Dark Torcher

don t expect much unless u run a lot of programs that use the internet, easiest way to get more bandwidth focused on ur game is to stop all other programs that use ur connection, and if u have a wireless router, of course protect it from neighbors who may be bandwidth hogs, actually downloaded 800gb once by that

more RAM wouldnt help him unless he decided to go 64bit, since the max he will get with the ATi 4870 will be 3gb of RAM in 32bit, but 32bit is better for gaming as games were written for 32bit os (mainly windows) anyways, hes doing good with quality over quantity he has ddr2 1150, but his motherboard, asus maximus II formula can take up to ddr2 1200, im running with 4gb ddr2 1-66 and i dont even use 2gb of memory when playing games, heres a way to think of it: is it better to get 2 ferrari, or 3 mustangs? the max he would do with a 32bit windows is 2x1gb and 2x512mb for 3gb dual channel RAM (make sure its low density) but mainly games take gfx card power and processor power

i've never used ATi, so I cant say anything other then there new R770 cards are supposed to be super-powerful, and also you can crossfire cards of diff models, somethin you cant do with nvidia and for the 9550, it has the same specs as the 9450, just an increased clock speed, it'd be easier to just buy a 9450 and overclock it to 3.0 if u got enough headroom the tuniq tower is a good one, but i recommend looking at the thermalright ultra extreme-120, a 9450 on stock settings with a scythe kaze usually runs at 34C the antec 1200 is a good case, but u better be ok with that much blue light, only the top 200mm leds can be turned off, but overall its a good case with good airflow, just remove the filters on the fans, they increase noise levels and also the dust clogs up the filter making less and less air flow in, dust coming in will just settle at the bottom of the case anyways, as long as u dust ur pc off every month or so, you're fine just for a look, herse what im running Antec 1200 + Antec Quattro 1000w Intel Q9450 (TRUE + Scythe Ultra Kaze 3000), mushkin DDR2 1066 (2x2Gb) EVGA 750i FTW, EVGA GTX 280 FTW, WD RaptorX 150Gb, Seagate 500Gb Auzentech 7.1 Prelude Sound Card (Altec Lansing 2.1 Surround + Sony Noise Cancelling Headphones) as you do not have a sound card listed dont worry about it, but if u want to have high clarity sound, u can get an audio card, but if u do, u have to get speakers/headphones of equal quality for the full benefit, good speakers will run around 200-300 while good headphones go around 100-150 as u can see, theres plenty of space inside, and also a slot behind the mobo to tuck in the cables, i was just lazy, i tucked in a couple cords then got tired just to open another route for you since you're deciding for air-cooling, buy a lapping kit which will run at most 20, basically its just wet/dry sandpaper @ 400/800/1200/2000 grit you can pick these up at any hardware store, all it does is provides a smooth, even surface after you sand both the heatsink and the cpu ihs, allowing for more contact which will aloow a greater thermal flow from cpu to heatsink, this can lower temps from 3-10 degrees celsius

in windows media player? i know it does that in vlc

dont forget, the 9800 gx2 uses one pci-e slot with 2 high-perf gfx cards, if you have pci-e 2.0 it may not be much of a problem then theres always microstuttering since sli technology has its downfalls, also some games may not good coding for multi-gfx card usage, same as some games run better on dual core rather then a quad core the gtx 280 shines in high detail at high resolutions, beating a 9800gx2, now think of a gtx 280 sli, or even tri-sli, but then again, you only want to go to 2000 euro I would just get a 74gb raptor and a 500gb or 750gb storage drive, but thats only since i deal with a lot of media files, im already at the 2 Tb mark the raptor is a good drive as i own one myself, has a good response time and files load quick since its your first build, its may be too much to go into watercooling, but you could be a fast learner; im still on air cooling since it works enough already, id only switch to water if i wanted to overclock higher, but again its ur first computer so you prob wont be doing that right at the start if u have the extra money, just get a 9450, its 45nm (6600 is 65nm) better temps, but then again you're on water, and the 9450 has a larger cache, 12mb just what i think an ideal comp would have...

cmon man, dont distribute it like that, Fraps need their money, it only costs like $30 for fraps + lifetime updates

i got a EVGA GTX 280 FTW with Intel Q9450 sad part is my gfx card is on 2d idle mode when i run cs:s, since it uses mainly cpu power but battlefield 2142 is awesome with everything on high, i got killed just standing still staring at how awesome the vehicles looked now i play at 1920x1200 just for fun, usually i like a 4:3 ratio at 1024x768, easier to keep track of everything, less mouse distance to move *fun fact, if you ln2 a QX9650, you can reach speeds of up to 5.0GHz http://www.evga.com/community/ModsRigs/comment.asp?sysid=443 and of course, im not goin go near ln2, prob end up like in t2 and spill it all over myself

i dont own it, but i hear the drivers for it really suck, and if you try to revert back to your motherboard ethernet, you'll have to reinstall your os to clear all the killer nic drivers i just use an okay comcast connection, keeps me around 30-50 ping, all i need... anyways, its much better just to buy a faster connection to get lower pings, since you will get more speed, rather than prioritizing speeds which can sometimes screw other things up e.g. punkbuster's transmissions are delayed by the killer nic, since it is not being used for gaming ping, causing you to be kicked since it appears you are trying to block punkbuster just what i think ^oh yeah, dont mean to advertise, but a good program u can use to prioritize speeds for programs is cfos speed, i use it, it keeps me slightly faster since i keep everything on normal but set hl2.exe to higher priority, and also set HTTP_C to higher, since thats the protocol for internet explorer/firefox/etc. plus it gives u an active read on download/upload speeds and all current connections on your network