So I'm building a Win Box for Doom 3...
I was hoping to get advice from you guys with suggestions about parts for my PC that I am building to play Doom 3 on. Please chime in! I cant wait for it to ship for the Mac. Been looking at parts at www.newegg.com. I need advice. I dont build PCs for games very often...
1) Mobo: I want something that is modern but not cutting edge. NIC,USB, etc onboard. 800 MHz FSB, DDR RAM would be my main requests. Any ideas? I have enjoyed Gigabyte in the past. Heard good things about Nvidia NForce stuff too. Do I want to consider PCI-X VS AGP 8x now?
2) CPU: I am thinking that a 2.8 GHz AMD or Intel will work. Please advice. Dont know too much about x86 CPU caching, hyper-threading, etc. Clue me in!
3) GPU: The critical component. I want Doom 3 to look killer at 1280x1024 max on my 19" flat LCD, but I don't want to spend $400 or $500 on a video card. 128 MB minimum VRAM. What will work for me? Will an ATI 9800 Pro 256 MB be OK? Or do I want the newer Nvidia stuff? Which vendor has better drivers for (ID's) Doom 3's rendering technology? Should I consider PCI-X instead of AGP now?
4) RAM: 512 MB-1.0 GB will work right?
5) Audio PCI Card: Help me here. I want 5.1, but dont know much about PC audio cards anymore. SoundBlaster, right? But which card is the best in the low to medium price range?
Am I missing anything here guys? I want a down and dirty Doom 3 box. Nothing pretty.
I have a case, power, CD, floppy and most cables. I even have a couple ATA 133 drives (if the mobo has Parallel ATA on it)
Will Doom 3 ship on DVD or CD?
1) Mobo: I want something that is modern but not cutting edge. NIC,USB, etc onboard. 800 MHz FSB, DDR RAM would be my main requests. Any ideas? I have enjoyed Gigabyte in the past. Heard good things about Nvidia NForce stuff too. Do I want to consider PCI-X VS AGP 8x now?
2) CPU: I am thinking that a 2.8 GHz AMD or Intel will work. Please advice. Dont know too much about x86 CPU caching, hyper-threading, etc. Clue me in!
3) GPU: The critical component. I want Doom 3 to look killer at 1280x1024 max on my 19" flat LCD, but I don't want to spend $400 or $500 on a video card. 128 MB minimum VRAM. What will work for me? Will an ATI 9800 Pro 256 MB be OK? Or do I want the newer Nvidia stuff? Which vendor has better drivers for (ID's) Doom 3's rendering technology? Should I consider PCI-X instead of AGP now?
4) RAM: 512 MB-1.0 GB will work right?
5) Audio PCI Card: Help me here. I want 5.1, but dont know much about PC audio cards anymore. SoundBlaster, right? But which card is the best in the low to medium price range?
Am I missing anything here guys? I want a down and dirty Doom 3 box. Nothing pretty.
I have a case, power, CD, floppy and most cables. I even have a couple ATA 133 drives (if the mobo has Parallel ATA on it)
Will Doom 3 ship on DVD or CD?
Comments
MSI KT8-Neo FIS2R mobo (You may want to look at some of the newer PCI-Express mobos tho')
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ proc
Ati 9800 Pro (They used the 9800XT, but I already had the Pro)
Corsair TwinX1024-3200XLPro DDR RAM (1Gig)
...and a bunch of other crap that rocks!
Anyway, I had always been a Asus guy for my gaming machine mobos, but this MSI is rock solid.
I highly recommend AMD over Intel for gaming - more bang for your buck!
Get a gig of RAM. I'm partial to Corsair, but Crucial and OCZ are other good brands. You'll need PC3200 if your FSB is 800Mhz
As far as the video card goes, recent Doom3 benchmarks show that Nvidia runs the game better than ATi's offerings.
I'm going to get a Geforce 6800 GT soon to replace my 9800Pro in anticipation of Doom3.
As far as I can tell, it's shipping on CD - no mention of DVD.
Good luck with your machine!
Mobo: Gigabyte K8NPRO w/ NF3 chipset (AGP 8x, SATA, 10/100/1000 LAN, FireWire, ATA/133, 5.1 audio, etc)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 2800+
RAM: 1 GB (2 x 512) DDR 3200, 400 MHz
Video: nVGA E-6800 (nVIDIA's 6800) 128 MB VRAM, AGP 8x
Hard drive: WD Raptor SATA @ 10,000 rpm (36 GB)
Case: Broadway (black) ATX.
Optical: black combo
Power: 420 Watts
OS: MS Win XP Pro (weeeee)
Audio: Logitech 5.1 system, + Stanton headphones.
Misc: Fans, cables, etc (no lame blue neon lights)