New CPU Advice - Tech's welcome

[Malidar Moonvail]

Hello all. Many may remember me, however many may not, I played WoW with Drow for a short time, as well as EQ back in the olden days. Regardless, I've been debating playing some games again lately and as such my cpu nearly blew up trying out Vanguard, so if I am going to try and do anything I'll need to update the box. That said, I have compiled the following parts list. Mind you, I am not looking to spend a crapload of cash, but am willing to spend some (in the 1500 range).

Without further adou:

ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model DRW-2014L1T

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Western Digital Caviar SE WD5000AAJS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

ASUS EN9600GT TOP/HTDI/512M GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - (Times two)

OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI 700W ATX12V Power Supply - Retail

OCZ OCZTFRZTC Freeze Extreme Thermal Conductivity Compound

Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PDC24G6400LLK - Retail

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569Q9450

XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler

Currently, the items for argument that I see right away, are:
Core Processor. I heard great things about the E8500. It OC's very high, etc - and the knock with the quads are that they current games really cannot utilize the power of them. I am welcome to this discussion as I am not one to claim to be a "know-it-all", and to be perfectly blunt, I need advise on this particular item.

Video Cards - Performance wise the card selected is proving to be a great card (in pair) with small increases with the new NVIDIA cards to be released (260 and 280).

For now that will be all. I look forward to feedback. May want to add that this system will be for WAR (Warhammer online).

Thank you,
Malidar - Mali - Mal

[OBM]

Hey! I do quite a bit of work with tweaking/ OCing and testing/building new rigs... not to mention a few friends and family in Intel ;)

As for upgrades for this summer (gaming only) I would highly recommend choosing :

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

This CPU will beat just about anything out as of right now unless you get a quad 3.16GHz or better.

The only reason to grab a quadcore right now is if you have software that is tailor made for quads, Video editing, graphics designers, ect ect.

Your graphics card might need a serious boost and will be the main problem in your system.

If you take the money you would save, around $100, picking the 8500 and put it towards a beefy video card say, 9800 GTX $270ish youll have much faster frame rates while still staying within the $1500 mark.

[Malidar Moonvail]

OBM, thank you for your post, I appreciate the response.

After reading a bunch, the new ATI's for price i believe will be the way to go. I think I will drop and get two of the 4850's for 400 total.

My only issue with doing that is I will have to swap out my MOBO, and I am not real sure what the hell I would wanna get with that.

I have done some extensive research on Quad vs. Duo. When do you think technology will catch up and getting a duo will be obsolete? By getting a quad now, I understand I won't use it to full capacity, however, when games can use this, wouldnt it be worth while to be prepared?

Thank you again for your response, I look forward to reading more.

[OBM]

The major problem with Quads becoming a standard right now is everyone, and I mean every single game mfg, driver software, OS, every single part of your computer software must take advantage of using 4 cores, otherwise youll only see the meager advantages 5%-10% over a dual core running at the same speed.

You can see what im talking about by looking at Intels past history with Single core cpus... then came hyperthreading ( which is a very unique look into what a dual core might accomplish ).

Now you have dual core cpus ( without hyperthreading ) and quad cores (w/o).

In the future there will be dual/quad cores with Hyperthreading as software catches up with how fast hardware/cpus are advancing.

The only thing I can tell you is software specifically for quad cores will catch up soon ( 2009 -2010 ) but by then you will need another upgrade anywho. No one can give you an exact time when it will happen, but its getting closer.

Thats why you only see major differences in dual/quad CPUs for video editing , graphics , film ect ect at the moment... those are the only software that really takes full advantage of quads.

So your back to the question of , sacrifice 500 mhz and an extra $100 for a quad core that "might" have gaming software taking full advantage of it in a year or 2 ( you will have to upgrade again within 2 years ;) ), or do you get the faster/cheaper dual for the "now" gaming and upgrade to a quad 2 years from now.

[OBM]

Np Mal and I almost forgot ... 2.6 ghz is the standard for right now ( 6 months from now it will be low end ) the 3 ghz will be standard in 6 months if you dont look at the brand new CPUs comming out in 2009ish. So ya things are moving fast -----

[Trignite]

If you take the money you would save, around $100, picking the 8500 and put it towards a beefy video card say, 9800 GTX $270ish youll have much faster frame rates while still staying within the $1500 mark.

On the topic of video cards, i've been building a lot of custom systems lately and it seems that the best price to performance ratio always comes out of running two 9600GTs in SLI. I prefer EVGA most but all in all BFG & EVGA are pretty much dead even, at least in the 9600 field. I use two of these in SLI for most of my systems, both rack under 300 USD together, and the performance for the price is godlike, so I would highly recommend two of these.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3970884&CatId=1839

Edit: Just make sure your PSU can handle all the hardware for long periods of time if you're going with SLI, even though that is kind of obvious. Best of luck building your rig!

[Constantine]

I got two 9600GTs and the wolfsdale 8400 and I run Age of Conan on 60+ FPS Max settings consistantly.

[sanjo]

All of the OPs are correct about the quad core VS dual core - and very informative posts - I will give you alil insight on what I found while doing a recent upgrade for my wifes PC last month.

I would suggest the e8400 wolfsdale core2duo since it is the best bang for your buck right now. There is even a deal newegg egg had last week for the 8400+ a 700watt PS for $174 w/rebate - **LINK** (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?nm_mc=AFC-SlickDeals&cm_mmc=AFC-SlickDeals-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA&Item=N82E16819115037)

For your HDDs I would suggest going for a dual 10kRPM WD Raptor @ Raid+0 **LINK** (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136011) I have 2 of these myself and cant say enough good about them.

If you only wanted a single Raptor the 10k RPM and seek times are way better then a 7300rpm drive. Something to keep in mind when running high end hardware is overclocking stuff will really bring your shelf life down no matter how good it's cooled.

That being said you will want a good cooler for your CPU - **LINK** (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118019) I have the Zalman nvidia edition, mostly for looks but the copper one will cool slightly better - very quiet coolers. Also you will want some Artic Silver thermal paste for the cpu for max cooling, and dont forget to scratch the surface with some ultra fine sandpaper or a brillio* pad to get max contact surface with the cooling plate on the cpu chip (dont scratch the cpu plate itself though)

- hopefully this will help.