Upgrade to Intel ?

[Ravennoir]

Hey Everyone,

I am looking to upgrade my current PC to a Core 2 Duo system but not sure the best way to do it

I currently have :

AMD X2 4400+ (939 skt) cpu
MSI K8N SLI FI M/B
2 Gb DDR1
2 x 7600 GT

I will be looking at getting :

Intel Q6600
ASUS P5N32-E SLI
4Gb DDR2 (2 x 2Gb kits)
2 x 8800 GT

So what do you think would be the best order to get the parts, or would there be different parts that you would suggest ?

thanks

-Raven

 

[Xeth]

I'd get the video cards and hold off on everything else. 680i's have relatively bad stability and overclocking potential with quad cores, and since you're upgrading your RAM, might as well wait a bit for DDR3 to drop in prices... and X48/cheap penryns are just around the corner...

 

[Ravennoir]

Are there going to be any SLi MB's whi DDR3 support coming out, whats the chipset ?

 

[E4g1e]

Are there going to be any SLi MB's whi DDR3 support coming out, whats the chipset ?

Unfortunately, there will be no SLI support (as opposed to the AMD/ATi CrossFire support) on the Intel chipsets for the foreseeable future. This leaves only NVIDIA chipsets -- but then, the 680i is rather flaky (as someone else had said). Thus, there are no good options for linked dual graphics card support.

As a result of the headaches, I've decided to stick with single-GPU, single-card systems only.

 

[chrisf6969]

save until you can get

CPU, MOBO + 2 x 1Gb of ram + videocard

you can always add another 2 x 1Gb or 2nd videocard for SLI later.

But if you buy parts and have them sitting unused, its a big waste, b/c in the month or so not being used, those parts are depreciating and not even being used. Ex: that CPU might cost $280 now, but in a month only cost $200, same with the videocard. So never buy parts and have them sit unused. Wait, until you have enough to money to buy the parts to actually have a working system.

The only thing that I've ever seen that not happen with was on the rare occasion that ram actually went up in price a lot over a few month period, but then went back down.

 

[Ravennoir]

save until you can get

CPU, MOBO + 2 x 1Gb of ram + videocard

you can always add another 2 x 1Gb or 2nd videocard for SLI later.

But if you buy parts and have them sitting unused, its a big waste, b/c in the month or so not being used, those parts are depreciating and not even being used. Ex: that CPU might cost $280 now, but in a month only cost $200, same with the videocard. So never buy parts and have them sit unused. Wait, until you have enough to money to buy the parts to actually have a working system.

The only thing that I've ever seen that not happen with was on the rare occasion that ram actually went up in price a lot over a few month period, but then went back down.

I was thinking of doing that, but then I know what will happen. The new stuff will come out and I will want that

 

[engiNURD]

What size monitor do you have? If you don't have a 24" monitor (nor plan to get one anytime soon), then you don't really need SLI and can therefore go with an Intel P35 chipset board instead.

 

[Dan_D]

I'd get the video cards and hold off on everything else. 680i's have relatively bad stability and overclocking potential with quad cores, and since you're upgrading your RAM, might as well wait a bit for DDR3 to drop in prices... and X48/cheap penryns are just around the corner...

I agree that picking up the video cards and waiting on everything else is the most sensible course of action. The 680i isn't the best chipset for overclocking quad cores but I wouldn't say that the 680i chipset is unstable when doing so. I have no stability issues with mine. There are plenty of people getting good results with G0 stepping Q6600's on the 680i. On the subject of DDR3, I'd agree. Now seems like a poor time to invest in DDR2 with DDR3 prices dropping all the time and more quality DDR3 motherboards and chips being offered all the time. Like it or not DDR3 is the future.

Are there going to be any SLi MB's whi DDR3 support coming out, whats the chipset ?

Yes. Supposedly the 790i SLI chipset will be a DDR3 chipset using a new MCH and retaining the same south bridge that the 680i uses now.

Unfortunately, there will be no SLI support (as opposed to the AMD/ATi CrossFire support) on the Intel chipsets for the foreseeable future. This leaves only NVIDIA chipsets -- but then, the 680i is rather flaky (as someone else had said). Thus, there are no good options for linked dual graphics card support.

As a result of the headaches, I've decided to stick with single-GPU, single-card systems only.

It seems unlikely that AMD/ATI or Intel chipsets will get SLI support anytime in the future as you suggested. As for the NVIDIA chipsets I wouldn't go so far as to call them flaky. The 680i SLI works fine especially with dual cores. They are just mediocre when it comes to overclocking quad cores. The rest of the 600 series aside from the 680i SLI chipset is actually quite outstanding and very stable.

I was thinking of doing that, but then I know what will happen. The new stuff will come out and I will want that

That's always the way it works. If you always think like this you'll never buy anything without feeling tons of regret. The thing is to try and buy stuff either late in the product cycle when it's cheap or buy early when it's expensive and enjoy being at the top of the food chain for longer, or just live with the savings when it's older and cheaper. That's really all you can do. I opt to buy early, pay more and stave off obsolessence as long as possible.

What size monitor do you have? If you don't have a 24" monitor (nor plan to get one anytime soon), then you don't really need SLI and can therefore go with an Intel P35 chipset board instead.

I agree with this advice. I've got a Core 2 Duo E6600@3.2GHz, on a EVGA 680i SLI motherboard with 2GB of DDR1200 ram, EVGA 8800GTS 320MB Superclocked using a 20.1" LCD and at 1280x1024 with everything set to high or very high I get outstanding performance in Crysis all things considered. All other games run smooth as butter and look great. This is the machine my girlfriend typically uses and she's quite satisfied with it's performance. COD4, UT3 and Crysis all run good and look great. Aside from Crysis, nothing challenges the machines performance at any settings it's really capable of.

My main rig and 30" monitor is another issue altogether. With the exception of UT3 and Crysis every game I have ever played runs great at just about max settings with one card enabled. I mainly need SLI to give me more AA and AF for free. Even COD4 runs great without SLI support enabled.

If I didn't have this awesome 30" monitor, I wouldn't need SLI and I would have saved myself a few headaches here and there that I've dealt with using the 680i SLI platform.

 

[Scali2]

Unfortunately, there will be no SLI support (as opposed to the AMD/ATi CrossFire support) on the Intel chipsets for the foreseeable future. This leaves only NVIDIA chipsets -- but then, the 680i is rather flaky (as someone else had said). Thus, there are no good options for linked dual graphics card support.

There is one exception: Skulltrail.
It has an Intel chipset, with an extra PCI-e bridge chip supplied by nVidia.
Who knows, this solution may make it to 'normal' consumer motherboards someday.

 

[Dan_D]

There is one exception: Skulltrail.
It has an Intel chipset, with an extra PCI-e bridge chip supplied by nVidia.
Who knows, this solution may make it to 'normal' consumer motherboards someday.

NVIDIA is only ok with Intel workstation boards supporting SLI because they have no chipsets of thier own to compete with them. If NVIDIA ever develops worksttion chips for the Intel processor based server/workstation market as they did for the AMD Opterons, they'll make SLI support an exclusive feature of their chipsets in order to boost sales.