Need help on my new upcoming rig

I've been in Iraq for a few years so I am out of the loop on what to get on my new desktop and your input will be highly appreciated.
The Intel Q6600 is my choice on the processor but everything else I have no idea ( motherboard, memory, HDD, and video card, etc).
It will mostly be for gaming.
The best-for-your-buck items and proven compatability is maily what matters.
I am looking to overclock the Q6600 if that helps.
Looking to pay appx. $2500 for this rig.

Bang-for-your-buck and $2500 budget isn't what I usually hear put in the same sentence. You can pretty much go all out including water cooling and still meet or beat the $2500 budget.

Are you looking to buy immediately or can wait until Q1 08? Penryns (45nm new Intel chips) are delayed from their original January release date, to sometime in Feb or March.

Here is a quick list without hearing any of your preferences (prices may not be the lowest currently available):

2 x 150gb Raptor HDD's (I'd RAID 0 them): $350
Intel Q6600: $280
Intel X38 Mobo (Asus P5E, Abit IX38, etc.): $240
2 x (2x1gb) DDR2-800 Micron D9 RAM (Crucial Ballistix, G.Skill HZ, etc.): $150
Cooler Master Cosmos: $150
Corsair 620HX PSU: $140
2 x 512MB nVidia 8800GT Video Cards: $550

That comes to $1860.

I'm in the same boat as you. Building a new system and haven't decided on anything past the Q6600.

SLI or not?

I want to be able to run Crysis set very high at 1920x1080.

Seems like the P35 chipset is the one to get for good clocks. Correct?

Curious to see what guys recommend.

Slapnutzz said:

I'm in the same boat as you. Building a new system and haven't decided on anything past the Q6600.

SLI or not?

I want to be able to run Crysis set very high at 1920x1080.

Seems like the P35 chipset is the one to get for good clocks. Correct?

Curious to see what guys recommend.

Click to expand...

Crysis, very high settings, and 1080P.

That will be pretty tough, pretty much gotta do 8800GTS in SLI. But that depends on what your definition of 'running' the game means. Some guys are happy with 30fps, others aren't.

Should be interesting to see how the 'dual 8800GT' card should do that should be out soon.

yeah 1080p is a tough one.. But is SLI really worth it or even needed?

After reading a little, 25% seems to be the number thrown around for SLI performance increase. I've also read that you can crank AA/AF up without a hit to framerates with SLI.

But.. With new cards around the corner is SLI going to be needed to run Crysis at 1080p or will one newer card suffice? I read that the p35 is the way to go to get the potential out of the 6600 and that the nvidia chipsets don't like high fsb's.. So SLI or not??

so many questions..

Sorry galador, not tryin to hijack.. prolly have a bunch of the same questions.

Lol, the $2500 is the max but a penny saved is a penny earned, right?
Like I said, I've done very little reasearch due to very slow internet over here, it takes appx. 20 minutes just to get to OC website and more just to post :-S
OK, The Swiftech water cooling kit in my sig will be transferred to the new rig.
These new 45nm Intel is coming out with are they worth waiting for?
The X38 chipsets, are they not just for DDR3?
I did spend a couple hours going to NewEgg to look at reviews and all that did was confuse me more since all of them had some poor reviews so the next question is, is the X38 better than the P35?
I do lean towards Asus mobo's because they have been reliable through the years.
I only saw P5K and there are a few different kinds of those at NewEgg.

Lol, the $2500 is the max but a penny saved is a penny earned, right?
Like I said, I've done very little reasearch due to very slow internet over here, it takes appx. 20 minutes just to get to OC website and more just to post :-S
OK, The Swiftech water cooling kit in my sig will be transferred to the new rig.
These new 45nm Intel is coming out with are they worth waiting for?

------Nice chips but I don't think they're needed yet, the 6600 barely breaks a sweat.

The X38 chipsets, are they not just for DDR3?
I did spend a couple hours going to NewEgg to look at reviews and all that did was confuse me more since all of them had some poor reviews so the next question is, is the X38 better than the P35?

-----P35 is getting crazy speeds with good ram. DDR3 is not worth it as far as i'm concerned, latency is way too high.

I do lean towards Asus mobo's because they have been reliable through the years.
I only saw P5K and there are a few different kinds of those at NewEgg.

------I like ASUS too, my P5B is a great board.

Slapnutzz said:

yeah 1080p is a tough one.. But is SLI really worth it or even needed?

But.. With new cards around the corner is SLI going to be needed to run Crysis at 1080p or will one newer card suffice? I read that the p35 is the way to go to get the potential out of the 6600 and that the nvidia chipsets don't like high fsb's.. So SLI or not??

Click to expand...

I personally feel the money spend on the second video card was better spent on getting the higher-end single setup. For example, anyone that paid $400+ for a SLI 8600GTS setup is probably kicking themselves for not going with the 640mb 8800GTS instead.

ATI just announced their HD3870 X2, should be a good performer, do a search on it for more info.

galador said:

Lol, the $2500 is the max but a penny saved is a penny earned, right?
Like I said, I've done very little reasearch due to very slow internet over here, it takes appx. 20 minutes just to get to OC website and more just to post :-S
OK, The Swiftech water cooling kit in my sig will be transferred to the new rig.
These new 45nm Intel is coming out with are they worth waiting for?
The X38 chipsets, are they not just for DDR3?
I did spend a couple hours going to NewEgg to look at reviews and all that did was confuse me more since all of them had some poor reviews so the next question is, is the X38 better than the P35?
I do lean towards Asus mobo's because they have been reliable through the years.
I only saw P5K and there are a few different kinds of those at NewEgg.

Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with that Swiftech kit, but assuming you have an adapter for Socket 775 you should be okay as long as no capacitors are in the way of the water block.

Whether the new 45nm chips are worth it remains to be seen, all I've seen is ES chips clocking like mad, but you never know if those are cherry-picked to bring on the hype for what I feel is just a die-shrunk Core2 chip with SSE4.

There are X38 boards with DDR2 RAM slots, you can seperate them on Newegg when you browse on there. The Asus P5E and Abit IX38 I mentioned earlier are both DDR2-slot boards.

I wouldn't trust Newegg reviews too much, most of the people on there don't really know what they're talking about. I'd trust a senior OCF-er over dozens of Newegg reviewers.

Is the X38 better than the P35? Yes and no. The main distinguishing feature with the X38 is full x16 PCI lanes. Here is a link with a really simple explanation: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/10/12/crossfire_comparison_intel_x38_versus_p35/2

If you're going to go with two video cards you might want to consider an nVidia 680i or 780i motherboard. They come in much cheaper than the 'premium' X38 boards and offer pretty much the same performance, in my opinion.

Going with an nVidia board you don't have to pay $240+ for an X38 board to get "full" SLI capabiltiy.

Only reason I might avoid an nVidia board is the P35's can overclock to 500+FSB with less effort than the nVidia, but that only comes into play if you have a low-multi chip, but with the Q6600 (x9) it shouldn't be a problem since you'll be hitting 3.6ghz at just 400FSB, which should be a cakewalk with whichever chipset you decide to choose.

Suprchargd said:

I personally feel the money spend on the second video card was better spent on getting the higher-end single setup. For example, anyone that paid $400+ for a SLI 8600GTS setup is probably kicking themselves for not going with the 640mb 8800GTS instead.

ATI just announced their HD3870 X2, should be a good performer, do a search on it for more info.

Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking.. A nice Q6600 on a P35 clocked to comfy speeds with a top end card might be the best way to go. Less driver issues etc.

With new cards going multi GPU doesn't it make SLI redundant? Why not put 4 cores on the same card or 2 cores on 2 cards connected directly to eachother rather than relying on the chipset.. 2.0 PCI slots have more than enough bandwidth.. correct?

Suprchargd said:

I'm not familiar with that Swiftech kit, but assuming you have an adapter for Socket 775 you should be okay as long as no capacitors are in the way of the water block.

Whether the new 45nm chips are worth it remains to be seen, all I've seen is ES chips clocking like mad, but you never know if those are cherry-picked to bring on the hype for what I feel is just a die-shrunk Core2 chip with SSE4.

There are X38 boards with DDR2 RAM slots, you can seperate them on Newegg when you browse on there. The Asus P5E and Abit IX38 I mentioned earlier are both DDR2-slot boards.

I wouldn't trust Newegg reviews too much, most of the people on there don't really know what they're talking about. I'd trust a senior OCF-er over dozens of Newegg reviewers.

Is the X38 better than the P35? Yes and no. The main distinguishing feature with the X38 is full x16 PCI lanes. Here is a link with a really simple explanation: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/10/12/crossfire_comparison_intel_x38_versus_p35/2

If you're going to go with two video cards you might want to consider an nVidia 680i or 780i motherboard. They come in much cheaper than the 'premium' X38 boards and offer pretty much the same performance, in my opinion.

Going with an nVidia board you don't have to pay $240+ for an X38 board to get "full" SLI capabiltiy.

Only reason I might avoid an nVidia board is the P35's can overclock to 500+FSB with less effort than the nVidia, but that only comes into play if you have a low-multi chip, but with the Q6600 (x9) it shouldn't be a problem since you'll be hitting 3.6ghz at just 400FSB, which should be a cakewalk with whichever chipset you decide to choose.

Click to expand...

Thats helpful info.. 3.6ghz with a Q6600 is more than enough.. Just need the video card(s) to make me happy... do I wait and go new single card, or SLI??

I had an easier time buying my new car.. lol

As long as you get a G0 stepping Q you generally shouldn't have too much trouble hitting 3.2+ghz, just need to make sure it stays cool, i.e. get a big tower-style cooler like a Zalman 9700, Tuniq Tower 120, Thermalright Ultra 120, etc.

If you wait and decide on the 3870X2, rumors say it should cost mid-$400s. Also don't forget the dual-8800GT card comes out soon too. I'd personally wait, those two cards are worth waiting for a few weeks, if nothing more they might drive down prices on the 8800GT/HD3870 or at least we'll see a rebate deal or two pop up.

Suprchargd said:

As long as you get a G0 stepping Q you generally shouldn't have too much trouble hitting 3.2+ghz, just need to make sure it stays cool, i.e. get a big tower-style cooler like a Zalman 9700, Tuniq Tower 120, Thermalright Ultra 120, etc.

If you wait and decide on the 3870X2, rumors say it should cost mid-$400s. Also don't forget the dual-8800GT card comes out soon too. I'd personally wait, those two cards are worth waiting for a few weeks, if nothing more they might drive down prices on the 8800GT/HD3870 or at least we'll see a rebate deal or two pop up.

Click to expand...

Makes sense.. wait for the xmas dust to settle.. Crossfire apparently scales better than SLI, so imagine 2 3870xs's?? Or the sheer horsepower of 2 dual 8800GT's? As a bonus get the new 45nm quads as well..

But if one card can do 1080p in very high I'll pay 750.. Put it on a P35 with Q6600... add 4g of good ram and call it a day.. I have 4 500g drives to run in raid..

Soo hard to buy smart when you have the cash in pocket.

It's a good time to be a consumer with Intel pounding on AMD with price cuts. Lets just hope AMD can stay in it, otherwise we're in for a very stagnant tech evolution.

Suprchargd said:

It's a good time to be a consumer with Intel pounding on AMD with price cuts. Lets just hope AMD can stay in it, otherwise we're in for a very stagnant tech evolution.

Click to expand...

I'd make a $100 donation to AMD with my next Intel purchase just to ensure some form of competition.

Kinda like voting Democrat cause you know they're gonna kick *** but we still need the republicans to keep them in check..

I wish it was a 3 or 4 party system.. More CPU's to choose from..lol

The Intel Q6600 w/ Asus P5E sounds good.
Will the 3870X2 work on this MB since it does have an Intel X38 chipset? If so, waiting will not be an issue.

No reason why it wouldn't work.

ok, just making sure, thx for the help and Happy Holidays.
I will wait for the 3870X2 but buy the CPU and mobo and have it ready.