Out with the old, in with the new...

[Sheogorath]

Alright, so, long story short, the motherboard of my old computer died a few days ago. It was a brave ol' gal, and waited right up to the last moment when I had got my new laptop from IBM to replace the old one that IBM broke while trying to fix the hard dri-...OK, long story.

Anyway, while I don't know the full specs yet (a local computer store I worked at volunteered to foot most of the bill for $400 worth of components since I worked there for a week but never got paid, anyway, a guy there is picking out most of the stuff), I know some details. So, from what I know:

A 2.3ghz quad core (probably an AMD 9600)
4gb of RAM
A 2gb (Sapphire) Radeon H 4870

So I was a little curious, what kind of settings do you think I could get out of ETW with this setup? Having run a patchwork system (mostly held together with duct-tape and spit), operating on a five year old graphics card and a rather older motherboard, I'm a bit out of touch with the more modern graphics cards and processors. :P

[Tellos Athenaios]

Hmm. I have a Core 2 Duo at higher clock speed (and considering that ETW is basically aimed at people with the old Pentium boxes... ), but otherwise a fairly comparable set up and could run the ETW demo with all bells and whistles turned on without problems. You may have a bit more lag in your experience due to the game not making full use of all thread's worth (i.e. you have a quad core but only 1-2 cores are actually used by ETW + OS so you may have 2-3 idling away). On the other hand you probably don't play ETW every night & day and you may want to keep a browser open in the background or so... I'd guess ETW should run just ‘fine’ (ignoring ominous signs that the game appears not quite worth the money for what you get) with that kind of system.

In short it looks like you are well set to enjoy EB 2 once it hits a release.

[Sheogorath]

A little research led me to trade in that Radeon for a 800mb GTX 275, having heard that they give much better performance for the same price.

[Sheogorath]

Alright, so...in accordance with my topic in the Frontroom, I may well be out the free parts from the store, so I'm curious as to what the people here would recommend for a gaming system in the $400 range. Basically, I'm looking at the following:

A motherboard
A CPU
A power supply (probably in the 700-800 watt range)
And 4gb of RAM

I've got my own parts lined up already, but I'm curious as to what others would recommend and if there are any particular companies/items I should avoid.

[pevergreen]

I would go with:
Gigabyte
Intel
Coolermaster/Antec
Corsair

as brands.

[Sheogorath]

AMD seems to have the advantage in terms of midrange processors. Their processors a lot cheaper and more powerful. I was looking at the Phenom II X3 720, since it got decent reviews even if it may just be a crippled x4.

[Roman_Man#3]

$400 USD?

$119.99 - AMD Phenom II X3 720 (Could opt for the Phenom II X2 550)
$84.99 - Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P
$89.99 - Corsair 550VX ($20 Mail in Rebate)
$109.99 - XFX HD4850 512mb


That takes you to $403 without the $20 MIR, so, in about 10 weeks when you actually get that rebate, it will equate to $383!

Seriously, $400 is not much to work with.

[Crandaeolon]

Check out the deals you can get, a C2D E8400 would be a better choice for current games. It has more performance per core (and 90% of games still use only two cores at most) and overclocks extremely well. Still, go with the Phenom if you can't find a similarly priced E8400+mobo.

A 700-800W PSU is overkill. 500W should be enough, even accounting for years of capacitor aging, unless you have lots of peripherals. In any case 600W is pretty much the highest sane option for that system. Here's a handy calculator: http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/Power

[Sheogorath]

$400 USD?

$119.99 - AMD Phenom II X3 720 (Could opt for the Phenom II X2 550)
$84.99 - Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P
$89.99 - Corsair 550VX ($20 Mail in Rebate)
$109.99 - XFX HD4850 512mb


That takes you to $403 without the $20 MIR, so, in about 10 weeks when you actually get that rebate, it will equate to $383!

Seriously, $400 is not much to work with.

I've already got the graphics card. I ordered that with my own money for this occasion, since I had enough. Got a GTX 275, as I said earlier.

Check out the deals you can get, a C2D E8400 would be a better choice for current games. It has more performance per core (and 90% of games still use only two cores at most) and overclocks extremely well. Still, go with the Phenom if you can't find a similarly priced E8400+mobo.

A 700-800W PSU is overkill. 500W should be enough, even accounting for years of capacitor aging, unless you have lots of peripherals. In any case 600W is pretty much the highest sane option for that system. Here's a handy calculator: http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/Power

I believe the GTX275 uses something like 300 watts at max consumption, so I'm trying to play on the safe side. My current 450 watt PSU probably wouldn't do well.

I'll look into a 600 watt supply, though. I am considering, though, at some future point, getting another 275 for the SLI.

[Crandaeolon]

I am considering, though, at some future point, getting another 275 for the SLI.

In that case yes, a PSU in the 800W range sounds about right. A friend of mine has an i7 with two GTX260s in SLI and a 750W Corsair PSU, which is supposed to be a good match. The Phenom 720 consumes a bit less (around 100W versus around 130W) than the i7, but on the other hand two GTX275s would consume a bit more.

Somehow a 850W PSU for a "budget box" sounds wrong though...

[Sheogorath]

Alright, I went ahead and ordered. I got myself some RAM from the computer store for free, which was nice. 4gb Kingston HyperX.

From Newegg I found a good deal on a Gigabyte motherboard with a 3ghz E8500 and a 750 watt power supply on sale for $50. Total ended up being about $300 all told.

[Sheogorath]

One thing after another...

I got my parts today, but the power supply's amperage was too low. This I figured out when the computer suddenly shut off for no apparent reason, which gave me a bit of a heart attack.

The PSU I got is only rated to 16a / 15a on its 6pin connectors. The GTX-275 requires 40 amps. SIGH.

Found a power supply rated to the correct amperage, at least I hope, and hopefully that'll arrive soon.


On a side note, they really need to put the amperage requirement somewhere clear. Not in 5 point font on the bottom of the box.

[Roman_Man#3]

As people say, Watts is not the most important thing in a Power Supply. Amperage and the brand name are generally more important than Watts.

What kind of PSU did you originally buy and which kind are you getting now?

[Sheogorath]

I bought an Apevia 700 watt, primarily because it was on sale for $50, something I suppose I should have reflected on further :P

I managed to get a Sigma 635 watt power supply. I know it's not Antec or Corsair, but it seems to have gotten positive reviews. We'll see, in any case.

[Sheogorath]

Alrighty, got everything put together and working, and I gotta say...

ETW, with all settings on ultra, running smoothly, is a beautiful thing. It's like an orgasm for my eyes :P