first build (mid-gamer)

[Gilles]

it all really depends on what game your going to play.

Really? Care to elaborate?

 

[acerinpa]

OK - I Know I should not mention Crysis, But my kid does play that= older version only so far, I have read it is the "Gold Standard" or the "Breaker" of gaming computers. We play BF 2142 a lot, gears of war,etc. I expect we will be playing more after we have this computer.

 

[Luke]

well as long as you don't want anything higher then 1680x1050 res, you could probably run crysis all on enthusiasm with no aa with decent FPS.

Really? Care to elaborate?

Some games get better performance then others with a certain video card... such as one gpu having more shaders and such.

 

[acerinpa]

OK - ready to order according to last list- thanks - One more question. TO use the Core 7 properly - don't I need to run vista 64 or XP premium 64? Either would mean buying it as I only have a regular verison of XP lying around. .

 

[Luke]

^well if you got more then 3.5gb of ram then yes, the rest would not be used...and that is not including your gpu memory.

 

[acerinpa]

well - I guess that asks which 64 bit OS should I buy. Very few applications or peripherals currently support/utilize the 64 bit OS. Maybe I should start with the regular xp 32 bit that I already have and if necessary upgrade it. Even using only about 3 mb of RAM with the regular 32 bit XP - this will be a darn good setup. Good thinking or not....

 

[Fat.Clown]

OK - ready to order according to last list- thanks - One more question. TO use the Core 7 properly - don't I need to run vista 64 or XP premium 64? Either would mean buying it as I only have a regular verison of XP lying around. .

post it up and lets see

 

[acerinpa]

Well somehow we lost the case and the power supply in our list of hardware - of course that adds several hundred to the build= over budget . Does everyone agree about the PSU of the corsair 650 watt PSU suggested earlier? How about the prior case/fan setup. I think the extra $$ will be worth it in the long run - want to make sure the case and PSU will run the setup for long term even if I eventually do the SLI .

 

[Evolv]

Yup, the Corsair 650 would be the best psu for your build. If you want a good case for cheap, then check this out:
Newegg.com - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases
It's good

 

[acerinpa]

Well my first "builder " got delayed - so now have a second. Please review and see if any changes should be made since the $$$ vs new stuff may have changed. Thanks in advance guys.