Well I got a job and i've got some money saved up. Time for a new computer. And I have some questions:

I've only been using AMD processors for the last five years and i'm a bit of a fanboy. But appearantly the Core 2 Duo has been tearing it up in the benchmarks. So the question is do you think I should wait for barcelona or just go and buy a Core 2? And if so which core 2 gives the best bang for your buck?

Is SLI worth it? I've been considering it and I haven't made up my mind. For now I plan to get 1 Geforce 8800GTS 320mb. What sort of power supply would I need to run that sort of video card and what would I need to run two in SLI?

That's all for now , I may have some more questions soon. Thanks in advance for your help!

From the early benchmarks of Barcelona it doesn't look like it'll be able to beat Intel. I'd wait for the end of the month by which time Intel will have a series of price cuts and you'll be able to get a Quad core 6600 for $266 or a dual core 6750 for $178.

I'd stick with one GTS for the moment you can always get one later. Dell's got a sweet deal on the 320mb version for $266 or you can get the 640mb version for $338.

Quote: Originally Posted by eascarface From the early benchmarks of Barcelona it doesn't look like it'll be able to beat Intel. I'd wait for the end of the month by which time Intel will have a series of price cuts and you'll be able to get a Quad core 6600 for $266 or a dual core 6850 for $178. I'd stick with one GTS for the moment you can always get one later. Dell's got a sweet deal on the 320mb version for $266 or you can get the 640mb version for $338.

^^What he said. My 8800GTS will handle all modern games at 1680x1050 with AA and AF on, so you don't really need anything more powerful atm.

Quote: Originally Posted by eascarface Quad core 6600 for $266 or a dual core 6850 for $178.

E6850 is going to be $266, E6750 (the new king of price to performance IMO) is going to be $178.

Quote: Originally Posted by Zaltan E6850 is going to be $266, E6750 (the new king of price to performance IMO) is going to be $178.

Thanks for catching that Zaltan. I was reaching off the top of my head.

Quote: Originally Posted by eascarface Thanks for catching that Zaltan. I was reaching off the top of my head.

Glad I could help.

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux ^^What he said. My 8800GTS will handle all modern games at 1680x1050 with AA and AF on, so you don't really need anything more powerful atm.

Do you have the 320MB version or the 640MB? Isn't that resolution the turning point in whether you need 640MB or not?

Quote: Originally Posted by 4x0n Do you have the 320MB version or the 640MB? Isn't that resolution the turning point in whether you need 640MB or not?

Yeah, anything higher and you do need 640mb, but at the moment Quake Wars, Colin McRae: Dirt, FEAR etc. are all cool at 1680x1050

I'll probably get a 9800GTS when needs must.

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux Yeah, anything higher and you do need 640mb, but at the moment Quake Wars, Colin McRae: Dirt, FEAR etc. are all cool at 1680x1050 I'll probably get a 9800GTS when needs must.

Haha... I had a 9800 about 4 years ago, nVidia is so far behind!

Quote: Originally Posted by Zaltan E6850 is going to be $266, E6750 (the new king of price to performance IMO) is going to be $178.

Thanks to you and eascarface for this info, I was gonna get an e6600 next on my list, but I guess I will get the vid card first and wait for the price cuts on the CPUs.

Quote: Originally Posted by godfoot Thanks to you and eascarface for this info, I was gonna get an e6600 next on my list, but I guess I will get the vid card first and wait for the price cuts on the CPUs.

E6750 is going to be an awesome choice in my opinion. 2.66GHz (333x8) and if you get a decent P35 (ASUS/ABIT/GIGABYTE all seem to be doing 500+ FSB easily and ASUS and Gigabyte have mATX boards that do 450+) they should clock very nicely despite the low multiplier.

Quote: Originally Posted by Zaltan E6750 is going to be an awesome choice in my opinion. 2.66GHz (333x8) and if you get a decent P35 (ASUS/ABIT/GIGABYTE all seem to be doing 500+ FSB easily and ASUS and Gigabyte have mATX boards that do 450+) they should clock very nicely despite the low multiplier.

Is it worth pre-ordering do you think? OCUK have got pre-orders going for the 23rd of July....at £148 its a bargain, but I don't know if its worth it when Penryn's due out winter this year.

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux Is it worth pre-ordering do you think? OCUK have got pre-orders going for the 23rd of July....at £148 its a bargain, but I don't know if its worth it when Penryn's due out winter this year.

I thought Penryn was the start of 2008? It's a hard decision. If your like me and quite happy with your current computer for the time being (E6300 + 8800GTS isn't half bad!) there isn't any need for the upgrade. I'm personally thinking of waiting until Penryn (Wolfdale Dual Core probably, the 2.66GHz version can do SuperPi in 17s at stock I saw this on XS will find the link later).

PS I was also expecting them to be cheaper than that, perhaps £120 ($178 US Price = ~£90 then + VAT = £105 + Random UK mark up = £120).

Quote: Originally Posted by Zaltan I thought Penryn was the start of 2008? It's a hard decision. If your like me and quite happy with your current computer for the time being (E6300 + 8800GTS isn't half bad!) there isn't any need for the upgrade. I'm personally thinking of waiting until Penryn (Wolfdale Dual Core probably, the 2.66GHz version can do SuperPi in 17s at stock I saw this on XS will find the link later). PS I was also expecting them to be cheaper than that, perhaps £120 ($178 US Price = ~£90 then + VAT = £105 + Random UK mark up = £120).

Ok, I guess the 45nm Core 2s have been pushed back then. Not a problem. My current setup @ 3.3ghz will do 1m Super Pi about as fast as a stock X6800, so that's plenty fast enough.

Here's the E6750 at OCUK Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.66GHz (1333FSB) - Retail

I might go for the E6550 as it's a bit cheaper, but it really depends on what OCs people can get out of em. I'd be looking for 3.5ghz to make it worthwhile replacing the venerable E6300.

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux I might go for the E6550 as it's a bit cheaper, but it really depends on what OCs people can get out of em. I'd be looking for 3.5ghz to make it worthwhile replacing the venerable E6300.

Have a look on XS.org, I've seen people clocking ES's pretty nicely.

PS. I'm sorry for this thread sort of going off topic!

Quote: Originally Posted by Zaltan Have a look on XS.org, I've seen people clocking ES's pretty nicely. PS. I'm sorry for this thread sort of going off topic!

Not a problem. It's all useful information. Thanks for the advice.everyone. I'm going to work soon but i'll be doing some digging around for prices this weekend. Any reccomendations for a power supply?

Quote: Originally Posted by Zaltan ...and Gigabyte have mATX boards that do 450+)

Yes, I am fully aware of this fact. I do believe one of those is already sitting inside a mATX Lian Li across the room.

Quote: Originally Posted by Morion Not a problem. It's all useful information. Thanks for the advice.everyone. I'm going to work soon but i'll be doing some digging around for prices this weekend. Any reccomendations for a power supply?

PC POWER&COOLING 750 watt.

PC POWER and COOLING Silencer 750 Quad (Copper) S75Q Power Supply Retail at ZipZoomfly (Copper, and out of stock, lower priced then the black)

PC POWER and COOLING 750 Quad (Black) S75QB Power Supply Retail at ZipZoomfly (Black, in stock)

Or Sliverstones 750 watt.

Newegg.com - SILVERSTONE DA750 ATX12V / EPS12V 750W Power Supply 100 - 240 V - Retail


All of the above are SINGLE RAIL power supplies, if you are going SLI, multi rail power supplies usually have issues.

Read Myth 8, and check out the rest of them too.

Power Supply Myths Exposed!

Okay i've been looking at some video cards.

One is an EVGA GF 8800 320mb for 378.99 (398.99 w/ $20 rebate) :
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB SLI Ready PCI Express DL Dual DVI HDTV Video Card 320-P2-N811-AR in Canada at TigerDirect.ca

Then there is the 640mb version for 379.97 (409.97 - $30 rebate):
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 SLI Ready PCI Express Dual DVI HDTV HDCP Enabled Video Card 640-P2-N821-AR in Canada at TigerDirect.ca

They seem to have the same specs so why are they so near in price? I thought 640mb cards were significantly more expensive.

Also there is the super clocked 320mb version for 389.99:
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS Superclocked 320MB GDDR3 SLI Ready PCI Express Dual DVI HDTV Video Card 320-P2-N815-AR in Canada at TigerDirect.ca

Should I go with a superclocked 320mb over a 640mb?

Resolutions above 1680x1050, go for 640MB, 1680x1050 and less go for 320MB.