Well I would look at boutique computer shops like CyberPowerPC, iBUYPOWER, Puget Systems ... can't think of any others off hand but there are a number. They basically have a list of parts you can choose from in each category (CPU, Motherboard, Video Card, Power Supply, etc).
$2000 will buy you a very nice system.
As for what parts, depends on the other games you play.
Personally I would build a system around the Intel i5-2500K and a GTX 570. Throw in 8GB of DDR-1600, CAS 8 memory, and a motherboard that uses the Intel Z68 chipset. It's up to you if you want a motherboard that has two actual graphic card slots (two x8 not one x16 and one x4) and whether those slots can handle SLi (nVidia's multiple video card standard) and CrossfireX (ATI/AMD's standard) or just CrossfireX.
Those are the guts. Then couple that with a hard drive (note hard drive prices are now insane due to the Thailand flooding), an optical drive, a case with reasonable cooling and a descent quality power supply (too many people go cheap here, bad move). Then off course top the whole thing off with Windows 7 64-bit.
Optional doodads include better CPU cooling, a Solid State Drive (SSD) either as your primary drive or as a cache drive for the main hard drive (Intel driver + Z68 chipset gives you this) and a sound card if you haven't blasted out your hearing with ear buds.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Maybe something like this:
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1DNGTK
Assumed you wanted a new monitor as well.
Went a little "crazy" with the dual SSDs in RAID0.
But I can pretty much guarantee that lag will NEVER be from your system's disks.
The 15 second boot times are a damn fine thing too.
Only thing I didn't include were speakers (I play with headphones since I live in an apartment).
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Here is what I came up with just playing around with Dell options (Just a preference as I've had good luck with them in the past) Opinions?
Price: $2,022
PROCESSOR Intel® Core i7-2600 (8MB Cache) Overclocked Turbo Boost to 3.9GHz edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English edit
MEMORY 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz edit
VIDEO CARD Dual 1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 545 - SLI Enabled edit
HARD DRIVE 1TB (2x 500GB) SATA II (3Gb/s) 7,200RPM (2x 16MB Cache) edit
MONITOR Dell ST2420L 24-inch Full HD Widescreen Monitor with LED edit
SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BD-ROM, DVD±RW, CD-RW) edit
My Software & Accessories
ALIENFX AlienFX Color, Terra Green edit
KEYBOARD No Keyboard edit
My Accessories
SUPPORT 1 Year Basic Service Plan edit
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2010 edit
POWER PROTECTION Monster Cable Outlets to Go White Mini Power Strip - 4-Outlet edit
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
Alienware Aurora-R3 Alienware Aurora Desktop
CHASSIS COLOR Matte Stealth Black Chassis with 875W Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply
COOLING OPTION Alienware High-Performance Liquid Cooling
Adobe Reader Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader
AVATAR Alienhead 3D
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If you want the absolute best system you can get for your money, and aren't afraid of slapping it together yourself, start by looking at build guides on site's like Tom's Hardware or Ars Technica. In particular Tom's is good about updating guides month to month. (For that matter, there's also a computer build guide posted in the Guides section of this website that you should check out.) Put together a list of parts.
Then go to a site like NewEgg.com, order the parts, and put them together.
For that amount of money, I'd recommend getting a SSD for the computer's primary hard drive, and at least 8 gigs of RAM.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...770959-_-Combo
This looks nice 
Quote:
It's a pig in lipstick man.|
Originally Posted by Infernus_Hades
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That's one of those new AMD Zambezi systems.
Huge power consumption and worse per-core performance than the previous generation of processors?
I wouldn't recommend the current generation of AMD processors to anyone. They've effectively stepped on their **** this time and Intel is going to be eating their lunch for a while. Intel's LAST-GEN processors outperform Zambezi for gaming and most other single-threaded ops that a regular desktop is going to be going to.
And, apparently, it can't beat out Intel or even it's previous generation in multi-threaded apps unless you double or triple the price and give it higher speed storage than competing offerings.
Sure. AMD might be a cheaper alternative. But you get what you pay for. And going AMD right now is a case of being penny-wise and pound foolish.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Quote:
Alienware is just a crummy Dell platform you're paying an extra 30% for because of the logo and a bunch of useless flash.|
Originally Posted by Elementor5x5
Here is what I came up with just playing around with Dell options (Just a preference as I've had good luck with them in the past) Opinions?
Price: $2,022 PROCESSOR Intel® Core i7-2600 (8MB Cache) Overclocked Turbo Boost to 3.9GHz edit OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English edit MEMORY 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz edit VIDEO CARD Dual 1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 545 - SLI Enabled edit HARD DRIVE 1TB (2x 500GB) SATA II (3Gb/s) 7,200RPM (2x 16MB Cache) edit MONITOR Dell ST2420L 24-inch Full HD Widescreen Monitor with LED edit SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BD-ROM, DVD±RW, CD-RW) edit My Software & Accessories ALIENFX AlienFX Color, Terra Green edit KEYBOARD No Keyboard edit My Accessories SUPPORT 1 Year Basic Service Plan edit OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2010 edit POWER PROTECTION Monster Cable Outlets to Go White Mini Power Strip - 4-Outlet edit ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM Alienware Aurora-R3 Alienware Aurora Desktop CHASSIS COLOR Matte Stealth Black Chassis with 875W Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply COOLING OPTION Alienware High-Performance Liquid Cooling Adobe Reader Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader AVATAR Alienhead 3D |
They're giving you a 2600, not the K variant. Just say no.
Dual low-range video cards. Yeah-NO! Waste of money.
Your only disk drive in the system is a RAID0. If it goes, you lose EVERYTHING. And these are mechanical hard drives. If the controller hardware on the board or the drive "burps" you just lost it all.
2 grand for a 1 year warranty. Pfft.
You can do better.
A LOT better.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Quote:
The GT 545 is a gimped (will all the negative connotations that word implies) GTX 550 Ti.|
Originally Posted by Elementor5x5
Here is what I came up with just playing around with Dell options (Just a preference as I've had good luck with them in the past) Opinions?
Price: $2,022 PROCESSOR Intel® Core i7-2600 (8MB Cache) Overclocked Turbo Boost to 3.9GHz edit OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English edit MEMORY 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz edit VIDEO CARD Dual 1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 545 - SLI Enabled edit HARD DRIVE 1TB (2x 500GB) SATA II (3Gb/s) 7,200RPM (2x 16MB Cache) edit MONITOR Dell ST2420L 24-inch Full HD Widescreen Monitor with LED edit SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BD-ROM, DVD±RW, CD-RW) edit My Software & Accessories ALIENFX AlienFX Color, Terra Green edit KEYBOARD No Keyboard edit My Accessories SUPPORT 1 Year Basic Service Plan edit OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2010 edit POWER PROTECTION Monster Cable Outlets to Go White Mini Power Strip - 4-Outlet edit ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM Alienware Aurora-R3 Alienware Aurora Desktop CHASSIS COLOR Matte Stealth Black Chassis with 875W Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply COOLING OPTION Alienware High-Performance Liquid Cooling Adobe Reader Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader AVATAR Alienhead 3D |
The thing with SLi or CrossfireX is the percentage of performance boost isn't guaranteed for every game. While the current big name FPS or RPG under Direct X will likely see a 50+% improvement over a single card, other games may only see a small or even a lower performance than a single card. A pair of GT 545s have less combined horsepower than one GTX 560.
As Hyper points out, RAID 0 sacrifices mean time between failures for somewhat better hard drive performance.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Infernus_Hades
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Also, it's just a pile of parts and missing an optical drive and a copy of Windows 7 64-bit.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
Maybe something like this:
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1DNGTK Assumed you wanted a new monitor as well. Went a little "crazy" with the dual SSDs in RAID0. But I can pretty much guarantee that lag will NEVER be from your system's disks. The 15 second boot times are a damn fine thing too. Only thing I didn't include were speakers (I play with headphones since I live in an apartment). |
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Quote:
For some reason the save function isn't retaining the 800W PSU or the extra SSD. Go figure.|
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
Only see a single SSD and it's complaining about the size of the PSU, they think it needs 800 watts for a GTX 580. Which may be true with their generic 800 watt PSU but you and me both know any good 80+ PSU over 600 watts could handle that setup.
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And I DID go with a RAID-0 of SSDs, though I gave it a large mechanical hard drive for data retention. My gripe with the mechanical drive RAID-0 can be summed up in 2 points:
- They're mechanical drives. So you're not seeing a huge performance gain that you would from even just going with a single SSD.
- The RAID-0 in the Alienware machine was the ONLY storage system on the entire computer. With the option I gave above, you install the OS and any apps you need to start up fast on the SSD RAID-0 and keep your important files off on the mechanical drive. This way, if the array blows up, you can replace a drive and restore an image or refactor the array down to a single drive and restore from an image.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Quote:
What about if you *are* afraid of slapping it together yourself?
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Originally Posted by Robotech_Master
If you want the absolute best system you can get for your money, and aren't afraid of slapping it together yourself, start by looking at build guides
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Quote:
Either get a pre-assembled computer or get a friend who isn't to help you.
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Originally Posted by ThugOne
What about if you *are* afraid of slapping it together yourself?
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Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
Right now my favorite company to buy a gaming rig from is Digital Storm. Their link is www.digitalstormonline.com. I've bought two from them over the last three years (one for myself, one for my wife), and they're pretty terrific.
Just playing around with your target price,here's a setup that will run anything you want today (the config number is 621711 if you want to use that as a start point on their site) for $2007. While I did spec this with an i5 CPU to hit your price point, you get a great motherboard with outstanding upgrade potential, an overclocked EVGA GTX 560 (overclocked), an X-Fi Titanium sound card, maintenance-free liquid cooling, a blu-ray player/DVD burner, and Windows 7 Ultimate. Digital Storm also has the best packing and shipping I've ever seen for a computer. I'll absolutely buy from them again when it's time for the next system.
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master 942 HAF X
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz (Unlocked CPU for Extreme Overclocking) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 Deluxe (Intel P67 Chipset) (New & Improved B3 Revision Without SATA 3G Issue)
System Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 750W Corsair HX (Dual SLI Compatible)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (1TB Western Digital/Seagate/Hitachi/Samsung (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: Blu-Ray Player/DVD Writer (Play Blu-Ray and Burn DVDs)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB (PhysX Technology) (Overclocked EVGA Edition)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 2: Digital Storm Vortex Liquid CPU Cooler (High-Performance Edition)
H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: - No Thanks
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
LaserMark: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: FREE: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD)
K
Right now I'm running CoH and a few other MMO's on my Dell Desktop that I got back in 2004. I've made a few upgrades to the ram and video card over the years, but its finally starting to show its age. I'm looking to buy a new gaming computer, but I need some suggestions on what to be looking for in order to get the best performance. I would prefer to buy a whole piece, instead of trying to build one on my own. Any suggestions on where to start looking or your own experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Planned Budget: ~$2,000
Planned OS: Windows 7
Questions:
# of Processors
Type of Processors
Amount of RAM
Amount of Memory
# of Video Cards
Type of Video Cards
Guardian Server:
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EngiNerd - lvl 26 Technology Energy / Electrical Blaster