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[jabns]

I am ordering myself a new PC today(well set of components) and can't make my mind what to get fully. Here is the 2 configs:

Coolermaster Stacker 830 Evolution
Asus Striker Extreme
Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 G0 SLACR
2x Arctic Silver 5
Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme
2GB Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2 Dominator - 1066Mhz
2x  512MB BFG Technology 8800GT OC2
720W Enermax Infinity
24" Samsung SM-245B
Zalman ZM-MFC2 Multi Fan Controller
7x 120mm Coolermaster Internal Case Fan with GREEN LED
120mm Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F Fan 1600 RPM
2x Sata DVD+- Drives
2x WD Rapters 10000RPM (RAID 0)
2x Samsung Spinpoints 500GB (RAID 0)
Few other cables, Heat shrink wraps ect....


OR


Coolermaster Stacker 830 Evolution
Asus Maximus Formula
Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 G0 SLACR
2x Arctic Silver 5
Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme
2GB Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2 Dominator - 1066Mhz
768MB EVGA 8800 Ultra, Superclocked
720W Enermax Infinity
24" Samsung SM-245B
Zalman ZM-MFC2 Multi Fan Controller
7x 120mm Coolermaster Internal Case Fan with GREEN LED
120mm Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F Fan 1600 RPM
2x Sata DVD+- Drives
2x WD Rapters 10000RPM (RAID 0)
2x Samsung Spinpoints 500GB (RAID 0)
Few other cables, Heat shrink wraps ect....


This is a hard choice because there is conflicting information on how well 8800GT actually perform in SLI. Also i just found out that the 680i chipset does not support 45nm processors which limit upgradability. Basically i need another PC to be able to play Crysis at MAX settings on the res of 1900x1600 without AA and AF. I need this so i can play LAN battles with my mates on crysis and UT3. Any nudges either way welcome.

PS*    Crysis is amazing and i recommend it to anyone. It looks like real life:



and another(link instead as it it in a higher res):

http://ve3dmedia.ign.com/ve3d/image/article/745/745255/new-crysis-dx10-screenshot-20061110001316019.jpg


thanks,
James

[mr_chris]

Hi James

Nice looking rig!

I'm not up to speed on the new fast stuff at the moment because I've not built a PC for a while, but there's a couple of questions surrounding your hard drive config...

Samsung Spinpoints weren't the fastest drives out there last time I looked. So any performance gains you'll get from RAID 0 will be reduced by the drives themselves. I imagine you are aware you're doubling the risk of failure by using RAID 0, so I won't labour that point, except to ask you to think about whether the performance vs risk is worth it!

Have you thought about a hardware RAID 5 config with 3 drives? That way, ok you lose the capacity of 1 drive, but read performance is enhanced similar to RAID 0, with the bonus that you're fully protected in the event of one drive failure, rather than losing the lot! Obviously write performance is degraded slightly, but with fast drives and a hardware-based RAID solution you probably won't notice that much difference for a personal PC.

As you can probably tell, I'm a bit sensitive about hard drives failing - and it does happen!

Anyway, it's up to you, I won't go on about it any more

[guest]

Is the quad-core cpu at all useful in gaming right now? ie are there any games which can use 4 cores? If you are like I was as a gamer then you have services pared to the bone anyway so background tasks aren't likely to impact gaming.

Given that the Q6600 is just two E6600s bolted together, with the resultant bottleneck being cores fighting to get to main memory, then I'd be inclined to get a "fast enough" dual core cpu and either spend the cash on faster drives (Chris is right) or keep it in my pocket for now.

Edit - I assume you're doing RAID0+1 with four drives?

[jabns]

[guest]

[jabns]

Heh i don't remember  those cards as i was about 6 years old and was more interested in power rangers at the time  .

PS: I forgot to mention that i will be running AutoCad quite a bit( i did want a 30inch monitor with a res of 25xx by 19xx (i can't remember exactly as it i 5 in the morning LOL)

James

[guest]

I can assure you that your old power ranger toys are more useful than a Voodoo2 card now

[jabns]

Oh yeah it could kick if you pushed a button on its back    i would like to see a voodoo do that  .

Its going to be a another couple of days before i can order i think as the guys credit card got block by his bank  . They thought it had been copied and that it was unusual activity. It was his first online purchase thats why.


I love the way that intel are dominating the market but at the same time no one wants a monopoly as then intel could set what ever prices they wanted.

[tracer]

ok that pics of crysis just got me wondering if its worth spending a bit of cash on a new graphics card.

at the moment i have a shuttle barebones and i am using the onboard vga.  have been toying with the idea of a cheap pci-e card just to improve the display a bit.  for now its great for browsing etc but movies are choppy at full screen and games are a no-no.  course thats not bothering me just now as i have xbox with xbmc for movies and games but maybe i can pick something up in the sales.

rough idea of spec;

shuttle xpc
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Dual Core (2.0GHz) Socket AM2
2 gig ram
500 gig ide drive
20" widescreen samsung tft

so whats the recommendations for a new card?  it would have to be something from http://www.cclonline.com/ as they are my preferred store. 

doesn't have to be the latest and greatest just something thats gonna let me run some nice games / hd video. oh and must be compatible with linux too.

[roseway]

For Linux compatibility nVidia is the best choice, and my preference is for one which uses passive cooling (i.e. no fan) like This one

[Pwiggler]