I am making a PC

[General Nick]

I remember when I thought Pentium 4 was the best :D Those were the days.

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[tapemaster21]

http://www.3btech.net
Way cheaper.

[Otis Da HousKat]

http://www.3btech.net
Way cheaper.

Ignore him, he has no idea what he's talking about.


You really don't need a quad core CPU unless you do a lot of high definition media encoding.

[Reactor Worker]

I'm going to have to disagree with Otis in this case.

For a $2000 budget you could easily go for the $320 i7 920 processor. It is equal or greater in performance to the $1300 Q9770 and the X58 platform has proven to work extremely well with SLI and Crossfire solutions.

Thermalright Ultra 120 is the king of air coolers right now. Go for it (I know I am ;D)

If you are getting the Cosmos, get the S version. Better features, better cooling and much better appearance.

Also, if you can, get the older GTX 260 as it is $80-$90 cheaper right now and is only 1-2 FPS behind the Core 216 version. It was really a pathetic move from Nvidia to release the 216 version.

Really though, for $2000 you should be aiming for the 4870x2. The best single GPU on the market; more powerful than the GTX 280. Crushes any game. It could be yours for only $550 :D

[Otis Da HousKat]

I'm going to have to disagree with Otis in this case.

For a $2000 budget you could easily go for the $320 i7 920 processor. It is equal or greater in performance to the $1300 Q9770 and the X58 platform has proven to work extremely well with SLI and Crossfire solutions.

Thermalright Ultra 120 is the king of air coolers right now. Go for it (I know I am ;D)

If you are getting the Cosmos, get the S version. Better features, better cooling and much better appearance.

He said he wanted to cut costs. A extreme top-line computer isn't needed to play games at 1680x1050

And I told him to go for i7 if he actually wanted to spend $500 on a CPU so...

Also, if you can, get the older GTX 260 as it is $80-$90 cheaper right now and is only 1-2 FPS behind the Core 216 version. It was really a pathetic move from Nvidia to release the 216 version.

There's only a $20 difference in the EVGA models. But again, the 4870x2 is more expensive and I doubt he needs it.

[Reactor Worker]

If he wanted to cut costs then a Q9300 and X48 platform would be the way to go, along with a 4870x2.

The lowest i7 is the 920 and it only costs $320 and it performs as well as a the $1300 core 2 processor so they aren't a complete waste of money.

I'd get a 24" monitor if I had your budget.

I'm recommending the X48 platform because for the Nvidia SLI support you need their loving overpriced boards which are either really low on features or quality or are just really, really expensive. The X48 platform, however, is more stable, costs less (most of the time) and you can even pair unequal ATI GPUs together in Crossfire.

[Otis Da HousKat]

If he wanted to cut costs then a Q9300 and X48 platform would be the way to go, along with a 4870x2.

The lowest i7 is the 920 and it only costs $320 and it performs as well as a the $1300 core 2 processor so they aren't a complete waste of money.

I'd get a 24" monitor if I had your budget.

I'm recommending the X48 platform because for the Nvidia SLI support you need their loving overpriced boards which are either really low on features or quality or are just really, really expensive. The X48 platform, however, is more stable, costs less (most of the time) and you can even pair unequal ATI GPUs together in Crossfire.

I'm not arguing against i7, again I said he wants to pay $500 for a CPU to just get i7. >:(

Ya, I said on the last page to get a 24". He'd be cutting costs in areas so he could afford the bump.

Looking on Newegg I don't see any huge price difference between Nvidia chipsets and X48. If X48 does have more features and more stability you should get that then.

[yuki]

Get an Nvidia 8800 or higher.

[Otis Da HousKat]

Get an Nvidia 8800 or higher.

ORLY?

It looks like some of X48 models from Gigabyte allow you to have a higher FSB than the EVGA 780i.

[Reactor Worker]

Get an Nvidia 8800 or higher.

Gonna have to say "No stuff Sherlock" on that one. For $2000 you should easily be getting either the GTX 280 or 4870x2.

@Otis : It's just an overall trend. You tend to get better features and more stability with the X48 boards. The 750i and 780i chipsets are temperamental and have a high failure rate. Of course many people get their Nforce 200 boards and don't have any trouble, but that often isn't the case. There is also more competition in the X48 section because more manufacturers don't want to pay royalties to Nvidia for a small chip just to enable SLI. More competition means lower prices and better features.

Of course...the X58 chipset supports SLI and Crossfire and triple channel DDR3 memory and no longer has the damn FSB and supports hyperthreading.

[Otis Da HousKat]

Gonna have to say "No stuff Sherlock" on that one. For $2000 you should easily be getting either the GTX 280 or 4870x2.

@Otis : It's just an overall trend. You tend to get better features and more stability with the X48 boards. The 750i and 780i chipsets are temperamental and have a high failure rate.

Of course...the X58 chipset supports SLI and Crossfire and triple channel DDR3 memory and no longer has the damn FSB and supports hyperthreading.

lol @ Yuki

Really? I've never heard of any really bads things from EVGA's products at least, and I know a lot of people with EVGA motherboards. I wouldn't recommend anything besides EVGA for Nvidia. They have the highest quality parts, best perfromance, and no doubt the best warranty out there. Full life time warranty with overclocking and the step-up program.

Ya really, forget the FSB.  Once SSD drives stop increasing rapidly in size and performance and go down in price, we finally get rid of that bottleneck as well.

[Reactor Worker]

There isn't anything particularly wrong with the Nforce 200 chipsets and the motherboards that have them , it's just that it is basically luck of the draw whether you get a working motherboard or not. Of course the manufacturer will replace it for you if it is dead out of the box, but it is still a hassle and I would rather have a solid board that I know is going to work.

I am using an EVGA GTX 260 (original flavor) right now. Great performance and company seems to know what it is doing. My old card (still trying to find a buyer) is an EVGA 8800GT.

[Otis Da HousKat]

If you get an ATI card:

Their newest drivers have been touchy with Blockland. Random display driver failures only while playing BL. I'm reverting to the drivers from October to see if it solves the problem.

[Jsk2003]

To the person above me.

Loooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooool

"STOP BEING CRAPS"

inb4deleted

[CapTMeaT]

inb4deleted