I used Fraps to take a measurment of the final Dragon Age: Origins battle. I called in one of the armies and then cast two AE spells on the demon, at this point the cannon fodder started to move in.

Frames: 14970
Time (ms): 308922
Min: 26
Max: 74
Average: 48,459

settings:
1400x1050
Very high detail:
4xAA

Machine:
8800GTS 512
2Gb ddr2 800
E8200 @ 2,66ghz



But you haven't even contributed anything yet?

Core2
MOBO: BIOSTAR G31D-M7 LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX $40.-
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz LGA 775 65W $120.-
GPU: ECS Black Series NBGTX260-896MX-F GeForce GTX 260 896MB $170.-
RAM: PQI TURBO 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $80.-
Total: $410.-

Core i5
MOBO: Foxconn P55MX LGA 1156 Intel P55 $90.-
CPU: Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W $200.-
GPU: ECS Black Series NBGTX260-896MX-F GeForce GTX 260 896MB $170.-
RAM: OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) $73.-
Total: $533.-

*Prices from newegg @ 6.Dec.2009

At resolution of 16x10 these machines can handle any game except crysis exactly the same. The games will look identical, they will play identical but one does it $120.- cheaper. Thats the price of a decent UPS that can run up to 3 minutes on full load. That could be the difference in your hotel package when you go to vacation. The difference in the clothing you wear. It could be used anywhere else except uselessly in a metal box spending your money.



But this is the problem by itself for an average gamer like me. Like most i used to just set up a budget and hope for the best never bothering to ask myself that what is it that i actually need. That is the essence, that is everything.

Apparently that $51.- Kingston 4gb ram was a mistake and has now been removed from Newegg.com

Core2
MOBO: Asus P5QPL-AM, Intel G41, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 £37.-
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400, S775, 2.80 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB Cache £85.-
GPU: Gainward GTX260 GS, 2200MHz GDDR3, GPU 625MHz, Shader 1242MHz, 216 Cores £135.-
RAM: 4GB (2x2GB) CorsairValue Select, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800) £73.-
Total: £330.-

Core i5
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-P55-US3L, Intel P55 Express, Sok1156, PCI-E 2.0(x16), £80.-
CPU: Intel Core i5 750, S 1156, Lynnfield, QC, 2.66GHz, DMI 2.5 GT/s, 8MB Cache £150.-
GPU: Gainward GTX260 GS, 2200MHz GDDR3, GPU 625MHz, Shader 1242MHz, 216 Cores £135.-
RAM: 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS3, DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) £88.-
Total: £453.-

*Prices from scan.co.uk @ 6.Dec.2009
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT: SLI Mobo

XFX nForce 750i SLI - motherboard - ATX - nForce 750i SLI DDR2 £64.-
*Price from dabs.com @ 6.Dec.2009

This is the point we are at.

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdo ... i=3311&p=1

Well i think it is important to understand that choosing an ssd over traditional hdd yields no gain FPS (but i do not know for certain, the tests are elusive). The ssd does improve the load times in games but as they point out in that same article, in games like crysis the gain is 5 seconds when loading a map, and in company of heroes the load times are 3 seconds apart.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT: SSD Tests, May 2009

http://hothardware.com/Articles/Windows ... ed/?page=7
This is a newer test that shows the loading times in crysis. The gain from the 10000rpm traditional hdd is still 5-6 seconds but the slower 7200rpm hdds lose out between 6-26 seconds.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT: SSD Test, Sep 2008

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/in ... =3403&p=14
According to this test the games do receive a small boost from SSD drives. I think this is the best test article to refer to when speaking of gains with SSD. The price for gaining that 2-4frames per second is cosmic though.

NOTE! The seagate Momentus is a laptop hdd.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT: PCI Storage, July 2009

http://techplore.com/technology/ioxtrem ... ard-drive/
And then theres this which makes SSD look like a legless world war 2 veteran.

I don't agree. And I think all your stats and conclusions are built around the premise that hardware required to run games for the next few years won't change. I disagree with that premise. But hey, whatever makes you happy.

Ok been having a look at upgrading sooner than I thought actually and wondering what you guys think of this:

Motherboard - would support my old gfx card until I upgrade that (in March probably) on pci-e and then could go for the faster pci-e 2 slot that this has

CPU - i5 at a pretty good price I think. Anything is better than my current horrible cpu anyway

RAM - just a nice little deal on DDR3. 2 x 2gb.

Mainly considering the upgrade sooner than I was because on that site I've found the full version of Windows 7 premium 32 AND 64 bit for only £80 which is pretty good. And there's a finance option to not pay until next December if I spend £300 so I'm seriously considering it.

Total would be about £405 plus delivery

That board is a Crossfire board. While you can run a nvidia card on it just fine it is designed with ATI crossfire solution in mind, for two ATI cards.

Ahhh well board can be relooked at. Odd considering I'd clicked the Intel boards link. How about this one?

While you're on, which do you think is better? (Yes looking at gfx now anyway rofl)

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-Gain ... DVI-I-HDMI

OR

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB-As ... DVI-Retail

Using the compare feature, that second one looks better even though it's only a 512mb instead of a 1gb...

The gts250 is a renamed 9800GTX+. I would advise going for the 260 one. Regardless you'll be set for higher resolutions once your monitor dies.

Mobo: The second mobo is generic, no sli or cf.

To be honest I don't intend to use sli or crossfire, is that really a problem? I really have no clue on mobos.
260 look good for that price do you think?

With your setup its not really an issue though. Every game at your monitor resolution is playable at max. There wouldnt be much difference until your monitor dies. At higher resolutions, even with AA and gizmos the 260 outperforms the 250 by 5 frames per second in most games. I guess the renaming of 250 is just something that would bug me personally. I hate the rename game.

The SLI setup on the other hand is heavily in favor of 260.

Awesome, think I'll go ahead with the crossfire board probably, just noticed it takes the ram i chose but the second one doesn't, and probably stick with the 250. To be honest my 7950 GTX still handles 99% of games easily so I can deal with the 250 being a renamed 9800, and as I say, SLI doesn't interest me (mainly due to not being able to afford 2 gfx cards in the foreseeable years ) For twice the price, I can live without those extra 5fps.

When your done with the board you can sell it to ox so he can fit a second 4870 on it

Anything is probably an improvement over what you have. Personally, I'd probably go for an ATI card right now, since they're ruling the graphics roost at the moment. Considering you have a crossfire compatible board, that would make even more sense. On the other hand, like you, I have no desire to go multi-gpu, so it probably doesn't really matter.

The positive is you're on the core i5 bandwagon, so you can upgrade that cpu any time in the near future. You've finally gone pcie, so you can upgrade your gpu whenever you feel like it. You're DDR3 compatible, so if you feel the itch you can always bump up your memory to a higher clock (not that there's really any reason to). I think you're set for the next few years.