 7800 GT for longer without feeling the need to upgrade. The 7800 series are good cards. When I built my brother's computer, I put in a 7800 GTX.

You might want to bump up the RAM to 2 gig while it is cheap. Right now RAM is half the price it was a year ago. 2 gigs is useful for the Half-life 2 and FEAR. It also might come in handy for Vista as well. Each iteneration of Windows gets more memory hungry.

 

[HD-5000]

Thanks for the quick responses.

The motherboard definetely supports PCI-E.

Of course I'm not sticking with just CS 1.6. The new computer will finally let me play some newer games smoothly.

I may buy another stick of RAM in the future, we'll see how it runs soon.

 

[Cyrillic]

6600 gt is a good card at its price point (low 100s). If you want to bump that up, I'd check out http://www.newegg.com/Product/Custra...82E16814130256 at $300. It's at your max range, but it's pretty new technology. Just make sure you have a system that will make that card reach its maximum performance. No point in putting it in a 1.5ghz pc.

P.S. Unless you plan on running many things at once (which is probably not the case with a gamer who usually runs just the one game), I would stick with a medium amount of dual channel ram if you can. 1 gig is good. If you want to save cash, go with the value ram (1 gig is like $80), or if you want max performance, get some good RAM.

 

[akwok]

Buy the 7800 GT, it will last longer (SLI 2x 7800 GT baby!)

Or better yet.. 7800 GTX. I was FLOORED with ONE 7800 GTX, let alone two in SLI! Must be heaven!

Talk about totally trumping the Xbox 360's graphics.. with only ONE 7800GTX too!

 

[ooheadsoo]

Take ati off your list (just for now) since they don't have dx9.0c support yet.

 

[atart]

if you're on a tight budget (lol not very tight, but comparatively tight) for around 210 you can get a 6800GS which pretty much has the same horsepower of the older 6800GT, great value IMO

cheers

 

[no1likesme]

definatley the 7800gt
it will last you more than a year and be able to handle any game that is released
just spend the money now so you dont have to later

 

[HD-5000]

7800GT ordered...

Geforce2 MX to tha 7800GT, drool.

FEAR here I come.

 

[dj_mocok]

HD 5000,

I F.E.A.R. that you need more RAM for your PC if you are planning to play F.E.A.R.

Gaming using Windows XP, probably 512 is the minimum.

 

[Covenant]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_mocok HD 5000, I F.E.A.R. that you need more RAM for your PC if you are planning to play F.E.A.R. Gaming using Windows XP, probably 512 is the minimum.

Go straight for 1GB, and never look back. I'm on 512 and playing world of warcraft (a HELL of alot less hardware-intensive than FEAR), and its still being a bottleneck.

 

[Hey_Its_Cole]

1 gig will run but if you play at high resolutions (1680x1020 is my monitor) I suggest (2x1 gig) Fear needs it as well as BF2 but almost all of the new games coming out need it.