building gaming pc questions

[Indoril Nerevar]

SATA is a little better than IDE, but to be honest, it doesn't really make much of a difference. However, SATA drives are cheaper than IDE drives now, so get a SATA drive anyway.

1GB of RAM should be okay for most games, but the newer ones are starting to take advantage of 2GB and more. If you can afford it, get 2GB, but if not, 1GB will be okay.

[gamerman0203]

The one thing about Hard drives that you will want to pay attention to is speed (RPM). Most now a days are 7,200 RPM with the exception of the Raptors that are 10,000 RPM. Don't get anything less that 7.2K or else you will notice a difference. Indoril is right about SATA vs. IDE. Normally you won't notice it, but if you intend on transfering huge files from one drive to another, then SATA's are going to be better because their through-put is higher.

[n0thing]

ok, i'll probably go with IDE than, since I have an IDE drive already.

I'd like to go with the Core 2 Duo, but those are a bit more expensive than what I want.
since a lot of games don't even make full use of the dual core technology, i figured id go ahead and buy a board that will support Pentium 4/Pentium D/Core 2 Duo.
and then just buy a pentium 4 or pentium d since theyre a lot cheaper.
ive read that the Pentium Ds get really, really hot. Is that true, and if so, will I need multiple fans?
A fast Pentium 4 will still play most of the new games with a decent framerate, right?

Thanks

[pharoah]

personally i would skip the p4,and get a pentium d.the pentium d chips are cheap,and faster than p4's.

[n0thing]

ok, also;
power supplies and motherboards generally come in the same basic size, right? because I don't want to buy a case and find out that my mobo and PSU dont fit.

[pharoah]

yes they do there are 2 main sizes in motherboard atx,and micro-atx.both of which will fit in a atx size case.power supplies even smaller micro-atx cases will fit a standard atx size power supply.so you most likely wont run into a size problem with your components.unless you get some really tiny case.

[n0thing]

ok, i was reading an article about AGP video cards in Computer Power User and it was talking about needing external power:
"One final note of caution: These cards require external power. AGP systems are more liable to have fewer available power connectors, so save yourself an extra order and see if you need a power splitter before installing the new card."

What exactly does that mean?

The full article is available here:
http://www.computerpoweruser.com/edi...P&bJumpTo=True

[pharoah]

here is a pic of an agp x1950pro as you see it has power connectors.i think that website you linked to was just making a big deal over nothing.

[n0thing]

ok. whats the extra power needed for, the fan??
my current computer kinda sucks so I don't have experience with the "newer" cards.

Do you think I should get the 8300 or 8600 instead of a 7 or 6 series GPU?
http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/01/....geforce.8600/
Will the first DX10 games have support for DX9 too?

[Tiber Septim]

Will the first DX10 games have support for DX9 too?

Some, but not all, and it won't take very long for Devs to drop DX 9 alltogether.

Personally, if you don't mind waiting a bit for the lower end 8x00 series cards to be released, i would wait for them rather than buying a 7 series and then having to upgrade again in a few months.

Also, i'd go with the 8600 rather than the 8300, as the x300 series cards are typically weak and used mainly for lower-end tasks, for example, you could use a 6300 in a media centre PC, but it would be quite useless in games.

[n0thing]

Originally Posted by Tiber Septim

Some, but not all, and it won't take very long for Devs to drop DX 9 alltogether.

Personally, if you don't mind waiting a bit for the lower end 8x00 series cards to be released, i would wait for them rather than buying a 7 series and then having to upgrade again in a few months.

Also, i'd go with the 8600 rather than the 8300, as the x300 series cards are typically weak and used mainly for lower-end tasks, for example, you could use a 6300 in a media centre PC, but it would be quite useless in games.

what do you think the 8600 will cost when it comes out. around 300$?

[pharoah]

here is a price chart.these are prerelease estimates so give,or take a little. i can confirm the 8800gts with 320mb ram is 309$ on tiger direct,and this chart was released before the card was on tiger.so looks like the estimate for that one was fairly close.

[n0thing]

wow, so it will only be ~140$
thats only $10 more than the 7600GT or ATI 1650XT.