New PC Budget, $2200 setup.

[Diablo]

We'll see Howl.

It does seems like AMD/ATI is catching up but I don't think it will be this up coming gen that will have them on par or surpassing. Nvidia isn't Intel delaying products.

Budget wise the new ATIs will be killer cards, if Nvidia doesn't get aggressive with its pricing.

[Kalean]

ATM, word is a 50% increase in performance for r700, but I hope it's bigger. I'd REALLY LOVE to see ATI take back the crown...But with the amount of time Nvidia has had to cherry pick at their architecture, iono if it will be possible for this upcoming generation...Maybe the next.

But heck, if they do succeed more power to them. but with the rumors of the current price ranges for their 48x0 series...If they are accurate, they wouldn't price a huge performer that low =(.

[LethalGT]

Processor: Intel Q9450.
Graphics: 9800GTX x2.
RAM: 4gb's of DDR3.
Mobo: Evga 790i.
Case: Cooler master stacker 832.
Monitor: Samsung 223BW.
Power Supply: Silverstone 1000W.

Don't get 8gb's, such a waste of money it doesn't do ANYTHING for you.

WINDOWS VISTA 64-BIT!

All of these are found at Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more! and with rebates. BUT you'll have to buy the processor at TigerDirect.com - Computers, Computer Parts, Computer Accessories, PC Components, & Electronics

[Casino]

/palmface @ lethalgt

[Kalean]

Casino: My sentiments exactly...I go through all these lengthly posts and explain things in detail, and people just post this stuff again -_-...But I guess that's what I get for making such long recommendation posts, people don't want to read it except for the OP...lol >_<.

Lethal: Such a waste of money man..

Q9450= great processor, but pricey, it'd be best to get a q6600 and just overclock it. 45nm doesn't have much to offer over the 65nm Kentsfields in terms of performance...

9800GTX X2 = Waste of money, GT200 is about to be released in 30-50 days....

Ram= DDR3 is ONLY worth getting for Nehalem's IMC/QPI. the FSB architecture isn't that dandy with DDR3....The onlly modules you can see a big difference in performance is if you spend a LOT of money on ddr3 modules within the 1600-2000 mhz range...and that's too much.

Stacker 832 = Good case, a bit brute for on air cooling, but a good one...

Samsung 223BW = TN Panel, but to be expected for the price range, low color accuracy...It's best to just go into a retail store and pick out a monitor their after seeing which one suits your tastes/strengths.

PSU = Silverstone is a great brand, but 1000W is overkill, and not needed....You can pick up a higher quality PC Power unit for probably a cheaper cost anyways with their current prices.

[Casino]

i read the tldr post kal

[Kalean]

Originally Posted by Casino

i read the tldr post kal

=D.....and that warms my heart ^_^.

[Clinkz]

Originally Posted by Kalean

Here you go Clinkz....But before you read it, I'd just like to state there are three place holders in there just to hold the price until the new cards come out, so the 9800GX2 will vanish, I just placed it for the price of 600 just incase for the GT200, GT200 price is expected to be 499.99, but just though it'd be best to throw it in so we don't go over budget ever...Read after the list for information regarding the parts selected, that can change based on what you want to do...

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion...tTitle=Clinkz2

Depending on how long you want this rig to last, I threw in a temporary E8400...If you want to overclock, I HEAVILY suggest picking up a q6600 for some overclocking. You can always increase the core speed, but you can never add more cores, and the future is indeed multi-threaded. So this part is up to you on either E8400 or Q6600. Only pick up the q6600 if you are 100% overclocking though, as you'd see a bigger performance advantage with the faster clock speed in the current state of computer applications....Keep in mind though that a quad will liver longer and better down the road as more applications become multithreaded. Also, if you plan to upgrade relatively soon to Nehalem during 2009, then just pick up the e8400, unless you have specific uses that can take advantage of a quad and plan to OC to 3ghz +.

The motherboard is a place holder, No card on the market atm breaks the pci-e 1.1 barrier...With VERY FEW games even taking advantage of PCI-E 2.0, one of the only ones is Flight Simulator which not many really play here I bet =P. If you want this rig to last 3-5 years with only a gpu upgrade down the line, then definitely grab the x38 board for the PCI-E 2.0 interface. As stated nothing breaks the barrier now, but 2-3 years down the road that will change. We also have no idea what GT200 will bring to the table....so best to wait and see how it performs in PCI-E 1.1 boards just incase. If it still isn't close to the barrier, and you plan to upgrade to Nehalem in 2009, you can then drop the board to a cheaper P35 based solution, which will save you around 100-150 depending on the board. One more thing, if you plan to upgrade to Nehalem during Q1/Q2 2009, I'd suggest picking up a p35 board regardless so you don't waste too much money, then just swap out your board/ram/cpu for a Nehalem mainstream solution....There are rumors going around that intel might lock the ability to overclock on the lower end solutions, but it's a rumor atm....If you do decide to upgrade, DDR3 might seem a like a good pick up right now so you don't have to buy memory again, but with the prices of DDR-2 so low, and good ddr3 boards a bit higher, I wouldn't suggest it. Anyways, you'd have a spare rig possibility if you go DDR2 as well. Keep in mind though that Nehalem won't be 100% needed, current technology will still live quite a long time down the road...Nehalem is a modified core architecture with a IMC and intel's QPI....Plus, current processors will live a lot longer then previous generations cpu's due to the fact that they have multiple cores.

The ram modules are some tasty cas4 ddr2-800 modules from Mushkin, they also sport Micron D9 ic's, and as I've always preached...Micron IC's are very high quality modules ^_^. good overclockers that can easily sustain and hold higher clocks/voltages then other IC manufacturers in terms of lifetime. Great chips, also comes with a free 3DMark Vantage 08 from newegg ^_^.

9800GX2 is a place holder as mentioned, Although the price of the GT200 will be around 500, I thought best to put in sometihng more expensive so we don't go over budget just in case, and it'll make you a happy camper once you see the price drop ^.^. Remember, don't buy now, wait till Gt200/R700 in mid-late June/Early July. Whatever happens, we will be getting a EVGA/BFG/XFX card, why buy from other manufacturers when these lovely companies offer lifetime warranties?...Also, since we're going high end, you quality for my infinite high end tactic if you decide to ^_^...First off, before I get into that...EVGA/BFG both offer 90/100 day step up programs, simple really, you can trade in your card within that time frame for something better, you just pay the difference ^_^.

the infinite high end tactic is only accessible with XFX cards (can be done with other brands, but XFX = higher success rate). Basically, you buy a new high end on day 1 from XFX, use it, and hopefully if the market has been competitive with not so many darn refreshes (such as lately), on the verge of a upcoming new highend architecture gpu, you take the XFX card and pop it up on ebay or a similar site. Due to the Double lifetime warranty from XFX, the lifetime warranty is transferable to the new owner, this will allow you to sell the used card QUICKLY...You do so priced at 50-100 below the current MSRP (you do this a month or so before a new high end comes out). Take that money you got, slap on an additional 100-250 (price varies depending on state of graphics market), and buy the new high end ^_^...and repeat over and over. You lose out on keeping your older card, but get a new high end for a MUCH cheaper cost and can always stay up to date for the lowest amount of funds possible. This ONLY works with high end solutions if they retain their market value (8800 GTX cards haven't as you see, due to the refreshes, which are due to the lack of competition from ATI =(...)

For the hard drive, it depends how much space you need....I temporarily put in a 150gb Raptor and a 7200.11 PMR 500gb drive from seagate (5 year warranty = yum). If you don't need more then 300 gb's, I'd suggest dropping both of these and picking up the new WD Velociraptor which comes out in June. priced at 300 though, but has a 1ms faster random access time compared to the current raptor drives, while improving on dollar per gigabyte ratio. Also offers the read/write rate of current 7,200 rpm PMR drives....Good purchase...The faster access times are really helpful in MMO's as I've stated in many other threads, on the fly hard drive requests in mmo's are a plague for 7,200 rpm drives and their slower spindle/access times. It'll decrease load times and lessen those system lock ups as the hard drive is requested for information (models/textures)...We've all felt this while running down a path and the system freezes for 1-3 seconds, followed by a massive load of terrain/mobs/character/etc....Also help town loading times for character models and log ins with random characters popping up. If you want more space, then just pick up the two drives I've already selected, raptor as the main OS drive, and the 500 gigabyte seagate for storage.

For the PSU, I threw in a PC Power silencer series, newegg unfortunately doesn't have the 610 watt model, while the 750 is indeed overkill for this rig...lol. But hopefully they'll get the black model in stock, as well as offer the 610 watt models..If they don't, you can pick up the 610 watt model in black from Buy.com at a great price with free shipping.

PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610W EPS 12V SLI Ready Power Supply - S61EPS - Buy.com

If you want a modular PSU, just state so, and I'll throw in some other suggestions...If you don't know what modular is, it's basically a PSU that allows you to connect whatever wires you want, no excess wires hanging loosely in the case, you just attack the connectors you want to the psu.

Now, I didn't add cpu cooling to the list, but it all depends on if you plan to oc or not, of if you're the type of person who likes to keep their components cool regardless if you don't oc...lol...here are my suggestions.

Newegg.com - ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks

Considered one of the best budget coolers, if you don't place to OC, or OC mildy, this would be a great choice...If you want to even improve on the cooling more, add this thermal compound..

Newegg.com - ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound - Thermal Compound / Grease

If you want a high end air cooling solution, pick this sucker up...

Thermalright Ultra120 eXtreme Premium Heatpipe Cooler Products Model: ULTRA120-EXTREME [ULTRA120-EXTREME] : Performance-PCs.com, ... sleeve it and they will come (they never have it in stock at newegg...

and add this fan for the bracket,

SCYTHE S-FLEX™ 120mm 1600 rpm Quiet Fan - Sleeved Products Model: SFF21F [SFF21F] : Performance-PCs.com, ... sleeve it and they will come

as well as the mx-2 compound, and you're set for a massive air overclock ^_^.

Regarding Case, a tasty Antec 900...Out of all the cases I've bought, I have to admit I love antec considering they give you quality fans with their cases. Fantastic value, two front 120mm intake, one rear 120mm exhaust, and a top 200mm exhaust (with a optional slot on the side panel for a 120mm fan, not the best positioning though). All fans are 3 speed adjustable, so you can get some pretty good airflow out of them, or low noise depending on your tastes, fantastic build quality as well. If you don't like the looks or want something else, just say so and I'll state some alternatives, although they are more pricey, and more then likely you will have to buy fans since they don't come filled up.

---------------------------------

That pretty much does it, can't think of anything else off the top of my head....If you have any comments/questions/concerns, drop a line. ^_^

OMG WALL OF TEXT.
= ) thanks. The explanations really help me think about what I need, if I decide to make any changes, which I'm sure I will since there will be tons more new stuff down the line I'll let you know. Once again Thanks a ton man. I really appreciate it = )

[Kalean]

Anytime ^_^...Do make note of the place holders though, as times goes by and r700/gt200 gets near, bump this thread back up and I'll give you the latest update. ^^

[Clinkz]

I'll probably wait til a couple weeks before I buy the parts to bump it. Although, between the time that the gt200 comes out and I buy my PC, there probably won't be very many differences.

[Ravendell]

Ehm, if i could remember correctly DD3 is pretty F*(&#$g expensive. Don't even start with 8GB :S