$1500 Budget Gaming PC

[Bullet-X2]

I'm hoping this will last me a pretty long time. If you have any suggestions please keep it so that its a PCI-X Mobo and it supports SLI, thats the only thing that i want to be kept.
I want to be able to play all of today's games and the ones of tomorrow. If I can't play tomorrow's games, I want it to be so that I can upgrade to play them. Thanks and any suggestions are welcome. You can diss my system all you want


Case: Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000BWA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133132

Optical Drive 1: Sony Black DVD Burner:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827131264

Optical Drive 2: Sony Black DVD/CD-RW Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827101131

Floppy Drive: Sony Black Floppy Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821103116

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego @ 2.2 GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-FI X-Treme Music 8
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102188

Power Supply: ENERMAX 600Watt SLI Support
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817194001

Video Card and Motherboard: eVGA 7800 GT w/nForce 4 SLI Mobo and Quake 4 (DVD Version)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130238
Mobo is a DFI LP UT SLI-D

Hard Drive: Existing 200GB Seagate Pro Series, 7200 RPM

CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9500 92mm Fan (Has Silent mode)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118223

RAM: OCZ Titanium 2 x 1 GB PC 3200 RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227056

The total will be around $1495.00 From Good ol' Newegg

And I would like to know how much of a performance increase would I see from my current system:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
1.5 GB PC2700 RAM
200 GB 7200HD
ATI Radeon 9600XT 256MB AGP 4X/8X
Right now I play a lot of BF2 and the only thing thats possibly holding me back is my graphics card. And will 512 Extra RAM help a whole lot?

 

[NathanM]

I'd suggest getting 2 GBs of RAM. Grab another 1 GB stick and run them on dual channel. If you can't fit that in your budget, if I were in your shoes I'd drop the sound card to up my RAM to 2 GB. Also, why the two optical drives?

 

[Bullet-X2]

Sorry that was a typo, that is 2GB. Yeah I heard the 2GB makes a huge difference while playing BF2. Man that game takes up a **** lotta resources

 

[Bullet-X2]

I use 2 quite often, I just hate taking the the Cd's in and out, also I burn CD's quite often and It's more comfortable for me to use em. And 22 Dollars more isn't much a big deal.

 

[NathanM]

Oh, okay . Then instead of dropping the sound card for more RAM, I'd drop it for a Opteron 165 CPU.

As you can see, I'm not a fan of a sound card when you could drop it for better PC performance. That's just my personal take on it, you don't have to agree.

 

[Ridlyn]

I agree with nathan, drop the sound card and either get a opteron 165 or a X2 3800+/X2 4200+ which ever one fits into ur budget.

 

[Bullet-X2]

Is the sound card really all that important? because I only have a normal 2 Speaker set right now, so i guess not. Maybe later when i get my New Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, and Z-5500 Setup, Thanks for the advice

 

[Bullet-X2]

Alright Great, I chose the Athlon 64 X2 4200+ and my budget comes to $1,528 which is nothing to worry about, but I'm sure it will be well worth it. Thanks for the help guys.

And how big of a performance increase will I see from my old CPU on a scale of 1-10

 

[Flanker]

Looks excellent, but I'm going to have to go against the other guys and recommend that you keep the X-Fi. Anyone that's ever heard the sound from an X-Fi (I have the incredible experience everytime I go over to me firend's place) you'll know that theres nothing to go back to. You should consider spending some money on a nice pair of headphones, or a headset, maybe a Sennheiser. With an X-Fi sound card and a nice headset, you'll be in a world of your own.

I know most people don't consider sound to be anything special. I used to think, "Bah, its sound, so what. You're going to be concentrating on the game anyways." But boy was I wrong. ESPECIALLY since you play BF2. BF2 has 128 different sounds in the game at one time. The X-Fi is the only sound card that I know of that supports EAX5.0 which lets you hear all 128 sounds. From crawling in the grass to that Maverick F-15 pilot roaring past you maybe 5 meters over your head, you'll hear everything. Concentrating on the fighting is awesome, but the sound makes a much huger difference than one might think. Just my 2 cents.

Other than that, looks good, even with the 3700+, its a dam good processor itself.

I forget though, is Enermax a reliable brand for PSUs? Probably is, I'm just forgetting.

The performance difference from your old processor will be next to nothing. But the overall difference in games from your MUCH MUCH MUCH better videocard will send you on max settings and beyond.

 

[Bullet-X2]

Thanks Maverick. When i get my birthday money I'll definately buy the sound card . And how much do you think I will be able to OC that Processor with that cooling fan?

And yeah I've heard from alot of topics here that Enermax is one of the most reliable brands for PSUs