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Longtime Mac User Bying a PC

Macmaniac

Macmaniac

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 6, 2001
3,341
1
A tiny spec in the "Garden State", 1 square mile i
Yes its true, after being windows free for 19 years I am getting myself a PC to complement my powerbook.

Before everyone jumps down my throat about a PC let me explain:
I like to play games, and many of the games I want or currently own do not run well on the Macs I own.
I am aware the Intel Macs are out(I have read this forum for 5 years) but I sadly do not own a MacBook Pro.
I would love to get an Intel Mac to dual boot, but its too expensive right now, and the Mac Pro's will be out of my price range.

So I am building myself a PC, here are the specs:
Motherboard: ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.4 GHz processor
Video Card: ATI All In Wonder 2006 Edition
480 Watt Power Supply
16x DVD Burner
Maxtor MaxLine III 7V250F0 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 533 (PC2 4200)
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-WW Black/Silver Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Acer 19in Flat Panel Monitor
Logitech MX3000 967553-0403 2-Tone USB + PS/2 RF Wireless Standard Desktop Mouse Included

Tell me what u think. I can't wait to build it:D
 
Macmaniac said:
Yes its true, after being windows free for 19 years I am getting myself a PC to complement my powerbook.

Before everyone jumps down my throat about a PC let me explain:
I like to play games, and many of the games I want or currently own do not run well on the Macs I own.
I am aware the Intel Macs are out(I have read this forum for 5 years) but I sadly do not own a MacBook Pro.
I would love to get an Intel Mac to dual boot, but its too expensive right now, and the Mac Pro's will be out of my price range.

So I am building myself a PC, here are the specs:
Motherboard: ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.4 GHz processor
Video Card: ATI All In Wonder 2006 Edition
480 Watt Power Supply
16x DVD Burner
Maxtor MaxLine III 7V250F0 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 533 (PC2 4200)
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-WW Black/Silver Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Acer 19in Flat Panel Monitor
Logitech MX3000 967553-0403 2-Tone USB + PS/2 RF Wireless Standard Desktop Mouse Included

Tell me what u think. I can't wait to build it:D
Click to expand...

I have never heard of that graphics card:eek:
 
What kind of games do you like? The x1300 is not a very good card compared to current offerings. I understand the AIW version is a tad better, but I would suggest a 7600gt. Overall very good and balanced card, plus I just picked one up from newegg for $140 bucks after the rebate just 2 weeks ago.
 
You should know by now, a lot of people here still think that PCs are for games while the Mac is a good work platform.

Nothing wrong with buying a PC to play games on, certainly works better than some of the lousy Mac ports of the games.
 
saunders45 said:
What kind of games do you like? The x1300 is not a very good card compared to current offerings. I understand the AIW version is a tad better, but I would suggest a 7600gt. Overall very good and balanced card, plus I just picked one up from newegg for $140 bucks after the rebate just 2 weeks ago.
Click to expand...


I second that. The x1300 isn't that great of a card, and for a bit more you can get a far more powerful card, which would definatley be worth it.

Lately I've been thinking about doing the same thing- building a gaming rig. As soon as I get a job (nobody wants to hire a teenager around here :rolleyes: )I'll start saving towards it. Nothing wrong with a gaming machine!
 
saunders45 said:
What kind of games do you like? The x1300 is not a very good card compared to current offerings. I understand the AIW version is a tad better, but I would suggest a 7600gt. Overall very good and balanced card, plus I just picked one up from newegg for $140 bucks after the rebate just 2 weeks ago.
Click to expand...
Yeah I am aware that the x1300 is a little underpowered, but I am not going to be pushing FPS games at all.

I am going to use it for Warcraft III, C&C Generals, Battle for Middle Earth II, Rome Total War, Star Wars Empire at War, etc.

I also chose the card so I can watch TV, since I don't have a TV in my dorm room, I may just stick a second video card into it since it has two 16x PCI Express Slots, one for TV, the other for gaming.
 
Macmaniac said:
Battle for Middle Earth II
Click to expand...

This game has pretty hefty video requirements if you want it to look good.. I suspect the others fall into that category as well.

Ultimately if you're going to spend the $ on building yourself a gaming PC, there's a couple things you CANNOT skimp on.
GPU & CPU being at the tippy-top of the list.
 
Macmaniac said:
Yes its true, after being windows free for 19 years I am getting myself a PC to complement my powerbook.

Before everyone jumps down my throat about a PC let me explain:
I like to play games, and many of the games I want or currently own do not run well on the Macs I own.
I am aware the Intel Macs are out(I have read this forum for 5 years) but I sadly do not own a MacBook Pro.
I would love to get an Intel Mac to dual boot, but its too expensive right now, and the Mac Pro's will be out of my price range.

So I am building myself a PC, here are the specs:
Motherboard: ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.4 GHz processor
Video Card: ATI All In Wonder 2006 Edition
480 Watt Power Supply
16x DVD Burner
Maxtor MaxLine III 7V250F0 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 533 (PC2 4200)
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-WW Black/Silver Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Acer 19in Flat Panel Monitor
Logitech MX3000 967553-0403 2-Tone USB + PS/2 RF Wireless Standard Desktop Mouse Included

Tell me what u think. I can't wait to build it:D
Click to expand...

that sounds pretty good...we are way past the horrible days of microsoft windows 95/98/ME and early linux releases so many PC boxes are quite agreeable these days

very few, if any PCs, match a mac, but it's ok as a second machine, and ok as the sole machine for many people

my main advice is to have anti-virus, anti-spam, and a good firewall, and always keep them updated for microsoft windows xp...you do this and things should go as smoothly as using os x
 
Macmaniac said:
Yeah I am aware that the x1300 is a little underpowered, but I am not going to be pushing FPS games at all.

I am going to use it for Warcraft III, C&C Generals, Battle for Middle Earth II, Rome Total War, Star Wars Empire at War, etc.

I also chose the card so I can watch TV, since I don't have a TV in my dorm room, I may just stick a second video card into it since it has two 16x PCI Express Slots, one for TV, the other for gaming.
Click to expand...

Rome TW is going to put a LOT of stress on your GFX card...all the movement and the huge number of models on the screen at any given point (if you are in a large battle) will make an underpowered PC run like a slideshow.

I agree with Yellow- you are spending a good amount on this thing, and if you want it to really look awesome, spend the extra cash now.
 
Also, there's a price drop in late July on that AMD processor (I beleive it's the same one I'm interested in), which should put the price of it ~$147!! So at least wait for that.

And please spend more on the video card. I suggest getting 1/2 of an SLI-able video card. That way you can easily add another one later, otherwise you're wasting money on a video card that you won't even use when you go to SLI (and you'll waste the money on).
 
I am aware of the price drop on the processors, but as of now I am going to go ahead with the current proc. However, I just got off the the phone with NewEgg, I canceled the All in Wonder, any suggestions on a specific SLI compatible graphics card?
I am quick to have buyers remorse:D I am going to look at some more video cards now,
Please suggest card, $200 is my max for now on a card.
 
Sorry, I can't really suggest one. I was told that getting any video card with a picel pipeline of less than 24 was a complete waste. Just choosing that automagically puts you in the $250+ category for SLI-ready video cards.

Maybe this one, it's only a 12 pixelpipeline card but it's cheap and will work with your motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130017

You might want to consider this motherboard as a replacement too.. socket 939 will take you WELL into the next gen of hardware.
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131540
 
What do you guys think of this
XFX PV-T73G-UDD3 Geforce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150140
It goes for $195, but there is a 25 rebate through July, it is SLI compatible, but in the end I may not be using SLI after all, for now I want to get as much performance as I can out of one card.
 
Macmaniac said:
What do you guys think of this
XFX PV-T73G-UDD3 Geforce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150140
It goes for $195, but there is a 25 rebate through July, it is SLI compatible, but in the end I may not be using SLI after all, for now I want to get as much performance as I can out of one card.
Click to expand...


I'm not as well versed as yellow is, but that one looks good to me.
If you want a good card with 24 pipelines, there is this one for $60 more, which I know is over your budget, but I thoight I'd throw it out there. I also don't know if it is compadible with your motherboard (I have never built a PC, so I don't know that kind of stuff :eek: )
 
Yikes, I'm definitely not "well versed". I just a lot of research into this and am lucky enough that all my collegues at work are both PC support people and gamers. They know what they're talking about and they helped me put together a decent list of high-quality (yet mostly inexpensive) hardware for a very decent gaming-rig that will be expandable. All for ~$1000.
 
yellow said:
Yikes, I'm definitely not "well versed". I just a lot of research into this and am lucky enough that all my collegues at work are both PC support people and gamers. They know what they're talking about and they helped me put together a decent list of high-quality (yet mostly inexpensive) hardware for a very decent gaming-rig that will be expandable. All for ~$1000.
Click to expand...


Well you know which GFX card is compadible with what motherboard, which makes you automaticaly more well-versed than I am :p :D

There are several people at my school who tear apart computers and rebuild them for fun, so I have never had to do anything hardware related myself. I just ask them and they do it and enjoy it. I figure that if I learn how to do it myself I'll just be stealing their fun. :D
 
Bah, for the price, I'd buy 2 of these and run them in SLI.

http://dealnews.com/deals/PNY-Ge-Fo...Card-for-118-shipped-after-rebate/124523.html

THAT... is a good deal.

Not to mention, I highly doubt you'll notice a difference between the cards. I just built a "cheap" gaming pc myself. I was looking at going the cheaper route on the card, but I can run Age of empires 3 at 1680x1050 with "Uber High" settings and 2x AA and it looks pretty freakin good while running buttery smooth. I know everyone says that, but I haven't ran any timedemo tests or framerate checks because of the lack of time. BFME2 runs pretty good also, especially when i changed forced the native resolution through the .ini file.
 
An x1300 can't power squat, you might get some good CS 1.6 action out of it :)

Check out forum.overclock3d.net for some great hardware reviews and advice on your new PC setup.
 
saunders45 said:
Bah, for the price, I'd buy 2 of these.

http://dealnews.com/deals/PNY-Ge-Fo...Card-for-118-shipped-after-rebate/124523.html

THAT... is a good deal.

Not to mention, I highly doubt you'll notice a difference between the cards. I just built a "cheap" gaming pc myself. I was looking at going the cheaper route on the card, but I can run Age of empires 3 at 1680x1050 with "Uber High" settings and 2x AA and it looks pretty freakin good. BFME2 runs pretty good 2, expecially when i canged the .ini config file to run at the native resolution, unfortunaly, the FOV stays the same.
Click to expand...

Damn... that's an awesome deal

Good call on cancelling the x1300... you would have been disappointed.
 
Thanks for the advice so far, I am still looking over GFX cards as of now, but I will keep you guys updated when I order one tomorrow. As for the Mobo that was suggested I did look at it, however its not compatible with X2's or DDR2, which I would like to leave open as an option further down the road.
Keep the advice coming:D
 
You should wait and see just what Apple releases, I have never felt the excitement on new models as I have over the Powermac series the past yrs. Though I was dissapointed by the Radiator G5s I have a feeling we may see something all new. Wait 1st or you may regret is my 2 cents you maniac. Plus new Macs are Pcs so why bother?
 
Dont Hurt Me said:
You should wait and see just what Apple releases, I have never felt the excitement on new models as I have over the Powermac series the past yrs. Though I was dissapointed by the Radiator G5s I have a feeling we may see something all new. Wait 1st or you may regret is my 2 cents you maniac. Plus new Macs are Pcs so why bother?
Click to expand...
As much as I would love to wait I know whatever Apple puts out will be out of my price range.
Especially when it comes to video cards, I would love to get a mac for gaming, but for the price and gaming the PC wins in this case.

As for the card I think I have decided here it is: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127217
MSI NX7600GT-VT2D256EHD Geforce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card
 
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