Father Xmas

Yes, but the included PSU may not (likely not) be up to the task.

Posi listed the nVidia 9800GT as being able to run Ultra Mode at it's minimum settings.

So with the current crop of nVidia cards I would say 9800GT, GTS 250, GTX 260 and up.

For ATI I would say the HD 48xx, HD 57xx and HD 58xx series are safe bets.

My guess about Praetoria being optimized means full of glass buildings that will reflect your image as you pass and that there will be lots of reflecting pools.

You don't build your own computer so you can do it cheaper, you build your own computer so you have a say about all the parts.

Compared to my $1200 rig this Dell has twice the memory (probably slower), a faster CPU with 8 pseudo cores (but likely a stock heatsink/fan), the same size hard drive (but probably less cache), and a much weaker video card. It also comes with a copy of 64-bit Win 7, a keyboard, a mouse, a wireless card and a memory card reader. All for roughly $150 less.

It is also likely that it's PSU doesn't have a lot over extra power to spare. Also being a mATX motherboard there is no support for a 2nd video card. I'm guessing Dell lets the Alienware branch have the real gamer systems.

Pink PomPoms get no love.

First, look over the manuals that come with the motherboard and case. Keep them handy.

Second, practice electrostatic safety. I'm not advocating Largo's "you must be naked" level of paranoia but wearing fleece hoodies in a low humidity environment, where you can hear the crackling of static as you move, isn't good. Common sense rules. Work on a table and not the carpeted floor. Leave any electronically sensitive component in it's static protection until you are ready to install it. While working on the motherboard, use it's antistatic bag as a place mat for it.

As for assembly I divide the task into three parts. First is preparing the case. Swap out the IO panel, the piece of metal that the motherboard rear ports poke through, that comes with the case with the one that comes with the motherboard. Note you may need to spread the contact tabs, little bits of metal poking inward the case, so when the motherboard is pressed against them, they will spread in the right directing and not into the port themselves. It's annoying as all get out when after screwing the motherboard down and hooking up the case cables you notice a tab sticking into your network port.

Also screw in the motherboard standoffs into their correct holes for an ATX motherboard. Of course do all of this with the case on it's side.

Now assemble the motherboard. Before installing the CPU, prep the heatsink. That means installing the backplate. I'm assuming you did get the Hyper 212 Plus. The instructions are a little, ah, brief, relying on drawings.

Then install the CPU, follow the instructions in the motherboard manual. Once that is locked down then apply the arctic silver (following their instructions, just a drop will do it) and then attach the heatsink and lock it down. Mount the fan and plug the fan into the motherboard header for the CPU fan. You can plug in the memory now if you want. Make sure you plug them into the correct two slots, refer to the motherboard manual.

Now comes the fun part, moving the top heavy motherboard into the cramp case. It's pretty self evident what needs to be done, like first moving those case fan cables out of the way, but again be aware that when pressing the motherboard rear ports up against the IO plate that none of the tabs bend the wrong way and interfere with the port itself.

Double check that the motherboard is all screwed down, the the IO panel tabs aren't interfering with the ports themselves, that the heatsink is still secure (it shouldn't budge at all) as well as the ram and the CPU fan is still plugged into the motherboard.

At this point you can upright the case. Since the case (assuming the CM690) has the PSU mounted at the bottom, you might as well install that now. Note that if the case is going to be sitting on carpet, install the PSU so the fan is facing up into the case. The case is designed with an air inlet under the PSU and if resting on a hard surface the case legs will provide clearance to let you mount the PSU fan down and draw outside air into the PSU, but that wouldn't work so well on carpets.

Next step is probably the most annoying, connecting up the case switches, each connector is marked and it's placement in the header block is found in the motherboard manual. Once all connected I usually gather and masking tape those cables down so I don't accidentally snag them while cabling in the front panel connectors, power, etc.

Now hook up the rest of the front panel connectors for USB, SATA and audio. The audio header is usually in an annoying spot but it's not to bad on the MSI motherboard.

Lastly there is installing the video card, drives and connecting up all the power and drive cables. The case has a number of "holes" that will allow you to route some of these cables behind the motherboard mounting plate for neatness and airflow. Don't forget the case fans.

After triple checking everything it's time to power it up. Hook up the monitor and keyboard, plug it on and see if it boots. Don't try to install the OS at this point, we are just trying to see if it gets to the BIOS.

Assuming it boots fine and you can get to the BIOS, this is the time I personally would flash the BIOS with the latest and run an extensive memory test using something like Memtest 86+. Only then I would drop in the OS DVD and let the OS install.

After all the OS patches that Microsoft will fetch it's time to get and install the latest audio and video drivers. Audio probably from MSI's site and video from ATI (assuming you got the HD 5850).

Take it slowly, don't rush, if you are confused about something reread the manuals again. If still confused ask here.

Here are a couple of general DIY guides.

Beginners Guides: Assembling Your Own PC
Illustrated Guide to Putting Your Homebuilt Computer Together

Hope I didn't forget anything.

8GB of memory

i7-860 CPU

ATI HD 5770 (mid range ultra mode according to Posi)

1TB HD.

Don't see anything missing.

Well PCI isn't dead yet. At the very least you have a spare video card that isn't tied to PCIe or AGP that you can swap into a system if the existing video card dies. Good debugging tool.

Sorry a GT 220 isn't even close to a 9800 GT in performance.

The "i was frozen today" tag is a quote from the movie Suburban Commando said by Chirstopher LLoyd. Not even sure I've ever seen the movie or understand the context.

Again, it is only a problem on overclocking and/or high wattage CPUs. In the case of AMD we are talking older, full blown Phenom CPUs and not the Athlon II.

Whatever, now you are getting a PSU that's so big you may actually fall on the low side of it's efficiency curve.

Only problem comes if your new system has a video card with a lot of memory (more than 512MB) and you are planning to use 4GB of system memory.

But that is a 32-bit Vs 64-bit OS issue and if you are getting a "brand new" computer using "brand new" parts then 64-bit Windows 7 would be better than 64-bit Windows XP simply because of hardware driver support.

Believe me, it doesn't have to be the "right filesize" but it would be considerate to your fellow forumites to keep the size down.

When displayed it will squeeze the image into a 100x100 box. So if you don't want distortion then try to crop the original image as a square.

Yea, well... you see... the 8-pin CPU connector, along with the trend for a <high number>-phase CPU voltage regulator really only comes into play with aggressive overclocking. Aggressive overclocking can double the power requirement of a CPU.

Now the last episode you were getting an ECS IC780M-A2 motherboard and an Athlon II X2 245. That motherboard only has a 4-pin CPU power connector, a conservative CPU voltage regulator and the CPU is only 65 watts max. So something must have changed since the last time. Even if you did switch to my $600 build, that motherboard still has only a 4-pin CPU power connector.

So what changed.

Usually I would say it's a no brainer, a discrete card over an integrated GPU. But that 6200 is a PCI card, not a PCIe card (assuming you are linking to the right card). That'll be like trying to drink an extra thick shake through a swizzle stick. If it truly is a PCI video card, then stick with the integrated 9100.

If I remember correctly, the "work around" is to launch multiple updaters and when one connects, shut the other ones down and use the one that worked.

Another way, if you don't need to patch or verify is to have a 2nd shortcut that is setup to bypass the updater entirely. Make a shortcut to CityofHeroes.exe. Then edit the target line in the shortcut and add at the end " -project coh" (stuff in the quotes, not including the quotes). The space before the - is important.

My install has the game on my D drive in the folder "City of Heroes" so my target line looks like this;

"D:\City of Heroes\CityOfHeroes.exe" -project coh

Of the two, the Core i3-530 system with the 9800GT has a much faster video card. More than twice as fast.

Yes the 2.93GHz i3-530 is a dual core, it does support hyper threading so the OS "sees" four cores plus it is 600MHz faster than the 2.33GHz Core 2 Q8200 quad. In practical benchmarks, ones that prefer quad cores over dual cores, the Core i3-530 only lags the Q8200 by around 10%.

So of the two you listed, this one.

This is the latest XP driver for a 9300GS.

So what happen? Is this a new card? Did you reinstall XP? What model Dell is this?

It's not that they are very different, just one is "new and improved but same great taste". You could post the question over at the Dell tech site about the E0 stepping and the XPS 420? Maybe the latest BIOS is compatible and it's just not in the notes.

I see you and raise you http://processorfinder.intel.com/det...px?sSpec=SLB8V.

Sadly they use the same box part number.

Edit: the E0 stepping was released the 3rd week of August 2008.