Wait again for Q9450 or E8400 NOW + new gaming SETUP

[frankkesel]

Sup guys , thx everyone for this great forums ...

As you can see in my sig i am due for an upgrade since a long time

I was planning on the Q9450 since its around 300$ and 12megs cache
I am pretty tired of waiting for it and seeing it dealyed again n again
Now , i do not encore , compile etc .
The machine will be exclusively for gaming (crysis , cod4... )

I plan on ligh overclock on Air
Dont plan on Sli , Crossfire, or RAID
I have a 21" , but plan on a 40" 1080P lcd (LG, or Samsung )

At first i was planning on an expensive sli , ddr3 and all , but realize reading this forum its not worth it , so i go for ddr2 , p35.

Also i am a little bug by the fact that penryn , wolfdale is the last cpu model for socket 775 witch mean i will have to change the board next time again
I am really oriented bang for the bucks, i dont mind spending more if its woth it .

--Should i wait for a Q9450 or go whit a E8400 now ?---


while we are at it this is what the setup will look like

Thermalright ULTRA-120 Extreme 64$
EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800GT 600MHZ 512MB 200$
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L 100$
G.SKILL PC2-8000 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-1000 CL5-5-5-15 119$
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA2 8.5MS 7200RPM 32MB 120$
Corsair or seasonic or Ocz psu 110$

I am not really confortable whit Gigabyte (had bad experience in the past , amd) might consider Asus ,abit, msi, or Intel
Should i wait for Nalhem cpu ?
Should i wait for P45 ?
SHould i wait to see what 9800GT offer ?
Should i consider raid for faster loading in game , since another seagate is only 120 $ more ? (i know ill need another board)
Should i consider other chips (8500 other ) ?
should i consider other ram , timming ?
plz suggest psu..

Plz suggest , Criticize i am all open to constructive or negative critics lol

 

[ou_phidelt]

An E8400 is the better chip for a pure gaming machine so there is no point in waiting. Since you don't like gigabyte go for the Asus P5K-E from zipzoomfly for $115.

The rest of your set-up is fine. As far as your other questions on the new tech coming out. There is always something new coming. If you need a new system now go ahead and upgrade othermise you will always be waiting. Of the things you lised I don't think any of them will give revolutionary performance increases other than nehalem. I don't think you will see it mainstream until late winter or early spring of next year.

Don't bother with raid. It will not give you enough performance to justify the extra cost of a different board and another hard drive.

 

[LilBuddy]

I'm happy with my E8400 at 4.0ghz. The only thing I worry about is when will quads be the thing to have for gaming and such with the extra cores?

 

[frankkesel]

Thanks ou_phidelt for taking the time

ill look into this board for sure

You reapond exactly like one of my good friend "you will always be waiting"
but i just want the best banf for the bucks

I dinot upgrade since 4-5 years , i dont mind waithing a little more if its woth it ...
its not an upgrade anymore its a new build lol

thanks for Raid ... If othere agree whit u . ill skip this turn and waith til SSD is mainstream and for SSD raid next build

 

[5pitf1re]

I'm in same boat as you frankkesel. Going to buy a new gaming rig. The setup I'm planing is:

Asus P5E WS PRO (should be a good OC board. It has nice cooling)
Cooler Master Real Power M850 850W
Intel Xeon E3110 (It's E8400 just ment for servers. I've heard people belive intel selects out better CPUs for the Xeon series and will endure better warmth)
Radeon 3870x2
Mushkin XP2-8000 2048MB extreme Performance 1000MHz. (5.5.5.15) (Mushkin has gotten some good reviews making OC ram)
Thermalright IFX-14 140mm Heatsink (CPU cooler, got good review at toms hardware)
Corsair Dominator Airflow Fan (Memory cooling, no idea if this might be a bit overkill though, but I'll test it out if it has any effect.)

I'm also considering to wait for 9800 GTX or the GX2. If you don't want to radeon card then I'd suggest you go for 8800 GTS, it also has the g92 as GT and performs better.

 

[frankkesel]

I'm happy with my E8400 at 4.0ghz. The only thing I worry about is when will quads be the thing to have for gaming and such with the extra cores?

Thanks you budy

4Gig on air ? cooler ?

i am also concern about this , when will quad be more supported by apps and games like allan wake

what do u think about the raid ?


5pitf1re .. very interesting , why dont u start or own post lol joking

seriously i look into the 3870 X2 and find it not that much a good deal compare to 8800Gt
ill check ur cooler

Oviously your setup is way more expensive

-*- KEEP THEM COMMING GUYS , raid , psu ???

 

[esveezy]

CPU: In games, the clock speed will matter more than number of cores - save your money, and get E8400 - with that Thermalright cooler, you should be able to go past 4.0ghz.

Motherboard: There's nothing wrong with Gigabyte boards, except that they intentionally cripple the low-end ones so that if you run a 800MHz FSB CPU, you don't get access to the 1:1 RAM divider. Since you are looking at 1333 MHz FSB CPUs, this won't affect you. That GA-P35-DS3L hasn't got onboard Intel Matrix RAID, so keep that in mind. I think Abit IP35 Pro is the ticket, myself. Just got one an I love it.

RAID: In game, you won't likely notice much. Boot up and data moves are where this will matter, so I wouldn't worry about it.

RAM: I have that G.Skill you are looking at, and like all 2GB DDR2 sticks, it requires lots of tRFC, and an Asus motherboard would hold you back there, since almost all Asus motherboards limit your manual tRFC setting to a max of 42. To run at 450MHz reliably, this RAM needs at least 52 tRFC. I never could get Prime95 LARGE-FFT stable much over 400MHz on my P5B-Deluxe because of this shortcoming.

Video: I have an 8800GT and a 1680x1050 screen, and it is great, but if you plan on gaming @1080p, you may want to opt for the HD3870x2. It has a lot more balls than the 8800GT, and the difference will be even bigger at high resolutions. I don't know how non-crossfire capable games will perform on this card, but on new games, which are all crossfire capable, it is quite impressive. I actually don't know *anything* about Crossfire. If you do go nVidia, you may want to go for the GTS(G92). The GTS costs just a little more, and it delivers the goods.

 

[frankkesel]

Hey thanks a lot, very generous in you anwser

i understand pretty much everything in your explanation , exept the ram timming part , i guess ill have to finish my homework and study a little more ....

what do u suggest . choosing 4x1gis ?

 

[frankkesel]

Keep em comming guys what do you think

 

[Evilsizer]

cpu speed does play a role but you have to look at, ie what res/settings your playing at. as if you use highest res/aa/af then the cpu is not ur problem, its the GPU. no amount of CPU will make a GPU that is the bottleneck any faster. i would get a fast dually to game on for about another 6-12months, if this is soley a gaming rig. if you do any A/V encoding then you should really be looking at a quad core.

as far as ram timings go, DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 will be better then DDR2-800 5-5-5-14.

for video, if you have the money, get the fastest one you can. if high res gaming, since that is the bottleneck not the cpu.

 

[Strid]

You can always wait for the next new thing! I had planned to wait for Nehalem, but then I bought a Xeon E3110 and now I'm happy as a little kid!

New hardware makes you happy ... more new hardware makes you more happy - simple as that, lol! No seriously, there is ALWAYS a new CPU/GPU/something else just "a couple" of weeks/months away. If you wait for the Q9450 and 9800GT, you might as well by then wait a little more for that big price drop on DDR3 RAM or what ever is next!

 

[super2007]

EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800GT 600MHZ 512MB ? i think u should go for 512 8800 gts 512 edition

psu=depending on what u are goign to power. either pick 620watt or 520watt, from Corsair..(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...=2010320058+50001459&name=Corsair+Memory,+Inc.)

 

[DJ WATTS]

I was in a similar situation as you. I had a 2.4Ghz P4 HT cpu and 1GHz 400Mhz DDR ram.
I needed to upgrade as i had the cash and my pc wasnt up for the job i gave it anymore.
I was going to wait for the 9450 quaddies but saw the reviews of these 8400 wolfdales and fell in love. I ended up building on a budget but getting A class performance (other than current vid card). Im currently running vista 64bit with 2x 2Gb G.Skill and the computer runs very fast!! loads better than my old skool P4 HT.
I am very interested in the Nehalm but to be honest the first generation is not what interest me the most, rather the 8x core 16 threaded monsters that are coming out with integrated controllers. Don't think they will be out for around 2 years yet though.
Quite what we are going to do with power like that in a few years is beyond me but on paper it sounds so sweet.

Until then im happy with my E8400 @4GHZ and im sure you would be to. Go for it!

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

why not get a q6600 then since you were willing to drop $300 on a CPU, get a q6600 and OC it to 3-3.6Ghz and be okay, as for upgrading, 775 has been out for what, almost 3 years now, and your just upgrading? so you prob wont upgrade for another what, 3-4 years... cant expect a socket your just getting into that is 3 years old already to last forever.

 

[Reacher]

RAID: In game, you won't likely notice much. Boot up and data moves are where this will matter, so I wouldn't worry about it.

I agree with this statement but if you are playing a game with lots of load screens (like half life 2), then you will notice that the load times will cut down for each new section loaded.

 

[frankkesel]

as far as ram timings go, DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 will be better then DDR2-800 5-5-5-14.

Thoses are hard to find , do u have one model you suggest in particular

i might go whit a 3870 X2 ... i am consider it at least ....

 

[Evilsizer]

ummm there is lots of ram at ddr2-800 4-4-4-12 on newegg. the gskill kit is only $49.99, atm, it was $44.99 the other day.

 

[frankkesel]

I am really an intel fan , but should i consider nvidia board ? Sli capable ... how do they perform vs P35
how does the GTS perfrom Vs GT , Does it worth the 60-80$ more

 

[Mr.Guvernment]

no. ip35 is much better, more stable in overclocking and frankly unless your buying to top end cards, SLI or Xfire isnt worth it.

 

[frankkesel]

ok i see thanks you Mr gouv hehe

I dont mind paying 260 for a 3d card but 500-600 is way too much for my blood specialy if it only perform 10-20 % more