Need Suggestions - Q6600 or ??

[sefaen]

Hi. I'm a Undergrad student who is majoring in 3d Animation, but I am also a pretty hardcore gamer. I mainly run 3ds max, Premiere, After Effects and a few different games. I find my current system is a bit out of date and I am looking to upgrade a bit, but I've been out of the loop lately when it comes to hardware.

I know Intel is king again and Nvidia is also the preferred choice (a 180 from ATI and AMD which is the combo I have now). I mainly play WoW, but I also play FPS games as well and I am looking forward to playing Bioshock and UT 3. For WoW it seems my CPU is my biggest bottleneck (a 2.0Ghz Athlon 64 3200+) so I would like to get a pretty big boost on CPU speed.

I am looking at the Q6600 Quadcore, but it's only a 2.4Ghz CPU. I know for rendering this thing is going to be many times better than my current CPU, but for gaming i need to make sure it will allow me to play with full effects and max terrain distance without any problems. The price point on this CPU looks pretty good as well. I also hear it overclocks well with the right cooler, but it also has to be G0 stepping and that it comes down to luck when ordering the CPU.

For the graphics card I want to make sure I have the best of the best. I am not sure if there is something better close on the horizon, but i was thinking of Dual 8800 Ultras. Probably EVGA since I was also looking at an EVGA motherboard.

Not sure exactly what speed DDR2 memory I would need to take full advantage of the 1033 FSB.

I would like to stay at or below $2000.

Also I have a choice when I buy my license for 3ds max this year. I can choose the 64-bit or 32-bit version so I need to know if it's worth getting a 64-bit OS. I know Intels are just 64-bit extensions and not true 64-bit CPUs so I imagine they actually take a performance hit when running under a 64-bit OS. Or maybe i am wrong about that too.

So any suggestions you have for me. Even different CPU's or GPU's.

[average650]

I have a Q6600 and an 8800 GTS, and I can run any game so far at highest settings at 1680X1050, so i would say you don't need to spend the absurd amount on anything more than the q6700, if even that.

[blue60007]

I would stick with single video cards - a 8800 Ultra is more than enough power. You're getting to a point where spending more won't get you more. You'll want DDR2-800. I wouldn't recommend overclocking on a production machine - especially for school projects.

I'm not sure about the 64 vs 32 bit - that's an interesting question.

[flanzig1]

Going with 2 8800Ultras and a good PSU to power those beasts will just about use all of the $2000 that you budgeted. Would look to something like a 8800GS or GT. They will play games well and not cost an arm and leg.
As for CPU gHz. ratings, they don't real mean much anymore with the latest Intel CPUs. The Intels do their work faster and better due to the design of the chip instead of clock speed.

[sefaen]

Thanks for the Replies guys. I am still weighing m options for the GPUs. I am willing to spend more than 2000 if need be. These are the cards I am looking at.

I was wondering how much power I will need for SLi.

Is 750watts good? I was looking at this.

Also what do you think of this memory. Was going to get 2 sets so 4gb total.

Finally, this motherboard.

Will be sticking 2x 500GB SATA drives in there (i already have).

Was also considering getting a couple raptors, but is it possible to have 2 seperate RAID arrays going at the same time? I've never actually set up RAID before.

[blue60007]

Here's the list of certified power supplies:
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html

Note that there aren't any 750 watters on the Ultra 8800 list.

[sefaen]

This is my grocery list:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 0279.90 ZipZoomFly.com
Cooler: COOLER MASTER RRLCHP9E1 0027.99 ClubIT.com
Mobo: eVGA 122-CK-NF67-A1 0189.99 ZipZoomFly.com
RAM 1: OCZ OCZ2N800SR2GK 0105.90 ZipZoomFly.com
RAM 2: OCZ OCZ2N800SR2GK 0105.90 ZipZoomFly.com
GPU 1: eVGA GeForce 8800 GTX 0519.99 ClubIT.com
GPU 2: eVGA GeForce 8800 GTX 0519.99 ClubIT.com
PSU: PC Power & Cooling 1KW-SR 0409.99 Xoxide.com
Case: Cooler Master RC-830-KKN2-GP 0249.99 ZipZoomFly.com
HDD 1: Western Digital WD1500AHFD 0194.99 NewEgg.com
HDD 2: Western Digital WD1500AHFD 0194.99 NewEgg.com
ROM 1: Pioneer BDC-202 0276.99 Buy.com
ROM 2: Pioneer DVR-212DBK 0039.99 ZipZoomFly.com
______________________________________________________________________
Total: 3088.61

Not listed are the $150 in mail-in rebates. I am buying mostly from ZipZoomFly.com and I may end up buying the Raptor hard drives from them as well (though I lose $30 in rebate). Think I will get some discount from them for buying multiple components? Also I plan on contacting them to see if they can make sure I get a Q6600 with G0 stepping. Think that they will agree to that? I have heard that the outside of the box will have SLACR at the end of the serial number. Is that true in all cases?

Finally, I am still confused about whether or not to get the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows Vista. Was going to get The OEM version of Business which is about $150. Any Suggestions as to what version I should get?

[RazR]

i would swap the opticals with ones from Lite-on
it seems to be recommend for all kind of builds around the forum

[sefaen]

Lite on is a great brand, but I have been using Pioneer for a long time and plan on sticking with them. I really like their A/V products as well so it's more of a preference than anything. I'm more concerned with the hardware that directly effects the performance of my PC.

[andper10]

That's a pretty expensive grocery list . I would stick with a single 8800GTX and upgrade whenever it gets too slow for you. You will save about $820 that way (Save $300 on a cheaper PSU and $520 by not having to buy a second video card). It is very likely that you will be able to get the top of the line video card in a few years from now for less than $820. My recommended "grocery" list:

$284.99 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115017 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

The CPU comes with a HSF that looks very similar to the cooler master one that you picked. I would recommend this HSF for a low cost yet still high quality cooler:

$19.99 - ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186134

$194.99 - EVGA 122-CK-NF67-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i LT SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813188014

$154.49 - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148069 - I have read that Windows has trouble with 4GB's of ram and that the preformance increase is negligable, however I am not sure if that applies to you since you are using those 3D animation programs. This ram is blazing fast and you will be able to run your system at a 2:1 Ram to CPU ratio if you don't OC. If you do OC very much you might have to run the ram at a divider but it will still be amazingly fast.

$546.99 - EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130072 - I don't see why you would need 2 8800GTX's unless you were using a 30" screen or larger.

$199.99 ($189.99 & free shipping if you sign up for the newegg e-mail newsletter and use the promo code [EMC830CASE03]) - PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (Black) EPS12V 750W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, ULC, CE, CB, RoHS - Retail - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817703009 - This is overkill for a single video card, but it has a huge single 12V rail, so it should be able to handle future video cards for a while into the future. If you want, this Corsair PSU essentially has a 52A 12V rail (the 750W Silencer has a 60A 12V Rail) for a lot less money: $129.99 - CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick - Retail -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139001 - It is cheaper at buy.com: http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-520w...203270716.html

Case is a personal choice, stick with what you like. Personally I wouldn't spend that much money on a case, but that is just my opinion.

I wouldn't bother with getting Dual Raptor's. Save yourself the ~$400 and just use the hard drives you already have. Or get a 320GB Seatate 7200.10 with PRT: $79.99 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148140 - I have heard that they come close to the speed of a Raptor.


I just gave the newegg links to most of the parts, you will probably be able to find some of them cheaper elsewhere. I have noticed that Newegg is not quite as competitive price wise as they used to be.

Beware of sending MIR's as they can end up voiding warranties for your expensive parts.

Just my 2 cents worth. Enjoy your build!

[sefaen]

I would really like to play my games at the highest resolutions possible. Currently I am using a FE2111SB, which supports up to 2048x1920 resolution.

I am waiting for a monitor like the Samsung 305T with a lower pixel response. Something below 4ms.

The next purchase after this PC is going to be the Viewsonic VX2835WM. It's a pretty amazing display and not a bad price.

I don't mind spending a lot on a graphics card. Back in the day when I was a real enthusiast I spent close to $3000 every year on a new rig. It's been close to 5 years since I've bought anything new.