Building a new computer soon, experienced peeps let me know if this looks ok...

[BodyByFinaplix]

Get an ATI Radeon card....

I have the 9800 Pro with 128Mb...

Kicks ass !!

I play a lot of Unreal Tournamant 2004 online. I have all of the game settings on MAX detail (called 'Holy Shit' settings in the game). The game plays flawless. I also have a 3Ghz Pentium 4 with 1G of RAM. I'm a very happy camper...

I'll get a Radeon card win the prices on the new one's drop to $200 or less a year from now. My 128 mb geforce is ok for now.

Anywho here is the part list a I cam up with (different case, was debating, and just got off the phone with a friend who offered a little advice)

http://www.hardcorecooling.us/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=670
case, cooling, powersource etc. $117.76

http://www.hardcorecooling.us/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=943
Liquid cooling system $139.99

http://www.futurepowerpc.com/scripts/details.asp?PRDCODE=CPIN-RP4530
Pentuim 4 3 gig processor $185

http://www.futurepowerpc.com/scripts/details.asp?PRDCODE=MBGA-8ANXPD
Giga-byte motherboard. $255

http://www.futurepowerpc.com/scripts/details.asp?PRDCODE=HDWD-I2000JB
western-digital 200 gig hard drive for use as a slave $115

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=85016-43
2 gig kit, ddr2 pc2-4200 (533 mhz). WIth either use one or 2 kits (depending on if I need 2 or 4 gigs of ram)
Price: $1319.75 or 1826.75 leaning towards the cheaper one since I do not think I need 4 gigs of ddr2.

Have other components more or less, to use (40 gig drive for primary, LCD flatscreen etc). Can overclock as necissary, and with the water cooling, probably will do so.

 

[Ish]

I would say that 4 gigs of ram is very overkill. Possibly 2 if you really feel you need it. I'd go with 1. I would spend the extra ram money on a new video card. The new Geforce series utilizes DirectX 9 better, so that's what I would get. The new Geforce 6600 GT seems to be the sweet spot in that line. I'd get one with 256 megs of ram on the card. The AGP ones seem to perform as well as the PCIX ones. You might look into a Serial ATA hard drive too for decreasing load times in your games.

 

[The Red Dragon]

Seems good. I hope you like video games.

 

[BodyByFinaplix]

I would say that 4 gigs of ram is very overkill. Possibly 2 if you really feel you need it. I'd go with 1. I would spend the extra ram money on a new video card. The new Geforce series utilizes DirectX 9 better, so that's what I would get. The new Geforce 6600 GT seems to be the sweet spot in that line. I'd get one with 256 megs of ram on the card. The AGP ones seem to perform as well as the PCIX ones. You might look into a Serial ATA hard drive too for decreasing load times in your games.

I'm leaning more towards the 2 gigs at this point. I agree with the serial ATA, and I forgot to look into it since I know my board will support it. My friend raised this point. The same hard drive that supports 150 serial ata is only $10 more, if my current drive does not support it, I can get a reasonable priced 36 g as a primary that will. I NEVER run my operating system on the same drive with my other programs and important data.

 

[BlkDragon]

Here are a few suggestions:

Scrap the Pentium and get an A64 3500 .
MB: MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
Ram: OCZ pc3200 Plat. edition 1gb
Case: CM Praetorian
400w power supply
Montior: I'd go with a NEC, Samsung, Sony or Viewsonice (19)
HD: I've had great luck with my 2 hitachis


Good luck with the build and check out this site anandtech.com. The members over there are on top of all the new computer stuff.

Sites to buy from:
Newegg.com
Zipzoomfly.com

edit: I just looked at your last post and I'd say 2 gbs is overkill at this point but whatever makes ya happy.

 

[Yarg!]

wow thats gonna cost alot of money.. im still on my AMD Duron 1 ghz, 128mb ram, geforce 2

 

[BodyByFinaplix]

wow thats gonna cost alot of money.. im still on my AMD Duron 1 ghz, 128mb ram, geforce 2

Yeah, it will cost me an entire week's pay, but its money well spent IMO.

 

[AristotleBC]

With 4 gigs of ram you can make yourself a RamDrive and run your games off it.

I'm building myself a new PC too in fact.

Looking at:


Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz, with 800mhz FSB planning to Overclock it, ideally to 3.6-3.8Ghz
???? Motherboard (still researching)
Gig of Ram (brand? Not yet)
WD Raptor 76 GB 10k rpm hard drive
??? Video card (still researching)
DVD or CD-RW

 

[Razorguns]

This thread is turnin' me on...

 

[BodyByFinaplix]

With 4 gigs of ram you can make yourself a RamDrive and run your games off it.

I'm building myself a new PC too in fact.

Looking at:


Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz, with 800mhz FSB planning to Overclock it, ideally to 3.6-3.8Ghz
???? Motherboard (still researching)
Gig of Ram (brand? Not yet)
WD Raptor 76 GB 10k rpm hard drive
??? Video card (still researching)
DVD or CD-RW

Go with the same board I am (since we are using the same processor ESPECIALLY if you want to overclock...this gigabyte board has special features to help with overclocking), and slap a gig of ddr2 pc2-4200 (half what I will be using). You can pick up a nice 1 gig kit for $275 or so.

I plan on overclocking also, hence the liquid-cooling system for my cpu.