You are quad-core. You make me...quad? (BEARDED PC DEFENSE FORCE ASSEMBLE)

[Howard Alan Treesong]

So I got a Q6600 Quad Core for $299. Happy Fourth of July!

Now I need to build a machine around it. HELP ME EB I AM NOT GOOD WITH COMPUTER.

- I want to spend about $800 on the rest of the pieces.
- I will be playing games but not psycho DX10 stuff. I am fine with a good DX9 card.
- I like newegg.com, even though I know Keith hates them. Links are welcome.

Questions:
- Is SLI useful? Do I want to get two video cards? Or at least a mobo with that option in the future?
- I have a 550W Antec power supply. Is this enough? I've seen new power supplies with "SLI enabled" on them--what does that mean?

I am looking for recommendations (in general order of importance to me):
- Video card
- Mobo
- RAM

I am also very open to suggestions regarding third-party heatsinks for my processor and vid card. My apartment has no A/C (!) which is fine 11 months out of the year, but it's July right now. That's turned me into a bit of a heat freak.

THANKS FOR HELPING ME BUILD THE BEST COMPUTER EVAR!

[Vizzys]

SLI enabled probbly means it has enough juice to power two video cards. SLI is amazing.

550w might be enough already

I like nvidia, geforce 7900gt is what I have

its good.

ATI is cool, get sapphire branded cards if you are going the ATI route.

Use a Zalman heatsink, they are godly.

[Smooth Groove]

I have a 608 SLI motherboard but I have to say that SLI is probably not worth it.  A single 8800GTX is better in most cases than 2 $300 cards.  Even if you have the cash for 8800 GTX SLI, it's still not worth the money because SLI sucks in Vista.  By the time Nvidia makes SLI work properly in Vista, there'll be better cards than the 8800 GTX. 

[TVC15]

1. Get a big honkin' Zalman fan.  They will make your PC quiet and cool.
2.  SLI isn't worth it, but any mobo worth its salt these days is probably SLI-enabled.
3.  You want at least 2 gigs of RAM.  Don't bother going over that unless you plan on using a 64-bit OS (which I would not recommend right now)
4. Videocard. . . you should be able to find a very nice Radeon 1950 in the 2-250 dollar range, with 512 megs of RAM.  That videocard will serve you very very well for at least the next 2 years.  The 8000x series from nVidia are nice, but hot. . .too hot for the gains you get, especially when heat is a consideration for you. 
5.  Your power supply is more than enough.

[BlueTsunami]

Quad Core for $299???!!!

!!!

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Quad Core for $299???!!!

Thank you for coming to Fry's!

One basic question I have is: what's the difference between ATI and nVidia, these days?

There was a while when ATI ruled and nVidia sucked, and there was another while when nVidia was insane and only a fool would buy ATI. What stage of the circle of video vendor life are we in these days? 

[Smooth Groove]

Quad Core for $299???!!!

Thank you for coming to Fry's!

One basic question I have is: what's the difference between ATI and nVidia, these days?

There was a while when ATI ruled and nVidia sucked, and there was another while when nVidia was insane and only a fool would buy ATI. What stage of the circle of video vendor life are we in these days? 

8800GTX is the best.  ATI's fastest card is about the same as 8800GTS and each card has its respective strengths and weaknesses. 

[TVC15]

Quad Core for $299???!!!

Thank you for coming to Fry's!

One basic question I have is: what's the difference between ATI and nVidia, these days?

There was a while when ATI ruled and nVidia sucked, and there was another while when nVidia was insane and only a fool would buy ATI. What stage of the circle of video vendor life are we in these days? 

Well, for the previous gen battle 7000 (nvidia) v. 1000 (ATI), ATI eventually came out on top with the 1950.  The 7950s are still very nice cards, though.

Current gen 8000 v 2000, nVidia has it in the bag so far.  ATIs cards are of similar power, but they came out later and are more expensive, and they have given nVidia plenty of time to work out the kinks in their drivers.

ATI is probably going to be the investment that permanently sinks AMD.  I don't think they will be around in, oh, 2 years, or is they are, they will have firmly settled into second, cheaper, not-as-good position.

[Smooth Groove]

Quad Core for $299???!!!

Thank you for coming to Fry's!

One basic question I have is: what's the difference between ATI and nVidia, these days?

There was a while when ATI ruled and nVidia sucked, and there was another while when nVidia was insane and only a fool would buy ATI. What stage of the circle of video vendor life are we in these days? 

Well, for the previous gen battle 7000 (nvidia) v. 1000 (ATI), ATI eventually came out on top with the 1950.  The 7950s are still very nice cards, though.

Current gen 8000 v 2000, nVidia has it in the bag so far.  ATIs cards are of similar power, but they came out later and are more expensive, and they have given nVidia plenty of time to work out the kinks in their drivers.

ATI is probably going to be the investment that permanently sinks AMD.  I don't think they will be around in, oh, 2 years, or is they are, they will have firmly settled into second, cheaper, not-as-good position.

I feel like it's the other way around.  AMD is always up and down but ATI has been consistently strong since the 9700 destroyed everything else in the market.  Before the merger, ATI was doing good with console GPUS, drivers, video acceleration, advanced 3d features like unified shaders,etc.  Ever since the merger, ATI has been behind Nvidia for top performance. 

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Other question: Why 512 MB of RAM? Isn't 256 enough for most games? Won't I need to upgrade my card to a DX10 card before I start seeing benefits from 512 MB?

[Smooth Groove]

Other question: Why 512 MB of RAM? Isn't 256 enough for most games? Won't I need to upgrade my card to a DX10 card before I start seeing benefits from 512 MB?

Go with 512mb.  You won't regret it.  Even 2 yr old games like Fear/Quake 4 make 256mb videocards choke and stutter when the highest texture settings are used. 

[TVC15]

Quad Core for $299???!!!

Thank you for coming to Fry's!

One basic question I have is: what's the difference between ATI and nVidia, these days?

There was a while when ATI ruled and nVidia sucked, and there was another while when nVidia was insane and only a fool would buy ATI. What stage of the circle of video vendor life are we in these days? 

Well, for the previous gen battle 7000 (nvidia) v. 1000 (ATI), ATI eventually came out on top with the 1950.  The 7950s are still very nice cards, though.

Current gen 8000 v 2000, nVidia has it in the bag so far.  ATIs cards are of similar power, but they came out later and are more expensive, and they have given nVidia plenty of time to work out the kinks in their drivers.

ATI is probably going to be the investment that permanently sinks AMD.  I don't think they will be around in, oh, 2 years, or is they are, they will have firmly settled into second, cheaper, not-as-good position.

I feel like it's the other way around.  AMD is always up and down but ATI has been consistently strong since the 9700 destroyed everything else in the market.  Before the merger, ATI was doing good with console GPUS, drivers, video acceleration, advanced 3d features like unified shaders,etc.  Ever since the merger, ATI has been behind Nvidia for top performance. 

Well, AMD is in financial trouble, and ATI just released a line of disappointing GPUs.  AMD is in trouble of shutting down, so is ATI, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Also, Patel, the real reason to go with 512 over 256 is that it's a very cheap upgrade these days, and it does help with loading in the TEXTUREZILLA games.

[BlueTsunami]

Quad Core for $299???!!!

Thank you for coming to Fry's!

 :'(

[Fragamemnon]

OK, that power supply is more than enough-I run off a 450W and do fine.

SLI really isn't just that useful-it is flaky at times with game compatibility and has always been a backburner driver priority to nVidia. It also generally is better to sell your old card and buy a new card instead of adding in another, older card in terms of speed. Your motherboard may have SLI on it, but that's just because of escalation in the motherboard market and good chipset support.

Anyway, what I would suggest is this:

RAM-$80- 2GB (2x1GB) OCZ DDR2-800 from Fry's - http://shop3.outpost.com/product/5008315

2GB of RAM is essential for a modern PC. 4GB wouldn't also be a terrible idea given how cheap the stuff is, the problem is to use it all you have to go to a 64-bit OS, which sucks ass. So 2GB it is!

Motherboard - $130 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 - Either from Newegg, ZipZoomFly, or ClubIT, all whom I recommend.

This motherboard is based off the latest chipset and is future proof for the upcoming 45nm Intel CPUs so that a future Fry's trip in a couple of years could bag you a sweet, easy upgrade. Also, it has no shitty onboard Realtek-the onboard audio is pretty decent. No SLI, but again that is so something you shouldn't consider given your suggestion to keep the heat down.  I run the 965 chipset equivalent board in my gaming PC and it is excellent.

Videocard - I'm going to give two choices here.

Choice A ) 8800GTS 320M - This is if you are running a 1280x1024 LCD or so, and aren't planning on upgrading it in the next 18 months. If so, this card is a freaking beast for the cost ($270 currently). They actually don't run all that hot unless you compare it to a super-cool  (and somewhat underpowered) 7900GS or what not.

Choice B) ATi X1950Pro 256MB - This is the budget choice, but it is still really fast for DX9 games and will serve you very well for a good 18months with above-average (but not maxed) settings and goodf framerates. Runs pretty cool as well. $130 or so.

I'd say go with the X1950, it's a good card and you're not the kind of GAF distinguished mentally-challenged fellow that refuses to play PC games if they can't crank everything to max.

For heatsinks-I would go with a Zalman, as others have suggested, or the overclocker's (and my current one) budget favorite, the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro.

Regarding the 256/512 situation-The thing is that you might gain performance by going up to 512MB from 256-and you most certainly do with textures cranked-you wind up moving up almost an entire class of GPUs for the premium. A 320MB 8800GTS costs about as much as a X1950Pro 512MB, but the performance of the 8800GTS is going to sodomize the X1950 Pro in the majority of circumstances.

If you want to run with a ton of RAM, go for a 8800GTS 640MB/8800GTX and be done with it.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Thanks for the feedback. It actually is quite useful, even if it seems obvious to you guys more versed in the modern tech. The "supports 45nm chips so you can swap in something better down the line" is exactly what I need to hear--something like that is way more important to me than "5% more overclocking potential."

One thing I should mention is that I run two monitors, but I'd also imagine that's no bottleneck at all as long as my 3D throughput is limited to one monitor. My main monitor is a 1680x1050 WS and I would like enough horsepower to oomph that comfortably.

I am leaning towards the X1950Pro--it seems pretty darn powerful, and I am basically planning an Inevitable Video Card Upgrade in 18-24 months as I look for a decent third-gen DX10 solution. How much more powerful is the 8800GTS than the X1950Pro? A wee bit more powerful? Or are we talking like, ten times as.

And why DDR2 RAM instead of DDR3?

Thanks!

[Smooth Groove]

Quad Core for $299???!!!

Thank you for coming to Fry's!

 :'(

Just wait until Thanksgiving.  I"m sure Fry's would have an even better deal.  Quad Cores aren't even necessary for most gamers.  Supreme Commander is the only game right now that takes advantage of more than 2 cores. 

[TVC15]

For me, 1950 512meg to 8800GTS 684 meg (or whatever) was a considerably large performance upgrade.  With that sad, I could have happily survived on that 1950 for a lot longer had I not started to have problems with it.  That 1950 still ran most things maxed out, but the 8800 made the ultra-high end things run perfectly, and made everything else seem effortless.

If you are trying to stay on budget, I have no problem saying that the 1950s are great cards.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Just wait until Thanksgiving.  I"m sure Fry's would have an even better deal.  Quad Cores aren't even necessary for most gamers.  Supreme Commander is the only game right now that takes advantage of more than 2 cores. 

I'm gonna multibox WoW...from a single box! lololol

[Fragamemnon]

DDR3 is way more expensive for very, very little gain. And by more expensive, I mean by a factor of six-$400+ for 2GB.

Looking again at X1950 Pro 512MB, that might be what I would jump for since you have the widescreen monitor resolution. The 8800GTS would be, for lack of a better description, probably "one slider notch" ahead of the X1950 Pro in most games that will come out in the next 12-18 months or so, if you want a practical comparison. Again, not really a big deal, and the extra RAM will come in handy for doing lower-level AA and AF on that display.

[BlueTsunami]

I'm thinking about upgrading my vid card just to play Battlefield 2 at a better framerate <3

I really need to get into other PC games

[Fragamemnon]

I'm gonna multibox WoW...from a single box! lololol

I triple-boxed in Dark Age of Camelot more than a few times back in the day.

I've got nothing on Team Wizzy though (dude PvP'd eight characters at once)

[Howard Alan Treesong]

You and I both fail before the quadecahexaboxer:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/wow/2-people-47-pcs-46-wow-accounts-no-life-275830.php



(Actually, though, that's two didecatriboxers.)

[TVC15]

Psh, imagine what the Mac Mini Array at MBU can do:

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Frag: Recommend a Zalman heatsink for the mobo you picked out. MY WALLET IS PUTTY IN YOUR HANDS.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010110574+50001647&name=Zalman+Tech+Co.%2c+Ltd

Also feel free to suggest a replacement heatsink for this vid card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102075

Also feel free to suggest a particular brand of arctic silver heatsink glue OH GOD JUST TELL ME WHAT TO DO SO I CAN THROW MONEY AT THE PROBLEM AND MAKE IT GO AWAY

[Howard Alan Treesong]

wtf, my computer's D: (all my music/movie/graphic data) just died.

I have a backup, but. I THINK IT KNOWS IT'S GOING TO BE REPLACED.

[Fragamemnon]

For the CPU, use this if you want a Zalman:

http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=229&code=009

The gold standard in video card cooling:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118001

[Howard Alan Treesong]

bumping...

I bought an 8800GTS 640MB. My friend is telling me that was a distinguished mentally-challenged decision and I will not see any performance gains over the 320MB version. My monitor is 1680x1050 widescreen.

Should I return the 640 and get the 320? Should I get neither and revert to my original plan of "just suffer through with a 1950"?

This is so fucking complicated.

[Van Cruncheon]

you WILL see perf gains with the 640MB version as more texture heavy games (and sloppy console ports) start to get released.

[John_Carmack]

I suggest the purchase of Doom 3™ to go with your new computer.

[Smooth Groove]

For the CPU, use this if you want a Zalman:

http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=229&code=009

The gold standard in video card cooling:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118001

3rd party air-cooled heatsinks are a waste of time and money.  Invest $200-300 in water cooling and you'll get performance that you never imagined was possible with air cooling.  Go with something like Swiftech if you don't know what you're doing.  Dangerden.com is good too but it's more for advanced users. 

bumping...

I bought an 8800GTS 640MB. My friend is telling me that was a distinguished mentally-challenged decision and I will not see any performance gains over the 320MB version. My monitor is 1680x1050 widescreen.

Should I return the 640 and get the 320? Should I get neither and revert to my original plan of "just suffer through with a 1950"?

This is so fucking complicated.

You would definitely see a difference at 1680x1050.  Try Fear with the highest textures settings on both cards and you'll see the huge difference in performance.  At highest texture setting, Fear won't even be playable on the 320mb card.  Quake 4,Doom 3, Oblivion will also show big differences between the two cards.  I'll bet that the extra ram would matter a great deal too with a future game like Crysis. 

[Howard Alan Treesong]

This is probably just me being paranoid but I really don't trust water-cooled systems?

[The Fake Shemp]

Water cooled systems are the future!

[Mondain]

lol, ATI going away? no fucking way, they're here to stay, you think that the market would let NVidia hold a monopoly on modern GPUs?

[BlueTsunami]

I was reshearching water cooling for PCs and I nearly pissed myself at some of the rigs people put together. So elaborate, so awesome.

There was one that had sometype of passive cooling with a tower next to the PC that was as big as me...

[Fragamemnon]

Water cooling is really hard to set up compared to fans and air. It's still a super-diehard thing and the large majority of the hardcore PC hardware folk aren't very comfortable with it.

[bluemax]

I need to remember this awesome topic for when I have money for a new pc.

[VALIS]

I have a watercooled Quad Core... and a beard. I'm all set!