Post your setup!

[BTGBullseye]

Crysis 1 is good up to the mothership part, then it quickly started going downhill for me.

Yeah, but the lack of a good variety of weapons and upgrades really made it a 1-2 playthrough game. With mods it can double or triple that, but it's still kinda boring after the second run.

 

My idea of a multi-playthrough game is C&C3:KW only with about 3x the units. (there's a mod for that)

[Mr. 13]

3.3GHz Phenom II x6

16GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM (Yes, 16GB dual channel)

XFX Radeon 6950 2GB GDDR5 Video Card

HAF 932 case

Ultra 700W power supply

1 x 80GB SSD for my windows drive

1 x 2TB Drive for games

1 x 1TB Drive for programs and miscellaneous thingamabobs

1 x 500GB Hard Drive dedicated for Videos, Music, Pictures, and a separate folder of mine labeled "Other Crap" which is about 45GB (Has all my mods, and other stuff in it)

[Eedo Baba]

lol, Mine's gonna look like garbage (cause it is).

It's a Dell Vostro 1510 business laptop that I bought used for 450 bucks. I'm not going to bother to post the technical specs, you know they're not great. The 1 key has fallen off the keyboard, and the X and shift keys work only half the time. The hdd is 250gb, and I have an external 1tb drive that I use for extra storage, Steam games, and a full backup of the internal drive. I don't use it a lot for gaming, partly because the screen is a matte lcd and looks like garbage, and also because it can't handle anything at decent settings.

[Bjossi]

16GB DDR3 [...] dual channel

 

I hope that is a Freudian slip.

[Mr. 13]

16GB DDR3 [...] dual channel

 

I hope that is a Freudian slip.

Actually they were selling 4GB sticks on sale on Newegg, so I went for 16GB because I could.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I think 16 gigs is the limit for modern motherboards anyway. Might as well get as much performance out of it as possible.

[Bjossi]

Actually they were selling 4GB sticks on sale on Newegg, so I went for 16GB because I could.

 

Mm, I'll try again:

 

DDR3 [...] dual channel

 

I hope that is a Freudian slip. Doing the math it obviously isn't, but hey, I can dream!

[BTGBullseye]

I think 16 gigs is the limit for modern motherboards anyway. Might as well get as much performance out of it as possible.

Actually the normal max is 24GB, 32GB, or 36GB. Anything lower is an extremely low-end product (no matter it's specs) or obsolete. Anything higher is either a server board, or an extremely high-end board.

 

Can't imagine ever needing more than 8GB though unless you're doing full-time digital video creation/editing, or multi-tasking a few 64-bit games. (or a whole lot of 32-bit games)

[Alyxx Thorne]

I'm doing fine with 4 gigs.

[Luis]

I'm doing fine with 4 gigs.

 

So am I, I barely use more than 3....

[Axeldeath]

I'm going to buy another 2GB memory stick soon.... right after Portal 2

[J.C.]

Well, I finally got permission from my girlfriend to buy a new machine* . I still don't know if I'll go for a retail laptop or I'll put together a nice gaming desktop (I really don't have a lot of free time on my hands these days), but either way I'll post some questions here later to get your opinion on potential components.

 

*If you have a gf, you know you require this before every mayor purchase, so don't go around calling me whipped... because I know I am

[Alyxx Thorne]

Well, I finally got permission from my girlfriend to buy a new machine* . I still don't know if I'll go for a retail laptop or I'll put together a nice gaming desktop (I really don't have a lot of free time on my hands these days), but either way I'll post some questions here later to get your opinion on potential components.

 

*If you have a gf, you know you require this before every mayor purchase, so don't go around calling me whipped... because I know I am

I think as a couple you should both plan your expenses and weigh them up against your income.

[BTGBullseye]

I still don't know if I'll go for a retail laptop or I'll put together a nice gaming desktop, but either way I'll post some questions here later to get your opinion on potential components.

When you're ready, just post your budget for it and I'm sure you'll get a dozen good builds. (including at least 2 from me if you're going for a desktop)

[Luis]

I still don't know if I'll go for a retail laptop or I'll put together a nice gaming desktop, but either way I'll post some questions here later to get your opinion on potential components.

When you're ready, just post your budget for it and I'm sure you'll get a dozen good builds. (including at least 2 from me if you're going for a desktop)

 

Count with me for this as well. I love building machines with different budgets... As you don't live in the U.S We'll have to use your local prices. I suggest using mercadolibre as a reference for prices.

[Bravetriforcer]

RAM: 6GB DDR3

Procesor: AMD Phenom II X4 840T Processor 2.90 GHz (Quad-Core)

Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 4200

1TB Hard Drive

 

Not the best, but it gets the job done with Portal 2, (Hopefully) Duke Nukem Forever, and Team Fortress 2. And that's all that really matters.

[Alyxx Thorne]

RAM: 6GB DDR3

Procesor: AMD Phenom II X4 840T Processor 2.90 GHz (Quad-Core)

Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 4200

1TB Hard Drive

 

Not the best, but it gets the job done with Portal 2, (Hopefully) Duke Nukem Forever, and Team Fortress 2. And that's all that really matters.

We seem to have very similar setups then. I can pretty much run Portal 2 with everything maxed.

[J.C.]

I think as a couple you should both plan your expenses and weigh them up against your income.

And that is what we do. But she would rather buy clothes

 

Ok, let's get down to business. As a long time laptop user, I'm not sure if I would like a desktop anymore. What do you think of these (I'll post the relevant features, not the DVD burner or whatever)

 

Notebook Vaio Mod VPC-EA35EL/SL BLACK

Windows 7 Home Premium original 64 bits.

Intel Core i3-370M 2.40GHz. Intel HM55 Express Chipset.

14" (1366 x 768).

Video Intel HD

RAM 3GB DDR3 SDRAM (exp 8GB)

500GB HD

Price: USD 473

 

Notebook Sony Vaio VPCS120FL/P SKU 30590

Intel® Core i3 - 350M 2.26GHz Intel® HM55 Express Chipset

Windows® 7 Home Premium original 64 bit

LCD VAIO Plus 13.3" (1366 x 768)

Video NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M

4GB DDR3 SDRAM (exp 8GB)

500GB HD

Price: USD 868

 

Notebook Vaio Mod VPC-EA37FL/L 14 SKU 31486

Windows 7 Home Premium original 64 bits.

Intel Core i5-460M 2.53GHz Intel HM55 Express Chipset.

14" (1366 x 768).

Video Intel HD

RAM 4GB DDR3 SDRAM (exp 8GB)

500GB HD

Price: USD 1031

 

Notebook HP DM4-1190LA SKU 30241

Windows® 7 Home Premium original 64 bit

Intel® Core™ i5-450M 2,4 GHz (Turbo Boost 2.66 GHz)

14" (1366 x 768)

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470

500GB HD

RAM 4GB (exp 8GB)

Price: USD 1105

 

All of these are within my budget and the prices are the final value I'd have to pay (after taxes and using some promotional discount points I have on my credit card).

 

Also, If you think you can suggest a desktop setup for this amount, please do so (leave out monitor, keyboard, and any peripherals).

[Darkorth]

The first two are discarded, i know it's a personal opinion but i3's don't pay its price, price/quality relation you get from i5 (Am I the only one that said High Five instead of i5 when you say it more than once?) is way better, before i go on the recommendation i'd say that if you can get an SSD instead a normal SATA HD you would feel the difference, and with the recommendation i'd say that the last one is the best of all them, but if you are using or planning to use Linux choose better the Vaio Mod VPC-EA37FL/L 14 SKU 31486 because ATI Graphics are not so much friendly with Linux (you can run it but you'll find quite difficult to get advanced graphics features such as beryl)

[BTGBullseye]

In USD from Newegg...

 

Thermaltake V6 BlacX Edition Gaming Chassis Mid Tower

GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3-B3 LGA 1155 Motherboard

Palit GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2GB

COOLMAX ZP-1000B 1000W PSU

Intel Core i5-2400

Kingston HyperX 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1333 RAM

Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive

LITE-ON DVD Writer - Black SATA w/LightScribe Support

Sunbeam Twister 120 CW-TWI-120-SV 120mm x 2 MFDB CPU Cooler with Rheosmart PCI fan controller

 

Total price is just over $1000 USD, tax/shipping included, without any promotions or discounts. (this will run any modern game at max settings and still exceed 45 FPS)

 

 

[EDIT] Forgot to include the OS...

 

Windows 7 Home Premium x64 OEM (with SP1)

 

The OEM is $80 cheaper than the retail versions, just add $100 to the total price of the system.