building a good half life 2 pc

[deakinusa]

yes im a newb here and dun know much but i have a couple of questions. im looking to build a good gaming pc for doom 3 and half life 2 and need help. for all who have recently built a p4 pc for gaming, what products did you use? i plan on getting a 3.2 p4 with a gig of ram. what type of MB, ram, etc should i use? there are a couple of preferences though.. no overclocking and i dun want to spend an arm and a leg. i do plan on getting the radeon x800 pro or the geforce 6800. other than that i need help for optimum gaming. thanks for any help

 

[beedubaya]

I want to warn you not to get the X800 Pro. It totally sucks in Doom 3, being beat by even the midrange 6600, and is even beat by the 6800GT in HL2. Definately get the 6800GT. You will regret it, as I do, if you get the X800 Pro.

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

Valve has three leves of a pc that would be able to run HL2

low end (1000$)
CPU: 2ghz p4 or amd
RAM: 512mb
3dcard: ati radeon 9600 pro 128

mid range (1500$)
CPU: 3.6ghz p4 or amd
RAM: 1gb
3dcard: ati radeon 9800 pro 128

high end
CPU: 3.6ghz p4 or amd athlon 64 fx-53
RAM: 1gb
3dcard: ati radeon x800 xt 256mb

As for the brand, just search the forum, for the best ram, hdds, sound card and everything else.

 

[deakinusa]

hmm thats interesting..one says not to get the x800 and valve has that on their high end system. i guess ill have to do a lil more research on them two vid cards. ok what about good ram and mb. i plan to build myself so i would say about $1000 without vid card. so i need a cpu, mb, ram, case and power supply, maybe sound card and whatever i might be missing for about $1000 give or take a hundred. thanks for the replies

 

[Nubius]

Well the X800 pro sucks compared to the 6800GT and just because valve has that in their high end PC's doesn't necessarily mean that's the best card..it could mean they simply struck a deal with ATI like ID software did for doom3 and nvidia's new card (not a true fact just sayin...) The 6800GT can be overclocked past 6800 Ultra speeds, but your chances of doing that are better with eVGA brand 6800.

 

[Apokalipse]

he is saying to stay away from the pro, there is a big difference between it and he XT
unlike the 6800 GT against the ultra, the X800 pro is crippled by 4 pipelines against the XT as the lower version of the card

the X800 pro has 12 pipelines and the X800 XT has 16
the 6800 GT has 16 pipelines, and so does the 6800 Ultra

IMO I think you should get an Athlon 64 3200+ or 3500+ in socket 939 and a 6800 GT

 

[Raekwon]

yeah, AMD for gaming, nearly everyone here will tell you that, i think apokalipse is right in suggesting an Athlon 64. I would suggest at least a 3200+ if not a 3500/3800 the motherboard, would be an MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum, good stable board with lots of features, and Corsair XMS for ram.

 

[beedubaya]

Stay away from the X800s all together. They are yesterday's technology, really just a 9800XT with extra pipes. Basically the X800 Pro plain sucks and the X800XT P.E. is a solid card but doesn't match the 6800GT/Ultra. CS-S, which is a good indicator of HL2 performance, shows even the vanilla 6800 beating the X800XT P.E. I always get the urge to upgrade to a 6800GT, but I don't want to spend another $400 this generation.

 

[ohGrFreak]

The rig in mah sig is my Doom 3 rig, and wow, flawless.
ASUS video card was overclocked and softmodded.
1 gig ASUS memory dual channel at 800mhz
ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe mobo is nice, has 8.1 channel onboard audio, but poor tech support.

 

[deakinusa]

hmm so an amd 64 would be better than an intel 3.2 board? just asking cuz i had problems with amd a while back and didnt want to deal with them anymore. remember no overclocking cuz i dun wnat to deal with any issues. can someone tell me the major diff between the two in performance? thanks