I'm not blowing any smoke; I'm being realistic.

The AMD Phenom x4, compared to the current generation of CPU's, is an out-dated piece of trash, and the GTX460 is a sub-par card.

This topic was about maxing Crysis 2, among a variety of other modern titles, and I simply told the facts as they are: that an AMD Phenom x4 and a GTX460 are not going to max Crysis, Crysis: Warhead, Crysis 2, BFBC2 (or 3, when it releases), or Metro 2033. It is not going to happen. I then substantiated my claims with actual evidence, which, go figure, was ignored.

I don't really know what you mean by claiming that owning an HD5830, which is also a garbage card, somehow makes you knowledgable. I own an HD5870, so that trumps your card, but I don't claim that that makes me knowledgable on the matters being discussed in this topic. No, I actually did my homework, read performance reviews, played some of the games being discussed, compared stats, and read consumer reviews, which was what lead me to state that an AMD Phenom x4 CPU is garbage, along with an nVidia GTX460, when you want to max the latest titles.

Perhaps there is confusion over what "max" means? Well, I can start by telling you that "maxing" a title does not mean playing it at 1280x800 resolution on medium-high settings with no AA on DX9 @60FPS.

"Maxing" a title, such as Metro 2033, would be playing it at 1920x1200 resolution with Ultra settings and DX11, and it's various features enabled, such as full tessalation and advanced depth of field and dynamic shadows @80+FPS.

And, as the primary piece of supporting evidence I posted shows, even the HD6990, the best card on the market, with a core i7 965 (which crushes the Phenom x4) OC'd to 3.6ghz and 6gb of DDR3 ram running at 1500mhz cannot do that.

For those of you that missed it the first time, or simply chose to ignore it, the review/evidence in question:http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6990-review/19

I would like to make it clear that I am not trying to rain on anyone's parade; I am simply trying to clear up a lot of misinformation, and perhaps a tad bit of blatant fanboyism. To be exceptionally clear, I would also like to state that I answered the TC's original question of "what components do I need to max [insert games here]. I even did so in an unbiased manner, as I listed the various primary components from all of the major competitors. I will do so again.

Intel: i2500k or i2600k

AMD: wait for Bulldozer

nVidia: GTX480 or GTX560 or higher

ATI: HD5870 or HD6870 or higher

As for memory, I would recommend six or eights gigs, it really depends on whether or not your mobo is dual, tri, or quad channel.

A 750WT PSU should be plenty, though feel free to up this if you want more headroom for OCing and dual-carding.

The rest is up to you.

Cheers.

P.S. Buying a mediocre GPU, and then purchasing another for SLI or Xfire is wasteful. Save yourself time, money, and frustration: buy a good GPU the first time around.

P.P.S. A second review, this one regarding the i2500k and i2600k CPU's, but which also showcases many, many processors (including the various Phenom x4's, which are all crushed).http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i5-2500k-and-core-i7-2600k-review/1

I honestly think that it's hilarious that you're sitting here telling this guy he's going to be able to max Metro, the various Crysis games, and the current and future BF games with an ancient AMD Phenom X4 processor and a 400 series Fermi. Absolutely hilarious.

Actually, feel free to slap any current AMD processor in there with a 460, or even a 560, and it's not even going to come close to maxing out any of these games at a decent FPS.

TC, I get that you're on a budget, but if you want to max the games you and various others have listed, you're going to need to go beyond the $800 price range. In purely CPU and GPU terms, this is what you're going to want:

If Intel floats your boat - i5 2500(k preferable) or i72600(k preferable)

If AMD is what you want - Wait for Bulldozer, due out sometime this year

If nVidia is your thing - a GTX480 or GTX 560 or better

If ATI(AMD) is for you - a 5870 or 6870 preferably a 6870 or better

Look at any major review for a new or relatively new GPU or CPU; in terms of gaming performance the AMD Phenom x4 and the GTX460, if listed at all, are at the bottom wrung of performance, if they can perform at all. And when it comes to a purely GPU review, no one is using an AMD processor as part of the their test rig; it's a bottlekneck.

Case in point:http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6990-review/13

That's the test set-up; I highly recommend you look at the benchmarks for the various games they used (all of the games you want to max) and see what kind of performance they're getting, on a rig that outstrips the proposed AMD/460 rig people are telling you to buy. This review also has a huge range of GPU's that they also test, so you can get a good idea of a price-to-performace ratio for yourself.

The only thing I can recommend about going AMD at this point is that Bulldozer CPU's will continue to use the AM3+ socket, though you can bet that they'll release new mobo's with their processors, regardless.

Hope that helps.

Cheers.

P.S. I did not include first generation Nehalem CPU's because they are spread out across a variety of sockets whose future is in doubt.

That's going to be a beast of a rig, and is pretty much the same rig I plan on building for my next PC.

Cheers, man.

Those parts are very outdated, and I would not recommend building a PC that is remotely similar in specs to that. However, this should not be surprising, given that the article is over two years old.

What kind of budget do you have?

How willing are you to go above or below that budget?

Cheers.

I would also ditch the DVD player/burner in favor of a Blu-Ray player/burner.

Unless you have crazy music applications, or a 7.1 Surround Sound Theater system of some kind, you're wasting money on the sound card. The PC Bose speakers for about $220 and on-board audio should do ya just fine.

Oh, and I would get this motherboard instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188069

And definitely Crossfire a 6000 series card if you're going ATI; I still use my 5870 because I bought it almost a year ago, and am simply waiting to build a new rig before upgrading.

I tried purchasing a new PSU, but even with that, it still just popped off. I also took everything out except what it needed to run, and it still turned off.

At this point, I'm guessing it's the mobo or the case itself (wiring issue?).

Cheers.

It wasn't a soft bump, but it wasn't particularly hard, either, and it was towards the edge of the case.

I've already reseated everything, and the problem persists.

Thanks for the reply. :D

Hey, all, just looking for a bit of advice. My computer has been acting up lately since I accidently knocked on a doorframe when moving it up into my apartment.

The computer turns on, the mobo gives the all clear beep, and it will fully boot to my desktop and everything. However, once there, it usually turns off by itself after a minute or two. No blue screens, no beeps, no warnings, it simply shuts off. If I turn it on again after that, it repeats, though the shut off can come earlier than reaching the desktop.

Any advice, ideas, suggestions?

Cheers.

Yeah, dual-core trumps single core at every turn.