Balancing act

[Draco_Rosso]

I been pricing my system for about a month now, and this is dilemma I came across recently. All the other pieces of my build are set. The scenarios in the button almost cost about the same.

New Egg Prices
Intel E6600 $316
ATI X1950XT $250
Asus P5B Deluxe $179

Intel E6400 $222
NVIDIA 8800 GTS $400
Asus PN5-E Sli $135

The main question is should I sacrifice cache and CPU speed for a better graphics card? Which set will eck out the best performance, (bench mark wise)?

 

[akhilles]

What kind of benchmarks? For 3dmark or gaming, get this instead:

Intel E6400 $222
NVIDIA 8800 GTS $400
Asus PN5-E Sli $135

Most games are still GPU-limited, once the pc reaches a certain speed.

 

[Draco_Rosso]

I'm thinking which set up will bench higher in 3D games and such.

 

[Featherstone]

Intel E6400 $222
NVIDIA 8800 GTS $400
Asus PN5-E Sli $135

This rig will kill the other, especially if you OC. Which you Definitely should if you're looking for good 3d performance / 3dmark scores. I OC'ed my 6400 from 2.13 to 3.2ghz and my 3dmark scores went up 25%!

 

[Draco_Rosso]

I'm not going to OC on this machine. I got tired of modding things when I kick out my car modding habbit. :roll:

 

[Featherstone]

Thats cool if you don't want to overclock... but I would not call overclocking modding... all you do is change a few numbers ( fsb and ram settings) and then your computers performance goes up 25%... dunno why anyone would not overclock, unless they just don't have the knowledge and don't want to learn it

 

[alcattle]

I think I would go with option #1, Good Card added CPU punch w/o o/cing. You did not say if you might go to SLI/Xfire in the future. But for one card, get this now and wait for 6 months and then look at the DX-10 cards.

 

[Draco_Rosso]

Thats cool if you don't want to overclock... but I would not call overclocking modding... all you do is change a few numbers ( fsb and ram settings) and then your computers performance goes up 25%... dunno why anyone would not overclock, unless they just don't have the knowledge and don't want to learn it

Your right I don't have the knowledge to over clock a machine, nor do I don't any desire to learn. One of the reasons is I don't want to shorten the life cycle of my hardware. The second I tend to keep my computer on for long periods of time. I'm not sure if I would do sli or cross fire, it all depends on the market situation when I'm ready to upgrade GC. Right now the market heavily favors single car configurations, so that’s what I’m going with right now. I would prefer to buy mother board that doesn’t favor SLI or Cross fire. I would time the market when single cards will be back on top, then I could buy from which ever GC manufacture has the upper hand.
I’m leaning towards getting DX10 compatible card now and be done with it. But my pragmatic voice tells me to wait until the R600 comes out. I don’t think I have discipline to hold that long especially since the new generation cards won’t be released until April or even may?!

 

[akhilles]

The highend r600 will be out in april while the mid-to-low end ones in may.

 

[Draco_Rosso]

Remember patience may be a vertue but technology doesn't stop for anyone get the DX10 now there will always be the next big thing coming you might say well should I wait for that? No get it now there maybe no tommorrow......lol

Great words of wisdom unfortunatly I'm person of few virtues! LOL All of sudden new egg dropped the price on the VGA EVGA 8800GTS to 389 an hour ago so that made my choice soooo much easier. 8) Thanks for the input everyone. : )