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My budget gaming system

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Hi,

I am going to make a budget gaming system and would be using it with Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit so I am posting all the details here for your view. Please inform if the following system would support Vista 64 bit as well as Directx 10 gaming? Below is the system:

PROCESSOR: Q9400 2.66Ghz (6MB CACHE - 1333 MHZ FSB)
(Is this a good processor choice? Also is it 45?)

HARDDISK: 500GB 3.5" HDD SATA-II 7200RPM 16MB Cache (ST-3500320AS)

MEMORY: KINGSTON DDR-II 2GB-667 x 2

VIDEO CARD: VIDEO CARD: HIS PCI EXPRESS ATI PCX 4870 512 MB 256BITS DDR5

POWER SUPPLY: 750 WATTS REAL POWER PRO SLI READY (RS-750-ACAA-A1)

(I think this power supply is more than required. Am I right?)

CPU COOLER: COOLER MASTER CPU COOLER HYPER TX2 (SUPP INTEL & AMD)

LCD MONITOR: VX-1962WM 19" BLACK WIDE SCREEN MULTIMEDIA

DVD WRITER: ASUS DVDRW 20xDL SATA DRW-2014S1T

FAX MODEM: APACHE HARD (3 YEARS WARRANTY) (A56SP-HCF) (56K)

SPEAKERS: CREATIVE A-500 5.1

FLOPPY DRIVE: SONY 1.44MB BLACK//WHITE (INTERNAL)

COOLER MASTER CHASSIS CM 690

MOTHERBOARD: DP35DP (775PINS - SND+GIGA LAN -1333MHZ FSB) PCX SLOT

(Cant understand one thing i.e what does it mean by "support for (Intel P35 Express Chipset or Intel X48 Express Chipset". Also for this motherboard they say that its Vista Home Premium compatibe but my friend is using Vista Ultimate. So please confirm if this motherboard is fully compatible with the other hardwares?)

Also for your information I live in an Asian country so I have limited access to hardwares. Below are the motherboards and processors available in my country:

INTEL MOTHERBOARDS

D945GCLF + ATOM 230 PROCESSOR (1.6Ghz + Snd+Agp+Lan-533Bus-DDRII Support)

DG35EC (775PINS - SND+AGP+GIGA LAN - 1333MHZ FSB) PCX SLOT

DG33FB (775PINS - SND+AGP+GIGA LAN - 1333MHZ FSB) PCX SLOT (BULK)

DG33FB (775PINS - SND+AGP+GIGA LAN - 1333MHZ FSB) PCX SLOT (BOX)

DQ35JO (775PINS - SND+AGP+GIGA LAN - 1333MHZ FSB) PCX SLOT

DP35DP (775PINS - SND+GIGA LAN -1333MHZ FSB) PCX SLOT

ASUS MOTHERBOARDS

P5K VM INTEL G33+ICH9 (775PINS - AGP+SND+GIGA LAN)

P5E-VMDO INTEL Q35+ICH9(775PINS- APG+SND+GIGA LAN) PCX SLOT

P5QL PRO INTEL P43+ICH10R 1600 FSB (775 PINS - SND + LAN- DDR2) PCX SLOT

P5Q INTEL P45+ICH10R 1600 FSB (775PINS – SND + LAN -DDR 2) PCX SLOT

(For Asus I would like to go with the ones with Intel chipsets)

INTEL QUAD CORE 2 PROCESSORS

Q6600 2.40Ghz (8MB CACHE - 1066 MHZ FSB)
Q9300 2.50Ghz (6MB CACHE - 1333 MHZ FSB)
Q9400 2.66Ghz (6MB CACHE - 1333 MHZ FSB)
Q9550 2.83Ghz (12MB CACHE - 1333 MHZ FSB)

Please give me your valuable suggestions. With my best regards and thanks in advance for giving the time.

Add a reply

Asian prices may be different, you should list prices.

Going by US prices, a good choice would be the cheapest p45 motherboard plus q6600. G33 and p945 perform far below p45, don't consider it. Q6600 is much cheaper than others while delivering good performance, it also overclocks better due to higher multiplier and voltage tolerance.

For ram, get at least 4gb of ddr2 800mhz. Running out of ram and using large amount of page file off hdd will have major performance impact.

For graphics, consider 9800gx2 if you're on budget. Price is same as 4870, while performance is far above.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3341&p=13
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3341&p=14
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3341&p=15
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3341&p=16
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3341&p=17
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3341&p=18
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3341&p=19

Again, those are by US prices, you should list prices where you live.

------------------------------ Q6600@3.6ghz, GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard, 8gb 800mhz ddr2 4-3-3-12, 8800GTS(g92)@780mhz, 1TB + 1.5TB hdds, 850watt psu
Reply to dagger

All of the Asus boards have intel chipsets. Definitely go with the Asus P5Q (P45 chipset) and a Q6600 if the Q9400 is far more expensive, if not then just flip a coin to decide. If possible I would get 4GB (2 x 2GB) of DDR2 800, but you can be sure that all of the hardware you can listed is compatible and works fine on Vista 64 (Any version), however I would suggest you save some money and get Vista Home Premium 64, you will not miss any of the "features" of Ultimate.

------------------------------ Anxiously awaiting the Hydra 100 and the Hydra Engine...
www.lucidlogix.com
Reply to emp

PRICES OF HARDWARES
--------------------------------------

PROCESSOR: Q9400 2.66Ghz (6MB CACHE - 1333 MHZ FSB) Rs. 22500

HARDDISK: 500GB 3.5" HDD SATA sata -II 7200RPM 16MB Cache (ST-3500320AS) Rs. 8000

MEMORY: KINGSTON DDR-II 2GB-667- x 2 (Its 4 GB Ram- x2) Rs. 5500

VIDEO CARD video card : VIDEO CARD: HIS PCI EXPRESS ATI PCX 4870 512 MB 256BITS DDR5 Rs. 26000

POWER SUPPLY: 750 WATTS REAL POWER PRO SLI READY (RS-750-ACAA-A1) Rs. 10300

CPU COOLER cpu cooler : COOLER MASTER CPU COOLER HYPER TX2 (SUPP INTEL & AMD) Rs. 3000

LCD MONITOR: VX-1962WM 19" BLACK WIDE SCREEN MULTIMEDIA Rs. 18000

DVD WRITER dvd writer : ASUS DVDRW 20xDL SATA DRW-2014S1T Rs. 2500

FAX MODEM: APACHE HARD (3 YEARS WARRANTY) (A56SP-HCF) (56K) Rs. 1800

SPEAKERS: CREATIVE A-500 5.1 Rs. 3500

FLOPPY DRIVE: SONY 1.44MB BLACK//WHITE (INTERNAL) Rs. 400

COOLER MASTER CHASSIS CM 690 Rs. 5700

MOTHERBOARD motherboard : DP35DP (775PINS - SND+GIGA LAN -1333MHZ FSB) PCX SLOT Rs. 8600

INTEL MOTHERBOARDS
--------------------------------------

D945GCLF + ATOM 230 PROCESSOR (1.6Ghz + Snd+Agp+Lan-533Bus-DDRII Support) Rs. 5800

DG35EC (775PINS - SND+AGP+GIGA LAN - 1333MHZ FSB) PCX SLOT Rs. 7000

DG33FB (775PINS - SND+AGP+GIGA LAN - 1333MHZ FSB) PCX SLOT (BULK) Rs. 7850

DG33FB (775PINS - SND+AGP+GIGA LAN - 1333MHZ FSB) PCX SLOT (BOX) Rs. 8000

DQ35JO (775PINS - SND+AGP+GIGA LAN - 1333MHZ FSB) PCX SLOT Rs. 8500

DP35DP (775PINS - SND+GIGA LAN -1333MHZ FSB) PCX SLOT Rs. 8600

ASUS MOTHERBOARDS
-----------------------------------

P5K VM INTEL G33+ICH9 (775PINS - AGP+SND+GIGA LAN) Rs. 6300

P5E-VMDO INTEL Q35+ICH9(775PINS- APG+SND+GIGA LAN) PCX SLOT Rs. 8000

P5QL PRO INTEL P43+ICH10R 1600 FSB (775 PINS - SND + LAN- DDR2 ddr2 ) PCX SLOT Rs. 10300

P5Q INTEL P45+ICH10R 1600 FSB (775PINS – SND + LAN -DDR 2) PCX SLOT Rs. 11300

INTEL CORE 2 QUAD PROCESSORS
-------------------------------------------------------

INTEL QUAD CORE 2 PROCESSORS

Q6600 2.40Ghz (8MB CACHE - 1066 MHZ FSB) Rs. 16000
Q9300 2.50Ghz (6MB CACHE - 1333 MHZ FSB) Rs. 22000
Q9400 2.66Ghz (6MB CACHE - 1333 MHZ FSB) Rs. 22500
Q9550 2.83Ghz (12MB CACHE - 1333 MHZ FSB) Rs. 27500

Reply to global

Get the P43 or P45 boards (bottom 2). They cost more, but is well worth it in performance and reliability over the g33 and q35.

At those prices, q6600 is the best bang for the buck. Or you can go for 9550 for the performance at a cost. Skip 9300 and 9400, they only perform slightly better at stock, worse when overclocked, for much more money.

If you plan to overclock, get ddr2 800mhz instead of 667mhz. Or it'll bottleneck oc. Get 4gb instead of 2 to avoid using significant page file usage, which will tank performance.

Look up 9800gx2 prices, if it's similar to 4870, get it instead.

------------------------------ Q6600@3.6ghz, GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard, 8gb 800mhz ddr2 4-3-3-12, 8800GTS(g92)@780mhz, 1TB + 1.5TB hdds, 850watt psu
Reply to dagger

Dear dagger and emp,

Many thanks for your valuable inputs. For the graphics card "XFX GeForce PCX GTX 260 896MB (448-BITS) DDRIII" is also available for just Rs. 1000 more i.e. ATI card is Rs. 26000 and Nvidia is Rs. 27000 but there is one problem with Nvidia, it does not support Directx 10.1. On the contrary ATI's card does. But since I am not as experienced as you and dont have eyes on current hardware and trends, would you please inform me how much is the difference between Directx 10 and Directx 10.1 and also does it matter? Also please inform if the Nvidia card would also be able to run Directx10.1 capable games? I am quite confused in deciding this however I agree that Nvidia is better choice. As for the motherboard since you suggest a (P45 chipset) motherboard and therefore you also suggest Asus P5Q there are three Asus P5Q motherboards as listed below:

1- P5QL PRO INTEL P43+ICH10R 1600 FSB (775 PINS - SND + LAN- DDR2) PCX SLOT - Rs. 10300

2- P5Q INTEL P45+ICH10R 1600 FSB (775PINS – SND + LAN -DDR 2) PCX SLOT - Rs. 11300

3- P5QC INTEL P45+ICH10R 1600 FSB (775PINS - SND + LAN-DDR2 & DDR III SUPPORT) PCX SLOT - Rs. 13,500

Since I can afford any one of these three, please kindly inform which one should I go for. One more thing is the Power Supply I mentioned earlier, that is:

POWER SUPPLY: 750 WATTS REAL POWER PRO SLI READY (RS-750-ACAA-A1) - Rs. 10300

Should I go for a lower Power Supply like " 650 WATTS REAL POWER PRO SLI READY (RS-650-ACAA-A1)" which is for Rs. 8300 or should I stick with the same Power Supply I mentioned earlier. Kindly inform and with my best regards

Reply to global

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