PC Experts - Need suggestions on building a PC for Doom 3

[Anthony1]

Here is the situation. I need to build a PC to use with my X1 DLP Projector that I project on a 113 inch diagonal 16:9 screen.

One of the main reasons I want a PC for my projector, is to play Doom 3. But there are a few other reasons. I also understand that if you use special software, and the right video card and everthing, then you can get DVD movie quality better than any normal DVD player can provide. It's pretty complicated, but it has to do with using a PC as a video scaler, and upscaling the native DVD signal to HDTV resolutions. Anyways, I want to use the PC for that too, but I also want to use it to play Doom 3 and Half Life 2 and also MAME, and other emulators of old school systems. Also if possible I would like to record OTA HDTV to the hard drive with a Tivo like card.

Now the hard part is that I really can only afford to spend $800. I do have a Tower and a Power Supply to use, and a floppy drive. But I would need to get everything else. I would need the motherboard, CPU, memory, Video Card, Sound Card, Hard Drive, DVD player, etc.


I know that it's kinda hard to budget all of that for $800, but I need to keep on a relative budget.

Here is how I though I would breakdown the money spent on the different items:


CPU - Best I can get for $200 ish (Athlon 62 3200)
Video Card - Best I can get for $200 ish (Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB?)
Sound Card - Might need to go with motherboard audio for now
Hard Drive - I can get a Western Digital 120GB for $49.99 after rebate
Motherboard - Best I can get for around $100 Probably need onboard 6.1 audio chip to save money on audio card for now
DVD Drive - Might need to find out if any of the computer DVD drives are better at playing dvd movies than other ones. If I can use basically any old DVD player, then they are less than $30 right?
Memory - I'm clueless on the memory. I can probably spend about $125 or $150 on the memory. I'm not sure how much HDTV Tivo like cards cost for the PC's.

Anyways, any suggestions on what CPU and Video Card you think I should go with?

What's the best CPU for $200 ish?

What's the best Video Card for $200 ish?

Should I just go with the motherboard audio temporarily to save money?

[kai123]

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6104596/index.html

[midgey]

I believe frys has a pentium 4 3.0 ghz with a pretty good motherboard for $199 this week. I could be wrong on this though (check out the hotdeals forum on www.anandtech.com for comfirmation). With the $100 you save you can get a good sound card, since John Carmack has said that you'd be better off playing Doom 3 on a fancy sound card and mediocre video card than playing it with mediocre sound and good video.

Also, check out the hot deals forum over at anandtech for a post about Crucial video card refurbs. They've got some pretty cheap stuff ($150 for 9700 pro 128mb) and their stuff is all quality.

[hezeuschrist]

I believe frys has a pentium 4 3.0 ghz with a pretty good motherboard for $199 this week. I could be wrong on this though (check out the hotdeals forum on www.anandtech.com for comfirmation). With the $100 you save you can get a good sound card, since John Carmack has said that you'd be better off playing Doom 3 on a fancy sound card and mediocre video card than playing it with mediocre sound and good video.

Also, check out the hot deals forum over at anandtech for a post about Crucial video card refurbs. They've got some pretty cheap stuff ($150 for 9700 pro 128mb) and their stuff is all quality.

If you want to play any game, do not buy Intel.

Right now the rig you've got set up looks great *cough*sig*cough*, but you're going to want a real sound card if you intend to use the system as a DVD player. onboard 6.1 doesn't compare to having a real card in there, but it'll do in a pinch. Can always slap an Audigy 2 ZS in there later if you wanted to.

For a motherboard, you could get the one I've got, except instead of the K8T-Neo FSR, you'd want the K8T-Neo FIS2R, as that's the one with the onboard 5.1.

You won't find a better videocard for $200, but don't be too disappointed when it starts chugging in a year.

As for memory, you can easily just get a 512 stick of really generic crap for $125, then match it later when Half Life 2 comes out for that most likely very needy gig. I highly reccomend newegg.com for all your purchases, always quick and always reliable.

Oh yeah, my rig blows out Doom 3. Runs fantastically, sometimes too much so. It's so real :/

EDIT: Whoops, don't have my computer in my sig. Here it is.

http://www.flamevault.com/~jesus/comp/case.html

[calthaer]

I too would suggest getting a real audio card with optical or coax out so that you can get a true digital signal. There is NO comparison between 5.1 and stereo - it's just so much more awesome when you can hear guys coming up behind you. The on-board stuff...meh.

One thing you probably do want on-board is a RAID controller, so that you can do RAID 0 or 1 drives and make it even faster.

I echo hezeus - eschew Intel, embrace AMD.

Don't forget that you can also do region-free DVD stuff on a PC, which is something you can't do on a regular player. There's software out there but it's best to just invest the cheap price of one of the legacy drives that had no region-encoding on the hardware (if you can find one of the drives out there used).

[whoisKeel]

sounds like you have it pretty much nailed down pricewise. just be sure you're not spending $800 just to play doom3, at least without playing it a good bit first. without causing an arguement, i think the game is pretty damn over-rated, though the graphics will floor you.

[midgey]

I've never understood processor fanboys...but I'm going to try and avoid a flame war here. If you actually understood the ins and outs of CPUs (i'm not assuming that you don't) you would most likely realize the architecture of the most recent Intel CPUs is better. There is a reason why most respectable engineering firms use a dual setup of intels for most CAD work. For a common gamer, the high price of an Intel is likely to keep them away. The gap in prices between intel and AMD isn't justified for the work that goes into the chip, unless your chip is going to produce money for you.

For the aforementioned engineering firms, the cost of implementation pays off as it reduces the amount of hassles.

Its no doubt that Intel is on the forefront of technology, its their horrible marketing thats keeping customers away. Try to find a recent CPU engineering marvel from AMD thats comparable to Hyper Threading or the new mobile pentiums that absolutely trump the PowerNOW technology.

As for the Raid controllers, its not very neccesary unless you have redundant HDDs. Its well documented that Raid-ing a single HDD will decrease performance. But if you're going to eventually use the computer as a PVR, Raid would be an excellent choice, but a useful implementation of it would send you way over-budget, unless you can get in on one of those once in a blue moon free hard drive deals. Otherwise a simple SATA HDD will do fine for now.

As for Ram, 512mb for starters, but I wouldn't spend over $100 unless you understand timings and plan on overclocking. Depending on your motherboard, a pc2700 or pc3200 should do fine.

http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.jsp?oid=70463 for pc2700 $60 in my area
http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3645845 for pc3200 $50

-Andrew
(who typed this message on an AMD machine)

[EnemyZero]

here we go - go to newegg.com most of there stuff is free or dirt cheap shipping.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ - $175
MSI Athlon 64 mother board - $83
Corsair dual 512 ram ( will be 1GB ) - $166
Western Digital SATA 80 GB hard drive - You dont need a massive hard drive, 80 gig is enuff especially with the new SATA technology wich pulls info out almost 10x faster as the older ones - $71.50
ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 256MB DDR ram (AGP) - $266
Aero Cool CPU cooler - $51.99

I just put this together, and its a monster and only cost me $814.49

[Raedon]

I run an AMD 2400+ running 2.1ghz, 1.5gig of 3200 ram, a 35$ Nforce2 chipset motherboard and a Radeon 9800 pro 128meg and the game runs great at high detail 1024x768. Never drops below 35fps.

Now if you want the best stuff.. go higher end graphic card.. at higher resolutions or 4xAA 16XAF my 9800 pro bogs down to a halt.

[fahrvergnugen]

The price/performance curve on AMD chips is so much nicer than the price/performance curve on intel chips that it just doesn't make sense to buy Intel. That said, if you value your sanity, never buy a mainboard based on the Via chipset. You will rue the day.

The Nforce2 boards with Soundstorm have the same audio hardware on-board that the X-Box uses, and it tears up all competition. Sadly, these only support AthlonXP's, which are end-of-life, and the newer Nforce3 boards don't support the audio technology.

I'm going to go on record as advising AGAINST ever buying a Creative Labs product. Just to make sure I'm totally clear about this: I'd rather have ass-herpes than have to deal with Creative's software & drivers ever again. There's some good competition going on from Hercules & some other vendors, a few online searches will hook you up.

Now is really a terrible time to be buying a computer if you plan on upgrading in the future. The Athlon64 is going through a socket change, so any motherboard you buy now in your price range won't have a very good upgrade path in a year or two.

If you want really good advice on HTPC's, you need to consult with these guys (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=13&daysprune=). They're madmen.

Finally, you might want to look into Shuttle XPC systems. They're a bit pricey for a barebones, but the small size and plethora of onboard options & output devices make them appealing choices for HTPC use.

EDIT: Go read this thread, right here (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=207994).