I'm planing on buying a new gaming PC and would like some advice

H

Hazuki Ryu

Regular
First of all let me tell you what I want, to start a really nice motherboard that I can keep for the next 7 years or so without having to change it (in a gaming evironment) so it would have to be ready for that "long" life.

So that means I would like a board with a CPU slot that will be very likely to be used for years to come as well as graphic cards slots the current slots are pci express and I already heard of pci express 2.0 and 3.0, I would like my board to be ready for the latest kind of slots that aren't likely to change in a near future so I can keep upgrading my graphics card as I see fit.

What do you guys recomend for me?

I don't have a lot of money to spend on the full machine but I don't mind buying some place holders like cheap graphics card/memory etc and upgrade in some months.

Also is it a good time for buying a pc like this now will there be any very significant tech advances that will make it outdated soon?

Thanks in advance.
 
You really need to rethink and readjust yourself with this. No motherboard no matter how expensive is going to last 7 years in a gaming system that remains relevant. I can see three years, four years is really pushing it.

You should also really provide a budget and all your goals with the system.
 
Skrying said:
You really need to rethink and readjust yourself with this. No motherboard no matter how expensive is going to last 7 years in a gaming system that remains relevant. I can see three years, four years is really pushing it.
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I see, so there isn't a way around it? I mean would SLI help my motherboard last longer for graphic cards upgrade? Assuming all the rest was top of the line ?

Budget for the board i'd say a max of 200€ if it's worth it. the rest like I said I'm gonna go with the cheapest I can for now that's why upgrading in the future is important.
 
Hazuki Ryu said:
I see, so there isn't a way around it? I mean would SLI help my motherboard last longer for graphic cards upgrade? Assuming all the rest was top of the line ?
Click to expand...

You can't throw money at it. Seven years is a long time in computer terms. Games releasing today can't even begin to play on hardware released seven years ago. A graphics that doesn't support DirectX 9 won't run a game today even if you have two of them. Also, by the time that seven years comes, or even really four years the slot used on modern cards will have changed in some way. Or say a CPU the socket might physically look the same but the motherboard might not have the proper power regulating available to it.
 
Skrying said:
You can't throw money at it. Seven years is a long time in computer terms. Games releasing today can't even begin to play on hardware released seven years ago. A graphics that doesn't support DirectX 9 won't run a game today even if you have two of them. Also, by the time that seven years comes, or even really four years the slot used on modern cards will have changed in some way. Or say a CPU the socket might physically look the same but the motherboard might not have the proper power regulating available to it.
Click to expand...

I see so sli wont solve the problem, is it still worth it though should I go for it or it won't really matter as one graphics card is enough?
 
Hazuki Ryu said:
I see so sli wont solve the problem, is it still worth it though should I go for it or it won't really matter as one graphics card is enough?
Click to expand...

You really need to provide a target price range on this. Currently the best chipsets don't support SLI. There are also two multi-GPU setups those being SLI for Nvidia cards and CrossFire for AMD cards. So, provide a price range and then you can get a much better idea of the parts to buy now. You must keep in mind that in reality anything above $600 is going to have the same longevity (generally speaking) as something $3000.
 
Skrying said:
You must keep in mind that in reality anything above $600 is going to have the same longevity (generally speaking) as something $3000.
Click to expand...

With that in mind lets say I want to spend between 600 and 800 on the machine.

Since the longevity is the basicly the same it really wont matter for me I won't be trying to play my games at very high resolutions (no more than 1680*1050 for sure)
 
Hazuki Ryu said:
With that in mind lets say I want to spend between 600 and 800 on the machine.

Since the longevity is the basicly the same it really wont matter for me I won't be trying to play my games at very high resolutions (no more than 1680*1050 for sure)
Click to expand...

My recommendation right now would be to check out TechReport's system guide. They have a system priced (once you remove the sound card, which I would recommend doing unless you have a $500+ audio system). That's a very solid system, I think 3 years of life is reasonable from it and still provide a good experience. A video card then could kick extra life into it, it's just really hard to predict. The market is also hard to read years out.
 
Skrying said:
My recommendation right now would be to check out TechReport's system guide. They have a system priced (once you remove the sound card, which I would recommend doing unless you have a $500+ audio system). That's a very solid system, I think 3 years of life is reasonable from it and still provide a good experience. A video card then could kick extra life into it, it's just really hard to predict. The market is also hard to read years out.
Click to expand...

Actually I have a 1500€+ audio system :) but there's other stuff there that I don't need for now, that gives me a nice idea of what to look for I see they have an intel processor is it a better deal than AMD right now?
 
Hazuki Ryu said:
Actually I have a 1500€+ audio system :) but there's other stuff there that I don't need for now, that gives me a nice idea of what to look for I see they have an intel processor is it a better deal than AMD right now?
Click to expand...

Hehe. Intel processors are certainly the way to go now. They offer way more performance for your dollar (and just way more performance overall) in all but the very low end market.
 
If you really must have the absolute longest potential lifespan from your components, now is not the right time to buy, as Intel's current socket is reaching the end of it's 4+ year life cycle, and is soon to be replaced by socket 1366 at the high-end, and 1160 in the performance segment. Socket 1366 is your best shot at a platform that may last you a good amount of time and provide ample opportunity for upgrade over the years. Then again, socket compatibility amounts to about a hill of beans in Intel-land. I have a 775 system that won't support anything but a Pentium 4. Not even a Pentium D will work, let alone a Core 2.

IOW: there are no guarantees of longevity with computers.
 
Low-end game systems should go with cheapest performance motherboard that has a good overclocking BIOS. Luxury/deluxe boards with lots of bells and whistles are rarely worth it for gaming rigs. This allows you to change it out (along with your CPU) every 2-3 years at less cost. You can expect a HSF, case, PSU, hard drive or DVD drive or even memory to MAYBE last 5+ years, but not the MB, CPU and GPU.
 
ShaidarHaran said:
If you really must have the absolute longest potential lifespan from your components, now is not the right time to buy, as Intel's current socket is reaching the end of it's 4+ year life cycle, and is soon to be replaced by socket 1366 at the high-end, and 1160 in the performance segment. Socket 1366 is your best shot at a platform that may last you a good amount of time and provide ample opportunity for upgrade over the years. Then again, socket compatibility amounts to about a hill of beans in Intel-land. I have a 775 system that won't support anything but a Pentium 4. Not even a Pentium D will work, let alone a Core 2.

IOW: there are no guarantees of longevity with computers.
Click to expand...

Are those boards out yet? can't seem to find them at the usual places I buy my stuff.

Mize said:
Low-end game systems should go with cheapest performance motherboard that has a good overclocking BIOS. Luxury/deluxe boards with lots of bells and whistles are rarely worth it for gaming rigs. This allows you to change it out (along with your CPU) every 2-3 years at less cost. You can expect a HSF, case, PSU, hard drive or DVD drive or even memory to MAYBE last 5+ years, but not the MB, CPU and GPU.
Click to expand...


Now that's a compleatly different aproach to what I was looking for :) but maybe it can serve me better who knows what do you call cheap motherboards? 50€?
 
Mize said:
Wow.
AMD Athlon 64 x2 5000+ *and* 2Gigs of RAM for $79 is a nice deal. Ends today though.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=3969587&sku=AMD-5000-2GB
Click to expand...

Oh man, i bought that exact configuration from that site some weeks ago. Now i feel sad. Incredible deal.

Btw, thanks ShaidarHaran and the others for your recomendations in the other thread. Is a nice improvement over my previous configuration but for some extrange reason it lags with firefox.

I hope my motherboard supports the phenoms when they get a die and price reduction in the future ;)
 
Refreshment said:
Oh man, i bought that exact configuration from that site some weeks ago. Now i feel sad. Incredible deal.

Btw, thanks ShaidarHaran and the others for your recomendations in the other thread. Is a nice improvement over my previous configuration but for some extrange reason it lags with firefox.

I hope my motherboard supports the phenoms when they get a die and price reduction in the future ;)
Click to expand...

No problem, glad you like it!

FF seems to lag for me lately too, even @ 4GHz on an E8400 w/4GB RAM @ 1GHz :rolleyes: I think FF itself is the culprit here.
 
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