processor help and video card

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Wait a minute...You guys need to be looking around the web at the reviews on the dual cores vs. pentium 4's first before making a recommendation. AMD makes a better processor when it comes to gaming, hands down. But since you are looking towards Intel, you should keep in mind a few things. The Dual Core 820 runs at 2.8 (slow for a Pentium brand). Although it has 2 cores, even the current games don't take advantage of this, so essentially you're running only one core at a slow 2.8. That would lead us to think the faster P4 you want would be a better deal, but always remember with technology how fast times are chaning. Intel is getting rid of the "Pentium" line, as they are finally figuring out they just can't compete with the AMD's. ALSO!!! Next generation games WILL take advantage of dual-core processors, making these processors completely dominant in the gaming industry standards. In a nutshell, get the Pentium D. I don't recommend getting the 820 (they're also discontinuing the 820 by the way). Instead go for the 920 or higher. The 9xx series is even cheaper, overclocks better, runs at a lower temp., and uses less power. I am using the 820 right now and plan on upgrading soon (Late April when prices drop) to the 960 (3.6 GHz) that they are going to announce for a little less than $500. At that time you should be able to get the 920 for below $200.

Check www.newegg.com or www.monarchcomputers.com for current prices. They have the best deals.
 
I forgott to answer your graphics card question....

ALWAYS get the 256 MB graphics card. No game is going to run well on 128 anymore. PCI Express is also the way to go since it's much faster than AGP (assuming your motherboard has a PCI-E slot, which most new do).

As far as ATI goes, the x600 is crap and won't do anything for you. I'm partial to ATI and run a HIS IceQ II X800 XL 256 MB card. I got it from www.monarchcomputers.com for $215 and it should suit me well for another year or so until I wanna drop an insane amount of money of top of the line stuff. If you can fford the little extra right now, go for the X850 series. I'm not really familiar with NVidia, but lots of sites around such as www.guru3d.com will have reviews with graphs and charts of side by side comparrisons for the x800 XL (which ito me is the better) vs. the NVidia competition. It's also worthy to mention here that the X800 series are awesome overclockers and the ATI Tray Tools software couldn't be simpler. With the HIS cooler on the card, temps. are not a problem and overclocking it can get you to the X800 PRO speeds or higher. Well worth the $200.
 
thanks for all that but what power supply should i geT?

also is the radeon x1300pro a good card for counterstrike? prediction of fps on counterstrike? and what would be the differnce of fps between this card and the 6800gs?

also which computer brand would you go with
hp-dell?
 
The x1xxx series of cards are the new ATI shift of manufacturing processes. These are the new flagship cards for ATI and are pretty much for those of us who can't stand having anything less than perfection and bleeding edge technology. It's worth mentioning that monarchcomputers.com has listed this:

ATI (HIS) Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3/PCI-E/Dual-DVI (Retail Box) for $369.69

That's a screaming deal. This is because it's not the 512 MB of RAM that the other models this high up in the food chain are offering...which is granting them a ton of publicity. It does, however offer the new technology called "Shader Model 3.0." This is the newest in gaming and is something every new card from now on will have. (The X800's don't have this). This brings increases in performance.

As for a power supply, you should be fine with at least 350W but it's always nice to have that buffer zone just to be safe. I use 400W and would use that on this card with no problems.

Okay...So you also want to know about the X1xxx series from ATI and them compared to the NVidia 6800gs. First off you need to know this:

Frames per second Gameplay
<30 FPS very limited gameplay
30-40 FPS average yet playable
40-60 FPS good gameplay
>60 FPS best possible gameplay

(Stats taken from guru3d.com misc. reviews)

You also need to see these graphs of average FPS they got from Far Cry on a comparison basis.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/262/13/

Based on this, I would say this:
If you plan on getting a new graphics card, spring the extra cash for the X1800 XL or XT. Obviously, the 512 MB version would be preferred over the 256 MB one, but that's up to you in the end. These cards kick some serious you-know-what and you will definately feel like you got some really cool stuff for your money. The 256 MB x1800 I listed above will be better than the x850, and relatively the same price.

As far as buying a pre-built system goes, I like HP. My tag below my posts shows what I use and I'm happy with it, minus the need for a faster processor and one of those new x1800 cards on of these days. The HP's will most likely come with a 350W power supply, so there won't be a need to upgrade.

Phew, if I missed anything or you need some clarification, let me know...ha
 
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