Calling all PC hardware wonks

[Nightshade]

It's that time again, I'm contemplating building a new PC. However, I have some upgrade room on my current rig and want to investigate options.

I have an Asus P5E mobo which can support up to a Core2Quad, and I can upgrade the RAM. The big weakness is my video card, an ancient, wheezing, but still serviceable 8800GT. I've looked at a few cards, but don't really have any idea which is best without exhaustive benchmark research, something I don't really have time to do.

So, suggestions? Fuck off, Nightshade? TnT?

[DTS]

There are no PC games woth playing. Wait until John Romero's game
Photo and video editing programs don't make much use of a beefier graphics card, do they?

I was going to say "T&T", but whatever...

[Don Carlos]

Budget sir?

[Ryoki]

As a rule, i'd say read the advise DTS gives and apply it 100% backwards.

Also, if time is an issue and money is less of an issue i'd suggest buying off the shelf. Hardware is not that expensive these days and it saves a lot of time consuming tinkering.

[scared?]

It's that time again, I'm contemplating building a new PC. However, I have some upgrade room on my current rig and want to investigate options.

I have an Asus P5E mobo which can support up to a Core2Quad, and I can upgrade the RAM. The big weakness is my video card, an ancient, wheezing, but still serviceable 8800GT. I've looked at a few cards, but don't really have any idea which is best without exhaustive benchmark research, something I don't really have time to do.

So, suggestions? Fuck off, Nightshade? TnT?

lol dumb ass...

[ToxicBug]

What resolution are you going to be playing on? Which games?

[Eraser]

Wolfenstein 3D at, say, 320x240?

[GONNAFISTYA]

Whoa...that plus email and his machine will melt.

[obsidian]

Without a budget, list parts that you can salvage off of your current machine, and details on what you intend to do with this new computer, it's pretty hard to give a recommendation. Should I start listing parts for a $8000 Xeon workstation with 3 GPUs and a RAID of SSDs?

[bitWISE]

I upgraded a few months ago to an i7 2600, 8gb of corsair ddr3 that was on sale, and a cheap asus P8P67 LE. I'm still running my XFX HD5850 black edition. No problems with games. If you want an SSD, keep an eye on http://www.slickdeals.net they have been going on sale like crazy now. The current prices are around 50 cents a gig for sata3 drives.

Also http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gam ... 107-4.html

[seremtan]

you could try a mobo bundle, much cheaper than a new box (though you'd have to reinstall the OS obviously). as for gfx - depends what you want to play really, and how good you want it to look. GTX460 is fine for me, and reasonably price (i also upgraded from the 8800GT, which was a decent card in its time)

also: SSD for OS and apps - you'll notice the difference bigtime

[Nightshade]

It's going to be a gaming rig, love to get BF3 running on ultra. Going to be switching to Windows 7, forgot to mention that.

For upgrades, call it $500-ish and about $1000 for a new system.

[scared?]

what kind of moron plays bf3?...

[AmIdYfReAk]

It's going to be a gaming rig, love to get BF3 running on ultra. Going to be switching to Windows 7, forgot to mention that.

For upgrades, call it $500-ish and about $1000 for a new system.

Seek a 1155 system, 3770K, 8GB of ram, SSD, 80+ Silver/gold/plat power supply, and check out the 670's.

Enjoy Ultra settings, and stupid speed.

[Nightshade]

what kind of moron plays bf3?...

Are you seriously still on the CoD kiddie bandwagon?

[Nightshade]

Seek a 1155 system, 3770K, 8GB of ram, SSD, 80+ Silver/gold/plat power supply, and check out the 670's.

Enjoy Ultra settings, and stupid speed.

OK, I copy all that except for the 3770K. Dafuq izzat?

[Mat Linnett]

It's an i7 model number Nightshade.

[ToxicBug]

You still haven't mentioned what resolution you'll be playing at. Either way, if it's 1080p then a single GTX 670 FTW should be good.

[Nightshade]

I have a 24" 1080p monitor, and I'd like to add another and use Eyefinity.

[Nightshade]

I assumed as much, but if it's going to make the cost shoot through the roof, I can live without it.

[DTS]

According to Wikipedia, Eyefinity uses at least 3 monitors, not 2 as you proposed.

[Tsakali]

lol 2 monitors will have you aiming at the monitor frames.

[ToxicBug]

I have a 24" 1080p monitor, and I'd like to add another and use Eyefinity.

You need 3 screens for Eyefinity (AMD) or Surround (nVidia). Expect around one GTX 670 per 1080p screen to run the most demanding games such as BF3 and Crysis 2 maxed out (4X MSAA). You will probably get away with 2-way SLI to run most games on 3x1080p @ 60fps. I'm going to be using 4-way SLI GTX 670's for 3x1440p, but I'm not expecting to run BF3 and Crysis 2 at 60 fps though. Dragon Age II and Might and Magic Heroes VI, yes. I'm also planning to upgrade when the next-gen nVidia flagship comes out, then I'll be expecting to max out any game at my resolution.

[Deathshroud]

It's going to be a gaming rig, love to get BF3 running on ultra. Going to be switching to Windows 7, forgot to mention that.

For upgrades, call it $500-ish and about $1000 for a new system.

One word of advice, buy a video card with OVER a gig of RAM on it. Before BF3 came out I upgraded to 2, 560's (non-ti) under SLi and I can't run BF3 using Ultra textures without stutter (everything else is on Ultra though).

Also, anything over 8 Gigs of RAM for gaming is pretty much a waste of money. By a decent CPU, OC it, dump as much money as possible into video card(s).

[DTS]

4-way SLI

That's 4 graphics cards isn't it? What does that set you back?