What is Digg?184 Comments
- heythisisgandhi, on 10/12/2007, -8/+125Only 2 sticks of 512 ram? That decision is a little questionable. Although you could just get 2 gigs and save the $74 on Windows XP by getting it through... 'other means'...
I mean a Genie of course. - Joga5000, on 10/12/2007, -18/+134Looks good, but why waste 50 bucks on a sound card? Integrated audio is perfectly fine (unless you have some absurdly expensive speakers, in which case it MIGHT be worth it to buy a sound card.) I use integrated audio with my (slightly more expensive) gaming rig, and it sounds perfectly fine, and the performance hit is negligible.
Those extra 50 bucks would be MUCH better spent on an x1950pro ($150), which would beat the pants off a 7600gt. - Fordi, on 10/12/2007, -6/+80@phoenixavatar:
Repeat after me: "The audio ports are not for sex" - xpliclt777, on 10/12/2007, -18/+78@Joga5000
Buying a separate sound card not only reduces stress on your system during normal use, but can dramatically increase performance playing some games that use 3D environmental sounds and effects; thus increasing performance and giving value to what really matters, your CPU. If you honestly think the performance hit is negligible;
1. you probably play last gen games (HL2, WoW, F.E.A.R. etc) in which you can afford to use integrated audio. Given that you said "(slightly more expensive)" leads me to believe you concentrated on the basics... the CPU, RAM, and vid card. Try running a 3Dmark with your system using both the integrated sound card and a dedicated one.
or
2. You have a good CPU in which u can afford to sacrifice some speed for the quality of games you play.
Generally speaking: most dedicated sound cards will almost always perform better (both CPU wise and sound quality wise) because there is more hardware devoted for the task at hand (I.E.: producing sound). Comparably: a dedicated sound card has many chips and transistors to create sound, whereas many of the integrated on-board solutions have only 1 chip, few transistors, and often rely on software emulation to produce sound. This causes CPU load and can also degrade the sound experience (and even cause the sound to "stutter"). - jetpig, on 10/12/2007, -3/+50however the increase from a 7600 gt to an x1900 is FAR greater than the improvement gained from a dedicated sound card.
- drum_bum, on 10/12/2007, -1/+38Here's one for $109.99 from Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130062 - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+37Hmmn... $800 for a decent gaming PC or $800 for a Mac mini that has cute integrated graphics, a whopping 80 GB of HD and 512 MB of RAM...
Very tough choice indeed - PhoenixAvatar2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+32Of course I don't look in the obvious place. That's a pretty good price then.
- tidu, on 10/12/2007, -6/+30The problem with this is that this is not a good time to build a PC. We're in the transition between DX9 and DX10, and this PC is definately DX9, which won't play too many newer games at great specs. I would recommend waiting a bit until the DX10 cards come down in price. The lowest card is $299 now, I think.
- fotbr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23if you bothered to RTFA you'd see the case includes a power supply.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+22i went on newegg and put together a $800 box just like them, I think i like my setup better.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y172/emanji/pc.jpg
save your money, window xp pro pirate bay edition FTW. - OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -5/+20[quote]but can dramatically increase performance playing some games that use 3D environmental sounds and effects[/quote]
If faced with a choice between a 7600 GT + soundcard vs. x1950 and onboard sound, you would get a much bigger performance increase from the x1950. The real benefit of soundcards is not making games faster but the 3D audio. Onboard sound isn't as good for gaming because of that, at least not Realtek's fake EAX. Speaking of that, Realtek should be sued for false advertizing!
From what they selected, I'd change the e6300 to an e4300 for a savings of a few $$$ more. You can spend that on getting a good CPU cooler so you can overclock that e4300 to >3GHz.
Otherwise wait a couple of months until the e4400 and e6320 are released, because the e4300 will drop down to about $120 then. AMD should be worried. - shucklak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14I used to think that "It's not a good time to build a PC because so and so is being released soon..." but thats just not the way you can do things because there is ALWAYS something newer and better on the horizon. Just buy and build when you please and don't bother worrying about what's going to be released.
I've also learned never to spend more than $150 on a CPU because if you wait a 6 - 12 months, that $500 CPU will be $150 before you know it - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+17What are you talking about? Just change the VidCard in the future if you desrie. ITs *always* a godo time to build a PC. Because you simply buy the best bang for the buck of that day.
That is the great thing about the PC world; modularity, upgradability and flexibility.
Besides, a world where DX10 is "mandatory" (as in, *most* games use DX10 as opposed to DX9) is sometime in the future. You can get a great DX9 machine today, and it will be very usefull for some time in the future.. if you want to squeeze some more life out of the machine in the future, buy another video card. - vuke69, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12...Unless it's an Antec...
- jman8888, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11@ejamii
Good but 160 Gigs? Get 320 is 30$ more and way better. Or 250GB in Raid--0
But the PSU... - sexycommando, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I do a lot more than play games on my gaming computer.
- tommyboy180, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Ok, why don’t I buy a MAC today? Sure, and I'll buy some games like CS:S and Crysis, or FEAR. WAIT! I just wasted my life savings for *****. You want to Game. Windows is the answer. Not Linux, not MAC, but windows. Sorry, it’s only a truth.
- cuddleparty, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7i think we all know the 360 is very, very capable, but a pc it is not. will it run photoshop or indesign? a web browser? can i use it to earn income? nope. i can assume by the fact that you're posting on digg that you have a pc. if you add up the total cost of your pc plus the 360, is it more than $800? probably. sorry.
- Thuktun, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Can the XBox run OpenOffice yet?
- Ahnteis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Yea. Unless you want a top-of-the-line gaming rig, it's cheaper to go with dell/hp/whatever nowadays.
I used to be dead set against buying pre-built, but it makes economic sense now. - mitrovarr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7"Seems pointless to buy XP home when Vista came out... Leaving you with the problem that Vista is EXPENSIVE...."
I wonder how much the price difference is between XP home + vista upgrade edition and a new copy of vista? XP is getting pretty seriously cheap, so it's entirely possible it's actually cheaper. - cuddleparty, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9vanguard b-b-blows.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6There is always new hardware coming out next 2 weeks.
Rule of thumb number 1 when building your own computer, if you wait for the latest announced piece of hardware before buying, you will never have a computer up and running.
Buy the hardware available on the shelves NOW, then upgrade with newer hardware LATER.
Forget about all that marketing talk about how computers will perform in the next 6 months, you want to play your game today. Plus the game you want to play was designed to run just fine on the hardware you will buy today, not in the the next 6 months.
If you want good prices, buy the hardware from last year, don't worry your game will still run just fine.
Do not get caught in the waiting game, or your build-it-yourself computer will never get to completion. - jeffeb3, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8ungh, there's no such thing as a free power supply. This one will cost you somewhere between $100 and $800 when it blows and takes out half your computer with it. The Antec is a great PSU and the cases I've bought from them have been well worth the measly cost vs. just their power supply.
CHEAP PSU = BAD
Thanks for the links though, I think I'll install one of these in a POS computer I've been meaning to sell on ebay! - webcrumb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Yes, they keep the wind out... and mine are already vista capable.
[hides] - Topher06, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Wow, how often are you plugging in speakers for the contacts to "wear out". I had a speaker plugged in over a year ago, just replaced it. Also, many new integrated audio cards are featuring the same sort of sound acceleration as on dedicated sound cards, even offering high quality sound. Also, I stopped buying Sound Blaster cards when games stopped offering EAX support, or actually started to crash more often when enabling sound blaster only features.
My rule of thumb, build a system on a budget without the sound card, if you having way too many problems with performance and its linked to sound acceleration, then get a $100 sound card.
Lastly, I just bought a pair of speakers from Logitech that plug directly into USB. Was actually surprised that there were no problems with gaming by directly using the speakers as a sound device. I think eventually that on-board sound will give way to sound processing integrated into the speakers. The idea of "accelerated sound" is a marketing gimmick initiated by Creative Labs when motherboards started integrating sound chips on them. Creative needed some way to justify buying a $250 sound card. - mitrovarr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I don't know, it's a pretty powerful system and it should be able to handle onboard sound. It used to be that it would make a noticeable performance hit, but I doubt it to be the case anymore, especially since the development of dual core processors. Some games thread our their audio subsystems, and any good system will put a driver with heavy processor use on the other core.
I'm sure getting a true sound card would make a small difference in the performance, but $50 added to the video card would make a much larger one, and there are other places in the system that are weak and need some shoring up (the hard drive, the mouse, the power supply.)
Every other guide I've seen for computer building uses integrated video up until about the $2000 dollar mark. - Tannerc27, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6ugh... Just the thought of owning a Dell makes me shudder
- MrSidnet, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Remember, Digg seems to be overrun by 12 year olds lately...
- morningmatters, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I would swap the soundcard with more RAM and use the onboard sound instead. From my experience the extra RAM makes a big difference but it could just be my perception. Other than that this config is pretty much like my current setup.
What I don't get is the fact that when people spend $1000+ on a gig just to play games on their PC, most feel justified. Yet many of these people still complaining about the price of PS3 (myself included). For some odd reason it feels okay to spend more money on a home computer even if the sole purpose of the machine is to play newer games. - hmmdar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Not bad, other than the graphics card would probably need a good boost, but that would still keep you under the 800, plus you get a monitor
- doctorcaligari, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4No wonder you are running so good...you have 1024 gigabytes of RAM! How much did that set you back?
In all seriousness, though, take $100 bucks or so and get a 7600GT at the very least (or a x1650 off Newegg if you are running AGP). I have a similar rig as yours, and upgrading my card made a HUGE difference (well, that and another gig of RAM). - fallenone05, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5How about building a Mac for that amount of money, oh wait...
- WDot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4If you can, I highly recommend recycling your monitor, keyboard, mouse, and OS license (Always make sure to get a copy of your OS on disk instead of just preinstalled). Also, if they're not entirely nasty and useless, keeping your DVD drive, Hard drive, and case/power supply isn't a bad idea. Unless you're an audiophile/pro gamer a sound card will probably do you little good (Just invest in some nice speakers/headphones).
The things that really need upgraded are RAM (get more of it), processor (make the jump to dual core), and motherboard (Get PCI-Express and DDR2 support if you don't have it yet). As for people saying wait for DX10 cards, I say don't. DX9 cards are getting CHEAP now. In fact, if you're recycling a lot of parts anyway, I'd splurge and get a 7900GS or ATI's equivalent. Game dev's aren't going to just drop DX9. In fact, if you get one of the more insane DX9 cards, it may still last you a while.
Don't buy a whole new machine when you can just upgrade. - opiv421, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Cool, but Asus motherboards DO NOT blow.
- webcrumb, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5"Opterons were built for servers."
Oh, how I laughed.
Yes. Servers that are used for CPU-intensive tasks. Much like a games machine. Hmm... - Jethris, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5And play what on your MAC? BF2? Supreme Commander?
- Mandeep, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4maybe he was yelling the term mac to make it more obvious that you can't play games on it. you know what he meant when he said MAC. ***** tool.
- victorc26, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I built a decent 3200+ AM2 system with reliable and well known parts (Seagate, Patriot, etc), and it cost around $400.
A hell of a better deal than what you would get with a $400 Dell system.
Also I can't believe there were jackasses that actually slipped in a Mac recommendation. Macs are fine machines, but were talking about different system uses. One's for gaming, the other's for lite processing use (e-mail, surfing, etc) (talking about the Mac mini). - PhoenixAvatar2, on 10/12/2007, -7/+10I don't know where he's getting that 7600GT for $109. Even his link lists them at $160+
- Ahnteis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Actually, the 8600 is supposed to come out this month at a very low cost, so it might be good to wait 2 weeks on the video card. :P
- Sixcolors, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Can it run Starcraft? I've been really hooked on it lately.
- kodek, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4@ejamii
I would NEVER EVER buy a PSU like that. I'd rather get less ram and know that my components are safe. - Sixcolors, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Add in no future expandability or CPU replacement and a proprietary software library and you're all set.
- BionicBeefpile, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I've done this twice in the past year for friends on a budget, and they were both thrilled with the results. Putting a system together that can play the games you're interested in now isn't the hard part, it's future-proofing that same box (as best you can) without blowing your budget.
- boypinoy18, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3how did this turn into a "my computer penis is bigger than yours?" argument?
- EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3It's still easier and more productive than trying to upgrade the GPU in your console. ;)
- chris4404, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5@diggin_it
Did your comment make sense to anyone else or am I the only one confused. - championchap, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4duno why hes being dugg down
i just built myself a £500 PC with a 7600GT in it and looking foreward im already feeling the pressure to upgrade.
If i want Crysis or Alan Wake ima be needing to go 8 series -
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