Purchasing a computer today, need advice, please.

[Photomatt76]

Hello, this is my first post. I have been looking at new computers at cyberpowerpc.com for about a year. Now that i have finally saved the money(didnt want to pay it off on a credit card for years w/ interest) for a new "gaming computer", i am ready to make a purchase, today.:D I have asked similar questions on game sites, but i just dont think those are the places to ask such questions judging from some feedback i get.

Anyways, before i purchase, i would really like some advice on the two machines i have configured below. Questions i need answered are, the difference between a Socket 939 and a Socket AM2 processor. Is the Socket 939 Athlon 4000 better than the AM2 3800, or vice versa. What is the difference from the two.

The video card, im sure this one is nice, dont want to buy the 1 gig card (7950) trying to save a little bit on the machine, plus i dont want to buy something that is the first to venture into the one gig card catagory.
Anyways, in a few months, i will put in another 7900 GTX to have SLI machine. Ive always used Nvidia, so i dont know if i will go to ATI. Im opened to suggestion however.

Two Gigs of Ram, that should be enough for now. I am getting two sticks of one gig, and not 4x512.

Thanks for any advice i get. I bought a computer about three years ago, (from HP). Even tho i put a gig of ram in the machine, and a Geforce 5600 256mb, the machine has never been to run ANY game at full detail. At most it would give me frame rates that are in the teens to twenties at medium detail, sometimes at 800X600. I have been disapointed ever since i bought the HP. I guess it has to do with the machine wasnt built for that, even with a decent card, i dont know. Or maybe that card is shat. I think that might be it too, lol.

I want to run games like, Brothers in Arms, GTR 2, and etc. at full detail, or very high detail at a resolution of 1280 x1024. Thats all my monitor will support. Next on my "to buy" list is a monitor that will go up to 1600x1200. So i need the computer specs to be able to hande the higher resolutions as well.

Now the computers im thinking about purchasing: (both are in the $1400 range, the second about fifty dollars more) Im taking the sound card out of my current computer and putting it in the one i buy. Thanks for your time, really appreciate it.


CPU: (939-pin) AMD Athlon™64 4000+ CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
MOTHERBOARD: (Sckt939)ASUS A8N-SLI nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE MB w/Gb-LAN, USB2.0, IEEE-1394, &7.1Audio
MEMORY: 2048 MB (1GBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Corsair Value Select)
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GTX 512MB 16X PCI Express Video Card


CPU: (Socket AM2) AMD Athlon™64 3800+ CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
MOTHERBOARD: (Socket AM2)MSI K9N SLI Platinum nForce 570 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 SATA-II RAID MBoard w/ Dual 16x PCI-Express
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GTX 512MB 16X PCI Express

[Banko]

Well going with AM2 would be better in that it will future-proof you more on the AMD platform. Though personally I would really wait another month and wait for the Intel Conroe to hit retail, the cheapest Conroe from what has been seen should outperform both of those CPU's.

[einstein_314]

The differences between S939 and AM2 are small. Well, at least in how they perform. AM2 uses DDR2, S939 uses DDR. The AM2 is definately more future proof as Banko pointed out.

But as Banko also pointed out, Conroe should be out in another month or so. And it destroys the AM2 performance wise. I would recommend waiting for that if you can wait just a little longer.

Other than that, everything else looks good. But I would seriously consider waiting for the conroe.

[bkswaney]

Wait on Conroe if u can. I know it's hard. I want one so bad I can taste it.
I'm waiting on conroe myself. :D(nana2)

[a12ctic]

dont let them trick you conroe is mostly hype ;)

[CaptNKILL]

dont let them trick you conroe is mostly hype ;)
Dont let a12ctic turn you away, he cant tell the difference between a mobile and a desktop CPU... :D:angel::D

[watever]

even if it is all hype (tho i seriously doubt it is), it would be better to wait till it officially comes out to see which is the better cpu. That way u will have peace of mind knowing u got the better purchase at the time.

[ViN86]

i doubt its hype. even intel cant generate that much hype. id wait for conroe too.