BooSh

Wow, you stay out of the loop for 1 year and you come back to build a PC only to become lost.

I dont know where to start. I need help finding the best combo between cpu/ram/mobo.

I dont know where to start, Core 2 Duo looks sweet and inexpensive, but I have always known AMD to be overall better! Are they going to bounceback with a kick-ass answer to the Core 2 Duo?

I have been looking around, and have everything picked out except for hard drives,ram,mobo,and processor. I guess I dont have most of the PC picked out lol, but I tried.

My budget is less then 2k. I am planning on upgrading to SLI/Crossfire later on.

I do not mind waiting till January 07... hell even Fall of 07 if people think its a better idea, but atleast I want to get an idea of what to look out for.

And im excited lol.

Thanks!

Joe88

frist core2 rips apart everything amd has for a fraction of the cost
as far as future plans for AMD , the FX-70 , it bascially 2x 4core CPU working togther (8 cores)
cant really say anything about it wait for some benchmarks

second nvidia right now has the fastest video cards 8800GTX out
ATI's DX10 was pushed back to feb or so it might be a good idea to wait that way there will be competetion and push down the prices and also see which one is the better DX10 card

as far as cases theres some sweet lian-lan , thermaltakes full towers out
ram DDR2-800 is the standard great perfromance for a good PC

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$SOLID$ Necro

The E6600 2.4GHZ Core 2 Duo is the "Sweet Spot" for price to performance ratio, it is the lowest priced 4MB cache CPU, and will easily OC to 3.4~3.8GHZ on air cooling 24-7 and a good one will be able to run benches at 4GHZ.

Motherboard wise, the i680 EVGA opr Asus boards look to be the way to go for SLI, and the 975x chipset boards for X-Fire...with the DFI RD600 based boards showing up at the end of the month showing some promise.

Here is the 1MB pi times at complete defaults and then pushed to the ragged edge at nearly 4.1ghz (Not daily use stable..i leave it at 3.6ghz)

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BooSh

Yeppers I think im leaning towards intel. I guess the question that remains now to wait or not to wait..

PS my present rig is about to die on me...

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TeamHype

You ever notice how hard it is to follow up after a $SOLID$ Necro post? I mean, sometimes I feel like I'm punching away at my old Commodore 64 compared to this guy

Anyway, I just thought I'd chime in to echo the comments above - the E6600 if definitely the sweet spot for processors at the moment. And much like you - I was in the AMD camp for quite a while. The X2 4400+ was the AMD sweet spot about a year ago, and the 4800+ literally crushed Intel's best and brightest. Admittedly, the X2 line was pretty pricey - but performance was best-in-class hands down! But you'll find that the Core 2 Duo DEFINITELY takes the crown!!! And yes - it is amazing what can change in the industry from just being out of the loop for a year!

And as far as the AMD comeback - I'm sure it will happen at some point, but haven't seen much buzz out there up to now, so best case we're talking a while before they have another title shot. Besides......who wants to wait 6-8 months to build a brand new, screamin' rig!!

I defer to $SOLID$ Necro for MoBo advice here - but have you chosen a video card? Given your budget, I'd say that you have a little bit of room to wiggle around. If you're looking for a nice card for $150, I'd give the X1900GT (Crossfire ready) a shot:

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE Radeon X1900GT 100189L VIVO HDCP Video Card - Retail

OR - if you want to kick it up a notch, a fellow pimp posted this deal for the X1950 Pro on Newegg for $209:

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE Radeon X1950PRO 100176U Ultimate Video Card - Retail

I've always been slightly partial to ATI, but if you're diehard nVidia, something in the 7900GS family should work well, and keep you around $200 or less!

As far has the HDD department goes, I'd recommend WD Raptors in a RAID 0 (if you're thinking about gaming only). That way, it's not a big deal if your system crashes If you're looking for a more robust system, there are tons of options....especially since it's so close to Christmas! I picked up a Seagate 160GB SATA II drive from CompUSA last night for $30. Hard to beat at that price!!! Actually, it was so hard to beat at that price that I had a friend pick me up a second one so I could run a RAID!

Also, it's hard to recommend a case personally - it all comes down to what you are looking for. I like quiet cases w/ good cooling options, and if you can find an Antec case on sale, that's probably a good bet. I scored an Antec P180B for $70 AR thanks to a fellow pimp on the deals forum here. If you're into modding, someone else could probably recommend a better one, though!!

Anyway, good luck with the new rig!

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$SOLID$ Necro

Thanks for the compliments TeamHype, have some rep!

Following up me in the OC dept. is often like following up kids or animals on the Jay Leno, as they say in hollywood...there tough acts to follow.

I try and be thorough, but there is always room for other opinions, and I often learn from you guys too..I just have no life, so I tend to stay on top of things around the net.

The rep is for your follow up, thats very good vid card advice (Other than I tend to be a NVIDIA fan, but I cannot argue with ATI's cards at all, I have owned a few and liked them, and i hate how the CCC is painfully slow to load...

Here is the one thing I often find usefull at Tom's, an interactive video card compare guide

Tom's Hardware Guide Processors: VGA Charts

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BooSh

Thanks for the help peoples! Yea seems like that Core 2 is just dominating across the boards. What about DX10? And the question nobody answered should I wait a few more months?

Also I find it so hard to find a good case. Im leaning towards the Lian Li cases, because I think all them LED's get annoying. But does anyone know of any good cases that are quiet with good airflow and not a plasticy look to them?

Thanks!

s1ugh34d

To attempt a follow follow up, which is purely my opinion.
With ATI and ther new GDDR4 architecture i have no doubt that the new R600 cards are going to amazing, with a launch date almost identical to the new death star from microsoft. I feel that waiting tilthe end of january or febuary would be your best bet. Perosonally i've only had one ATI card, it worked, thats all ican say, for the most part, i would get the newATI, but i can't vouch for tests that havent been run, i want to see it before i upgrade at least.

Also watch for new updates to GPU OCing apps, once they get a GDDR4 OCing system, there should be some mad verhead in scores from the 1950XTX line, they seem to havelocked potential waiting the app makers coders.

For the CPU they already said it, unless your a die hard never will go intel fan (ahemm, i don't know anyone like that) theres no reason to go AMD, you could for a really really budget PC, but you aint touching the performace ladder.

But i must say you need help OCing, you will find it here, that necro guy said it himself he know alot, and canteach you just about anything you need to know about OCing, and ifhe can't hes got links, lots and lots of links.

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TeamHype

Much 'spect, $SOLID$ Necro - thank ya for the rep bump And you're totally right about that Tom's Hardware chart - it's one of the best things they've ever done!!

I agree with s1ugh34d on the GDDR4 architecture - honestly, I haven't read scores about it yet, but when it does come out, it should be a nice step up from what's on the market right now. The only catch there is - you're probably going to pay top $$ for anything on the R600 platform for a while - but that call is totally up to you. Even if you wait until Jan/Feb just to see what comes down the pike, you'll probably catch a ~$20 price break or so on the cards I mentioned below - so either way you've got plenty of options!

If you want a little bit more info on GDDR4 and ATI timelines, here's a short article from Dailytech.com from July:

DailyTech - ATI Radeon X1950 Announced

"ATI's advisory documentation claims the Radeon X1950XTX will begin sample availability on August 7, with the CrossFire sampling beginning exactly one week later. Sampling of the Radeon X1900XT 256MB will begin immediately.

Radeon X1900 and X1950 will be replaced by another ASIC core, dubbed R600. R600 is expected to be 80nm with new design features above and beyond the R520 and R580 series. "

Just thought it was somewhet relevant to the conversation.........Anyway, once you get your system all squared away, come back and talk to $SOLID$ Necro and he'll teach you how to OC it so much you'll need a lead vest next time you want to play F.E.A.R. to protect you from all the radiation

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Slaymate

I have to agree with Solid. Intel Core 2 Duo and a 680i or D975 mobo. I just got the evga 680 sli
board and overall I like it. I'm having problems with the video driver and hopefully Nvidia will fix that.
I have a Intel D975XBX I was using and it's a fine board also. It does run hotter and It didn't OC
as well as the 680i. But I did get better memory performance with the Intel board. It really depends
on your choice of video and whether you want to wait. With 2 7950GTX's I went 680i sli, I may sell the
Intel mobo if your interested :-)

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