November shaping up to be great for gaming

[LA_MERC_Captain_Obvious]

Crysis (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=8286) set to come out on Nov. 16th

Army of Two (http://www.ea.com/armyoftwo/home.jsp) set to come out on Nov. 15th

Hopefully I can upgrade my PC for my birthday in Nov. to be able to play these games. they both look great. I'm pumped about Ao2, about time they incorporate some comedy.

[Rollout]

I can't wait to see Crysis, (that's why I'm in the upgrade mode currently :) )I still think Farcry is the BEST single person FPS I've ever played. The open environment and HQ vid resolution were aweesome, and the story line was just plain fun. Couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next!

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

Crysis looks promising. I'm in upgrade mode again as well.

[LA_MERC_th33_r00k]

Crysis looks promising. I'm in upgrade mode again as well.

Andy goes through upgrades like Bonds through steroids:stick.

[LA_MERC_Wetzny]

What the Bloody hell!

What will I need to add to this?

AMD X2 4800 CPU
HITACHI 160GB SERIAL ATA 150 8MB
2 GB ( 2X 1024)DDR
COOLERMASTER WAVE MASTER ALUM. SIL.
SILVER SONY 16X DVDRW DW-Q28A DUAL
SILVER SONY 16X DVD
24" IDE ROUND CABLE WITH 3 HEADS
ASUS A8N32SLI NF4-SLI 2-X16PCIE
WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL SP2
OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W Power Supply
CREATIVE X-FI XtremeMusic
2 EVGA NVIDIA GEFORCE 7800GT 256MB
12-IN-ONE INTERNAL CARD READER

[LA_MERC_Captain_Obvious]

I don't know if that 24" IDE round cable is going to hack it.... I mean come on, 3 heads?

also, there are 13-in-one card readers out now and yours is only 12-in-one. Pop quiz - you have to upload images from the 13th type of memory stick.... what do you do?!? WHAT DO YOU DO!!!????!!!???


















(p.s. - yes you should be fine to play the games in DX9 mode, but not able to get all the eye candy in DX10 mode)

[LA_MERC_Wetzny]

LOL... If I want, need, demand, must HAVE all the Eye-Popping, Sphincter tightening, Woody inducing graphics what do I add? TY!

[LA_MERC_johncst]

you add this all you need
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133187

can you handle it can you

[LA_MERC_johncst]

look at this game

http://hazegame.uk.ubi.com/

[Rollout]

Your CPU, motherboard, Vid cards and probably monitor are getting long in the tooth for new games, but it rocks for BF2!!!

[LA_MERC_Captain_Obvious]

yep, wetz, if you want full eye candy, you will need:

an 8800GTX (or 2 of them in SLI is you want most frames possible)
upgrade OS to vista (I don't like vista, but you have to have it to use DX10)

At that point, you will be CPU limited. you can't really upgrade your CPU much on that board (you have a socket 939 board w/DDR) If you truly want all the eye candy you can get, you need a new CPU = needing a new motherboard = needing new RAM.
I strongly suggest the Intel Core2Duo E6850 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115028) dual core 3.0ghz w/ 4mb cache for $319. AMD has nothing that can come close to it in performance right now. (and no, the A64 X2 6000+ does not perform even close to the same level)
for motherboard, stay with ASUS (there are a few other really good ones, but you can never go wrong with an ASUS board). Get either a 650i, 680i, or P35 chipset. If you go P35, make sure you get the DDR2 version. there is also a DDR3 version, but the DDR3 ram is very expensive right now for very little performance gains.
If getting new motherboard, and upgrading to vista, go ahead and get 4gb of DDR2 RAM. either 2 x 2gb or 4 x 1gb. price of DDR2 has been dropping

[LA_MERC_Wetzny]

Thats one hell of a list.. I guess I better get cracking on it.... Thanks for the guidance!

[Rollout]

It is a heck of a list David, but the prices are GOOD right now, summer lull!

My new components;

E6700 Core2Duo, instead of E6750 due to the wider range of multipliers (I have struggled with this discission all week, pros and cons to both), I plan to get at least 3.7 - 3.8 GHz on the O/C

EVGA 680I SLI motherboard, it allows me to use a quad 1333 FSB in the future as well as SLI 8800 GTX since I already have one

OCZ FLEX 2GB PC2-9200 RAM air/watercooled for overclocking head room and future watercooling if needed

BenQ 2407W 24" LCD, already a proven winner over the last week and a half!!! :)

I'll post benchmarks once assembled, hope to be 11000 - 12000 3DMark06

[Rollout]

Crysis Update!!! Coming for sure!!!!!!
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6176010.html?tag=nl.e579

[waltersw15]

You want the truth? You can't handle the truth! Just buy a new rig. Skip the upgrading all together.

[Rollout]

Did you see my parts list? It is a new rig :)

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

That's an amazing rig you got there Rollout! I've been checking out the monitor that you have recently (BenQ). Sounds like it is pretty sweet.

[Rollout]

Yeah real AMAZING, as I was sharing with Conda, upon arrival the board AND one stick of RAM were DOA!!! The replacement board is here (way to go Newegg) and the memory (Clubit, 3 day guaranteed) will be here next Wednesday, I HATE WAITING :(

[Ab1dab1]

I know you guys were throwing out Video card recommendations for the DX10......if you are going with Nvidia 8800 GTX, I'd recommend staying with eVGA.

They've been putting out quality cards for quite awhile and under tests have outperformed the retail cards you see on the shelves in brick and mortar stores like "inCOMPetant USA" and Best Buy.

I didn't go all out for the maxxed ram package but settled for the 320mb version and it kicks.

Abi

[Rollout]

I like EVGA too Abi, I have their board(the first of which was DOA) and the 8800 GTX. I had dual 7800 GT's from them before this also. Never had any problems until this board

[LA_MERC_Captain_Obvious]

Some "hand's on" experience with the x-box360 version of Call of Duty 4 (http://news.filefront.com/gaming-today-hands-on-call-of-duty-4-multiplayer/). Even though it's x360 version, you can still get a pretty good idea of what the PC version will be like. Looks like it will be pretty sweet.