AMD or Intel?

[Jest@]

yup, totally agree. Play it safe until you've read everything you possibly can about everything.. You may fuck it up and not realise, thinking omg i'm leet, all's good....and not notice for half a year till you find out your power drain has been sketchy and you're mobo's dying slowly and painfully. bang, waste of a good mobo, taking a fair whach of your money with it. Seeeriously, don't fuck around with what you dont know everything about. Dont get me wrong - I dont claim to know everything; that's why i fried a mobo, a psu and a hard drive in the past 8 months. Don't learn the painful, expensive way like me, just not worth the time, money and hassle, seriously.

If you can, get 2gig ram. It's seriosuly soo noticeable, across the board. extra ram has made SUCH a major impact on my everyday computing; extra cpu speed i only notice in a few intense scenarios, extra RAM i'm constantly impresed by. It's soo worth it.

[Gamercat]

AMD is the way to go. I don't know why anyone would buy an intel. Esspecially a celeron. D:> Bleh.

Ooh, did someone say more ram? I need some for christmas.

[ƒray]

Oh and if you water-cool your system.. For god sake dont create mold with tap water..

use distilled

[ScarT]

Just to confirm what everybody just said, I would go with either 2x512 or 4x512 mb Ram from either Consair or Kingston. Personally I guess I would wait and see what nVidia's new 8*** series could do, but I haven't heard any release information so you're probably better off buying two cards from the 7*** series. Regarding processor I would personally go with and Intel, but I'd recommend you grap yourself a AMD

[PeoplesHostile]

I plan on going with this motherboard, if not then the deluxe.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131540

As for processors, I Only uses Firefox, Hammer and Photoshop most of the time. My main focus is on games but half of the people say you should go dual core and the other half say you should go single core. Personaly Im confused here.

Im looking at speakers and I thought I had a good set picked out but they cost $300 and some of the comments state that if you want them just for gaming its a no-buy. The speakers are Creative Gigaworks 7.1 700Watt.

I have this sound card picked out because of the 7.1 and PCI.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6829102171

We go back to my main problem, speakers. I am trying to find a set that has 7.1 sound, won't blow out after atleast three years, won't blow out at high volumes, quallity sound, no farting noises like my current 2.1 CA speakers .//puke, and has atleast 150+ watts, all under $320.00.

I hear that more watts give better sound control and a higher volume before blowout.

I have no idea how many watts I need to have the ability to shake the house and still get top quallity sound with no risk of blowout.

I also need a CD drive but a lot of games are moving over to DVD so Im thinking about a 48xCD/16xDVD. I have no experiance on this subject just like PSUs.

[Caste]

AMD hands down

and unless you have 3 hammers, four word processing programs, and 2 photoshops open, you don't really need dual core

[PeoplesHostile]

I hear good things about the X2 4800+ processor and compared to a $1000+ price tag on the FX57, I think its a better buy.

[Ale]

Go for the Dual core damnit, its the future

[PeoplesHostile]

Aight ile stick with the processor I have picked out, tell me if it is any good.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103544

Now if I could just fix this cold >.<

[DarkMortar]

If I was you I would get the sound blaster X-fi for 130$, much better sound quality then even audigy 2 gamer... you dont really need those games , they are cheap to buy themselves anyway .

and I think that 5.1 is good enough.. if you have a really nice set...

[dragonfliet]

yes, definately go with the xi fi, a tiny bit more and a completely revamped processor. It really blows the audigy 2zs away (and that was a pretty damned good card)

as for speakers, don't bother with 7.1 A) not many games/no movies support it, B) it's overkill. My guess is you have an unevenly shaped room that isn't accoustically paneled and you're not even going to do a great job setting up your speakers (no offense, you just don't seem to know anything about it) You're not going to notice the very, very small difference of 7 channels versus 5.

go with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6836119106
or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6836121120
I honestly prefer the logitechs, but my friend swears by his klipsch's. Honestly, it's just a personal prefference thing on an audiophile level and they're both extremely great speakers. You can't get any better for the money you want to spend.

As for the 4800 X2, that's a really solid processor. I'm not a fan of the dual core (I honestly doubt a single game will come out in the next year for PC that utilizes dual core with any real performance gain), but it performs really well and it's just a step down from the fx55. As for your mobo, that's a pretty darned good solid choice.

~Jason

[DarkMortar]

ya when i think 5.1... i think this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6836121120

if i had the dough i would have it



as a side note, i currently have a sound blaster live! but i want a x-fi. do you think it will improves vastly? i have a 4.1 setup and they are average speakers.

but i have a funny feeling i wont call them average if i had the x-fi

[ƒray]

ya when i think 5.1... i think this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6836121120

if i had the dough i would have it



as a side note, i currently have a sound blaster live! but i want a x-fi. do you think it will improves vastly? i have a 4.1 setup and they are average speakers.

but i have a funny feeling i wont call them average if i had the x-fi

My sound blaster Live! Is just good ATM I dont get any sound lag or anything it works perfectly for me.. I dont notice any differences. I use headphones with it. I dont really look into sound cards because most of the ones out all sound the same to me.. But there probably is a better sound quality by a little bit.

[showNOmercy]

When you buy RAM make sure you are getting 1GB sticks, 512MB sticks are old news. Any decent MB you get will have a minimum of 3 slots.

Check here for a sick set of TWINX MATCHED MEMORY PAIRS from Corsair.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... icegrabber

The price ends up only being $206 after a rebate.



Cant beat this set of memory.

* Retail
* 2048 Megabytes of memory
o Two matched CMX1024-3200C2 modules
* Dual channel testing environment
o 200MHz Canterwood based test setup
* Tested and packaged in pairs
o Packaged together immediately following system test
* Benchmarked using both Athlon and Pentium test platforms
* Integrated aluminum heat spreader for improved thermal performance
* TEST SPECIFICATIONS
o Tested at aggressive latency settings of 2-3-3-6 for Intel based systems and at 2.5-3-3-6 on AMD based systems.
+ 2-3-3-6 on Intel based systems
+ 2.5-3-3-6 on AMD based systems
+ Test voltage: 2.75V

Specifications subject to change without notice.

Warranty

* Warranty Length: Lifetime warranty.
* Coverage: Covers repair or replacement of the product.
* Provider: Corsair

[ƒray]

When you buy RAM make sure you are getting 1GB sticks, 512MB sticks are old news. Any decent MB you get will have a minimum of 3 slots.

Check here for a sick set of TWINX MATCHED MEMORY PAIRS from Corsair.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... icegrabber

The price ends up only being $206 after a rebate.



Cant beat this set of memory.


* Retail
* 2048 Megabytes of memory
o Two matched CMX1024-3200C2 modules
* Dual channel testing environment
o 200MHz Canterwood based test setup
* Tested and packaged in pairs
o Packaged together immediately following system test
* Benchmarked using both Athlon and Pentium test platforms
* Integrated aluminum heat spreader for improved thermal performance
* TEST SPECIFICATIONS
o Tested at aggressive latency settings of 2-3-3-6 for Intel based systems and at 2.5-3-3-6 on AMD based systems.
+ 2-3-3-6 on Intel based systems
+ 2.5-3-3-6 on AMD based systems
+ Test voltage: 2.75V

Specifications subject to change without notice.

Warranty

* Warranty Length: Lifetime warranty.
* Coverage: Covers repair or replacement of the product.
* Provider: Corsair

Very nice and very cheap.