what do i need to build the BEST gaming cpu

[jinx]

last year i built my computer with a couple friends of mine..i ended up with a 21" flat screen monitor, cheap ass computer box gforce 4 2800ti, amd xp 2.6, gigabyte motherboard and 512ddr ram... well see this aint cutting it for me anymore!

money is no problem, im plan to get parts piece by piece anyways. i want the best things to have for "gaming"

what im lookin for is a bad ass motherboard, new amd processor, new case, 1gig of ram, new videocard, new hard drive. please help me out...i just want the best and only the best..shit duel processor sounds nice too but its not needed i think

 

[Shrapnill]

AMD Athlon XP 3200+ "Barton"
Giga-Byte GA-7NNXP Motherboard
1 gig Corsair XMS PC4000
Asus Radeon 9800XT vid card
two seagate 15,000 RPM 73GB hard drives

My advice: dont go 64.

 

[Inaris]

I like the Gigabyte setups for Mobo. they tend to include everything with them and so you can have all the bells and whistles. Highest speed processor would be your call... You can go with the x86-64 if you want to stay with AMD.

Video, ATI whatever is their newest. The 9800 Pro 256 is AWESOME but I'm sure something new will be out soon.
Go Serial ATA on hard drives. I prefer Seagate drives, but that is a personal opinion. fastest ram you can find that your board will support, stick with Crucial (sp) they seems to be the forerunners...
Case, Thermaltake seems to be the best for the time. And they look really cool. Antec still makes some pretty sweet ones too...

 

[tech4hire]

ive recently read that the slowest opteron beats the best P4 on gaming. and bench marks off the chart for the athlon 64 fx latest cpu. check out tomshardware.com and there are links to benchmarks for the latest cpu on the home page

 

[D4RK GR4YL3N]

if you want the best of everything, and price isnt an option, go for the Athlon FX51. it will DESTROY almost any pentium out there. as for thevideo card: radeon 9800 xt. Ram: 1 gig of corsair low latency memory. www.zipzoomfly.com has good prices

i dunno about the operton for gaming though.....

 

[zoerb]

the opteron is the same as the athlon 64 fx-51. I agree with dark graylen, go with the 64. people are afraid to buy them because they think 64 bits is too early. even if thats the case, theyre still the fastest gaming procs in 32 bit.

 

[Shakie]

even if thats the case, they're still the fastest gaming procs in 32 bit.

Not if the game doesn't take advantage of 64bit processing. Yes games will eventually do this, but there is not one out yet that I am aware of.

 

[tech4hire]

Sorry Guy, the bench marks out on most sites are for 32 bit games and the amd FX still beats the P4 in most games. MOST. There are a few bench marks that amd is not winning on. These benchmarks are for an amd fx 3400 andthe top P4 is a 3.2. Yes the amd 3.4 is supposed to be equived to a P4 3.4 which does not exist. but it still runs at a gigahertz less clock speed. The P4 rocks on the direct x 9 games but not too many out yet and 64bit is on the way. Ill even say the CPUs are just about equal across the spectrum but when a athlon 64 3400 and a P4 3.2 is about the same price, i would just wait a month or two till the price drops and then buy the cheaper amd. Plus it is about time for intel to change there socket again, so possibly if you get the P4 you may have to upgrad your mobo the next time you upgrad your cpu. The FX is already in a new socket so future upgrades are just about a given. And of course either of these CPUs will give you FPS out the wazoo, im just dont know what intel has up the ole sleeve. but do check it out.
http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20040106/athlon64_3400-05.html#opengl_benchmarks

 

[D4RK GR4YL3N]

yea tech4hire has got it right. even if a game doesnt run 64 bit code, the athlon 64 fx still kicks ass and the 64 3400+ is right on its heels. even on 32 bit games. it will beat ANY processor out there (except maybe be Pentium 4 extreme edition). i would buy the 3400+ instead of a P4 any day.

 

[Apokalipse]

well is this going to be a debate between 64 bit AMD and 3.2GHZ P4's?

you said you are not worried about price so:
I like Seagate drives aswell, they are really good quality, and they are virtually silent (Ive got one so I know) and get 2 120GB drives
go with Radeon 9800 Pro 256, maybe even 2GB RAM if you want (2 x 1GB) and go with Corsair
if you want a DVD burner go with Pioneer, normal CDR go with Sony or Cendyne
maybe get a CD burner AND DVD burner - if you want to burn normal CD's don't use the DVD burner because a normal CD burner will be much faster
IMO the AMD64 is really impressive, I used to like P4's better but now they have Athlon64
if you can, get an ASUS M/B for it (I'm not sure what they have for Athlon64's)