Building a new setup

[stocky]

Planning on building a new computer soon. Too bad prices have gone up lately but oh well. I need something to run GTA4 . Thinking of spending around 1k, probably from MSY. Wont need hard drives, keyboards, mouse, monitor. Need a power supply, and a gamepad of some kind too.
Hows this sound -

cpu -Intel E8400
motherboard - Gigabyte EP35-DS3P
memory - G.Skill-PI 2GB Kit DDR2
graphics - 512MB 9800GTX
case - CoolerMaster CM 690

[Zuicider]

get an msi m/b alot better made than a giggabyte

[Zuicider]

and go the quad core for the cpu

[bezz]

i disagree with the above post, gigabyte and asus are the 'big 2' and I feel they make the best boards. The amount of msi boards i've had die on me is rediculous.

Also if you can try and hold off buying it at least a month, the new i7 intel processors have just come out so the market is going to change severely in the next few weeks.

[stocky]

how confident are you on that. how big of a change do you think it would be, and would it affect mobo and cpu prices, or just cpu?

[bezz]

It happens every year.. xmas time is the worst time to buy. It'd mainly effect cpu prices (the new cores use different motherboards). The video card you listed above is also of the last generation too. It really depends if you can wait tho, otherwise the system you listed above will definitely play gta4 perfectly well.

[Zuicider]

i tend to dissagree with you bezz, msi has alot less returns and is more compatible with alot of other brands and they have a awesum driver update page, mate says the only board he ever saw that got burnt out by thunder storms was gigabyte as well

[bezz]

In the last 2 years I've had 5 msi boards, 3 have died. I've also just ordered my 4th gigabyte board in the last 18 months, the 3 previous are all still going strong.

[Zuicider]

well ym mate only sells msi boards as the problem he has seen from the servicing side tends to prove his point ive had my msi board for a year and no problems there

[Ozzie]

mate that motherboard only supports ATI and doesnt support nVidia. You mayaswell scrap the idea if your gunna try to use that graphics card on that motherboard.

[VXdarkmagic]

get an msi m/b alot better made than a giggabyte

I would suggest an ASUS mobo, I have always used them and found them to be absolute quality, MSI make good graphics cards, but IMO their mobo's aren't so good...but try to avoid onboard realtek HD audio if you can...the drivers tend to make the OS unstable

[stocky]

mate that motherboard only supports ATI and doesnt support nVidia. You mayaswell scrap the idea if your gunna try to use that graphics card on that motherboard.

havent read anything about that. can you link me to where youre getting your information

[Ozzie]

havent read anything about that. can you link me to where youre getting your information

havent got any info on it, it is possible that it will work however you wont be able to use ATI crossfire with 2 SLI cards.
you will probebly get away with using one PCI-E Nvidia card on its own but you might run into compatability issues which arent covered by warranty.
Best to get urself an ATI card or a Nvidia mobo

[Tom_1569]

i disagree with the above post, gigabyte and asus are the 'big 2' and I feel they make the best boards. The amount of msi boards i've had die on me is rediculous.

Agreed, and I use the rule of a basic user who will never configure there board to use ASUS, and someone whos prepared to configure or run a custom setup to use Gigabyte.

i tend to dissagree with you bezz, msi has alot less returns

Thats caus there return policy is pathetic so no-one bothers

[bezz]

Thats caus there return policy is pathetic so no-one bothers

Haha i know first hand.. still got one sitting here

[Galixia]

Thats cause there return policy is pathetic so no-one bothers

lol sooo true... stay away from MSI... they arent good at all... stick with either Gigabyte or Asus... i personally only use Asus, they have been the worlds best motherboards for as long as i can remember for a reason... also you should think about getting may 4gig of ram, 2 gig will run it fine but it will run soo much better with 4.

http://tw.giga-byte.com/Awards/Mothe...ProductID=2742 point number 5. like ozzy said u might have some software and warranty issues if you try to run SLI on this motherboard... but on the other hand you could be perfectly fine... but you will prob find you might not have the software support.

[stocky]

could anyone recommend a good motherboard/gfx combo? probably looking to spend 4-500 on those 2 combined. so maybe a $150 mobo, and $300 on a video card? either asus or gigabyte as the motherboard.

[bezz]

for around 300 for a video card look at ati 4850 or if you push it 4870

edit: the motherboard you have listed up the top looks good. Plenty of PCIe 1x slots for the new cards, ati crossfire capable. PCI is on the way out so unless you're gonna run a lot of old cards 2 should be plenty. Only thing it doesnt have is hdmi, which may or may not be an issue for you.

[Galixia]

quick question... were you planning on running duel video cards?

[stocky]

nah single

[Galixia]

ohh well that changes it a bit cause that motherboard is designed to run duel video cards which is where you would have had the problem but only running one video card on that motherboard you should be alright... if you want a good cheap system just go like a ASUS M2N68-VM M/B, AMD AMx2 5000+ CPU, 4gig kit kingston Ramm and a 512mb 9800GT ASUS video card... all that comes to about $470 from MSY Technology Pty. Ltd.-The Name you can trust-more than 10 years in computer industry and will run pretty much anything... i build my brother a computer like that the other day and he runs all the new games on the highest res no worries....

[FstStig]

Mate, Do your Shopping online for all your computer parts www.auspc.com.au Shipping is generally free unless you are ordering heavy stuff, where the price might kick in for shipping. Shipping normally only takes 1 -2 days as well for people in NSW.

As for me This is my Second Gigabyte motherboard since 2004. My last Gigabyte motherboard was when i built our first computer in 2004, I have then since sold the system as i had gotten another one, once again with a Gigabyte motherboard in it. Never have a problem with them. As for Graphic Cards, Nvidia are better. Some of there Cards are Running up to DDR5 now where as ATI are still only stuck on DDR2. 9800GT are a very nice card indeed. But very highly priced. If you ask me i would be going for an 8800 GTX.

[stocky]

what is generally better for gaming? Intel or AMD? a $400 AMD system as mentioned above doesnt sound like its too up to date.

[Tom_1569]

what is generally better for gaming? Intel or AMD? a $400 AMD system as mentioned above doesnt sound like its too up to date.

The 5000+ isnt up to date. A couple of months ago I used one my my nephew for his 5th birthday, and Im running one in a file server, definitly not a high end gaming system.

Intel vs AMD is all personel preference, theres no right or wrong answer. AMD is generally cheaper on grunt for grunt. BUT Intel has alot more features and higher cache. I use AMD on cheaper system builds, but always use Intel on my main computer and higher end system builds.

[bezz]

As for me This is my Second Gigabyte motherboard since 2004. My last Gigabyte motherboard was when i built our first computer in 2004, I have then since sold the system as i had gotten another one, once again with a Gigabyte motherboard in it. Never have a problem with them. As for Graphic Cards, Nvidia are better. Some of there Cards are Running up to DDR5 now where as ATI are still only stuck on DDR2. 9800GT are a very nice card indeed. But very highly priced. If you ask me i would be going for an 8800 GTX.

Actually, ati were the first to run ddr5. The 4850, 4870 and 4870 x2 are all superior to their nvidia counterparts... google a few tests and see for yourself.