crysis under 1k isn't doable. its so intensive its scary. you're gonna have to pick up one of the new 8800GT's or two or a 8800 GTS 512mb if u want to play crysis on any decent res at high res. I got q6600 + 2 gig ram and 8800 GTS 320 and i can't run crysis smooth on 12x10 on very high settings. granted thats very high but after i saw the difference between high and very high i didn't wanna play on high.
What res are you on? Off the top of my head you could get a 680i board, q6600cpu, 600W coolmaster, 4gigs of g.skill ram and an 8800gts 512mb. That's just about a thousand (no higher) and u'll be able to run Crysis at max settings with some AA on 1024 resolution with about 50-60 fps on dx9 and on dx10 max settings without AA about 20fps still good game play. I'd consider that a good gaming rig with that resolution. Everything else you'll have to re-use from ur current pc.
^ Well, all together it adds up but if you look at the price for each item individually they're pretty inexpensive parts.
EVGA 680i mobo = 140 free shipping http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188015 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 = 280 free shipping http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017 COOLER MASTER 650Watt PSU = 85 free shipping http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171014 G.SKILL 4GB(4 x 1GB) = 120 free shipping http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231136 EVGA 8800GTS 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 = 360 free shipping http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130312 Damage =] 985 Enough left over for a gold plated DVI cord and 120 total in mail in rebate.
Well, with the 120 rebate he could get the LIAN LI PC-V600A for 120. http://www.yesbuy.net/lian-li-pc-mid-tower-case-standard-atx-aluminium-silver-pc-v600a.html Here are some pictures of what the inside looks like. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowI...cription=LIAN+LI+PC-V600B+Black+Computer+Case Everything else as I've said he'll have to re-use.
This setup would be better. Quad core is nice but when it comes down to gaming, it won't make a difference. Using 4 gb requires the 64-bit version of Windows, which might be a problem for the OP. Unless he's doing some insane amount of multi-tasking or benchmarking, he's fine with just 2. Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 - Link EVGA 8800GTX - Link ASUS P5K - Link Silverstone OP650 (I love these btw) - Link GeIL 2x1024MB DDR2 800 - Link If you need funds for a case and harddrive, feel free to downgrade to the GTS but don't go any lower than the 512 mb Version. That should free up about $100
G.skill is the better product, great at overclocking, very durable, and uses d9micron chips. It's worth the extra cash. And he'll need it since vista off the bat takes up over 1gig on startup and when running games on Vista for dx10 or xp he'll need atleast 3gigs to be safe considering most games now requires atleast 2gigs to run without any hiccups. And on msdn the "Physical Memory Limits: Windows XP" for XP is 4gbs. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx The mobo you suggested is alright but has been known to reboot or freeze when raising the fsb to 1333 so I would suggest the p5k deluxe since it's the more stable board and if the OP doesn't plan on going SLI cause the board doesn't support it it's the board to get. ASUS P5K DELUXE = about the same price as the 680i with shipping cost. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131182R Course it does since he's building to play Crysis as hes said and Crysis was designed and optimised for quadcores and as I've said before, why buy a dual core when you can get a quadcore for pretty the same price? More cache and more cores. Much more multi tasking flexibility. That justifies the extra 90 bucks. And much more future proof cause more and more games and programs are going to be quad compable from now on. It's a win win. As far as the gtx goes: EVGA 8800gtx (G80 chip) - 500 EVGA 8800gts 512mb (G92 chip) - 360 On high settings with 1280res' the 8800gts 256bit 512mb produces the same fps as the 8800gtx oc2 384bit 768mb and at medium the gtx pushs out only around 6fps more. On high and medium settings with 1920res' the 8800gts 256bit 512mb is the stronger card compared to the 8800gtx oc2 384bit 768mb. http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1234/18/page_18_benchmarks_crysis/index.html With the psu, cooler master is a reliable, durable, and a well known name aswell as silverstone so why pay 140 when he could get the same wattage for 85?
I can agree with you in terms of the Quad core. I made the jump myself. But the thing is, not many people are willing to make the jump. Even if the price difference is just $90. I've been asked countless times why I bought the Quad rather than just getting the Dual since I don't do much with my system. Also, spending the extra $90 just for a processor that can only be pushed to the limit by 1 game doesn't sound very practical. Graphics card wise and FPS. I'm a bit iffy. 6 FPS can make a huge impact on game play. A 6 FPS different is noticeable and it will cause motion sickness. Happened to me more times that I would like. Also, Cool Master isn't known for their Power Supply Units. I believe you're thinking about Antec. I would never trust my system to a Cool Master Power Supply. You don't pay the extra money for wattage. You pay the extra money for build quality. EDIT: I see you decided to attack my comment on 4GB of memory with 32-bit windows. Yes. It can support UP TO 4 GB of memory. HOWEVER, that applies to TOTAL memory. This means memory from your RAM as well as memory from your Graphics card. This means if you want Windows to take advantage of your 4 GB of RAM the memory from your Graphics card is wasted.
On high res' the gts 512mb beat the gtx. On low res high quality both cards were the same. Only on low res' and medium settings did the gtx out perform the gts 512mb. That's reason enough to choose the gts 512mb over the gtx and save 140. And a 6fps difference depends on how much fps ur getting. 58 compared to 64 fps is nothing since Crysis runs smooth on around 25 fps believe it or not. Video ram (vram) is different from system memory. The memory in graphics cards does not count as physical ram and doesn't operate like system memory... Why don't you remove you graphics card and see if the total amount of memory you have lowers. They arn't known for psus alone but their psu's are reliable and they do make great psus which are pretty popular amoungst gamers and are NVidia SLI Certified. If their psus weren't quality I doubt nvidia would want to be associated with them. And I've never even thought of Antec when it came to buying a psu to be honest.
The strange things is the specs seem to lead you to believe the GTX would out perform the GTS. It doesn't make any sense. I haven't really tried Crysis yet. I'm planning to buy it soon to give my system a shake down. I knew that Call of Duty 4 ran smooth even at low FPS but I never imagined Crysis to do the same. I figured Crysis was a game where every FPS mattered, I assumed this because of it's insanely high system requirements. When you check your system stats, it displays the amount of RAM (Random Access Memory) you have available. Adding or removing a graphics card will not change this number. The 4GB Memory Limitation that is associated with the 32-Bit version of Windows applies to the total amount of memory installed. Video and Random Access Memory. http://www.overclock.net/power-supplies/167642-power-supply-guide.html
Well, the gtx has a g80 chip where as the gts 512mb has the g92 chip which is what the next gen' nvidia 9 series is going to use. That's why the gts 512mb is so strong. If you buy an 8800gts 512mb from newegg you'll get a copy of Crysis for free which would basically make the 8800gts 512mb about the same price as the 8800gt. Not bad at all. Yup, it'll run fine on 25 fps. The msn link I posted is only talking about system ram. Not vram. Since xp 32bit can only use 3.12 gigs system ram one needs to be allocated to the kernal in order for the other 3gigs to be recognized and used because xp can use 3gigs as system ram. It has nothing to do with vram. From what I understand one can use vram from a video card as swap only after the kernel maps it all out but vram cannot be used as physical memory. Only swap and that has little to do with the 4gigs of physical memory we're and the msn site I posted is talking about. The only OS I know of that can convert vram to swap is Linux. And then there's onboard shared memory which is different. That's memory that the bios allocates from system ram for vram which is the opposite of what you're talking about. Then there are video cards that use system ram to boost its performance which is also the opposite of what you're talking about. And as I've said, nvidia wouldn't associate themselves with Cooler Master if they didn't have quality products. Just check the reviews for Cooler Master psus on google. Some of the same sites that praised Silverstone praised Cooler Master aswell.
FPS do matter, the recommended requirements for graphics is a 8800 lol. I'm still running a 7600 EDIT: Whoops..sry kinda skimmed the content
What I'm trying to say is, the 32-bit version of XP is limited to 4GB of total memory. Video Memory + Random Access Memory (RAM) = Total memory. Read the entire discussion.
You can count it as total memory installed on your pc but it's irrelevent in terms of xp's max physical ram that it's capable of using as system memory to run applications and that's what the msn article and I was talking about. All 4gigs of ram can be utilized in xp 32bit by allocating 1gig to kernel and the other 3gigs to applications since as stated xp can use up to 3.12 gigs as system memory. You said XP 32bit wouldn't utilize all 4gigs of physical ram but you were incorrect.
Whether or not Windows Recognizes all 4 Gigs of ram is a different matter. What I'm talking about is the Physical Address Extension. Windows XP is limited to 4GB of Total Physical Memory. Video card memory is added to the total. It is possible to run Windows with 4GB of ram but if you have a Video card added to the 4 GB of ram, you will go over the Total Physical Memory limit.
Dude, no it won't. The OS does not include vram as the amount of total ram the system has and does not limit the amount of physical ram that's on the mobo. Vram is completely separate from physical ram. The OS's ram limit is not impacted by the amount of vram a gfx card has. Otherwise there'd be articles all over the net of people complaining about how the extra ram one bought is now useless because the gtx has 768mb of vram.. Infact, there'd be a whole bunch of articles explaining what you're claiming to be true but there isn't. The only article I could find is for linux, as I've said, and the linux method only converts vram into swap and swap doesn't impact the amount of physical ram that's installed. If anything it frees up physical ram that would otherwise be allocated to the kernel.
