High performance gaming computer

[zappbrannigan]

Hello,
Im planning on buying a computer to play games, not the average games like WOW something. I only like to play those Extremly realistic shooters with graphics that look like real life. IE: crysis, modern warefare. but thats the old generation, im looking to buy a computer that can easily handle the next generation of games.
I am going to customize it, buy the parts i want and have a specialty shop put it together for me.
does anybody have any advice on some parts (GPU, RAM, processors） that i should get to make sure everything is the best of the best... im not too worried about price, here parts are pretty cheap...
in the past my cards have always been Nvidea.
thanks

 

[scsinet]

I am an NVIDIA man myself. I used to run ATI, but IMO NVIDIA is far better.
What I'd be looking at is the Intel Nehalem architecture PC with at least one very good NVIDIA card, if not two in SLI mode. The Nehalem, like the rest of the core i7 CPUs, supports triple channel memory so you should see a dramatic increase in memory performance.
The other thing you may want to take a look at is the SSDs that are out now, they are a whole lot cheaper. A pair of SSDs on a 3ware RAID controller in a hardware-based Raid0 would absolutely fly.

 

[zappbrannigan]

woah, am i missing something? whats a RAID controller?

 

[scsinet]

RAID controllers allow multiple disks to be presented to the computer as one larger one. Depending on the configuration, the presented (logical) disk can be much faster than any one individual drive could perform.
Look it up on Wikipedia, it explains it more thoroughly than I could.

 

[zappbrannigan]

hmm i see,
well here is what i was planning to get
Processor: intel core i7 920 2.66 GHZ quad core
motherboard: xfx x58 3x sli intel x58 chipset
system memory: 6 GB DDR3 1600 MHZ
power supply: 1000 watts
standard DVD/cdR drive
GPU: NVIDIA Geforce GTX 295 1.792 GB
what do you think?

 

[beth]

I have my own computers built as well. I'd suggest that unless you are really sure about what you are doing, that you work with whoever is going to build your pc when it comes to getting hardware. Many times they can cut better deals than online retailers, and they know exactly what you need to get based upon what you tell them you'd like to have.
You can research the basics of what you want, HD, video card, MB, etc., get your best prices online, and then see if the retailer building your pc can at least match prices. At least get them involved, otherwise you may get the wrong hardware.
Also, an alternative is to get a super gaming laptop, that can be readily hooked up to you large flatscreen (if you have one).

 

[scsinet]

What I don't see in your list is hard drives. If you want to forego any of the RAID business I mentioned, that's fine, but you do need to think about your storage. CPUs and such have gotten so fast, that every modern computer spends most of it's time waiting on the hard disks. Too commonly people go for more gigahertz and megabytes when it's their hard disks they should be looking at.
IMO at a minimum, you'd want a 7200RPM SATA2 hard drive with 32MB of Cache.
Ideally (again, without going RAID or SSD), I'd use (3) hard disks.
Disk 1 (Drive C) install OS on this.
Disk 2 (Drive D) install your games and applications to this one.
Disk 3 (Drive E) install your paging file on this drive.
This spreads out the intensive disk I/O onto 3 separate devices, which will make your system dramatically faster. When you consider that you can get a 500GB Hard disk with the foregoing specs for $50 (US), that means you can do the whole thing for $150, or less where you are.
Due to this and other reasons, I do not recommend using laptops as gaming rigs. Laptops have slower memory architectures, much slower hard drives, generally have less powerful graphics, and have a very hard time dissipating the heat generated by the intense CPU load than desktops. They cost more, are very limited in their upgrade options, and one with desktop-like specs are really heavy.

 

[zappbrannigan]

I was gonna get 1 150 SSD... I really dont have very much stuff on my computer, so space is not a problem, i install one game at a time.. and of course it will be a desktop. what do you think?

 

[scsinet]

What OS are you planning?

 

[zappbrannigan]

well, all they have here are pirated windows XP. i dont even think i can find an english version il try.
how much is windows 7?

 

[zappbrannigan]

is a chasis very important? i know it needs good cooling but besides that? and also, do you think i really need a 1000 watt power source or will a 500 or 750 watt do?

 

[scsinet]

Honestly 1000w is a lot unless you are running SLI video cards.
750 would be around what I'd shoot for. Beware that power supplies are not all created equal, so invest in a decent one.
I assume you mean one chassis versus another, not a chassis versus laying the components out on a desktop or something... I prefer to purchase a decent chassis with nice 4 wire fans that the motherboard can control. They make the system cooler and quieter.
Windows 7 is a few hundred bucks for a new license.
The reason I asked about the OS is because Vista and 7 take up quite a bit of HDD space on their own. 150gb sounds like a lot, but it's really not, especially when you consider that a modern game can be 7-10GB PER GAME of drive space. By the time you install the OS and a half dozen games, it'll be full. I'd recommend pairing your 150GB SSD up with at least one standard HDD, so you can put less frequently used or less demanding programs on it to save space on your SSD.

 

[dragonzim]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
http:///forum/post/3156456
Honestly 1000w is a lot unless you are running SLI video cards.
750 would be around what I'd shoot for. Beware that power supplies are not all created equal, so invest in a decent one.
I assume you mean one chassis versus another, not a chassis versus laying the components out on a desktop or something... I prefer to purchase a decent chassis with nice 4 wire fans that the motherboard can control. They make the system cooler and quieter.
Windows 7 is a few hundred bucks for a new license.
The reason I asked about the OS is because Vista and 7 take up quite a bit of HDD space on their own. 150gb sounds like a lot, but it's really not, especially when you consider that a modern game can be 7-10GB PER GAME of drive space. By the time you install the OS and a half dozen games, it'll be full. I'd recommend pairing your 150GB SSD up with at least one standard HDD, so you can put less frequently used or less demanding programs on it to save space on your SSD.
Havent been keeping up on the new stuff too much.. Will Windows 7 even support 6gb of RAM? I know XP really only supports 3gb..

 

[kube]

Originally Posted by DragonZim
http:///forum/post/3156507
Havent been keeping up on the new stuff too much.. Will Windows 7 even support 6gb of RAM? I know XP really only supports 3gb..
xp supports more it you run the 64bit version of the os (i think its 128G max w/64bit)....the same holds true for the W7 its not some much the OS but a limitation of the 32bit architecture that limits it to 4gig of memory
defiantly go for the RAID configuration if you can find someone that knows what they are doing to set it up for you

 

[scsinet]

32-bit operating systems can't see past 4096kb of address space since that is the largest value that can be expressed in a 32-bit integer, and the total address space has to include I/O addresses, etc. So the system ultimately doesn't even see 4GB, it sees the 4GB minus whatever amount of I/O space the motherboard and peripherals want for themselves (they get priority). So you usually see 3 gigs and change.
I think you can enable the PAE switch in the boot.ini to get the system to see the full 4GB, but licensing limitations kick in at that point.
But yes Dragon, 7 and Vista both support it. I'm actually glad you mentioned that because I had meant to tell the OP that... if he wanted 6GB, he'd want to run 64bit. Most, but not all, games are okay with 64 bit.
Windows XP supports (with 64 bit) up to 128GB of memory.
Windows Vista and Windows 7 support the following, in 64 bit, by edition:
Home Basic: 8GB
Home Premium: 16GB
Anything up from there: 128GB
Windows Vista, 7, and XP, 32 bit, support 4GB.
So the OP would be fine with any edition of Windows XP, Vista, or 7 (except Starter editions which nobody uses) as long as it's 64 bit.

 

[zappbrannigan]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
http:///forum/post/3156456
I assume you mean one chassis versus another, not a chassis versus laying the components out on a desktop or something...
oh actually i was thinking of hanging the parts from the ceiling for added cooling benefit.
yeah I also do care a little about how the chasis looks and cooling is definately an important thing for me because my last computer was not adequatly cooled and i had to run it with the side pannel off to prevent overheating.
Originally Posted by SCSInet
http:///forum/post/3156456
The reason I asked about the OS is because Vista and 7 take up quite a bit of HDD space on their own. 150gb sounds like a lot, but it's really not, especially when you consider that a modern game can be 7-10GB PER GAME of drive space. By the time you install the OS and a half dozen games, it'll be full. I'd recommend pairing your 150GB SSD up with at least one standard HDD, so you can put less frequently used or less demanding programs on it to save space on your SSD.

i think i stated earlier, I really dont keep all my games installed at one time, usually within a 3-6 month span there is only 1 or 2 games that I play. actually other people think im crazy but its really all i need as far as space goes. My last gaming computer only was 1/3rd full at any time.
so whats the recomendation on the OS? and a very serious question i have,, If got an OS here, and it was a chinese version windows XP or 7, would games i buy in english be able to work on it?

 

[scsinet]

The games should work. You'll just want to install the english and chinese locales on the system.
As far as OS recommendations go... you could run XP, Vista, or 7. I'd personally recommend Vista or 7 since you want more than 4GB of RAM, and these operating systems were designed from the ground up to run in 64 bit mode.
Most of the criticism you hear about Vista (and by extension... 7) is based on what people heard, not what they experienced. I've been running Vista for the last 2 years or so and 7 for the last couple months, both as 64 bit, and they have been rock solid for me.

 

[zappbrannigan]

went and picked it out today, i got everything i wanted except instead of a 150gb ssd i got a 160gb ssd... the monitor is 22inch LCD from LG.. i got a copy of windows 7 english version so everything is going great. plus a really awsome looking chasis. price was a little more than i expected... 17700 chinese yuan or 2600 dollars for everything. and it has a 3 year waranty.

 

[scsinet]

Originally Posted by ZappBrannigan
http:///forum/post/3156905
went and picked it out today, i got everything i wanted except instead of a 150gb ssd i got a 160gb ssd... the monitor is 22inch LCD from LG.. i got a copy of windows 7 english version so everything is going great. plus a really awsome looking chasis. price was a little more than i expected... 17700 chinese yuan or 2600 dollars for everything. and it has a 3 year waranty.
Actually 2600 doesn't sound terribly out of whack for this type of system. Let us know how it runs, and make sure you put a shortcut to swf.com on the desktop.

 

[scottnlisa]

Originally Posted by ZappBrannigan
http:///forum/post/3156376
Hello,
Im planning on buying a computer to play games, not the average games like WOW something. I only like to play those Extremly realistic shooters with graphics that look like real life. IE: crysis, modern warefare. but thats the old generation, im looking to buy a computer that can easily handle the next generation of games.
I am going to customize it, buy the parts i want and have a specialty shop put it together for me.
does anybody have any advice on some parts (GPU, RAM, processors） that i should get to make sure everything is the best of the best... im not too worried about price, here parts are pretty cheap...
in the past my cards have always been Nvidea.
thanks
Don't buy a proprietory computer. Custom built it yourself. You'll save alot of money. I do this on the side(1 1/2 years of college for computer networking also). For gaming pick AMD processor, Nvidia video cards, and cosair RAM.
But picking computer parts are personal choice of the buyer.