Has ATI gotten their drivers stable yet? i’ve heard they’ve had issues about the cards being picky about the drivers they have. are they a one size fits all like nvidia or still going w/ driver dependent cards?
im not sure, i had one ordered but had to cancel due to money issues, but eventually ill be getting one.
does Crossfire = sli?
if so would a sli mobo support 2 crossfire cards?
i don’t believe you can mix crossfire w/ sli. It has something to do w/ how the chipset drivers handle the processing between the cards.
X2
g.skill or nothing… great products and outstanding prices
as for quad vs dual, I’d go quad simply because multi-threaded apps are no longer a nich item. The more cores, the better imo
I’d also go with the single card vs Sli. it uses less power for the performance you’ll get and you can always go with another 260 (or whatever you get) 6-12 months from now for an SLi setup when you’ll probably need it more.
suggestions on a mobo that supports 1066 ram speeds?
MSI
MSI as a serious lack of SLI boards in 1066 range… but they have some serious performance numbers otherwise… Great overclocking reviews too
i wonder if it’d be worth just scrapping the SLI idea, run a single gtx 260 and 1066 ram, and save myself a couple hundred bucks.
From the sounds of things there isn’t a game out there that a single gtx 260 can’t currently handle. hmm.
I had to upgrade my bios for it to see 1066.
simple with msi tools tho.
im selling my old PS if ur not going sli
http://nyspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50261&highlight=thermaltake
ran everything no problems, i got rid of it so i could get a modular.
gfx cards now a days are outstanding. i’m running a gtx260 at 1920x1200 EVERYTHING maxed out flawlessly. and that’s at stock speeds. i’m sure if i o/c’ed my cpu/fsb and such i could get more but i don’t need it just yet. def a good card, but if you run 1600x1200 and lower then ATI seems to be the better card for the price, but again, i’m not sure how they’re driver support is.
I know i’m jumping in here kind of late, but here’s my .02
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shop around for a different case. Look at different sites, get a ‘feel’ for whats out there. Then decide if you want better air flow or better looks. Also, more/larger fans doesn’t always equal better cooling. The case you have should be able to keep the positive pressure in the case, but because of the cfm difference from the side fan to the front intake and rear exhaust, the airflow inside will be all over the place. personally i have found that a sealed side panel w/ properly balanced front to back cooling is better than fans placed everywhere in the case.
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The hdd. I know you said you were just looking around and saw them, but as BuickGN already said, the 7200.11’s are far superior, especially in a raid 0 setup. What i would recommend in this case is get 2 7200.11’s and do a raid 0 for the os, and then save up for the 1tb or 1.5tb 7200.11 drive for storage (all segate drives - i would stay with them. 5 year warranty on all their drives and imo they are much better than any other drive on the market)
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Graphics cards. Read reviews and decide which games you want to play. the ATI 4870 is going to be your best bet imo. I know a few people at work that use the card and they’ve said they haven’t had any problems with the drivers. it’s when you move into the x2 that once in a while you have a problem, but that’s not necessary with these cards. (also, please DO NOT read reviews and see which game plays crisis best. The game might look nice…but by no means should you base your decision around it because one card plays better on it’s un-‘optimized’ engine) plus, they are 250$ right now in best buy stores…so you dont even need to order it online.
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Ram - again as already said. G-skill is really good. I’ve also had great luck w/ patriot ram. don’t buy into the name because everyone says it’s good. there is better for cheaper out there. and if your going xp stay at 2gb, if you go vista go 4+ (+ if you go 64bit)
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Processor - the q6600 while still performs nice is somewhat outdated. it was intels first quad on the market and has since made the 45nm switch and also larger l2 cache. That’s mainly why a dual core will be just as good, if not better than the 6600. but, again i would say this is OS dependent. if you stay with xp go dual core. if you go vista go quad. I did notice a huge difference between my e6700 to my q6700 in vista, but xp ran about the same.
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Don’t buy a motherboard just because there’s a ‘combo’ deal with a PSU. you will regret it in the end. I would recommend putting more money on the psu and less on the motherboard. Not that the motherboard isn’t as important, but if the PSU cant keep up with the power requirements, the most expensive components wont work right (you’ll get tons of system crashes, graphics card issues like artifacts/pixel issues, and even damage some parts) I’m also going to say stick with an intel chipset. the x38/48 will give you better performance and imo better stability. plus, when setting up raid configurations intels chipsets are much easier than nvidia’s.
the last thing is when do you plan on building? reason for asking is Intel is supposed to release nahalem in november-ish. obviously your going to be adding a little bit to the price, but then you have more time to save 
Thats what i ended up doing. after i sold my main computer i just pieced together a cheap 150$-200$ build to last me till november (amd 4400+, 2gb ram, 60$ foxconn mobo, etc)
Wow, thanks for the great writeup. I’m not in a huge hurry to build. I’ve built 2 PCs prior to this one, both of which were poorly planned out and had me returning mismatched parts, ordering required cables, configuration errors, etc. My current build is plenty functional for now, so all of this information is going to aid in a very meticulous build.
I’ve found a few of the HDDs you and buick specified. Looking at one 500gb and one 1tb.
As far as a case goes, I don’t care about looks at all. The one i’m using is an atx tower that i gutted, sealed, and ported. It has Amazing airflow with just a couple small fans. I created this after spending 50 bucks on a tower at the time of my last build only to get a cheap, flimsy, noisy tower that had vents everywhere but horrible cooling qualities. That lesson has been learned.
It’s not pretty, and very messy, but it’s like a wind tunnel in there, and it was free (minus a dremel cutting wheel i broke when making the bottom intake holes…hah)
:highfive:
moving on…
I’d like to know more information about this intel nahalem that has you waiting…
Just to kind of get you looking at different cases. i’ve done a few builds with this case ( http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1215768&CatId=1521 , watch the video if your bored lol ) and it is so easy, looks nice, air flow is good, and it doesnt feel ‘cheap’ that even some of the more expensive ones do, and cable management is almost done for you.
as for the nehalem (i spelled it wrong, it’s ne not na) here’s some write up’s from the preview chips. The biggest thing to keep in mind is it only supports DDR3 ram, so thats going to be a little more expensive. Now the reason i’m waiting is mainly i dont want to spend a ton of money on a computer that is going to be “outdated” in a couple months. (i know it’s going to happen anyway but…) While there may be a few new chips for the lga775 after november, it just seems for that little bit of time it would be worth it to wait. the i7 chips (nehalem) also ‘borrow’ some of the amd ideas, like the integrated memory controller. Also, with the x58 chipset you can get (motherboard mfg dependent) sli and crossfire support, ddr3 1600 support, and again your not spending money on year old technology. now if you dont feel like reading a lot, with the preview chips/chipsets they’ve already seen the promised 20-30% improvement over the 45nm q9450.
now for the links:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3326&p=9
srsly?
what?
edit.
no it doesn’t sit on flat carpet, there are legs on the bottom of the case, it sits on a board, elevated about 1". CPU and MOBO temps stay way the hell down, and it pushes air at a ridiculous rate.
like i said it was a free setup.
Contribute if you actually have any knowledge or something useful to say. Don’t clutter this up with bullshit
Ya, I agree. Everytime a new architecture is released, the games just dont tax the cards. Just like back in the day when the 8800gtx/ultra came out. The only game that even remotely taxed them was oblivion. Now with the 200 Series, the only game that taxes them is Crysis. And thats mostly piss poor optimization than anything.
if your lookin for ram i have G.SKILL 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ that i want to get rid of
I just gotta say i really appreciate all the offers being sent to me to buy stuff from you guys, but i need to stress that i’m not looking to buy for about a month
but seriously, thanks :tup:
Start looking at what you plan on doing with the system(autocad, home media center, gaming rig, etc…), what hardware is coming out, and your budget. I myself never buy brand new hardware. i just recently purchased an evga 750i board, e8400 cpu, and gtx260(only cuz it was on sale). if i were to buy all that brand new i’d be looking at well over 1000, but i waited and could piece it all together for under 700 no problem(includes ram and hd’s and such too). another thing to keep in mind, new hardware isn’t always the best cuz it’s technically still in “beta” form. i normally don’t buy the first year of a new part/item. (ie 1997 grand prix’s were the bastard child of the 97-03’s) i see computer hardware the same way.