Think fate hates me a little.

[Dox]

As you know I was really looking forward to the new medic enhancements and such... But my computer decided it wanted its motherboard to blow up 2 days ago... gonna have to buy a new computer but on the bright side it seems like my hard drive in my laptop should be ok so I should be able to get my map back.

Might take awhile for me to get a new one...

[kimangroo]

That's a bitch Dox, I know how you feel. My laptop's fan gave up the ghost a few months back and I busted the motherboard trying to fix it! Now the laptop I'm mapping on doesn't even play tf2 so I can't playtest my map... :(

As for your harddrive, you can pick up a hard drive case for $15 dollars or less, so it's really easy to get that up and running again.

[ryodoan]

Luckily my laptop is still running strong after 3 years, new hard drive (wanted more space), new keyboard (wanted a working spacebar), and a self installed internal bluetooth chip later and its still chugging.

[Youme]

Might take awhile for me to get a new one...

might take a while for valve to release those damn achivements anway....

[Dox]

Wow, I thought I was missing out, guess valve is waiting for my new computer to arrive :)

Getting an HP. HOPEFULLY the bank verification issues are going to be gone with that last phone call and I can get my comp mailed to me... then it will be 5-7 days till I get it. At which time im taking a short vacation when it gets here ;p

Edit: Nope, that wasnt it, I need to call them back on monday for a reorder.... this is stupid, really shoulddve built my own...

[Immortal-D]

Wow, I thought I was missing out, guess valve is waiting for my new computer to arrive :)

Getting an HP. HOPEFULLY the bank verification issues are going to be gone with that last phone call and I can get my comp mailed to me... then it will be 5-7 days till I get it. At which time im taking a short vacation when it gets here ;p

Edit: Nope, that wasnt it, I need to call them back on monday for a reorder.... this is stupid, really shoulddve built my own...

Is it too late to send to it back? I built a freakin-sweet dual core rig for just over 5 big ones. And that included case, psu, and Oblivion DVD.

[ryodoan]

Is it too late to send to it back? I built a freakin-sweet dual core rig for just over 5 big ones. And that included case, psu, and Oblivion DVD.

$5k for just a dual core? What the hell did you put in it, and where did you buy it from?

Over a year ago I built myself this computer for around $600 sans computer case and PSU, but if I tossed those in, it would have been around $730, no where near $5000.

Specs:
Core2 Duo @ 1.86 Ghz
Gigabyte Mobo cant remember all the specs.
XFX Nvidia 7900 GS
2 Gigs of Corsair DDR2 800

Then things I already had:
DVD-R drive
320 Gig Seagate SATA hard drive
500 Watt Ultra PSU
X-Blade Mid-Tower case

All in all its a pretty solid computer, it can play oblivion maxed out, the only game so far that has really killed it is crysis which I had to play on low / medium settings.

I am looking into upgrading to an 8800 GT soon also.

[Dox]

yeah, but i lacked self control when building my own and dont know what to downgrade. I was looking at about a $1600 system... without a monitor or speakers... on a $1500 budget

EDIT: That was from newegg, piece by piece... 8800GT graphics, 2.67 quad core processor, and 4 gigs of 800mhz RAM.

[ryodoan]

Ok, I am slacking off from homework right now but this sounded like an interesting project so I decided to see what kind of computer I could build off of newegg.

Here is what I came up with (the order of the items is the order that I select them):



CPU: E8400 Core 2 Duo @ 3.0 Ghz (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037)
Mobo: XFX MB-N780-ISH8 nForce 780i SLI intel Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141005)
Memory: 4x 1 GB Kingston DDR2 800 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134488)
GPU: XFX Nvidia 8800 GT 512 MB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150252)

This also has a $30 Mail-in-rebate (http://slickdeals.net/?pno=12342&lno=2&afsrc=1) that is not listed on newegg.


PSU: Thermaltake 550W modular SLI powersupply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153051)
Sound Card: Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102005)

Mobo has onboard sound, but I hear that a good sound card can boost FPS and improve sound quality.


Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500 GB SATA (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288)
Case: Thermaltake ATX Mid Tower (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133058)

Initial Total: $1,139
Total Rebates: $75 (newegg listed rebates) + $30 deal website rebates
Final Total before shipping: $1,034

Since your budget is $1500 and my final total was essentially $1000, this gives you some options:


Buy Mouse + Keyboard + LCD Monitor
Go for SLI with 2x 8800 GT's (add $180 to Initial total)
Upgrade to a 9800 GTX2 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150301) for +$400
Switch to 2.5 Ghz Quad Core (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115043) for +$80

Unless you do a crap load of multi-tasking I would stick with dual core. For me its not worth the drop in speed and raise in price. At the moment most programs are still trying to adapt to multi-core systems.
Oh, and I picked the 2.5 Ghz over the 2.67 Ghz Quard core because the 2.5 Ghz one has a 1333 Mhz FSB, and the 2.67 Ghz one only has a 1000 Mhz FSB. Also the Cache is bigger on the 2.5 Ghz (I think)

[Dox]

Yikes, I only get into the whats better whenever i need a new computer, which isnt very often, so I never really learned which stats to go with. I do know that TF2 can make use of quad core pcs, though

[ryodoan]

Yeah... I am a bit of a computer nerd... I have built 3 of my friends computers, my mom a computer, and my own computer.

So far I have only had 2 problems, one of which was because I did not read the motherboards manual close enough. Most motherboards I have worked with dont care if you put the RAM in slots 1/3 or 2/4 (or whatever) so I just went ahead and put them in 1/3, apparently it needed to be in slots 2/4, only took me 6 hours to figure that out. The second problem was a bad stick of memory, luckily that happened in my own computer so I did not need to explain to someone else why their computer was not working.

As for TF2 using multiple cores, I am not sure about that. I have 2 cores and when I play TF2 one core goes up to 100% and the other one drifts around 10-15% running all my other processes. Where as when I play CoD4, both cores ramp up to about 60-70%

[Dox]

huh, PC gamer said more of valves new stuff uses multiple cores, but I wonder what thier definition of "new" is...

[ryodoan]

huh, PC gamer said more of valves new stuff uses multiple cores, but I wonder what thier definition of "new" is...

If that is built into TF2 then it might use the other cores a little, but it still primarily uses 1 core.

[Dox]

should be built by MAY 5th, 5-7 days shipping... looking forward to fragging you all again in 2 weeks :)

[Youme]

.....in 2 weeks :)

:ohmy: you won't be fragging anyone mate, your hand will have srivelled up from lack of use buy then!:P

[Dox]

ill be doing finger lifts with 2.5 pound weights at the gym :)

(actually i might try that.... get uber muscles for that lightning fast button pressing... my mouse using hand at least :)

Additional note: Shipped today!