[General Battuta]

Okay, fellers. I trust HLP more than I trust myself in regards to PC gaming.

I want to buy a new gaming rig. If I'm only willing to spend approximately $1000, what are my best options? The priority is on smooth performance with a modest selection of recent games -- mostly strategy titles, but I'd like to be able to play Crysis on reasonably high settings, and I'd like to tackle titles like World in Conflict and Dawn of War II.

I also want it to last me a good few years, so the components shouldn't be too sketchy.

I'm open to places that would provide good information. I don't think I want to build it (I don't trust myself and I hardly have the time with school starting up), so: companies to order from? Specific video cards I should aim for? What kind of processor and RAM specs do I want?

Lastly, XP or Vista?

EDIT: Thoughts on this?

If this seems incorrigibly lazy, I assure you I have looked around on my own. I just want to double-check my research with a knowledgeable crowd.

So, yeah, roughly $1000 price cap, but you can go a bit over. Go!

[CP5670]

So, yeah, roughly $1000 price cap, but you can go a bit over. Go!

Does that include a display and other peripherals or is it just the computer itself?

Keep in mind that you will usually pay substantially more for the same components if you buy a pre-built rig. There are some hardware e-tailers that will do assembly for more reasonable fees, although I don't know of any specific ones. Monarch used to be the most well known a few years ago, but they went out of business.

[Al Tarket]

i think he was talking about the whole computer system. at least thats the impression i got.

well for high crysis performance, lucky for i have been roaming around on the net looking for computer parts for about 4 weeks.

for crysis on highest:
Sync master tft, va(180/180) (24")
a 280 or two 4870 512's
ddr 2 or ddr3 at least 2gb of any
any motherboard that uses 1333fsb that has 2 pci-e 16x slots with at least 3- 5 pci slots
1000w psu (modular, or single) or higher
any sound card that can do eax 5.0 and at least 192mhz
any core(2 or more) that uses 1333fsb, make it at least 3ghz if possible.
use vista.
use sata2 500gb hdd or hdds or higher.
use a case that can fit that psu, the cards, hdds, roms, floppies (5" drive b: if you wish ), and make if your thinking smaller to look for a case that supports both mATX and ATX.
rom or rom players, cd, cd r, dvd, dvd r at 52x cdr, 16x dvdr or higher.

this is my recommendation. i think it can fit approx 1000 dollars.

[CP5670]

this is my recommendation. i think it can fit approx 2000 dollars.

Fixed.

[Jeff Vader]

i think he was talking about the whole computer system. at least thats the impression i got.

well for high crysis performance, lucky for i have been roaming around on the net looking for computer parts for about 4 weeks.

for crysis on highest:
Sync master tft, va(180/180) (24")
a 280 or two 4870 512's
ddr 2 or ddr3 at least 2gb of any
any motherboard that uses 1333fsb that has 2 pci-e 16x slots with at least 3- 5 pci slots
1000w psu (modular, or single) or higher
any sound card that can do eax 5.0 and at least 192mhz
any core(2 or more) that uses 1333fsb, make it at least 3ghz if possible.
use vista.
use sata2 500gb hdd or hdds or higher.
use a case that can fit that psu, the cards, hdds, roms, floppies (5" drive b: if you wish ), and make if your thinking smaller to look for a case that supports both mATX and ATX.
rom or rom players, cd, cd r, dvd, dvd r at 52x cdr, 16x dvdr or higher.

this is my recommendation. i think it can fit approx 1000 dollars.

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

[Al Tarket]

you don't want my recommendation so be it, however i did a lot of research into this. however it is also safe to say you want to run crysis on full this would be the sort of system you are looking for anyhow, take it or leave it.

just to bare in mind the original post said roughly 1000 dollars

[General Battuta]

I don't want to run Crysis on full. I want to run it smoothly on modest-to-good settings. I'm not in this for a killer gaming rig, just a steady workhorse that won't be totally obsolete within a couple years.

[CP5670]

just to bare in mind the original post said roughly 1000 dollars

If roughly 1000 means the same as roughly 2000 to you, you must be pretty rich.

[Jeff Vader]

It is not advisable to be too rough. Especially if the actual result can be twice as big as the estimate.

And let's not forget that even though the component prices might fit within $1,000, I'd still guess that you'd have to order the parts from online stores. And then we simply cannot forget the postages. They can quickly add up if there are more than one stores where you order the parts from.

[CP5670]

Anyway, it's hard to give recommendations on specific components for pre-built systems since the prices and selection vary a lot between OEM companies.

As a general rule for a gaming setup, go heavy on the monitor and video card, and skimp on the other stuff if necessary. For a custom built system in that price range, I would recommend a LG L227WTG-PF ($300) and a single 4870 ($250), but the prices may be higher with OEMs.

[Hellstryker]

Anyway, it's hard to give recommendations on specific components for pre-built systems since the prices and selection vary a lot between OEM companies.

As a general rule for a gaming setup, go heavy on the monitor and video card, and skimp on the other stuff if necessary. For a custom built system in that price range, I would recommend a LG L227WTG-PF ($300) and a single 4870 ($250), but the prices may be higher with OEMs.

CPU is just as important... You don't want a CPU bottleneck on your card performance like I have...

[CP5670]

Anyway, it's hard to give recommendations on specific components for pre-built systems since the prices and selection vary a lot between OEM companies.

As a general rule for a gaming setup, go heavy on the monitor and video card, and skimp on the other stuff if necessary. For a custom built system in that price range, I would recommend a LG L227WTG-PF ($300) and a single 4870 ($250), but the prices may be higher with OEMs.

CPU is just as important... You don't want a CPU bottleneck on your card performance like I have...

Not to anywhere near the same degree. You can still fit in an E7300 or E8400 into such a setup and keep the total around $1000. At that level, spending an equivalent amount of money on the GPU will provide much higher gains than putting it into a better CPU.

[BloodEagle]

I think you'd get the type of performance that you're looking for with a good 9600GT:

512MB, ~140.00 USD, Out of stock at the moment
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261001

1024MB, ~180.00 USD, Makes me drool.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261013

Note: the only difference between the two is the amount of 256-bit GDDR3 memory.


::::EDIT::::

By the way, get Windows XP Professional Edition.

[CP5670]

Those cards are very bad choices. You can get a much faster 4850 for a similar price. 1GB is pointless on a card at that level.

[Dark RevenantX]

$100 (roughly) for OEM Vista Home Premium or $175 (roughly) for OEM Vista Ultimate
$125-$150-$300 for an LCD monitor 18"-24"
$75-$100 500gb SATA drive
$15-$40-$80 Speaker system
$15-$50 Keyboard and mouse
$20-$30 DVD-RW drive
$50-$150-$200 Motherboard with 1-2 PCI-E slots
$120-$210 Athlon X2 6000+ or Core 2 Duo E8400 or Core 2 Quad Q6600
$35-$70 (4GB DDR2)-$130 2GB-4GB DDR2 800+mhz RAM or DDR3 1200+mhz RAM
Optional: $75-$100-$200 Sound Card (These usually suck since there's really only one brand for gaming: Creative - no competition means jacked up prices and less quality products)
$110-$550 Video Card: (In order from least powerful to most powerful) [$110]GeForce 9600GT, [$125]GeForce 8800GT, [$200]GeForce 9800GTX+, [$180]Radeon HD 4850, [$275]GeForce GTX 260, [$270]Radeon HD 4870, [$440]GeForce GTX 280, or [$550]Radeon HD 4870 X2

This can come out to $630 for a crappy system, $2025 for a really good system, or $1075 for a reasonable system, the parts I've highlighted in red.

[Ghostavo]

CP5670, what do you think of the Nvidia cards' PhysX capabilities vs ATI's price? Is it worth bothering with PhysX or just go for the better price?

[BloodEagle]

Those cards are very bad choices. You can get a much faster 4850 for a similar price.

I don't follow ATI cards, so I'll have to take your word on that. The main reason I suggested the that particular 9600GT is that, while slightly slower, it runs cooler and uses far less power than the 8800GT. And it will do what he wants it to do.

1GB is pointless on a card at that level.

That's why I posted the cheaper card, first. 

----

You don't really need a sound card, unless you use a microphone regularly. And using a Creative sound card with Vista is retarded silly, because (last time I checked) they barely don't fully support it.

[CP5670]

CP5670, what do you think of the Nvidia cards' PhysX capabilities vs ATI's price? Is it worth bothering with PhysX or just go for the better price?

It looks pretty useless to me at the moment. The physics effects typically cause a heavy performance hit since the video card needs to render all the extra objects that PhysX brings in. It may well take off in a few years, but it's not something you need to worry about when purchasing current cards.

UT3 has been the most hyped PhysX game so far, but I tried it out briefly and PhysX only affects a handful of custom maps that nobody plays online and on which the framerate tanks to unacceptable levels for this type of game. This seems to be the typical situation right now; even when a game supports it, it doesn't do enough to be more than just a novelty.

Note that many of the PhysX-supporting games you see use software PhysX and won't see any improvement. There are only a couple right now that support hardware PhysX.

I don't follow ATI cards, so I'll have to take your word on that. The main reason I suggested the that particular 9600GT is that, while slightly slower, it runs cooler and uses far less power than the 8800GT. And it will do what he wants it to do.

The 9600GT is a decent card (although not really appropriate for a $1k system). It's just that those 9600GTs suck. It should cost more like $80-90 to compete with the 9600GSO, 8800GT and 3850, all of which are a little faster.

[General Battuta]

Okay, here's my current build! I think it rather mighty.

Case:             Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower        $99.99
Motherboard:  ASUS P5Q-E LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX                        $159.99
Processor:      Intel Core 2 Duo Wolfdale 3.0 Ghz                          $169.99
RAM:             Corsair 4 GB (2x2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800                 $82.00
Video Card:    VisionTek 900244 Radeon HD 4870                         $270.00
Power Supply: Silverstone ST50EF-SC 500W                                 $89.99
DVD Drive:     Philips Black 20x DVD Burner                                 $25.99
Hard Drive:     Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB                        $84.99
Monitor:          Acer Black 20" Widescreen LCD                             $169.99

Total:                                                                                        $1152.93
Also needed for assembly:
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound                                $5.99
an ATA cable
some zip ties

How's it look? I guess I'll need a keyboard, mouse, and sound system, but those ought to be pretty easy.

I have school-licensed versions of Windows XP (or Vista) available, along with Office 2007.

[BloodEagle]

Unless you get Vista (not recommended) or the 64-bit edition of XP (heard some bad things), you only need 3GB of RAM.

The warranty on that PSU is very, very short.

As for the case: that thing freaking loads in the bottom. I don't think I've ever seen a case like that before, and I don't think it's a good idea.