AMD dual or Intel dual

[comet61]

I am using a AMD Athlon 64 X2 (KUMA) 7850 2.8Ghz and have the opitmizer drivers installed. I too had the dual core quirk on my new system concerning AH and had to use the Windows 98/ME compatibility mode on start up. This in itself did not harm my performance. My average fps is 68fps. That alone is a huge leap coming from my old system that is a AMD Athlon +1900 XP 1.6 Ghz. FPS was maxing out at 33fps on that system.

I have been told that the new AMD Athlon II has all those bugs fixed. I guess that remains to be seen. 

[Dimebag]

• Motherboard brand & features (inculding warranty)

Ok I kinda half arse understand ram all that goody, but have not a clue about who makes a good mother board.   Any tips?   or vote, MSI P43 Neo3-F or Intel DQ45CB, or neither

and XP pro or XP home, does it matter any for a computer strictly to play AH?


Dime

[Getback]

Ok I kinda half arse understand ram all that goody, but have not a clue about who makes a good mother board.   Any tips?   or vote, MSI P43 Neo3-F or Intel DQ45CB, or neither

and XP pro or XP home, does it matter any for a computer strictly to play AH?


Dime

I have one of the MSI Neo boards. Not sure which one but it seems to do the job. No issues so far. This is not a recommendation though. I just felt for the money at the time it was a good purchase.

Addendum: Have owned it and used it every day for 1.5 years. Showed it to my IT guy, when I had a job, and he liked it. He preferred intel boards though. Said it made more sense to have an Intel board for an Intel chip. I don't buy it but who am I.

[BaldEagl]

Ok I kinda half arse understand ram all that goody, but have not a clue about who makes a good mother board.   Any tips?   or vote, MSI P43 Neo3-F or Intel DQ45CB, or neither

and XP pro or XP home, does it matter any for a computer strictly to play AH?


Dime

Gigabyte probably makes the highest rated/used consumer motherboards lately.  I've got an eVGA motherboard.  Asus are decent.

If you're thinking about building post your budget and we'll give you some recommendations.  Then decide for yourself what you think you like and post back here for a critique.  We'll also tell you why we are recommending what we are so you'll gain some insight to help in your decision making.

[comet61]

MSI, Gigabyte and ASUS seem to be the forerunners according to Newegg. However, by looking at the written reviews on all type of boards it looks to me 1 out of 100 MB's are DOA. Close to 5-10 MB's out of 100 die within 30 days. The variables on each motherboard regardless if it is AMD or Intel are too broad. Chipsets, onboard video (or not), cooling capacities, etc play a big part. Also, I would hazard to guess that a few of these MB deaths occur by sloppy handling by either the manufacturer or user. Always use anti-static devices i.e. straps, floor pads and so on. I cannot count on how many people have destroyed new hardware because of static discharge and their lack of protecting it from happening.

If you look at the reviews on NewEgg, you'll pretty much see the same stories on all brands of MB's. I have been reading on a few other sites from the "pro's" to stay away from Jetway. Not sure the story there....might look into that.

[Dimebag]

Well there's no way I can put one of these together so Im leaning towards buying one from tigerdirect

That being said, Im looking at something like this link

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/configdetails.asp?Base=4165451

Since you can upgrade it before they ship, figured I'd downgrade to xp home(unless someone here tells me why not to), then up for the $135.00 quad core, 4MB ram, it's only used for AH so 80gig HD will be plenty, the ATI 1mb vid card, 500watt, standard 1 year warranty, for under 700.00.   Thoughts?

Dime

[skullman]

If you feel uncomfortable with a build I would recommend talking to Tildeath.I an a squaddie both have them an it is way better than any you can buy out there.He builds it for the game.I had a friend come over that thinks he is a techno geek.He had a so called custom an seen mine blew his outa the water.He wants Tildeath to fix his now.The quality ,parts an service are second to none.You wont regret it.

[BaldEagl]

XP Home will work fine.  No problems.

No need to go to the quad core unless you do a lot of professional graphic or video editing.  For AH you'd be better off upgrading to the E7300 which runs a 1066 FSB vs 800 for the E5200.

If your on a budget stick with 2 Gb of RAM.  Windows will only see about 3.25-3.75 Gb of 4 if you put that in, then it will be reduced by your video card memory.  If you added that 1 Gb card you'd only get 2.25-2.75 Gb out of the 4 you paid for.  Don't go to the 3 Gb option as that takes the memory out of dual channel mode slowing it down.  To remain in dual channel it needs to be installed in matched pairs.

Get the GeForce 9500 GT video card.  at 512 Mb it will keep all your RAM in play.  In addition, the clock speeds (core and memory) are generally higher on 512 cards than on 1 Gb cards and, in the end, most 512 cards end up outperforming thier 1 Gb counterparts.

Other than that I'd pick up a sound card and install it when you get the system.  It will help take processing off the CPU and at 1066 FSB it will be a nice bump in performance.  Buy a Creative X-Fi at a price you can afford.

[Dimebag]

XP Home will work fine.  No problems.

No need to go to the quad core unless you do a lot of professional graphic or video editing.  For AH you'd be better off upgrading to the E7300 which runs a 1066 FSB vs 800 for the E5200.

I'll do nothing but play AH and maybe poker with this computer, but really duals would be better than quads for AH?  I figured the more the merrier, especially since the new update is coming in...... 2 weeks 

[Skuzzy]

Nope, dual-core is faster by virtue of the fact the clock rates of dual-core CPU's are higher than quad cores. The proper addage for most games is, the faster the CPU, the better the performance.  More cores only increase the performance by a very small, inconsistent margin.

If you are willing to spend five or six hundred dollars on a quad core CPU, then you could get the same level of performance as a $190 CPU.

[Hoarach]

Dimebag take a look at cyberpowrpc.com.  Make gaming computers real affordable or go with TilDeath.  I would avoid the dell's, gateways, etc.

[skullman]

me an a squaddie run the q9550 quad w/4gig ram an nvidiagtx 280.it is totally awesome.T?ildeath built them an never run under 59 fr.if ya gonna buy a system talk to him first.ahII installed an teaked awesome system.cant match quality anywhere else.

[Tigger29]

I just built me a new one:

E7400 Core2Duo (2.8GHZ)
9800GTX PCI-e 2 Video
4GB DDR3 Ram

All settings maxed out, 1024 Textures (Hi-Res), 1280X1050, 16XAA and all other settings for video set to the most 'pretty' settings... and all in-game settings maxed I see a consistant 60FPS under XP 32bit.

I see a consistant 59FPS under WIN7RC 64bit (It will do 60 if I change the refresh rate to 60, but for some reason when I reboot it reverts back to 59... it's still a Beta though).

I'm sure the Quad Cores are nice and all, but I personally wouldn't spend the money on it, especially on a system pretty much dedicated for AH.  It's not like I'm doing 3D graphic work over here or anything.

[Tigger29]

1280X1050

I meant 1680X1050

[usvi]

I have AMD dual core and Vista.
After installing the patch I have no problems at all.
I have tweaked Vista alot so it's not much trouble.