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"My (planned) Gaming rig"

Ok. I've been doing a lot of research recently and I plan to build a new computer from parts brought from the ludicrously cheap e-buyer. (Thanks to Uncle Albert)

However - This is where you lot come into play - This is only a plan for what spec I want - Please make any suggestions/changes and additions to anything that I may of missed out. I'm not exactly the cleverest person when it comes to choosing parts - All the different spec's and stuff are a tad daunting.

MSI KT4V-L SKT A 8X AGP DDR/Sound/lan/USB2.0 Motherboard - £45.48

AMD ATHLON XP2800+ 333MHz FSB Barton 512kb L2 Cache OEM - £102.51

PC3200 512mb 400MHz DDR RAM - £49.99

Soundblaster 5.1 Live OEM - £20.96

Seagate Barracuda 80Gb 7200rpm UDMA100 Hard Drive OEM - £54.99

Sapphire Radeon 9600PRO 128MB DDR DVI-I TV-Out Lite Retail - £116.16

JNC 4JA 121(a) Red ATX Midi Tower Case 300w PSU - £11.75

Liteon 52x24x52 IDE Internal CD-RW Drive Retail Box - £26.50

Aopen 16x48 IDE DVD Drive Retail Box - £19.99

Alps Floppy Disk Drive 1.44MB 3.5 inch internal OEM - £4.70

Coolermaster CP5-6J31C Socket A Upto XP3000 AMD Approved - £4.91

Chic 870 Scrolling Mouse PS/2 - £1.32

PS/2 Keyboard for Windows UK Version - £1.40

AC Power Lead (Kettle Type) Suitable for ATX PSU - £0.99

USEDSamsung 17 Monitoir SM753S 17 FST .23 70KHz MPR2 - £60.26

Logitech S2-50 2w RMS Speaker Beige OEM - £7.25

Ex VAT = £535.15
Inc VAT = £628.86

********************

Questions.

1) Is this setup decent? Can you suggest any changes
2) What the monkey does OEM mean
3) Is the motherboard ok for this setup?
4) What about the graphics card?
5) Would this be suitable for running games like Rise Of Nations or Half Life 2?
6) Have I missed anything out (cables/leads etc)
7) Is the case suitable? Or do I need something better?

Thanks.

gamezfreak

I've been using Samsung SyncMasters for years- very good quality monitors. One of the few South Korean conglonmerates that doesen't make utter crap, like Daewoo. They don't only make bad cars, but I won't go into that.

You must have used a crap TFT then, this one from Dell (17inch) rocks, Dell uses rebadged Samsung ones - no motion blurring, no smudging, 75HZ refresh, 1280x1024 resolution, no flicker, crystal clear and way better than any CRT I've seen.

CRT is dead, when upgrading why would anyone want the equivalent of a small stack of bricks on the desktop when you can have the wonderful space savingness of TFT ?

My experience with TFT monitors and games haven't been good. Used four different monitors, and 3 of them were quite cheap ones, and they all suffered from lots of smudging and motion-blurring, and even the more expensive one (£550) had the same problem to the same extent.

CRT's give higher resolutions, higher refresh rates, no smudging, and are significantly cheaper.

This is a well documented problem with TFT monitors.

Theres still life in the CRT kids.

Remember that.

Practical Magic wrote:
> Memorandum wrote:
> Silent Assassin wrote:
> ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb DDR
>
> 17" TFT Monitor
>
>
> Isn't it a bit silly to get a really fast, powerful graphics card
> and
> then a monitor that doesn't like fast moving images?
>
> I've got the same setup, except it's a straight Radeon 9800, and I
> have no problem at all - clearer display, sharper, doesnt require a
> massive amount of space...

My mate has the same setup and his is fine as well.

Memorandum wrote:
> Silent Assassin wrote:
> ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb DDR
>
> 17" TFT Monitor
>
>
> Isn't it a bit silly to get a really fast, powerful graphics card and
> then a monitor that doesn't like fast moving images?

I've got the same setup, except it's a straight Radeon 9800, and I have no problem at all - clearer display, sharper, doesnt require a massive amount of space...

Hmmmm.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog /Online_Catalogue_Coolermaster_122.html#ahs_2d006_2dcm

(remove space)

gamezfreak wrote:
> How old are you SA may I ask?
>
> And I might get an optical mouse at a later date.

I'm 21. It's always nice to have a decent mouse and keyboard, but i see no trouble in getting one at a later date.

gamezfreak wrote:
> Silent Assassin wrote:
> Er no, cos it's not gonna be primarily for gaming.
>
> Why get such a high end graphics card then?

I will use my computer for gaming but not alot and i want the best on the market at the moment so it'll last me for a few years before i have to upgrade.

I'm slowly moving on from gaming but there is still a few games i want, like half-life 2 and then i'm gonna use my computer for more serious things.

Silent Assassin wrote:
> Er no, cos it's not gonna be primarily for gaming.

Why get such a high end graphics card then?