$2800-$3000 system

[ohlmsjm]

Okay, you kids have had your fun, now for the big boy recommendations:

The motherboard that OCs the best: P5B Deluxe.
Most voltages: DQ6
The best on the X975 chipset and recommended for Crossfire: Abit AW9D-MAX

Mobos not worth getting: MSI 975X, P5W DH, any current Intel mobo, any current Nvidia chipset. (If youll argue about this be prepared to be pwnd.)
For SLI, you have no other choice but to wait for the 680i chipsets, RD600 is worth while too.

I would only recommed the X6800 if youre a hardcore OCer and want to reach those 5.5Ghz. Otherwise keep the E6700 because the difference in performance wont be worth it. How far and on wich processor do you want to OC???

Definetly youll wait for the 8800GTX, itld be a shame to spend on a dual card configuration right now. A SLI/Crossfire setup will totally depend on the resolution at wich you wish to play. Wich is???

Depending on how far you want to OC that should be your memory speed. So ill need you to pick a processor and define somewhat your goal for OCing. 2GB now (memory prices are surfing the sky right now) and another 2GB when youll upgrade to Vista so you wont spend on a 64bit OS right now.

Youve got enough to spare on a Raptor X for windows, apps like PS CS and games. Seagate 7200.10 for the rest of your storage.

For a PSU of this magnitude I recommend the Enermax Galaxy series or a PC Power&Cooling of <800W.

If you are going to get into sky high overclocking you will be much better served with a good water cooling kit than with air. But my knowledge i that filed is quiet limited. Depending on your overclock ill advise on excellent air setups tough.

Basically just decide wich CPU and how far you wanna OC so we can give the setup more consistency.
I hate to see this $3k builds going to waste, thats why I am going to take this one quiet personally.

The primary reason for going with the x6800 is because it runs faster than any other processor out there at stock settings. At this point in time I'm looking for a high quality, solid, and extremely stable rig with less emphasis on overclocking today. Perhaps in the future as the system starts to fall behind the curve, THEN I will overclock it to bring it in line, but I seriously have no desire to attempt any major tweaking to really push the performance of this. There's no need but when I am ready it will be nice to know that I will have a system that is capable of being oc'd to some fairly hardcore limits. Support for future quad core would be ideal as well.

As I stated in my original post, I'm currently playing at 1600x1200 and plan to stay at that resolution for at least another year until I am ready to upgrade my display. I would like to have options at that point if possible to play at higher resolutions, but the limiting factor right now is my monitor. I understand that 1600x1200 is when SLI/Xfire will start to show performance gains, so having a Crossfire/SLI option within a year or so when I am ready to upgrade my monitor would be ideal.

I agree with 2 gigs of memory for now with an upgrade later to an additional 2 gigs.

I had planned on going with dual Raptor X's in Raid 0 and a 3rd for storage.

Hopefully the above information will help tailor things a bit closer to my needs.

 

[Psimon]

The coming Nvidia nForce 680i might indeed be worth the wait. Yet so might DX10, and Quad Core. Right now its vaporware, yet another thing "on the horizon", as is the 8800GTX.

The D975XBX2 does look good, certainly an improvement over its predecessor OC-wise, and is both dual and quad compatable. I'd be concerned about the PCI-E x16 slots; neither board offers two of them. There's a wait on this board, too, and reviews are minimal.

If ohlmsjm wants to wait for any of the above, that's great. If not, I'd suggest a feature-rich, stable mobo built around the E6800.

 

[ohlmsjm]

The coming Nvidia nForce 680i might indeed be worth the wait. Yet so might DX10, and Quad Core. Right now its vaporware, yet another thing "on the horizon", as is the 8800GTX.

The D975XBX2 does look good, certainly an improvement over its predecessor OC-wise, and is both dual and quad compatable. I'd be concerned about the PCI-E x16 slots; neither board offers two of them. There's a wait on this board, too, and reviews are minimal.

If ohlmsjm wants to wait for any of the above, that's great. If not, I'd suggest a feature-rich, stable mobo built around the E6800.

Psimon, any suggestions for that "feature-rich, stable mobo built around the E6800"?

 

[Psimon]

Psimon, any suggestions for that "feature-rich, stable mobo built around the E6800"?

All I can suggest is just keep comparing reviews -for current boards - if you don't want to wait. Hopefully some of the real "guru's" on these boards will make suggestions. Of course I'd suggest the board of the system I purchased this week - the ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium - why? Because of the tendency of many peeps (including myself) that want to push their own choices and feel good about what they invested in 😉.

It's always Bleeding Edge versus Quality&Stabiity. To make a good choice, at any time, its always best to pick products that have been out there for at least 3-6 months or even longer. I was debating waiting on the nForce 680i myself ( I'm biased towards SLI over Crossfire, but that's just me), but that involved at least 2, 3, 4 (or more!) months of waiting. I also first chose the MSI 975X board then read a bunch of dissatisfied reviews on Newegg and backed off. The BadAxe2 does look pretty cool, and if you wait for it, who knows, another vendor like Gigabyte might put out a competing board with better dual-GPU features.

Apologies if this isn't helpful as I'd like. I'd look at boards by the major manufacturers - ASUS, GigaByte, Intel, MSI (and perhaps Abit). Read as many reviews for each one that you can. Look at the board's listing on Newegg and other retailers and see the % of folks that loved it.

Finally - just select one. It's always gonna give you that falling sensation as you question your choice.

Sure reminds me of Texas Hold'em. Do you want to go All In right now, or wait for a better hand?

 

[Psimon]

Oh, I can make one suggestion, but its not for a mobo.

Get a good, high quality case - don't get cheep on this one - that either is a full tower with lots & lots of room, or at the least, has a removable mobo tray.

That way, if you get a mobo you come to hate, or is just not as upgradeable or feature-rich as you'd like, you can plunk down $200 smackers or so 2-3 years from now, and easily upgrade that way. A good case can last you decades.

 

[WR2]

The primary reason for going with the x6800 is because it runs faster than any other processor out there at stock settings.

If you "need" the extra 10.5% that the X6800 gives you over the E6700 and are willing to pay the extra $440 (15% of a $2800 budget) that doesnt seem like such a bad price vs performance trade off. Pay 15% to get 10.5% more CPU cycles - not too bad at all.

On the other hand what if you could get 100% of the X6800 CPU cycles and save $636 or about 23% of your $2800 budget? Thats what getting an E6600 and lightly overclocking (FSB to 333Mhz from 266Mhz) could give you.

Now I know you don't want to overclock right now and you may think that settling for the E6600's 2.4Ghz speed is a mistake. But its only 18% slower at stock than the X6800. Gaming at 16x12 is almost always GPU limited - not CPU limited. So you loose next to nothing in quality or FPS in the most demanding games.Oblivion 16x12 Call of Duty2 16x12
In media tasks its more usual to see performace scaling along with CPU speed so the E6600 is on average 18% slower than the X6800 Media Task benchmarks X6800 E6700 E6600

rwaritsdario wants you to overclock to 5.5Ghz. You prefer not to overclock at all.
I'm somewhere in the middle. (OK, Im a LOT closer to you than rwaritsdario) I'll take speed for free if I know I'm not sacrificing stability and longevity.
I'm not actually trying to convince you to abandon the X6800 - just pointing out the price.
Need for Speed = $636 without overclocking.
With overclocking = $636 worth of speed for free.

I'd actually support you choosing the BadAxe2 if you want to wait for it.
If you're not inclined to wait the MSI 975X, P5W DH, Intel BadAxe C2D rev or Abit AW9D-MAX are all good choices.
All will take C2Q upgrades in the future. All will overclock to roughly the same vicinity of 350-380 FSB without too much effort with P5W DH & AW9D-MAX having the best chance of going to 400 FSB and a bit higher.
It's no accident that THG gave the MSI 975X an Editors Choice pick or that AnandTech recommends the board in it's High-End Buyer's Guide. That guide also gives the nod to the ASUS P5W DH Deluxe as the Ultra High end choice. Not everyone understands that most people prefer stability and value over "maximum overclockability potential".

 

[WR2]

Sure reminds me of Texas Hold'em. Do you want to go All In right now, or wait for a better hand?

I'll raise you 270Mhz
(that seems to be worth ~$440 or so it seems)

 

[Psimon]

Sure reminds me of Texas Hold'em. Do you want to go All In right now, or wait for a better hand?

I'll raise you 270Mhz
(that seems to be worth ~$440 or so it seems)

Hey, I'm not pushin' the 6800, its what the man stated he wants. I'll leave it to the real gurus here to debate that one.

What you're saying makes sense - with a similar budget I settled on the E6600 (and some even argued I should just get the 6300 and massively OC it ). I plan on OCing it (later on) and I wanted the 4M L2 cache

Not everyone understands that most people prefer stability and value over "maximum overclockability potential"

yeah, amen.

 

[ohlmsjm]

I don't really have any concerns about overclocking other than the compromise that is made to the stabliity of a system in return for a performance gain.

Most of what I have seen though from the C2D reviews is that they overclock VERY well. The problem is, none of these reviews do any sort of longevity testing (3-5 years with the pc running 24/7) of the oc'd hardware. It's typically just long enough to do a burn-in and capture tons of burst benchmark data so it can be thrown up on a web page. I don't blame them for that at all, as the technology hasn't been out long enough to do that sort of testing. This just tells me that those reviews are tailored more towards the enthusiast (what I once was) and less towards the reality that I can't continue to upgrade every 1-2 years.

This doesn't mean that I am against overclocking, but I would much rather do it when the system has had a stable, solid, couple of years of usage behind it. I will overclock in the future once the system has reached it's upgrade potential cap. That is what's going to give me that extra 1-2 years on the system.

Enough of my rambling. The price points made about the E6600 are pretty obvious and make alot of sense, for that I thank you. Once quad cores come out, prices will drop even further. I'll digest that and make a decision when necessary as I'm not forking out the money just yet.

By the way, I believe I forgot to mention that this will be my second system.

My current rig (primarily used as a linux box/media server):
AMD Athlon FX-53
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum Socket 939 nforce3 Mobo
1gig of OCZ PC3200 (DDR 400) with XMS heat spreaders
Thermaltake Tsunami
GeForce 6800 GT (recently died on me and replaced with a 7600 GS temporarily)
Antec True Blue 480W
2xWestern Digital Raptors 10k RPM 74g (SATA 150) - Raid 0

 

[advocate666]

i like my system i bought of e-bay for $830 which is actually around 1400.

everything is still low grade in the computer and it still outperforms almost all the computers in my area by about 20 to 30 fps in bf2 with all details maxed, (nothing is overclocked or boosted)

its a amd athlon 64 4000+ 2.46ghz 2000ht
with a asus A8N-sli (upgradable to the 939s; FX, X2, and other 64 cpu's)
a XFX 7800 GTX 256MB PCI-E(i am thinking about upgrading my card to a 7950 or putting sli on)
2gigs of Kingston hyperx 400's(back to the mobo, i am thinking about changing mobo's also, so i can get my ram to a higher freq.)
400gig hdd by western digi.
soundblaster audigy 5.1
lite-on dvd-rw/cd-rw
and a 17" old school monitor <------ is not worthy of a beast :twisted:

PN: you dont need to spend $3000

if your gonna spend that much on a computer, and you are looking for overlocking...? dude get a quad core, 400gig hd perfurably a 10,000 rpm, liquid cooled system with heat sinks and cooling pipes(with this much power and a 850w supply, your computers gonna create a massive amount of heat!!!!!!!!! and your biggest problem is not the gpu ram or mobo, its the cpu, if not properly cooled and with that 850 blasting.. that cpu is gonna shoot over 78c.. enough said. and the gpu?? go with geforce, you already ahve the performance, go with the quality... my $88 sound card is wprking perfectly, i hear birds in the background aswell as arty in the far distance with my sqaud members saying alright buddy, your good to go!

well, theres my information for you. i hope you use it

 

[rwaritsdario]

Talking completly about stock speeds:
X6800 -> 2.93Ghz -> $950
E6700 -> 2.66Ghz -> $509
Is that increment of 270Mhz worth $441?
The reason why the X6800 is so expensive is because of the unlocked multipliers from x6 to x13 (on current mobos). But youve got the money and it wouldnt be a waste since eventually itll be OCed.

Actually SLI doesnt start to show its real power beyond 16x12. With a single 8800GTX youll play very comfortable at 16x12.

Dual raptor Xs sound spacious and freakingly fassstt 😀

 

[rwaritsdario]

Blah Blah The key to keeping a system for long and stable are VOLTAGES. At 1.4v vCORE and 2.2v vDIMM you system will last over 8 years...

Wich CPU have you decided on and how much would you liek to OC it? (Important to know the memory youll be buying).