# Suggestions for mid-range gaming pc



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

Hi everyone,
I have been browsing for a few days for a new pc and I'm a bit confused about what to take. I'd like suggestions about a good pc that can run most games on high settings. Here are my questions/suggestions :

Processor;
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 *OR* Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (I'm studying in multimedia at my school: photoshop, illustrator, video editing, 3d rendering, web etc...)

Motherboard;
Honestly, no real idea. Any motherboard than can support one of those processors, no more than 250$. DDR2 Memory Sli-Ready (if geforce cards are a better choice), SATA Ports... Something like that!

Video Card;
2x EVGA 8800 GT *OR* 1x Radeon 4870

Memory;
About 4Gig of the best/cheapest DDR2 memory (2x2G). I head OCZ and corsair are two very good brands and not too expensive. Or is the future in DDR3 Memory?

PSU;
700W...? what do you recommend for something about that power. :4-dontkno

Case;
Something quiet and a good air flow. (And please, no lights everywhere! haha)

And i'll choose a hard drive / dvd drive myself and a sound card. Or if you recommend something, go for it!

I know i'm not being precise, but you can let go your imagination and tell me what's better. I'd like a system that cost about 1300$ more or less. Thanks a lot! Hope I don't give you too mush trouble. Your healp is really appreciated. By the way I'm shopping at ncix.com and tigerdirect.com, so they have great deals on processors and video cards every week.


----------



## Toucan Sam (Jul 5, 2008)

DEFINATELY go for the 4870 graphics card.
PSU: Corsair 750w
As for the processor, I would go for the e8400. Someone else would be better for recommending it, though. I'm not sure how many cores all your programs could use.


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

thx for the reply, but why is the 4870 so much better than two 8800gt? I've checek benchmarks and they were pretty much the same and Geforce has better drivers.

And for the quad core over the dual, i've read that quad is onlyworth it when you're photoshopping and editing a lot... wich is pretty much my case. But is it worth the money? hahaha that's the question.

And for the PSU, 750W isn't too much power for nothing?


----------



## Toucan Sam (Jul 5, 2008)

978Oningu said:


> thx for the reply, but why is the 4870 so much better than two 8800gt? I've checek benchmarks and they were pretty much the same and Geforce has better drivers.


2x8800gt = 320$
1x4870 = 270$
Also, the 4870 will take up less power than sli 8800gt's and I dislike sli in general. I've heard countless times to just get one good card instead of two decent ones, and it just makes sense. You can also upgrade in the future if you see the need to and it will cost less to do the upgrade if you pick up another 4870.


----------



## Toucan Sam (Jul 5, 2008)

978Oningu said:


> And for the quad core over the dual, i've read that quad is onlyworth it when you're photoshopping and editing a lot... wich is pretty much my case. But is it worth the money? hahaha that's the question.
> 
> And for the PSU, 750W isn't too much power for nothing?


Again, I really don't know how much your programs will take up in terms of cores  I can only imagine that 4 cores would only matter if you had 3 or 4 programs running at once, which that is entirely possible. and as far as the money - you get what you need to so you don't upgrade in 2 years :tongue:

And I'm not quite understanding your PSU question?
If you're asking if that's too much power, it's not. NEVER skimp on a PSU. To quote Linderman "Would YOU power a $300 video card with a $70 power supply??"
Words of wisdom.


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

haha okay thx man!

And for the motherboard, i found this one : ASUS P5Q Pro ATX LGA775 P45 DDR2 2PCI-E16 Crossfire 3PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 Sound GBLAN eSATA Motherboard, 130$ - 150$

Is it a good card for the price and coupled with a 9870?

Also, is it worth picking DDR3 memory? I mean for the future...
I read it's not... haha well if you got another opinion..:wave:

As for the case, any suggestions?

thx!


----------



## HNKN (Aug 14, 2008)

if you ask me thats nowhere near a mid range pc, looks like a REALLY REALLY good pc


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

yeah, you're probably true. But it's not a HIGH END EXTREME ELITE THINGIE pc... hahaha if you know what I mean. So I put under the mid-range :laugh:


----------



## Toucan Sam (Jul 5, 2008)

not gonna lie, i really don't know much about motherboards.
It think that's a good one though.
DDR3 memory compatability has been recommended on other threads for future upgrades, so I'd say go for it.
(and its a 4870- not a 9870 =p 9870's will probably come out in 3 or 4 years lol)


----------



## Toucan Sam (Jul 5, 2008)

not gonna lie, i really don't know much about motherboards.
It think that's a good one though.
DDR3 memory compatability has been recommended on other threads for future upgrades, so I'd say go for it.
(and its a 4870- not a 9870 =p 9870's will probably come out in 3 or 4 years lol)
You can always PM linderman or dai with a link to the thread - they know everything


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

oops! I merges the 9800 from GeForce with the 4870 from ATI and it made a GeTI...:grin:

Okay. I think i'll PM them if I need more informations. But now, I need to find a good motherboard that supports DDR3. Any one else recommencd DDR3?


----------



## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

DDR3 doesn't offer much performance gain right now especially if you take into account the price.
The better chip sets out now are the Intel's but you can't run sli on an Intel chip set crossfire only, P35's are cheap for what you get if you figure the cost of a GA P35 DS3L Gigabyte board and 4 Gig of 4-4-4-12 corsair ram you could replace it in 2 years with a newer DDR3 board and memory and probably still save money over buying it today.
The E8400 is a better choice then the Q6600 for gaming as games out now and the near future don't use 4 cores so your left using 2 slower cores for the game.
The 4870 is out preforming the 9800gtx+ on almost every real world game test I've read.


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

Hum I checked about that motherboard and there's no RAID capabilities. I,d like to have that feature on a motherboard. Any other good motherboard that supports RAID?


----------



## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

For Raid use a GA EP35 DS3R Gigabyte boards with a suffix code R are Raid L is Lite


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

After reading about this motherboard, I found that it had a lot of "reboot loop" problems. Is it fixed now? It doesn't look so reliable. But this sure is a good quality/price deal!


----------



## MrChooks (Apr 19, 2008)

:wave:For what its worth - I have just had a computer built for me with a GA EP35C DS3R & a E8400 CPU - and have had no problems at all - it's as fast as lightning - 

This MB supports both DDR2 & DDR3 - so my logic was if DDR3 becomes a practical proposition and proves itself in the field in a couple of years I can swap the 2G of DDR2 memory for 2G of DDR3 memory. - Just a thought


----------



## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Never had the reboot loop on the P35 the 965 yes P35 no. It is usually related to mismatched ram or power issues, or a cpu newer then the bios version supports.


----------



## linderman (May 20, 2005)

Hello 



I would say you would be best suited with the Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R ........ you will get top notch performance with overclocking settings / intel raid controller and plenty of raid drive connectors @ the motherboard / and for a decent sum of money

and BTW: the fellas that are posting problems with those boards are doing something wrong !! thats a rock solid board and for the money; cant be touched!

I too would go with the E8400

and 4870 video

corsair 750TX ......... a power supply only puts out what the system asks for ! no more and HOPEFULLY no LESS

I have been selling alot of Corsair 650's and 750's every since I lost faith in antec and Corsair got more competitive!


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

For 10$ more I can get this one : P5QC ATX LGA775.

Since I don't plan go crossfire, it's not a problem and it has 2 x DDR3 slots.

And it doesn't say that the EP45-DS3R supports DDR3 Memory... Is it an error?

http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=2842


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

(Sry don't know how to edit a message... )

I've been wondering... Is Vista 64 bits recommended? I know it has a lot of problems, but if I want to use more than 3gig of ram, i'll need this version. :sigh:


----------



## McNinja (Jun 22, 2008)

My system is stable now. I bought vista 64 just when it came out, but after a year I bought it last october or november 2007
I use(2 x 2gigs) 4 gigs of patriot viper 800mhz ram


----------



## Jtsou (Jul 13, 2007)

Vista 64 still has a plent of compatability issues, but they will hopefulyl get fixed in forthcoming service pack releases. I wouldnt think a game would take any more than 3-3.5GB anyway.


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

I was thinking because in the near future. (1 month) i'll be doing plenty of 3d rendering. And believe, you never have enough memory when rendering (of course with a good processor).


----------



## McNinja (Jun 22, 2008)

A game doesn't take more than 3 gb at most but, I yhink if you got lots of leftover ram your system goes faster?


----------



## Jtsou (Jul 13, 2007)

Yes, 3D rendering does take a bit of memory. Games do too, but depending on the settings they are at. 

These are some 4GB kits I picked out, both are good names but the G.Skill is $10 cheaper. You can buy 2 of the kits for 8GB total, and if a stick fails you can still play when you are awaiting RMA:

G.Skill
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

Corsair
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

I think i'll go for the G.Skill. The 6400 is the same price as the 8000 on Ncix (since newegg doesn't ship to canada).

Next, there's the case. I hesitate between 2:

*Antec Nine Hundred*
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=21123&vpn=NINE HUNDRED&manufacture=ANTEC

and

*Antec P182 ATX*
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=24122&vpn=P182&manufacture=ANTEC

Also, does the EP45-DS3R really support DDR3? According to gigabyte, it doesn't!


----------



## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

EP 45C DS3R does.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128351&Tpk=ga+ep45c+ds3r


----------



## Tchesco (Jul 8, 2008)

4870 for sure


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

Okay so here I get so far :

Case : Antec P182 ATX Black Mid Tower Case
Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHZ
MotherBoard : Gigabyte EP45-DS3R ATX LGA775
Memory : G.SKILL F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ 2X2GB
Video Card : Diamond Radeon HD 4870 *BLACK EDITION* (hell yeah!)
PSU : Corsair TX750W
Optical Drive : Samsung 203S TruDirect 20X SATA DVD Writer Lightscribe
Hard Drive : Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 3.5IN 500GB

And maybe some better heatsinks, fans or anything that makes this pc run cooler, but no water cooling.

Oh! And the idea behind the black edition, is that it's more powerful for like 20-30 bucks more... And I can OC it even more.

Am I missing anything? ray:


----------



## Tchesco (Jul 8, 2008)

If I were you, I would consider getting a larger power supply for future crossfire. I bought this Coolmax 950watt modular psu and i cant complain. also this is a great deal i highly recommend it. I did a lot of reasearch for psu's before buying it.


http://www.thenerds.net/TOP_TECH.95...d=2&srccode=cii_5784816&cpncode=07-66477536-2


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

hum dead link! :4-dontkno

Hehe. Anyway, I'm not planning to go crossfire... 2 Cards means 2X more problems. And 2x More money. Hehe.


----------



## McNinja (Jun 22, 2008)

my 64 bit system is stable now(i got 64 bit vista when it first came ooohhh lordie lord was it ever an annoying F&@#ing system), hopefully other people will answer too.


----------



## linderman (May 20, 2005)

what will you do with more than 3 gigs of ram ?????? I would love just once for someone to show me a resources monitoring screen showing 3 gigs of ram being used !


----------



## McNinja (Jun 22, 2008)

well hers how much ram I use when playing Mass Effect for the PC on high settings
and on idle (CPU jumps from 0% - 8%on idle):grin:

so yeah even mass effect only uses 750mb of ram


----------



## Jtsou (Jul 13, 2007)

The most graphic intensive game i have is Battlefield 2. That game maxes out my 2Gigs but i have Vista. I think it uses 1.5-1.6GB.


----------



## linderman (May 20, 2005)

exactly my point fellas ................ I once saw a group of gamers at the college computer Rec center get as high as 2.0gigs during an intense scene while Player 2 player / it was along the lines of "battle royal" 

there was so much action going on ...... grenades and phaser blasting of some sort ...... was sooo much action it wasnt really long before all players were dead! :laugh:


point is : with sooooo much action happening and it was only using 2 gigs ....... no way would anyone ever be in that kind of "action" for a prolonged period ....... besides, the cpu will be maxed 100% way before you get to three gigs 

therefore once again; IMHO we are chasing our tails looking for more memory


----------



## Toucan Sam (Jul 5, 2008)

yet macs offer customization up to 32 gigs of ram... for the low price of $9,000 just for the ram alone...


----------



## Jtsou (Jul 13, 2007)

Blah...Macs...BTW i live in NC too


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

Lol, like I said, i'm doind a lot of 3D work, so 4Gig of ram is pretty much necessary. The more ram you have, the faster the render picture shows up and the faster the model in the viewport refreshes. By doing a lot of research, it came to this conclusion :

1Gig : Not even worth trying
2Gig : A little small
4Gig : Yeah, you can make some... 
8Gig : Nice!
16Gig : HELL YEAH!!! Now you're talking!

btw : Mcninjaguy, I love your background.


----------



## McNinja (Jun 22, 2008)

thanks. Its from dawn of the dead I think


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

978Oningu said:


> Okay so here I get so far :
> 
> Case : Antec P182 ATX Black Mid Tower Case
> Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHZ
> ...


So, is it an O.K. system? :4-dontkno :grin:


----------



## McNinja (Jun 22, 2008)

seems pretty good to me


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

okay thx! ray: I'm gonna buy those!


----------



## Toucan Sam (Jul 5, 2008)

you're going to love that system.


----------



## McNinja (Jun 22, 2008)

You'll be like dammmmm this thing is FAST!


----------



## Xolias (May 1, 2005)

E8500 is only $20 more than the E8400.


----------



## 978Oningu (Jul 24, 2008)

Really? lemme check!

...

Wow, thx man! On directcanada.com, it's only 5 bucks more :grin:! Can't believe I didn't check it sooner. I owe you one.


----------

