If money wasn't a problem [sort of], what would you get for gaming?

Say, for €2000 - €2500.

Would you go for SLI or Cross Fire or just a single good card?
Would you go for Dual or Quad Core and what speed?
Would you go 32 or 64bit OS?
Would you go for much more than 4GB RAM?
I would assume 10k RPM boot drive with maybe some mixture of up to 2TB of other large capacity drives.
Would you go for a sound card? Generally I have always put the latest Creative SB in my gaming rigs but 7.1 [not that you would need 7.1] motherboard in-built audio seem to be quite good these days.
Would you get a decent [quiet] cooling system and how much would it cover [GPU, CPU, RAM, HDD???]?

Absolute requirements : Gaming speed and quiet.

So far, my rig would probably look a little like this.

Motherboard : Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5, X58
CPU : Intel Core™ i7 Quad Processor i7-860
RAM : Crucial DDR3 BallistiX 1333MHz 6GB CL7
GPU : Undecided but DVI or HDMI
PSU: Corsair Powersupply 620W Black, ATX/EPS
HDD : Primary : WD VelociRaptor® 300GB SATA
HDD : Secondary : Seagate Barracuda® 7200.12 1TB x 4
Optical Drive : Meh, some good burner
Sound : Undecided
Cooling : Yes but don't know what
Monitor : LG 22" LCD W2261VP-PF x 2
Mouse : MX Revolution
Keyboard : G15

Would you go for SLI or Cross Fire or just a single good card?
-I dont know which cards are better at the moment ATI / nVidia, but as far as I know ATI's are always cheaper. So IF you really need super videospeed, take 2x ATI (pricewize)

Would you go for Dual or Quad Core and what speed?
-Quad, since that will be the future anyway. Make sure your FSB is a fat one: at least 1600

Would you go 32 or 64bit OS?
-64, since Windows 7 is 64

Would you go for much more than 4GB RAM?
-4GB at least, Windows 7

I would assume 10k RPM boot drive with maybe some mixture of up to
2TB of other large capacity drives.
-WD Raptor is the fastest (even faster than 320kbs SATA). I have 10krpm raptor and 500GB Samsung (silent)

Would you go for a sound card? Generally I have always put the latest Creative SB in my gaming rigs but 7.1 [not that you would need 7.1] motherboard in-built audio seem to be quite good these days.
-built in is good enough. Just make it 7.1, cuz mainly the 7.1 speakerset isnt that high quality, so why have a too high quality soundcard. IF high speakerset, than high quality soundcard (RME)

Would you get a decent [quiet] cooling system and how much would it cover [GPU, CPU, RAM, HDD???]?
-Make sure your case is big. I have a Coolermaster Evo 830. Very open, very easy to configure, enough space for 12cm fans (the most quiet ones <9dB) I have 1 side fan, 1 front fan, 1 top fan, 1 back fan, 1 processorfan, all very silent (Scyth-coolers was one of the best 2 years ago for price / quality / dB)
See the type of case I have: www.coolermaster.com/p...duct_id=15

Mine is this one (but then without the config info)
img.presence-pc.com/ne...er830a.jpg

Since the case is smartly designed, the front fan blows air past the HDD and GPU.

'RangeR' :

CPU : Intel Core™ i7 Quad Processor i7-860 RAM : Crucial DDR3 BallistiX 1333MHz 6GB CL7

Make sure you buy the fastest FSB as possible (1600, 1800MHz). I would go for at least 1600MHz. make sure your processor can handle at least the same FSB speed. If not your FSB is too fat or too small to handle the data between RAM and processor.

I always buy stuff with in the back of my head the nearby future. I'm willing to upgrade maybe my processor or add RAM. By that time processors and RAM are basically faster = your mainbord should be able to be ready for it.

Vidcard: ask yourself what kind of games you at least want to play at what speeds and.. what you expect will come soon. DX10 will be standard and Windows 7 and.. Crysis with these 2 means a quite strong vidcard setup. Nonsense to buy 2 top nVidia cards if you can buy 2 ATI cards for 70% of the speed which will still be 3 years ahead of average speeds

Still follow me?

Ps: also see: www.cashworks.org/Foru....html#4780

The Merovingian :

Still follow me?

Yup, good stuff. I'm up to date on most computer hardware but GFX cards have always perplexed me.

I MIGHT be looking to upgrade to a new rig in 6 to 8 months, depending on money.

RangeR :

If money wasn't a problem [sort of], what would you get for gaming? Say, for €2000 - €2500.

Another PS3. Just because I could.

- Would you go for SLI or Cross Fire or just a single good card?

Go for a single GPU, something like an GTX275. SLI can a bit of a whore sometimes with some games. For everything exept crysis a single GPU is enough.

- Would you go for Dual or Quad Core and what speed?

Go for a Quad Core. If you really want a new system that is future proof go with an Core I7 CPU. The Core 2 Quads are less expensive, but still very fast. No matter what you do, you want to overclock the CPU. Anything under 3,4 GHz on a quad is slow. Especially on cpu heavy apps like tf2.

If you have A LOT of money go for an i7 extreme: Open multiplier for LOTS of overclocking.

- Would you go 32 or 64bit OS?

64 Bit, altough win 7 does exist in 32bit aswell. Mainly because you can use all of the RAM and native x64 apps (like crysis i.e.) run about 10-20% faster. And every 32bit apps still run on win7 x64.

BTW: I have win7 x64 final installed and it works very well.

- Would you go for much more than 4GB RAM?

If you got for a core2 (duo/quad) architecture, take 4 gb. With i7 architecture 6gb since you got tripple channel RAM (3x2gigs)

-I would assume 10k RPM boot drive with maybe some mixture of up to 2TB of other large capacity drives.

I got an 10k rpm velociraptor. it's nice. If you can afford it, go for 2 SSD in a raid0 for OS+Games, and a 2TB hdd for data storage. (well the 2 ssd raid0 is a bit overkill )

-Would you go for a sound card? Generally I have always put the latest Creative SB in my gaming rigs but 7.1 [not that you would need 7.1] motherboard in-built audio seem to be quite good these days.

Build in audio is for the most persons good, but if you really need the best of best sounds, go for an extra soundcard.

-Would you get a decent [quiet] cooling system and how much would it cover [GPU, CPU, RAM, HDD???]?

Depends on what you want to spend. Air cooling is more than enough if you don not want to overclock it. A 120mm cooler for the cpu + a good airflow in the case for everything is enough. If you want to push overclocking to the max, go watercooling.

When, you're about to build you new pc, write something in the forums again, because in the meantime a lot can (and will change).

EDIT: I saw the PSU you mentioned, for a high end system you need way more. If you go SLI/Cross Fire with overclocking and watercooling and all you need atleast 1000Watt. A single gtx275 already needs 200watt +.

Keep in mind that for less than 1800 € you already got an high end gaming rig.

Mine costed about 1200€ a year ago.


CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (@ 3,4GHz)

Motherboard: GigaByte GA-X48-DQ6

RAM: A-DATA DIMM 4 GB DDR2-800 Kit

HDD: Western Digital WD3000GLFS 300 GB (VelociRaptor) + WDC WD2500KS (250GB) + WDC WD6400AAKS-00A7B2 (640GB) + WDC WD10EACS-00D6B1 (1000GB)

GPU: Zotac GF8800GT

Case: Thermaltake Swing

Power: Corsair CMPSU-750TX

Drives: LG GH-20NSRBB + Teac Floppy Drive (w/ integrated Card-Reader)

Cooling: Xigmatek Achilles HDT-S1284 + Xigmatek Crossbow ACK-I7753 (CPU) + Noiseblocker BlackSilent Fan XL1 120mm (Case)

---

With that I can play Crysis in 2. higest settings with 20 fps. With a newer GFX, I could it even play with full settings at 60fps.

I *MAY* have found my next gaming rig. Still researching but so far, it looks good.

Maybe this or this.

lol

I'm fookin serious

www.tuaw.com/2007/10/0...ortress-2/

www.codeweavers.com/pr...s/cxgames/

btw - these are older Macs.. all the current crop are much (much) faster..
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCd5CQB914w

www.crunchgear.com/200...cbook-pro/

Is 59fps ok?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GImIpYsqA5c

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJKXelXXTIE

discussions.apple.com/...ID=1584285

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rLri7l-hDM

Boot Camp seems to be the preferred option for gaming see details here
- support.apple.com/kb/HT1656

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPT5xp5GdqM

I've no doubt that TF2 can run on Mac.

I still would recommend a self build PC, you can easily upgrade and fix things.

I like Power PC & cooling power supplies. I got this exact model and it is super quiet and super cool, my old Hiper 525W was noisey and ran very hot in comparison.
The 750W version may be a better option for you. Thats my recomendation but I hear lots of good things about those Corsair PSU also its just I do not have one so cannot recomend one.

Quake Live can run on a Mac now without any special programs or emulations.

RangeR :

I *MAY* have found my next gaming rig. Still researching but so far, it looks good. Maybe this or this.

And here we go. Steam and Mac OS X.

Linky

i would get a digital mixing console