Militaris

List of suggested boards and a price taken from newegg. They are ranked in terms of increaseing preformance. There are other cards around, but in normal prices these are the best value for money... They would all play the games you want, but some would play it better then others :) I assumed AGP. Radeon 9600PRO $66 GeForce 6600GT $139 GeForce 6800 GS $$229

Decided to build a example computer with parts from PLE. CASE ANTEC SLK1650B BLACK CASE 350W $109 CPU AMD SEMPRON 3000+ 64BIT S754 $135 MBRD ASUS S754/AGP/SATA/SND/LAN/DDR400# $89 MEM PC3200 1GB DDR400 DIMM $129 HDD WESTERN DIGITAL 160GB 7200RPM 8MB # $111 VC NVDIA GEFORCE 6600GT 128MB/TV/DVI # (Make sure it is AGP) $209 OPT LG/SAMSUNG CD-RW 52X52X32 # $34 Total: $816 Now for the extras SFT WINDOWS XP HOME OEM (WITH NEW PC ONLY): $149 Monitor: MNTR ACER AF715 17" FLATSCREEN CRT BLACK# $159 KEYB LASER KEYBOARD & MOUSE OPTICAL $29 SPKR LOGITECH R-20 1XSUB 2XSPKR 2.1 $39 Total: $1192 With $100 dollars to spare, I do not think I forget anything. Potential upgrades include a better screen, better optical (CD/DVD) drive, better mouse/keyboard combo.

A few places where you can save money :) - Purchase a Sempron instead of a Athlon 64. They are about half the price, and for what you can afford the preformance difference in games should not be noticable. - A by-product of the sempron purchase would be the fact that you would now be purchasing a socket 754 motherboard, instead of the more pricy Socket 939. Should purchase one with a nForce4 chipset which would allow the use of PCI-Express which should work out to be slightly cheaper then AGP. - You should still aim to purchase 2x512MB Dual Channel DDR RAM. Should target cheaper brand such as twinmos or A-data to save a few more dollars. or you could buy a single 1GB stick. - You could save quite a bit with the PSU, depending on your choice of video card it might be possible to go generic. Although buying the cheapest decent brand would be wise, good brands include (Fortron, Enermax, Topower, Thermaltake, Antec, Zalman, Silverstone, OCZ), while ok brands include Superflower, Icute, Leadman/Powermax, raidmax.Probably best to aviod Deer, Hyena, Novia or generic PSU with cheap case. - With regards to hard-drive, you can purchase a smaller drive and save more. - The Monitor can be a big source of savings, You can choose to go 2nd hand CRT, probably could get a 17" for around $25, or brand new CRT which would be around half the price of a simalar LCD. (Buying a 15" LCD would not save much compared with 17" LCD) - With regards to video cards I would provide a list of cards. In order of increaseing preformance. These cards I consider good value for money. Radeon 9600PRO (AGP) Radeon X1300 PRO (PCI-E) GeForce 6600 (PCI-E,AGP) Geforce 6600GT (PCI-E,AGP) Radeon X800GT (PCI-E, AGP) To check out prices I suggest pricespy http://au.pricespy.biz/ The price you pay for buying a cheaper system is less preformance and less furture proofing. Sorry about any spelling errors, had to rush this and did not have much time to double check.

This movie always makes me laugh. Watched it so many times over the years.

Slightly off-topic: I have never seen such a poor range of parts before... although I failed to find even a single aussie store with a good range. I even checked the aussie pricespy and after looking through 12 shops I gave up. On ropic: On your budget and for the system, the ASUS A8N-SLI is overkill (it is compatible, it is socket 939). The foxconn board would be the best one to consider. Foxconn is not the best of brands, but they still make usable products. The extra money which the ASUS board costs would be better spent on a better video card, I would suggest a GEFORCE 6600GT PCIe.

I doubt the Cyber-shot DSC-T9 would be any good compared with Canon or Panasonics offering. A few other Ultra slims which were released at the show. HP R725 http://www.dpreview.com/news/0601/06010409hpr725.asp Fuji FinePix V10 Zoom http://www.dpreview.com/news/0601/06010403fuji_v10.asp PENTAX Optio A10 http://www.dpreview.com/news/0601/06010 ... ax_a10.asp Samsung Digimax i6 PMP http://www.dpreview.com/news/0601/06010301samsungi6.asp The Fuji and Pentax could be interesting. Although pentax have been missin the mark lately. The fuji could have good ISO abilities, although the '3 game gimmick' is quite disturbing. A good camera would sell itself.

/me pats his regular PCI card ;) Yeaaaah, still kickin :D PCI's fine if you're living in the stoneage, if you have any will to upgrade in the future at all. You have to go PCI-E. :? PCI-E is not the only option, AGP is still struggling on. That struggle is being supported by a decent range of AGP cards available (X800 XT, X800 GT, X800 GTO, 6600GT, 6800GS...) these are same very nice cards and would easily out preform the majority of graphic cards being sold while allowing playable performance in the newer games for little expense. These cards are slower then the likes of the 7800 GT/GTX or X1800XT but anyone who plans to spend approx $300/500 USD on a top of the line GPU would not want to use it with old hardware. There is not much point to build a new system with AGP (Unless its a cheapie based around Sempron on socket 754 (which would play all current games combined with a 6600 AGP). But there are still many good computers based around nforce3, these machines require AGP and would still be usable for several more years. (In short, if money is tight, AGPx8 is still worth considering

I don't know about the reviews, but the Maths suck :D xpress 200 = 0.7 * x300SE x300SE = 1.1 * Radeon 9200 Radeon 9200 = 0.9 * Radeon 8500 Radeon 8500 = 1.4 * Radeon 7500Pro So: xpress 200 = 0.7 * 1.1 * 0.9 * 1.4 * Radeon 7500Pro = 0.9702 * Radeon 7500Pro So, it's about 3% slower than the original 7500 Pro. And yes, cumulative percentage taking sucks. Never just add them up, always multiply their numerical equivalents :) My method of maths was accurate enough for the quality of the data... and both methods gave a simalar answer that 7500 pro and xpress 200 are simalar in preformance. (The best maths is the simple method).

fullmetaboy is obviously nothing more then a annoying troll... best just to ignore any of his comments/suggestions. Just have a glance at his other posts. (ASPIRE is a decent PSU brand, I read somewhere that they are lower end Topower (OCZ use Topower also I believe) (The only AMD Opteron worth considering is 165, maybe 175... and then because it is cheaper then the Athlon 64 equivalent and are excellent overclockers)

I would not be so sure. My old Compaq had a 2.8Ghz Celeron and Intel "EXTREME" Integrated Graphics and got 20 FPS on 640x480 on CS 1.6 I might have to load Half life on to my mums laptop which is power by a SiS 330 Mirage Integrated to see what it is capabel of. I spent a good hour trying to find reviews comparing intergrated with external... the only luck was this review here. http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2269 A few quotes "The lowly Radeon X300 SE is basically twice as fast as the Radeon Xpress 200, which isn't saying much as the X300 SE is basically the minimum level of playability for Doom 3." " the Radeon Xpress 200 actually makes Far Cry playable. If you turn the quality settings down even further the game becomes even more playable, but at the expense of making it look like one big aliased blur" From reading the info, it is clear that Intergrated graphics is around 30% slower then a x300 SE. Now I have to try and relate the x300 SE with a radeon 7500 pro.... 'fun' By looking at this review here, it seems that the x300 SE is slightly better then the Radeon 9200. The 9200 is slightly worst then the older Radeon 8500 (Maybe 10-15% slower).... From what I could find out (could not find any direct comparison)... the 8500 is about 40% better then the 7500pro.. Apart from being half losted. ummm... x 300 SE: 30% Faster then Xpress 200 9200: 20% Faster then Xpress 200 8500: 30% Faster then Xpress 200 7500 pro: 10% Slower then Xpress 200 Ummm.... I dunno how accurate my little comparison is (probably a waste of time). I wished I remembered to list the reviews I used. Although I reckon there is a good chance that todays intergrated graphics are simalar in preformace to the 7500 pro.

Here is a interesting article on CPU and their in game performance. http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/di ... ames2.html It roughly claims/proves "you donÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t need a high-end processor for real gaming with realistic settings and high image quality." "So, the best gaming system configuration from the price-to-performance point of view should definitely include a powerful graphics card, which will determine not only the image quality, but the gaming comfort in general. As for the CPU, you shouldnÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t spend tons of money for a high-end model. You will be able to get almost the same performance from a CPU like Athlon 64 3200+ or Pentium 4 650."

Integrated graphics would be fine for playing runescape. The longer you can hold of buying a video card the better, There is a massive performance increase for video cards between generations. The best cards currently would probably be equal to next generations mid-range. I made do until recently with a Radeon 7500 Pro, I could play a wide range of games (Half life, Black & White, incredible creatures ect) without any issue. I suspect todays integrated graphics would out preform that card.

AMD processors are supior then intels for most tasks. 2Ghz on a AMD processor would be fine for the next few years. I do not personally beleive there is much need to purchase faster and hence more expensive CPUs. Integrated graphics are rather bad, and upgradeing is reccomended. If the PC has a free PCI-E slot, or for older models a AGP slot, then you would be able to slot in a new video card of the apporiate type. It is better the spend more money on a good video card then on a faster CPU. A few suggested cards: Radeon X1300 PRO $99 GeForce 6600 GT $139 (Lowest: $114) Radeon X800GT $139 Radeon X800GTO $159 (Cheaper ones have 128MB) GeForce 6800 GS $199 GeForce 7800 GT $299 (Ranked according to preformance, slowest top, best bottom) (prices from newegg.com)

I realise I suggest many things above. This is just to summarise my previous posts. These are the main components I would get if I was planning to buy a new computer with no intention to overclock or upgrade for 2 years.. AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4400+ EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra (Motherboard) GeForce 7800 GT http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/02/vga_charts_viii/ (Benchmark to compare different card preformance) Memory: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR 400 (PC 3200)

I would advice against getting water cooling, it is really only useful if you want a silent PC or need the extra cooling for over clocking. It is really just a unnecessary expensive and hassle. With regards to overheating I doubt it would be a problem, the stock heat sinks are designed to keep the hardware at a stable under normal conditions. With a decent PSU and a reasonable quality case cooling should be satisfactory. I like the Cooler master cavalier cases. They are priced around $60 and are good value. I personally would not pay any more then that. I have also seen a combo deal at Newegg, if you purchase a AMD X2 4400+ and a Antec case (from within a range) you can get a discount. The cases have good PSU within them.

A quick look at my case (top post), it would cost $1720, while yours was $1365. The GPU, second hard-drive and more expensive memory increased the price. I would suggest the 6800GS rather then the 6800GT, the GS is cheaper ($189.00 vs $253*) and pretty much identical with regards to preformance. Here is a review comparing preformance. http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2593 * prices were cheapest from Newegg.

Overclocking can cause the CPU to run hotter, become less stable, and shorten its life. I personally believe that the makers do not 'overclock' at stock because they would compete with their more expensive alternatives. But anyway, because I have little better to do, I would look at a few potential alternative parts. CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4400+ $497.00 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103546 (Good dual core CPU, spending more would give more preformance) Motherboard EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra $105.00 This is also a good board with simalar preformance as the one for DFI, although without many of the overclocking tools. It is cheaper and probably easier to use. Video Card SAPPHIRE Radeon X1800XT 512MB $489.00 This is a very fast card, probably the fastest currently around..... (Would need to double check that) Suggested Alternatives include the 6800GS($189.99), 7800GT($299.00) or the 7800GTX($459.00). If you want to improve preformance for game play then getting a good video card is probably the best place to spend your money, Although video cards seem to lose their preformance advantage faster then other components. Memory. Like darkrick suggested 2GB is worth while if you do not plan to upgrade for a while. It has also gone down in price quite a bit so its nearly dirt cheap. With regards to the brands and specs only consider PC3200/DDR400, A few of the Brands with good reputations are Corsair, Kingston, Mushkin and OCZ. Although I do not recognise the brand (Although I do not recognise most brands of ram), the following ram seems to be good value for money. G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR 400 (PC 3200) $169.00 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231047

Below is a cheaper alternative. CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz Socket 939 $171.00 Motherboard DFI nF4 Ultra-Infinity Socket 939 $96 Memory: CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) $168.00 Hard-Drive: Western Digital Caviar RE 250GB 3.5" Serial $105 Video Card: eVGA GeForce 7800GT 256MB $304.00 Monitor: Acer AL1914smd 19 inch 8ms LCD $280 The rest does not change, although a 420w enermax PSU should be fine. Total price: $1426

You can get a very nice machine for $2500 USD, the store which most people suggest for purchases within the US is http://www.newegg.com , They seem to have low prices while giving good service. They also stock a comprehensive range of products. Now onto the fun part. I would assume that you require everything, including a new monitor. I would also assume that you are not planning on overclocking. CPU: If you spend more money you can get a faster processor, but the 4000+ should offer more then enough, the 3200+ is accurate for most tasks. Another option is to go with dual core, that roughly doubles the price) AMD Athlon 64 4000+ 2.4GHz Socket 939 $334.0 Motherboard: This is a good preforming motherboard at a good price DFI nF4 Ultra-Infinity Socket 939 $96 Memory: 2x512mb of ram in dual channel is often suggested, although you allocated plenty of money to spend. You could easily save $100 here by going with value ram. OCZ PC-4000 2x1024MB EL Gold $228.41 Hard-Drive: I was thinking a large storage drive, and a smaller faster drive for preformance when it is needed. Although you can drop the raptor and save $156. In general the brand does not matter much. Western Digital Caviar RE 250GB 3.5" Serial $105 Western Digital Raptor 74GB 3.5" Serial $156.00 PSU (Power Supply): A good PSU is worth while for high end systems. I have always found enermax to be good value for money. ENERMAX Noisetaker EG495P-VE SFMA ATX 485W Power Supply - Retail $76 Video Card: Game play preformance is heavily influnced by the video card. The card below also has 2 DVI ports which would allow you to run dual LCD displays (Assuming the displays require DVI ports) A cheaper Alternative would be the 7800GT card, at a glance you would save around $200. eVGA Geforce 7800GTX 256MB $459.00 Case: Something you like the look of.... $65+ Monitor: I found 2x 19" to be better then a single larger display. It is also cheaper. Although 1 display is still fine. If you do not care for dual supply, half the cost. Acer AL1914smd 19 inch 8ms LCD (x2) $560 Speakers: I do not know much about sound and speakers, but I like Logitech, and I liked the looks of these speakers and they are quite cheap. Logitech X-530 5.1 Speaker $53.99 Mouse and Keyboard: Choosing which mouse/keyboard is a lot up to personal preference. I find the cheap logitech ones fine, but many swear by the high end stuff. (I choose logitech because I like their products) Logitech MX518 931352-0403 Optical Mouse $31 Logitech Media Elite Black Wired Keyboard $27 Optical drive: I do not have a brand preference. Look to spend around $40-$50 Total Price: $2241 * The above is a good machine and would run most games without any problems, although you can get a machine nearly as good for around $1500. There is a nice buyers guide on Anadtech which is also worth a quick look. http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2659&p=1 *Price is a indicator only.... There is a chance parts might not be 100% compatible.

caesar 3 is a great game... might just have to find the CD. (Although the later levels get a bit tedious) Also trying to defeat caesars army is fun... but hard.... could be impossible can not remeber.

It should work like the other words.... For example if you want to search for Dragon Dagger but want to exclude the ones for sale. Search something like the following Dragon AND Dagger NOT Sell* NOT Buy* NOT Sale* The above gave me 613 matches. If I remove the NOT's and just search " Dragon AND Dagger " I get 695 matches.

You should not get any lag from a 1GB stick unless it is faulty. I have heard that extra ram can causes a slight performance decrease if it is not being used. But I believe such a decrease is not noticeable with real use. If the extra ram is needed system performance would improve. The cost of 1GB of ram depends on which country you are from, Because you did not include a location I would assume you are from the USA (they are the worst for not including location) 2 x 512MB costs from $70 (+ shipping) upwards from Newegg.

There are several options, although in most cases there is no need for ad blocking. http://nontroppo.org/wiki/BlockAdvertisements The best method is by using User JavaScript, because it is so simple. The one I like the most is 'Hide objects' because it disables flash, applets ect while allowing the less annoying advertisements live. http://userjs.org/scripts/general/enhan ... de-objects

The X700 Pro was ATI answer to the 6600gt which is quite a recent mid range card. (Although the 6600GT was the better card). The GeForce 5500 is a old entry level card, which preformed slightly better then the ATI 9600. The 9600 series (Which included several great value for money cards) was replaced by the x700 series. This is a link to a review of the 5500, for comparison reasons consider that the x700 pro would preform better then the top cards in that review. http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/124/1/ In short, you were ripped off massively, the two cards are barely comparable. In general the best value for money cards at the moment are: 6600 GT X800 GTO 6800 GS

On paper the Asus A8N-E does look like a nice board, and during my recent research into upgrading my computer I did consider it for a while. The thing which put me off it was the negative comments often directed towards it on tech forums.... Although these problems probably would have been fixed in newer models, plus it suffers the problem of being a common board so chances are more problems would arrive. The Asus A8N-E So should be fine. (Shame the shop does not stock the epox 9NPA+ Ultra, such a nice board for a good price although almost impossible to find in my part of the world)