October 19 is the listed release date for two of the games I most anticipate: Neverwinter Nights 2 and Splinter Cell: Double Agent. Assuming the gold announcements go out this week, the games should be fairly close to those dates. I’d like to be upgraded by then.
Should I use a non-stock heatsink and fan for the CPU?
Should I add thermal paste to the order?
I trust Asus boards, and I’ve had great luck with them, but if you have a board you suggest that you also have a lot of trust in, go ahead and mention it.
I want to stick with AMD this time around, but I’m willing to listen to suggestions if you know of a better motherboard/CPU combo for a better price.
I’m fairly certain that Sapphire card is the one I want, but I’ll listen to suggestions for other Radeon cards. You’ll have a hard time convincing me to go with an Nvidia card, but I’m not completely closing my mind to the possibility.
I’m definitely willing to look at places that have better prices if you know of one, so long as the service is competitive, too.
Any particular reason you want to stick with AMD right now? Intel’s Core 2 Duo has them completely and utterly beat this round, and this is coming from someone who’s been a fan of AMD over Intel for some years now.
An Allendale Core 2 Duo E6300 will run you $180, and it will definitely (and significantly) outperform that Athlon 64 X2. Pair that with a Gigabyte DS3 motherboard and you should be good to go. That combo costs a little more than what you’ve posted, but that’s only because the motherboard you’ve selected is one of those “open box” specials. Personally, I wouldn’t want to take a risk with one of those, but it’s up to you I guess.
(If you want to stick with an Asus board, this would be a comparable product. It’s not as well-rated by NewEgg buyers though.)
As for the graphics, you should be fine with that Radeon. Me, I swear by my nVidia cards, but listening to graphics zealots is usually a bad idea. nVidia has better driver support if you want to run on Linux, but that probably won’t matter much to you.
To answer your other questions, you should be fine with stock cooling unless you plan to overclock. (Even in that case, you can sometimes get away with no fancy coolers - I currently have a socket 939 Athlon 64 3700+ running at 2.75GHz (550MHz over the stock speed) with no additional cooling whatsoever beyond what came in the box. The temperature tops out at 54C under 100% load. :D) So, if you’re not planning to overclock your CPU, don’t bother with special cooling. I think the manufacturer’s warranty is usually voided if you use non-stock cooling anyway, so it’s not worth it unless you really need it.
I can’t afford the $350+ for the latest video card, so I’m just planning to get the best $250 card I can afford now. I change my video card more frequently than most of the parts (though not every six months like a lot of gamers), so I’m sure I’ll get one when the price drops.
Did they? I thought it was the opposite. I have an Intel chip right now, and it’s been unbelievably stable, so no, I’m not a total diehard AMD fan. I go with whoever’s winning the round. Thanks for the suggestions on the board/chip.
I don’t know what it is, but the last few graphics cards I’ve bought have been ATI, and unlike the processor, I have an unexplainable loyalty for them. My husband is running an Nvidia card and prefers them himself.
Thanks for answering the question on the stock cooling. I don’t normally overclock. I don’t like risking the instability. I’m not joking about how stable this machine is. I reboot* at most *once every two weeks, barring any software-mandated reboots.