New Gaming Box - Premade

[G_Train]

Hey all.

I have been out of the I.T scene for over a year now, since my desktop died and I switched to console gaming.

Well, i'm tired on consoles and I have been saving for an LCD, but decided to put it into a new gaming desktop.

I'm looking at spending between $2,000 and $2,500, and I've decided not to build it myself, I know it's cheaper, but I can't be bothered with the headache, and I always blow something up when I do it myself =\

Anyway, I just had a few questions I was hopin for some simple answeres:

A) Should I go with the basic Core 2 Duo CPU, or a Quad? - I've heard that the quads are overall clocked slower and that games don't really utilise them. And ofcourse the old question of AMD VS Intel, AMD used to win hands down, but I want this system reliable and I wont OC.

B) Should I go with a single decent GPU, or a double config? - I've lost touch with the Vid cards these days, seems the Nvida 9800 512 would be in my price field, but a double setup doesn't seem much more, is it really that much better? Or should I just get a good single GPU.

C) Should I look at 2GB or 4GB of Ram, the speed will vary though prob around the 800mhz mark or so I'm guessing, but I was told that a 32-bit setup doesn't work with 4GB, no idea why but thats what I'm told.

D) Lastly, I read that MS is phasing out 32bit OS systems, yet the 64bit doesn't seem mainstream yet, and i can't find any articles that give me a simple explination, which would I be looking at for gaming?


Other that, I'll just be buying a premade box, prob from ASUS or something, but I can customise everything, so any general tips are welcome. Thanks all.

[jlasich]

I am doing some upgrading to my current system so I have been researching a lot and can probably answer some of your questions.

A)From what I have read, very few, if any, programs take advantage of the quad processor setups right now so I don't think they are worth the extra money. Intel Core2Duo still seems to be the most powerful, but they are still pretty expensive (to me). I would probably go AMD, but it all depends on your future upgrade plans.

B)This is a question I also have. Would it be better to get a single top-of-the-line GPU or maybe SLI and older model, like the 8800 series? Still researching this so I can't answer it yet.

C)I also know about the 3GB limit with Windows 32-bit, and to run dual channel, that means 2GB so that is what I would do. Memory is cheap enough that if you do move to a 64-bit OS, it can be replaced.

D)I would probably stick with 32-bit, for now. I have heard of more driver issues with Vista 64-bit than 32-bit, if you're going with Vista. Same thing with Linux also, so I say 32-bit, for now.

Overall, I think it comes down to the type of games you play and how you feel about upgrading. Myself, I last upgraded three years ago and I just bought Supreme Commander which is what brought on my current upgrade plans. I tend to buy yesterday's computer technology because I just cannot afford to keep up with it. For $2000-2500, I would think that you could get a really nice system.

Good luck.