Which system would YOU build?

stretch002

n00b
Joined
Jan 7, 2005
Messages
13
Hey everyone!
Thanks for all of the informational posts. Great stuff in here!

I am planning on building a new PC sometime in the next month and am wondering which of the two options below would be the best choice. Due to my budget constraints I cannot simply choose all the best parts and hope my wife doesn’t notice! My target budget is somewhere under $1500 and I am building this from scratch with the exception of a DVDRW.

I am hoping to build a computer which will be able to run games very well for the next four years. This computer will essentially be used solely for gaming with occasional internet surfing and Microsoft office applications. One unique thing is that I play games on a projector and thus am limited to a 1024x768 resolution. My game room is built around this fact and therefore I will not be changing this feature. This means I need to use a lot of AA to make games look as good as possible. I am not intending to overclock this machine unless it can be done without compromising stability and without using any tools (I am not handy).

Option 1:
Athlon 64 3200+ Venice
Geforce 7800GTX
1GB Ram

Option 2:
Athlon64 3700+ San Diego
Geforce 6800GT
2GB Ram

As a side note, how much better will both of these options be than my current computer?
P4 2.5ghz
Radeon 9800pro AIW
1GB RAM

Thanks in advance for any advice or insight you can provide!
 
Option #1 would be your best bet for gaming. You can always add another GB of ram later, and the CPU overclocks well. Have fun. :D
 
I'd got with option 2 and drop off 1gig of RAM. I've found that with 1gb, I don't even come close to using it all, unless I'm doing heavy duty media applications (Lightwave, CS2, AVI to DVD, etc). Save the money from that ram and get some other, better components, like a really good PSU.
 
Option #1 will be almost twice as fast as option #2 in gaming. Easy choice I'd say. Especially if you follow the above advice and drop a GB of RAM. If you do that, your essentially buying a computer that's 1 generation behind.
 
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