getting a new computer

Will it run CoX well? Yes. That i7-920 is kind of overkill though (about $100 worth of overkill). You also don't really need the more-expensive motherboards that the 920s plug into that require (more expensive) triple-stick RAM instead of the double-channels that all other formats use. Nine GB of RAM is a nice size to grow in to, but right now 6 would be plenty (or even four in double-channel format). I think that money would serve better going towards a beefier graphics card (though the GTX 260 is not at all a wimp) if you were going to spend that much.

Were you given any other options? Also, what budget are you looking to spend on the new machine?

EDIT: And are there other games you were definitely planning on playing with it?

Then you want at least a quad-core processor. CoX (currently) will use up to two cores per running session. If you had two sessions running, they would work well on a quad.

Some games are more dependent upon a particular component of the computer than others. Most lean heavily on some aspect of the graphics card. A handful though are "processor limited" and want lots and lots of cores running stupidly fast regardless of the graphics card. If you'd told the dealer you wanted to specifically play one of those games, I could see him suggesting the i7-920. That's a $290 chip, and is the beginning entry of Intel's "Socket 1366" performance-enthusiast line.

For a Quad CPU that has enough speed to be flexible for other games, I'd look for something like the Core 2 Quad Q8400 2.66 GHz ($160), Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66 GHz ($180), or Core i5-750 2.66 GHz ($200).

The first two are older "Socket 775" chips. The socket type determines what processors your motherboard can take. A 775 motherboard can't mount a 1366 chip, and vice versa. The difference between the Q8400 and Q9400 is that the Q9400 has slightly more on-chip memory than the other, and will perform slightly better in some applications because of it. Because of the older (but still work-horse) motherboards and RAM type that comes with Socket 775, these will be your slightly cheaper systems as well.

The third chip, Core i5-750, is from Intel's new "Socket 1156" line. Socket 1156 is newer, cheaper, and slightly less capable than the 1366 type...or said a different way, they got rid of the extra junk that most gamers didn't really need and certainly didn't want to pay for =P. The Core i5-750 is a quad-processor CPU that is more advanced than the Core 2 quads, with much better power management capabilities (costs you less money to run it) and the ability to dynamically overclock itself depending on how much of the chip you are currently using. If you are only using two cores, the Core i5-750 will cheerfully increase its speed up to around 3+ GHz. If you start using three or four cores at the same time, it will slow back down to around the rated 2.66 GHz. The i5-750 also uses a faster memory format than the Socket 775 setup. Because of the extra capability and newness, the motherboard and ram that comes with the i5-750 will cost a few dollars more than the one for a Socket 775. It will cost *significantly* less than for a Socket 1366 computer.


For RAM, 4 GB is plenty. You'll want the 64 bit version of Windows 7 though. The 32 bit version can only see and use a little over 3 GB of ram, no matter how much is actually put in the machine.

It is one of the better ones out there. Both ATI and Nvidia divide their offerings into "performance", "mainstream", and "budget" tiers. Budget cards are for pushing spreadsheets around on a screen. Mainstream is what they figure most gamers are going to be able to afford. Performance is for people who want really pretty games and have the money to throw at it. The "GTX" cards are Nvidia's Performance line and the GTX 260 ($180) is the beginning offering in that line. Above it are the GTX 275 ($260) and the GTX 285 ($370). Note that the 275 is only around 20% faster than the 260, despite being 45% more expensive. (Ergo my earlier statement about where I'd send $100 removed from the processor; not that the 260 is bad in and of itself. Generally these days, the graphics card of a computer will be more expensive than the processor it's paired with; that's not a hard rule though.)

On the ATI side of things, the new Radeon HD 5770 ($180) will function around the level of the GTX 260. The Radeon HD 5850 ($300) will function around the level of the GTX 285. And the Radeon HD 5870 ($400) doesn't have a performance equal right now.

Whether you should go with ATI or Nvidia is a larger discussion with situational answers that I don't feel like typing right now. Those are names you'll want to be looking for when shopping though.

That should get you a really solid machine, and you could probably do just fine with something a little cheaper too - depending on what pre-made vendors are offering.

Other particulars about a prospective computer are situational and I wouldn't want to go into a pointless laundry list. If you're interested, you can read the computer component guide in Father Xmas' sig and see his prospective $600 and $1200 CoX computer builds.

Will you be getting a new monitor with this computer as well? If so, what size and resolution is it and what monitor are you using now? As resolution goes up, the amount of graphics processing power to run it grows multiplicatively.


EDIT: An AMD Phenom II x4 (~$140+) is also a quad-core processor that you might find some vendors offering.