PC died - looking for advice on a rebuild

[bernie89]

Hey,

Been a long time since I posted here So my 3500+ A64 system has died and rather than fiddle around trying to fix it I have decided to upgrade. I would like to have waited for a while to upgrade, but I really need a computer for uni so I need to get this done ASAP. I was wondering if you guys had any thoughts on what I have put together? Have I done anything blatantly retarded? Been out of the scene for a while :P

I am looking to play upcoming games like Crysis and Bioshock on my 2405FWP, which is why I am going for the quad core over an E6850. The mobo I chose because it looks like I will have a reasonable upgrade path with it in the future.

I am just using an 8600GT as an interim card until the next gen of dx10 cards come out. I am a little unsure about 2GB vs 4GB ram. Seems for now on 32bit a good 2GB pair is what you want? I'm not really prepared to run 64bit vista just now to really take advantage of the 4GB.

So here is my list! Any advice/thoughts would be great! Thanks in advance!

Intel Q6600
Asus Striker Extreme
Corsair T2X2048-64C4DHX 4-4-4-12 timings
OCZ 850w gamexstream
8600GT, asus atm -256mb but any point in the 512?
2 X 500GB seagate 7200.10
Vista Ultimate 32bit (upgrading from win2k)

[perkster]

1.) not sure that a quad core would be better than E6850 or E6750 for gaming since most games are single threaded at moment its probably faster on the higher clock speed of a dual core chip. Though the quad core is likely more future proof. the games you mention are likely to be single threaded.

2.) running a 24 inch monitor puts more pressure on your graphics card rather than the processor, the 8600 is a fine card for holding out just til the new dx10 cards come out.

3.) ram looks fine 800mhz is more than enough and 2gb is way to go if you dont fancy 64 bit vista as 32 bit wont be able to use more than 3.2gb and may run slower with 4gb in than 2gb.,

4.) the MB you picked is a P35 chipset and yes very upgradable, only main thing it has that P5k doesnt is DDR3 support in future i think.

5.) not sure you will need the 512 version of the 8600 256mb version should work fine and it can borrow system memory if needed anyway. get a higher memory one when you upgrade to yoru final choice next gen card.

6.) do you really need vista ultimate? most people are better off with home premium.

7.) if gaming and not looking into 64bit i think maybe win xp may be better choice for now.

[Katreat]

I agree with Perk regarding CPU. I expect the higher clock speeds of the duel core chips will be faster in gaming than the extras cores until games are developed specifically to use those cores. The quad core is more future proof and it is still a very fast chip so nothing worng with your choice, just not sure your reasoning fits the situation.

In the 8800 GTS series the 640 MB is recommended over the 320 MB for running larger monitors on higher resolutions. I would assume that relation extends to the 8600 series so the higher memory will probably allow you to run a higher resolution easier. But as Perk says, since it is really a place holder card for your system it will probably perform just fine at 256 MB.

Kat

[coreywhite]

Let me preface this by saying I'm far from an expert.

However, I do think that you should really rethink that video card. The 8600GT is a low-to-mid range video card; the rest of your system is on the extreme high end. This is strange since you intend to do a lot of gaming, and the video card has greater impact on gaming performance than any other single component.

For the same price, or even less, you can get an X1950XT. This will outperform the 8600GT, sometimes dramatically - literally twice or even three times the frame rates when you have antialiasing turned on running at high resolutions. Check Tom's Hardware Guide (http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=724&model2=854&chart=283). Though the difference won't always be that dramatic, you will pretty much always find that for games with DirectX 9 support (all games in the foreseeable future) the X1950XT will signficantly outperform the 8600GTS.

Admittedly, it doesn't have DirectX 10 support. However, almost games will be DirectX 9 compatible for quite some time, and you already said that you're planning to upgrade to a higher end DirectX 10 card later on. I really think this is the best for you.

[LeftyAce]

Get the ASUS P5K motherboard, and with the money you'll save, get the 8800GTS or 8800GTX. From a gaming perspective it doesn't make sense to spend that much on a motherboard only to have to go easy on the video card.

[perkster]

other points:

1.) if you want the 8600 only for a bit its fine but if you want to play the games you have for longer than 6 months say you may want to upgrade the videocard as people said, but i understand your logic in waiting.

2.) ignore my point about using XP as XP doesnt have DX10 and from you post you obviously want a DX10 capable system, though you could go XP while on 8600 and while games are all dx9 and vista is still new and then upgrade to vista when you upgrade graphics card further.

3.) the PSU is a bit high, not sure you need 800W, may be able to save yourself some money and go for the 620W HX corsair unit which is highly recommended here probably cheaper and will still leave you headroom for that next gen card.

4.) the other differences between P5K motherboard and the striker one you picked out aside from DDR3 support (which is expensive at moment and high latency) is that its a Crossfire motherboard with a NVIDIA chipset, on these forums we dont generally recommend crossfire or sli set ups as 2 current gen cards in crossfire/SLI dont generally perform as well as one next gen card, so we often think save the money and upgrade primary card more often. It doesnt appear you will use the crossfire options or the DDR3 for a while. Also we like to recommend INTEL chipsets when going with intel processors and not using SLI/crossfire as they are generally better match.

5.) Katreat makes very good point about high resolutions needing the memory, give that some thought but as a place holder should be ok depends on price difference.

6.) make sure HDs are SATA

7.) would recommend going SATA for DVD burner too which you havent listed as any old IDE ones may not work too good, these motherboards have 3rd party IDE controllers which sometimes work sometimes not, but they have native SATA support, also better for better airflow.

[chuck4456]

Hey,



So here is my list! Any advice/thoughts would be great! Thanks in advance!

Intel Q6600
Asus Striker Extreme
Corsair T2X2048-64C4DHX 4-4-4-12 timings
OCZ 850w gamexstream
8600GT, asus atm -256mb but any point in the 512?
2 X 500GB seagate 7200.10
Vista Ultimate 32bit (upgrading from win2k)

Actually, I'd rethink the entyre thing. You've got too much overkill and waste in your list.

E6750 will do what you want. It's also very overclockable.
P5K would be a better choice if you're going ASUS. Better chipset and less expensive.
Corsair's as good as any. P35 chipsets can be adjusted to accomomodate anybody's RAM.
PC POWER & COOLING is having a sale, right now. SAPPHIRE says PCP&C are the absolute best, and I can't argue with them about that. SILENCER 750 QUAD will take you a long way.
SAPPHIRE X1950XT will play anything that you throw at it. Not DX10, but there's lots of time for that.
Do you need that much storage? Just get two Seagate 250s if you want to do RAID. One, split should be all that you need.
Go with XP for the time being. I think you can still get it with an upgrade coupon for VISTA. Far less problems with XP - it already knows where to find drivers. Plenty of time for VISTA.
Good luck.

(May not be able to do RAID with the P5K. You CAN do it with the new P5KE, which is just ten dollars more.)

[LeftyAce]

3) Good point, I agree that you can go down to the 620 W corsair and be fine. The 520 will run an 8800 with an e6600, so 620 will do your processor plus a possible video card upgrade down the road.

7) Definitely get SATA optical drives. IDE support is hit-or-miss on newer boards. A Retail Lite-On drive is good quality and comes with burning software.