New Gaming Rig Questions

BIGGRIMTIM

BIGGRIMTIM

Gawd
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
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I am looking to upgrade my gaming rig and I have a few questions. I was looking at getting an EVGA 790i Ultra SLI, 4GB DDR3 1600, and Intel Q9450 or E8400. My question is, should I just get the 780i and go with DDR2 to save money? I heard that Intel's new CPU's will move away from socket 775 which would limit my future upgrade path. I really don't want to throw money away if socket 775 is on the way out. Thanks in advance for your comments.
 
Yeh Nehalem is going to be on socket 1366. Go with ddr3 if you want future proofing. Ddr2 if you don't. Go for Q9450 if you plan on doing gaming along with other stuff and for future proofing or go for e8400 if you plan on doing mostly gaming.
 
Whats a realistic time frame for the new socket? Should I wait for it. I have been waiting for a while already. I'm still limping around on my Athlon 64 X2 4400+. Its starting to show its age.
 
Nehalem will first arrive around Q4 '08, and more products will arrive in the months that follow. The earliest we could make an "accurate" assessment on Nehalem would be around Q1 '09, though it could likely be much later.

If you need something now, get something now. For most people, a P35-based board with DDR2 RAM could last years with periodic video card upgrades. If you plan on playing games on a 24 inch or larger LCD, CrossFire/SLI then becomes a considerable option.

If you are building for right now, you may want to wait until you read more reviews on the 790i chipset. If you need an SLI board, the MSI P7N Diamond is considered by many to be the best 780i SLI board around. DDR3 offers no noticeable performance benefit right now (then again, today's Intel processors don't benefit from any RAM overclocking), so stick with DDR2 RAM. If you purchase 4GB or more memory, you'll need a 64-bit OS in order to fully utilize everything.

What are the full specs of your computer, including the monitor and its resolution? How much are you willing to spend right now? And when do you really want to build this new rig?
 
I am playing on a 24" Dell I don't really want to go SLI as it doesn't seem to boost performance all that much. I have an 8800Ultra now and thought I would wait and see what the 9900's look like. I was planning on giving Vista 64 a try. I don't have to build now but I like to be at the higher end of things. I just didn't want to make mistakes. Also is it better to use 2 or 4 sticks of RAM? Thanks
 
As I said before, if you need to build it now, build it now. There will always be a continuing state of new products and revisions, so waiting for the latest and greatest means that you'll just keep waiting.

Since you have an 8800Ultra, you don't really need a better card right now. I do see your concerns, though, in that your X2 4400+ could be a bottleneck to your system.

There have been reports of many people who've had stability issues trying to overclock with four sticks of RAM onboard, so you may want to use two sticks just to be on the safe side. If you're building a new system, stick with a dual-channel kit -- you'll also have room for further upgrades, should you ever need it.
 
Runedrune said:
Yeh Nehalem is going to be on socket 1366. Go with ddr3 if you want to pointlessly waste money. Ddr2 if you don't. Go for Q9450 if you plan on doing gaming along with other stuff and for future proofing or go for e8400 if you plan on doing mostly gaming.
Click to expand...

Fixed.

It's true that the next gen processors will be on socket 1366, so any motherboard you buy now is going to have to be replaced on the next processor upgrade. Of course, Nehalem will probably start out as extreme processors and slowly move to mainstream duals and then quads. So if you're waiting for a quad you're probably looking at late 1Q09 or 2Q09 or so. Stick to DDR2, there is absolutely no reason to get DDR3 right now unless you want the 790i. There's no reason to get the 790i if you're not going to be running sli. Like triraides said, a good P35 board is a great solution right now. I would definitely go with 2 sticks over 4, easier to OC and provides room to upgrade.
 
LOL... I agree with aethelwulf and tiraides.

I don't see how getting DDR3 right now is future-proofing? :confused: The current Intel platform can't take much advantage of DDR3's speeds over DDR2, and the price of RAM will just go down. So, if you buy DDR2 now, then buy DDR3 later, when you actually need it and its much cheaper, it would still be cheaper than buying DDR3 now and not having to buy it later, since the price of DDR3 is currently too high.
 
Thanks for the all the advice. I think this is what I'm going buy. EVGA 780i, 4GB Corsair Dominator 1066, and Intel E8400. Prices are way cheaper than the DDR3 equivalent. If you guys think I should change anything let me know. Thanks again.
 
Get the MSI P7N Diamond... it's one of the only 780i motherboards not based on the NVIDIA reference design, which has had problems with stability.

You also don't need the Dominator RAM... you could get away with using a 4GB DDR2 1000 kit.
 
Another question for everyone. Should I go Vista 64 or stick with XP32. I know XP won't support 4GB of RAM. I will only be playing games on this machine. Thanks.
 
If you already have a copy which you could use, you could stick with XP. However, Vista's stable enough to be used for gaming... plus, with the 64-bit version, you'll have full access to all of your RAM.

For a brand new system, I'd just go with Vista 64.
 
aethelwulf said:
Fixed.

It's true that the next gen processors will be on socket 1366, so any motherboard you buy now is going to have to be replaced on the next processor upgrade. Of course, Nehalem will probably start out as extreme processors and slowly move to mainstream duals and then quads. So if you're waiting for a quad you're probably looking at late 1Q09 or 2Q09 or so. Stick to DDR2, there is absolutely no reason to get DDR3 right now unless you want the 790i. There's no reason to get the 790i if you're not going to be running sli. Like triraides said, a good P35 board is a great solution right now. I would definitely go with 2 sticks over 4, easier to OC and provides room to upgrade.
Click to expand...

Lol nice edit. Well you are right =p
 
Thanks for the help. I decided to go with the E8400, 4GB of RAM, and EVGA 780i. I'm also going to install Vista 64. I hope everything goes well.
 
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