New PC questions/thoughts

[Coot 1]

I asked sometime ago, but I would appreciate any help/tips on a new system as I'm closer to being able to purchase one. Please keep in mind that my last computer was a P4HT, 3.6GHZ, 2 gig ram, Geforce 6800 Dell computer. And I've actually been on even lower end systems ever since I gave that computer to my sister a few years ago. As a result, I've been anxious for a new computer for a looooooong time. So just about anything at this point will be a big deal to me.

 

I haven't been able to enjoy my sims and games for a long time and want to be able to play FS2004/SHIII/SF series/IL-2/Lock On/Source games/BIA/Red Orchestra/Stalker/BF2 again. I also want to be able to enjoy games and sims that I have yet to try including FSX/Black Shark/SH4/Crysis/ARMA and many others.

 

My budget is around 1000 dollars. I'm leaning either towards IBUYPOWER or CyberPower depending on which one has the best deal at the time of purchase. I don't know a great deal about the technical aspects especially when it comes to mother board talk and such. I've been using computers fifteen years but I'm not terrible techy.

 

What do you all think about a set up like this from IBUYPOWER:

 

Case ( Ikonik Zaria A10 Gaming Tower Case Black )

Case Lighting ( Cold Cathode Neon Light Blue )

Power Supply ( 800 Watt -- Power Supply Quad SLI Ready )

Processor ( Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8600 (2x 3.33GHz/6MB L2 Cache/1333FSB) )

Processor Cooling ( Certified CPU Fan and Heatsink )

Motherboard ( [sLI] Asus P5N-D Nvidia nForce 750i SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394, Dual PCI-E MB EPU Technology )

Memory ( 4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Corsair-Value or Major Brand )

Video Card ( NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB w/DVI + TV Out Video )

Video Card Brand ( Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA )

Hard Drive ( 500 GB HARD DRIVE [serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache] )

2nd Hard Drive ( None )

External Hard Drives [uSB 2.0/eSATA] ( None )

CD/DVD Drive ( None )

CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( [** Special !!! ***] LG 22X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Black )

Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )

Speaker System ( iBUYPOWER 2.1 Channel Stereo Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System )

Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )

Floppy Drive ( None )

Monitor ( None )

2nd Monitor ( None )

Keyboard ( iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard w/ 18 Internet Hot /Multimedia Keys Black )

Mouse ( iBUYPOWER 1600 dpi High Sensitivity Internet Mouse Black )

USB 2.0 Accessories ( Built-in USB 2.0 Ports )

Meter Display ( None )

Flash Media Reader/Writer ( None )

Operating System ( Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic + [Free 60-Day !!!] Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access ....) 64-Bit )

Software/Game ( [Free Game] - Halo 2 Free with purchase of Microsoft Windows Vista operating system )

USB Flash Drive ( None )

MP3/MP4 Player ( None )

Video Camera ( None )

Headset ( None )

Power Protection ( None )

Warranty ( Standard Warranty Service Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support )

Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days )

 

Few misc. questions:

What do you think of the case? I tend to prefer black and simple.

 

When it comes to computer fans, are basic fans that IBP include fine? Plus doesn't the video card have fan to help with cooling? I'm just wondering if its worth spending an extra 20 bucks on a name brand fan they have listed.

 

Is this a good motherboard? I don't want to go sli just a single nice card. I don't mind having the extra pci-e slot there.

 

Now processor. This is where I get confused as all get out. I know there is Dual core which is two processors and Quad Core which is four. I realize too that the new i7 core came out which is also four cores. Now I picked the fastest dual core that I could pick. Will this processor be fine for me for my games and for a few years to come?

 

Windows Vista. I realize this needs the 64bit version to use four or more gigs of memory. Being 64 bit do I have to do anything special? Meaning can I just install a game or will older games like I mentioned have trouble with this operating system?

 

Do I need a meter display? What is it used for?

 

Is the power supply I picked a good wattage for my card that I picked and for everything else?

 

Thanks for any suggestions and help and for putting up with my inquiries.

[MaverickMike 10]

I can answer the vista questions. I got myself a new rig a few weeks ago and it had Vista 64bit on it. So far no problems in the gaming department. TBH i dont think you will have a problem playing anything on that system.

 

Mike

Edited June 26, 2009 by mikepie11986

[column5 63]

Now processor. This is where I get confused as all get out. I know there is Dual core which is two processors and Quad Core which is four. I realize too that the new i7 core came out which is also four cores. Now I picked the fastest dual core that I could pick. Will this processor be fine for me for my games and for a few years to come?

 

Probably. I've been running a C2D 3Ghz processor over clocked to 3.6Ghz for a long time now and I still feel no need to upgrade. I think it will be viable for at least another year or two.

[Coot 1]

Thank you both for the response. Is there anything else in a system like this that you all see as an issue? Do all the parts I pick jive with each other? Is the mother board a good one especially for the card I picked and is this system as is fairly upgradable?

 

How about extra things like professional wiring and meter displays? Is it worth tacking on these extra little expenses? Thanks again.

 

 

 

 

 

p.s. I forgot a sim that I'm looking forward to. Rise of Flight. Will this system handle that well? Sorry about all the little questions. Just want to make sure I do this right as I've only one chance to do it.

Edited June 26, 2009 by Coot

[column5 63]

Thank you both for the response. Is there anything else in a system like this that you all see as an issue? Do all the parts I pick jive with each other? Is the mother board a good one especially for the card I picked and is this system as is fairly upgradable? Thanks again.

 

Everything you listed seems to be from a good manufacturer, which is probably the most important thing. Super-cheap off-brand stuff is where you usually run into problems.

 

On a high-end system like you've specified, my only additional suggestion would be to get a small, fast HDD to use as a dedicated drive for the swap file. Connect this to a separate SATA channel from your main HDD. I use a 36GB Raptor for this job and it allows the system to remain very responsive when under a heavy load.

 

Oh, one other thing...make sure your GTX 260 is one of the later models with 216 cores enabled instead of the original model that only had 192 cores active.

[Coot 1]

Hey column5. What is the swap file?

 

Here are the specs of the GTX 260 I picked. Is this the 216 core one?

 

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB w/DVI + TV Out Video

Description:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB w/DVI + TV Out Video

 

Specification:

Memery Detail: 896MB DDR3

Core Clock Speed: 576MHz

Memory Clock Speed: 1998MHz

Memory Bandwidth: 111.9GB/sec

Shader Clock Speed: 1242MHz

Bus: PCI-E 2.0

Interface: DVI-I, DVI-I, HDTV-7

Edited June 26, 2009 by Coot

[JediMaster 451]

Where's the brand name of the card? That should tell you what it is. All that is there is the generic model name.

I have that exact CPU and video--E8600 and 260/216--and it works great, although I don't have RoF. I haven't tried OC'ing yet, but I'm sure I can get something good out of it if need be. Right now 3.3GHz seems enough.

I decided to go 2 cores right now because few games take advantage of 4, so faster 2 cores better bang for the same buck as 4 slower. The new core i7s however have this ability to auto OC themselves if you only run 1 or 2 cores, a truly brilliant idea. Still too pricey for me, though, so that will be my NEXT upgrade last next year or so.

[Coot 1]

Hey Jedi thanks for the info. If I can swing it for about the same price would I be better off going with the Core i7 processor?(the least expensive 2.66 GHZ version) Is the 2.66 GHz Core i7 processor better/faster than the fastest dual core or quad core I could get right now?

 

Since I get only one chance at this and since I'd like it to be somewhat future proof I'm just trying to decide which is the best processor to go with. So many choices and so little techy knowledge in my head.

[JediMaster 451]

That's a good question. I think the slowest i7 is on par with the fastest C2Ds right now, with the quads basically running the same speed (ie a 3GHz quad runs most things as fast as a 3GHz duo unless it's coded to use more than 2 cores).

The main reason I didn't go core i7 yet was that they need DDR3 RAM and I still have DDR2 and didn't want to pay to upgrade THAT too. Oh, plus core i7 mobos all seem to cost a good deal more than C2D/Q boards, which you can get even under $100. I'm not sure if there's a core i7 board out under $200 yet.

[Coot 1]

Is DDR3 RAM something I should go for? Would it be better to go with a fast C2Duo with DDR3 RAM or an i7core that is already DDR3 RAM? For around the same price I can reconfigure the above specked machine to be a dual core with DDR3 RAM.

[JediMaster 451]

Well, if you go DDR3 now you'll be able to keep it for your next upgrade to the i7. So it costs a little more now but you'll save having to buy new RAM again later.

[Coot 1]

I think I'm confusing DDR ram and L2/3 cache. I'm all screwed up. This stuff is way over my head. If I decide to go ahead with something other than even the fastest core 2 duo, would it be better for me to go with a good quad core or the newer i7 core? The reason I ask is that I could probably only afford the least expensive version of the i7 core which is the 2.66 version. Is there a quad core that performs equally or better than this lowest i7 version for less money?

[JediMaster 451]

Not for less, no. The fastest Core 2 Quads are well over $300, the slowest i7 is like $260 and yet is still faster. However, as I said the i7 mobo's cost you more (as does DDR3) so the cost is more or less the same.

L2/3 cache is internal CPU stuff that you probably can skip worrying about. General rule of thumb is the Intel chips perform similarly at equal price points for the Core 2 line, but the core i7s run faster at an equal price even though they run at a slower clock. So the $260 core i7 is faster than the $260 core 2 quad chip, but the increased cost of DDR3 and mobo means the overall system for the i7 costs more.

 

If you go with the slowest core i7 now, you'd be able to just buy a faster CPU in the future and keep the same mobo and RAM. If you go with a core 2 CPU now, most of the mobos use DDR2 (although as you pointed out you can get DDR3 ones) and you'd still have to buy a new mobo later to switch to the i7s. The Core 2 line is still in production, but we won't be seeing any faster CPUs there, development is focused on the core i7 (and soon the slower i5 and i3) lines.

[Coot 1]

Thanks JediMaster for all the extra info and help. I appreciate it. Perhaps when the time draws near I could list the specs of the configured machine I'm leaning towards and you all could take a look at it and help me decide if there are any problems with the set up or concerns. Thanks again.