[/FONT]I am getting ready to build a gaming machine for my little brother. I have never built a machine that would be specificly used for gaming. So I thought I would ask. He plans to play games like Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Max Payne, Flight Simulations, Racing Simulations you know that sort or games. I was looking to built a machine with the following specs. would am I going in the right path. 2.0 Ghz Athlon XP Biostar M7VIG-Pro Socket A/VIA/DDR + SDR/A&V&L/ATA 133/USB 2.0/MATX Motherboard 512MB PC2100 DDR266 266MHz Kingston Original Memory Maxtor 6Y080L0 80GB Ultra ATA133 7200rpm 2MB Hard Drive Asus Radeon 9200SE 128MB TV-out AGP Video Card Any suggestions are greatly apreciated. Thanks
I take it this is a budget machine? Those specs will pretty much run anything you throw at it, and come it a nice price. However, as this is a gaming machine you may want to consider throwing a few more quid at your graphics card. I have the 9200SE in my second system and it's good for the price, but don't expect to run anything over 800x600 if you want all the effects turned on and to run at a half decent frame rate. You can get a 9600 for £70 and the difference is staggering. I can't comment on the nVidia cards around that price, as I haven't used one myself recently. Also, after a quick look on Overclockers the Throughbred XP2000 is going for £38.50, but you can get the XP2400 for £45.25. For the sake of £7 I know which one I'd pick
Or you could go with the Barton 2500 I would deffo get a 9600 or 9600XT to put in there though. I run a 9600XT in my main machine and love it. If you think he would be the least bit interested in HL2 or D3 then I would get a 9600XT. You won't regret it.
I am not too familiar with graphics cards I would like to use one that is going to give my brother some nice graphics a good frame rate and that will not choke up at all. He is into online gaming and speed is of importance to him. I'll take a look into the cards that have been suggested so far.
If you were gonna get a 2500+ barton, id recommend eBuyer, theyve got the underclocked 3200+ chips in the stock. thats why my 2500+ chips running at 2.3
hmm. You have not mentioned if this would be a budget or a semi budget or something along those lines. Here is something you could look into. $ 523.98 ABIT nForce2 SPP Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU, Model "NF7" -RETAIL Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model 6Y080P0, OEM Drive Only Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, Low Latency (Twin Pack) 184 Pin 512MB(256MBx2) DDR PC-2700 SAPPHIRE RADEON 9600PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP -Bulk AMD Athlon XP 2500+ "Barton", 333 FSB, 512K Cache Processor - Retail This would tear up probably any game you threw at it and then some. I got this price courtesy of www.newegg.com
i second newegg.com, awesome place as for the graphics card, you could have a look at a FX5700 ultra as well, as they supposedly are just as good as the 9600xt, not sure on price difference though, if they are much more expensive then definitely pick the 9600 over a 5700 also, you can sometimes pick up FX5900s for only slightly more than a 9600 or 5700, that would be a far better option with corsair LL memory, you are spending considerably more money on something that only ever so slightly faster than the C2 version (2-2-2-5 as opposed to 2-3-3-5) i'd advise to stay away from a biostar motherboard as well, either an asus or abit motherboard would be just the ticket try not to get "cheap" components, get inexpensive ones instead (theres a very slight difference)
I have the same video card you posted and it can play cod, aa, nfs:u, gta3, and gta vc all good at 1024x768 with all settings and still get 30-40 fps. It gets a little hot though...
I agree with this. But the differnce in price might be negligible but not in preformance. I again suggest to go Abit or Asus for the mobo. Go Corsair for the ram, Strongly suggest the XMS but its really the dealers choice, For hard drive I haven't had any problems with my western digital, and maxtor is nice. I suggest maxtor since its a quieter drive and quiet is always good. Video card wise, I have a ATI and it works great, If you get a ati i suggest you spend the extra 40ish dollars and get a real nice vga fan and heat sinks. I kid you not when I say that I hated my 9800 pro, Now it runs like a dream!
