Building a Gaming PC

[MrBlah]

You should get Seagate 7200.11 320GB, 500GB or 750GB drives, or Samsung Spinpoint F1 for the 1TB drives though. All have average write transfer rates of 80MB/s and higher(up to 98MB/s for the Seagate 320GB, down to 81 for Seagate 500GB) and the same can be said for read transfer rates. however to Seagate 7200.11 320GB have reported high failure rates, but if you do get one that works, your in for a treat as its nearly(98% as fast) as good as a VelociRaptor for 1/4 the price.

[Yu\m/a]

OK you guys i been looking around and im goana make an AMD build for the pure fact thats its cheaper Intel has got the performance but i dont wanna spend 300$ for the i7 even tho its impresive

so which CPU do you gusy recomend

im looking at the Athlon 64 or the Phenom X4
wich is better or would you guys recomend?

the 64 too me just looks like a steal or is it out dated?

[Clay Pigeon]

If you go with an athlon64, make sure it is an x2 (dual core). Theres a 6000+ (3.1GHz) model available on newegg.

AMD is launching their new processors on the 9th of january. It should drive the prices down on amd's current chippery, and it may drive down some of intels prices to compete with amd's price changes. What will be very interesting is if the phenom 2's perform well enough at launch, intel may cut prices on the core i7's to compensate.

[Rigges]

Ok the AMD Phenom 9950 x4 2.6GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor is the best CPU for AMD I gave a couple of Mother boards earlier for it.

This is what I would call the up grade form the one I have

I would say stay with a Gigabyte Mother board with 2 PCI-16x slots with out on board Video

Its Only at New Egg!
GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-DS4 AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX Ultra Durable II AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128075
What I like about this mother board is it has 2 PCI-16X slots is SLI ready and it doesn't have on board Video taking up Mother board space and resources additionally it has lots of Sata headers easy build too


Then add AMD Phenom 9950 2.6GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103291


As far as Video cards I am not very Knowledgeable on them I kind of pick and choose I looked there are a billion Video cards be sure to keep the memory 512 or above and a Nvidia chip set.


Good luck with it

[Yu\m/a]

[quote="Clay Pigeon";p="139680"]If you go with an athlon64, make sure it is an x2 (dual core). Theres a 6000+ (3.1GHz) model available on newegg.

AMD is launching their new processors on the 9th of january. It should drive the prices down on amd's current chippery, and it may drive down some of intels prices to compete with amd's price changes. What will be very interesting is if the phenom 2's perform well enough at launch, intel may cut prices on the core i7's to compensate.[/quote]

thanx clay i was looking at just the athlon 64 ahaha cuase i heard tf2 has lots of problems with dual cores and the fact that it was 50$! but i will keep that in mind when i make my purchase

and thanx for the MOBO recomendations Rigges im just really taking everything 1 step at a time lol
im barely goana chose my CPU ahaha but i keep all your seuggestions in mind tho

let you guys know my next hardware decision soon

[Araris]

All Valve games have issues with Multi-Core support, L4D will crash with the newer NVidia GPUs with MultiCore enabled and TF2 still runs on Single Core coding.

For gaming it is currently better to get a higher clocked dual core than a lower clocked Quad. A Quad is good for rendering and the only occasion I would recommend a Quad for gaming would be if you are overclocking the Quad up to higher speeds (ie: 3.2Ghz+).

[Yu\m/a]

So do you think the Athlon 64 is good or should i go for the X2?

[YevGenie]

Jeez guys...I just noticed how much buzz my 900 was getting...I pulled that outta my bum cause who wants to pay more than 900 for a computer...am i rite guys...am i rite?

[Renegade JB]

Just buy a Dell and get it over with... lol

[YevGenie]

[quote="Yu\m/a";p="139748"]So do you think the Athlon 64 is good or should i go for the X2?[/quote]

The Athlon 64 is ok, but it HAS to be a x2...I have an x4600 (so...2.3ghz?) and its running ok for games but its getting a little labored now...plus GTA IV has effectively hugged my entire system. (Honestly...with as many fatal errors as I'm getting, I might as well have just downloaded a virus).

Even though some games are having issue with it, I would say the majority use the 2 cores just fine. I'd go with that.

[doobop]

OK. I've read these two statements and have to think they are misleading

> i heard tf2 has lots of problems with dual cores

> All Valve games have issues with Multi-Core support

It sounds like Valve games don't work on multi-core systems. While TF2 may not be able to take advantage of the 2 cores, it works fine. I've heard L4D does actually use both cores and it also runs fine. If there's an issue with NVidia GPU's, that sounds like a driver issue with NVidia and not with a two core CPU.

So, don't let that stop you from buying an X2 or Core 2 Duo.

[Rigges]

OK well I have a dual core

I do not have any problems with Valve. Also I have no problems with TF-2 and Shovel your Butt has a Quad core and I do not know of him having any problems with it....

If you get a dual core you need to go to AMD and down load the Driver for your CPU that is an absolute Must...

this is what I have with the mother board I listed above CPU Type Dual Core AMD Athlon 64 X2 Black Edition, 2600 MHz (13 x 200) 5000+

Now Arias I think You have lost your mind were did you pull all that BS from as I know lots of gamers with dual and quad core AMDs and none of them experience the BS you sited!!!


If you want the Dual core try this one.
AMD Athlon 64 x2 black edition 5000+

or
AMD Athlon 64 x2 black Edition 5200+




Good Luck I will be standing by to help if you need it

Rigges


---

[Clay Pigeon]

[quote="Yu\m/a";p="139748"]So do you think the Athlon 64 is good or should i go for the X2?[/quote]

avoid single cores like the plague.

Get a dual core or more cores than that.

While most games are not multithreaded, the other core is useful because it will run all the background tasks while your first core is chugging away with your game.

Get the 6000+ 3.1GHz athlon 64 x2 if you only want 2 cores. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103272

If youre going with a single video card or multiple ATI cards get a motherboard based on the 790GX chipset.

[Rigges]

Umm I understand your train of thought Clay but that CPU is not unlocked and can not be overclocked like the 5000 or the 5200 which can be overclocked to 3.5 ghz

[Clay Pigeon]

It's obviously his first build. I do not recommend overclocking until your second or third build. Also if you want to OC you have to buy an aftermarket CPU cooler, which increases costs. A good aftermarket cooler can set you back between 40 and 80 bucks. Yuma strikes me as a cost-conscious person who wants to do his first build. So I would say he would be best off using the 6000+ with its stock heatsink. The 6000+ I linked uses the same stock heatsink as the phenom 9950 BE, so he should be fine with it at stock speeds.

And overclocking is a crapshoot. You could end up getting a chip that won't OC at all. My first build I had an unlocked CPU, and it wouldn't post if I overclocked it. So I'm recommending that Yuma stick with something simpler and pretty inexpensive, the 6000+