Building a new PC for christmas

Hi,i am building a new PC for Christmas

Specs:

Processor:AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000(3GHz)

Motherboard:Asus Crosshair II

Memory:Geil Ram 4GB Kit DDR2 B-Dragon 800MHz 5-5-5(2X2GB)

Hard Drive:Western Digital IDEE 500GB

Graphics Card:Sparkle Geforce 9600 GT SVGA 1GB+Onboard Nvidia 8 series 512MB

Sound Card:Onboard 7.1

Power supply: PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 860W

CD/DVD Rom Drive:LG DVD ROM 16x &Nec 7203 DVDRW

PC Case:CoolerMaster Εlite 334 Black Case

Operating System:Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit

So what do you think?

Is this a good build?

Can i max out games like Fallout 3,Far Cry 2,Bioshock,Oblivion,Crysis,Crysis Warhead at 1280x1024 or even a lower resolution?

Think i7 or maybe 45nm duals or quads.

X2s in a new PC. Sheesh.

Can i max out games like Fallout 3,Far Cry 2,Bioshock,Oblivion,Crysis,Crysis Warhead at 1280x1024 or even a lower resolution?

Obiwan317

9600gt is the equivalent to a 3850. (don't be fooled by the 9 series tag, it's not as powerfull as the 8800gt)

So Yes, but not on very high, everything but (yawn) crysis, 9800gt would probably be a better bet to max everything at a more fluid frame rate, but saying that, it'll come close, and only on far cry2/crysis max setting will it show.

if your mobo supports 1066mhz memory id suggest u swap out for a pair of 2GB crucial ballistix kits, or kingston kits, they'd come to like $80 Canadian. and will be more effective but its a suggestion not a mustaura_enchanted

Thanks for the advices

So what about this one 

Processor:AMD Phenom 9950 Black Edition Quad Core

Motherboard:Asus Crosshair II

Memory:Corsair RAM DDR2 4GB KIT 8500C5DF 1033MHz

Hard Drive:Western Digital IDEE 500GB

Graphics Card:TwinTech 9800GTX+ SVGA

Sound Card:Onboard

Power supply:Chieftec 850W 24pin

CD/DVD Rom Drive:LG DVD ROM 16x&Nec 7203 DVDRW

PC Case:CoolerMaster Εlite 334 Black Case 

if your mobo supports 1066mhz memory id suggest u swap out for a pair of 2GB crucial ballistix kits, or kingston kits, they'd come to like $80 Canadian. and will be more effective but its a suggestion not a mustaura_enchanted

1066 will only work on a AM2+, aka quad core/Phenum.... Also, you'll be giving up two dim slots when activating 1066 being that the processor can't handle duel channel mode @ 1066mhz. Only can do single mode.... and because of that you are limited to single mode configuration in your dimm configurations.

If you are going AMD I suggest going ATI for your video... main reason being that AMD is ATI, now. So you can bet that AMD is going to be more compatible with ATI than Nividia; especially with Motherboard Chipsets are concerned. If you buy a single PCI-e 16x motherboard it won't matter you can go AMD chipset with a Nvidia graphics card. The trouble comes into play with Crossfire versus Sli motherboard type chipsets... SLI would be Nvidia; and Crossfire is, now, AMD.

although... I recommend building a PC after christmas; not before....

What do you think of that?

Processor:Intel Core 2 Duo 8500(3.16GHz)

Motherboard:Asus P5Q3

Memory:Corsair RAM DDR3 4GB KIT 1600C9DHX(1600MHz)

Hard Drive:Western Digital 500GB HDD

Graphics Card:Sapphire 4850 SVGA 1GB

Sound Card:Onboard

Power supply:CoolerMaster M850 Real Power Modular 850W

CD/DVD Rom Drive:LG DVD-ROM 16x GDR-H30NRBB (Bulk)

PC Case:CoolerMaster Εlite 334 Black Case

Win XP or Vista? for that 1 gig of video ram?

Got to remember the WinXP has a max addressable ram of 4gigs. And it addresses system ram last. So if you stick a 1gig video card in there and you stick 4 gigs of ram, as well, then you'll end up losing about 1.2 gigs of ram when it's all said and done. Go SLI/Crossfire then you lose another Gig from your overall.... around 2.2 gigs... In which case, you're better off buying 2 gigs of system ram than 4..... (or get a Vista 64 OS.... that can address more ram.)

Just something to think about when going for (2)1gig video cards versus (2) 512's.... with WinXP. (...or even one video card.)

I don't know if you plan on going duel cards or not, but as far as the 4850 is concerned... if you look at bench marks I linked below... duel 4850's are about the same as a single 4870. 2 4850 will run you about $320 bucks, more or less, but a single 4870 run about $270.... Just note that the link is the sum; if you look at the indivdual test you'll see them swap all over the place... depending on all sorts of factors.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Sum-of-FPS-Benchmarks-Totals,795.html

anything ending with CF stands for Crossfire... Ending with SLI is SLI....obviously.

Also 4850's generally run hot... and thus have noisy fans to compensate; also ATI driver autofan speeds suck; you have to modify them yourself to keep the temp down. Either by locking them in at 50-70% RPM or using Rivatuner... going into the Power user setting to unlock the auto function. Go into the Fan settings and change the value to 3; then reboot the PC. And then modifying the autofan chart within Rivatuner... Check that 'startup this way' box for auto fan mode so your setting don't get replaced by the ATI default settings. And then everytime you boot up your PC you must enter Rivatuner and click the box to auto from fixed RPM... and press OK, not Apply. CCC tends to overwrite that RPM chart if you don't check the startup this way box. Rivatuner goes into Fix RPM mode probably because of CCC, and apply usually bumps up your RPM setting for some reason within Rivatuner for ATI cards (you'll have to factor that in when you adjust that RPM chart, as well).

4870's seem to run cooler...overall, but you probably will still want to mess with the RPM fan settings for it, too....

As for Nivida... I dont' remember reading too much of them have heat problems due to RPM fan speeds; That's why I suggested to go ATI if you plan on buying a duel video card motherboard; if you're going single and don't ever plan going duel.... well. Nvidia seems a bit more organized....as far as what they put in their drivers... So... yeah tough choices....

I've been planning on an upgrade myself.... but after my reasearch.... and not really knowing which way to go... I decided to not bother with it until a while longer; if ever.... May just go the console route instead....

yeah.... I'm just providing my reasearch really...is all.

And why I decided to hold off on an upgrade, myself.... I'm a AMD fan; but this ATI thing has put the brakes onto my plans... Not a big fan of ATI, myself. But...seems that since they merged well.... whatever... that's my reasearch on the whole deal, anyway....

Also, if you look on the user ratings at Newegg... you'll notice that Nforce motherboards tend to be one star short of perfect; while AMD chipsets tend to get full stars... on AMD side of things.. Whole thing give me a headache..... And then you have all these securom problems with newer PC games and limited installs and all that going on... PC'ing game world is a huge mess, really....

Might be time to just convert and get a Xbox360....

Stick with DDR2 800 Ram, its the GB that matter. the mhz does barely anything for gaming as shown by X-bit labs RAM comaprison

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/core2duo-memory-guide_6.html

And why such a big power supply?

Rate this build

Processor:Intel Core 2 Duo 8500(3.16GHz)

Motherboard:Foxconn P45A

Memory:Corsair RAM DDR2 4GB KIT 8500C5DF

Hard Drive:Seagate 160GB HDD

Graphics Card:ATI Radeon Sapphire 4870 SVGA 1GB(DDR5)

Sound Card:Onboard 7.1

Power supply:CoolerMaster M850 Real Power Modular 850W

CD/DVD Rom Drive:LG DVD-ROM 16x GDR-H30NRBB (Bulk)

PC Case:CoolerMaster Εlite 334 Black Case