Desktops: Advice on Gaming PC

Re: gaming PC

by Kees Bakker  - 9/1/08 12:47 AM

Vista 32 bits only works with 4 Gb RAM. So 2x2Gb is the max you need.
Vista 64 bits can use more, but you should be sure that the games you want to play (and the drivers for the hardware) are Vista 64 compatible.

Moreover, http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2328804,00.asp shows that the current generation of games is quite happy with 2Gb. So 4Gb should be more than sufficient seen from that point of view also.

As yet, I think it's unlikely mass consumer games will need Vista 64 bit in the near future.

Kees

suggestions

the power supply is way over-the-top. here's a quality antec 850w alternative for $140 (saving $153):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371009

why 2 relatively small hard drives? a single 500gb 7200.11 will be bigger, faster, and cheaper ($75 vs $118). western digital's 640gb ($85) and hitachi's 750gb ($120) are also better choices.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145166

lastly, why amd? a core2quad q6600 is $10 more and can be automatically overclocked to 3ghz by selecting a 1333mhz fsb. it will be 20% faster than the phenom 9950 which has little oc headroom. msi p45 platinum is $15 so an extra $25 gives you a faster PC. if you're shy of overclocking, you can shift the savings from the power supply to move up to core2quad q9550 ($329) or a q9400 ($275) which are both faster than at stock speeds than the phenom.

Another question

Also, I am not really sure how to overclock since im new to the whole building business. What would you suggest and I have heard a lot of people saying that its smart to heatsink the northbridge since it runs almost as hot as the CPU, would this be something to look into and for the CPU or should the fans in my case be ample? Again thanks for the output I am making the correct changes, and will prolly go to the E6666

ddr3 is still double the price

don't get a board that has both ddr2 and ddr3 since they rarely perform as well as a pure ddr3 board and they have half the memory capacity with ddr3 (usually 4gb vs. 8gb). so if you plan to upgrade from ddr2 to ddr3 a year down the road, you'd wind up throwing away your ddr2 ram and not being able to expand the capacity.

i had no problems with gigabyte's p45 ddr3 board for $175: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128348

paired with 2x2gb of mushkin's 4gb ddr3-1600 for $260:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146828

but you'll only notice the performance difference in benchmarks or if you have long running cpu/memory intensive tasks (like video encoding). and the ram is twice as expensive as ddr2-1066 so you could afford 6/8gb of ddr2-1066.

(NT) Exactly which MSI MB are you referring to ?

Re RAM recommended for that MOBO

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=P45_Platinum&class=mb

See left hand side of web page...it's hiding in very plain sight.

I've had good luck with the GSkill the kit with 2 - 2GB DIMMs DDR2 - PC1066 but didn't see GSkill listed for this MB.

Good Luck

VAPCMD

Gaming

So would you recommend the DDR3 mobo right now, or is it not a big factor right now and spend the money with 6-8gb of DDR2? Also, the Video card I selected would they be alright to crossfire and still preform very nicely or is there a video card out there for the price of both of them that out preforms them?