Heya All...
It's time for me to upgrade my home systems since my current build (OLD - check my sig) will not play the latest games at decent framerates. Though, it'll still play most games without too much of a hit; Bioshock is pushing it a bit too much, but it plays Portal fine.
I'm wanting to build a much quieter system (no more jet engines in the living room), so I'll be purchasing a new case, power supply, and pretty much everything.
My budget is $3K, but for two identical systems: one for me, and one for the wife. So, the cost should be under $1500 for each.
To start:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
Video card: ATI Radeon HD 4870 (or 4850) - just one, not Crossfire
Memory: minimum of 2GB RAM (maybe 4GB if it can meet the budget)
Motherboard: Considering something with a P43 chipset since I'll just be using one vid card, or P35/P45.
I've been out of the hardware scene for a few years, so figured I'd post here for some advice.
Thanks in advance!
It's time for me to upgrade my home systems since my current build (OLD - check my sig) will not play the latest games at decent framerates. Though, it'll still play most games without too much of a hit; Bioshock is pushing it a bit too much, but it plays Portal fine.
I'm wanting to build a much quieter system (no more jet engines in the living room), so I'll be purchasing a new case, power supply, and pretty much everything.
My budget is $3K, but for two identical systems: one for me, and one for the wife. So, the cost should be under $1500 for each.
To start:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
Video card: ATI Radeon HD 4870 (or 4850) - just one, not Crossfire
Memory: minimum of 2GB RAM (maybe 4GB if it can meet the budget)
Motherboard: Considering something with a P43 chipset since I'll just be using one vid card, or P35/P45.
I've been out of the hardware scene for a few years, so figured I'd post here for some advice.
Thanks in advance!