Byopc

[Magn3tar]

Need help you nerds

Building a computer, what do I need.

My wants are : to be able to run high end video games with high FPS, such as COD4 etc.

Does a case matter? Power supply wattage?

I know fully well how to build a computer (almost as easy as putting Lego's together)

What's a good RAM to VRAM ratio? 3 GIG : 512 (respectively)?

Please discuss. Thank you

[=peg=]

foq will answer soon

[Mr.Burns]

[Sounds of a drum roll in the background... the tension rises...]

[Polarite]

Antec Sonata III 500W Black

Asus P5N32-e SLI Socket 775 Nvidia Nforce� 680I SLI™

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40 Socket 775

OCZ OCZ2RPR10662GK 2048MB KIT (2X1024MB) 1066MHZ Reaper HPC Edition Du...

Asus EN8800GT/g/htdp 512MB PCI Express Nforce 8800GT

Western Digital 500GB-KS 16MB SATA300 7200RPM

Samsung SH-S203D/bebe Zwart S-ATA 20X DVD-RW


Later you can add another geforce to the system, but for now u will be able to run everything on high detail.

[foq]

Pol beat me to it
Gotta disagree with the video card though. Nvidia will be adding some new 8800GTS cards with 128 shaders and some more clockpower.

Also the Corsair 620HX is a much better choice for the power supply.

[Magn3tar]

Thanks for the reply guys. Someone once told me a good solid computer has all good parts to it. e.g. you can't go all out on memory and get a cheap HD, it'll only run as good as the cheap HD. Is this true? Interesting parts down there, but they just seem like a blob of the most expensive stuff you can buy on the market right now. Keep it going!

[foq]

Yes. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Same with computers. You can't get a 8800GTX SLI setup and pair it with a Celeron. The Celeron is like a 400lb kid trying to beat some Kenyns in a race on the track.

What Pol put togeather is a nicely balanced rig, and you should go for it (except with my suggestions of waiting for the 128 shader 8800gts). On second thought that Antec power supply will be fine if you only plan on using one video card (which will be very doable with the new 8800gts).

Now, about hard drives. My advice to you would be to install your OS on like a 74GB Raptor along with a few games. Then have an ordinay 7.2k RPM drive, something like 100GB, and use that for storage, some older games, and your page file.

The page file is a space in your hard drive Windows comondeers and treats like memory. All programs use this regardless of how much memory you have. It's best to set it up for about 3GB on your secondary drive. Your system drive will always be seeking, pulling data from the OS. If you have this AND the page file (there's a lot of activity too), it will slow down the drive. However if you keep the page file off of the system drive, the system drive can do its own thing, and the secondary drive can do its own thing. It's kind of like trying to get a fan in your window to take hot air out AND push fresh, cool air in at the same time.

[Magn3tar]

I didn't know you could run 2 video cards at once. All MOBO's I've ever seen has 1 slot for a video card, are you talking about utilizing both an aftermarket video card and the built in MOBO Video card together? Does this require additional software or does it just detect both vid cards and know how to run each? Is this what "SLI" settings are for in FPS?

Also, FOQ.. you hit on running 2 Hard Drives also, I always thought the smaller the hard drive the better as it takes less time for your computer to sweep through the unecessary space to get what it needs. You kinda of nullified that but I understand what you are saying.

Looks like I've got a lot to learn, seems like the easiest way to do this all would be just to buy the stuff and toy around with the settings and learn how to do what you just described.

[Canadian*Sniper]

Does a case matter?

No. It's the inside beauty that counts.

Power supply wattage?

All depends on what your processor/motherboard takes.

What's a good RAM to VRAM ratio? 3 GIG : 512 (respectively)?

2Gigs is more than enough. I have 2 Gigs and I've never used more than 1 Gig.

[foq]

There's no such thing as a SYSRAM:VRAM ratio. The two are entirely different.

The graphics card is a totally different part of the system, like a whole nother computer. The amount of VRAM you want is all dependant on what you do. For example if you're playind DX10 at resolutions higher than 1440x900, you'll want a 1GB card (pretty sure there will be 1GB 128shader 8800GTSs). If you're only playing on say 1280x1024 512MB will be fine. System ram as no relation to the graphics card, except maybe holding some information that says "done rendering these frames give me more", I don't even know if it does that...

I myself would go for 4GB and a 1GB video card.

[spooker]

i actually run my paging file from ram. its a simple registry tweak. i dont know if it speeds up my thang, but i suspect it does.
Oh, about the case, just dont use the power supply that comes with it, if one does
AND GET XP

[foq]

Spooker, power supplies that come with cases blow. And I mean it. As in blow up. Don't ever even try to run a high-end system like what mag's planning on one of those POSs.

As for the pagefile thing, that registry tweak doesn't work too well. All it does is tell Windows to store the bulk of the OS stuff in the memory which gives overall better system responsiveness. You still use a pagefile, I garuntee it. Even if it's shut off in the pagefile config. :/

[Solecord]

I myself would go for 4GB and a 1GB video card.

4 GB's is a waste unless you get a 64-bit OS. 32-bit OS's can only recognize up to around 3 GB... like C*S said, 2 GB should be plenty.

[Phenom]

If you got the money and good credit get a Alienware PC

[Paradi$e]

r u joking AA is a piece of overpriced commercial brand crap, built your own, get AMD (cpu) and ATI (vid card) - now they are partnered. they are great for games, they run all my games super smooth even newer ones (and my PC is 4 years old).

a note about amd, it focuses on current applications running, vs. intel chips that split the power to other running aps, therefore what's running gets priority (ex. games), therefore amd is best.

and foq or anyone else, dont jump to contradict me, this is actual information on the chips. research if u dont believe me.

giving u the best advice. u wont be sorry.
and one more thing, get a Razer mouse, thats what i use, it's the best for FPS's, my current one is 1600dpi, i just recently got one with 4000dpi (Lachesis)for my dual core amd lappy.

I hope ur new system kicks ass
regards,
-T.