What a dilemma! Advice needed.

[jay24uk]

Hello,

First may I introduce myself here, this is my first post, I have however been using toms hardware as a source of reference for years!

First off, my current system

P4 3.2 skt478
2gb pc3200
geforce 6600gt agp
80gb sata hd
200gb ide hd
some old abit mb

For the past few weeks I have been pondering my next rebuild. My old system is really starting to drag and the time feels about right.

Mostly I will be using the system for gaming, or should I say work, truth is my work is a lot less demanding then gaming so I feel I should build to that.

Work involves a lot of rhino3d and a fair amount of photoshop but to be honest my current rig handles it fine, Supreme Commander on the other hand...

I am going to be doing this on finance as basically I don't anticipate having £200-300 pounds to splash out in the next six months after I build it so please try to appreciate my need for speed coupled with longevity.

At the moment my prospective spec reads as follows.

E6600 Core 2 duo
Suitably cheap motherboard <£60
2Gb crucial CT2KIT12864AA53E, amazing price, good overclocking
2xhitachi T7K500 HD in raid0
Graphics card...

Not really a comprehensive list but I am a bit confused to be honest.

What motherboard would fit the bill? I don't mind spending a bit more if it will overclock well, so what is better? Faster processor/cheaper motherboard or vice versa wich leads to my next question.

Do I need the E6600? It has the 4mb l2 cache but would a suitably overclocked E6300 do as good a job?

The graphics card really throws me. I want substantially better performance than I have at the moment and for the price ati seems to offer better bang per buck over nvidia but to get much better performance I am looking at spending at least £100 (X1950pro), to get the performance I want in games such as Oblivion I am looking at around £150 (X1950xt) but then the 8800GTS 320mb can be bought for around £180. That however may be obsolete soon due to the R600!!!! What do I do? Wait a few months and see what happens or take the plunge now with the xt? My gut tells me just to get a cheap 7600gt and wait till the market stabilises but I just don't know!

Hope someone can untangle this mess!
Thanks

 

[Badnatured]

First off the 8800gtx will not be obsolete next to the r600. I'd say even the high end 600 model will be only slightly over the 8800. So don't be a nervous nelly it won't make much difference from waht I've seen. If you feel like cheaping out on the mobo..don't. Get an e6420 once they come out (has a 4mb l2 cache) and buy a nice mobo like a 680i chipset board or a gigabyte board.

 

[jay24uk]

Okay, first off thanks for your reply.

I am a freakin' nervous nelly and not because of the gtx! If I could afford one I would not be worried about the upcoming r600, I would still be confident in my systems abilty to play upcoming dx10 games. I was talking about the 320mb GTS which is only around £40 more than the x1950xt, I would happily get the GTS if I did not think ati were going to release a range that included something that would absolutely rape it for the same or even a lower price.

Thanks for the info on the processors though, the e6420 looks good.

James

 

[CmdPT]

Okay, first off thanks for your reply.

I am a freakin' nervous nelly and not because of the gtx! If I could afford one I would not be worried about the upcoming r600, I would still be confident in my systems abilty to play upcoming dx10 games. I was talking about the 320mb GTS which is only around £40 more than the x1950xt, I would happily get the GTS if I did not think ati were going to release a range that included something that would absolutely rape it for the same or even a lower price.

Thanks for the info on the processors though, the e6420 looks good.

James

If you are nervous about the next DX10 card wait until most of them are released, but since there are no DX10 games coming out yet you should just wait a bit longer.

I would totally get the 8800 GTS than the X1950XT due to the fact that its DX10 vs DX9.

 

[Nokturnal]

I'm in the same boat as you, just about the same system specs, and taking a hit in alot of new games... But i decided to wait for a full/popular DX10 game to be released to see what type of performance graphic cards will produce from it before building my computer. By then i figure cards/processors will drop a decent amount in price and we will see more of where games and requirements for them are heading(seems like quad cores maybe become more needed in future games), right now it seems like everyones shooting in the dark.