ICE-Raver

If you go back a page or 2 you'll see that no-one tried to steer him to the i7's until he brought it up because one of his friends recommended it to him. The Phenom is a great processor but ATM the 955 is around $200 and the 965 is around $250. The 920 is $279 right now on newegg and you can actually buy one at microcenter for$199. http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0302727 For $199 or $279 that is not alot of difference in price compared to the phenoms and judging from all the benchmarks and reviews the i7 is alot more processor. Of course, the i7 system will cost more to build to get a decent mobo, ram etc. But the i7 920 and the phenom 955/965 processors are very closely priced atm. If I were on as tight a budget I would probably go AMD. But like I said he was asking about a prebuilt i7 system from dell and and thats why I I showed him how to build a better system for less money.

That motherboard does not support the AMD CPU. It's an intel mobo.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=84347&highlight=uninstall+beta+patch

I had this issue before as well. I was clicking a desktop shortcut and it loaded then just quit. I ended up moving my shortcut to the games folder and launching it there and it worked fine. I don't know why. You may also try right clicking the shortcut and "run as administrator. You could also need to reinstall. Are you running steam or retail btw?

I can't use the aimpoints anyway. Can't see jack through them. ACOG FTW! Of course on campaign you don't have the option.

Well, Arma 2 doesn't support phys x anyway so just leave it off. I have ran several different driver versions with arma 2 and the 190.38's & 190.62's both gave me the best performance. I know Ethne;) doesn't like them but they have done very well for me. Do I get crashes? Occasionally, but very seldom. In my personal opinion the game is just not optimized very well atm. That said I run max settings with great performance about 99% of the time.

I only linked him core i7 because he had his eye on an i7 system at Dell. It's definitely not a budget system. And yes in a few months time the prices will fall on them when the new chips come out. That said the i7 is a beast of a processor. When I was doing my new current build I considered doing an intel quad core build with a 9650 and the price difference wasn't enough for me not to go ahead and go with i7. Like 100ish bucks difference or something. I also considered going phenom x4 but after comparing benchmarks, futuremark scores and head to head tests the current intel chips always came out on top vs phenoms from what I have seen. Not that benchmark scores matter much when it comes to gaming, but anyway. I've ran AMD in the past and I probably will again when they leapfrog intel. As far as the ATI GPU I didn't link anything ATI because I haven't ran it. The last ATI I ran was an x800xt plat back in the day and I had so many driver issues with that card that I haven't ran another. That said, from all I have read they are great. I just don't have first hand experience with them.

After reading the reviews it sounds like a cool concept that is a little too young to truly take advantage of. I'll keep my eye on it and when they get all the kinks ironed out I may give it a go.

The i7's are top of the line processors at the moment. IMHO the i7 920 is the best choice out of the lineup. I know your not an overclocker but the 920 easily clocks over 4ghz out of the box. There are guys on the evga forums getting upwards of 4.5 out of it. It is only a $279 processor at the moment and I've seen it on sale for as low as $199 compare that to the other i7's and it's a no brainer. Guys over there that spent $1000 bucks on the i7 975 aren't having such luck overclocking theirs.;) That ram is really strange. All the mobos that I have looked at for the i7's all support DDR3 triple channel ram and typically the speeds supported are 1333, 1600, or 2000. Hard drive is decent Graphics card is no good. In all honesty a decent prebuilt i7 system is going to cost you a minimum of about 15-1600 bucks. If you go below that on prebuilt you are going to sacrifice something. It cost me $900 bucks just to build my i7 system and I already had the case, psu and graphics card. However the i7 is a beast of a processor. So if you get an i7 base you will be future proofed for a long time. Your best bet in all honesty is to have someone build you a system. Here are some recommendations of a base system for you. Processor:i7 920 $279 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202 If your not going to overclock the stock heatsink will be fine. But don't overclock it without a decent aftermarket heatsink Motherboard: EVGA x58 LE. $239 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188049&Tpk=evga%20x58%20le *you need a SATA dvd drive for this board. IDE (Ribbon cable) Is not supported. They are like $25 bucks for LITE on sata drives at wal-mart. Memory: I like Corsair Dominator or mushkin but you can really save money here going with some cheaper memory. $124.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227365 Hard Drive: I'm running one of these along with a second 1T drive. It's pretty decent. $69 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218 Graphics card: I bought one of these about a month ago to go SLI (2 cards) and it is running great. It is recertified with a 90 day warranty. If that scares you the 275's are about the samme price. $239 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130427 OS: Try to get windows 7 RC if you can and then upgrade. Vista was coming with a free upgrade but I don't see any now. All of that comes out to $950.99. If you already have the case and a power supply your golden. I would recommend at least a 650-700 watt psu for this setup btw so check your case. You may also already have a SATA drive and OS so you could save some money there. Now I don't know anything about your case but make sure it has decent airflow as you need to get the heat out. If not you could get a good case for about 100 bucks if it is an issue. The HAF 932's are really popular.

I could have swore that I read about alot of people having issues with the 275's and arma? Maybe it was another card I was thinking of. Anyway, I'm not sure and I really have no personal experience with 275's but I knew 260's were really good. If that's the case I would definitely go with the second pc I posted with the AMD x4 if I were choosing between it and the one you posted. It has the 275, a better proc and comes with a free windows 7 upgrade for 30 bucks more than the original one you posted. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883227157

Well if you can do the build yourself you can definitely come out ahead building your own system. As far as the other system you posted it is decent, but I am unsure about the 275. I have heard mixed reviews about them. IMO this one is a better deal and only 20 bucks higher. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227135 Or this one for 30 bucks more that comes with a free windows 7 upgrade. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227157

Interesting thread. I never gave a second look at anything concerning 3d until today. Now I am pretty interested. Hell, my wife thinks I'm a big enough nerd as it is with my trackir and flight sticks. Why not throw some 3d glasses in the mix? Only issue is my monitor is 60 hz so it's a no go for me atm. I went to newegg and checked out monitors for S&Giggles but I don't see any monitors that are 120. Am I missing something?

The firebird small form factor pc is made by Voodoo PC just an FYI and sold as HP. http://www.voodoopc.com/#/productsfirebird IMO it is not a great platform for gaming. Will it play games? Sure. But for ARMA 2 I could see it struggling. First off, the 9800s is a notebook/mobile graphics processor. Mobile graphics are generally pretty weak. It's also basically non-upgradable. So you would be stuck with what you have. In reality the firebird is not much more than a glorified laptop put into a shiny SFF setup. IMO it was probably built to go toe to toe with MACs. Small, compact and good looking. For everyday tasks and mild gaming it's probably pretty decent but for arma 2 I wouldn't risk $1000 bucks on it. They had a pretty nice one called the Blackbird, but I haven't heard anything about them lately. I'd suggest going to newegg and browsing gaming pcs. They have many that are just slightly above $1000 that would be better suited for this game. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2032280010%201308920938&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&Page=2

Strange, turning grass on high pretty much cuts my fps in half.

Some people have had good luck with vista. I'm not one of them. What is your fps in game right now. My bet is that your dealing with the old vista 33 fps issue like I posted. If so, your sli is probably working, your just not seeing a gain because your hitting a v/sync like ceiling.

Well me and you are running very similar rigs So I'll tell you how mine is setup for reference. The MAJOR difference between me and you is Vista Vs Windows 7. I was running vista at first but had major issues. I partitioned my drive and installed windows 7 and my performance with arma 2 skyrocketed. And what is your fps with vista? For some reason vista locked my fps at 33 on arma 2. Lots of others had the same problem. I run: 190.62 drivers. 1680 x 1050 Hyper Threading = off (in the bios) Nvidia CP settings Ambient Occlusion = OFF atm. AF= Application Controlled Gamma Correction=On AA= Application controlled Transparency= off Texture Clamp=Use Hardware Pre-Rendered Frames=8 Single Display performance Mode Maximum Performance SLI-Force alternate frame rendering 2 Texture Filtering = on Texture filtering/neg bias=clamp Quality=High Performance Trilinear Optimization= on Threaded optimization=on Triple buffering=off Vsync=off Game resolution 1680x1050/1680x1050 100% All settings Very High/PP Low due to preference With these settings I can run Arma 2 maxxed out with full grass and rarely ever see a dip under 30. Usually 30-50. If I disable grass I can see upwards of 100fps. Put AA and AF on normal and performance really climbs. However I usually leave them very high, sometimes I tweak them down when fighting in Electrovodsk.

If I disable grass I get a huge FPS boost and it does get upwards toward 100fps and above. I've actually seen 130ish in some areas. For some reason grass in this game really give me a major fps hit. I haven't played any other games on this system yet since it is a new build with a fresh OS.

Change your max rendered frames to 8. Give that a try and let me know, thats how I run mine.

As usual you are wrong and have come out to bash 200 series GPU's and praise the almighty 8800.:rolleyes: I run this game with all settings set to Very High 1680 x 1050 , INCLUDING AA and AF + FULL grass and the game runs VERY SMOOTH on my rig. Typically I get around 30-50 fps with these settings. The only time I dip below 30 frames is in Electrovodsk and I think there is just something wrong with that area. Could it be done with a single GPU? I doubt it, but you shouldn't say no computer out there is capable at running this game maxxed out. ---------- Post added at 12:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:46 AM ---------- Your biggest problem is your amd 6000. I was running an amd 5600 when this game came out and I can tell you after upgrading and going back and forth that the 5600 struggles on this game. The 6000 isn't much better than the 5600 is. The game is very very cpu intensive and the 5600/6000's just barely cut it.............and I mean barely. I would also get rid of vista if I were you and go to windows 7. It made a huge difference for me. ---------- Post added at 12:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:52 AM ---------- Really now? All settings maxxed out with a single 260 and a 6600 and the game runs great? It's not that I'm doubting you, but if your serious you should sell your pc to NASA.

Windows 7 64 like everyone else said. It shouldn't even be a question.

Absolutely EPIC! I literally laughed till I cried. Love the "I bought myself a monster rig, spent all of my cash.............to get 14 frames per second before I crash!":D:D:D

I voted no. I am bored of WWII/Vietnam etc games. I would like to see some current stuff. Iraq and Afghanistan based. Think Arma 2 Fallujah or something. Now that would be sweet.

Vista limited my FPS to 33 on 2 different builds my current build is one of them. I did everything I could to get the fps unlocked but it was set similar to a vsync at 33. Lots of others had this 33 issue with vista as well. I switched to W7 and my fps is through the roof now. No more 33 BS.

I switched to an antec 1200 this week. It has much more room than the alienware case and fantastic airflow. My cpu idle temps dropped 6 degrees with just the case swap and that is with stock fans on the antec.. I'm very happy with it.

Of course not. After the Dev's finish ripping out all the eye candy so the consoles will handle it, why would you? FTR I own both a 360 and ps3 but I seldom game on them.