New System for Mass Effect

[Archon of SFL]

All,

I just found out about Mass Effect a few weeks ago. Being a big fan of KotOR, I’m very eager to try BioWare’s latest title. My PC is 5 years old (bought it for KotOR), so I’m going to upgrade to a new system before I take the ME plunge. I’m also a big fan of Morrowind, and my old machine would just barely meet the min requirements for Oblivion. I’ve decided to build my own system rather than buying a name-brand machine so I'll be able to upgrade components later and I’d like your opinions on the best components to start with. For no particular reason other than familiarity, I’m going to use a Pentium processor and an NVidia graphics card.

I’m not looking for a gamer’s god box (luckily neither game seems to have excessive requirements). I’d rather focus on components that exceed the recommended systems but have been out long enough to be affordable. I’ll upgrade to the higher performance stuff later when the price comes down, assuming it’s needed to support future games (I’ve heard that ME is the first of a trilogy). The recommended system for the two games is a 3GHz P4, a GeForce 7900 GTX or higher and 2 GB RAM. I’ll be starting out with XP since Oblivion doesn’t support Vista. The first decision is a motherboard and processor combination.

As I see it, the motherboard is the key for future upgrade potential, so that’s the component that I’d rather not skimp on. I’m thinking of a MSI P7N SLI Platinum or a GigaByte GA-EP45-DS3L. The MSI costs $180 and was recommended by the guy at CompUSA. The GigaByte costs $114 and was recommended on the Ars system guide. I’ve got the various specs but have no idea what is important and what’s not.

As for the processor, I’m looking at the Core 2 Duo E4700 and a Core 2 Duo E7200. They’re both about the same price ($120 to $140); the CompUSA guy recommended an E4600, but the E4700 is the same price. The E7200 was recommended in the Ars system guide. The E4700 “beats” the E7200 at processor speed (2.6 GHz vs. 2.53 GHz) but the E7200 “beats” the E4700 at cache size (3MB vs. 2MB) and bus speed (1066 MHz vs. 800 MHz).

So what’s your opinion and rationale on these two options for the system foundation or what would you recommend as an alternative?

Thanks.

[wargames]

i would go with the the e7200, bigger cache and better bus, it will make the cpu cooler and run smother. and the .07 ghz won't matter the bus and cache will set them apart. anything with 775 chipset will work. but what you shoild look at is the ram pins, 240 or 184. 240 is new and is capible of higher and better speeds, 184 is old but ram for is cheap and you can get your 2 gigs out of it cheaper than the 240 but you won't have the upgradeibility since the 184 pinset is already maxed out speed wise.

you may also want to look at the mother board to see if it accept pci-e 2.0 since that is the wave a the furture and will only help the graphics card out.

a good company that does sell cpu and motherboard combo's is tigerdirect it is was i use when i shop for my computer.

TigerDirect.com - Computers, Computer Parts, Computer Accessories, PC Components, & Electronics

[Archon of SFL]

Thanks for your help.

On the CPU, how do you compare a 3GHz P4 with a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo? Do you double the Duo up to 5.06GHz when compared to the 3GHz of the P4? Another question is what to do about the CPU fan? I see that you can buy the CPU with a fan, or buy it without and add a separate fan. Some of the separate fans can get very pricy, but I’ve seen a Thermaltake and a Masscool for $20. As for the two MoBo’s, here’s what’s listed on MWave:

MSI P7N SLI Platinum ($150 on MWave)
Memory: Supports the memory size up to 8GB; Supports 1.8v DDR2 SDRAM DIMM; Supports dual channel DDR2 533/667/800+, using four 240-pin DDR2 DIMMs
Slots: Three PCI Express X16 slots (supports PCI Express Bus specification v2.0 compliant) (The 2nd & 3rd PCI Express X16 slots are operating at X8 mode)

GigaByte GA-EP45-DS3L ($102 on MWave)
Memory: 4 x 1.8V DDR2 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory; Dual channel memory architecture; Support for DDR2 1200/1066/800/667 MHz memory modules
Slots: 1 x PCI Express x16 slot (The PCI Expressx16 slot conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.); 4 x PCI Express x1 slot

The MSI has the 240 pins but is limited to 8GB. I can’t tell if the GigaByte has 184 or 240 pins, but it does support 16GB. How much of a price difference is the pin difference going to make? Both have at least one PCI-E 2.0 slot, but do the extra 2 slots in the MSI justify the $48 price difference?

I’ve seen Tiger Direct. As a matter of fact, Tiger Direct bought the CompUSA name and retail locations. They’ve re-opened a handful of stores and are trying to break into the retail market. I’ll definitely buy my case from the store, but the other components should have reasonable shipping costs from the online sites.

Thanks again.

[DesR85]

On the CPU, how do you compare a 3GHz P4 with a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo? Do you double the Duo up to 5.06GHz when compared to the 3GHz of the P4?

I'm not sure if that's how it works. I assume the two cores are running at 2.53Ghz each, but it doesn't mean that they're running at a combined speed. It just depends on whether a game can support dual core processors or not.

Another question is what to do about the CPU fan? I see that you can buy the CPU with a fan, or buy it without and add a separate fan.

I do recall that most boxed sets come together with a CPU fan. If you're not into overclocking, the stock fan should be more than enough to do the job. If you want to do some overclocking, it is best to get a more powerful CPU fan.

The MSI has the 240 pins but is limited to 8GB. I can’t tell if the GigaByte has 184 or 240 pins, but it does support 16GB. How much of a price difference is the pin difference going to make? Both have at least one PCI-E 2.0 slot, but do the extra 2 slots in the MSI justify the $48 price difference?

I can assume that the GigaByte one also uses 240 pins as well, since they can support DDR2 speeds of up till 1200Mhz. As for the extra PCiE x16 slot in the MSI mobo, if you planning to use multiple graphics card, then it is worth it. If not, just stick to the mobo with a single graphics card slot.