computer build off

[Houdini]

Well it is past time for me to have a new computer so I am going to start and get some parts. I figure I can have it together by March if I cut out 3 or 4 vices... I am going post some of the parts I am ordering first so if you guys know somethig that I dont I would appreciate feedback.

cpu-intel core 2 extreme-x6800 or QX6700
(any thoughts on the quad cores?)

Vid card-BFG Tech GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB

check this thing out:
http://www.bfgtech.com/8800GTX_768_PCIe_wc.html

I am going with an SLI setup so I want to get another vid card at some point. Not really sure if I really should do the water cooled system but if I did these cards would work nice. Any thoughts?

[Porkinator]

There is way too much new stuff coming out in the next two months.
I suggest picking out your case and power supply now and play the wait and see game.
Quad cores are not going to make a difference in games but if you doing a lot of stuff at one time then it might be worth the double the price you going to pay.
I am going to stay away from Nvidia for right now until I see what ATI is going to offer. They suppose to have a new card that blows Nvidia away and besides Nvidia relies too much on the CPU for my tastes. I don't see any thing drastic for AMD in the next 3 months
as far as gaming goes and that is a shame as I hate to go over to the Evil Intel but if that is the best CPU for the price then I will.
This is .of course ,is my humble opinion.

[Houdini]

I am looking forward to see where things are going to go and make sure I have compatable hardware to upgrade. Strangley enough I think the price of the quad is the same as the core 2 duo x. Actually the core 2 duo 6800x has a higher clock speed (2.93 Mhz) then the Quad version of the same chip. They said due to the close spacing of the 4 proccessors they lowered the clock speed to reduce heat to 2.66 I believe. At this point I think I am settled on getting the core 2 duo xtreme 6800 and overclock the hell out of it with some love from a liquid cooled system.

On another note I spoke with a rep from BFG about using tandem GTX8800 cards purchased at seperate times. Seeing I am not wealthy I have no other choice. I had heard there was issues with BIOS (no pun intended Nyte) being different in cards purchased at seperate dates. He told me that has been dealt with through new drivers a few revisions ago now.

[Porkinator]

Go here and compare the 2 Core 2 Duos.
There is about 10 fps between the e6700 and the 6800 in the UT Test but a huge price difference.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html? ... &chart=167
Did you expect a video card rep not to blow smoke up your ass ?

[nonstop]

Hey Houdini, games currently aren't written for multiple processors so there is no advantage there however that will all be changing in the near future.

From anandtech

The problem with gaming benchmarks is that they often lag behind the hardware. All of the games we're testing today are at least a few months old, and while it would be nice to have more titles that can take advantage of at least dual core processors, the challenges involved in building a game engine that can truly take advantage of multiple processor cores are difficult to overcome and require a lot of time. We are aware of at least three companies that are working on engines that will benefit from CPUs with more than two cores, however, and hopefully more companies will follow suit in the future. The "dual core revolution" is not yet two years old, and the majority of modern games require more than two years to design and develop. There has been a great focus on improving game graphics over the previous decade or more, but it looks like we may finally be reaching the point where other aspects of gameplay are becoming important, and in order to flesh out those other areas (physics, artificial intelligence, particle systems, number of entities, etc.) multiple processor cores have a lot of potential.

I know I have specifically heard talk of Valve (Half Life 2 and HL2 engine games) developing for multiple core advantages going forward and others will follow suite. The target will be towards 2 cores so quad may be overkill unless you do some high end graphics or very cpu intensive stuff like lots of encoding.

Multi-thread coding will definately be coming after you build your pc.

http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/ ... ticore.ars

[Houdini]

True, it is something to consider and other alternatives are much cheaper so I will see what shakes out. I was just saying if someone was thinking about getting the best dual core the x6800 it is the same price as the quad - QX6800 ($1,000.00).

Also there is some side by side testing of these processors including AMD with games like Far Cry that show the dual and quad core smoking the other alternatives in frame rate.

[Avaris]

As Pork said, the sheer amount of stuff coming out within the time you can amass all that money alone makes it not worth it. For now, just wait until the time when you actually have that money, and some of this stuff will've dropped in price. Patience, young padawan

[Houdini]

No that is totally what I am doing man except may be for the case I am looking at those now. Lucky for me I landed a semi decent job with Albany County that will expedite things a bit.

[Houdini]

If I could have my wish this is what it would be:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-QX6700-Quad-Core-8800-SLI-gaming-computer-PC-NEW_W0QQitemZ150068021918QQihZ005QQcategoryZ140076QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[nonstop]

Wow Houdini, this is so weird. I had you pegged for more of a guy who wanted this for xmas.

[Ace]

What store has those in stock?

I'd prefer the eyes to come in blue, but I like the hoop earrings, because they are big enough to get her feet securely in them

[Houdini]

Wow Houdini, this is so weird. I had you pegged for more of a guy who wanted this for xmas.

Wow 2 500 GB SATA Drives...nice.

[Porkinator]

Wow Houdini, this is so weird. I had you pegged for more of a guy who wanted this for xmas.

Wow 2 500 GB SATA Drives...nice.

The floppy drive looks pretty good too.

[Houdini]

Holy crap that is a floppy drive! No wonder I could not jam my hard disk in.

[Houdini]

Just a small update to post here to see what your thoughts are. I am thinking now I am going to get the E6600 prcoessor and overclock the heck out of it on a 680I motherboard. This way the price drops $700 from what I was looking at and when multithreaded games are the thing I will go to the quad core. Looks to me that the difference performance vs price between the E6700 and the E6600 does not justify the E6700. Any thoughts on this?