ok heres the deal. first time builder, trying to build a nice setup, mostly for multimedia purposes ie. music, movies, output to hdtv, some light gaming maybe. ive done quite a bit of reading and learned a lot compared to what i knew a couple weeks ago, but im still trying to figure out some things.

As far as cpus go, i don't really "need" a quad core, but for a little bit more $, why not? I originally had the core 2 duo e8400 wolfdale 3.0ghz processor in mind paired with the evga 680i. I am now thinking of a core 2 quad q6600 kentsfield 2.4 ghz paired with the evga 780i. or any other compatible processor/mobo combination of recommendation would be helpful..

1. is it worth the money for a quad over duo core?
2. whats the advantage of the 780i over the 680i, just a better chipset, another pci-e slot and more usb ports?
3. is there an advantage to having an nvidia chipset over an intel?

4/14/2008 11:58:13 PM

AIMHO

1. no, Quad core will only benefit you in applications that are multi-threaded and need a lot of processing time (only get Quad core if you encode a lot of video, 3d animation, etc.), the lower clock speed, lower FSB, and it's 65nm, not the newer 45nm, while it is a great performer, it uses a lot of power and produces a lot of heat.

2. PCI 2.0, DDR2-1066 support, more native 1333mhz FSB support... while the 680 supports it, it was added to the BIOS features after it was released.

3. nvidia chipsets are typically more overclock friendly, better cooling, (i own an Intel P35 chipset and love it and I think it overclocks just as well as my old 680i board)

Personally I would get an E8400, 2+GB of DDR2-1066 memory, and the 780i chipset, with an 8800GT graphics card (or 9600GT), both support PCI 2.0 standard

one of the best motherboards out there for the money (unless you want more features):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059 (i own this board)

evga 780 board would be my 2nd choice though

[Edited on April 15, 2008 at 12:13 AM. Reason : .]

4/15/2008 12:05:40 AM

first off, thanks for your reply.

i do like that board as well as the price, although ill probably go with the 780 because of more features, the ability to upgrade, etc.

i was also checkin out the asus p5w dh deluxe with wifi... any thoughts on that?

i plan on startin with at least 4 gigs of ram, although that depends on the OS im trying to run. it's still kinda up in the air as far as 64 bit xp or vista. id like to run vista to explore what all the commotion was about, but on the other hand id like to run xp because of all the negative reviews, etc. of vista.

4/15/2008 12:35:49 AM

^if you decide to go with Vista 64 bit get 8 gigs of ram, and disable the page file on the HD. Will speed things up a bit:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/15/vista_workshop/

The Q9300:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115040

Is only 20-30$ more expensive than the Q6600 and is much faster plus it's 45nm and draws less power etc.

Correct me if i'm wrong but current games are able to take advantage of quad core now, and games coming out in the next few years will defin take advantage of it.

Plus doesn't having a quad core help with multitasking? If you're running a bunch of shit doesn't the OS divide out the tasks to each core?

[Edited on April 15, 2008 at 12:41 AM. Reason : ..]

4/15/2008 12:38:36 AM

meh, im just really iffy about dealin with oem's but as far as how the os divides the tasks i mean thats what i thought it did, im no computer expert, nonetheless a quad core one.

another board of interest... evga 750i ftw....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188026

even though i probably wont be overclocking it still has a lot of features i like and its cheaper than the 780 by ~$70

4/15/2008 12:44:21 AM

^^
yes, one of my reasons to get 64 bit vista was to utilize all 8gigs of ram that could be supported

4/15/2008 12:45:45 AM

If you read that article it's pretty impressive how much less it uses the HD (uses the ram instead) for the pagefile:

Quote :

"With 8 GB and no swap file, the system was fine. Even in some memory intensive scenarios such as opening files in Photoshop CS3 with a total file size of 3 GB, the system remained very responsive and even snappy, never writing to disk once."

4/15/2008 12:47:37 AM

what about an audio card... i heard the 780i has decent onboard audio but was thinking about an upgrade?

also, any recommendations for a tv tuner?

4/15/2008 1:12:46 AM

my advice: if you'll use the TV tuner frequently (and using HDMI as i think you said) then dont skimp in this area. I got a relatively cheap tuner and the output is crappy and I wouldve rather spend the extra money to get a quality tuner. Don't assume they are automatically near tivo or DVR quality

4/15/2008 2:10:57 AM

any suggestions/recommendations?

4/15/2008 2:20:40 AM

whats your budget?

4/15/2008 8:54:17 AM

Quote :

"some light gaming maybe"

Quote :

"8800gt"

really? isn't that overkill for "light gaming maybe"?

4/15/2008 9:20:08 AM

^that's why i said or 9600GT, but both are the best bang for the buck... ESPECIALLY if he's going to drop some cash on a 780i chipset, quad core, and 8GB of memory... which i would consider "overkill" for what he said the purpose of the machine was... nowadays the 8800GT is down to $160 and the 9600GT's are down to $110... now a 9800GX2, that would be overkill..

i would HIGHLY recommend Vista 64-bit... and i would NEVER recommend XP 64-bit... your choices should really be between vista 64 & XP 32.

and because you mentioned "music, movies, output to HDTV, and light gaming" that's why i suggested what i did. you don't need a quad core, you don't need 4GB or even 8GB, and everything i mentioned was based on getting the best performance for your money.

if you DO go quad, i'd recommend the Q9300 over the Q6600 like neodata suggested.

if you DO go Vista 64-bit, go with 8GB, it's a drastic improvement over 4GB

i don't really understand what you mean by the 780i's "the ability to upgrade" over the P35 chipset.... do you mean SLI? ... but like i said the evga 780i would be my 2nd pick if you can afford it.

[Edited on April 15, 2008 at 10:00 AM. Reason : /]

4/15/2008 9:56:53 AM

^ why in particular do you recommend vista64 over xp32?
im still worried about compatibility issues with vista..

overkill? why not?

ill probably go with the duo core e8400 with the 780i and a single 88 or 9600gt because if i don't, I will just wish i did. thats just the kind of person i am, in that, why not just spend that much more money now so i won't regret it later on. sure i don't "need" all that, but it will be comforting knowing i can do basically whatever i want with the setup if it comes to that. plus, im not in a hurry to build a pc, my dell laptop does me just fine. the idea of upgrading and expanding my knowledge is just exciting to me, and like i said before, it will help keep me out of trouble

actually, i really like the asus p5w dh deluxe that i linked to at the beginning of the thread as well. what led me to the evga boards over the asus actually came down to the support and software. ive read a shit ton of reviews on both boards and it seems like the bios and drivers that the asus boards use are old, their site is a little trickier to navigate, which in turns makes it harder on me to update everything, seems many people have had problems with doa's and not that its bad but i really just liked how everything on the evga site was easily accessible. also, the 780i has led's for the boot status on the board, which for a first time builder like myself would consider somewhat convenient.

call me dumb, an overdoer, or whatever, but thats just what i like

i appreciate your comments btw

4/15/2008 8:59:18 PM

Quote :

"1. is it worth the money for a quad over duo core? "

While you're taking a small hit on the raw CPU speed and power consumption, it does give you a nice option for obnoxious levels of multi-tasking. (I didn't think I'd really need the quad-core, but I got my 6600 and now I have yet to fully max it out - and I actually do some serious amount of computing on this for research.)

One thing to consider is future-proofing. While you're not going to get the raw speed boost right now for programs that aren't multi-threaded, more will crop up in the future as these types of processors become more standard. More relevant to now is the fact that you can be obnoxious about multi-tasking.

4/15/2008 9:09:55 PM

^all current (Intel) desktop processors are LGA775 (socket T) so you can swap out the dual-core for the quad-core at any time

Quote :

"^ why in particular do you recommend vista64 over xp32?"

that's not what i said, i'd recommend Vista 64-bit over XP 64-bit.

so if you want to go 32-bit, go XP
if you want to go 64-bit, go Vista

the only reason i'd recommend vista 64-bit would be for the aforementioned 3.5+GB factor.... meaning if you want more than 3.5GB you have to go 64-bit

if you don't need that much memory and/or concerned about compatibility, go XP

you'll have more headaches trying to run 64-bit XP than you will with 64-bit Vista... trust me.

[Edited on April 15, 2008 at 9:19 PM. Reason : ,]

4/15/2008 9:17:18 PM

Quote :

"^all current (Intel) desktop processors are LGA775 (socket T) so you can swap out the dual-core for the quad-core at any time"

This is true, I'm simply thinking of the marginal economics (i.e., $40 now vs. $200+ later on). Going quad now may mean you put off upgrading by another year or two in the future.

4/15/2008 9:22:48 PM

^^

Quote :

"i would HIGHLY recommend Vista 64-bit... and i would NEVER recommend XP 64-bit... your choices should really be between vista 64 & XP 32."

i must have misunderstood you my bad..

and yea ill probably stick with the duo core for now but who knows...

prospero... i knwo theres a thread for this but you seem to have knowledge on both xp and vista os's. other than the memory factor, what is better about vista in your experience?

4/15/2008 9:35:08 PM

I'll admit i like the interface better. On windows xp i used to use "windows blinds" to switch around the gui but it took up too many resources and had compatibility problems with some programs. I like vistas new interface, and the sidebar is handy. Plus you'll have much less trouble trying to run DX10 games (most if not all new games have a DX10 shader option) because you won't have to use workaround hacks and all that to get DX10 working on XP. Overall it just seems smoother and apparently the driver support in vista is much better than XP.

But yeah don't ever go with XP64 bit, only vista 64 if you want to go 64. For vista i think 4+ gigs of ram would be great. Are you considering getting a raptor harddrive? I know one of the biggest improvements was upgrading from a 7200rpm to 10,000rpm harddrive. It speeds up boot time, and pretty much everything else from opening large files to rendering maps in games.

-oh and another good thing about vista is that media center comes standard. Whereas with XP you have to get the "media center edition". Plus the media center in Vista in my opinion is much smoother and more responsive than XP. So if you're using it as a HTPC than i'd defin. go with vista. Plus the new "games for windows" logo on new games means it'll always work on both 32 and 64 bit systems. Not to mention all the xbox 360 accesories will work under vista too (controllers/guitars etc).

-A tv tuner is probably the hardest thing to decide on because as of right now it's next to impossible to get a cable card for a computer (so you can get encrypted cable channels). You'd probably be best getting a combo HDTV/ATSC tuner so you can have digital unencrypted channels plus HD channels with an antenna. You can pick up a HDTV antenna (10-30$) and hook it up to your tuner and get all the local HD channels (nbc, abc, cbs, fox, and a few others). It looks amazing (1080i broadcast) on a computer monitor and you'll be able to watch all the network shows and sports games. Plus in my opinion the DVR on vista is much faster and more responsive than any set-top box you can get through your cable/satellite provider. Scrolling through the channels is fast and recording stuff is easy. And if you have a xbox 360 you can use it as an extender to watch all your media on your computer to your tv.

[Edited on April 16, 2008 at 9:59 AM. Reason : .]

4/16/2008 9:50:51 AM

^
yea from messing around for the little time i have on vista, i really like the interface. and yes, im looking forward to the media center features, etc. for use with the 360.

any suggestions on newegg or tiger for a hdtv/atsc tuner and antenna?

as far as getting a raptor hdd, im not sure yet. im still doin some research on running raid, which to my understanding would speed up boot times and loading of maps, etc. because my os would be on say a raptor and i could store all my shit on another?

4/16/2008 4:48:19 PM

whatever you get make sure to run folding@home on it

message_topic.aspx?topic=118820

4/16/2008 5:11:11 PM

haha most definitely

4/16/2008 5:42:09 PM

If you are buying an ALL NEW computer,

go with Vista. you will get better across the board driver support, and much better stability and security. Is there some annoying crap about it? Sure, but hey it's a MS operating system.

4/17/2008 1:11:39 AM

very true.

and yes, im throwin together a little somethin for my first build

4/17/2008 1:13:56 AM

anyone have the evga 750i sli?

im trying to decide between that one and the 780i sli... only differences noted are i think one more pcie x16 slot, 2 more sata connectors, and esa on the 780.

or does anyone have any recommendations for a similar board?

4/17/2008 3:46:07 PM