Buying a new desktop, want some advice...

I want to be able to run UTIII and Crysis on max and at stupidly high resolutions.

Money isn' t an issue.

Dual core (either AMD or intel depending on your preference) and dual sli 8800' s.

If you want ready made then look at alienware(oops sorry Dell) or Commodore they have a nice gaming rig http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/3476329/Commodore-XX-Q6855-Gaming-PC-Black-+-Ckin-Of-Your-Choice/Product.aspx?dpr=104057 Well you did say money was not a problem

Failing that get off your arse and build one yourself, Ebuyer are very competitively priced at the moment and they have the 6400+ for £144.99

Aren' t we on quad core now?

i' ll ask you to wait for the latest geforce to be released very soon, those are 10.1 dirext x compatible and much more powerful that the current 8800 GTX or ultra... so wait you son of a jew wait, if money is not a problem then it' s easy to choose, just wait for the G90 video cards.

I have heard of issues with the intel quad core' s regarding over heating issues, (this is the for the home market not servers.) simillar to the issues they had with either the P1' s or P2' s in the early days. Just going on industry mumblings. But sure if you have the money why not go for a Quad core' s.

Abasoufiane I think you' ll find the 10.1 cards will not be out until late end of 1st quarter 2008. Only mentioned the sli 8800' s as not sure if Nitro was meaning new desktop this side of Christmas or early next year.

also 10.1 isnt anything that affects games its just some stuff for vista!

also 10.1 isnt anything that affects games its just some stuff for vista!

wroooong it affects games as well, i' ve read about directx 10.1 but sorry i forgot details.

intel will also release its 45nm CPU' s , forgot he code name , and that would be very soon, motherboards which support that are already on the market + DDR3 and PCIexpresss 2.0 ... so wait man a little longer and you' ll have a computer that will kick the shit out of anything.

just remembered one vbery important detail

directx 10.1 hardware will allow " free 4AA" , talk about not affecting game... there are many other improvements over directx 10, read the recent article about it in Tomshardware.

Abasoufiane, DX10.1 games will not be about until late 2008, so why adopt a technology that hasn' t been proven or anything written for it yet? Seeing as DX10.1 cards are not yet out either again why go for unproven technology.
Besides whilst most techie sites are claiming the the current DX10 cards won' t handle 10.1. No one actually knows as it has not yet been released, and to be honest it is not going to add to much in terms of graphic handling and performance as you might think.

As for the 45nm cpu' s i will point you back to my reply they have issues with cooling these chips, in the same way as the early pentiums.

Dont do SLI, it' s a waste. Just get the best GPU, if you get two 8800' s now a few months from now they' ll be outperformed by 1 Geforce9, so if you' re going to get an 8800 just get 1.

one of the main reasons to go from 65nm to 45 nm is the heat issue, 65nm CPU' s were cool enough, 45 nm should allow even higher clock speed with lower heat.. i' ve read a long time ago how Penryn (45 nm) will give a higher clock to the quad core with no heat issue... so if what you' re saying is true, then this is ridiculous it should not have happened ... if you have article about this issue , please give the link , because as far as i know there is no such thing..

The pci express 2.0 will also be compatible with futur cards soo ...

if you get two 8800' s now a few months from now they' ll be outperformed by 1 Geforce9, so if you' re going to get an 8800 just get 1.

What are you talking about?!? A computer part is outdated the moment it' s put together. It' s not like you trade in your old card for a new one. If you actually do that then I commend you for your efforts. But you' re limitiing yourself to just one company. When there' s so much competition going on in this industry in a very short time, keep it broad and open. Go dual all the way. You may think that' s overkill or too much power. However, you' ll never have to ask yourself, do I have enough power to run this?

EDIT: Be sure to pick up 2 Terabyte HD for a Raid. You may want to get a 3rd one or just take the one out of your old computer for backup. But you probably know this, so I' m just rambing on..blah...blahh..blaahhh.

Games are your best friend as long as you don' t start talking to them.

ORIGINAL: kombatfighter
What are you talking about?!? A computer part is outdated the moment it' s put together.

Actually, no, my 8800 was the best card on the market for like 6 months, I bought it at launch. And that isn' t the point, *** face.

The point is Geforce 9 cards are coming out in mere months so its stupid to buy two 8800s which are already 1 year old technology.

It isn' t that its overkill or too much power, its that is not going to be ENOUGH power compared to single G9 in a few months.

And don' t try to act like you know what you' re talking about, you' re probably running a Geforce 3.

Go for a Quad core CPU, Crysis will fully support/ take advantage of quad.. also most comming apps and games will support Quad too.

Edit:
http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/304/Crysis-3-Quad-Core-CPUs

Currently playing:
Korg DS 10 (ds) /  Metal Slug 7 (ds)
Rhythm Heaven (ds) /  Fire Emblem (ds)
Super Stardust HD (psn) /  Virtua Fighter 5 (360)
FSX (P

When' s the latest you want to wait?

Don' t buy anything unless the motherboard has a PCI-E 2.0. Your upgrade path will be pretty ***ing short if you don' t have that much.

OS: The most difficult question. 32 Bit Vista or 64 bit Vista? 32 bit has a maximum of 4GB or memory and that' s shared with the other add in cards. 32 bit should be dead by now, but the 64 bit has some compatibility issues. I would look into it. If all your software is supported I would go with 64 bit. I doubt future games will have issue with 64 bit.

Motherboard:
The X38 motherboards are already out are already out (at least one of them is). It' s basically the top dog now. It supports 45nm chips (penryn) as well as all the older chips already out. This motherboard is perfect except that it does not support SLI. It' s an overclocking champion, if you want to push Penryn quad core past 4Ghz you' ll want an X38 or X48 mobo. If you only want one card which I recommend. Just upgrade more often. If you always have the best card, you' ll always be able to play anything max settings.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=26337&vpn=GA-X38-DQ6&manufacture=Gigabyte

CPU:
What you really want is the Penryn coming out in a few months, November I think. So buy a cheaper but still blasing fast chip just to take on UT III and Crysis. I would go for a Q6600 since Crysis supports quad core.

Videocard:
8800 ULTRA

RAM:
Some X38 mobo' s support DDR2 and some support DDR3. The one I gave as an example supports DDR2. DDR3 is obviously better and in the future it will be a lot better, but it' s very expensive atm. Some motherboards support both. I' m either waiting for DDR3 prices to go down or until I find a motherboard that has two DDR2 slots and four DDR3 slots. If you don' t mind paying 800$ for RAM then go with DDR3, more for future proofing than immediate benefits.

Physics Card:
UT III is supposed to support it properly, I think they hinted that some levels will only be accessible to people with the card. So do what I did, buy one. They' re cheap as hell now. At 300$ I said *** off, but I can live with paying 150$ for the card. Hopefully they won' t drop the support at the last minute.

Case:
Obviously a personal preference, but I strongly suggest the Coolmaster CM Stacker 832 Black. Add about 4 120mm fans and you' ll be good to go. Go for a large case at least. You can thank me when you' re building your PC.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=22231&vpn=RC-832-KKN1&manufacture=COOLERMASTER

Power supply:
A lot of good options here, I recommend the 1200Watt Silverstone Decathlon. I have the 850 Watt version and it' s great. Whatever you get, make sure it' s at least 850 Watt and you have dual 8 PCIE pins for future videocards.

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

ORIGINAL: Agent Ghost

When' s the latest you want to wait?

I' m not in any kind of rush.

What would you do?

Enjoy your current Xbxlive FPS untill the Next GPU / CPU arrives.

Currently playing:
Korg DS 10 (ds) /  Metal Slug 7 (ds)
Rhythm Heaven (ds) /  Fire Emblem (ds)
Super Stardust HD (psn) /  Virtua Fighter 5 (360)
FSX (P

I' m looking to upgrade my motherboard and CPU (possibly ram if neccessary) early next year. I' m waiting for either the Intel X48 motherboards +Penryn or possibly a higher clocked AMD Phenom chip, it looks like a 3.0Ghz+ Phenom chip could beat a Penryn. The upcoming AMD chips certainly have a superior architecture than Penryn. The only reason Intel will initially be able to hold off the Phenom chips performance wise is because Penryn is 45nm while Phenom will be 65nm at launch. Penryn is just a refresh of Conroe, while Barcelona or Phenom is a whole new architecture.

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

Get at least 4GB of RAM. Anyone with less than 4GB of RAM should be shot in the face.

You should be shot.

Get at least 4GB of RAM. Anyone with less than 4GB of RAM should be shot in the face.

is this suppose to be a joke, i can' t tell with you

didn' t i tell you we are already few here and we can' t afford retards?

If you' re on Vista it inst a terribly bad idea to have 4GB of ram, although it' s still unnecessary.

4 Gb is absolutly not necessary for gaming be it on vista or xp, it' s just a pure waste of money, if you do photo editing and video editing, i can see the use of 4 gb ram or even 8 gb ram , the more ram the better ... but for gaming forget it man, Crysis recomended memory on Vista is 1.5 GB, we know developers always exagerate their claims so if they say 1.5 gb, that' s probably 2 Gb you need...

The point is Geforce 9 cards are coming out in mere months so its stupid to buy two 8800s which are already 1 year old technology.

I wasn' t aware of the new card coming out and overlooked the previous posts. No, I don' t run Geforce 3, so just lay off. My point would have been valid if I hadn' t overlooked the previous posts. So I will say sorry if my comment seemed like I was attacking you. I didn' t mean for it to come across that way.

if you do photo editing and video editing, i can see the use of 4 gb ram or even 8 gb ram , the more ram the better

I agree as well, my 4yr college degree is in Graphic Design. I do a lot of editing with Adobe and use 3dMax. If a game requires more than 2gb Ram, it better be able to fly and call itself Neo.

Games are your best friend as long as you don' t start talking to them.

ORIGINAL: emofag

You should be shot.

No, I barely dodged the bullet on that one. My new computer has 4GB of RAM.

ORIGNIAL: Abasoufiane

didn' t i tell you we are already few here and we can' t afford retards?

Yes you did tell me that, but you stayed anyway!

I' ve lost track of the PC race these days. Definitely cheaper to build your own in the highend market though, thats all I can say.

Its all about longevity since most parts are outdated before they' ve hit market. So reviews by tomshardware, bittech etc are really useful.

Also been put off by Vista, wanted to wait until at least SP1 came out before buying my next one. Last one I built last year in August, still plays the Bioshock demo in 1680x1050 max detail purrfectly. (which is as much a credit to the devs!)

ORIGINAL: Abasoufiane

4 Gb is absolutly not necessary for gaming be it on vista or xp, it' s just a pure waste of money, if you do photo editing and video editing, i can see the use of 4 gb ram or even 8 gb ram , the more ram the better ... but for gaming forget it man, Crysis recomended memory on Vista is 1.5 GB, we know developers always exagerate their claims so if they say 1.5 gb, that' s probably 2 Gb you need...

Running vista on 2Gb works but it runs about as quick as xp on 512Mb. Vista is resource hungery and ideally needs anything over 3Gb seeing as most people want dual channel then you need 4Gb.

I wish i had enough money to buy me a new PC. P4 geforce 4 here.

P4 geforce 4 here.

The Ti was a legendary card.

I think you know what to get Majik, quad core with a top end geforce 8, 4 gbs of ram, a silent big ass heatsink, case of your likeing and a decent psu [like 500w] and a good mobo.

you planning to hook this up to your tv? does pc gaming fair well on a couch?

Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Viva La Revolution! erm, I mean Viva La Wii!

Get a PSU from a mfr that doesn' t suck ass.

I only buy PC Power & Cooling PSU pretty much, they are more expensive but worth it. I couldn' t imagine powering two $600 videocards on a shitty thermaltake/antec/etc. power supply, you' re just ***ing stupid if you do that, get a real PSU.

ORIGINAL: Silentbomber

you planning to hook this up to your tv? does pc gaming fair well on a couch?

Nah, i' ll be buying a big ass monitor. I' m buying an iMac to replace my workstation in my office and i' m going to buy another desk for this baby.

It' ll probably be December before i get around to sorting it out, especially if i' m building it myself. I' m just too lazy usually which is why i was looking at the new Commodore range.

Just how uselful is SLI guys??? For example; if i have two 768MB 8800 Ultra' s, how will that compare to one GeForce 9??? And what about two 640MB 8800 GTS' s vs a single 768MB 8800 Ultra???

SLI is pretty decent (most of the bugs have been worked out), but because of the motherboard choice I would go with a single 8800 ULTRA even if two 8800 640MB SLI can beat a single ULTRA in some cases. 8800ULTRA today and a 9800GTX tomorrow. Selling a 8800ULTRA would not be difficult, and you should then be able to get a 9800GTX for about half price after putting the profit from the sale on then new card. In the end for about the same price you would have paid for two 8800 640MB SLI, you could have a 9800GTX. A card that performs better than two 8800" s and has more features.

As I said before, having a mobo that supports PCI-E 2.0 should be the top priority for your high end rig. The motherboard is the most important part. You want to future proof it as much as possible. Otherwise, your next upgrade will mean changing the whole computer. Unless Nvidia releases a mobo with PCI-E 2.0, in December your only choice will be a X38 board, or possibly an Intel X48 board. If those are your only options SLI is out of the question. Don' t sacrifice PCI-E 2.0 for SLI.

A single 9800GTX should comfortably beat even 8800ULTRA SLI.

So that' s my advice, forget about SLI under the circumstances. Current CPU' s can barely keep up with a Single 8800 ULTRA anyways.

PS: I' m currently drunk out of my mind, so you would have to excuse any grammatical errors. Regardless I stand by my point.

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

Ok, what about:

Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Extreme QX6850 ( 3.00GHz, 1333Mhz FSB, 8MB cache

4096MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM

768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX

???

Scratch that. It seems i can get a decent discount if i buy an Alienware machine.

That' d make it:

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 3.0GHz 8MB Cache 1333MHz FSB

768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra

4096MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM

AGEIA PhysX Physics Processing Unit

...and some funky internal lighting...

I seriously don' t have the time or patience to build my own...

ORIGINAL: Nitro

Scratch that. It seems i can get a decent discount if i buy an Alienware machine.

That' d make it:

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 3.0GHz 8MB Cache 1333MHz FSB

768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra

4096MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM

AGEIA PhysX Physics Processing Unit

...and some funky internal lighting...

I seriously don' t have the time or patience to build my own...

What are the timings and what brand is the ram? the 667mhz leads me to believe it' s budget ram.

Don' t be stupid and get 4GB of slow ram, the speed of it has greater impact on performance than raw GB.

ORIGINAL: Nitro

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 3.0GHz 8MB Cache 1333MHz FSB

Sorry, but that' s not extreme enough. Go for the Intel Core Rad XtReMe Hiptown Mad Tight Fo' Shizzle Spin-Flippin' Duo. It' s the processors all of the xtreme sk8trz use. And you can' t be xtreme if you' re not a sk8tr.

Are current Laptops limited to 2 Gigs of RAM or are there any that go beyond that?

Terry Bogard - currently the most Unhelpful member of the Kikizo forums.

ORIGINAL: Nitro

Scratch that. It seems i can get a decent discount if i buy an Alienware machine.

That' d make it:

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 3.0GHz 8MB Cache 1333MHz FSB

768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra

4096MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM

AGEIA PhysX Physics Processing Unit

...and some funky internal lighting...

I seriously don' t have the time or patience to build my own...

Nice setup although do remember that Alienware = Dell who are notorious for selling people short with crap internals.

You mean Alienware are actually DELL? Or they' re like DELL?

Dell bought alienware