New Computer, need help with what to choose.

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Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (65nm) 1.86GHz 2MB Cache 1066 MHz
Enhanced SpeedStep technology, streaming SIMD extensions 3, 64-bit Technology, Execute Disable Bit capability

Mainboard:
Asus P5B (1066/800/533Mhz)
1x PCI-E(16x) 3x PCI-E 3x PCI

Memory:
1G DDR2 PC5300 DDR667
4x 240-pin DIMM - Dual Channel Supports

Harddrive
320GB S-ATA II 7,200rpm 16MB
1x UDMA IDE 6x S-ATA-Riad

Optical
18x D-Layer DVD-/+RW Drive

Video
Asus Geforce 7300GS PCI-E 256MB
Dual-VGA, TVout, HDTV

Audio&Lan
Integrated 8-Channel & Gigabit Ethernet

Case
17" Tower case 400W ATX power supply
2x Front USB Ports, 4x Rear USB Ports

Keyboard&Mouse
Logitech Cordless Express Desktop - keyboard& Optical Scroll mouse

Speakers
Logitech R-20 2.1 Speakers with Subwoofer

OS
None
----------- http://www.genericcomputer.com/shop/
Now, I'll mainly be using this for gaming.
The only things I know what I'm looking at is the Memory, Video card and HDD's.
Everything else I'm oblvious what to get or do about it.

Would this be a good gaming machine.. ? I want to be set for a few years at least.
I'll be ordering it from a local shop here, from the parts on the site, I'm not sure what exactly I should get.
Also, should I get windows Vista home.. ? I've heard I'd take a hit in the FPS department in games such as WoW, and even crashing others.
But chances are I won't upgrade for another long while and, is it worth getting or just wait the years till' the next upgrade?
I have Windows XP Home & Pro already.

With the parts on that site, should I go for more? I'm not sure what I should put on a cash limit, but I guess go for something good.
Also, explain some of the important parts and such please, thanks. D:
 
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If you are willing to play only on medium to low settings then this will do for a year or two. But if you want a really good gaming rig get atleast 2 gigs of ram and a 7900 or wait for the 8900 >_>
 
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Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (65nm) 1.86GHz 2MB Cache 1066 MHz
Enhanced SpeedStep technology, streaming SIMD extensions 3, 64-bit Technology, Execute Disable Bit capability

Mainboard:
Asus P5B (1066/800/533Mhz)
1x PCI-E(16x) 3x PCI-E 3x PCI

Memory:
1G DDR2 PC5300 DDR667
4x 240-pin DIMM - Dual Channel Supports

Harddrive
320GB S-ATA II 7,200rpm 16MB
1x UDMA IDE 6x S-ATA-Riad

Optical
18x D-Layer DVD-/+RW Drive

Video
Asus Geforce 7300GS PCI-E 256MB
Dual-VGA, TVout, HDTV

Case
17" Tower case 400W ATX power supply

----------- http://www.genericcomputer.com/shop/
Now, I'll mainly be using this for gaming.
The only things I know what I'm looking at is the Memory, Video card and HDD's.
Everything else I'm oblvious what to get or do about it.

Would this be a good gaming machine.. ?:
Okay bud, i bought about the same rig as you, but I got a 7600GS. Listen to me. SOme people will say to get an 8800GTX, 2gigs of ram, and Vista prenium to future-proof yourself, but I would wait. Do this:

A: Replace the video card with a 7600GT(or 7600GS, you'll get about a 10FPS difference in real-world gaming). Get someing from the 7600 series, at this point you only want to TIDE YOURSELF OVER UNTIL VISTA SP1 HAS BEEN RELEASED!!! Neither Vista or DX10 are worth it until Vista performs as well as XP, and it won't do that until it gets an update. DON'T GO SPENDING $550.00 on a 8800GTX or GTS, you don't need it as no DX10 games have been released, just get a 7600 series card, then upgrade in 6 months to a year.

Also get a larger power supply, it has been shown that 400 watt isn't enough for DX10.

Yeah, upgrade that 7300GS, or you will suffer until you upgrade.
 
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I bought an 8800 GTS for $250. If that's in your price range, it's worth the money.
 
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I bought an 8800 GTS for $250. If that's in your price range, it's worth the money.
Dude, the guy has a 7300GS, which is a BUDGET CARD! If people with budget cards had the money, they would all be on 8800GTX's, but that is out of his range.
 
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If someone had 250 dollars, why would they attempt to buy an 8800 GTX which is beyond that price range?

He said to aim higher, so what's the harm in giving him options?
 
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DON'T GO SPENDING $550.00 on a 8800GTX or GTS, you don't need it as no DX10 games have been released
... because the only advantage to the 8800s is the fact they can handle DX10? No, they also kick the **** out of every other GPU out.
Barney's_Soul said:
Also get a larger power supply, it has been shown that 400 watt isn't enough for DX10.
There will be cards released very soon that's be fine on a 400 watt PSU, but that's not the point. The point is he's using the one that comes with the case, which is a terrible idea. Go buy a decent one; something like this.
Barney's_Soul said:
Yeah, upgrade that 7300GS, or you will suffer until you upgrade.
Indeed. Either wait for the medium end G80s to come out in April or go with the 8800GTS 320 or 640MB version. Also since you're going to be using this computer for the next few years, 2GB of RAM may be a worthy step up, and the Core 2 Duo E6400 instead of the E6300.
 
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... because the only advantage to the 8800s is the fact they can handle DX10? No, they also kick the **** out of every other GPU out.

Yeah, for about 1 more month, then better cards will be released, like the 512VRAM R600. Even ATI's midrange will own nvidia's high-ish end card.

Besides, he can just get a 7600GT, once Vista and DX10 becomes mainstream and a catolog of games is out, the Geforce 8 series will be obselete. I say get a 7600GT and wait for Geforce 9800GTX, then get Vista(with SP1)

Also, games are getting more intensive every day, that GTS will only play on highest for a little while longer....
 
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Judging by the looks of his system, I think it's safe to say his goal isn't to play every game that comes out in the next few years on high. As you said, games are getting more intensive so every vid card that comes out will "only play on highest for a little while longer". Here you are telling me 250 dollars is out of his price range, and yet you're suggesting he buy a 9800 GTX. It doesn't make sense.
 
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Yeah, for about 1 more month, then better cards will be released, like the 512VRAM R600. Even ATI's midrange will own nvidia's high-ish end card.
You have no basis upon that, especially considering that ATi/AMD themselves have warned investors that their highest end won't kill the G80 and the preliminary benchmarks are hardly anything to be worried about.
Barney's_Soul said:
Also, games are getting more intensive every day, that GTS will only play on highest for a little while longer....
We could play the waiting game for a million years, Barney, or we could get what we want when we want it.
 

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Thanks for your replies, what I want to know is, would I be hurting if I didn't get the Vista upgrade? (Home)
Also, I am sort of on a budget yes, I'm limited to the shop I linked on my OP.
I won't be exactly playing all the new DX10 games that come out, sure I'll be playing games on this machine, but mostly games that are already out, since I don't really plan on buying games usually unless they are a 'must have' (HL2, Spore).
I'd mostly be playing WoW, HL2 Mods, America's Army, ect. As I said, games that are already out mostly.
The main purpose of this upgrade, is to have a nice kick in FPS while I get the Option to upgrade again.
I'm stuck in the woods with a AGP machine.
Unable to get a real GFX Card upgrade because of these SLI and PCI-E things.
I'd be willing to get 2G of RAM and a new GFX if it were say, under 1K (w/PC and such)
I also do not need Mouse/Keyboard w/Speakers or HDD's, I'll be using my current ones, since I will mainly be upgrading the machine.
Which is the only thing I haven't upgraded in a long while.
(New monitor, speakers, ect)

Current machine:
AMD Athlon XP 2500+, MMX, 3D Now, ~1.8Ghz
1024Mb RAM
RADEON 9800 PRO - 128MB AGP

That "900" Tower on the site I linked looks awsome =D
 
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This is the way I look at it, Get the best you can, As there is always something better around the corner. I was actually looking at the 7300GT as an Upgrade option for my Athlon XP 3000+
but the 7300GT would only be slightly faster than the Radeon 9800. Remember its a budget card ^.^ But it should be able to play everything currently on the market, But it seems the Good Price/Performance card is the 7600 series.
You could always get 1gb of ram then upgrade that to 2gb later, But if you wanted to, You could just disable programs+windows services to claim some resources back :)
I just bought a new 'gaming' laptop, (Still waiting on it!) and it has only 1gb of ram (Tried to cost reduce as much as possible), But If I notice allot of disk swapping in my games, I will probably upgrade to 2gb of memory.
Its really up to you. 1gb of memory is currently mid range right now, 2gb high-midrange. It all depends on how much memory YOU would use, and if you NEEDED 1gb with XP you will NEED 2gb with vista.

Edit: And when it comes to direct X 10 gaming, You probably wont need a Direct X 10 card for a long time, Remember how long it took for Pixel Shader 2.0 to become mainstream? Yet games like Half Life 2 still ran on Direct X 7 hardware, (Geforce 2, 4 MX) And when games required Pixel shaders the Venerable Geforce 4 and 8500/9200 and Geforce 3 could still run the games for a long time to come.
 

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Mainboard: $160
P5B
ASUS SKT.775 INTL P965 ATX
Item #:
Asus P5B

Memory: $80/Each (2, $160)
TWO,
Transcend 1GB - DDR II - 667 MHz
DIMM 240-pin - DDR II - 667 MHz / PC2-5300 - CL5 - 1.8 V - non-ECC
Item #:
JM388Q643A-6

Harddrive: $85
WD 250GB WD2500JS SATA Harddrive
Western Digital - Hard drive - 250 GB - internal - 3.5" - SATA-300 - 7200 rpm - buffer: 8 MB
Item #:
HD-WD2500JS
+(Installing old HDD's:
Samsung SP0802N,
ST380011A.)

Optical: $23 + $23
Item Name:
LG 52X32X52 CD-RW EIDE *BLACK*
Item #:
LG-GCE8527BB/BK
+
Item Name:
LG 16X DVD-ROM INT. *BLACK*
Item #:
LG-GDR8164B/BK

Video: $290
Zotac Geforce 7950GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI-X video
Item #:
VC-ZT-79TE51P

Audio&Lan:
Integrated 8-Channel & Gigabit Ethernet

Case: $120
Antec Nine Hundred Case
Item #:
cs-Gamer900

Keyboard&Mouse:
None.

Speakers:
None.

OS:
None. (Comes with old HDD)

$861 Total.

Did I get that right?
Am I missing anything.. ?
All items are from the local shop in the original post.
 
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On the Antec Nine Hundred Case:

A friend of mine has it, yes the cooling is awesome and it looks fairly cool but it's not silent as it advertises. The main fans (the case is almost completely comprised of fans) have speed settings, if you're running idle then low is fairly quiet, otherwise there are quieter cases out there.
 

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On the Antec Nine Hundred Case:

A friend of mine has it, yes the cooling is awesome and it looks fairly cool but it's not silent as it advertises. The main fans (the case is almost completely comprised of fans) have speed settings, if you're running idle then low is fairly quiet, otherwise there are quieter cases out there.
Sound of the machine is not a problem to me as I don't really mind it and can fade it out once I'm focused on more important things.

So how is the machine looking? Am I forgetting any key hardware or something?
 
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It all seems good :) In fact I'm jealous -.- Why can't Australia have those prices!?!? I would be upgrading every week if it was the case. Instead of once every couple of years.
 

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