I need suggestions on this computer configuration?

Question

OK here's the deal. It's time for me to build a new computer since it's been about 3 or 4 years since I built the one I'm using now and it's showing it's age. This machine will mainly be used for gaming and watching DVD's, maybe even HD TV watching but we'll see on that one. Also I'll expect it to run any new games that come out for the next 3 years or so. It will start out as a Windows XP machine but after a year or so I'll probably upgrade to Vista.

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.4Ghz
Intel® D975XBX2LKR Intel® 975X
Socket LGA775 ATX Motherboard Memorex 18x Multi Format DVD Recorder
MEMOREX 52X32X52X CDRW Internal
Seagate 750GB Serial ATA/300 16MB Buffer
Would you recommend 2Gb or 4Gb of 800 mhz DDR2 memory? And is an Intel Core 2 Extreme processor that much better than the one I picked?

Oops! I forgot a video card. How about a PNY 8800GTS 320MB PCI-E? I'm looking for one with Direct X 10, Vista and at least 256Mb memory. It also has to have NVIDIA chips.

Answer 1

Here would be my list:

$275 - Q6600
$45 - 120mm copper tower cooler (allows overclocking to 3.0ghz+, same as the $1,000 Extreme QX6800?).
$6 - Arctic Silver 5 CPU paste
$130 - Gigabyte P35 motherboard
$80 - 2 x 1gb RAM DDR2-800 (when price drop, sell these and buy 2 x 2gb kit- 4gb).
$150 - 2 x 320gb Seagate 7200rpm drives (you need at least 2 SEPERATE hard drives for multi-tasking, especially if one of the tasks is gaming).
$70 - 2 x Samsung DVD / CD burners
$90 - Corsair 520watt power supply
$120 - ATi x1950pro-hold over (the 8800gts class cards kind of suck at DX10, wait for the 9000-series Nvidias, seriously).
$40+ - case with at least 2 x 120mm cooling fans

Answer 2

Gaming? The more memory the better! You can go to 8GB.
I think the DDR3 is out already....


I would also recommend splitting your hard drive into more than unit. This HD you have will be fast at first but as soon as you start loading stuff it will become slow due to the huge volume and having to search through all files. Ideal setup at those speeds would be having 3 or 4 HD at 120GB or so.

Intel core 2 extreme that much better? No but it will be in a couple years time when there are more software around that can actually benefit from it's speeds. (there are still very little software even for the 64-bit platform) Hardware is FAR more advanced than software in this point of time.

Go for Gigabyte mainboards for gaming or if you have the cash get ASUS mainboard.

Your pc will run most games for the next couple years it will just not run it at the best quality but will still be able to play it.

Answer 3

Good GOD. That's a monster.

Hell. If you're gonna go all out like that go with the 4gb of RAM.

I personally don't think the Core 2 Extreme would be faster than that quad core.

Ok I'm gonna go drool now. Man. that's a nice machine. You better have a kick butt graphics card to match that.

Answer 4

Dont forget the objective verify it does what you desire to do, I dont like massive not straight forward drives as whilst they fail you lose each and every thing I fairly 3 smaller ones eg a 250 partitioned in C and Dcontinual with Ccontinual being 50 gig max. photograph ccontinual and save it on dcontinual the different 250 one for video one for track or something with the aid of having ccontinual small its speedier to test wit antispyware and so forth

Answer 5

This is a VERY nice setup, only thing I want to add is that since you are putting all that money into a machine, get your rams @ 1033 MHz to have top of the top performance.

Answer 6

i would suggest 4 gb since u have great plans to do somany things...also snce u want to play games and all make sure that ur computer has good internet connectivity so u can play games online and offline...take the highest possible ram...take good sound cards...and yea nice spekers for the ultimate gaming experience!!!!!have enough ports to commect ur ipod and stuff