Halo 1 & 2 for PC
This topic has moved here: Subject: New Computer... SOS
  • Subject: New Computer... SOS
Subject: New Computer... SOS

It was a cold day near the southern base in Blood Gulch. Cortana and I were relaxing over a game of Go Fish, WHEN OUT OF NO WHERE 700 BANSHEES CAME FLYING IN!!! I GRABED MY SPARTAN LASER AND LET HELL REIGN DOWN UPON THEM. I HOPPED IN THE NEAREST WARTHOG AND TOLD CORTANA TO GET IN.

Ok. I am building a new computer, but fear I am in over my head. I've read all the guides and such on this site and a few others, but to no avail. I know this is a very vauge question, but can anyone help me? I want this to be a reletivally up to date comp... I only have 850 dolla to spend. There is an up-side though. I dont need a moniter, keyboard, mouse, OS, and am getting a Raedon 9800 pro from my friend for 180$. I am looking for an AMD 64 3400 processor, however I could be easily swayed if I get some good reviews from some intel chips. I dont really need that great of a sound card to start off with, and seeing how I doubt anyone will help me with my problem seeing how it requires some research and looking at prices, I thank you for at least reading this. If you have any suggustions on Motherboards, processers, harddrives, or any other parts that I havent named, please feel free to share the info.

(BTW: The Raedon 9800 pro's price is being deducted from the $850 budget)

  • 10.14.2004 4:39 PM PDT
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Heyyo,

Well dude, if I were you, n' wanna keep under budget? just buy a norm AMD Athlon XP CPU. It's useless also to buy a 64-bit CPU when you're not gonna get Windows XP 64-bit edition. Plus, most games aren't 64-bit optimized (the only one I know is Far Cry, cause they made a 64-bit edition). I'm not bashing 64-bit CPU's btw, I'm just saying right now since it's relatively new, the prices are high, n' for gaming it will be a big advantage, but for now just stick with a good 32-bit. And dude, intel's more expensive. And don't go for celerons, they're cheap yes, but are very weak since I believe the FSB cache (or something like that, I don't care much for celerons :p) are reduced quite a lot.

I suggest for mobo's a good MSI K7N2 Delta, or get an Asus one. I can't remember what mobo my friends got but he's gotta Asus one (Check below for his comp stats..) Make sure that it's not one with a Socket A (for 64-bit CPU's) or else you'd need to get a new 64-bit cpu to go with it.

Me bud's gotta AMD Athlon XP 3200 (or 3000... one of those 2...), and a gig of just generic ram (you don't need fancy ram, it doesn't make that big of a diff in games, maybe reduce loading times by a second or 2...), and he can play Far Cry with full rez and graphics n' the game barely hiccups. On Doom 3, just do the little preformance boost so the game becoes more ATI friendly, and he can do full rez n' stuff on that game too without it dying too much. (go to www.megagames.com and look for the doom3 enhancements..)

On HaloPC, he can crank it all up insept for rez (he uses 1024x768, he usually does that 1260 or something...) and the game runs great. I bet if I can get him to switch to HaloCE he could go full rez too. :)

So if I were you, aim for specs like me bud, it won't hurt your wallet too much, but your gaming will still kick ass. ;)

Dunno if your currency is american or canadian or something else, but here's where I shop, nice prices cause they're a computer warehouse store here in Canada. :D
www.ncix.com

  • 10.14.2004 7:41 PM PDT
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Personally, I would hold off on the 64 bit chip. I thought of buying one but after looking into it I decided it would be better to hold off. Heres the deal with the 64 bit chips in my opinion.

1.You cant buy a boxed coppie of windows that supports and 64 chip so you will be running the chip at 32 bits anyway so it dosent make a difference weather its 64 or 32 at this point really.

2. "If I buy the 64 bit chip now, wont I be set when there is a buyable coppie of windows that supports 64 bit proseesors?" Yeah, sort of. While your system will be running in a 64 bit mode, most of your apps wont be. Why? Becuase they were made for 32 bit computers. They wont really be able to take advantage of the 64 bit prosesser.

3. By the time micorsoft's Windows finnaly has good support for 64 bit prosessors, there will better chips on the market. You wont be that happy with the chip you have becuase there will be a lot better stuff out there.

These are reasons I held off on the 64 bit prosessor.

  • 10.14.2004 8:30 PM PDT