Opinion on gaming rig for a friend

by **Bullhead** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 9:14 am

A7V600 is a via kt600 based mobo...no nforce, no soundstorm. Onbaord audio is likely realtec, or equivalent garbage. He should definately get a dedicated sound card, not only for better sound but also better perf. (although, I'd TRY to avoid creative if you can, since their drivers suck A**). 2800+ barton is good, and if it needs replacement later he'll be able to pick up a fairly cheap barton then (since newer AMD's will be out by then).

What brand of memory? 1 gig is a great number, and ddr400 is the way to go with a barton, but generic memory CAN hurt perf. versus good brand-name mem (like crucial, corsair, kingston, mushkin, etc)..

Errrr.....I'm going to refrain from commenting on the vid card so I don't get banned from forums

by **RCglider** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 9:35 am

That should be fine except I'd get a decent sound card. If he uses the onboard sound, he will likely have intermittent "lag". The Hercules Fortissimo 7.1 $45 is a good card and is much less than a comparable Creative. I've used 3 of these and they work well, except you must get the latest drivers I've found.

What brand ram? Any reason why he doesn't want say an Abit NF7-S or Asus A7N8X dlx? They have soundstorm. Many people make the mistake of buying a NF2 mobo thinking they all have soundstorm, which they don't.

edit: ditto Bullhead on the video card.

by **-HaVoC-** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 9:39 am

I've heard the sound cards other than the Creative ones do not have onboard DSP and that puts a load on the processor.

by **Irish** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 11:21 am

Just read an artice about Creative buying another company that puts them in position to being the only game in town. MaxPC this month has that article.

Compusa = 9800pro for $200.00 (steal)

by **shockwave203** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:21 pm

lol hightimber

I think bullhead is the real hardware guru here though

like other people have said, it's a good system, except he's going to need a new video card. plain and simple. There's no point in purchasing a fast processor, a good motherboard, if he's going to scimp on the video. it's such a bottlekneck that he could have got a 2 Ghz CPU and performance would probably be the same as the 2.8 he has now.

He would have been better off scimping on everything EXCEPT the video card. BFV is DX9, and is going to have Pixel Shaders 2.0. if ur buddy wants to play the game with anything but low settings, he should have got atleast a 9600XT. 5600XT will be a slideshow with anything DX9.

Hit him on the head and say "i told ya so" :lol:

by **RCglider** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:26 pm

Originally posted by -HaVoC-
I've heard the sound cards other than the Creative ones do not have onboard DSP and that puts a load on the processor.

I find that difficult to believe; sounds like CL propaganda :lol:

All I know is even an Ensoniq Audio PCI will make games playable that otherwise wouldn't be. My son's pc has an old Diamond MX400 that runs good. Using ob sound 90% of all games were impossible to play.

I'm still using Soundstorm and will as long as it's available. The Abit NF7-S was $90 from Newegg. Absolutely no sound/video issues. Same for the Asus.

by **hightimber** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:31 pm

Thanks to all of you! The more ammunition the better. I really appreciate the information and he's trying to return the video card. Supposedly they have a 30-day return policy. The guy was 'shocked' when he wanted to return it because it was an 'awesome' video card. Oh, they don't sell ATI, by the way.

by **Bullhead** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:42 pm

Havoc, that's pure b/s. Via markets a line of DSPs called the Envy24, in varying flavors, to alot of sound card manufacturers.....However, these are just starting to really get a market segment going. The Envy24 is based off of a high end DSP used in pro-level audio cards (you know, the 9800pro's of sound cards). M-Audio's revolution's use it, as do others. The Hercules RC mentioned is supposed to be a good, inexpensive card (maybe not great for an audiophile, but just fine for avg. use). I have no first-hand experience with the company or product, so I can't say. Some of the Phillips audio cards are supposed to be good to. If you don't want a creative sound card, and you don't have Soundstorm, then I'd suggest the M-Audio Revolution 7.1....very good card, better hardware than creative, it just has young drivers, so it's still developing.

And shockwave's dead on (on both

), nvidia cards just flat-out DO NOT run DX9 titles well, especially ones that are heavy on the pixel shaders. For a gaming rig, there is little that is MORE important than a solid vid card. I'd rather have a 9800pro and 512mb of system memory than that card with 1gig.

Also, for AMD XP boards, it's VERY hard to beat the performance of the nforce2 chipset in dual-channel mode. I had VIA KT400 based board prior to it, and it cannot hold a candle to the performance this board offers. the KT600 is supposed to be better, and supports 200MHz FSB, but I'm not a big fan of VIA, due to all the past issues I've had with 2 motherboards based on VIA chipsets.....but that's me.

If he can return the stuff without penalty, or sell it for his costs, I'd suggest an Abit NF7-S or Asus A7N8X mobo, and at least a 9600pro, if not 9600xt.

my 2 cents...

by **shockwave203** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:46 pm

Did that store actually suggest to your friend to buy the 5600XT? One of my friends has the exact same system as I do (even down to the memory type) except he has a 2.6 instead of my 2.4, and a 5600XT. we both ran 3dmark03. He scored 2100, while I scored 5200. very crappy card, but I'm glad he can return it.

by **hightimber** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:57 pm

Originally posted by shockwave203
Did that store actually suggest to your friend to buy the 5600XT? One of my friends has the exact same system as I do (even down to the memory type) except he has a 2.6 instead of my 2.4, and a 5600XT. we both ran 3dmark03. He scored 2100, while I scored 5200. very crappy card, but I'm glad he can return it.

I don't know the exact details of the purchase but he doesn't know enough about what's good/bad to have asked for that card. That being said, I'm sure the store recommended it and he didn't have enough knowledge at the time to know better.

by **Jim0322** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 1:05 pm

I was in Best Buy before x-mas and remember seeing a GeForce 5200 for $200. Many big chains don't have good selection or prices. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I like online shopping.

Jim

by **Bagginses** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 1:07 pm

Originally posted by Jim0322
I was in Best Buy before x-mas and remember seeing a GeForce 5200 for $200. Many big chains don't have good selection or prices. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I like online shopping.

Jim

I went in the Best Buy looking for a a mid-range ATI, and they only carried the really low ones and the 9800s, then I met my good friend http://www.newegg.com

-Bagginses

by **hightimber** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 1:08 pm

Originally posted by Jim0322
I was in Best Buy before x-mas and remember seeing a GeForce 5200 for $200. Many big chains don't have good selection or prices. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I like online shopping.

Jim

I encouraged him to use newegg.com but he ended up buying locally in some mom-n-pop computer store.

by **JimmyTango** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 1:09 pm

The only sound cards that hurt the CPU are onboard audio '97 or whatever that crap is and cheap sound cards.

There are many cards MUCH better than creative cards, and at the same price.
M-audio are much better than their Creative counter parts for music.

The single best for music is the DAL CardDeluxe:

http://www.digitalaudio.com/digitalaudio/myheadline.asp?S=75&P=5187&PubID=4401

by **JimmyMac** » Sun Feb 22, 2004 10:41 am

Thanks for the feedback, after neglecting my family for the day I finally played BF on the new box at 2:00am last night. I went for the 9600XT and for most of yesterday I was cussing the decision. In part due to what I now know as a backward jumper that the tech that helped me put in. After I fixed that and hours later, I realized my MB had somehow lost the AGP drivers. The final step was replacing the ATI drivers that were only a month older. Bottom line...(I know get to the point)...I played BF at the highest video and audio settings and it kicks arse. I still suck at the game but I now do so in full splendor.

...and HighTimber as far as "I just threw out the specs....didn't mention the video card" - I feel a photoshop moment coming on :lol:

Thanks for looking out for my best gaming interest.

Opinion on gaming rig for a friend

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