Need some experienced Advice on CPU + GPU

V

Valera

n00b
Joined
Apr 27, 2006
Messages
14
Well my pc is 3yrs old now and is in bad need of an overhaul so i start reading up on parts and im more confused then ever on the CPU and GPU options.

I have a 24" widescreen monitor so I will be gaming at 19xx by 12xx and will be playing alot games.

I am not sure on the video card...after reading here for a few hours I think I need a 8800 GTS 512 or a 9800GTX. But I think due to my screen res I may want to go SLI and am not sure if thats needed or recommended and will there be a fair performance gain going with SLI ?

8800 GTS 512
9800GTX
or
8800GTS 512 SLI
or 9800GX2

I dunno its all so confusing....help

For the CPU I dont want the most expensive extreme version gut with all the quad, tri core cpus that are flying around I dont know what actually is better. Do i need 4 cores? or is 2 cores ok? I am really lost...if I am spending all this money on a mid - high end gaming pc I want to get something that works well without wasting alot of money on the most uber extreme version of the CPU. It doesnt matter if its AMD or INTEL im just looking for the best bang for my gaming dollar.

I remeber the days of old when i could come here and see every cpu of the year on 1 benchmark chart with a bunch of apps and games shown and could easily see how they all stack up but these days everything is so spreadout im just lost in all this seperate information.

So community any advice and tips you can give me for a CPU and GPU will be VERY appricated.
 
The best bang for your buck CPU right now is the Q6600 for around $200 - $220. If you want something faster and plan on upgrading to a quad core later, then a dual core E8400 would be a bit better for current games (its around $200).

I'd recommend at least a single 8800GTS 512MB for your size monitor. If you have the cash, I'd avoid SLI and go with the 9800GX2. Though, new cards are supposedly coming out soon, so wait on those if you can. Check gpureview.com for news updates on that front.

What's your budget, and what's included in that budget?
What, if any, old parts do you plan on re-using?
What will this system be used for besides gaming?
What games do you want to play?
 
enginurd said:
What's your budget, and what's included in that budget?
What, if any, old parts do you plan on re-using?
What will this system be used for besides gaming?
What games do you want to play?
Click to expand...

Also, how long do you want to keep this overhauled machine?
 
Right now for gaming what is gonna give the best performance for cpu demanding games ? a quad core or a duel core? I do multitask alot but when I am playing games its all that is running on the system.

I mean basically If X duel core is gonna be a top dog cpu for my wants will Y quad core be just as good and more future proof ?


And for GPU I will want the best graphics i can for mid range budget...I dont want the 100% top dog bleeding edge card but i want somthing really beefy. I have a 8800 GTS 320mb now and it does alright for all but the newest games on my pc I do have some quality issues playing on 1900x1200 with all the eye candy on...

So I wanted to know will a 8800GTS 512 be better then any of the 9xxx series cards out ? and if I want to go SLI would it I get better quality and frames with 2 x 8800GTS 512's or would 2 x 9xxx series cards be just as good?

Thanks for any advice you can offer
 
The only way we can really help you at this point is if you take the time and (properly) answer the questions that were posted earlier.

Trying to figure out the best "bang for buck" parts is pointless, especially if you don't have the funds to get everything right now.
 
This is gonna be a new build. i hope to get a year out of it.

I realize that in that time there will be alot of new products and even now there are new products coming out soon but i dont really want to play the wait for the next teir item to come first game....I am planing on buying in June.

Budget is about $1700 for the main parts. I figure about $1100 of this budget will be spent on cpu and vid cards, will be recycling a case, optics and HD's and will need about $600 for a power supply motherboard and Ram.

CPU I have always been an AMD customer but thought since INTEL has been leading for a while i will give em try this time around I have done some looking and here is what I have found for CPU's in my price range:

E8400
Q6600
X2 6000
X4 9500

I see its more expensive but i can squeeze in a E6850 into the budget but i dont know if its better then the above ones i have listed. I dont think i need a quad core...i mean the most games will use is 2 cores now unless i can get a duel core performance for near the same value of a quad i would go buy quad.

For the GPU I can afford

2 x 8800 GTS 512 in SLI
1 x 9800 GTX
2 x 9600 GT in SLI
2 x HD 3850 ATI in crossfire ( I really dont know ati that well so im in the dark here on performance vs nvidia )

These cards basically cover my min - max budget and want to get the best performance out of these options that will be good now and at least decent a little while from now.

I hope these budget and items will help you point me in the right direction.
 
The 8800 GTS 512MBs in SLI are the fastest of your GPU options by far.

The E6850 is slower than the E8400, so forget about it.

If you multitask much or do video encoding get the Q6600. If you /only/ game the E8400 is a good choice, but above 3Ghz it really doesn't matter. I'd personally get the Q6600 and OC to 3.4-3.6Ghz. No matter what CPU you get I recommend the Xigmatech S1283 HSF with a Thermalright bolt-thru mounting kit (~$55 for both).

Intel is /far/ faster than AMD right now, especially if you're willing to OC. Since you want Intel and SLI and your budget isn't limitless the EVGA 750i SLI FTW motherboard (~$200) is your best option by far. It is the most reliable and least troublesome of the Intel compatible SLI boards, but it only has 4 SATA channels, so if you need more ports pick up an inexpensive controller card. A reference 780i from EVGA or XFX takes a somewhat distant second place to it. (~$260)

4GB of DDR2-1000 or 1066 ($100-140) if you get the E8400, or DDR2-800 ($80) if you get the Q6600, will allow the maximum reasonable OC on air with the respective chips.

A Corsair TX 750 or PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad are all you need for the PSU -- $100-150.


So,
Q6600 or E8400 - $220-250
Xigmatech S1283 + bolt-thru kit - $50
4GB RAM - $80-140
EVGA 750i FTW - $200
Corsair TX 750 - $100-150
2x 8800 GTS 512MB - $600

So, $1250-1390 total, plus shipping. Give or take $100 for rebates and price fluxuations. A P45 and Geforce 280GTX may be a better option than the SLI board and 8800 GTS 512MBs by the time you build, but the price will probably be similar.
 
I highly recommend waiting till mid-June to buy the cards. The new single GPU Nvidia and ATI cards may outperform or perform on par with 8800GTS SLI for roughly the same cost. This means that you can avoid having to get an Nvidia motherboard which means less stability and cooling problems.

I concur with Silent-circuit about everything else.
 
I will definatly re-evaluate the GPU options if something comes mid june.

As for the Ram is there a big performance difference between the 800, 1000, 1066 ? anything major i will really notice anyway?

As for the motherboard I went looking online and I see 750i, 780i, 790i is there a reason you picked the 750i over the others ? Wouldnt the 790i be better or did you choose the 750i because it will get the job done for a cheaper price?

Again thanks a bunch for all the help I really appricated it.
 
Valera said:
I will definatly re-evaluate the GPU options if something comes mid june.

As for the Ram is there a big performance difference between the 800, 1000, 1066 ? anything major i will really notice anyway?

As for the motherboard I went looking online and I see 750i, 780i, 790i is there a reason you picked the 750i over the others ? Wouldnt the 790i be better or did you choose the 750i because it will get the job done for a cheaper price?

Again thanks a bunch for all the help I really appricated it.
Click to expand...

No, there is no difference in performance -- the only reason to go DDR2-1000 over DDR2-800 is to keep a 1:1 ration with RAM speed to FSB speed as you OC higher FSB, lower multiplier processors like the E8400.

The 790i requires DDR3; DDR3 is 2-8x as expensive as DDR2 and offers zero performance gain over DDR2 on the current Intel platform. This will probably change by the time Nehalem gets here, but it will have matured (and hopefully come down in price) in the interim. There is no good reason to buy a DDR3 based motherboard at this time -- a $600 kit of DDR3 today will likely be beat out by a $200 kit of DDR3 in a year or two, and a $80 kit of DDR2 will give you the exact same performance today.

The 780i is basically a 680i with an additional bridge chip that allows it to run 3 16x bandwidth PCIe slots and offer PCIe 2.0 support. The 680i was a very troublesome chipset. The 780i seems to be less-so (I own one and have had no problems with it) but there are still occasional issues.

The 750i SLI FTW from EVGA uses all solid capacitors and seems to be less troublesome and more reliable than the 780i based boards. Also, yes, it offers exactly the same performance as a 780i or 790i based board. The only things it lacks are 8 SATA ports (it has only 4) and 3 16x slots for Tri-SLI support (it has only two). The SATA thing is unfortunate, but the Tri-SLI thing really doesn't matter. Unless you're running a display at higher than 1920x1200 (30" LCDs are sometimes higher than this) it's a total waste.
 
To help you understand silent's RAM recommendations, here's some math for you...

/*------------- <cut n paste> -------------*/
Formulas for Intel platform @ 1:1 settings: (base FSB speed is SDR, or single data rate)
c x [Base FSB speed] = CPU speed (c = CPU Multiplier)
2 x [Base FSB speed] = RAM speed (DDR: double data rate)
4 x [Base FSB speed] = FSB speed (QDR: quad data rate; Effective FSB speed)

On Intel platforms, running the RAM higher than a 1:1 ratio with the CPU is, for the most part, useless, so don't bother trying to do so. If the BIOS does it for you, just let it. All you need is a 1:1 config, though. Here's some possible clock speeds (as always with OC'ing, your results will vary):

Q6600: 9 × 266 = 2.4Ghz, DDR2-533 << STOCK speeds
Q6600: 9 × 333 = 3.0Ghz, DDR2-667 << Nice OC
Q6600: 9 × 378 = 3.4Ghz, DDR2-756 << Good OC, near max for B3 stepping
Q6600: 9 × 400 = 3.6Ghz, DDR2-800 << Great OC, near max for G0 stepping

E8400: 9 × 333 = 3.0Ghz, DDR2-667 << STOCK
E8400: 9 × 400 = 3.6Ghz, DDR2-800 << Nice OC
E8400: 9 × 445 = 4.0Ghz, DDR2-890 << Good OC
E8400: 9 × 500 = 4.5Ghz, DDR2-1000 << Impossible OC?
/*------------- </cut n paste> -------------*/

You won't notice the difference between CL4 and CL5, unless you're running benchmarks (and even then, its negligible), so don't pay a huge price premium for lower latency.

While both chips have the same multiplier, the E8400 is 45nm and can OC higher than the 65nm Q6600. So, if you plan on OC'ing, getting some DDR2-1000 will ensure that your RAM isn't holding back your OC. Whereas if you got some DDR2-800, you'd be limited to around 3.6Ghz (worst case scenario, if the RAM won't OC) but the E8400 could reach upwards of 4Ghz. The Q6600 taps out around 3.6Ghz.

Listen to everything else silent mentioned, too. ;) Oh, and the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 is $35 (free shipping) at the egg, and the bolt-thru kit is $5 + $5 shipping at Sidewindercomputers.com.
 
Many many thanks to you all for the help....Hardocp is one of the rare places of old that is still alive and helpful as it has ever been.
 
one final question...lol....

I know i set limits on the GPU for the advice i asked...but is there (with current avalible now items) video card setup that will give a significant performance boost over the SLI 8800GTS 512's ?
 
8800GTX SLI can beat 8800GTS 512MB SLI if the game isn't too shader intensive.
 
Danny Bui said:
8800GTX SLI can beat 8800GTS 512MB SLI if the game isn't too shader intensive.
Click to expand...

With high levels of AA and AF at 1920x1200 and above the 8800 GTX and Ultra win out almost every time over teh 8800 GTS 512MB in SLI, but considering the price difference for an EVGA branded card (which is the only one I'd buy now, with new hardware just over the horizon) the 8800 GTS 512MB is a far better choice. The 9800 GTX is a /little/ faster than the 8800 GTS 512MB, but it's more or less a factory OCed 8800 GTS 512MB with some power saving features and Tri-SLI support.
 
Well if one doesn't care about the Step-up program or a lifetime warranty, the price difference between 8800GTX SLI and 8800GTS 512MB SLI is only about $60:
Zotac 8800GTX Video Card - $240
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top