I'm new on this forum and new to building PCs. I'd like to attempt my first build and I've done some research but I'd like your suggestions on what to improve. I'm looking to spend between $1500-2000. At first I probably won't attempt to do any OCing, but as I'm more comfortable, would probably like to dabble in that as well. Here's what I came up with:
At this point, particularly if I'm not planning on upgrading for awhile, it seems like DDR3 is pretty unnecessary, right? Or would you advise "building for the future" however much longer that would last me. I wouldn't call myself an enthusiast yet, but I want a machine that's going to handle almost anything I could throw at it.
Steer clear of DFI unless you're experienced with overclocking. It might frustrate you to the point of giving up overclocking. The ram settings alone spawn more than 1 page in bios. That board is the most wasteful if you do only low to mild o/c. DFI is great for extreme overclockers.
Consider the newbie-friendly GA-X38-DQ6. Any of their X38 is easy to o/c.
DDR3 is like 5% gain over DDR2, according to Tom's.
Future-proofing will cost you. Regardless of how much you spend, Nelahem will be released at the end of year. Won't be backward compatible. New mobo. Either go with a budget build or X48 with DDR3.
I think though, if it wasn't Nehalem, it'd be something else. There's always new technology to buy, I think you just gotta pull the trigger. Or I could be wrong, who knows?
I'm thinking of switching out a couple of things here.
1. Go for the q9450 chip and save some money there. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of difference b/w that and the q9550. Could save even more money by going q6600 and learn how to overclock as it seems to be very good for this.
2. Go DDR3 Mobo like the GA EX38T DQ6 --seems to be getting good reviews 3. 4GB OCZ Reaper DDR3 1333
4. Wait for the radeon 4870
I'm not sure what you meant by that, but initial reports showed that the budget/desktop nehalem would be locked. So overclocking desktop Nehalem would be like Phenom. Crap. The last article I read hit the nail in the head: since most people wouldn't upgrade to the more expensive Nehalem, they would buy the last s775 chipset P45. The P45 is getting a LOT of attention from manufacturers. They're making it the best of the s775. It'll be around for a long while. Maybe longer than Intel wants it to.
If that is true, I'm dumping Nehalem for P45 + a quad Yorkie & overclock the sh*t out of it. By then, the Yorkies will have a price cut. Win-win for me.
1. Q9450 is a good choice for a stock or light overclock.
2. So do the other Gigabyte X38 boards. Are you sure you don't want the cheaper GA-EX38-DQ6 or GA-X38-DQ6?
3. If you go with the DDR2 mobo, you can save money on memory.
4. How long can you wait? I think they're coming out in June. If you get the other parts first, you need a video card. Perhaps, a cheap placeholder card.
My point was just a general one about the rate at with technology gets released onto the market. We could always wait for the next best thing, but there will always be a next best thing. When Nehalem gets released, they'll already be talking about the next microarchitectural/processor upgrade.
Yeah, you're probably right. The performance increase of DDR3 over DDR2 probably isn't worth it now, especially if I'm not going to wait for Nehalem (and I'm not).
I can wait until June for the new ATI cards, though...and I'm only really going that way for the potential to CrossFire at some point. Though if I was sure I wasn't going to CrossFire, I'd probably just get an 8800GT
What really is the difference between the new P45 that's coming out and the x48? As far as I can tell, it's just the ICH10R on the southbridge. As for what that means for performance I don't really know.
Although I personally believe the E8400 represents the best value for money right now, if you get a 4870 when they come out you will destroy Crysis with that system. Lucky you!
