Re: I want YOUR opinion!
Buy Core 2 Duo E8400 and use the money saved to get an AMD Radeon HD 4850. Also make sure you have at least 550W power, 2x12V rail with combined current output > 30A.
The reason?
1. 9600GT is budget card for one-time market. 4850 will last longer, and it's way faster.
2. E8400 is better for gaming than Q6600, and is even better overclockable.
If you can spend additional $300, I would suggest you to go for DDR3. You'll know the difference when you overclock the system. One of the weakness of Intel system is memory bandwidth. Though DDR3 doesn't fix that, it improved the system so much better while overclocking. By raising FSB from 1333MHz to 1666MHz, E8400 should be running at 3.6GHz (VID=1.25V maybe?). DDR3 RAM running at 1666MHz is just awesome fast, while DDR2 RAM will run at some wierd FSB/RAM ratio, which results in wasted CPU clock. A $20 POS HSF will still do the job for E8400 at 3.6GHz, but good luck with Q6600. Speedwise E8400 is better than Q6600 on gaming, especially FPS style games. But, only if you have additional $300.
Don't scant money on motherboard and PSU. IMHO, motherboard and PSU are the items that you should spend most money at. CPU and GPUs drop price all the time, while a good motherboard can last you until the life cycle of the socket ends. A good PSU will allow you to stress your system in the future, when you want to get a GTX 280 or 4870x2 for $100 on eBay.
P35 supports only PCI-e x16. P45 Support PCI-e x16 2.0, but runs it as PCI-e x8 2.0 with CrossFire.
Yeah, go with P45 with one-card solution and X38 for two card solution. If you have too much money to burn, try X48 or 790i (if you dare use nvidia).
Originally posted by Rick Astley
The reason?
1. 9600GT is budget card for one-time market. 4850 will last longer, and it's way faster.
2. E8400 is better for gaming than Q6600, and is even better overclockable.
If you can spend additional $300, I would suggest you to go for DDR3. You'll know the difference when you overclock the system. One of the weakness of Intel system is memory bandwidth. Though DDR3 doesn't fix that, it improved the system so much better while overclocking. By raising FSB from 1333MHz to 1666MHz, E8400 should be running at 3.6GHz (VID=1.25V maybe?). DDR3 RAM running at 1666MHz is just awesome fast, while DDR2 RAM will run at some wierd FSB/RAM ratio, which results in wasted CPU clock. A $20 POS HSF will still do the job for E8400 at 3.6GHz, but good luck with Q6600. Speedwise E8400 is better than Q6600 on gaming, especially FPS style games. But, only if you have additional $300.
Don't scant money on motherboard and PSU. IMHO, motherboard and PSU are the items that you should spend most money at. CPU and GPUs drop price all the time, while a good motherboard can last you until the life cycle of the socket ends. A good PSU will allow you to stress your system in the future, when you want to get a GTX 280 or 4870x2 for $100 on eBay.
Originally posted by Eagle101
Yeah, go with P45 with one-card solution and X38 for two card solution. If you have too much money to burn, try X48 or 790i (if you dare use nvidia).
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