Upgrades Ho!

[Mr. Analog]

So, I have $2500 saved up for a new rig, I'm like a kid in a candy store! I'm pretty sure I'll go with Memory Express for most parts, now the only question is what kind of rig should I build for Fraga...

[Lazybones]

Just finished having this kind of debate on another forum.

Depends if you want lean more to price or performance.

[Mr. Analog]

Well, I want to be "Vista ready" and I'd like to be able to play stuff like SupCom with as little flaw as possible. I'm really considering Dual Core based mostly on benchmarks, but I'd like to have enough money left over to buy a nice screen. As far as HDD goes, I can live with 500 GB of SATA II possibly striped.

[Lazybones]

Well, I want to be "Vista ready" and I'd like to be able to play stuff like SupCom with as little flaw as possible. I'm really considering Dual Core based mostly on benchmarks, but I'd like to have enough money left over to buy a nice screen. As far as HDD goes, I can live with 500 GB of SATA II possibly striped.

Well you NEED to go at leased Dual Core, maybe even Quad if you want next to no slowdown in SupCOm.

Basic components you want

Intel Core2 processor or in dual or quad core
NVidia 8800 video card, GTS if you are on a budget, GTX for the best performance
2 GB of RAM

All the other stuff is really up in the air.

[Mr. Analog]

Well, I want to be "Vista ready" and I'd like to be able to play stuff like SupCom with as little flaw as possible. I'm really considering Dual Core based mostly on benchmarks, but I'd like to have enough money left over to buy a nice screen. As far as HDD goes, I can live with 500 GB of SATA II possibly striped.

Well you NEED to go at leased Dual Core, maybe even Quad if you want next to no slowdown in SupCOm.

Basic components you want

Intel Core2 processor or in dual or quad core
NVidia 8800 video card, GTS if you are on a budget, GTX for the best performance
2 GB of RAM

All the other stuff is really up in the air.

That's pretty much what I've been thinking too...

[Cova]

This article was published quite recently, and is a pretty good read.  I've been recommending Intel chips a lot lately, but AMD came out on top of this analysis.

http://techreport.com/reviews/2007q2/pricevperf/index.x?pg=1

And ya - you want at LEAST dual-core.

[Tom]

The current Core2Quad should be half price in a few weeks. Somewhere around the 20th.

I am seriously worried I won't be able to get a new computer in time for fraga

I'm really considering Dual Core based mostly on benchmarks, but I'd like to have enough money left over to buy a nice screen.

For $2500 you can get a current C2Q, mid-high end motherboard, 2-4+ GB ram, 2-4x 320GB disks, etc. And possibly a 20" LCD. If you skimp a little on the cpu (or wait for the price reduction on the C2Q), a 24" LCD. $2500 is a very nice budget.

[Mr. Analog]

Here's my plan. Discuss...

Intel Core2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.4GHz w/ 2x4MB Cache   Intel Retail Heatsink and Fan
Intel Desktop Board D975XBX2 w/ DualDDR2 800, Audio, Gigabit Lan, 1394, Crossfire PCI-E x16 Onboard 100/1000 Gigabit Lan
Corsair 2GB XMS2-6400 Dominator TWIN2X Dual Channel DDR2 Kit (2 x 1GB)
XFX Geforce 7900 GTX 512MB PCI-E (675MHz) w/ Dual DVI, HDTV-Out, HDCP, RoHS
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gamer Case
OCZ 700W GameXStream Power Supply w/ Quad +12V
Maxtor 500GB MaxLine Pro 500 7200RPM SATAII w/ 16MB Cache       
Viewsonic VX922 19in Digital LCD w/ DVI, 2ms, Black

Total with GST: $2421.68 (within my budget of $2500)

[Melbosa]

Couple of things from my perspective:

• Intel MOBO = Bad News - used a couple already in home PCs (gaming rigs) and they are really only good for workstations (IRQ problems as Intel utilizes some common IRQs as reserved for Mobo stuff).  Asus would be my choice for stability and feature set.
• Crossfire Motherboard but nVidia Graphics card?  Or are you looking to upgrade to ATI in the future?  Or is there a featureset of the MOBO you like?
• Maxtor is no longer in biz, would probably go with Seagate instead, to atleast help out with support from Seagate if you have a drive problem - http://www.seagate.com/maxtor/.  Seagates have been working awsomely for me (both IDE and SATA).  And with NCQ, its $10 cheaper than your Maxtor - Take a look.

Again above is my perspective, and only my perspective.  The rig you have mapped out is sweet upgrade no matter what for yourself!

[Mr. Analog]

Couple of things from my perspective:

• Intel MOBO = Bad News - used a couple already in home PCs (gaming rigs) and they are really only good for workstations (IRQ problems as Intel utilizes some common IRQs as reserved for Mobo stuff).  Asus would be my choice for stability and feature set.
• Crossfire Motherboard but nVidia Graphics card?  Or are you looking to upgrade to ATI in the future?  Or is there a featureset of the MOBO you like?
• Maxtor is no longer in biz, would probably go with Seagate instead, to atleast help out with support from Seagate if you have a drive problem - http://www.seagate.com/maxtor/.  Seagates have been working awsomely for me (both IDE and SATA).  And with NCQ, its $10 cheaper than your Maxtor - Take a look.

Again above is my perspective, and only my perspective.  The rig you have mapped out is sweet upgrade no matter what for yourself!

I appreciate your feedback however I'd like a bit more detail on mobo failure, I mean every manufacturer has had a series of duds. I am a bit leary about going to Intel but from what I have read this board is dependable. I went with the crossfire support in case I do want to switch back to AMD at some point, again from what I have read it works just as well with the nVidia layout.

I was looking at the Seagates as well I'm split 50/50, they're both practically the same, Maxtor is a name I trust I guess....

[Melbosa]

Sure I can give you what I've experienced with Intel Motherboards:

• Very Stable
• Limited BIOS options - meant for your regular joe, not a tweaker, let along a power users.  Some I couldn't even turn of ACPI support, which I sometimes to for legacy hardware.
• BIOS Updates are not as frequent, but because you are limited in what you can do, this kind of makes sense.  Most motherboards get a BIOS update every time a new set of CPUs is released (if there aren't any problems of course), Intel does it when they are pushing a model of CPUs harder than others... just means BIOS updates seem to be further inbetween.  This is my impression, and usually is only a delay of 2-3 weeks in my experience.
• IRQ - Have had problems with both legacy sound cards (mostly creative - which we have all had problems with at some point) and storage controllers.  Intel reserves some IRQs that those cards utilize by default, which shouldn't be a huge issue with most recent hardware. But I find I grandfather my hardware to other uses, or my clients have legacy things they want to use with the new hardware, which has caused me to recommend away from the Intel MOBOs.

[Melbosa]

With the SLI vs Crossfire boards... haven't seen much problems with the latest boards either way (I mean in using ATI vid with SLI or nVidia vid with Crossfire), was just curious as to why... figured it was something like you wanting to switch back at a later date.

[Mr. Analog]

Yep, pretty much

Now, I hope Memory Express has all the parts I need

[Cova]

I'd also recommend an Asus board over that Intel one.  Also - I think this would be a better option for the video card:

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB - $400
http://www.memoryexpress.com/index.php?PageTag=&page=file&memx_menu=EmbedProductDetail.php&DisplayProductID=9217&SID=

Having a PSU with quad 12V rails is also a waste.  They're all making PSU's with more and more rails now because people think bigger numbers is better - but really they're just dividing your amps into lots of smaller circuits and taking away your option to use the power however you'd like.  In a 4-rail PSU there will be dedicated rails for a pair of PCI-e power connectors, and likely 1 rail for the MB (24-pin ATX connector) and the last rail to power HD's and fans (molex/sata power connectors).  So, if you don't run Crossfire/SLI one of those PCI-e rails is 100% unused, doesn't help you add more HD's, optical drives, or have a faster/OC'd CPU.  It's like the old problem of partitioning your HD into 4 small slices, and you end up with free-space at the end of some slices, while others end up full, and you can't use your total space optimally.

And finally - I'd recommend a Seagate drive over a Maxtor.  Yes - Seagate bought Maxtor and the drives should be almost identical.  But just trying to find support info about Maxtor drives at Seagate's website makes me think they want to phase that name/product-line out.  I think if you have troubles a year or two from now you'll get better support with a Seagate branded drive.

[Mr. Analog]

Thanks for the advice guys I'll play around a bit more before I put money on the table but input is always good.