Building a new computer, need some advise.

So my computer is getting old and beginning to preform worse and worse with the new games coming out. I customized one on a few websites, (ibuypower, vigorgaming). The one i just customized is < $1200 which is about what i was going for in price, i just haven't been keeping up with new processors and gfx cards of late and not really sure what is good anymore. here is a list of the specs, what is good/bad about it and what should be changed, thanks.

PROCESSOR AMD Athlon 64 X2 AM2 5000+ Processor at 2.6GHz, 2000MHz FSB, 512KB X 2 Cache

RIG Vigor ALPHA FORCE Screwless Chassis w/TyphoonTM Air Ventilation System RIG COOLING Vigor Whisper Cool Powered by Asus Cooling System

RIG POWER Cooler Master Real Power Pro nVidia-SLI Certified 850Watt Power Supply

MB CORE LOGIC MSI K9N SLI-F V2 AM2 nVidia nForce 570LT SLI w/2000MHz FSB

MEMORY 4GB Kingston KVR667D2E5K2/2G X 2 DDR2 667MHz Memory (4 X 1024MB)

OPERATING HARD DRIVE 1 500GB S-ATA II 7200 RPM Hard Drive

DATA DRIVES RAID SETTING RAID 0 Performance - Striped Drives (2 or More Identical Hard Drives Only)

VIDEO CARD SLI SLOT 1 nVidia GeForce 9600 GT 1GB Xtreme Edition@700MHz, DVI and TV Out

OPTICAL DRIVE 1 SONY/NEC Internal SATA AD7191S 20X Dual Layer DVD+/- RW + CDRW Rewritable Drive

RECORDING SOFTWARE Bundled DVD/CDRW Software

SOUND Digital High Definition 3D 7.1 8-Channel Sound

I/O PORTS 1 Parallel, 1 Game/Midi, 1 IEEE 1394 Firewire and 6 to 10 USB ports (Varies by Motherboards)

OPERATING SYSTEM Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP2 w/Original Disc

Price: $1169.00

please post any advise you have.

processor: i'd personally go for a core 2 duo over the AMD but that's just me

power: you don't need that power supply, it's simply overkill. Try going for something in the 600 range.

memory: try to get ddr2 800 or better ram rather than the one that you have

GPU: maybe someone will know more about this one, but an 8800GTS (512mb) may be better than the 9600 that you have there and it's comparably priced (at least on newegg).

processor: i'd personally go for a core 2 duo over the AMD but that's just me

power: you don't need that power supply, it's simply overkill. Try going for something in the 600 range.

memory: try to get ddr2 800 or better ram rather than the one that you have

GPU: maybe someone will know more about this one, but an 8800GTS (512mb) may be better than the 9600 that you have there and it's comparably priced (at least on newegg).

spierdalaj666

Thanks for the help spier, i changed a few things. got a PS in the 600 range and got some ddr2 800mhz ram. as for the processor, Vigor Gaming only offers AMD processors, at least they only offer them in the model i picked. Also i got the 8800gts. The total comes to $1206 which isn't much more at all, thanks for the help.

n.p.

btw, i'd wait until someone else responds regarding the graphics cards before placing the order since i honestly am not sure whether the 8800 is better than the 1 gb version of the 9600. I think that it is but you never know, i could be wrong.

Either way, that 8800 will not fail you so don't worry.

I would go here and configure a computer and compare:

http://www.avadirect.com/product_details_configurator.asp?PRID=9528

n.p.

btw, i'd wait until someone else responds regarding the graphics cards before placing the order since i honestly am not sure whether the 8800 is better than the 1 gb version of the 9600. I think that it is but you never know, i could be wrong.

Either way, that 8800 will not fail you so don't worry.

spierdalaj666

its a 256-bit card, so it cant utilize a gig of memory, 512 is the sweetspot

yeah, ava direct seems like your best bet.

If you REALLY wanted to save some money, you'd probably have to build it yourself. On newegg, i configured a slightly better build than the one on avadirect for $950 (with mail in rebates).

It's your choice and it really comes down to whether you feel comfortable with building one yourself, otherwise avadirect is a good choice.

Try building your own and getting everything from newegg. I put one together on newegg then on Ibuypower and you come out about 200 cheaper if you build your own. Also I would not worry with a sound card as on-board sound is much better than it use to be.Shrinekeeper

to me sound card is a MUST
i would happily have just 2 8800GTX's in SLI with a soundcard, rather than 3 8800GTX's wihtout, unless somehow you can have 3GPU's with a soundcard