- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
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