Any recommendations for next comp to run Empire on

[Lemur]

Don't hitch together two lower-range video cards. Use the money to buy one good one. Also, no PSU beyond the 420W one in the case? Not sure that's wise ...

[ICantSpellDawg]

Don't hitch together two lower-range video cards. Use the money to buy one good one. Also, no PSU beyond the 420W one in the case? Not sure that's wise ...

I've never heard of having 2 power supply's in a case. I'm particulary sensetive here because my power supply crapped out on me in my old pc.

I've been a pc nomad for a while now

[Lemur]

No, not two power supplies, but rather selecting a higher-grade one to replace the generic PSU that comes with the case. I've always done this.

-edit-

P.S.: Is this the least ghetto-fabulous case you could find on the site?

Hmm, going through that website's selection of cases for AMD rigs, this looks like the quietest model, and it's not notably more hideous than the one you originally picked:

Oh, wait a minute, I see some of the AMD builds offer the Thermaltake Elements case. That would be an excellent choice, especially if you like quiet.

-edit part deux-

One more thought: Screens are really personal. I would consider buying the screen separately, especially if you can go someplace and look at them first. At the very least, if you cruise around a place like NewEgg you can look at the reviews and see what hordes of angry geeks have to say about them. All 22" monitors are not created equal, and it worries me that CybperpowerPC won't say which brands it's carrying.

[Rufus]

I posted this in the Parliament forum; thought I'd post it over here too:

I'm considering a "gaming laptop," since this game just came out and we've been considering a laptop for a while. Would GREATLY appreciate any recommendations among these three available at Best Buy. I assume laptops are something where you get what you pay for, more or less, but if the cheapest one ($750) will run E:TW at high settings, I'd like to go for that.

Toshiba Satellite Laptop $750

Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with SP1
Intel® Centrino® Intel® Core™2 Duo Mobile 2.0GHz
WXGA TFT-LCD 15.4" widescreen with TruBrite technology (1280 x 800)
4GB PC6400 DDR2 SDRAM
ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3650 512MB

Asus Laptop $1,000

Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Intel® Centrino® 2 Intel® Core™2 Duo Mobile 2.13GHz
WXGA 15.6" widescreen with 1366 x 768 resolution
4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GS 512MB GDDR3

Gateway FX Edition Laptop $1,150

Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with SP1
Intel® Centrino® 2 Intel® Core™2 Duo Mobile 2.26GHz
WXGA 17" high-definition widescreen TFT-LCD with Ultrabright technology
4GB DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS 1GB GDDR3

Thanks very much for any input!!!

[Callahan9119]

unless you can build your own I would go with the dell xps 630, E8500 cpu.

Love mine, and I got crappy 8800 gt's with mine, way better ones come with it now.

I have that ASUS laptop btw, good luck making this game look good on it.

1,400 will get you a primo 630i

[Furunculus]

Rough Guide on minimum component costs to achieve a good gaming PC:

CPU = £120 (AMD X3 Phenom II)
GPU = £180 (AMD 4870 1GB)
RAM = £60 (4GB DDR2 800)
M/B = £120 (AMD 790GX solid caps)
Mon = £180 (23" 1080p)
rest = £120 (case/psu/dvd)
Total = £780