I am having a hard time making a few decisions on my game box upgrade. I want to keep it around $1000 for the upgrade. I do alot of multi-tasking and am a pretty serious pc gamer.
Already have:
- case: Lian Li V PC-V1100B
- psu: Enermax Noisetaker EG701AX-VE SFMA(24P) EPS12V 600W
- video card: EVGA 8800GTS 640MB
- drives: 34GB Raptors raid 0, 250GB 7200 RPM drive, DVDR optical drive, etc
Looking at getting:
- mobo: Asus P5K Deluxe
- cpu: Core 2 Duo E6600
- memory: G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) ??
- cpu cooler: Zalman CNPS9500 AT or Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme ??
- sound: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
The two areas I am most unsure about are the memory and the cpu cooler. I have been reading that for going 4GB it might be better to go with 2 x 2GB rather than a 4 x 1GB setup. I am going to be running Vista 32-bit but still want to go with 4GB of ram due to low prices and future 64-bit Vista down the line. I initially thought about expensive top brand RAM like Corsair or Crucial and going with DDR2 1066 but a number of people have said that is a waste of money on my build at this point. Can anyone comment on the 4 x 1GB versus going 2 x 2GB?
As far as the CPU cooler I am really lost at which one and I want to make sure it will fit ok on the Asus P5K Deluxe motherboard in my case. I am only planning at pushing the E6600 to around a 400FSB so no crazy overclocking. I had read this top 5 cpu cooler round up on Frostytech but I am still undecided.
Already have:
- case: Lian Li V PC-V1100B
- psu: Enermax Noisetaker EG701AX-VE SFMA(24P) EPS12V 600W
- video card: EVGA 8800GTS 640MB
- drives: 34GB Raptors raid 0, 250GB 7200 RPM drive, DVDR optical drive, etc
Looking at getting:
- mobo: Asus P5K Deluxe
- cpu: Core 2 Duo E6600
- memory: G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) ??
- cpu cooler: Zalman CNPS9500 AT or Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme ??
- sound: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
The two areas I am most unsure about are the memory and the cpu cooler. I have been reading that for going 4GB it might be better to go with 2 x 2GB rather than a 4 x 1GB setup. I am going to be running Vista 32-bit but still want to go with 4GB of ram due to low prices and future 64-bit Vista down the line. I initially thought about expensive top brand RAM like Corsair or Crucial and going with DDR2 1066 but a number of people have said that is a waste of money on my build at this point. Can anyone comment on the 4 x 1GB versus going 2 x 2GB?
As far as the CPU cooler I am really lost at which one and I want to make sure it will fit ok on the Asus P5K Deluxe motherboard in my case. I am only planning at pushing the E6600 to around a 400FSB so no crazy overclocking. I had read this top 5 cpu cooler round up on Frostytech but I am still undecided.