studbagel9

Hey, I know there are probably a lot of these threads floating around there anyway, but I thought I'd ask for some advice anyway:

My rig has just about had it as a gaming rig. It still plays games at decent resolutions, but the processor is getting awfully old and I want to switch to a PCI-X motherboard. So here is what I had selected, do you guys think that this would be a wise gaming decision:


Intel Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

eVGA GeForce 7950GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor

OCZ Platinum Rev. 2 (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Desktop Memory

I feel like I shouldn't upgrade right now because something is ALWAYS right around the corner to coming out, but I also have the cash now, so I dont' know. What do you guys think? I feel like this rig would handle nicely modern games at decent resolutions with some nice eye candy. I generally aim for 1280x720 (16:9) (1680x1050 if it's an older game) with the effects on medium/high. Do you think this would be the bang for my buck? The conroe is only 300 bucks and from the benchmarks I've seen it beats the FX-60(or is it 62?) or at least is within a few frames of it it most of the games I care to play. Anyway, please opine.

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temeteus82

That rig looks good. It can run current games nicely. But I recommend that you wait for the G80 core based gfx cards..

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Grace

The system looks good to me. The Conroe is surely a very fast processor for gaming, plus it overclocks like crazy.

The only thing that you should avoid is buying such an expensive video card. It sure is fast, no doubts about that, but it is also expensive and will lose more than half of its value before even Christmas. I feel that a 7600GT or even a used ATi X800/X850 or nVidia 6800GT/Ultra series card could be a more sensible choise, it should cost less than half as much and are still cards which can easily play recent games at the resolution you mentioned.

Retarp

That combo looks good, fast, and fairly inexpensive. Just make sure you have a good power supply for that GPU or you will have issues.

If you want the fasted computer, build it! There will always be people that will tell you to wait for the next big components that are coming out. If you take thier advice you will never build one

Unless you are upgrading to vista right away, you can't get DX10 so the next set of graphics cards is a moot point IMO. Any powerful DX9 card should be able to last you for quite a while.

studbagel9

I generally have set aside a 300 dollar limit for the video card, which that card fits. It's 299. I have a 550 watt powersupply so I don't think power will be a big issue, especially with the Conroe being pretty conservative on the power. I want a video card though that packs the punch of an sli system without two cards. The 7950 GT with 512 of ram seems to be that card to me... I have a 6800 GT now, and though my processor is a bottleneck, I do notice that games tax my 6800 GT pretty good now. Thanks for your input guys. I appreciate it.

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BlueMak

If I were you I would upgrade everything but the graphics card. It is going to be better to get a new dx10 card in a couple of months than buy an obsolete card now.
For CPU I prefer AMD, but that is just me.
If you can afford it go for more memory. With Vista you are going to need it.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Geminiwave

yea seriously I agree with people here. get a 7600GT or something. I got an Opteron 165 and a 7600GT cause I knew better graphics were on the way. And yes there will ALWAYS be better on the way but the shift to DX10 is BIG. I seriously would advise against buying the big 7950 right now. Though I also wouldnt advise getting the G80 because of what I've heard about its "DX10" support. Apparently they don't know the exact specs needed for DX10 so they're just guessing or something . Thats what I've been reading lately. I think I'll wait personally. A 7600GT is a FINE card. It performs extremely well without any overclock.

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Grace

Oh, really, there is no game that can really tax an 6800GT at 1280x720 right now, at least the PCI-E version. Do not compare using your current system, the Conroe is many times faster than your current processor and the RAM bandwidth will triple!

But if you really want to go with the 7950GT, do so. It is a fast card, it won't disappoint you at all.

F1N3ST

Get the 7950GT remeber eVGA step up program, this is where it helps.

Tipstaff

Very nice system, however you might want to switch the ram to Corsair or Crucial as there are problems with a lot of manufacturers ram being improperly detected by the 965 chipset, and causing bootup issues. This issue isn't just with one board running that chipset, but a whole slew of boards from different manufacturers. Everyone from Gigabyte to Intels own boards (currently I'm having issues with the DG965SS and D946 boards from them) are having issues. You can even read OCZs forum thread on the subject. It has to do with the way the chipset is reading the SPD. Everytime the system starts up it reads the SPDs for what timings to run the ram at, and it's doings so incorrectly. This can be overcome by setting the timings and what not manually.

If want to stick with that ram, but play it safe, look to maybe an nVidia based 775 Core 2 board such as the Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe or P5N32-SLI Premium, or one of the 975 based boards such as Intels D975XBX, or the Asus P5W DH Deluxe.

From what I've been told OCZ has made a revision to their SPDs in order to fix this issue, and being revision 2 ram it could be that these have the updated SPD. However, personally I'd play it safe, and grab either Corsairs XMS2 TWIN2X or Crucial Ballistix. You can also post into THIS thread, and ask RyderOCZ if that ram you've chosen is one of the updated parts.

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studbagel9

Thanks Tipstaff for that about the RAM, I had heard that, but I had thought that with the RAM being the revision 2 that it might be okay. As for more than 2 gigs of RAM is concerned... I ran several builds of Vista for a few months and the 2 gigs of RAM in my current machine was more than enough, so I don't see a problem with just getting 2 gigs and a mobo that has room for expansion. For the DX10 card, I will definitely take that into consideration, but isn't it not due out until a considerable time after Vista is released? By that time a mid-range card may just not cut it and I might have to upgrade twice? I don't know... I'll have to think about that, but it would save me some money.

So yeah, I think I'll stay with the processor, probably mobo and with the amount of ram, but I think I'll change out the brand of ram and video card.

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BlueMak

I thought that the new graphics cards were coming out this winter, before christmas.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

PangingJr

i personally do not (yet) have a chance to try any low-latency memory modules with Intel 965 chipset-based platforms. but here is the problem that i also read about it before, often found in DDR2 667/800 and above modules that have low-latency IC, this when using these memory modules with motherboards that the platforms won't support DDR2 modules automatically in CAS latency smaller than 5. in this case, in order to solve booting problem, it's required to manually set the DRAM timings in BIOS, or if the memory modules comes with a safe-mode SPD which is found in Geil products then it's required to boot the system with the safe-mode SPD and then the SPD can be reset back to factory rated lower SPD in the BIOS.
another thing is, many low-latency DDR2 667/800 (which is usually a high performance memory modules) requires more then 1.8V., be sure to check the memory specs and feed the modules with a correct voltage value in BIOS setting as required.

hackerx

For the gfx card,the x1950 pro is a good deal.It performs much better than the 7900 gs and close to the 7900 gt but comes out a $200-$230 price tag.
And the ASUS P5WDH is a good board with no real issues(atleast with the newer revisions)

H3X4D3C1M4L

Agreed the X1950 Pro looks like a sweet card if you want ATI (or is it AMD now?)