*UPDATED* Choosing Specs for Comp

[vindicated]

I am about to go away to college soon and I am in need of a new computer. Gaming has always been a passion of mine, but I'm not that great with hardware. Although, I do not multi-box I've always been interested in it and would like the option to be there if I ever choose to.

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UPDATED - 4:50am [GMT - 5] 12/21/08

Ok, felt the thread was getting a bit long so I decided to edit the original post as I'm getting pretty close to a decision now and am looking for some opinion.

Found this rig:

• CASE: NEW!!! CoolerMaster Cosmos Silent Gaming Tower Case w/ 420 Watts Power Supply (Original Color)
• Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Extra Case Cooling Fan (1 x Fan)
• POWER SUPPLY Upgrade: 500 Watts Power Supplies (**Recommended** WIN-500XSPX APEVIA 500W JAVA Power Supply-Black)
• CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8400 CPU @ 3.0GHz 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache 64-bit
• COOLING FAN : INTEL LGA775 CERTIFIED CPU FAN & HEATSINK
• MOTHERBOARD: (3-Way SLI Support) EVGA nForce 780i SLI Mainboard FSB1333 DDR2 3 x PCIe x16 SATA RAID w/ USB2.0, IEEE1394, & 7.1Audio
• MEMORY: 4GB (4x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
• VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 1GB 16X PCI Express (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
• HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (320GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
• Optical Drive: (Special Price) LG 20X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
• SOUND: 3D WAVE ON-BOARD 5.1 SOUND CARD
• NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD
• USB PORT: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
• OS: Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Ultimate w/ Service Pack 1 (32-bit Edition)

On craigslist for $850! - I sent an email to see if the seller could do $750 (much more in my price range)
If all goes well and I get good feed back from this rig I could have my new computer a few days after chirstmas.

So what do you guys think? All I really need at this point is be able to run one or two wow clients with fraps occasionally on max settings with 30+ dps in graphic intensive areas.
Meant to be a semi high end computer with room to grow that will allow me to fufill my passion of gaming while giving me the appropriate office software to get my school work done.
Thank you for all who posted and your time and suggestions. Please post what you think of this ^ rig and if it's as good of a deal as I feel it is.

Thanks Again,
Vindicated

[Nitro]

GTX 260 Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130370

Bump your memory up to 8GB

Make your main Harddrive at least 500GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136320
and use the raptor as your secondary drive dedicated to gaming.

[pengwynman]

Nitro beat me to it, i was going to recommend the gtx 260, and yeah you'll probably want more than 74GB of storage

8gb isn't necessary until you start multiboxing, 4gb is fine for pretty much anything else if you're not completely sure

[vindicated]

Wow, that was fast. Do you guys just troll the forums all day? lol

Thanks for the recommendations - I will probably get another HD, but hold off on the 8GB of ram.
I'm at about $650 and most likely have to wait till graduation in June to do this, but I think it's really great to have it all planned out and watch the prices go down a bit over the months and perhaps pick out some upgrades.

I've been told you want to keep the Memory on the video cards 256,512,1gb - is there any truth to that? Also, what would be like 1 step down from the 260 gtx? I'd like to keep my options open incase funds get tighter. Not sure if it matters but I use a 42in TV for my monitor and I'm not sure if the video card needs something extra. I believe I use a AVG cable, not sure if all cards come compatible with this but I thought I should let you all know.

Other than the second HD, do you see any problems? The only reason I picked one HD in the first place is a barely use up any room on my current HD, ~50GB in 4+ years...
Thanks for the fast responses again, and keep em comin'

[pengwynman]

Wow, that was fast. Do you guys just troll the forums all day? lol

pretty much

I've been told you want to keep the Memory on the video cards 256,512,1gb - is there any truth to that?

never heard anything like this before, and my "old" 8800gtx had 768mb of memory, never a problem with that

Also, what would be like 1 step down from the 260 gtx?

look at a 9800 gt, those are good for the price, also ati's 4870 is good from what i've heard

Not sure if it matters but I use a 42in TV for my monitor and I'm not sure if the video card needs something extra. I believe I use a AVG cable, not sure if all cards come compatible with this but I thought I should let you all know.

What you're thinking of is a VGA cable, and almost every decent to high end video card you can buy now comes with a DVI to VGA adapter, if not you can pick one up for a couple bucks at your local hardware store.

Other than the second HD, do you see any problems? The only reason I picked one HD in the first place is a barely use up any room on my current HD, ~50GB in 4+ years...

i don't really see any problems, the stuff you picked out looks solid. i have that Armor case and it serves me well, also that same zalman cooler on my q9550, my mobo is one step down, i have the 750i FTW and it's a beast for overclocking

[vindicated]

Very nice, glad I picked a solid spec.

Last thing pretty much is, if you know, what kind of fps could i expect with that setup running 1 client of WoW @ medium - top setting and fraps?

[pengwynman]

Very nice, glad I picked a solid spec.

Last thing pretty much is, if you know, what kind of fps could i expect with that setup running 1 client of WoW @ medium - top setting and fraps?

you should be able to run 1 client completely maxed out @ 60 fps at least (this is the update rate of my monitor and i have vertical sync turned on, so i never see it go higher)
might still get some slowdown in dalaran, but nothing major

[Tsunami]

here are suggestions for you, since you say you are not computer savy.

the computer are you are building is a little expensive for the parts you getting and you don't have a warrenty or tech support. for the money you can get:

a. dell
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...tudioxps-435mt
it has a warrenty, the new i7 processor and an ati 3450 video card. this system is ok....just upgrade the ram to 6gb for $150 and buy the ati 4850 from best buy for $175 and you will have a nice machine for under $1300

or
2. ibuypower
http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/c...r.aspx?mid=349
i7 processor and the ati260. configure the case and power anyway you want, but i would upgrade the memory to 6gb and do it yourself, they are a little expensive. plus you get a free copy of far cry 2.

or
c. cyberpower
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/G...reme_XT/detail
i7 processor and the ati 4870 which is better than the 260. free liquid cooling and for $20 less you can upgrade the 1tb HDD to a 1TB raid0. (much faster setup and needed with the i7)

all of these are cheaper and much faster than what you are planning to build yourself, plus they come with a warrenty and tech support.

[spannah]

I think you are going over kill on that MB. Unless you intend to run a Tri-SLI setup (which would require 3 nearly identical top end cards), I probably wouldn't bother with it. I remember reading somewhere about the chipset getting really hot on that MB due to a poor design on how the heatsink seats on the north bridge. Maybe they have fixed this ...

My recomendation would something along the lines of
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Or a similiar Asus or even MSI. Usually these are stable boards.

Something else I would suggest is 1066MHz memory (PC2-8500) instead of what you have. Although there have been good reviews about G.Skill I probably would suggest one of the brands that have been around for longer such as OCZ, Crucial, Corsair
I have been using the following and I have been quite happy:
OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail


One last point, which doesn't matter as much as the two above, I am not quite sold on the Ultimate version of windows - there is a premium for a couple features that most folks are unlikely to use. The Home Premium 64 bit will be fine and save you a few bucks.

[vindicated]

a. dell
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...tudioxps-435mt
it has a warrenty, the new i7 processor and an ati 3450 video card. this system is ok....just upgrade the ram to 6gb for $150 and buy the ati 4850 from best buy for $175 and you will have a nice machine for under $1300

Managed to get it down to $1200 with almost minimal specs, adding ~200 for another video card and I'm already at $1400

2. ibuypower
http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/c...r.aspx?mid=349
i7 processor and the ati260. configure the case and power anyway you want, but i would upgrade the memory to 6gb and do it yourself, they are a little expensive. plus you get a free copy of far cry 2.

Managed $1312 but I still need to buy 3-6gb worth of ram which would add ~50-100. Most appealing of the 3 choices.

c. cyberpower
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/G...reme_XT/detail
i7 processor and the ati 4870 which is better than the 260. free liquid cooling and for $20 less you can upgrade the 1tb HDD to a 1TB raid0. (much faster setup and needed with the i7)

$1536 with shipping

Although Dell is appealing because of the payment options I've heard so many stories about Dell that just turn me off.

Could you recommend anything for a person on a stricter budget? I like to plan ahead but realistically I may only have ~$700-$1000. Could you recommend a decent system in that range as well?
Thanks for the responses again.