Parts

[MasterAdnin]

I know I have made a lot of threads, and I have the approval of my parents to build a computer, just don't know if I should wait until the 8k series of GPU's is out to buy the parts, since the video cards will be cheaper.

Here are the parts:

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16811208009

Mother Board:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813131046

RAM:
Stripping 1 GB of my older computer that broke down

Video Card:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16814130062

Sound Card:
Using Mother Boards integrated

Processor:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16819115004

Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16817104953

DVD/CD Drives:
Stripping off my older computer

Hard Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16822144415

Are these parts good? I want the system to be able to play Medieval 2 Total War on highest settings. Also, will I have to install Windows XP onto the computer again, as the hard drive already has it?

Salaam,
Adnan

[Aristocrat]

The 8800's are already out, so prices probaly won't drop significantly till Vista comes out. (Probaly...)

You will have to reinstall xp, a complete new installation.

The only concern I'd have is the video card (in regards to high settings) but thats only because I'm not to savvy on the Ati cards, though at first glance I'd say it would do the job your wanting, coupled with your processor that is.

[Freddie]

Mother Board:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813131046

[COLOR=Green][FONT=Comic Sans MS][CENTER]Do yourself a favour and buy the motherboard instead Asrock Intel 945P with crossfire. The board you selected is meant for micro ATX cases (small ones like the Shuttles PC's), this one is bigger thus ahs more expansion slots and it has the ability to run crossfire, and its cheaper.

BTW your old PC, are the hard drives IDE or SATA? If there IDE you might want to consider getting a SATA hard drive as new motherboards only come with 1 IDE slot (they may say two but the other one is for the floopy dirve which is a smaller IDE cable) and you need that for the optical drives. In case you dont know the differance....





(above: SATA connector)


(above: IDE connector)

The only concern I'd have is the video card (in regards to high settings) but thats only because I'm not to savvy on the Ati cards, though at first glance I'd say it would do the job your wanting, coupled with your processor that is.

ATI haven't had a decent mid-range card since the 9600 pro, when it comes to mid range Nvidia are kings. If I was you I would get this card EVGA GeForce 7600 GT it even has a "Mail in rebate" what ever that means, its cheaper then the card you selected and its faster, uses less power and quiter! I've been accused of being an ATI fanboy before.....................which is true to an extent but the mid range from Nivida are hard to beat.

[MasterAdnin]

Okay, will do, and Freddie, if you notice from my old threads, that is the same exact mobo I chose before.

Also, it's IDE, so I guess I'm going to have to get a new one due to the one IDE connector on the MoBo and the DVD drive has to go to that.


New Hard Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16822144415

Salaam,
Adnan

[Selahedîn]

I know I have made a lot of threads, and I have the approval of my parents to build a computer, just don't know if I should wait until the 8k series of GPU's is out to buy the parts, since the video cards will be cheaper.

Here are the parts:

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16811208009

Mother Board:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813131046

RAM:
Stripping 1 GB of my older computer that broke down

Video Card:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16814161026

Sound Card:
Using Mother Boards integrated

Processor:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16819115004

Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16817104953

DVD/CD Drives:
Stripping off my older computer

Hard Drive:
Stripping off my older computer, has 160 GB

Are these parts good? I want the system to be able to play Medieval 2 Total War on highest settings. Also, will I have to install Windows XP onto the computer again, as the hard drive already has it?

Salaam,
Adnan

1. Don't worry, those parts are good. They're pretty similar to what I currently have (I have a 7600GT and a different motherboard though).

2. I believe you will be able to play M2:TW quite well, even with high settings.

3. Yes, you will need a fresh installation of Windows XP.

[MasterAdnin]

1. Don't worry, those parts are good. They're pretty similar to what I currently have (I have a 7600GT and a different motherboard though).

2. I believe you will be able to play M2:TW quite well, even with high settings.

3. Yes, you will need a fresh installation of Windows XP.

Thank you for your reply. Do you have M2TW? If so, what settings can you play at, and I'm getting the 7600 GT.

Salaam,
Adnan

[Freddie]

Thank you for your reply. Do you have M2TW? If so, what settings can you play at, and I'm getting the 7600 GT.

Salaam,
Adnan

I just remembered. To install Windows XP on a SATA hard drive you will need to load SATA drivers onto a floopy disk. The motherbaord manual should have instructions on how do just that. It’s a pain if you haven’t done it before, when XP start to install the setup files it will say press F6 to install a third party Raid driver….press F6 a few times (to make sure) and wait for a minute until the rest of the files finish loading. You then get asked to inset the Raid driver disk (don’t worry about the term Raid) and selected the setup file it picks up from the floppy disk.

[MasterAdnin]

I just remembered. To install Windows XP on a SATA hard drive you will need to load SATA drivers onto a floopy disk. The motherbaord manual should have instructions on how do just that. It’s a pain if you haven’t done it before, when XP start to install the setup files it will say press F6 to install a third party Raid driver….press F6 a few times (to make sure) and wait for a minute until the rest of the files finish loading. You then get asked to inset the Raid driver disk (don’t worry about the term Raid) and selected the setup file it picks up from the floppy disk.

Crap, so I'm going to need a floppy drive??? Crap, I guess I can take one off my older computers.

Thanks a lot, saved me a lot of trouble,
Adnan

[Selahedîn]

Thank you for your reply. Do you have M2TW? If so, what settings can you play at, and I'm getting the 7600 GT.

Salaam,
Adnan

I don't have M2:TW yet but I can play both demos really well, even with high settings.

[Incinerate_IV]

Do yourself a favour and buy the motherboard instead Asrock Intel 945P with crossfire. The board you selected is meant for micro ATX cases (small ones like the Shuttles PC's), this one is bigger thus ahs more expansion slots and it has the ability to run crossfire, and its cheaper.

I agree with that, if you don't plan on overclocking, that's your best bang for the buck. It even supports dual graphics.

Good luck on your new computer.

[MasterAdnin]

I agree with that, if you don't plan on overclocking, that's your best bang for the buck. It even supports dual graphics.

Good luck on your new computer.

So then is everything fine??? Hard drive, CPU, Video Card, MoBo??? All good???

Salaam,
Adnan

[PyrrhusIV]

It looks pretty good actually. A nice processor, the E6400 is a excellent processor, and should do very good in M2:TW. Everything else seems fine, that is actually a nice system, a very, very good mid range system, bordering high end. The 7600 GT is also great, so you should be able to play high settings fairly well I presume......

Looks good to me.....

is your RAM compatible though?

[MasterAdnin]

It looks pretty good actually. A nice processor, the E6400 is a excellent processor, and should do very good in M2:TW. Everything else seems fine, that is actually a nice system, a very, very good mid range system, bordering high end. The 7600 GT is also great, so you should be able to play high settings fairly well I presume......

Looks good to me.....

is your RAM compatible though?

Thanks, and the RAM is DDR2 and it's a computer from what, like last year. It's MoBo got screwed up, something blew in it and we can't get it fixed, we got a three month warranty. So i'm going to use that one. Also, what can I do to get it high end???

Salaam,
Adnan

[Selahedîn]

To get it high end? Well you could start by buying a 8800GTS (320$) instead of a 7600GT(120$), though I really can't see why you would want to do that just now.
Unless you're already obsessing about DX10, there seems to be a lot of people who really can't wait another second without having a DX10 compatible GPU... (not saying it's a bad thing, if you like spending that kind of $ on computer hardware I can only say go for it!)