I posted earlier about my computer losing all of its memory space, and have been unable to fix the problem. So now I am looking at scraping the old one and build a new one. I do alot of gaming online like Joint Operations, Age of Empires III. I am looking to spend around $2,000.00 So I would like to get your opinions on building a reliable comp for the money I am looking to spend. Thanks in advance.
$2000 is a very high budget for a computer. Either you get a very high end computer or you buy ~$1000 one which will still handle all your games. If you go for a $1000-$1500 computer, then you're looking at specs with an Athlon 64 X2 3800 or higher chip. This will give you a dual core CPU which will handle the games while allowing good multitasking. The graphics card can be a GeForce 7900GT which is quite good for the money. However, if you decide to wait until AMD releases its new range of products or Intel does then you'll be have the option of an AMD chip with DDR2.
At any rate be sure to check out www.newegg.com for the best prices and don't skimp on the power supply. 450wts with 22amps on the 12v rail would be the minimum from a good brand like OCz, Seasonic, Thermaltake (they usually have dinky amp values but they're the only exception to the rule that I've found), Hiper, of PC Power and Cooling if you want to go crazy with it and keep if for 30 years.
Don't forget Antec, Enermax and Tagan, they're all quality PSU's. I agree with Addis, unless you really need a $2000 PC you'll do better spending $1000 - $1500 and getting a PC that will suit you just as well but save you the money.
As far as hard drive space this is a big concern, Id like to have multiple games downloaded at the same time. G.R.A.W. is coming out may fifth, It will need 1 gig of ram 5gig of hd. Plus I have the J.O. games and age of empires III. I do not want to experience problems like I had on my old comp. Are the recommendations going to give me plenty of room to add on? Also, I would like to have a good graphix card. Is the Geforce you recommended is good as I can get or are there better ones out there for a little more money. I am not questioning your opinion, I just want to make sure when I build my next comp. it lasts and is able to perform the way i'd like it to. Reliability is key. The comp in my signature is the one that took a dump on me and at the time I bought this one I spent $ 1,300.
Since you bring that up I feel it's only fair to let you know that this upcomming fall we'll be seeing a big change in the graphics industry as all new cards will be Direct X 10 parts instead of 9 which will make a big difference in upcomming games. I realize that's a long time from now but I just want to make sure you know that if you upgrade now you'll we moving up to a very fast, but very mature technology for better or for worse. With that large a budget I'd go with two gigs of ram, don't worry about that big deal Corsair XMS stuff with the LED's and so on, just get something nice like a 1GB pair of the same OCz Gold ram or so. As far as the best graphics cards currently the 7900GT isn't the best, though it's one of the best for your money. Arguably the best you'll get is the X1900XTX, though don't expect it to be at the top for too long.
$2,000? Nahh...you don't need that much. Here's something that'll run pretty much everything well (okay, Oblivion at 1600x1200 is the exception): Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-K8N-SLI Pro $85.00 CPU: Athlon64 X2 4200+ (2GHz Dual-core) $357.00 RAM: OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) Platinum $188.00 Video Card: PowerColor Radeon 1900XTX 512MB $499.00 Hard Drive: Western Digital 250GB SATAII $90.00 Optical Drive: Pioneer DVR-111BK $36.99 Sound Card: Creative X-Fi Xtreme $106.99 Power Supply: Enermax EG701AX-VE 600W $168.99 Case: CoolerMaster Centurion 5 $49.99 Total: $1,581.96 + Shipping (+tax for CA, NJ residents) Even if you wanted to upgrade your monitor, mouse, keyboard and speakers, unless you went to the extreme, the remaining money would cover that as well.
Wow, you really can do a lot with $1600 these days. That's pretty awesome. Personally I'd go with the ABIT SLI mobo myself but Gigabytes pretty good.
