Minimum Spec: BF2

Tobba · Post by **Tobba** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:11 am

Guys,

Like others in this post, I'll be investing very shortly in a new pc...

Just wanted your ideas on a kind of minimum-comfortable spec for the main components, excluding sound, i.e.

Processor
RAM
Graphics Card
Motherboard

Maybe there's been a post on this before?

Any help greatly appreciated...was considering the XPS 720 from the French Dell site - any ideas?

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/produ ... l=fr&s=dhs

thanks,

Mike

Post by **.Sup** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:16 am

The real gaming machine on the site you provided is the XPS you mentioned. But its very expensive for the components that you get. Vista is an unnecessary luxury. You will be happier without it. So without Vista it would be a lot cheaper.
The 8600GTS is a good card but not enough for incoming games but certainly good enough for BF2.
For such a high cost you get some noname memorys with a not very fast speed of 667 MHz.
If you or your buddy would build a PC for the same amount of money, you would get much more. Everything from A to Z would be better than this XPS for the same amount of money.
So reconsider building it yourself.

DaRkAcE · Post by **DaRkAcE** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:27 am

Trust me, it's surprisingly easy to build a computer yourself. I haven't had much experience in building pc's except for upgrading a few things here and there. Id say the hardest part about building a pc is probably putting the mother board in. Not hard just long. Its probably best that you have a friend help because you have to keep taking it in and out to put the spacers in on the case to keep the mobo off the side of it. Other than that it was the cpu cooler that I had a little trouble on because I didn't realize you had to turn a nob to keep the thing in there.

Tobba · Post by **Tobba** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:27 am

That's kind of what I thought Sup....too much for what you get!

Thanks for the info from both of you guys....

SSnake_Plissken · Post by **SSnake_Plissken** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:19 am

The Dell XPS is a great machine, I have one myself, but it is expensive and you will get more bang for you buck if you build one yourself. I got the XPS due to my limited time and because i liked the 3-year warranty, but if you were to invest in a ATX box and a good (1000w) power supply you could use that box and continue to upgrade for many years. Dell is proprietary, which means that only a motherboard designed for that Dell unit will fit in it, and as you know if you wanted to upgrade the Dell motherboard (and CPU) in the future you would be out of luck.

Go with a good ATX box and build it yourself, it will be much cheaper in the short term as well as the long term. You will also have much more upgrade choices in the future.

If I were to build one today it might look something like this...

Case: COOLER MASTER Stacker 830 Evolution RC-830-SSR3-GP Silver Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case Real Power Pro 1000W Power Supply $399
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119139

HDD: Qty 2 (RAID 0 or 1) Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s $70 (there are faster HDD's, but they get more expensive)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148262

Video Card: NVidia 8800 GTX $530 (Maybe Ultra?, and probably upgrade to dual in future)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130072

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) $160 (at least 2GB, upgrade to 4gb eventually)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820148070

Motherboard: EVGA 122-CK-NF63-TR LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard $165
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813188019

OS: Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Home Premium for System Builders Single Pack DVD $112
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6832116202
*May want to go with XP (I would)?

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 Kentsfield 2.66GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor $550 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115027

Fan: COOLER MASTER GeminII RR-CCH-ANU2-GP CPU+ Board Cooler $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835103026

Creative 70SB046A00000 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series $146
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6829102005
(This is also optional, I use headphones so a soundcard is not a big deal to me)

Estimated TOTAL: $2242 (not including tax, etc…)

MorpheusPT · Post by **MorpheusPT** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:36 am

that is way too much money

Post by **madcow** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:40 am

MorpheusPT wrote:that is way too much money

For what?

Snake's listing is cheaper than the Dell...

MorpheusPT · Post by **MorpheusPT** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:42 am

yeah, i know, but it's still expensive..

Tobba · Post by **Tobba** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:51 am

Thanks a lot Snake for those details and Morpheus...

I appreciate at least Snake that I've been trying to source the right parts from off-the-shelfers (my preferred parts are similar to yours), but it's the time and experience thing that will swing it...

I might end up going for something like this:

http://www2.grosbill.com/fr/ordinateurs ... ORE-GAMER-

Bottom line: hope to very soon trade shots with you guys online...it's been too long

mike

Post by **madcow** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:58 am

If only newegg shipped internationally... with the current exchange rates I could get a computer for half the price it is in the UK from the States.

DaRkAcE · Post by **DaRkAcE** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:22 pm

There is no need for dual GTX, there is nothing that needs that much power. And if you can wait for till Q1 of next year intel is coming out with their new 45nm procs. E8500 for 300 bucks, its running at 3.16ghz or you can get the new quad core(forgot the name) thats running at 2.66ghz for the same price.

MorpheusPT · Post by **MorpheusPT** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:26 pm

tobba, you can try doing this.

Instead of buying the parts in France, buy them from Germany.

You can check out ebay.de for instance.

I've bought all my computer parts, playstation 2 parts and a full laptop from german sellers, and they price is just incredibly low. And the products arrive fast, and in perfect condition. So, i'm buying all my stuff in germany

Post by **Ash2Dust** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:17 pm

madcow wrote:If only newegg shipped internationally... with the current exchange rates I could get a computer for half the price it is in the UK from the States.

Wonder what the VAT and other tarrifs are from here to UK.

PinkAss · Post by **PinkAss** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:24 pm

http://geizhals.at/eu/

Cheapest You can get in EU.

SSnake_Plissken · Post by **SSnake_Plissken** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:37 pm

That's a sweet system Tobba, you'll do great with that or anything similar.

My list was only meant as a suggestion, all of those parts could be upgraded to better ones or downgraded to fit a budget. I think $2k is a very good price for the gaming rig I suggested, especially since anything you buy from a computer manufacturer would be much more $.

If you wait long enough there will always be something newer or better, so at one point you'll just have to make a purchase, otherwise you'll always be waiting for the next best thing, and never own anything.

When I make a purchase i like to think of the future of gaming and not of what I play/need currently, but that's just me. I personally won't be making another purchase for at least a year, and by then all these parts will be much cheaper, but also old technology, and I'll have a completly new list by then with bleeding edge technology (hopefully).

Free-to-play based on teamplay and tactics.

Minimum Spec: BF2

Minimum Spec: BF2

Too much dosh...

Final Solution