I am building a system for a friend, and he is amandant about it being a somewhat future-proof kick ass dual 8800GTX SLI rig. I have the entire system planned out, but a few things are bothering me, and I need some advice. First, let me start off with the current list of hardware that I have compiled:
CPU: 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon64 X2 6000+
RAM: 2GB G.Skill PC 6400 DDR2-800
Motherboard: ASUS AM2 Crosshair SLI nForce 590 Chipset
Hard Drives: 2x 36GB Western Digital Raptor 10K rpm SATA in RAID 0
Optical Drive: Lite-On SATA 20x DVD+/-RW
Power Supply: Cooler Master 1000W Real Power RS-A00-EMBA
Graphics: 2x e-VGA nVidia 8800GTX 768MB in SLI mode
Case: Cooler Master Stacker RC-832b
Display: Samsung 244T-bk 24” Widescreen LCD
All in all, a pretty kickass rig. BUT; I was looking at it, and I read a few reviews saying that the AMD X2 6000+ was AMD's last hurrah with the AM2 socket until the Quad-core Barcelona comes out. I havent been able to find any info about it, but I think Barcelona will use a different socket than AM2. If this is true, there will be no upgrading the CPU on the Crosshair AM2 motherboard.
I then looked at the performance specs on the price-equivalent Intel CPU- the core 2 duo E6600, which is socket 775. I also noticed that the Quad-core 6800 uses the same 775 socket. If the AMD 6000+ is the end of the line for the AM2 socket, Shouldn't I go for the Core 2 Duo 6600, so he can upgrade to a quad processor once prices come down and new socket 775 models are introduced in a few years?
He doesn't want to spend more than $300 on a CPU right now since performance difference between the Quad 6800 and the X2 6000+ is not worth $600. Should I switch him to the Intel/socket 775 in the interest of upgradebility down the road? If so, what is a recommended sub $250 mobo for a socket 775 intel solution where he can start out using a C2D E6600? Thanks for any info you can give.
CPU: 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon64 X2 6000+
RAM: 2GB G.Skill PC 6400 DDR2-800
Motherboard: ASUS AM2 Crosshair SLI nForce 590 Chipset
Hard Drives: 2x 36GB Western Digital Raptor 10K rpm SATA in RAID 0
Optical Drive: Lite-On SATA 20x DVD+/-RW
Power Supply: Cooler Master 1000W Real Power RS-A00-EMBA
Graphics: 2x e-VGA nVidia 8800GTX 768MB in SLI mode
Case: Cooler Master Stacker RC-832b
Display: Samsung 244T-bk 24” Widescreen LCD
All in all, a pretty kickass rig. BUT; I was looking at it, and I read a few reviews saying that the AMD X2 6000+ was AMD's last hurrah with the AM2 socket until the Quad-core Barcelona comes out. I havent been able to find any info about it, but I think Barcelona will use a different socket than AM2. If this is true, there will be no upgrading the CPU on the Crosshair AM2 motherboard.
I then looked at the performance specs on the price-equivalent Intel CPU- the core 2 duo E6600, which is socket 775. I also noticed that the Quad-core 6800 uses the same 775 socket. If the AMD 6000+ is the end of the line for the AM2 socket, Shouldn't I go for the Core 2 Duo 6600, so he can upgrade to a quad processor once prices come down and new socket 775 models are introduced in a few years?
He doesn't want to spend more than $300 on a CPU right now since performance difference between the Quad 6800 and the X2 6000+ is not worth $600. Should I switch him to the Intel/socket 775 in the interest of upgradebility down the road? If so, what is a recommended sub $250 mobo for a socket 775 intel solution where he can start out using a C2D E6600? Thanks for any info you can give.