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| Thread ID: 80581 | 2007-06-28 10:19:00 | Upgrade Advice | av4tarnz (5829) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 563943 | 2007-06-28 10:19:00 | Yes it's me yet again and I still haven't finished sorting out what I'm getting for the next computer. As I've mentioned in multiple previous posts I'm building a PC for gaming and have a 640MB GeForce 8800GTS graphics card and 535W Enermax PSU. I'm seriously considering overclocking then adding another graphics card SLI and more RAM with the right OS in the future. Searching overclocking it appears that you get more from OCing an Intel system than an AMD one, so I'm going with Intel. At the moment I'm tossing up between 2GB Corsair Dominator 800MHZ or 2GB OCZ Dual Channel 900MHZ RAM. I'm looking to spend no more than $400 on RAM. For the motherboard I'm currently looking at the EVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR. I'm after a good motherboard that will handle my future plans so I won't scrimp in this area, I'm looking to spend $500 or so. I've read on various forums, including this one, that the price of Intel processers is going down late July. With this in mind I'm still tossing up between Core 2 Duo E6700 or Core 2 Quad Q6600. That enough waffling from me, cheers if you have read this far, so am I looking at good components or can anyone recommend something better parts? Edit: Oh yeah, XP or Vista? I'm aware that DirectX 10 is only available on Vista but have all hardware and driver issues been sorted? |
av4tarnz (5829) | ||
| 563944 | 2007-06-28 23:43:00 | Yes it's me yet again and I still haven't finished sorting out what I'm getting for the next computer . As I've mentioned in multiple previous posts I'm building a PC for gaming and have a 640MB GeForce 8800GTS graphics card and 535W Enermax PSU . I'm seriously considering overclocking then adding another graphics card SLI and more RAM with the right OS in the future . Searching overclocking it appears that you get more from OCing an Intel system than an AMD one, so I'm going with Intel . At the moment I'm tossing up between 2GB Corsair Dominator 800MHZ or 2GB OCZ Dual Channel 900MHZ RAM . I'm looking to spend no more than $400 on RAM . For the motherboard I'm currently looking at the EVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR . I'm after a good motherboard that will handle my future plans so I won't scrimp in this area, I'm looking to spend $500 or so . I've read on various forums, including this one, that the price of Intel processers is going down late July . With this in mind I'm still tossing up between Core 2 Duo E6700 or Core 2 Quad Q6600 . That enough waffling from me, cheers if you have read this far, so am I looking at good components or can anyone recommend something better parts? Edit: Oh yeah, XP or Vista? I'm aware that DirectX 10 is only available on Vista but have all hardware and driver issues been sorted? Hey there, I don't know if this helps but check http://www . overclockers . co . nz/ sign up to there forums . You might have more luck with the OC'ing questions there . |
imjason (12471) | ||
| 563945 | 2007-06-29 00:04:00 | At the moment I'm tossing up between 2GB Corsair Dominator 800MHZ or 2GB OCZ Dual Channel 900MHZ RAM. I'm looking to spend no more than $400 on RAM.Faster is obviously better... but personally, I'd go for the Corsair RAM. For the motherboard I'm currently looking at the EVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR. I'm after a good motherboard that will handle my future plans so I won't scrimp in this area, I'm looking to spend $500 or so. Never heard of that brand... looks pretty good, my preference would be an Asus board though, but that's because I've had good experiences with them. I've read on various forums, including this one, that the price of Intel processors is going down late July. With this in mind I'm still tossing up between Core 2 Duo E6700 or Core 2 Quad Q6600. Quad would be over the top at this stage... not too many apps and games support quad core processing at the moment. I would go for a board which supports quad core but get a Core2Duo CPU. Edit: Oh yeah, XP or Vista? I'm aware that DirectX 10 is only available on Vista but have all hardware and driver issues been sorted? Well, again if you want the use of DX10 then go vista, and seen as you already have a DX10 card you may as well go with Vista straight off the bat. It may be a few months more before we see a regular range of DX10 capable games on the shelf though. Cheers |
chiefnz (545) | ||
| 563946 | 2007-06-29 01:25:00 | Hi, I personally prefer Gigabyte board with the silent pipe, and the redundant BIOS, power modules LAN, etc, however I'm sure the evga board is just as good. I think the Q6600 is a bit old now and doesnt clock that well. The newer models coming out July will be the ones to go for or as already suggested, just a core 2duo...... You havent mentioned a case, and that is very important for airflow, of course I would recommend my own case TJ06, but there are plenty more good cooling cases out there. I like mine cause it turns the board upside down to shown off expansion card etc and divides the case into 2 areas. As for SLI, unless you are powering a 30" LCD, I would rather a single more powerful card over 2 lower cards. If you are overclocking, the 535w may not be enough for 2 high end card and a Quad cpu OC! |
SolMiester (139) | ||
| 563947 | 2007-06-29 01:32:00 | Good point there imjason, I'll take a look. cheifnz I was looking at the Asus Striker Extreme motherboard but it was $80 more than the EVGA, although I've seen that they have come down in price so I may consider it again. Does anyone use a motherboard with the nVidia nForce 680i chipset? There have been a lot of problems with it apparently, is it resolved? |
av4tarnz (5829) | ||
| 563948 | 2007-06-29 01:36:00 | Well, having a quad-core might not be so beneficial right now but when apps that do take full advantage of 4 cores do come out, you won't have to rush out and buy another processor. And I'm sure even now, having a quad-core would give you some advantage over a Core2Duo. | beeswax34 (63) | ||
| 563949 | 2007-06-29 01:41:00 | Solmiester I have actually bought a Gigabyte 3D Aurora case which can handle water-cooling, although I'm going to stick with its 3 fans for the moment. I am a bit concerned that my PSU might not be up to what I want it to do but nVidia gave it the SLI stamp, but I guess that doesn't make it any good. |
av4tarnz (5829) | ||
| 563950 | 2007-06-29 01:44:00 | That's what I was thinking beeswax34. I'm playing HL2 and HL2DM and Valve is apparently working on using multiple cores. | av4tarnz (5829) | ||
| 563951 | 2007-06-29 06:23:00 | The 535w Enermex will be fine as long as your not running a multi GPU setup. A single highend card will always trump two mid range cards in SLI, and by the time you come to buy a second highend card to match up with your existing card there will be a superior single card solution for the same price. The DDR800 Corsair Dominator only use Promos IC's so wont overclock anywhere near as high as memory with Micron D9's. I'm personally running the Corsair Dominator DDR800 and find it fine for my needs, it currently running at DDR920 and I'm fairly confident it would hit 1000MHz with more voltage and looser timings. OCZ is expensive and i'd be inclined to consider Super Talent or G Skill first as they offer relatively cheap memory with Micron D9's. EVGA is a fine brand but their 680i board is just a rebadged nVidia reference board so its exactly the same as the BFG, ECS and numerous other brands. It doesn't look like physics processing is going to be released any time soon so perhaps consider stepping down to the 680i LT, it still has 2 full speed PEG slots but just loses an ethernet port and the third PEG slot. As Chief said ASUS make sweet boards but they're expensive, if i was buying an nVidia board I'd just get the nVidia reference board. Is there any reason you really need a SLI motherboard? You're paying a price premium for a feature you may never use! Have a look at the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 or the ASUS P5B if you decided against SLI, both overclock very well and are a lot cheaper. Depending on what chip you select a 680i board might not be the best choice, they seem to hit 450MHz FSB easily but to get past 500MHz the P965 seems to be a better choice. If you go Dual Core skip the high end chips and just get a E4300 or E4400, that way you don't need awesome memory and they seem to overclock just as well. Otherwise the E6600 is probably the next best choice, and are very popular with 975 boards. |
Pete O'Neil (6584) | ||
| 563952 | 2007-06-29 07:25:00 | Thanks for you comments Pete. If I'm completely honest I'm still undecided on whether or not to overclock, I'm not that computer savvy and although I can find out on the net how to do it, the thought of frying expensive components does put me off. The only reason I didn't go for the high end graphics card, ie GTX, is that I couldn't justify the cost. I'm not looking to get another computer for at least another year, so was it stupid not going all out on the GPU? As for the PSU, it just confirms what I had suspected. I guess it would be better to forget SLI for now. By the time I'm ready to invest in another identical card, GPUs will no doubt be so much better and I'd be better off building from scratch again. I guess I'm pretty impressionable due to my lack of computer understanding, but if there are any further good suggestions I'd be grateful. |
av4tarnz (5829) | ||
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