If I build it, will it run?

[gvblake22]

You all might find these charts interesting...

[Boy'nBlack]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

You all might find these charts interesting...

That still goes back to the debate on faster clocked duals vs. a lower clocked quad.

What might settle it is a DC at 2.66 vs a QC at 2.66. Then ramp 'em up to 3.0 ea and run the tests again.

What I've noticed is that in fact all games I encounter don't care if there's a quad core in there. What we all see are benchmarks and other sites listing this and that. I don't see it in any computer here, so I personally can't put a drop of faith in what some site says. The 8400 is the better gamer of the group here, stock or OC'd.

What I do see gains in are 3Dmark's. The numbers it spits out can't be real, because the games don't see anywhere near the same comparative results. Take the 8400 at 3.0Ghz at 9.5K points. If it's clocked to 4.25, it turns in near 13K results; a 30% increase under the same platform. The games, any of them, get 15% gains tops. It's just showing potential. Now do it with a quad and it's much more exaggerated in 3Dmark, yet the games still do the 15% gains in FPS throughout.

What we see and what we read can be very different, and we must be careful to state our own knowledge and data.

So a dual 8400 would be a very wise choice here. It's a great computing piece of hardware, has the ability to allow a tinker if so deems, and it's not going to lack in anyway in gaming. If there were some real monster work being done, then we'd all probably change our perception of use and suggest a quad. But to focus so heavily that a quad would just rule the roost is really stretching. Support, potential...all speculative tag lines.

[MantaBase]

Having an octo-core processor and playing a game with an ENGINE that can address 128 bizzilion cores doesn't do you much good when you have bottle necks elseware and a game (not engine) that doesn't allow octocore work.

Buying a processor based solely on what trends will lead to in 24 months also doesn't get you very far. By the time we see full quad core support - for real - the processor you buy today may be inadequate.

I guess what I am trying to say is that a computer is a system - not a CPU, not a GPU, not a printer or a specific game. Using a quad core with an S3 Verge will not make your games better than a single core. You have to look at the system as a whole.

Just my rambling thoughts at the moment.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Boy'nBlack

That still goes back to the debate on faster clocked duals vs. a lower clocked quad.

What might settle it is a DC at 2.66 vs a QC at 2.66. Then ramp 'em up to 3.0 ea and run the tests again.

Looking purely at the performance side, that would be the obvious way to approach this dilemma. But the unfortunate fact of the matter is that most of us are bound by the limits of our bank account and need to get the best performance out of each dollar we spend. That said, the fact that a 3.0GHz dual core costs about the same (or usually less) as a 2.4GHz quad core makes it an easy decision when running applications that are more clock speed dependant (like 3D gaming) than processing cores dependant.

But what I also wanted to show in with those Crysis CPU Benchmarks at bit-tech was that the performance difference of processors dwindles to a very negligible margin at higher resolutions. Instead, the video card quickly becomes the performance bottleneck and it doesn't really matter if you have a 3.0GHz quad core or a 2.33GHz dual core, they are all within several frames per second of each other.

[StevieRay]

Looks to me like a nice oc'd 8400 will suit my purposes. I agree that the high end GPU is what I need for the games I play now. I am looking at 9800 GTX and 8800 GTS, from all the suggestions here.

The mobo is still a dance for me but the x38's have nice price/performance.

As for memory, if I go with an x38 board and DDR2, what is good latency? Lower is what I gather but if you can stear me a bit. My main game, BF2 Project reality is very heavy on the RAM/GPU. So the not top end but fast RAM is what I have been looking at..mostly from Corsair, OCZ, and a couple from GSkill.

Again, thank you all, for even going off topic. There is much to be learned from these debates.

[gvblake22]

For DDR2-800 RAM, anything with a CAS latency of 4 is good. Faster than DDR2-800, you're stuck with CAS 5.

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by MantaBase

Having an octo-core processor and playing a game with an ENGINE that can address 128 bizzilion cores doesn't do you much good when you have bottle necks elseware and a game (not engine) that doesn't allow octocore work.

Buying a processor based solely on what trends will lead to in 24 months also doesn't get you very far. By the time we see full quad core support - for real - the processor you buy today may be inadequate.

I guess what I am trying to say is that a computer is a system - not a CPU, not a GPU, not a printer or a specific game. Using a quad core with an S3 Verge will not make your games better than a single core. You have to look at the system as a whole.

Just my rambling thoughts at the moment.

I know, I keep saying that but for some reason, people don't believe me.
On the other hand, it might be ok in 24 months.
Frankly, it's just not worth jumping on a lower clocked quad simply to get boasting rights that you got quad cores in your computer...
Gaming, dual core is where it's at "bang for buck".

[StevieRay]

A bit over my goal of $1200, but how does this gamer/worker look now? I might save a few dollars with a different case (antec 900) and maybe losing the Raptor HD. But all else (I seem hung up on the x38 mobo's) feels necessary. Think I got the best GPU for the money now. Feel free to let me have it good or bad. You all have been great.

Mobo Asus Maximus Formula x38 $279
Asus Maximus Formula Motherboard - 45nm Support, Intel X38, Socket 775, ATX, Audio, CrossFire Ready, PCI Express 2.0, Dual Gigabit LAN, SPDIF, USB 2.0, Firewire, Serial ATA, RAID, Clear CMOS ASU-MAXIMUS-FORMULA at TigerDirect.com


RAM Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) $89[/font]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148069

CPU E8400 3.0 $199.99
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3574211&Sku=CP1-DUO-E8400

GPU EVGA 8800 GTS 512 mb KO Edition 678 MHz Core, 1944 Mem, 1728 shader $244
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3728403&CatId=3585

Case Cooler Master Cosmos 1000 $179
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3235568&CatId=1510

HD 1 WD Raptor 150 GB $169
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136012


HD 2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500 GB $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288

Optical Asus 20x w/lightscribe $34.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135156

PSU Corsair 620HX $169
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139002

$14639.97 before Rebates

After MIR not sure yet.

[screwballl]

looks great! go for it before you or someone else second guesses anything

[gvblake22]

That's definitely one killer system you've got lined up there. What are you going to use for cooling on the processor?