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What about this config?

Post Date: 2008-07-07
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slgilley View Drop Down
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Email address used to purchase matched with forums account email.

Joined: 07 Jul 2008
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Posts: 21 		  Quote slgilley Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: What about this config?
    Posted: 07 Jul 2008 at 1:37pm
 
This computer is for my 15.5YO son.  He's into first person shooters and things like Hellgate: London.  Currently, his laptop won't run a network game of Gears of War without lengthy pauses.  I'm after a computer that will play pretty much anything out right now with decent frame rate, and hopefully something that will last a couple of years before any major upgrade is needed.
 
Before you start, anyone have any idea how efficient the RAID is on this system?  Is the mirroring going to noticably slow down disk access?  (It shouldn't but I'm not used to RAIDing anything but enterprise systems.)

Chassis: Digital Storm 750Si
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Interior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Power Supply: 550W Corsair HX (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition)
Processor: AMD Phenom 9550 (2.2GHz) (Quad Core) (4 MB Cache) AM2+
Motherboard: Asus M3A (AMD 770 Chipset)
System Memory: 2GB DDR2 Corsair at 667MHz
Card Reader: Internal Digital Media Card Reader (Black)
Hard Drive 1: 500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Hard Drive 2: 500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Raid Option: Setup hard drive 1 and hard drive 2 in a Raid 1 Mirror Configuration (Expert)
Hard Drive 3: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9800GX2 1GB
TV Tuner: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 1 (Certified Digital Storm Heat-sink)
Internal Lighting: Blizzard Internal Lighting (Blue Edition) (Cold Cathode Tubes)
 
 
Thanks,
 
Sean.
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skyR View Drop Down
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Posts: 2220 		  Quote skyR Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Jul 2008 at 1:48pm
Intel processors are better than AMD but I guess it's a matter of brand loyalty...

You don't need a 500GB HDD for a gaming computer. RAID 1 doesn't decrease performance but makes little sense to me in a gaming computer...

It's recommended to have a 650W PSU for a 9800GX2 card.

RAM does matter since newer games such as Crysis and Age of Conan are memory whores. So if you want this system to last, you should go with 4GB.

The Geforce 9800GX2 isn't a good card. The Radeon HD4870 and Geforce GTX 260 both outperform it and are both cheaper...
The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star.
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SunfighterLC View Drop Down
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Posts: 1527 		  Quote SunfighterLC Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Jul 2008 at 2:16pm

id agree the GX2 isnt the best card anymore. Hell i cant even sell a one month used one for 165+ shipping...a few months ago it was like 500+
E8500@ 4.03Ghz
XFX 790i Ultra
1000W Corsair HX
2 280 GTX EVGA FTW
4GB OCZ Reaper 1800Mhz
250-80-300GB VR HD
Logitech Z-2300 2.1 Speakers
Asus Xonar 7.1
Hanns-G HG 281D 28" HDMI Monitor
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widdlecat View Drop Down
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Posts: 840 		  Quote widdlecat Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Jul 2008 at 3:55pm
I'd recommend a better cpu cooler to go with that case. My mom has that model of silverstone case (TJ04) and if she didn't have a zalman cooler, it'd prolly have some heat issues. If you're not going to overclock, the arctic cooling freezer series should be fine. That's a lot of storage capacity on those HDD. Does your son have a lot of mp3s or something? If that's the case, I'd recommend a sound card like the razer barracuda.
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Bismark View Drop Down
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Joined: 21 Jun 2008
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Posts: 120 		  Quote Bismark Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Jul 2008 at 6:12pm
As far as Raid goes... if your son is primarily playing games I agree with Sky that its a waste. If hes very worried about having to reinstall a game after a crash or lose a saved game from a non MMO you can get a second drive and set up a folder to copy saved game files. My feeling on it is Raid 1 is an excellent choice for a business application, ie your bookwork or tax information is being stored on that computer...games, not nearly as important or irreplaceable.
Asus Rampage Formula
Core 2 Quad Q9550
2 ATI Radeon HD4870 Crossfire
4GB Corsair DHX 1066
1000W Corsair HX
DS 850Si

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