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[Hazaro]

Reason why I was looking at this board is the combo deal with the ram, and the newegg award. Someone also said it has lifetime warranty, as opposed to the TR board.

If I drop to a mobo below, it'll put me under a grand

Drop the mobo by $100, then spend that $100 on graphics then.

 

[ithorien]

Drop the mobo by $100, then spend that $100 on graphics then.

Anything you suggest? I tend to rely heavily on the rating/award business when it comes to Newegg, but you know your way around the tech really well.

 

[Hazaro]

Anything you suggest? I tend to rely heavily on the rating/award business when it comes to Newegg, but you know your way around the tech really well.

After looking around there's not much to substitute, esp since the next step up is the GTX 275, which is $100 more and not worth it.

Go for it. (Overclock though)

 

[ithorien]

After looking around there's not much to substitute, esp since the next step up is the GTX 275, which is $100 more and not worth it.

Go for it. (Overclock though)

Yessir! Now onto the wife conversation

 

[Shinz Kicker]

alright.. im back up to 311 x 9 and running at 50-55c which is way less than 90 i had before. It wont boot when i push it up to 3ghz. Im running prime now for the past hour to see how its holding up. ill mess with the voltage later.

Edit: alright im up to 3ghz at stable >70 temp. i need a bit more voltage and to lower my pci-e clock to 100 so it wouldnt scale and auto shut off.

 

[MWS Natural]

Until I finally settle on a graphics card are there any smaller arcade type titles I may be able to play with my onboard 790GX graphics?

 

[Boonoo]

Fuuuuuuuuuuck.

I just spent the last 12ish hours working on cleaning my desktop up wire and water wise.
(And I think that I did a pretty good job of it.)

(The before shot is upthread a bit)

The trouble is that after I put everything back together it won't turn on properly. It starts up for about 5 seconds--everything seems to run, but nothing shows up on the screen--and then it turns off again.
I cleared the CMOS values and gave it another go. This time it gets to the motherboard splash screen. I tried to make it to BIOS, but as it was asking me something about my clearing the CMOS values it turned off again.

So what do you guys think?
I'm guessing it's a power supply issue. It'll be a pain in the ass to return it and rebuild everything.
Bleh.

 

[Diablohead]

One thing I am seriously going to do this time is keep the thing tidy like that, right now my old pc has tons of loose hanging wires, pointless neon fans (removed the cathode long ago) and it's dusty from where I just stopped cleaning it last year. Also this time i'm avoiding any case with plastic windows since i'm past the stage of bright neon lighting

I should be ordering my pc tonight or tomorrow, might have to only go with 2gig ram and upgrade in the future when I can afford it. Buying XP also since I want to avoid Vista until Win7 is out plus my old pc has windows pre-installed with no handy cd or anything, owning windows will let me reinstall it when I want to do a clean up, something i've always wanted to do on this machine.

 

[Ashhong]

One thing I am seriously going to do this time is keep the thing tidy like that, right now my old pc has tons of loose hanging wires, pointless neon fans (removed the cathode long ago) and it's dusty from where I just stopped cleaning it last year. Also this time i'm avoiding any case with plastic windows since i'm past the stage of bright neon lighting

I should be ordering my pc tonight or tomorrow, might have to only go with 2gig ram and upgrade in the future when I can afford it. Buying XP also since I want to avoid Vista until Win7 is out plus my old pc has windows pre-installed with no handy cd or anything, owning windows will let me reinstall it when I want to do a clean up, something i've always wanted to do on this machine.

do you have a CD key from your old computer? just download an exact copy of windows XP and use the old CD key

 

[Diablohead]

do you have a CD key from your old computer? just download an exact copy of windows XP and use the old CD key

After 5-6 years I have no idea where to look for my key, if paperwork exsists it will be in the loft back home which is more like a landfill of my parents old items, my room has also been cleaned out twice by myself and my young brother uses it while I live away, so fat chance I still have my key :lol

If I can find it though I would say £75, I will phone home.

---

I been trying to put together a machine which is cheap but plays games to a nice degree, I'm not after a powerhouse since my 360 is my main game hardware but something which will run mmo's and a few pc games from steam somewhere around 30fps, looking nice and at 720p. Budget is very tight so if I have to give up some processor speed that's ok, anything is better then this machine right now (p4 2.6, 1gig old ram, sapphire 9600se with 128mb I think)

So far I have From DinoPC.com:

Intel Core 2 Duo E7400
Asus P5KPL-AM Motherboard
4GB Corsair DDR2 800mhz Ram
160gig HDD (all I need since I have externals)
GeForce 9600GT 512
XP home
400W psu

Total: £417

The graphics card I can only bump higher if I go with their gaming machien package but I also end up with £100 worth of parts I don't think I need, ends up raising the price to around £600 but I do get slightly better processor clock speed, 1333 ram and a 9800GT 512.

How would the £400 machine hold up with games like Left4Dead and MMO's like Aion? I done countless googles and looked at charts but gaf should be able to tell me if that is worth the money.

Trying to order before midnight as I save a few quid in their sale.

 

[Hazaro]

So far I have From DinoPC.com:

Intel Core 2 Duo E7400
Asus P5KPL-AM Motherboard
4GB Corsair DDR2 800mhz Ram
160gig HDD (all I need since I have externals)
GeForce 9600GT 512
XP home
400W psu

Total: £417

The graphics card I can only bump higher if I go with their gaming machien package but I also end up with £100 worth of parts I don't think I need, ends up raising the price to around £600 but I do get slightly better processor clock speed, 1333 ram and a 9800GT 512.

How would the £400 machine hold up with games like Left4Dead and MMO's like Aion? I done countless googles and looked at charts but gaf should be able to tell me if that is worth the money.

Trying to order before midnight as I save a few quid in their sale.

I'd go for the GTX 260, the 9600GT or 9800GT won't last.
It's a really good investment for not much upgrade cost.

As for L4D it'll run 60+ fps the entire time max settings, Aion should run the same.

 

[Diablohead]

I'd go for the GTX 260, the 9600GT or 9800GT won't last.
It's a really good investment for not much upgrade cost.

As for L4D it'll run 60+ fps the entire time max settings, Aion should run the same.

If the 400 machine can do that, i'm happy.

I also remembered I can get business XP or vista through my university, I leave here soon so I applied for a student key, if that comes through I will raise the graphics card.

 

[adg1034]

After 5-6 years I have no idea where to look for my key

There are free tools online, like this one, that can find your CD key for you. Otherwise, open Regedit, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion, click on it, and look for an entry in the right-hand pane labeled ProductID. You also should be able to get it from right-clicking on My Computer and clicking Properties. The key should be underneath where it says "Registered to:". Or it is on mine, at least.

As for the computer, I don't think he was saying your 400 pound system would run L4D and Aion at 60 FPS; that was only if you upgraded to the GTS 260.

 

[Hazaro]

If the 400 machine can do that, i'm happy.

I also remembered I can get business XP or vista through my university, I leave here soon so I applied for a student key, if that comes through I will raise the graphics card.

Righto, I'm talking about the GTX 260.
9800GT should run a little bit under max but still give you 60fps, still considering how long you are going to keep it I would upgrade to the 260.
Do not get the 9600GT though (or the GTS 250)

 

[bigmit3737]

Just ordered the 260 GTX OC edition. =)

I just need the Q9550 to drop a little in price now...
Way to overpriced especially with the I7 Cpus dropping in price.

 

[Spayro]

Uh, goddamnit. I think I need a new CPU. I don't know a whole lot about this,
but every time I play games, after a few minutes my computer would start beeping randomly.
or, with or without the beeping, crash. my computer is like 3 years old, but my GFX card is new.
how do I know what the problem is?

 

[Diablohead]

There are free tools online, like this one, that can find your CD key for you. Otherwise, open Regedit, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion, click on it, and look for an entry in the right-hand pane labeled ProductID. You also should be able to get it from right-clicking on My Computer and clicking Properties. The key should be underneath where it says "Registered to:". Or it is on mine, at least.

As for the computer, I don't think he was saying your 400 pound system would run L4D and Aion at 60 FPS; that was only if you upgraded to the GTS 260.

I'll dig around and see if I can recover my key, if so I will for certain buy a GTX card with the saved money, did think to myself earlier if I read that wrong.

Great help guys, thanks!

Oh one thing about my windows key, do I need to deactivate it on this machine before I install to another? or will it disable this machine automaticly? This machine is being taken apart and some of it's old insides going into my parents machine to speed it up a little.

 

[MiniDitka]

Hopefully someone here can help a computer illiterate like myself find the right card. I'm also looking for a $100 or less card to use for for some occasional gaming and video editing but have no clue what to get. I was thinking of something like this

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3747342&CatId=28

but have no idea if it would be a good choice for my setup which is...

ASUS A8NE 939 MB
2 GB Ram
AND 64 X2 4200+ Manchester CPU

I live close to Tiger Direct so thats the place I would like to purchase it from. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Has sadface from asking this question twice and not receiving a single reply : (

 

[brain_stew]

If the 400 machine can do that, i'm happy.

I also remembered I can get business XP or vista through my university, I leave here soon so I applied for a student key, if that comes through I will raise the graphics card.

If that doesn't come through in time then you can get a copy o Vista Ultimate for £41 from here so long as you still have access to your university email address. Its an upgrade version but you can do a fresh install by installing a "trial" first (don't enter a prodcut key) and "upgrading" from that.

I'll dig around and see if I can recover my key, if so I will for certain buy a GTX card with the saved money, did think to myself earlier if I read that wrong.

Great help guys, thanks!

Oh one thing about my windows key, do I need to deactivate it on this machine before I install to another? or will it disable this machine automaticly? This machine is being taken apart and some of it's old insides going into my parents machine to speed it up a little.

Are we talking about a pre-built OEM machine here? If so, your key is only valid for that one machine. You really should be upgrading to Vista x64 anyway. and at a maximum cost of £41 you'd be silly not to.

Has sadface from asking this question twice and not receiving a single reply : (

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161260

$77 after rebate, free copy of Stalker: Clear Sky, and trully excellent performance for the price. Much, much better than the 3870 you were considering.

You really should be OCig that CPU as well, as that might hold you back a little. Add another couple of gigs of RAM, a $20 CPU cooler, that GPU I linked, and then OC, and you'll have a very nice system for a $120 outlay.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

Fuuuuuuuuuuck.

I just spent the last 12ish hours working on cleaning my desktop up wire and water wise.
(And I think that I did a pretty good job of it.)

(The before shot is upthread a bit)

The trouble is that after I put everything back together it won't turn on properly. It starts up for about 5 seconds--everything seems to run, but nothing shows up on the screen--and then it turns off again.
I cleared the CMOS values and gave it another go. This time it gets to the motherboard splash screen. I tried to make it to BIOS, but as it was asking me something about my clearing the CMOS values it turned off again.

So what do you guys think?
I'm guessing it's a power supply issue. It'll be a pain in the ass to return it and rebuild everything.
Bleh.

check ram, I remember my friend had the same problem. For him it was the ram.

If not then power supply.

 

[MiniDitka]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161260

$77 after rebate, free copy of Stalker: Clear Sky, and trully excellent performance for the price. Much, much better than the 3870 you were considering.

You really should be OCig that CPU as well, as that might hold you back a little. Add another couple of gigs of RAM, a $20 CPU cooler, that GPU I linked, and then OC, and you'll have a very nice system for a $120 outlay.

Thank you very much

 

[Fireblend]

So I was looking at this deal: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883113092

What does GAF think? I tried looking for the GTS 150 but I can't find any reviews, something like it was renamed though. What would you guys recommend? There's a version of that same config with a GTX 285 instead but it's $400 more and I'm thinking that's a steep change for another card.

Also, what would be the safest/fastest shipping method?

 

[Boonoo]

check ram, I remember my friend had the same problem. For him it was the ram.

If not then power supply.

Thanks. I tried switching the ram up, but I can't keep the machine on long enough to run memtest. The real stickler for the power supply is that the less components I have hooked up the longer the desktop stays on. What a shit time for it to fail.

 

[Ashhong]

I'd go for the GTX 260, the 9600GT or 9800GT won't last.
It's a really good investment for not much upgrade cost.

As for L4D it'll run 60+ fps the entire time max settings, Aion should run the same.

60+ including horde times? Mine drops during hordes with a 512mb 4870, which is pretty annoying. everything is on max except AA and that other option...the one where its not just low/high, but with numbers. Think somethings wrong?

And what does GAF think about using an HDTV with a computer? I have a buyer for me 4870 but he only wants it if itll look good on his 46" Samsung LCD. He wants to be able to read text clearly but I have no idea if it will be clear. If he doesnt want it i have to cancel my 4890 asap.

 

[Fredescu]

Uh, goddamnit. I think I need a new CPU. I don't know a whole lot about this,
but every time I play games, after a few minutes my computer would start beeping randomly.
or, with or without the beeping, crash. my computer is like 3 years old, but my GFX card is new.
how do I know what the problem is?

If you've installed a new and reasonably powerful video card, it could be that your power supply is not up to the task. Post your specs including model and wattage of power supply.

And what does GAF think about using an HDTV with a computer? I have a buyer for me 4870 but he only wants it if itll look good on his 46" Samsung LCD. He wants to be able to read text clearly but I have no idea if it will be clear. If he doesnt want it i have to cancel my 4890 asap.

The text will only be clear if it's a 1080p TV, and even then it probably varies from TV to TV. If it's 720p it will be fine for games and videos but not for reading text.

 

[Ashhong]

The text will only be clear if it's a 1080p TV, and even then it probably varies from TV to TV. If it's 720p it will be fine for games and videos but not for reading text.

yea its 1080p. hell also be sitting about...iuno, 10+ feet away? so it might be hard to read regardless. i really want that 4890 card for my l4d...

 

[Fredescu]

Samsung's are fairly popular, I imagine if you got the model number you should be able to find some impressions on the net about what the text looks like when you plug a PC in.

 

[MWS Natural]

Until I finally settle on a graphics card are there any smaller arcade type titles I may be able to play with my onboard 790GX graphics?

Anyone? Are there some games on stream with low requirements?

 

[Fredescu]

What kind of games? What about things like World of Goo or Multiwinia?

 

[Ashhong]

fuck it, im going to cancel the 4890.

so should my 512mb 4870 be running L4D at a constant 60 the entire time? running at 1680x1050 and overclocked slightly.

 

[scorcho]

fuck it, im going to cancel the 4890.

so should my 512mb 4870 be running L4D at a constant 60 the entire time? running at 1680x1050 and overclocked slightly.

Cant see why not, especially if you're dual or quad core.

 

[SapientWolf]

60+ including horde times? Mine drops during hordes with a 512mb 4870, which is pretty annoying. everything is on max except AA and that other option...the one where its not just low/high, but with numbers. Think somethings wrong?

And what does GAF think about using an HDTV with a computer? I have a buyer for me 4870 but he only wants it if itll look good on his 46" Samsung LCD. He wants to be able to read text clearly but I have no idea if it will be clear. If he doesnt want it i have to cancel my 4890 asap.

I've been using an HDTV as a monitor for years, first at 1360x768 and then at some weird approximation of 1080p. Text clarity is not a problem at either resolution, but the screen feels kind of cramped at 768p. Not a problem at 1080p though.

Historically, AMD/ATI does a better job of supporting HDTV's than Nvidia, although this may have changed recently.

 

[Fredescu]

fuck it, im going to cancel the 4890.

so should my 512mb 4870 be running L4D at a constant 60 the entire time? running at 1680x1050 and overclocked slightly.

Guru 3D did some benchmarks on it http://www.guru3d.com/article/left-4-dead-pc--23-vga-card-graphics-performance/8 . Those numbers are averages though. I imagine if you don't want any dips below 60fps you might have to reduce some IQ. Also they were doing those with a pretty high end CPU.

 

[Boonoo]

Thanks. I tried switching the ram up, but I can't keep the machine on long enough to run memtest. The real stickler for the power supply is that the less components I have hooked up the longer the desktop stays on. What a shit time for it to fail.

lawl.

I went to check on the cpu--I didn't really think it would be this, as I've been able to post and almost log into windows, but I thought I'd give it a good once over before I sent the psu back--and much to my shock there's no thermal grease on the water block. The strip of AS5 had slid right off onto the heatsink below the cpu. I had been messing with my water block some, and I added some spacers to the screws.

So in the end I was more or less been trying to run it without a heatsink--hopefully there hasn't been any real damage.

Anyone know if there are variations of cpu damage? Is there a chance it won't be able to hold an overclock now? I'll have to run some stress tests and fine out.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

fuck it, im going to cancel the 4890.

so should my 512mb 4870 be running L4D at a constant 60 the entire time? running at 1680x1050 and overclocked slightly.

I leave my 4870 512mb at stock and have OC'd Phenom II 920 @ 3.3 ghz

I run L4D at that resolution perfect maxed out, I don't know if its constant 60fps but I assume it is since I've never experienced a drop in rates

 

[Ashhong]

I leave my 4870 512mb at stock and have OC'd Phenom II 920 @ 3.3 ghz

I run L4D at that resolution perfect maxed out, I don't know if its constant 60fps but I assume it is since I've never experienced a drop in rates

everything maxed out? MSAA and all that too? I have my E7400 OC @3.3ghz also, and i get drops during massive hordes, or if i get boomered sometimes.

can you run ur game and check for me? open up the developer console and just type net_graph 1

thanks

Guru 3D did some benchmarks on it http://www.guru3d.com/article/left-4-dead-pc--23-vga-card-graphics-performance/8 . Those numbers are averages though. I imagine if you don't want any dips below 60fps you might have to reduce some IQ. Also they were doing those with a pretty high end CPU.

not sure what the 32 is, is that the OS? I'm running 64bit Vista. also i believe im at 4xMSAA and 8xAF...so i dont know why im not getting 84. well actually, it only goes up to 60 anyway, how do you remove the FPS limit? im thinking theres some settings in the ATI CCC that i need to change or something...

 

[Fredescu]

32bit colour.

Edit: For the frame limit, do you have Vsync on? Looks like there's a "Wait for Vsync" option in L4D. Turn it off if it's on. You can also force it through the drivers, although I haven't tried it with an ATi card.

 

[Nif]

I'm such a dumbass. I have an Antec P180 with the top vent, and I just spilled water over my desk and straight into the case while it was on. Screen went garbled and I think I heard cracking before I could get the computer off.

I just built it a few months ago, too. =( Hoping it's only the GPU that's fucked, if anything. The motherboard was wet, and the GPU stopped most of it from dripping further onto the PSU and other cards. It dripped over the CPU's heatsink and under the motherboard, too, but the heatsink on the CPU is on pretty tight, and I don't think anything happened to it.

I've dried it all out as best I could, and put it under my desk lamp so anything I missed might dry faster. Don't think I'll touch it till tomorrow at the soonest.

 

[ithorien]

I'm such a dumbass. I have an Antec P180 with the top vent, and I just spilled water over my desk and straight into the case while it was on. Screen went garbled and I think I heard cracking before I could get the computer off.

I just built it a few months ago, too. =( Hoping it's only the GPU that's fucked, if anything. The motherboard was wet, and the GPU stopped most of it from dripping further onto the PSU and other cards. It dripped over the CPU's heatsink and under the motherboard, too, but the heatsink on the CPU is on pretty tight, and I don't think anything happened to it.

I've dried it all out as best I could, and put it under my desk lamp so anything I missed might dry faster. Don't think I'll touch it till tomorrow at the soonest.

><

A few months back, my wife spilled vodka and sprite all into her laptop. A nice 12-16oz worth of alcohol/soda.

I dried it, and started it up the next day. After starting it seemed fine, and then it acted up, and we basically turned it off because it seemed dead.

Few weeks after that she was on my PC because her laptop was dead, and I just needed to get on a PC. Turned the laptop on for shits and giggles, voila it worked.

It's worked ok til this day, so keep your chin up. Maybe not all is lost.

 

[Boonoo]

I've dried it all out as best I could, and put it under my desk lamp so anything I missed might dry faster. Don't think I'll touch it till tomorrow at the soonest.

That's a real bummer. I've had my cpu waterblock leak on my motherboard and gpu, and after a thorough drying it was ok. I made sure to take everything out, and I took the gpu completely apart so that it would dry thoroughly. Hopefully your spill will turn out alright.

 

[Crazymoogle]

It's worked ok til this day, so keep your chin up. Maybe not all is lost.

Thankfully, computer hardware doesn't dissolve away when touched by water. It's a crapshoot as to what happens, particularly in that P180 situation, but I think his odds are better because it was water, and could dissipate without too much trouble. All he really needs is to make sure it's all dry before giving it another boot.

Liquor/coffee/pop can be a lot more difficult to remove safely and are more likely to contribute to permanent hardware damage (particularly carbonated beverages vs. the motherboard.)

 

[Nif]

Hmm, I'm glad I decided to remove the CPU because there were some drops underneath the heatsink. I put the CPU back in after cleaning off the thermal grease and checking the pins, and when I pulled the lever to lock it in, a tiny bit of water squeezed out from underneath the plastic plate/holes (not the holes themselves). I can't remove that, so I'm hoping it dries up.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

Hey guys, got a question about Vista.

I've been getting some blue screen crashes lately while playing games that don't occur in XP. My PC seems awfully warm after a crash so I'd like to think it's overheating, but if that's the case wouldn't it be happening in XP also?

 

[Diablohead]

Are we talking about a pre-built OEM machine here? If so, your key is only valid for that one machine. You really should be upgrading to Vista x64 anyway. and at a maximum cost of £41 you'd be silly not to.

Yeha it was pre-built so I can scrap that idea, Ultimate for £41 sounds too awesome to be true so I will buy that, I have easy access to my uni email. I never got around to ordering at midnight as my loan went in after the time but only a few parts had money off, should be cool.

I did some googles about upgrading from xp trial to vista but i'm getting awnsers that it doesn't work, you 100% sure I can do this? before I order a copy of vista red.

 

[Hazaro]

Hmm, I'm glad I decided to remove the CPU because there were some drops underneath the heatsink. I put the CPU back in after cleaning off the thermal grease and checking the pins, and when I pulled the lever to lock it in, a tiny bit of water squeezed out from underneath the plastic plate/holes (not the holes themselves). I can't remove that, so I'm hoping it dries up.

I'd try to give it 3 days if you can.

Take everything apart and check for water.

I'd think most of your components should be ok.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

everything maxed out? MSAA and all that too? I have my E7400 OC @3.3ghz also, and i get drops during massive hordes, or if i get boomered sometimes.

can you run ur game and check for me? open up the developer console and just type net_graph 1

Well using FRAPS normally I run 100 fps doing nothing, 60ish when I get into some action, and the worst I've gotten was 45FPS when I'm surrounded.

I'm perfectly happy with it as I can't tell the difference between 45 and 60 fps. I don't know if runnign 60 fps constant is a metal barrier you want to achieve or something but if it matters get a 4890 as that will definitely help.

 

[Broadbandito]

SAPPHIRE 100134SR Radeon X1800XT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
NEC Beige 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1200JBRTL 120GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 3.5" Hard Drive - Retail
RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP Black 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case With 500W Power Supply - Retail
Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 Allendale 2.0GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
MSI 945GM3-F LGA 775 Intel 945G Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

ok that is my build. It seems like my graphics card is failing ever since i tried DOD source the other day. All of a sudden the GFX card gets SUPER loud and then I will lose input with my monitor. Is there anything I can try to fix? Also, what would be a worthy upgrade (a graphics card) thats not too expensive but is better than what I have?

 

[Diablohead]

I think i've made a machine which will do me well for only £364, it only has 800mhz ram but reading about hurts rates 1333 would be wasted on the cheaper mother boards and processors.

Intel Core 2 Duo E7400
Asus P5KPL-AM Motherboard
4.0GB Corsair DDR2 800mhz (2 x 2GB)
160GB hdd
9800GT 512MB (I believe this is all I need for my uses, 360 is my main gaming platform. Online reviews look good)
400W PSU

This is without windows but if I can get a copy from my uni or the £40 uni deal, that's cool.

If I swap the 9800GT with the GTX 260 896MB the price raises up to £432. I'm guessing postage cost will be £40 or so also for the machine.

This thread has been a huge help and thanks again everyone.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Hey guys!

Since console gaming is expensive and sucks dick now, and I am not cottoning to Mac prices in this economy - I'm seeking PC building advice.

Can I build a PC for around $500 that will play L4D and TF2 without running like shit? I'm also interested in stuff like GGPO for Capcom fighters.

Also, I'd like a small form factor unit. Is it still possible to build like half-sized PC's? I know you could buy half sized / minature cases a few years back.

Have at it. I'm in the US, so that's the funny money I'll be using.

 

[Ashhong]

Yeha it was pre-built so I can scrap that idea, Ultimate for £41 sounds too awesome to be true so I will buy that, I have easy access to my uni email. I never got around to ordering at midnight as my loan went in after the time but only a few parts had money off, should be cool.

I did some googles about upgrading from xp trial to vista but i'm getting awnsers that it doesn't work, you 100% sure I can do this? before I order a copy of vista red.

whoa whoa, those prebuilt machine windows keys work just fine. to this day i have used my Dells key at least 5 times.